Writing godlike characters (without making everything Kryptonite)

[FishStampede]

Or, how to let them have their fun and still preserve the drama. The story I'm writing could be called "high fantasy," "My Little Pony played in the Exalted system," or  "Game of Thrones if it was published in Shonen Jump." Seriously. It works better than it sounds. Be prepared for weirdness ahead.

Anyway, my two main characters have nearly godlike power and a major theme I wish to explore is how sometimes their power can't solve every problem. In fact, aggressively using such power can make situations much worse. On the flip side, not using such power can make people resent you and think they could have done better. To this end I have one who tends towards inaction and letting situations handle themselves, while the other tends towards action. It's the latter one that is problematic.

So how do you handle extremely powerful characters, without it seeming like everything is made of kryptonite? I'll let you give me some ideas, then explain the specifics of the situation she's currently in.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

So how do you handle extremely powerful characters, without it seeming like everything is made of kryptonite? I'll let you give me some ideas, then explain the specifics of the situation she's currently in.

By far my favourite example of this is how Mike Carey writes Lucifer in the Vertigo series of the same name; which is a combination of focusing on the other characters' issues, and a core element of Lucifer's pride being that he will play your game on your rules and win anyway.

[OZ]

I guess my first question would be whether the characters have regular human motives. For example if one could make anyone fall in love with them, would they at some point feel cheated (possible human emotion) or would they not really care because that's the way things are supposed to be. Do they care enough about anyone to grieve if they die? Can they resurrect the dead. How many characters are there with this level of power? Do they ever find themselves in conflict with each other?

[o_O]

Anyway, my two main characters have nearly godlike power and a major theme I wish to explore is how sometimes their power can't solve every problem. In fact, aggressively using such power can make situations much worse. On the flip side, not using such power can make people resent you and think they could have done better. To this end I have one who tends towards inaction and letting situations handle themselves, while the other tends towards action. It's the latter one that is problematic.

So how do you handle extremely powerful characters, without it seeming like everything is made of kryptonite? I'll let you give me some ideas, then explain the specifics of the situation she's currently in.

I would be strongly tempted to use apathy, in both a "I can have whatever I want so why should I want any one specific thing or event or goal?" sense, and in a "I am so distracted by the possibilities of this NEW chain of events/scenario that I cannot possibly remember caring about the old one" direction.   

Depressed King Log and ADHD King Stork.

(Then I'd probably crumple and burn the whole thing as being too indolently insensitive).

[Serack]

I'm not sure how well it might apply to your question, but Brandon Sanderson has gods in his book "Warbreaker."  There are a couple places in that book that I scratched my head because of small breaks in how the story flowed, but the way he handled the gods was very interesting.

It's been a couple years, but they didn't exactly volunteer for the job, but rather they mysteriously resurrected after dying, and gained godly powers, and were worshiped.  There was some turnover, because a god could chose one person to save that was dying but only by giving up his/her 2nd life.  However, over a long span of time, the gods that were left were rather apathetic and self centered.  Indulging in the luxury given to them by the worshipers, and doing nothing else really.

Also, the head god who had like 10x more power than the lesser gods, couldn't speak due to not having a tongue.  The priesthood had some interesting interaction with the whole dynamic, and during the course of the book a couple external factors came to play. 

Possibly the most interesting part is that the god that appeared the most apathetic, was also the one that put the most effort into going through the motions of doing what was expected of him by the worshipers (albeit while forcing himself past his disinterest). 

(click to show/hide)

And eventually he ended up saving everybody by healing just the right person.  An unusual messianic story. 

There was also a really odd magic system interwoven through the whole thing, this being Sanderson and all.

[LizW65]

Maybe assign each of your characters a finite amount of power, and every time they use some of it it's gone for good? (I'm still working on my coffee; I'll try and think of something better when I'm fully awake.)

[Aminar]

The big thing really is fear of failure.  You need to make us believe that despite amazing power these guys can fail. The best way to do that- in my mind- is to make them care.  Make their failures have catastrophic consequences to those around them...  Their people, less godlike friends, etc.  Make the threat be to those that worship them and show how hard it can be for a deity to interfere without hurting somebody else while they're at it.

[lt_murgen]

One simple way is to make them immensly powerful, but not knowledgable.  Omnipotent does not mean omniscient.  Therefore, they hold back and use only the minimum of power needed.  Think of Superman- holding back for fear of the 'tissue paper' world he lives in.  There is a great scene in one of the DC cartoons where Superman thanks Darkseid.  Why Darkseid asks why, SUperman replies that against Darksied, he can finally, really really let loose.  The ensuing battle levels entire city blocks.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

The big thing really is fear of failure.  You need to make us believe that despite amazing power these guys can fail.

With characters that powerful, fear of success can also be worth playing with.

[o_O]

With characters that powerful, fear of success can also be worth playing with.

That seems an easy strong motivator for the laissez faire entity; I'm having trouble seeing it as a limitation on the highly active controlling one.   

Do you mean in a "dares not put it to the touch, to gain or lose it all" way?   That seems a bad fit.

Or perhaps you mean fear of success as in "Once I'm done, whatever will I do?" 

Or perhaps as an entity so used to control that it's utterly unable to self-edit?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

That seems an easy strong motivator for the laissez faire entity; I'm having trouble seeing it as a limitation on the highly active controlling one.   

I can see a highly active controlling one being nervous of reach exceeding grasp, or, depending on the precise value of godlike entailed, of consequences exceeding power to predict/manage.  Particularly if you want to give your humans theologically-significant free will that it can't predict.

Do you mean in a "dares not put it to the touch, to gain or lose it all" way?   That seems a bad fit.

No, I'd not been thinking of that as fitting here.

Or perhaps you mean fear of success as in "Once I'm done, whatever will I do?" 

Something existentially like that I can see working, yes, If I can do anything. how is any choice I make meaningful ?  If I can be anything, who am I ? 

Or perhaps as an entity so used to control that it's utterly unable to self-edit?

I'm not clearly envisioning what you are suggesting here.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Anyway, my two main characters have nearly godlike power and a major theme I wish to explore is how sometimes their power can't solve every problem. In fact, aggressively using such power can make situations much worse. On the flip side, not using such power can make people resent you and think they could have done better. To this end I have one who tends towards inaction and letting situations handle themselves, while the other tends towards action. It's the latter one that is problematic.

I'm presuming from "using such power can make situations much worse" that their powers are in some way limited so that they can't just... rewrite reality, or change history or whatever, as many times as needed until the situation comes out better. (I'm not actually seeing a plausible way that using omnipotence and omniscience couldn't make any given situation better, kind of by definition.)

How exactly are you defining "godlike" here ?  How do their power, their intelligence, and their access to information compare ? Are they at a scale where they still plausibly have human motivations, or are they the sort of beings that can, when they get bored on Sunday afternoon. make exact copies of a large number of different alternate-history versions of the Earth and everyone on it and stick them all together on a megastructure in the Magellanic Clouds to see what happens ?

[o_O]

I'm not clearly envisioning what you are suggesting here.

Something along the lines of defining "better" as 'includes this extra direct tweak' so that "success" becomes 'reaching the untweakable',    which might conceptually be quite frightening to a "godlike" critter.

[FishStampede]

Interesting replies. I'll try to address the bulk of the points while explaining the particular situation here.

They do essentially have human motivations (although there are no true humans in this world, more on that later). Their power is great, but it is limited and they do tire if they overextend themselves. Because of their essentially human natures, they are more prone to mental fatigue than physical. They can fall in love, they can nurse grudges, they can get angry, and they can simply be wrong as well. They can also die and get injured, though killing them is hard especially if they see it coming.

They're not omniscient, though they do have some abilities of clairvoyance within their element that can let them fake omniscience to those who don't know their limitations: One can see through the rays of the sun, the other can see in areas of darkness, but both can only look at one thing at a time through either magical or normal sight. Beyond that, they have powerful magic within their domains. The active one has powers related to the moon: darkness, cold, dreams, nocturnal beasts, and, interestingly, hope. They don't have any power outside their domains, but within their domains they are mainly limited by their endurance and creativity. In fact, a good deal of their perceived power comes from the fact that not everyone knows of their limitations.

The active one is just really coming into her power. She's been around for many, many years but has been following her inactive sister's orders for that long. Now she's trying to make her own way in the world and fix some of the problems that her sister's laissez-faire approach has caused. Most pressing at this moment is an invasion by a corsair armada.

The corsairs are from a different species with their own magic. They're extremely tall and slim with extra joints on their limbs, and move something like spiders. They also have a unique form of magic using spirits and alchemy that is as much a paradigm shift to deal with as the Canim blood magic in Codex Alera. I haven't entirely pegged down what they can do, but she has only the barest knowledge of what they are capable of as well. It's quite likely she might try something that makes perfect sense but turns out not to work as well as she thought.

My goal is to make this a difficult triumph for her. She manages to succeed by rallying the townsfolk and by defeating some great personal challenge, thus solidifying her position as a good leader and rival to her sister, whether she likes it or not (long term: not).

PS: To answer the elephant in the room: Yes, this is loosely based on My Little Pony, as hinted in the original post. Very, very loosely. They're not ponies, they're humanoids, and it diverges significantly to the point where it's basically its own thing. Hey, we're on the forums of a guy who put a Pokemon vs. Zerg fanfic on the best seller list.

[Aminar]

Interesting replies. I'll try to address the bulk of the points while explaining the particular situation here.

They do essentially have human motivations (although there are no true humans in this world, more on that later). Their power is great, but it is limited and they do tire if they overextend themselves. Because of their essentially human natures, they are more prone to mental fatigue than physical. They can fall in love, they can nurse grudges, they can get angry, and they can simply be wrong as well. They can also die and get injured, though killing them is hard especially if they see it coming.

They're not omniscient, though they do have some abilities of clairvoyance within their element that can let them fake omniscience to those who don't know their limitations: One can see through the rays of the sun, the other can see in areas of darkness, but both can only look at one thing at a time through either magical or normal sight. Beyond that, they have powerful magic within their domains. The active one has powers related to the moon: darkness, cold, dreams, nocturnal beasts, and, interestingly, hope. They don't have any power outside their domains, but within their domains they are mainly limited by their endurance and creativity. In fact, a good deal of their perceived power comes from the fact that not everyone knows of their limitations.

The active one is just really coming into her power. She's been around for many, many years but has been following her inactive sister's orders for that long. Now she's trying to make her own way in the world and fix some of the problems that her sister's laissez-faire approach has caused. Most pressing at this moment is an invasion by a corsair armada.

The corsairs are from a different species with their own magic. They're extremely tall and slim with extra joints on their limbs, and move something like spiders. They also have a unique form of magic using spirits and alchemy that is as much a paradigm shift to deal with as the Canim blood magic in Codex Alera. I haven't entirely pegged down what they can do, but she has only the barest knowledge of what they are capable of as well. It's quite likely she might try something that makes perfect sense but turns out not to work as well as she thought.

My goal is to make this a difficult triumph for her. She manages to succeed by rallying the townsfolk and by defeating some great personal challenge, thus solidifying her position as a good leader and rival to her sister, whether she likes it or not (long term: not).

PS: To answer the elephant in the room: Yes, this is loosely based on My Little Pony, as hinted in the original post. Very, very loosely. They're not ponies, they're humanoids, and it diverges significantly to the point where it's basically its own thing. Hey, we're on the forums of a guy who put a Pokemon vs. Zerg fanfic on the best seller list.

Not Pokemon enough...  Not nearly. 

Nobodies been worried about you using Ponies as an influence.  Wouldn't be my choice, but my writing has Pokemon, Avatar(airbender and according to my girlfriend blue space people too(but really that's the zelda bit)), Zelda, X-men, Jurassic Park, The Dresden Files, Bartimaeus and a variety of other things on its list of inspiration material.  Most of those were subconscious references I figured out later, but hey.