God and Satan Are Both Jerks/Playing With

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Basic Trope: Satan may be evil, but the Big Guy isn't any better.

• Straight: The Legions of Hell are invading earth, but God and his angels couldn't care less, leaving Alice and Bob to clean up the mess on their own.
• Exaggerated: Satan is burning down orphanages while God just ordered the angels to exterminate every last human.
• Justified:
  • Humans have crossed the Moral Event Horizon, and God has decided "Screw This, I'm Outta Here", leaving humanity completely defenseless against the genuinely evil Satan.
  • God is an evil tyrant and Satan is an ambitious rebel seeking to claim supremacy in his stead.
  • Good and evil are just words anyway - the Powers That Be don't give a damn.
  • God and Satan are quite human in behaviour,and with all that power, they're assholes.
• Inverted:
  • God and Satan both genuinely care about humanity, and everything they do is ultimately in their best interests.
  • Deconstructed: They just go about it the wrong way.
  • Or, Everything is a pissing contest between them.
• Subverted: God or Satan has a change of heart, and later refuses to abandon humanity to the evils of the other.
• Double Subverted: But then they just backstab the human race anyway.
• Parodied: Satan passes out free tickets to Metallica concerts while God hands out opal rings.
• Deconstructed: Alice and Bob realize that, since God AND Satan have it in for humanity, they have no greater power to turn to. This won't end well...
• Reconstructed:
  • But after days of Level Grinding, Alice, Bob, and their Ragtag Bunch of Misfits decide to take on both the forces of Heaven And Hell. They win, freeing humanity from their oppressors once and for all.
  • Since this is supposed to be a reconstruction: They then proceed to become just as bad as God and Satan had been, because it turns out that somebody has to do the jobs, and the nature of the job (particularly humanity) is such that anybody who holds it will be a jerk, eventually, or quit.
• Zig Zagged: God and Satan compete for who's Eviler Than Thou, leaving the humans caught in the middle unsure of where to turn or what to do.
• Averted: If God and Satan exist at all, one will be a staunch ally to mankind while the other a deadly enemy.
• Enforced: "Hmm... having an almighty, benevolent God rule a world where demons regularly fight humans would just confuse the audience too much. Let's make Him a Jerkass too!"
• Lampshaded: "So Let Me Get This Straight...... You're saying that the Guys Upstairs AND Downstairs are out to get us?! ...crap."
• Invoked: "Hey Mike, the humans' constant battle with Satan's gotten boring. Tell Gabe to mess them up while I create some popcorn - those little buggers will totally flip!"
• Defied: "Hey, Mr. Up-In-The-Sky! We can't BOTH oppress humans! If you start blasting 'em, I'll just give 'em first aid kits!
• Discussed: "Demons torched a hospital, and all the angels did was take a piss in the flames. Hmmm... think I'll quit my weekly Devotionals..."
• Conversed: "God and Satan have been portrayed every which way in the media, so it's only natural that they'd both wind up evil in some works."
• Played For Laughs: God and Satan both wander around annoying the other characters with their asinine behavior and/or puppet shows.
• Played For Drama: Alice, wounded and hopelessly outnumbered by Satan's minions, heaves a sigh of relief when a squad of angels arrive. As the demons scatter, Alice rushes to thank her saviors. But then they draw their swords. Alice begins to scream...

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