All The Tropes

Jerkass Gods: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Jerkass Gods (view source)

Revision as of 13:28, 8 April 2014

571 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 13:
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* Kami-sama in ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'' frequently doles out unnecessarily harsh punishments and will wipe out an entire planet to preserve the integrity of the Yggdrasil with little hesitation.
* The gods in ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', unsurprising considering they're based on the Greek Pantheon. Poseidon wanted to [[Utopia Justifies the Means|drown the world to fix it]] (well, it worked [[The Bible|the first time]], didn't it?), Hades just plain wanted to kill everyone "[[Motive Decay|Just]] [[For the Evulz|Because]]", ditto Abel/Lucifer and Apollo. The big exception is [[Messianic Archetype|Athena]]. Lesser non-evil gods are Odin (whose avatar-priestess was corrupted by Poseidon's men) and Artemis, being more a [[Lawful Neutral]] type devoid of her peers' narcissistic megalomania. Poseidon also gets an honorable mention as being not so evil that, even though he was [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]], helped thwart Hades' plot.
* ''[[Saiyuki]]'': Most of the gods are universally pricks to humans and one another. Even the Merciful Goddess herself comes off as manipulative and self-centered.
** And the story it's based on which could easily be titled ''The Journey West: Or wherein Sun Wukong is a gigantic prick to everyone he meets''.
Line 21:
** Never mind about the head god. When we next see her, she is {{spoiler|eating the sun,}} which, in this world, is made of [[Life Energy]] and [[Our Souls Are Different|spirits.]]
*** As it turns out, '''ALL''' of the High Gods are jerks. {{spoiler|And [[Planet Eater|Planet Eaters]].}}
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has The Truth, a mysterious godlike entity that exacts an "equal toll" on those who attempt human transmutation. While he is supposed to be a neutral party, he seems to take an almost sadistic joy in his "fines". The fact that he tends to act smug and playful about it doesn't exactly help.
** He even shows some very unfair (or at least indiscriminate) tendencies when he takes away {{spoiler|Mustang's sense of sight}} as punishment for performing human transmutation even though {{spoiler|Mustang had been literally forced to do it with no way to stop the transmutation}} and the person who was ultimately responsible had received no punishment at all.
* ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'''s God Eneru. Granted, their "God" (Kami) is merely the title of the ruler of Skypiea, but his [[Shock and Awe|Logia powers]] almost justifies his status.
* In ''[[Wild Wind (Manga)Fangs|Wild Wind]]'', the gods cause a piece of heaven to fall to earth because they are fighting, and then order that the poor, innocent, confused creatures who fell with it be killed because they are an involuntary danger to humanity.
* Zeus of ''[[Saint Beast]]'' who overthrew the old jerkass god {{spoiler|and slept with his wife}}, then proceeded to become increasingly tyrannical: ordering his angels to kill any beings on earth who don't acknowledge him, yearly purging angels for minor offences under the guise of honouring them, and eventually {{spoiler|ordering Pandora to unleash a [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|box of evil]] on earth, imprisoning the Saint Beasts when they try to stop him, [[Rape Asas Drama|raping]] Judas, [[Brainwashed and Crazy|brainwashing]] Goh, Gai, Rey and Shin after they get free to [[Face Heel Turn|turn]] on their friends and banishing Judas and his own son (by aforementioned goddess), Luca, to hell, and sealing the other four in stone once they overcome the brainwashing. And then he retires out of annoyance.}}
* The photorealistic, afro'd disembodied head that passes for God in ''[[Oyasumi Punpun]]'' wobbles on the line between this and [[God Is Evil]]. He starts out merely not caring about Punpun, refusing to answer his questions and belittling him for even thinking of asking him, but [[It Got Worse|as the series]] [[Cerebus Syndrome|goes on]], he begins steadily whittling down Punpun's self-confidence, {{spoiler|tells him that the only way to protect oneself from those who want to hurt you is to kill them, and overall savagely beating on the [[Trauma Conga Line|already fragile situation]] that Punpun and his relatives [[World Half Empty|(and the world as a whole, at that)]] are getting worked deeper and deeper into.}}
* The Beast Gods of ''[[Fushigi Yugi]]'' really do only care about prolonging their existence by absorbing the souls of their priestesses.
Line 42:
 
== Fan Works ==
* The Dalns gods in ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|With Strings Attached]]''. Although the one time a god actually appears it's entirely benign, and they seem to be the only force that gets Baravadans to do anything useful, the Fans mention that the Dalns gods are responsible for trashing C'hou in the past.
 
 
== Film ==
* A borderline case appears in ''[[Oh, God!]]''. While God ([[George Burns]]) is not particularly malicious, He also doesn't seem to care about the difficulties that His messiah Jerry (or his family) goes through in delivering His message.
{{quote| '''Jerry:''' "I lost my job, you know."<br />
'''God:''' "Lose a job, save a world. Not a bad deal." }}
* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'': In the original, the gods are fairly true to their mythical inspirations. In the remake, they're possibly even more dickish than in the myths.
** Except Apollo in the remake, who defended the humans.
* In ''[[Erik the Viking (Film)|Erik the Viking]]'', {{spoiler|the Nordic gods (particularly Odin and Thor) are depicted as nothing but a group of apathetic kids that almost condemn the heroes into the pity of Hel for them arriving in Valhalla without being killed in battle.}}
* In the original ''[[Bedazzled]]'', God and [[Fallen Angel|Lucifer]] (called George here) had a wager: if George could get ten billion souls into hell before God could get ten billion souls into heaven, then God promised to allow him to return to heaven. George achieves this, and then some, but God reminded him of another condition he had to fulfil: he had to perform a selfless good deed. George then goes off and allows Stanley (to whom George had given seven wishes in exchange for his soul) and released him, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story|only to be told that, since he only did it to get back into heaven, it wasn't really selfless.]] George is understandably steaming at this revelation, while God laughs in his face.
* Calypso of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', goddess of the sea, fell in love with a mortal man, who was then offered the position of captain of the Flying Dutchman. The conditions of the captaincy are that you do the job for ten years, and if, after that time, your love is waiting for you when you get your one day on land for the decade, you can go free and someone takes your place; otherwise you've gotta keep doing the job until someone kills you. Calypso didn't wait and Davy Jones was stuck being the captain of the Flying Dutchman. She claimed that Davy shouldn't have expected anything else from her because she's the embodiment of the capricious and treacherous sea.
* Loki in ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' and ''[[The Avengers (Filmfilm)|The Avengers]]'' hopes to [[Disproportionate Retribution|exact revenge]] on his [[The Unfavourite|brother Thor]] by first taking over the throne of Asgard and then [[Big Bad|subjugating the entire population of Earth.]] Along the way, he causes a lot of chaos and manages to make pretty much everyone really angry on a [[It's Personal|personal level.]]
 
 
== Literature ==
* Most ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' gods, who have a habit of going to atheists' houses and throwing rocks into the windows, and consider lightning bolts to be the answer to any theological debate. They also play games with the lives of men, but first they have to get the board out, and look all over the place for the dice.
** Special mention goes to [[Discworld (Literature)/Monstrous Regiment|Nuggan of Borogravia]]. Even his own sincere worshippers had to ignore some of his commandments, since they named as Abominations such things as babies ("I take it people still make them here?") and the color blue ("The ''sky'' is blue!" "Devout Nugganites try not to look at it these days.")
*** Though granted, it's implied most of the absurd Abominations are mere echos of Nuggan's will since it's stated he's ''dead''.
*** This is only in Borogravia, mind, where he can't thrive because his followers now worship the religion rather than the god (this is also what happened to Om, see below). Elsewhere on the Disc he's alive and kicking, as a minor god of paperclips, small things in their correct places in desktop stationery sets, and unnecessary paperwork.
** In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', Om, who's had his consciousness raised, points out to some of the other gods that a lot of people are going to get killed in the battle that's shaping up.
{{quote| A Tsortean God of the Sun did not even bother to look round.<br />
"That's what they're for," he said. }}
He really regrets saying that.
* While Minshus in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' is the essence of good, he will occasionally let his angels dish out [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] on [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard|victims]] [[Asshole Victim|who]] [[Moral Event Horizon|really]] [[Call It Karma|deserve it]]. Maurice, being the angel of death, has been known to abduct some of his victims. [[Gaia's Vengeance|Filforth]] tries to avoid having any contact with [[Depraved Homosexual|gay]] [[Where Everybody Knows Your Flame|bars]] [[The Tokyo Fireball|for a reason]].
* ''All'' of the Gods in ''[[The Elric Saga]]'' by [[Michael Moorcock]]. ''Especially'' Arioch, the title character's patron, the Lord of Chaos.
* Amongst the [[Eldritch Abomination]] gods created by [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]], technically just Nyarlathotep counts. The others aren't least bit concerned about humans, or maybe don't even know of our existence, being mostly mindless, chaotic abstractions. But Nyarlathotep seems to love to dick around with humans, typically demanding human sacrifices when summoned, even though he almost certainly doesn't need them for anything, and occasionally giving humans some extra chances to destroy ourselves, even though he could destroy us effortlessly if he really wanted. It seems that he doesn't care about outcomes -- he just likes to dick around.
* This is somewhat [[Flanderized]] description used by later writers. In Lovecraft's original works Nyarlathotep stands in the way of humans who seek forbidden knowledge more often than not, although he can be persuaded to be little more lenient with human sacrifices. On the other hand, his first appearance, before Lovecraft had figured out what to do with him, he was basically the embodiment of scientific progress, and drives humanity mad by overwhelming them with cosmic knowledge.
** This is the approach used in the [[Affectionate Parody]] webcomic ''[[The Call of Whatever]]'', and once humanity starts jerking Nyarlathotep around in turn (thanks to Occultech's helpline boosting cultist survival/success rates), he quits his job. [[It Got Worse|This was more Jerkassish than you would think.]]
Line 79:
** The demigods, who are the protagonists of the series, also sometimes resent their parents for being Jerk Asses and ignoring them; the gods are eventually called out on it and forced to acknowledge all their children. (Whether this had any effect on how many affairs the gods have remains to be seen.)
* Not only are the gods of the ''[[Book of Swords]]'' jerkasses, but several of the swords have jerkass qualities themselves. I'm looking at you Coinspinner and Wayfinder.
* The demon Xanth in the ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]'' novels.
** All of the greater demons (of which Xanth is one) in general; they are involved in a complex game with more similarities to Nomic than the classic Chess, and people are only rarely used as pawns in certain rounds - most of the time, they're not considered at all. Xanth is practically an exception to the norm, as he does show genuine concern for the residents of the land (after being freed from the Brain Coral, he returns so the land of Xanth will have magic) and has an intimate relationship with one in particular.
* All of the "new" gods in ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]'' are vicious, backbiting, and desperate for worship, and a few of the old gods (especially {{spoiler|Odin and Loki}}) are, too.
* Almost all the Greek gods in Anne Ursu's ''[[Cronus Chronicles]]'' (with the exception of {{spoiler|Persephone}}). The [[Big Bad]] is a demigod who wants to enslave humanity, and most of the other gods either don't care or are actively trying to revenge themselves on the heroes for standing up to them. In the end the heroine {{spoiler|blackmails the gods into leaving humanity alone}}.
* While [[Jesus Is Way Cool]] in Christopher Moore's ''[[Lamb]]'' his father's reaction to Joshua's pleading for humanity is "Screw 'em".
Line 87:
* A number of [[Tom Holt]]'s novels have jackass deities. In particular, [[God]] is portrayed in ''Grailblazers'' as being not so much evil as prone to [[Moral Myopia]] and [[Disproportionate Retribution]], with two people being cursed to immortality for the incredibly minor sins of giving Jesus a pair of socks instead of frankincense or myrrh and failing to wash up for Him at the Last Supper. Other deities aren't treated a hell of a lot better.
* Most of the ''[[Everworld]]'' gods seem to be this way, or at best they're a bit petty and tend to overreact. This isn't helped at all by the fact that they're pretty much stuck in that mindset with literally no way to change.
* In [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'', much like the Greeks, the people of Glome think of their gods as petty brutes and try to do as little to attract their attention as possible. The Fox, a Stoic philosopher from Greece, dismisses these ideas as "lies of poets" and considers the Divine to be above such pettiness. {{spoiler|In the end, both views are wrong, in different ways}}.
* The [[Fantasy Pantheon]] of ''[[Shadowmarch]]'' is heavily inspired by [[Classical Mythology]] (to the point that the three head gods are clear expies of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades) and as such the majority of them are portrayed this way. {{spoiler|Or rather, were- Kupilas, the Hephaestus-analogue, eventually got fed up with them and succeeded in tricking them all into hibernation- only a few demigods and [[Magnificent Bastard|Zosim the trickster]] are still active}}.
* In the ''[[Iron Druid Chronicles]]'' the Norse gods are portrayed like this, especially Thor who is a supernatural [[Jerk Jock]] to everyone outside his pantheon. Odin is a [[Manipulative Bastard]] who will use and abuse humans and gods alike to further his goals. Some of the old Greek and Roman gods also have tend to be collosal jerks. In contrast Jesus and the various versions of the Coyote are quite decent and care about humans. The North American version of Thor is heavily influenced by the comic book Thor and is quite a nice guy compared to the original.
* ''[[Chronicles of Chaos (Literature)|Chronicles of Chaos]]'' explains this trope thusly: in this universe, moral laws and destinies have supernatural weight, and breaking or bending them carries penalties. [[Classical Mythology|Olympians]], however, have the power to change those moral laws, which mean they aren't bound by them. At all.
 
== Live Action TV ==
* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' the trickster demi-god from Tall Tales and Mystery Spot {{spoiler|also known as Loki and Gabriel}} is more of a jerkass demi-god. His victims, especially the Winchesters and definitely Sam, probably wish he was a lazy god {{spoiler|rather than an archangel.}}
* In the ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' episode ''Prayer'', Aeryn mentions an ancient myth about how the ancient Sebaceans used to worship a goddess named Tenka Bru, until she suddenly destroyed the seven main planets they lived on. When her dying worshippers asked why she had done this after they did their best to honor her, she replied, "Because I can." Apparently, this is why the modern-day Peacekeepers refuse to believe in any religion.
* God is messes with Al Bundy a few times in ''[[Married With Children|Married... Withwith Children]]''. Al is a bit of a jerkass too though.
* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (TV)|Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' usually don't care about accuracy, going for [[Rule of Fun]] every time, and [[Anachronism Stew]] doesn't cover the half of it. They do believe, though, in doing the Greek gods' characters correctly by showing them as the jerks they are, well, except for Hades, who is dark but (usually) the only decent one.
** Sometimes, they make Hades sorta a dick too actually. And not all other Greek Gods were ALWAYS portrayed negatively. Sometimes they're even [[The Atoner]], especially for former [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] like Hera or Ares. Others are just kinda out of touch, like Zeus.
* The [[Stargate Verse]] is ''built'' on this trope, specifically ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. The Goa'uld take on the identities of all sorts of gods (or perhaps were the origin of the myths; it's never specified) and often rule with an iron fist. They view humans as disposable slaves and potential host bodies. In the episode "Pretense", Zipacna compares humans to cattle.
Line 107:
* This is how God comes off in the ''[[West Wing]]'' episode "Two Cathedrals", especially in the wake of President Bartlett's tirade in the National Cathedral.
{{quote| '''Jed Bartlett:''' (to God) "You're a son of a bitch, You know that? She bought her first new car and You hit her with a drunk driver. What? Was that supposed to be funny? 'You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God,' says Graham Greene. I don't know whose ass he was kissing there, 'cause I think You're just vindictive."}}
* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'', [[Artistic License|the Greek gods were mortals who got turned into gods by a magical mist]]. True to the mythology however, it's stated that the old gods ''forced'' people to worship them. In fact, once Piper finally declares herself a goddess and realizes her full powers, she starts acting like it, causing a massive storm in order to vent her own personal problems out on the rest of the world.
 
 
== Myths & Religion ==
* As mentioned under Anime, Sun Wukong, from ''[[Journey to The West (Literature)|Journey to Thethe West]]'', was such a jerkass god that even the other gods (many of whom weren't exactly nice themselves -- case in point, kicking one of their own out of heaven and turning him into a river-dwelling, man-eating monster because he accidentally broke one of the Heavenly Emperor's vases/teacups) went to Buddha and begged him to put a stop to the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|monkey business]].
* '''[[Classical Mythology|GREEK/ROMAN MYTHOLOGY]]'''. [[Trope Codifier|Trope Codifiers]]. The Greek gods are widely remembered today for being spoiled children with fancy powers at best and at worse total assholes. Part of this is due to [[Flanderization|flanderizing]] their jerk side and ignoring their benevolent side combined with [[Values Dissonance]]. They were held to different standards than humans and were the center of the universe instead of humans. The other reason is they often were just massive jerks because they could be. Even the best of them have one or two stories with few exceptions.
** The only exceptions tended to be Hades, Hermes, Demeter, Hephaestus, and Hestia. Hades due to hanging out in the underworld all the time and being one of the most law abiding. Hermes tends to punish only the unjust and gets by on [[Rule of Cool]]. Hestia was the most peaceful and is hardly involved in any myths. Hephaestus also tends to be one of the nicer ones considering all the crap his fellow gods put him through. Demeter is also a good mother and even acted as a nanny at one point to a mortal baby.
*** [[Sadly Mythtaken|Though oddly enough,]] [[Everybody Hates Hades|Hades]] [[Sadly Mythtaken|is often portrayed as being like]] [[Satan]], due to him ruling the Underworld.
*** Not to mention, even Demeter has her bad side too - most of this happened when she was searching for Persephone. Other times, her wrath was incured more by people [[I Shall Taunt You|provoking]] or being a jerkass first.
** One of the worst ironically is Zeus, who himself is the god of law and upholder of morals. While there are some stories of Zeus punishing evil doers and rewarding the just many of his stories are about his dalliances with immortal and mortal women. At times [[Double Standard Rape (Divine Onon Mortal)|forcing himself]] upon women, doing little to protect them from his wife Hera, among many other highly questionable actions like the Pandora's Box incident make him perhaps the biggest jerk of all.
** Also worth a mention is Ares. Even back then, Greek scholars wrote about how men run in terror from this bloodthirsty god of war, and he is probably the closest thing the Greeks had a to a [[God of Evil]]. He was portrayed more positively by the Romans however, due to them having a stronger military tradition than the Greeks.
*** It is worth mentioning, however, that Mars was originally a Roman god who later just became equated with Ares. Mars was, to say the least, not such a jerk.
Line 136:
** We ought to note here that according to scholars of comparative linguistics and mythology, Indra is cognate to Thor and Zeus. Explains a lot, don't you think?
*** Unlike Zeus though Indra actually has to pay for it by being [[Humiliation Conga|humiliated time and again]]. Either he loses his throne, cursed by a sage, his greatest victory rewritten so Vishnu saves him and does all the real work, or something else. In the end he went from being the Lord of the Universe to a minor weather god and lord of the elements.
* Ishtar, according to [[GilgameshThe (Literature)Epic of Gilgamesh|Gilgamesh]], is highly untrustworthy, and has the tendency of turning her lovers in moles and beasts when she's tired of them. And when Gilgamesh refused to sleep with her, she sent a huge, [[A Load of Bull|angry bull to ]] destroy Ur.
** Enlil caused [[The Great Flood]] because humanity annoyed him with their sounds.
* Freaking every single one of them in [[Aztec Mythology]] (except [[Token Good Teammate|Quetzalcoatl]], and even he had his moments). When your ''rain and fertility god'' likes his [[Human Sacrifice|food]] young and crying, and one of two rulers is literally the god of [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]], there's little wonder why they thought it was a [[Crapsack World]].
Line 142:
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* The deities in ''[[Warhammer]]'' & ''[[WarWarhammer Hammer Forty Thousand40000]]''. '''All''' of them. Canon does ''sometimes'' seem contradictory on this point, though.
** Khorne wants to see people fight battles, the bloodier and more gruesome the better. In the [[Warhammer]] universes, simply being a god of war makes him a possible good guy, while the fact that ''your'' viscera would be just as pleasing to him as your enemies, makes him one of the bad guys.
** Slaanesh might want to help you to experience every positive sensation that you can, even turning negative sensations into new kinds of pleasure... but he '''definitely''' wants to ''force'' you to experience ''everything'', as a kind of torture-orgy.
** Papa Nurgle either wants you to help you to accept the pain and suffering of existence in the [[Warhammer]] universes, even nullifying some of the effects for you... so that you will be grateful enough to help him "spread the love" by infecting healthy people with incurable diseases and unhealing wounds to help them see how bad the universe is, so that they will turn to Grandfather Nurgle and he can help ''them,'' too.
** Tzeentch ''definitely'' is a [[Jerkass God]], because he is the god of scheming to such an extent that ''anything'' good ''or'' bad in the [[Warhammer]] universe is his doing. His grand master-plan was responsible for every single happy moment of your life...and every single moment of negativity of any kind.
* Many gods in ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]'' have grown corrupt and complacent without anyone to answer to.
** The Usurpation came to be because the Golden Age Solars had turned into this, as well.
** And even before becoming the Yozi and Neverborn, most of the Primordials were selfish [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]] who, when they weren't playing the Games of Divinity while the Gods did all the actual work, amused themselves by tormenting the inhabitants of Creation or their ugly brother Autochthon.
* ''[[Sen Zar]]'' offers too many examples of this trope to count (including, potentially, evil player characters who ascend to godhood), but the prize for ''most'' jerkassness goes to the Eternals, the only type of gods who actually gain (even more) power for being complete jackasses.
* In the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', the Time of Troubles led to all of the gods banished to the material plane in [[Physical God|avatar form]], screwing up the Realms pretty much wherever they went. Many of them used this as an opportunity to expand their power base, using human armies as pawns to take down other gods. The kicker is that the whole thing started because they upset the overgod, [[Dungeon Master|Ao]], by stealing the [[MacGuffin|Tablets of Fate]]. However, the fancy-looking Tablets of Fate with every god's name inscribed on it [[The Goggles Do Nothing|don't actually do anything]]! And somehow, because we have a new [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|Mystra]] and [[Complete Monster|Cyric]], the "balance is restored". To his credit, Ao does require that deities actually be worshipped to get their power in the future. And hey, we got a [[Continuity Reboot|new edition]] out of it.
** At least according to some sources, Ao was getting tired of the gods goofing off to play power games against each other instead of doing their actual jobs, anyway. The theft of the Tablets was simply the straw that broke the camel's back (and made for conveniently collectable [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]] at the same time).
** You don't know even half the story on how [[Jerkass]] some of the gods were until you've played ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer'' and gotten the scoop on Myrkul.
* ''[[Playing Gods]]'' get this trope right. You play as one of the five major gods from the major religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism) or you can use the sixth stand and insert a sticker or [[A God Am I|a photo of yourself]] or use a key ring or action figure or whatever as a god too. You convert other gods sects, spread believers or massacre every other deities sects. It's [[Played for Laughs]] though, and it's really a satire of fundamentalism and religious warfare and how it's better to be at peace with your fellow religions rather than attack them.
* ''[[Scion (Tabletop Game)|Scion]]'' makes use of this trope. In general, if the mythology portrays a god/dess as a jerkass, then he/she is the same in Scion. The [[Values Dissonance]] between modern culture and mythology is also given a few subtle nods. The most obvious of which is that, by the "God" sourcebook, the official sample Aztec character is depicted as disgusted by and disdainful of his native pantheon.
* In ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'', Menoth, creator god of the human race, is such a massive jerk that two humans became gods just to overthrow him. Its not hard to see why as he's supposts [[All Crimes Are Equal]] (most [[Kill It Withwith Fire|having something to do with fire]]) and the fact that if you're too awesome ''he will kill you'' Why? So you can fight for him in his heavenly army because he's attacking the other gods cities, why? Because he's a jerk. The few followers he has left veiw him more as a Stern Farther, like the time wend he refused to help the humans out wend the Orgoth invaded because of the above overthrowing.
 
== Theatre ==
* The Gods in ''[[Once On This Island]]'' are completely cruel to the humans for no apparent reason, except Asaka. Agwe likes to lash them with storms [[For the Evulz|for the hell of it]], Papa Ge is, well, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|a demon of death]] who also happens to be a complete [[Jerkass]], and Erzulie manipulates Ti Moune and Daniel solely so that she can prove that she's right. They were even worse in the original book - the musical tries to make them a bit more sympathetic, whereas in the book Agwe delivers a speech about how much humans deserve to die, and Erzulie kills a completely innocent woman.
* Athena (see [[Greek Mythology]] above) is one in ''[[Ajax (Theatre)|Ajax]]'', causing the main character to go mad and slaughter sheep, resulting in his utter humiliation and downfall. The play opens with her gloating to Odysseus about it. Odysseus is put off.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* The {{spoiler|Occuria}} of ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'' fit the bill perfectly. Most of the plot of the game turns out to be an {{spoiler|attempt to overthrow}} them and {{spoiler|return control over Ivalice to humanity}}. To put it in perspective: Venat, one third of the game's [[Big Bad Duumvirate|Big Bad Triad]] is the [[Satan|fallen angel]] figure among them, who they try to convince you to kill at one point, and he acts completely in line (ie, [[Deal Withwith the Devil|getting others to help him as he himself cannot act in the human realm directly]])... {{spoiler|and he ''still'' is the primary [[Anti-Villain]] of the game, because you can tell he had ''very good reasons'' for wanting to rebel}}. Beyond his motivations, he's made more sympathetic by default by Gerun ({{spoiler|the Occuria's leader/spokesperson}}) being [[Complete Monster|an utter bastard]].
* The fal'Cie of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' also fall under this trope, being basically giant elementals who subjugate humans into fighting their civil war for them. And that's just scratching the surface. It turns out that {{spoiler|Every Fal'Cie from Cocoon wants their creator The Maker to return, and believe that this demands no less than the sacrifice of ''Cocoon's entire human population''. [[Death Seeker|They don't even mind that The Maker's return would likely lead to their destruction as well]]. Since the Cocoon Fal'Cie are bound to their duties to Cocoon and cannot directly destroy it, they turn humans into L'Cie in the hopes that they can do it for them}}. The Cocoon Fal'Cie see humans as nothing more than {{spoiler|cattle to be sacrificed to ''their'' god}}.
* The entire human race {{spoiler|is created by [[Deus Est Machina|"God"]] to be replacement organic components for a malevolent interstellar weapon}} in ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]''.
* In the game ''[[Black and White]]'', you play a god who can be benevolent and giving, or this.
* Zeus in ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]]'', particularly the second game. In fact, every other Olympian is a Jerkass of some sorts save for [[Only Sane Man|Athena]] {{spoiler|until the end of the third game}}, [[The Woobie|Hephaestus]] and perhaps Hades (who by the third game has plenty of reasons to hate Kratos).
** Kratos himself when he's the god of war, who goes to do all the things Ares had been before he killed him.
*** Then ''Ghost of Sparta'' reveals the reason of said acquired jerkassery: {{spoiler|The gods imprisoned his brother in the Realm of Death till adulthood, out of fear he was the Marked One destined to kill the Gods(Actually Kratos). Then Thanatos kill his brother, all under the order of the Gods, particularly Zeus}}. In fact, if Gods just never messed with Kratos, he probably wouldn't even be so destructive, but when you combine Badass [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Spartan]] attitude with being a [[Cosmic Plaything]] and a {{spoiler|Demigod}}, shit tends to hit the fan.
Line 186:
* Mother of mercy, {{spoiler|Zanza}} from ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]''. Basically, he's a [[Generic Doomsday Villain]] who constantly destroys and rebuilds the universe... why? [[A God Am I|He's a god]]! [[For the Evulz|Why the hell not]]!? Needless to say, he gets [[Lampshade Hanging|called out on this]] a ''lot''.
* Used as a gameplay mechanic in ''[[Bastion]]'': there are ten Gods; choosing to pray to one will make enemies tougher to defeat, but increase the experience and money you get from beating them. The narrative suggests that the Gods don't look too kindly on humanity since they stopped being worshipped.
* {{spoiler|Ashera}} from ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]''. While she isn't exactly an immature jerk like most examples, she proves to have an extreme view of how the world should be and {{spoiler|ends up turning almost everyone to stone when she awakens and sees the world doesn't match her vision.}} Ironically, she was considered a benevolent goddess before that event, while {{spoiler|her other half, Yune was considered evil, but ends up being much nicer and less extreme, though also a lot more emotional and childish}}.
* Most of the Eastern Gods from the ''[[Izuna]]'' duology (especially their leader, Takushiki) are none too happy with Izuna and her clan trespassing on the sacred Kamiari Shrine, and take their frustrations out on the villagers by placing them under various [[Curse|curses]].
* The gods in [[Runescape]], for the most part, see their followers as little more than tools they can use to gain an advantage over the other gods. Even Saradomin, who is worshipped by most of the characters in-game, doesn't really seem to care much about his worshippers, and was actively participating in the God Wars without a second thought. The closest thing there is to a 'good' god is Guthix, the god of nature and balance, who created Gielinor and was powerful enough to stop the God Wars.
* One of the structures you can build in [[Bastion]] is a shrine containing idols representing the gods. You can invoke as many of them as you like, which makes your journey ''harder'' (but you get better rewards in turn; invoking all of them nearly doubles your spoils). Although in this case it's justified; before the cataclysm that kicked off the plot, your culture had lost most of its reverence for the gods, and turned them into toys and architectural decorations, so they're a little hacked off at you right now. On the other hand, if you should decide to reject them, they won't begrudge you that, because they think you're just pussing out.
* Dark Sun Gwyndolin from ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is the only god in the setting who managed to avoid suffering a horrible fate, and is in the best position to help fix the [[Crapsack World]]. Instead, he selfishly manipulates everyone else in a bid to increase his own power.
* Every single god and goddess in [[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]. Even [[Troll|Palutena]] isn't immune. {{spoiler|Dark Pit calls them all out on their selfish nature when they comment about how bad the humans are.}} Justified as all of the Gods are based on Greek Mythology listed above.
 
 
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'': the Gods created the world it seems for their own amusement as much as anything. Their squabbles the first time created the Snarl and ended up killing 1/4 of them and unmaking reality before they locked it up in the current world. When they remade it they made Clerics and a lot of cool monsters for them to help fight, but needed [[Cannon Fodder]] for them to kill for experience. All goblin races were created to be nothing more than easy experience points and defined as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] for the purposes of alignment and spells, no matter their actions. (Well, according to Redcloak anyway.) As a result, killing a Goblin child unable to comprehend good and evil is not an evil act. The motivation of the aforementioned Redcloak stems from him trying to give his people an equal footing.
** It's never stated that goblins are [[Always Chaotic Evil]]; it goes by the ''Monster Manual'', which says they are ''Usually'' Chaotic Evil. Likewise, the paladin killing kids example should be noted to take place from the POV of an [[Unreliable Narrator]], and [[Word of God|the author]] has hinted that it's not ''quite'' as bad as Redcloak makes it seem. This trope still applies in spades, of course.
** The Dark One (the [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|previously-mortal]] god of the goblins) averts this, sending a message back with one of his resurrected clerics:
{{quote| '''Jirix:''' "Don't screw this up."<br />
'''Red Cloak:''' Well, as theological revelations go, I guess that's refreshingly direct.<br />
'''Jirix:''' But then he added "no pressure though," which I thought was nice. }}
* [[The GodsofGods Arrof Arr-Kelaan]] can sometimes slide into this, but there's a general consensus that as bad as the Traveler Gods could be they are still better than the old gods. The old Gods being Jerkasses is what kicks off the "God War".
 
 
Line 219:
* The telling of the Pandora's Box story in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' fits the trope and the original story rather well.
** And, of course, there are plenty of gods that make guest appearances, such as Eris, the goddess of discord and strife.
* Neptune of ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'' acts this way.
** His son Triton in "Spongebob and The Clash of Triton" on the other hand actually did care about mortals and their affairs before his father locked him in a cage because he felt that trying to improve the lives of mortals was not befitting of a god. The thousands of years he spent locked away eventually turned Triton into a jerkass god as well.
* In ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'', near the end of "Mr. Plow" Homer and Barney decide to join forces in their snow plowing business. Homer declares that their friendship is so powerful that even God himself can't stop them, so just to prove him wrong God melts all the snow and puts them out of business.
* God is pretty much of a [[Jerkass|jerk]] in ''[[Family Guy]]'' too, pressuring women for sexual favors, neglecting his son, starting fires, and what not.
* [[Manipulative Bastard|Discord]] from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. He's an all powerful [[Reality Warper]] who can do pretty much anything he pleases. And just what does he use this power to do? Turn Equestria into a [[World Gone Mad]] and [[Driven to Madness|drive everypony insane]] for his own amusement. Though he's a bit more straight up evil than ''just'' a [[Jerkass]].
** The fandom usually enjoys turning Princess Celestia, the resident [[Big Good]] into this, though she's really just a [[Trickster Mentor]] with a sense of humor.
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/896056"