Immortals Making Bets

[minoanmiss]

I need to figure out what this is called on TV Tropes. Involves spoilers.

It's a trope, isn't it, that immortals will make a bet about mortals? I started thinking about this on watching Dream and Death meet Hob Gadling, and I was reminded of God and Satan fucking around with poor Job. I know I've seen other examples but at the moment I can't think of them.

Comments

[caitri]

IIRC There's one in BSG with the characters that may or may not be God and the Devil, but who appear as versions of Baltar and Six.

It happens a few times on Hercules and Xena.

::thinks::

[princessofgeeks]

I cannot wait to see the rest of this show.

[kore]

Oh yeah, that was what I thought of too. There's a similar bet with God and the Devil in Goethe's Faust, but that's a rather obscure reference.

[sovay]

I know I've seen other examples but at the moment I can't think of them.

It's not quite a wager, but Zeus and Hera demanding Teiresias settle their argument as to whether sex is better for a man or a woman.

[minoanmiss]

AHAHHAHAHA how could I forget that one!

[sovay]

AHAHHAHAHA how could I forget that one!

*art request*

[minoanmiss]

*contemplates red figure*

[julian]

Pratchett has a version at one point in one of the earliest books.

[conuly]

I think in a few of the earliest books, actually, with a lot of sharp commentary about how the gods always cheat.

[minoanmiss]

I did love that he always made a good point about how the gods always cheat.

[bikergeek]

The bettors aren't quite gods or immortals, but, as I mentioned, the Duke brothers' bet in Trading Places has a lot of the same aspects of "fucking with mere mortals' lives for our amusement."

[minoanmiss]

They have so much money [it lets them think] they are no longer on the mortal level, so that counts.

[ex_flameandsong751]

^I was about to mention the Duke brothers!

[marcelo]

Cosmic Chess Game?

[minoanmiss]

Muchas gracias!

[asakiyume]

There's the story in Aesop's fables where the sun and the north wind argue over who's stronger and decide to test it by seeing who can get a man's coat off--and the sun wins. ... It's not *quite* what you're describing, but close? Still [near] immortals messing with people to prove a point.

[sabotabby]

15 Dogs by Andre Alexis. Hermes and Apollo make a bet over whether if you give dogs human intelligence, they'll be happy or not. Which I think is very in keeping with Greek mythology.

[amaebi]

Roger Zelazny's A Game of Blood and Dust.

And Civ casts its players as gods, de facto.