History Deconstruction / VideoGames

** ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'' deconstructs SteamPunk by focusing on the dystopian elements of late 19th and early 20th Century society that most SteamPunk settings ignore. The racism, religious fanaticism, eugenics, and abusive work practices of the time period that other SteamPunk works avoid in favor an idealized nostalgia, are instead brought to the shiny, colorful, Disney Theme Park-style surface. It also seems to deconstructs the concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism American exceptionalism]], by presenting all the undercurrents of imperialism and nationalism tied in with it.

* ''Videogame/DragonAgeOrigins'' is a heavy deconstruction of the StandardFantasySetting - mages are abhorred by members of TheChurch because they had once used their powers to ''try and overtake Heaven itself'', there is a much more focused ([[DarkerAndEdgier and darker]]) look at the bigotry usually glossed over in many stories adhering to the setting, and instead of giving a clear [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Good vs. Evil conflict]], GreyAndGrayMorality is a heavy constant. And when it's not that, it's more of a MoralityKitchenSink.
** ''Videogame/DragonAgeII'' is way worse in this regard because it deconstructs Western [=RPGs=] as a whole. There is no BigBad to speak of, the main character cares more for his loved ones than saving the world, and the major conflict of the story is between two opposing factions that [[BothSidesHaveAPoint both have very good reasons for being the way they are towards each other]].
** ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'' takes a more traditional stance on the Standard Fantasy Setting, and this has actually led to some [[BrokenBase divisions within the fanbase]]. The game's deconstructions focus more on the background of said setting, as we find out that the supposedly-glorious Alfheim Age was a clusterfuck of massive proportions, where the gods were actually power-hungry backstabbing maniacs whose actions forced the destruction of the old world, whose legacy was a millennia of the same backstabbing oppression in all major governments of the setting, and the traditional forest elf culture is actually ''slave protocol''.

** The whole series deconstructs the 'idealistic utopian values' of TheFifties. In this AlternateHistory, America was caught in a pop-culture stasis while its technology advanced by leaps and bounds. End result: behind the thin charm of an endlessly 1950's {{Eagleland}}, America was a jingoistic, genocidal supremacist state that tried to stamp out individual thought, subjected "dissidents" to concentration camps and horrific experiments, and was taken over by a GovernmentConspiracy because everyone had become distracted and indoctrinated by ultra-nationalism and a Red Scare that was ''literally'' over a century old. and honestly to be nuked off the face of the earth. They became an all-consuming empire that violently annexed Canada and Mexico, then relentlessly waged war on the Soviet world until they backed China into a corner and pushed ''someone'' to launch their nukes. It's meant to be a satire of RealLife TheFifties; while conservatives hail the fifties as a fleeting golden age, beneath the surface it was a racist, classist nightmare that was somehow even worse to the impoverished and the outcast ''than America during The War On Terror''. While the US established itself as the democratic counterweight to the Soviet Union, it also was responsible for ''overthrowing'' many democratically elected governments and appointing dictators who supported American interests. Likewise, it claimed to represent freedom of expression, yet simultaneously allowed them to be stifled with the [[RedScare McCarthy witch hunts]].

%%* ''VideoGame/{{LISA}}'' deconstructs many JRPG tropes.

* ''Videogame/MetalGearSolid'' is this for the action movie hero trope. Solid Snake in many ways is the type of protagonist you see in a action movie. He is a cool, highly skilled badass solider who gets the job done. He is also shown to be a bitter distraught man who is tormented by all the people he has killed and friends he has lost. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't seem to know any life besides being a spy. He even takes the mission in the game despite knowing the people he works for are using him for their own purpose because of the fact he is not adapting to life past his old profession.

*** In contrast to most action/spy games, there are no clear cut hero and villains in the traditional sense. The conflicts are much more morally grey where BothSidesHaveAPoint and both sides are not above doing morally questionable behavior to get what they want.

* The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' can be arguably seen as one for the entire concept of redemption and how it may not work in the real world by showing that often people seek for the evil that wronged them to be brought to justice instead of redeemed. In one of the quest chains the players and Tirion finds a heart that may have belonged to Arthas and kept his humanity. When Arthas taunts them about redeeming him, Tirion rejects redeeming him and destroys the heart, stating that only the Lich King remains--and that is before we learn in patch 3.3 that as it turns out, the good half of Arthas was the only thing holding the Scourge back from destroying Azeroth -- thus to what extent was there really nothing left or to what extent was Tirion enraged by how much Arthas started the chain of events that screwed over his life and decided to kill him instead because of that, is debatable. At the end as we kill the Lich King the good Arthas takes back his body long enough to have his humanity restored before his death, and the subsequent quests on heroic difficulty gives the impression that the people once close to him (Uther, Jaina, Muradin) have forgiven him -- it turns out that doesn't seem to have sent Arthas to a good afterlife due to the Lich King filling the ''normal'' afterlife with Shades that he ordered to torture anyone who entered their territory which of course includes himself....

* ''VideoGame/YouAreNotTheHero'' is a deconstruction of the KleptomaniacHero. [[PlayerCharacter Petula]] doesn't like the heroes, even [=BEFORE=] they break into her home and steal her pendant. And once they do, she follows them wherever they go to get it back.

* Deconstruction/{{Batman}}

** The whole series deconstructs the idealistic utopian values of TheFifties. Within the game itself, it is implied that behind the thin charm of a 1950's {{Eagleland}}, America was a jingoistic, genocidal supremacist state that tried to stamp out individual thought, subjected "dissidents" to concentration camps and horrific experiments, and honestly deserved to be nuked off the face of the earth. The deconstruction was that in RealLife TheFifties America was not so much a golden age heralded by many conservatives. During that era social and racial values were backwards in comparison to the 21st Century domestically and while the US established itself as the democratic counterweight to the Soviet Union it also was responsible for overthrowing many democratically elected governments in support of its own interests. Likewise it claimed to represent freedom of expression yet simultaneously allowed them to be stifled with the [[RedScare McCarthy witch hunts]].

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is one of its own series. Rather than show a glamorized portrayal of criminal life like the previous games did, it portrays it realistically, with most of the characters being poor, sociopathic, psychotic, greedy, or otherwise unlikable. Even [[PlayerCharacter Niko]] himself is a hypocrite. Likewise [[spoiler: in contrast to the usual ''GTA'' games which end on a triumph note of the protagonist killing all of their enemies and now a big time/high ranking crime boss, this game ends at best a BittersweetEnding where Niko does kill off all of his remaining enemies but has lost someone very close to him (either Roman or Kate depending on the choice) and despite maybe being more financially stable, is left in a emotionally bad place. He doesn't even have the status of being a big time crime boss to show for everything he has gone through. In fact many of the characters are in worse spots then there were at the beginning, whether it is because they are ultimately going to prison, have lost people around them, have nothing left or dead. The game very much goes out of its way to deglamorize the criminal life of these characters and show how there is no real happy ending for people involved in the lifestyle.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'', Obsidian's newest offering that styles itself as a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Fallout'' above, similarly deconstructs the capitalist utopia of the Gilded Age within a Series/{{Firefly}}-esque space setting. The Halcyon colony is OneNationUnderCopyright, and the locals profess UndyingLoyalty in corporations that reaches almost CargoCult levels; they pepper everyday conversation with company slogans and [[FantasticRacism discriminate against each other based on brand loyalties]]. That's not even getting into some of the truly staggering greed and incompetence at the higher levels.

*** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' in particular deconstructs the typical revenge storyline. The characters quest for revenge turns them into people who will go to horrible lengths to seek it which only destroys their humanity. It also shows how an obsession for revenge will never end well or make you feel any better.

* Most of the {{Designated Hero}}es of ''VideoGame/LenEn'' comes from what would happen if a stereotypical human were transported to an AdventureFriendlyWorld and gained NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. While their antics are PlayedForLaughs (such as the greedy Kuroji), later games show that their actions are catching up to them and while they save the day, they unknowingly make things worse.

*** In ''Birthright'', it deconstructs the idea of BlackAndWhiteMorality. Yes, Nohr is the belligerent and Hoshido is on the defense, but it goes to show what that mentality can do when [[HeWhoFightsMonsters taken too far.]] Notably, [[spoiler: your eldest adoptive brother commits SuicideByCop after your adoptive little sister dies, alongside countless of lost lives as a result of abandoning Nohr.]]

* This is the entire point of the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''. The modus operandi for each game is to write up the world's biggest ClicheStorm of an RPG setting, and then rip it to shreds by analyzing in brutal detail why every single trope in a fantasy story has the potential to be terrifying. [[CrapsaccharineWorld The cutesy graphics]] mean they get away with a lot of stuff that many other, more [[AnimationAgeGhetto "mature"-looking]] [=RPGs=] wouldn't be able to.

** The fairies in in the series can be seen as a deconstruction of DeathIsCheap. They have extremely short lifespans, but resurrect almost instantly when killed. This leaves them all as literally TooDumbToLive as they often charge headfirst into potentially fatal situations and don't really learn from their mistakes since there's no real consequences. It is implied in [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]] that their view of life and death might [[BlueAndOrangeMorality extend to their perception of other beings lives and deaths]], too. Which in practice would mean that a fairy cannot see any moral difference between pranking someone by "hiding their food" and "setting them on fire and shoving them down a cliff", 'cuz, hey, the people they kill are just going to resurrect again, right?

** Fable 3 also deconstructs the idea of monarchies/nobility by putting you in the role of the second game's protagonist's youngest child. While it's entirely possible to play as a saintly ruler, your tyrannical older brother Logan is what spun the conflict in the first place, and it's possible to play as way more evil than Logan ever was. The deconstruction is that leadership ability is independent from any noble bloodline [[spoiler: and is the central theme of the Traitor's Keep DLC, as a coup is planned against you led by someone who questions your family's claim to the throne]].

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is one of its own series. Rather than show a glamorized portrayal of criminal life like the previous games did, it portrays it realistically, with most of the characters being poor, sociopathic, psychotic, greedy, or otherwise unlikable. Even [[PlayerCharacter Niko]] himself is a hypocrite. Likewise [[spoiler: in contrast to the usual GTA games which end on a triumph note of the protagonist killing all of their enemies and now a big time/high ranking crime boss, this game ends at best a BittersweetEnding where Niko does kill off all of his remaining enemies but has lost someone very close to him (either Roman or Kate depending on the choice) and despite maybe being more financially stable, is left in a emotionally bad place. He doesn't even have the status of being a big time crime boss to show for everything he has gone through. In fact many of the characters are in worse spots then there were at the beginning, whether it is because they are ultimately going to prison, have lost people around them, have nothing left or dead. The game very much goes out of its way to deglamorize the criminal life of these characters and show how there is no real happy ending for people involved in the lifestyle.]]

** Franklin deconstructs the newcomer to a GTA game, someone who is introduced to a world of crime where they can do whatever they want, strike out on their own, and get rich while they're at it. However, he wants to play the game in his own way, and as a result he catches a lot of flak for not playing it the way others do or for not "sticking to tradition".
** Michael deconstructs the GTA player who has beaten the game: He's wealthy beyond his wildest dreams thanks to his ill-gotten gains and has gotten away with it, but is now left wondering what to do with his life.
** Trevor deconstructs the stereotypical GTA player: Someone who's interested only in causing as much chaos as possible, consequences be damned, and for whom pursuing a particular goal in-game is an afterthought, but as a result, his asocial and independent behavior often results in [[DidntThinkThisThrough half-baked schemes]] that are often less straightforward than they initially seem and don't pan out in the way he wants them to.

** The whole series deconstructs the HeroicComedicSociopath from ''Touhou'' (which ''Len'en'' is based off). Many of the playable characters are acknowledged not to be the most virtuous people around, and fighting the villain of the day is often done for purely selfish reasons. While some ''Touhou'' games becoming DarkerAndEdgier (such as ''Subterranean Animism'' and ''Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom''), the heroines do not face any consequences for their actions, unlike ''Len'en'''s case.

* Videogame/MetalGearSolid is this for the action movie hero trope. Solid Snake in many ways is the type of protagonist you see in a action movie. He is a cool, highly skilled badass solider who gets the job done. He is also shown to be a bitter distraught man who is tormented by all the people he has killed and friends he has lost. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't seem to know any life besides being a spy. He even takes the mission in the game despite knowing the people he works for are using him for their own purpose because of the fact he is not adapting to life past his old profession.
** The VideoGame/MetalGear franchise is full of this in general
*** In contrast to most action/spy games, there are no clear cut hero and villains in the traditional sense. The conflicts are much more morally grey where Main/BothSidesHaveAPoint and both sides are not above doing morally questionable behavior to get what they want.
*** The game makes a point to show you their is absolutely nothing glamourous about being a trained killer like you see in most video games and how the characters like Solid Snake are emotionally damage by all the things they had to do no matter how seemly heroic their missions may have been. Raiden in particular VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty is one big giant Main/TakeThat to people that want to be like Solid Snake, not realizing that playing a game/simulator is not even remotely the same as being in actual dangerous combat-which is not just some fun game but is instead a tense dangerous matter of life and death; sometimes of many people no less.
*** VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain in particular deconstructs the typical revenge storyline. The characters quest for revenge turns them into people who will go to horrible lengths to seek it which only destroys their humanity. It also shows how an obsession for revenge will never end well or make you feel any better.

* Likewise, ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' deconstructs the trainers who do not have what it takes to challenge the regional Pokemon League, even the traditions that were established in Alola before Kukui commits to founding a League of its own. Successful trainers have stronger Pokemon, more items, and more money... but the ones that lack the skill to amount to anything ultimately end up destitute. [[spoiler:Nowhere is this better depicted than in Po Town, which Team Skull uses as its hideout... or, rather, they are functionally confined to due to lacking the ability to strike out on their own, as mentioned earlier. Team Skull is littered with failures who could not take the Island Challenges, and Guzma himself failed to become a Trial Captain and ultimately outgrew the acceptance range of 20 years of age, leaving nothing but bitterness in its wake.]] It also deconstructs what a villain team consists of: [[spoiler:whereas other villain teams are self-sustaining or run legitimate business ventures to cover their shady dealings, Team Skull lacks even that, which again is perfectly depicted in Po Town with its lack of electricity, even in its Pokemon Center. When the opportunity for money came along, they leapt at it like a Carvanha to fresh meat... but while the Aether Foundation is swimming in research grant funds, Lusamine proves to be morally bankrupt.]]
** The BigBad [[spoiler:Lusamine deconstructs trainers themselves. She claims to love all Pokemon and wants to collect them all, just like the PlayerCharacter... while treating them (as well as people) as little more than objects. She ignores that which she does not find appealing and discards what is no longer of use to her. She even keeps cryogenically frozen Pokemon on display, asking how it's any different from the player keeping their unused ones in a box. When a new and unknown Pokemon, the Ultra Beasts, appear, she wants them for herself, just like the player does]].

* Videogame/MetalGearSolid is this for the action movie hero trope. Solid snake in many ways is the type of protagonist you see in a action movie. He is a cool, highly skilled badass solider who gets the job done. He is also shown to be a bitter distraught man who is tormented by all the people he has killed and friends he has lost. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't seem to know any life besides being a spy. He even takes the mission in the game despite knowing the people he works for are using him for their own purporse because he can't adjust to life outside of being a spy.

*** The game makes a point to show you their is absolutely nothing glamourous about being a trained killer like you see in most video games and how the characters like Solid snake are emotionally damage by all the things they had to do no matter how seemly heroic their missions may have been.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is a deconstruction of {{Eastern RPG}}s, including their mechanics, plots, and many common character types associated with them. Of course, since this game introduced many people to {{RPG}}s in general, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny many people missed that point entirely.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Umurangi Generation}}'' is a massive deconstruction of tropes related to HumongousMecha anime and films, such as Film/PacificRim and Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion. Rather than being an unambiguously heroic force fighting for humanity's last hope of survival, the giant mecha pilots work for an occupying military reviled and hated by the local populace, which doesn't care much for collateral damage or the wellbeing of its own soldiers or the citizens they protect, and is perfectly willing to turn its weapons against the people when doing so serves its own interests. What's worse, the giant mecha are implied to not even be effective at defending against the Kaiju threat, acting mainly as a PR move and a means of justifying the military occupation while merely delaying the inevitable at best. The idea of said mecha being piloted by depressed young teenagers is also deconstructed, as this leads to a long list of dead teens missed dearly by their families and friends while official memorials don't even name them.

** Thirdly, ''Skyrim'' also takes a shot at deconstructing the theme of LaResistance being the BigGood against a tyrranical government; are the Stormcloaks a RagtagBunchOfMisfits who want to see TheEmpire ousted from their country so that they are free to practice their old traditions again without fear of oppression? Why yes they are, but they're also [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Racists]] who don't want to oust the empire, but pretty much anyone who isn't a Nord, ''especially'' anyone who isn't a human, out of their country as well, assuming they don't just kill them outright. Most of the non-humans in the setting, barring the Orsimer, who live in isolated covens but have been there for almost as long as the Nords have, are ''refugees'' fleeing either the destruction of their country by a massive natural disaster (in the case of the Dunmer and Argonians), or fleeing the ''very tyrants the Stormcloaks are vowed to be fighting against,'' in the case of the Bosmer, Khajiit, and even some Altmer, but the Stormcloaks treat them all as if they are just as much invaders as the tyrants themselves are.

** ''[[VideoGame/BioShock1 BioShock 1]]'' is a damning rebuttal to ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' and to the philosophies and attitudes behind UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}} - without proper regulation, the Objectivist Gulch would become populated with {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s and quickly turn into a WretchedHive. The whole franchise could be seen as a Deconstruction of the concept of {{Utopia}}, as from what can be seen through the games, any attempt to create a perfect society is [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption doomed from the start]], as while a theoretical society can be made perfect, [[HumansAreFlawed the people living within the society can't]]. It's sequel tackles the opposite end of the spectrum, and the collectivist society formed by Sophia Lamb in Bioshock 2 quickly causes her to become as much as a despot as her rival Andrew Ryan.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney Redux'' deconstructs not only the three endings of the original, but even most Law/Neutral/Chaos endings of the series in general via [[ChildFromTheFuture Alex]] (eventually) explaining the consequences of each.

->'''Big Smoke:''' A lot of people say gangsta rap is misogynistic posturing by fake-ass idiots who spend more time in drama school then they ever did pimping or hustling dope. Well, I assure you, OG Loc is the real thing. He's hated women all his life, he sold drugs to school children, he's murdered innocent people just for kicks, but he rhymes like an angel.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' [[spoiler:has a bitter deconstruction of BestFriend and TrueCompanions. Instead of showing UndyingLoyalty among ChildhoodFriends, they are traitors and [[BitchInSheepsClothing bastards in sheep's clothing]] (Big Smoke and Ryder) who are more than willing to betray their closest friends (C.J. and Sweet).]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Helltaker}}'' deconstructs the HaremGenre, with the plot involving the title character journeying into Hell with the goal of assembling a harem of demon girls. He only succeeds in this endeavor because he uses cheesy pickup lines that get misinterpreted as more innocuous offers (i.e., Malina thinking "I'd sure love to play with you" is an offer to play video games), he gives them {{Comically Small Bribe}}s (offering Lucifer, THE top demon in Hell, [[SweetTooth chocolate pancakes]]), or they join simply because they can (in the case of Zdrada and Justice). By the time of the epilogue a few weeks later, Helltaker has found out the hard way something many fans of the genre have trouble internalizing; that having several attractive women living with you ''doesn't'' mean they'll be devoted to you, nor does it automatically guarantee they'll even be attracted to you in the first place. And it certainly doesn't stop them from constantly misbehaving, bossing Helltaker around, breaking his stuff, threatening and inflicting bodily harm, and (oftentimes literally) stabbing him in the back, with Cerberus having done ''[[NoodleIncident something]]'' to get the police banging on their door in full SWAT gear. In other words, with the exception of [[HornyDevils Modeus]], they act more like rowdy, troublemaking housemates than the HotAsHell thirsty demon girlfriends another game might portray them as. The only ones that actually seem romantically interested in Helltaker are Beelzebub in the secret ending and possibly Modeus, given her blushing at the idea of going on a date with him and being the only one who's hugging him in the normal ending. None of the rest apparently even view him as a sexual partner, including Azazel, who's only interested in "studying" the demons and [[WordOfGod confirmed by vanripper]] to be a lesbian who's ''[[ArmoredClosetGay deeply]]'' in the closet due to being an angel. While Helltaker is visibly stressed out by the entire situation, Beelzebub's narration notes that living a life without suffering is impossible, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself whenever you have the chance. The normal ending shows that Helltaker sees things this way too and is simply happy to have made friends.

** Franklin deconstructs the newcomer to a GTA game, someone who is introduced to a world of crime where they can do what they want, strike out on their own, and get rich while they're at it. However, he wants to play the game in his ''own'' way, and as a result he catches a lot of flak for not playing it the way others do or for not ''sticking to tradition.''
** Michael deconstructs the protagonist of a GTA player who has beaten the game: He's wealthy beyond his wildest dreams thanks to his ill-gotten gains and has gotten away with it, but is now left wondering what to do with his life.
** Trevor deconstructs the stereotypical GTA protagonist and player: Someone who's interested only in causing as much bedlam and chaos as possible, consequences be damned, and for whom pursuing a particular goal in-game is an afterthought, but as a result, his asocial and independent behavior often results in [[DidntThinkThisThrough half-baked schemes]] that are often less straightforward than they initially seem and don't pan out in the way he wants them to.
* ''VideoGame/{{Helltaker}}'' deconstructs the HaremGenre, with the plot involving the title character journeying into Hell with the goal of assembling a harem of demon girls. He only succeeds in this endeavor because he uses cheesy pickup lines that get misinterpreted as more innocuous offers (i.e., Malina thinking "I'd sure love to play with you" is an offer to play video games), he gives them {{Comically Small Bribe}}s (offering Lucifer, THE top demon in Hell, [[SweetTooth chocolate pancakes]]), or they join simply because they can (in the case of Zdrada and Justice). By the time of the epilogue a few weeks later, Helltaker has found out the hard way something many fans of the genre have trouble internalizing; that having several attractive women living with you ''doesn't'' automatically mean they'll be devoted to you or even attracted to you in the first place. Nor does it stop them from constantly misbehaving, bossing him around, breaking his stuff, threatening and inflicting bodily harm, and (oftentimes literally) stabbing him in the back, with Cerberus having done ''[[NoodleIncident something]]'' to get the police banging on their door in full SWAT gear. In other words, with the exception of [[HornyDevils Modeus]], they act more like rowdy, troublemaking housemates than the HotAsHell playful demon girlfriends another game might portray them as. The only ones that actually seem romantically interested in Helltaker are Beelzebub in the secret ending and possibly Modeus, given her blushing at the idea of going on a date with him and being the only one who's hugging him in the normal ending. None of the rest apparently even view him as a sexual partner, including Azazel, who's only interested in "studying" the demons and [[WordOfGod confirmed by vanripper]] to be a lesbian who's ''[[ArmoredClosetGay deeply]]'' in the closet due to being an angel. While Helltaker is visibly stressed out by the entire situation, Beelzebub's narration notes that living a life without suffering is impossible, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself whenever you have the chance. The normal ending shows that Helltaker sees things this way too and is simply happy to have made friends.

* ''VideoGame/{{Helltaker}}'' deconstructs the HaremGenre, with the plot involving the title character journeying into Hell with the goal of assembling a harem of demon girls. He only succeeds in this endeavor because he uses cheesy pickup lines that get misinterpreted as more innocuous offers (i.e., Malina thinking "I'd sure love to play with you" is an offer to play video games), he gives them {{Comically Small Bribe}}s (offering Lucifer, THE top demon in Hell, [[SweetTooth chocolate pancakes]]), or they join simply because they can (in the case of Zdrada and Justice). By the time of the epilogue a few weeks later, Helltaker has learned the hard way something many fans of the genre have trouble internalizing; that having several attractive women living with you ''doesn't'' automatically mean they'll be devoted to you or even attracted to you in the first place. Nor does it stop them from constantly misbehaving, bossing him around, breaking his stuff, threatening and inflicting bodily harm, and (oftentimes literally) stabbing him in the back, with Cerberus having done ''[[NoodleIncident something]]'' to get the police banging on their door in full SWAT gear. In other words, with the exception of Modeus, they act more like rowdy, troublemaking housemates than the HotAsHell playful demon girlfriends another game might portray them as. The only ones that actually seem romantically interested in Helltaker are Beelzebub in the secret ending and possibly Modeus, given her blushing at the idea of going on a date with him and being the only one who's hugging him in the normal ending. None of the rest apparently even view him as a sexual partner, and Azazel is confirmed by WordOfGod to be a lesbian [[ArmoredClosetGay who's deeply in the closet due to her status as an angel]] and only interest in "studying" the demons. While Helltaker is visibly stressed out by the entire situation, Beelzebub's narration notes that living a life without suffering is impossible, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself whenever you have the chance. The normal ending shows that Helltaker sees things this way too and is simply happy to have made friends.