History Main / GodIsFlawed

* The goddesses of the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series always mean well and are good girls, but have their own quirks. Neptune is a prime case of TheGodsMustBeLazy, Vert has a game addiction that leads to week-long MMO runs, Blanc has a [[HairTriggerTemper temper problem]] and Noire [[NotGoodWithPeople doesn't play well with others]]. Not to mention Plutia's HDD mode being a nasty dom and Peashy being a little kid with too much power. Though once they get their act together, they can take out anything from lowly mooks to villainess goddesses to universe-wrecking abominations.

* This trope is the conclusion of the Taker culture in ''Literature/{{Ishmael|1992}}''.
* In the Strugatsky brothers novel "Overburdened with Evil", the Wandering Jew depicts God this way. Every one of God's creations is burdened with evil, and God looks for a great man that is able to cure the world of said evil. The ending implies that one such person was finally found. God is also not omnipotent in this novel. The narrator is an astronomer, who published a massively incorrect theory based on miscalculation. He is recruited by promising to fix this issue. The problem was fixed by changing the laws of nature and rearranging the stars to suit the theory. In the past. However, it took several months and the Wandering Jew mentioned that the task was rather challenging for his patron.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the so-called Majin (Magic Gods) that make up the True GREMLIN are all powerful but flawed beings. One notable example is High Priest, a Majin who wears the trappings of a Buddhist monk even though he failed to achieve enlightenment.

* The two most influential active gods in ''LightNovel/TheDeathMageWhoDoesntWantAFourthTime'' both have this issue, not helped by the two being irreconcilably opposed.

* ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'': When he finally appears after several seasons of being TheGhost, God is revealed to be a friendly, well-meaning, and good-natured figure, but one who is InnocentlyInsensitive and [[LackOfEmpathy bad at empathizing with people]] because of his omniscience.

* ''Literature/TheBible'' has several instances of God admitting mistakes, maybe the most moving and meaningful in Genesis 6:5-7.
** It also has many instances of God getting angry. Not something you'd expect to see in a perfect God considering wrath is a deadly sin. Plus, he also experiences jealousy, especially towards anyone who worships a God other than him (with Satan or idols often painted as the other gods, but with no way of us knowing if idols are real gods).

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist,]] but a nice guy. Flawed because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven...which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. The first idea (God being Buddhist) is probably a spoof of a real-life concept in Buddhism that according to some scriptures [[http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm God himself recognized Buddha’s superiority]][[note]]Or more exactly, Mahabrahma, the King of Devas, considered by many Buddhists the inspiration of the God from the monotheistic religions[[/note]] which [[ShownTheirWork Shows Their Work.]] The second idea of only letting Mormons enter heaven is [[TakeThat mocking the belief]] that some real-life fundamentalist churches have that only members of their specific group would enter heaven no matter what behavior good or bad non-members may have. On the other hand, Hell is a pretty decent place for most people (only serious evildoers get actually tortured), while [[GoodIsBoring Heaven is so dull that only the Mormons can enjoy it.]] Even serious evildoers often are able to do rather well in Hell. Saddam Hussein managed to romance Satan himself (who turns out to be not too bad a guy after all, and certainly not deserving of what happens to him) and parlay being Satan's [[DomesticAbuser abusive boyfriend]]into ''taking over Hell and using it to invade Earth''.

* [[TopGod Gwyn]] from ''Videogame/DarkSouls''. Oh boy, where do we start with this guy? After slaying the Everlasting Dragons with the First Flame, he ushered in an age of peace and prosperity, seen by many as a [[TheGoodKing benevolent and divine king]]. This all changed the First Flame, the source of his power, began to flicker. Horrified at the inevitability of the First Flame fading and unleashing an Age of Dark, Gwyn decided to [[AndIMustScream sacrifice himself to burn eternally in the Kiln of the First Flame]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist just to delay the end of the Age of Fire and collapse of his kingdom]]. When you fight him in VideoGame/DarkSoulsI, he comes across as less of an threatening EvilOverlord or powerful GodEmperor, and more of a scared, lonely, broken old man you MercyKill. Unfortunately, [[TheHeavy much of the problems with the current world were caused by Gwyn indirectly]]. The unnatural extension of the Age of Fire [[NiceJobBreakingItHero has had serious consequences for the world]]. His formation of the Darksign in an attempt to suppress the [[HumansAreCthulhu innate darkness inside of humanity]] ended up causing the Undead Curse and the Hollowing of humans. If he could've just kept his fear of the Dark ([[TheSacredDarkness which as it turns out wasn't bad]] until his Darksign caused it to go out of control) in check, then the cycle of Light and Dark would've passed peacefully. But he couldn't and so humanity and the gods were trapped in [[CrapsackWorld a decaying world desperate to end]] for potentially thousands of years all because Gwyn ''[[TheDeterminator just couldn't let go]]''. It all comes to ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', [[TimeAbyss thousands or even hundreds-of-thousands]] after he is slain by the Chosen Undead. [[AllForNothing His kingdom has been abandoned and destroyed. All of his champions murdered.]] [[EtTuBrute His eldest son betrayed him to his sworn enemies]], the Dragons (quite probably out of ''love'' at that). After choosing to burn in the Kiln for all eternity, his hope of his daughter and youngest son to preserve his kingdom is completely crushed when it falls to ruin [[WeAreStrugglingTogether because of the selfishness of the both of them]]. Said son ends up enduring a FateWorseThanDeath, being consumed by an EldritchAbomination. Even the MercyKill during the first game is removed when he is resurrected as the SoulofCinder, his melancholic {{Leitmotif}} audible in the boss music. Rather than being some evil, conniving mastermind, [[GreyAndGreyMorality Gwyn was just as scared and desperate for a solution as everyone else]]. He tried, and failed, to delay the inevitable, to save his people and his vision of his world, and people suffered from his choices.

* [[TopGod Gwyn]] from ''Videogame/DarkSouls''. Oh boy, where do we start with this guy? After slaying the Everlasting Dragons with the First Flame, he ushered in an age of peace and prosperity, seen by many as a [[TheGoodKing benevolent and divine king]]. This all changed the First Flame, the source of his power, began to flicker. Horrified at the inevitability of the First Flame fading and unleashing an Age of Dark, Gwyn decided to [[AndIMustScream sacrifice himself to burn eternally in the Kiln of the First Flame]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist just to delay the end of the Age of Fire and collapse of his kingdom]]. When you fight him in VideoGame/DarkSoulsI, he comes across as less of an threatening EvilOverlord or powerful GodEmperor, and more of a scared, lonely, broken old man you MercyKill. Unfortunately, [[TheHeavy much of the problems with the current world were caused by Gwyn indirectly]]. The unnatural extension of the Age of Fire [[NiceJobBreakingItHero has had serious consequences for the world]]. His formation of the Darksign in an attempt to suppress the [[HumansAreCthulhu innate darkness inside of humanity]] ended up causing the Undead Curse and the Hollowing of humans. If he could've just kept his fear of the Dark ([[TheSacredDarkness which as it turns out wasn't bad]] until his Darksign caused it to go out of control) in check, then the cycle of Light and Dark would've passed peacefully. But he couldn't and so humanity and the gods were trapped in [[CrapsackWorld a decaying world desperate to end]] for potentially thousands of years all because Gwyn ''[[TheDeterminator just couldn't let go]]''. It all comes to ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', [[TimeAbyss thousands or even hundreds-of-thousands]] after he is slain by the Chosen Undead. [[AllForNothing His kingdom has been abandoned and destroyed. All of his champions murdered.]] [[EtTuBrute His eldest son betrayed him to his sworn enemies]], the Dragons (quite probably out of ''love'' at that). After choosing to burn in the Kiln for all eternity, his hope of his daughter and youngest son to preserve his kingdom is completely crushed when it falls to ruin [[WeAreStrugglingTogether because of the selfishness of the both of them]]. Said son ends up enduring a FateWorseThanDeath, being consumed by an EldritchAbomination. Even the MercyKill during the first game is removed when he is resurrected as the SoulOfCinder, his melancholic {{Leifmotif}} audible in the boss music. Rather than being some evil, conniving mastermind, [[GreyAndGreyMorality Gwyn was just as scared and desperate for a solution as everyone else]]. He tried, and failed, to delay the inevitable, to save his people and his vision of his world, and people suffered from his choices.

* [[TopGod Gwyn]] from ''Franchise/DarkSouls''. Oh boy, where do we start with this guy? After slaying the Everlasting Dragons with the First Flame, he ushered in an age of peace and prosperity, seen by many as a [[TheGoodKing benevolent and divine king]]. This all changed the First Flame, the source of his power, began to flicker. Horrified at the inevitability of the First Flame fading and unleashing an Age of Dark, Gwyn decided to [[AndIMustScream sacrifice himself to burn eternally in the Kiln of the First Flame]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist just to delay the end of the Age of Fire and collapse of his kingdom]]. When you fight him in VideoGame/DarkSoulsI, he comes across as less of an threatening EvilOverlord or powerful GodEmperor, and more of a scared, lonely, broken old man you MercyKill. Unfortunately, [[TheHeavy much of the problems with the current world were caused by Gwyn indirectly]]. The unnatural extension of the Age of Fire [[NiceJobBreakingItHero has had serious consequences for the world]]. His formation of the Darksign in an attempt to suppress the [[HumansAreCthulhu innate darkness inside of humanity]] ended up causing the Undead Curse and the Hollowing of humans. If he could've just kept his fear of the Dark ([[TheSacredDarkness which as it turns out wasn't bad]] until his Darksign caused it to go out of control) in check, then the cycle of Light and Dark would've passed peacefully. But he couldn't and so humanity and the gods were trapped in [[CrapsackWorld a decaying world desperate to end]] for potentially thousands of years all because Gwyn ''[[TheDeterminator just couldn't let go]]''. It all comes to ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', [[TimeAbyss thousands or even hundreds-of-thousands]] after he is slain by the Chosen Undead. [[AllForNothing His kingdom has been abandoned and destroyed. All of his champions murdered.]] [[EnTuBrute His eldest son betrayed him to his sworn enemies]], the Dragons (quite probably out of ''love'' at that). After choosing to burn in the Kiln for all eternity, his hope of his daughter and youngest son to preserve his kingdom is completely crushed when it falls to ruin [[WeAreStrugglingTogether because of the selfishness of the both of them]]. Said son ends up enduring a FateWorseThanDeath, being consumed by an EldritchAbomination. Even the MercyKill during the first game is removed when he is resurrected as the SoulOfCinder, his melancholic {{Leifmotif}} audible in the boss music. Rather than being some evil, conniving mastermind, [[GreyAndGreyMorality Gwyn was just as scared and desperate for a solution as everyone else]]. He tried, and failed, to delay the inevitable, to save his people and his vision of his world, and people suffered from his choices.

* In one issue of ''Comicbook/{{Valhalla}}'', Heimdall is in love with [[LoveGoddess Freya]]. Just as she is about to let him in, he gets a counterproductive fit of jealousy and basically calls her a dirty tramp. However, he quickly realizes what a {{Jerkass}} he has been, and she forgives him. This is just one example among many: most of the Norse gods were flawed even in the oldest recorded myths, and ''Valhalla'' keeps and further develops this characterization.

* The goddesses of the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' series always mean well and are good girls, but have their own quirks. Neptune is a prime case of TheGodsMustBeLazy, Vert has a game addiction that leads to week-long MMO runs, Blanc has a [[GrumpyBear temper problem]] and Noire [[NotGoodWithPeople doesn't play well with others]]. Not to mention Plutia's HDD mode being a nasty dom and Peashy being a little kid with too much power. Though once they get their act together, they can take out anything from lowly mooks to villainess goddesses to universe-wrecking abominations.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Despite being unquestionably aligned with good, Mata Nui was far from a perfect leader for the Matoran. Being a space-faring [[HumongousMecha giant robot]] whose body housed the Matoran Universe, he mostly saw his people as expendable parts of his biology (hence the series title) and grew neglectful. He created the Makuta species to handle things for him, which took a turn for the worst when they became power-hungry and the Makuta named Teridax usurped Mata Nui, launching his spirit into space. It was then that Mata Nui, [[WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs masquerading as a mortal]] on the planet Bara Magna, learned to respect and protect those less powerful than him. Even after saving the world and defeating Teridax, Mata Nui chose to seal his consciousness in the Mask of Life, givign up his status as a deity to let society progress by itself.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Despite being unquestionably aligned with good, Mata Nui is far from a perfect leader for the Matoran. While he still protected and guided his people, he also grew neglectful of the world inside his body and allowed the Makuta to handle things for him, which took a turn for the worst when Teridax took control of the Brotherhood and sought to usurp him.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Supergod}}'', it is argued that the concept of "God" is a flawed concept, a by-product of the biochemical systems in the human brain (namely the pleasure center). Thus, trying to create gods would have been a very. very bad idea...even if you didn't weaponize them...and base them on flawed humans.

* Many of the Archons (Elemental gods of a region) from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' can be considered this. Many of them wish to help their nation and its people. Following an ideal that they believe will benefit them as a whole. However, their methods are flawed, and sometimes have negative effects on their people. The most flawed of them is the Electro Archon who rules over the land of Inazuma. [[spoiler: She believes in the concept of Eternity and thinks that change is evil and will lead to destruction of her country after living through the horrors of the Cataclysm that took her sister's life, and thus tries to keep her nation in statis. She hides away in a pocket dimension meditating while leaving her country in the hands of a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Puppet]]. Issuing a Vision Hunt and a lockdown that causes an entire year of suffering and a civil war to break out. It isn't until the [[PlayerCharacter Traveler]] along with her friend's help and a special Macguffin that houses the wills of humanity supercharges them allowing them to overcome her and convince her that her methods were wrong. The Traveler later on teaches her the importance of walking among her people. Showing her that change is an inevitable thing. And that it doesn't have to be bad. Upon acknowledging her mistakes, she becomes TheAtoner and soon takes a more direct hand in leading her country. By the time of the Iradori festival that takes place later, her country has changed greatly for the better.]]

* Many of the Archons (Elemental gods of a region) from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' can be considered this. Many of them wish to help their nation and its people. Following an ideal that they believe will benefit them as a whole. However, their methods are flawed, and sometimes have negative effects on their people. The most flawed of them is the Electro Archon who rules over the land of Inazuma. [[spoiler: She believes in the concept of Eternity and thinks that change is evil and will lead to destruction of her country after living through the events of the Cataclysm that took her sister's life, and thus tries to keep her nation in statis. She hides away in a pocket dimension meditating while leaving her country in the hands of a powerful mechanical puppet. Issuing a Vision Hunt and a lockdown that causes an entire year of strife and suffering. It isn't until the [[PlayerCharacter Traveler]] along with her friend's help and a special Macguffin that houses the wills of humanity supercharges them allowing them to overcome her and convince her that her methods were wrong. The Traveler later on teaches her the importance of walking among her people. Showing her that change is an inevitable thing. And that it doesn't have to be bad. Upon acknowledging her mistakes, she becomes TheAtoner and soon takes a more direct hand in leading her country. By the time of the Iradori festival that takes place later, her country has changed greatly for the better.]]

* All of the [[PowersThatBe Elder Powers]] from ''[[VideoGame/NexusWar Nexus Clash]]'' have this in spades. The Evil Powers are easy to explain because EvilWillFail, but every last one of the pantheon - even the angels - have flaws in their ideologies that eventually cause the worlds they shape to fall apart, forcing another cycle of the EternalRecurrence that drives the series. The most recent example was a world shaped by [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Baraas]], angelic god of Cooperation and quite possibly the sanest being in the pantheon, which exploded spectacularly when his ideals eventually got turned UpToEleven via world-spanning authoritarianism.

* In Creator/RickRiordan's verse - ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' (''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', ''Literature/HeroesOfOlympus'', and ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'') and the spin-offs ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'' and ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard'' - , no one, not even the ''gods themselves'', will attempt to claim they are faultless and perfect (granted, they usually only admit that when they think no one else is listening). Several of them have even admitted they are envious of humans, in that they can overcome their flaws in mere years and decades whereas they themselves have gone thousands of years still in the same patterns of behavior.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist,]] but a nice guy. Flawed because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven...which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. The first idea (God being Buddhist) is probably a spoof of a real-life concept in Buddhism that according to some scriptures [[http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm God himself recognized Buddha’s superiority]][[note]]Or more exactly, Mahabrahma, the King of Devas, considered by many Buddhists the inspiration of the God from the monotheistic religions[[/note]] which [[ShownTheirWork Shows Their Work.]] The second idea of only letting Mormons enter heaven is [[TakeThat mocking the belief]] that some real-life fundamentalist churches have that only members of their specific group would enter heaven no matter what behavior good or bad non-members may have. On the other hand, Hell is a pretty decent place for most people (only serious evildoers get actually tortured), while [[GoodIsBoring Heaven is so dull that only the Mormons can enjoy it.]] Even serious evildoers often are able to do rather well in Hell. Saddam Hussein managed to romance Satan himself (who turns out to be not too bad a guy after all, and certainly not deserving of what happens to him) and parlay being Satan's BastardBoyfriend into ''taking over Hell and using it to invade Earth''.

* Urizen, a character in Creator/WilliamBlake's poetry--his name parsed by scholars as "Your Reason"--is one God among many. In some ways, he resembles the Demiurge of Gnostic belief. Such facile explanations, however, brush aside deeply-woven nuances; Blake spent a lifetime forging a personal cosmology of extraordinary complexity. Desiring order, Urizen seeks to impose it on Man and the Cosmos. He possesses power to create, but by regarding himself as The Only Creator? Urizen, ultimately, reveals himself as pathetic: mired in self-deception. His inherently-flawed works contribute to human suffering; Blake's paintings depict Urizen bound within the {{Ur Example}} of "mind-forg'd manacles," prefiguring those in which all humanity will entrap themselves.
* In ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', its sequels ''Literature/HeroesOfOlympus'' and ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'', and the spin-offs ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'' and ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard'', no one, not even the ''gods themselves'', will attempt to claim they are faultless and perfect (granted, they usually only admit that when they think no one else is listening). Several of them have even admitted they are envious of humans, in that they can overcome their flaws in mere years and decades whereas they themselves have gone thousands of years still in the same patterns of behavior.

* Early portrayals of the Abrahamic God appear show Him to have quite the temper and there exists at least one point where Moses wins an argument with God, calming Him down after the Jews disobeyed Him. The implications would be that righteous anger is ''not'' a flaw, that God wants His children to speak openly with him, etc. Jesus Christ would later call self-righteous religious leaders out for how flawed their concepts of flaws and perfections were, reminding them that the Lord, not they, sets the standards for perfect and flawed.

* A god being flawed is what kicks off the plot of ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'' - the God of Love was watching ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' while Rentarou's soulmate count, and became so distracted by the "Balse" scene that he accidentally added two zeroes to the count, which lead to Rentarou being rejected one hundred times prior to gaining the titular 100 girlfriends.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', [[spoiler: the soul of the Bionis, Zanza]], is very flawed. He has an immense amount of hubris, is very arrogant, and believes himself to be the be-all-end-all who decides how life on the Bionis should live, wiping them out with Telethia on a whim should he feel they become close to breaking from the passage of Fate that he himself created, and claims to have done this many times before. Despite [[spoiler: being able to see Visions of what is to come]], he is not omnipotent, as the person who actually supplies him power is [[spoiler: Alvis, the Third God and the True Monado, who was originally a machine, and as such is not flawed like Zanza.]] His counterpart, [[spoiler: Meyneth, the soul of the Mechonis,]] is much more benevolent, but she still makes mistakes as well, as she [[spoiler: let Zanza wipe out and restart the cycle of creation on Bionis many times in the past without lifting a finger, only finally opposing his actions when he began to attack the people living on her Titan.]] However, the 2 Gods being flawed is very justified considering [[spoiler: both of them were originally Humans who became Gods through an experiment that destroyed and recreated the universe.]]
** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', The Architect who lives on Alrest [[spoiler: was really just a man named Klaus, the same Klaus who became Zanza in the world of Xenoblade 1, except he is the other half of that being. When the world was destroyed by the experiment, and he became a God, he realized the destruction he had wrought through his eagerness to create a new world and lamented it, despite starting his experiments in the hopes of creating a perfect world where people would not have to suffer and in turn, become evil and twisted like people had in his original home of Earth.]] As such, after creating Blades and Humans, he took an off hands approach and wanted people to live without his guidance and make a good world on their own. [[spoiler: This allowed Amalthus to climb the world tree and retrieve Malos and Mythra's Core Crystals, which then would proceed to ravage the world in their clash later known as the Aegis War, sinking 3 titans in the process. As a result of this, Amalthus would then try to attack and destroy Mythra, which led him to end up ruining Jin's life and beginning his [[StartOfDarkness start of darkness]]. By that same token, Amalthus had already been corrupted by the world around him, and those feelings of hatred he harbored towards Humanity and the World was what caused Malos to become evil and warped in the first place, and started the war.]] So because of the Architect's hands-off approach, he inadvertently created the main antagonists of the game through his actions. God is not perfect here either. However, he still has much better intents and is much more benevolent than [[spoiler: his other half, Zanza, in Xenoblade 1's dimension.]]