why are gods in fiction always useless and powerless?

[Kyle Nuva]

DBZ, before super there were the kai's and sadly they are weak and helpless, worse once super was made with the gods and angels

Beerus is bribed with food because he like every other glutton shonen jump characters i think is the trope. they have a bottomless stomach and do so much training they burn 1000's of cals

Korra, a horrible show that will never rival Avatar
the dark god rules stronger somehow

in the pathless videogame, a godslayer rules
and its up to a mortal to save the world...

in the fairy tail anime/manga. infamous for its power level ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nonsense and power ups
godslayers come out of no where
we hardly ever see the dragons and yet no gods

other times, gods give life and go away
the zelda series did this with its three goddesses

and anthem too

high school dxd
take out the honryball ♥♥♥♥ and it would be a good anime
dragons, demons and gods. sounds awesome but too hornball nonsense
in it, god is dead

[Volfogg]

Because of futile attempt to comprehend something that's supposed to be incombrehensible by default?
Inb4 yet another rant inducing flamewar bait...

[Yzal]

Originally posted by Hoovy is ugliest fairy princess:

why are gods in fiction always useless and powerless?

Because fiction copies reality.

[TwisterCat]

Originally posted by Lazy Dog:

Originally posted by Hoovy is ugliest fairy princess:

why are gods in fiction always useless and powerless?

Because fiction copies reality.

And the flame war starts now!

[Volfogg]

OP has never seen Shin Megami Tensei II, just saying.

[Gus the Crocodile]

Not much room for conflict and growth if the protagonists just cease to exist when they do something an omnipotent god doesn’t like.

[Rio ⛧]

beerus isn't useless, he just usually doesn't care. He even seems sick and tired of his job sometimes. He has the power to destroy the universe if he wanted, but theres all these rules in place to stop him. He's not even allowed to have a fist fight with his brother.

He is a god of destruction, he's not suppose to be creating life and protecting it and making it flourish. He's suppose to destroy things so the kai can keep creating new things. The yin to the yang. Thats not to say he's suppose to let everything die out, but to maintain balance.

Its understandable he might not be motivated anymore, he's the top of the top, but he'll never be top dog. He's like a manager that'll never be the ceo. And his ceo is a child.

[Fechor]

bc they must be defeated

[Rio ⛧]

Plus if beerus did step out of bounds and try to do something. His angel who is probably stronger than him wouldn't probably kill him in a flash. And the whole, if all the kai's die thing, I die too, for extra less motivation in life.

Beerus's hands are so tied.

[Your_White_Knight]

This:

Originally posted by NotABraveEnoughBoyForThis:

Because of futile attempt to comprehend something that's supposed to be incombrehensible by default?
Inb4 yet another rant inducing flamewar bait...

It's entertainment... some of it's bad at being entertaining.

[Emperor of Destruction]

Depends on whether its a work of fiction or an actual belief system.

I know that OP makes the distinction "In Fiction", but others will make this a meta discussion.

---------

Literature:

1) The Gods must be powerless or else they would or should fix everything, hence no drama and no story.

2) The Gods are just another tier of life and thus can be surpassed by the protagonist.

3) The Gods are made to be powerless or ineffective as a meta critique by the author about religion.

---------

Belief:

1) The Gods are "useless" because its up to humanity to solve its own problems.

2) The Gods are human like and thus prone to human weaknesses such as pride, lust, anger, etc.

3) The Gods are subtle in their work so it goes unnoticed and unpraised.

[Radene]

Because you wouldn't have much of a story if a god can just step in and wave a hand to fix everything.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

As opposed to the real Gods?

[jahpeg]

Because gods generally enjoy avoiding responsibility in real life so it's up to the people to actually enforce the 'doing things' part.

[☎need4naiim☎]

Raiden??? 👀

[Walach]

Just ask yourself the question:
Would you like to read a story with someone having "real" godly power?

I remember a roleplaying, pen and paper game, that I can't for the life of me remember the name of. But the players played as gods of X, Y or Z. There were no dice rolls as they were gods, they could do whatever they wanted! The game was a little bit of a mess but it sure made me like my dice rolling curse as atleast I got to roll a dice! :P

Why did I tell you that story? I have no idea, other than that I just remembered it when reading this thread.