History Main / GodsHandsAreTied

* The same tendency in the Forgotten Realms shows up in a ''big'' way in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3''. Despite the rise of the Cult of the Absolute, [[spoiler: the Dead Three being the forces pulling the strings of said cult]], and Shar being a ''massive'' interventionist bitch at times, it is strongly implied that the good gods who ''could'' intervene are being held back by Ao, the god above all who has ''thoughts'' on deities beneath him meddling too much in mortal affairs. [[spoiler: Even then, the gods find ways to sneak in, as it's heavily implied that Withers, the mysterious undead figure who accompanies you and facilitates the resurrection of your allies, is actually the former death god Jergal, who once gave up his portfolios to the Dead Three so that they'd stop pestering him and wants to rub their failures in their faces once you actually manage to disrupt their plans.]]

* In the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' metaseries, [[TheDevil Unicron]] is generally a lot more active and impactful that his brother Primus despite the two being supposedly equal in power. This is because while they're both [[GeniusLoci planets]], Primus is much more limited in what he is willing to do. Primarily because he [[PiecesOfGod split his consciousness into innumerable fragments]] to give life to his offspring, the Transformers while his physical body acts as their home planet, Cybertron. He can't transform out of planet mode without causing mass destruction to his inhabitants and can't regain his full power without forcibly consuming all of them; two acts that are anathema to a creator and protector deity. Instead, he remains splintered and [[SealedGoodInACan slumbering]] as part of an elaborate plan to use his innumerable "children" to defeat his evil brother without risking the harm to the fabric of reality that all their previous fights have caused. Primus himself only directly acts in the very rare situations in which[[GodzillaThreshold the potential danger to reality presented outweighs whatever damage his intervention could cause]]. Being a destroyer deity and all, Unicron [[OmnicidalManiac doesn't share these worries]] and freely throws his divine weight around on his eternal quest to [[SpacetimeEater devour all of creation]].

* ''Fanfic/TheCoffinOfRobouteAndHis20Sisters'': [[TricksterGod Cegorach]] saves Roboute's life from dying by Mortarion's hands and [[PeggySue sends him back in time]] to make a better future, but because TimeTravel isn't normally part of his divine portfolio and he ''cannot'' act outside of it, he has to "tweak" it so that from an observer's perspective it all comes across as a "jest". This results in the big changes -- namely Roboute was sent back [[GenderBentAlternateUniverse to a universe where his brothers are now his sisters (including an alternate version of himself)]] -- and smaller things like how he was [[NakedOnArrival butt-naked on arriving]] on an Exodite world of his to-be allies.