#thunder bolt

Death Proof (2007) Quentin Tarantino

Imagine a very unassuming guy (of any ethnicity or nationality) who goes to work, pays his taxes, complains about the price of gas, food, and rent (etc.), things that any regular person would do. But he is in fact an ancient Eurasian thunder god who, when called upon, battles drought-bringing water-serpents in the clouds. His glowing ethereal form is that of a giant, bearded man with a multi-horned helmet and ancient, golden attire. He wields either a stone mace or a forked thunder weapon that showers lightning bolts across the heavens.

This dual nature is not a case of a deity being cursed to forget their divine origins like the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Nor is it a case of a god being punished to live as a mortal like Marvel Comics' silver age Thor. Perhaps the protagonist's father, the king of the gods, is aloof and disconnected from the human world. Therefore, our hero takes it upon himself to live among Man in order to stay grounded and to better understand their day to day struggles in an ever-changing world.

It's important to note that he is NOT a superhero. This god does not use his power to deter crime. It is only used in battling water-serpents, which ensures the survival of Mankind by routing droughts that would otherwise destroy all the world's crops. Basically, if he doesn't perform his holy duty, the world will starve. It's best to think of the narrative in terms of ancient religion and the importance of the harvest to agrarian societies.

The meat of the story would be the strange juxtaposition between his mortal and immortal lives. There would be a clean divide between both, with episodes focusing on the tedium of his daily human activities and the explosive action of his divine battles. But, occasionally, these lives would bleed into each other; for instance, an injury born from his heaven-shaking combat, could be explained away as some embarrassing accident, like rolling an ankle or tripping up the stairs. Or, a human friend or coworker might notice his sour deminer after a drama-filled argument about the merits of Mankind with his father in heaven.

If anyone asks, yes, this is a self-insert. I was reading The Divine Thunderbolt: Missile of the Gods (2009) while waiting for a doctor's appointment. This led me to wonder what it would be like to have a concurrent second life free of aging and illness, one where I could soar through the clouds and test my divine strength by battling ancient foes.