History Main / RageAgainstTheHeavens

Website/TheOtherWiki calls this ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misotheism misotheism]]'' -- hatred of God or the Gods. Not to be confused with atheism itself, the difference being that with misotheism, you believe there ''is'' a God (or gods), but you ''hate'' Him/them.

* In Dan Simmons' ''Literature/{{Illium}}'' and ''Olympos'', one of the main characters' life is controlled by AppliedPhlebotinum versions of the Greek Gods. Knowing he has broken the rules and is about to die, he turns the Greeks and Trojans against the Gods. Unlike most examples, these Gods don't wait for the heroes to find them. Instead, they try to kill them with nuclear bombs.

* The motive of Luke Castellan, the main antagonist of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. His plan was to overthrow the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Gods of Olympus]] by resurrecting [[SealedEvilInACan Kronos]] as revenge for their mistreatment of demigods.

** ''The Book of Vile Darkness'' {{splat}}book makes mention of a breed of humans now called the vashar which were created first. The human looked about, spotted an animal, and viciously murdered it with his bare hands, gorging itself on the flesh. Then it took the bones and snapped them to make the first weapons, at which point it wheeled around and started trying to stab and murder the Gods themselves, spitting a mix of {{angrish}} and death oaths to the Gods. The Gods smote the creature and went off to do other things, later 'perfecting' humans. Meanwhile, a demon (believed by some to be Graz'zt himself when he was a young demon) scooped up the first human and brought him onto a high plateau to rebuild him, then built a female and gave them the gift of procreation before sinking in the shadows to watch the fun ensue. The long-term goal of the vashar, as the race is now called, is to commit Deicide.

** Following the end of Theros block, in which [[spoiler:Heliod backstabbed Elspeth simply because he's kind of an arrogant dick]], Ajani Goldmane has [[http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/ajanis-vengeance-2014-07-23 declared war on the Gods of Theros]] (story contains spoilers). While in his impetuous youth Ajani would probably have gone in with thunderbolts blazing and death in his eyes, as he did against Nicol Bolas during Alara block, this is the older, more mature Ajani -- by which we mean that he's chosen as his battlefield the hearts and minds of the people of Theros.

** In [[VideoGame/GodOfWarII the second game]], Zeus decides that Kratos is being more trouble than he is worth it as the new God of War and arranges to get rid of him. Which prompts Kratos to try to kill the King of the Gods himself. [[spoiler:To do that, he kills the [[TheHecateSisters Sisters of Fate]] and frees the Titans from Tartarus, to where they were banished by Zeus. And kind of accidentally kills Athena.]]

** It's one of the major themes of Greek mythology. Cronos destroyed his father Uranos and started the reign of the Titans. Then his son Zeus decided to destroy all the Titans and started the reign of the Olympian Gods. That eventually someone would attempt to destroy the Olympian gods was a given. [[spoiler:And it is revealed towards the end of the second game, that Kratos is actually a son of Zeus, and Zeus was trying to stop the inevitable from happening when he got rid of Kratos.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has its fair share of hate against the Gods. [[spoiler:Ardyn Izunia or rather Ardyn Lucis Caelum a healer in the past, followed the will of the Gods becoming a healer and taking the corruption of thousands into himself in order to cure them. After following the Gods' will he was ostracized for his corruption as a result of healing and was denied ascension into the afterlife by the very Gods he served. Inadvertently gaining immortality Ardyn concocted a plan of revenge not against the Gods but their followers: the royal Caelum line. In the end, Ardyn succeeds in killing off the Caelum for good.]]

** There's two of the endings. [[spoiler:If you refuse to hand the Gran Centurio to the archangel Marietta and attack her instead, you get to kill her, and then Yggdra, now apparently insane with power due to the Gran Centurio's influence, declares her intention to wage war against the Gods. Given how her army had to sweat blood to defeat just ONE angel, and not even a very strong one, this most likely won't end well...]]

--->God was turned away by Iron Chariots once before. Are you people all so pathetic as to forget the myths of your ancestors? When the Heroes at Troy wounded the Gods and drove them from the field? When the mortal hand of Rama struck down the demon Ravana after invading Sri Lanka on his bridge of hurled stone? Satan is the Prince of Hell; God may have put him there but he still has princely power and he controls who is to be tortured and who isn't. This is his moment to break free from the cycle-curse. If we can turn away the strength of God with Iron, then let us make common cause with the Prince of Hell and turn on heaven with full fury. Angels can make war; we'll kill them, and we'll drive God from his throne at point of sword, and exhort the moral of the spirits in heaven to rise against the injustice of a God turned against his own word.

** In Season 9, RWBY meet one of the gods' ''other'' unresolved messes. [[spoiler:The Curious Cat [[HasTwoMommies was created by the brothers]] to maintain the gods' homeland. When the gods' top god offered to let them create new worlds elsewhere, the gods ''left their son behind'' with only an insane, feral monster for a brother. Eventually, the Curious Cat snapped and began a decades-long plan to invade Remnant, summon the gods (which would screw Remnant over in the same way Salem would), and find out ''why'' he was left behind.]]

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is a bit of an odd one, because [[spoiler:the "being that rebels against the order of God" does so because [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she (Homura) loves God (Madoka) and thought the latter was not truly happy being God.]] So she yanks Madoka out of the heavens and becomes a GodOfEvil so she can reconstruct an idealized version of Madoka's old life as a mortal. [[KickTheSonOfABitch As an afterthought, she also bitchslaps the Incubators.]] Madoka wasn't evil and didn't seem unhappy, but the movie sneakily justifies Homura's actions, so it's pretty hard to tell who to root for.]]

** In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', this is the ultimate goal of the villains of the story, who want to kill the Architect, creator of Alrest. Torna want to destroy the Architect for creating a world full of suffering and evil, and for [[spoiler: creating Blades in a way that makes it impossible to be independent from humans.]] Their second in command, Malos, has a specific hatred for the Architect, [[spoiler: hating his "father" for creating him in such a way that he lacked true free will, with his genocidal tendencies being imprinted on him by his thoroughly evil Driver, making him, in his own words, "A hideous monster far beyond saving."]] [[spoiler: Turns out, the Architect is Klaus, the very same Klaus that became Zanza in the original ''Xenoblade'', having undergone a LiteralSplitPersonality from the experiment that destroyed the world and created the world of the original ''Xenoblade'', with the Architect being what was left behind in the original universe. Unlike Zanza, however, the Architect acts as an example of GodIsGood and GodIsFlawed, as he refused to interfere with the lives he created and only created the Blades to guide and protect humanity out of his fear of [[IHatePastME someone like him]] might come around.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': This is Salem's backstory. [[spoiler:After the gods refused to resurrect her dead lover, they cursed her with CompleteImmortality, after she tricked one of them and nearly turned them against each other until she learned to understand the importance of life and death. Instead of learning her lesson, she used her immortality to raise an army to attack the gods. The God of Darkness reduced her army to dust but left Salem alive. When she boasted she would return with a better army, the gods explain that they didn't just destroy her army. [[JerkassGods They destroyed]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution the human race]]''. The gods then left, leaving her completely alone and still immortal on her empty planet. Later, the gods brought humanity back, but Salem decides to spite them; [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen first by reigning as a tyrannical god-empress]], then by using the Creatures of Grimm to slowly crush humanity's hope and wipe them out.]]

*** ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'': [[spoiler:Eight nations residing in alternate dimensions wage war on Asgard specifically because [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Odin]] is an '''asshole'''. After ''millennia'' of interdimensional genocide, enslavement, grifting, and the occasional murder of kin for accidentally slighting the 'All-Father', they have all collectively agreed that they've had enough and are willing to risk their lives for a ''chance'' at ending this one insane malignant cancer upon reality. This war goes surprisingly well, as the armies specifically want Odin dead and are willing to accept ''any'' other conditions of surrender, meaning the number of Asgardians who die is far less than you'd expect.]]

* From ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight'' we have the {{Golden Ending}}'s penultimate boss: [[spoiler:Dominique Baldwin]], who elected to forsake {{God}} when He seemingly [[TheGodsMustBeLazy did jack shit]] '''BOTH''' times the demons showed up and attacked, wondering if there's only a DevilButNoGod, or if the source of [[HolyHandGrenade the faithful's power]] comes from some other unknown thing instead.

--> Why have you forsaken me?! I get fired. My wife leaves for a guy who sells refrigerators. My kids grow up to be disrespectful brats. Now this?! A goddamn zombie outbreak?! Seriously?! Screw you, you piece of crap!

* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Reed Richards does this . [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome He builds a portal into heaven and, after fighting through hordes of angels and hammering on the pearly gates]], he politely asks God (represented by Creator/JackKirby) to bring Ben Grimm back to life.

* Another literary example is ''Literature/InfernoLarryNivenAndJerryPournelle'', by Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/JerryPournelle. The protagonist, trapped in Hell, ineffectively declares war on a clearly evil and sadistic God (although, being a sci-fi author, he refers to God with joking names like "Big Juju" and "The Builders").

* Creator/PercyShelley's ''Prometheus Unbound'' is all about Prometheus' efforts to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Jupiter for the benefit of both gods and humans.

Not to be confused with Music/RageAgainstTheMachine, a RapMetal/FunkMetal group with anarchist leanings.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34988074/chapters/89749864 The Miraculous Tales of Consistent Narrative and Characterization]]'', Gabriel Agreste once had strong faith in the Kwami (who in the story are known and worshipped by people). However, in the five years he searched for Tikki and Plagg for a cure to his wife's illness, he never once found a cure. And then when he akumatized one of Tikki's followers to work out his frustration, it's only then that the Kwami's appear through their new chosens. Enraged that they finally appeared after years of fruithless belief and searching because of his crimes, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil he declares that if the Kwamis of Creation and Destruction will only appear to the faithles, then he will be the villain that shall take their Miraculous, use them to heal his wife if possible, then lock them away forever]].

** In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', this is the ultimate goal of the villains of the story, who want to kill the Architect, creator of Alrest. Torna want to destroy the Architect for creating a world full of suffering and evil, and for [[spoiler: creating Blades in a way that makes it impossible to be independent from humans.]] Their second in command, Malos, has a specific hatred for the Architect, [[spoiler: hating his "father" for creating him in such a way that he lacked true free will, with his genocidal tendencies being imprinted on him by his thoroughly evil Driver, making him, in his own words, "A hideous monster far beyond saving."]] [[spoiler: Turns out, the Architect is Klaus, the very same Klaus that became Zanza in the original Xenoblade, having undergone a LiteralSplitPersonality from the experiment that destroyed the world and created the world of the original Xenoblade, with the Architect being what was left behind in the original universe. Unlike Zanza, however, the Architect acts as an example of GodIsGood and GodIsFlawed, as he refused to interfere with the lives he created and only created the Blades to guide and protect humanity out of his fear of [[IHatePastME someone like him]] might come around.]]

** Necrozma was a GodOfLight (and a ''[[DragonsAreDivine literal]]'' CrystalDragonJesus) until the ancient [[RubberForeheadAliens people of Ultra Megalopolis]] attacked it in a bid to steal its power for themselves, turning it into the hostile FallenAngel seen in ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon''.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': Gilles de Rais became a SerialKiller and practiced dark magic to spite God for allowing Jeanne d'Arc to die, eventually becoming [[spoiler:this Holy Grail War's version of Caster]], who is a truly messed up piece of work. This hatred for God and the society that killed Jeanne is extrapolated upon in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', where [[spoiler:Gilles's wish upon the Grail of the first singularity resulted in the creation of Jeanne Alter, the evil Dragon Witch who seeks to burn France to the ground and who the player has to take down with the help of the original Jeanne, who was the Ruler servant of ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'']].

** Desak the God Slayer was once a faithful mortal [[CrisisOfFaith until his patron deity showed his true colors]] and he aquired a magical amulet. The result: one seriously PO'd "KillTheGod first, ask questions never" cosmic agent of vengeance whom all the gods fear.

* ''Fanfic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness Act IV'': In chapter 16, Rason is so pissed off at Heaven's AggressiveCategorism of all monsters, as well as their blatant refusal to act against Hokuto and Alucard because of [[LawfulStupid their laws]], that he actually calls out ''the Almighty'' himself over it, accusing him of being out of his mind. The Almighty is ultimately swayed by this, but does point out that he's not happy about Rason's "out of his mind" comment.

* In the obscure movie ''Film/WhollyMoses'', after a film worth of the world dumping on him, the title character has it out with God. Despite some really great cameos by Richard Pryor and John Ritter, the movie would have been forgettable if not for his great response to God's questioning.

* In ''Film/LifeWithFather'', the reverend begins a prayer for the ill Vinnie with a standard 1890s supplication on behalf of "this miserable sinner." Her husband Clarence takes instant umbrage with this and starts yelling at the heavens (or rather, the ceiling) that Vinnie is ''not'' a miserable and the Almighty knows it and that He'd better get moving and make her better ''now''.

* ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'': Gorr the God-Butcher's schtick is that he will kill all gods, having met the god he originally believed in and discovered him to be an unrepentant JerkassGod who laughed at his suffering (and most of the god in the movie, while not actively assholish, don't seem keen on the whole "answer prayers" bit).

* In Elie Wiesel's ''Literature/{{Night}}'', his autobiography about the Holocaust, Elie starts to show a shaken faith in God after a beloved servant-boy is hanged. During Rosh Hashanah, he starts to question God's will and condemns Him for putting him and the other Jews through hell for no reason. Later, during Yom Kippur, when his father tells him not to fast, he decides not to... although mainly as an act of rebellion against God.

** In Literature/GhostStory, Harry Dresden rages against archangel Uriel a few times. Unusually for this trope, Uriel gives patient, reasonable answers:
---> '''Harry:''' Arrrgh! Can't you give me a straight answer? Is there some law of the universe that compels you to be so freaking mysterious?
---> '''Uriel:''' Several, actually. All designed for your protection.

---> '''Harry:''' You're just going to stand there?
---> '''Uriel:''' Mmmm. It does seem that perhaps she deserves some form of aid. Perhaps if I'd had the presence of mind to see to it that some sort of agent had been sent to balance the scales, to give her that one tiny bit of encouragement, that one flicker of inspiration that turned the tide... Things might be different now.
---> '''Mort:''' Hey. You. Arrogant bitch ghost. I'm not really into this whole hero thing. Don't have the temperament for it. Don't know a lot about the villain side of the equation, either. But it seems to me, you half-wit, that you probably shouldn't have left a freaking ''ectomancer'' a pit full of wraiths to play with.

* ''Literature/EgilsSaga'' (invoked): In his grief-poem about the drowning of his son Bodvar, Egil expresses his regret that he has no power to avenge himself on Aegir and Ran, the gods of the sea.

* Used in later seasons of ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' to a lesser extent. After building up the concept of the ''Ancients'' as the most powerful race ever, Daniel Jackson can't wait to meet them. But after he finds out that their belief in free will is so strong that they will not even interfere in someone's plans to annihilate a galaxy, he takes the opportunity to rage at them a little. Michael Shanks (the actor who plays Daniel) even stated in an interview that he likened a scene in ''Film/StargateTheArkOfTruth'' in which Daniel pleads an ascended Ancient to help him as Daniel talking to God.

** In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', [[spoiler:[[SinisterMinister Kai Winn]] is so furious and humiliated by the fact that the Prophets have never spoken to her or allowed her to use the Orbs, while leaving her in the shadow of an alien Emissary (Captain Sisko), that she goes over to the side of their enemies, the Pah-Wraiths.]]

-->'''Jeremiah:''' Are you happy? Are you satisfied? That's how it works, isn't it? You set us up, you take someone like him, and you give him hope, so you can take it away again? What did he do to you? What did any of us ever do to you? What did the whole fucking world do to you, that we deserve all of this? What, the locusts and the death of the firstborn wasn't good enough for you anymore so now it's the death of the eldest? Death of heroes? You know what? Fuck you. Because we're not just going to lay down and die here anymore. You want to finish off the job? Come down here! Do it yourself! You send the angel of death, you better give him one hell of a big sword, 'cause I tell you what; we are going to kick his ass right back to the great white fucking throne! And then we're coming for you. We're coming for you.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheLastKingdom'', Guthrum is in a church in the captured town of Wareham and finds out Alfred has arrived with an army to besiege him, giving him no choice but to seek some kind of temporary peace until his reinforcements arrive. He then overturns the alter and looks upward, demanding that if God was real and had power to strike him down. When nothing happens he mutters ''I thought not" and stalks out.

** The Kannah of Kaldheim despise the gods, both the unknown ones who first cursed them and the current ones who never bothered to ease their conditions, and anything related to them, including the Cosmos monsters. They aim to kill the Cosmos Serpent, which they believe will give them enough power to destroy the gods, end their curse, and claim Starnheim for themselves.

** Legends in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' state that the god Hyne created humans as tools to shape the land for him after he used up much of his power in creating the world and putting down the monsters that contested him. Then, after sleeping for a long time, he was astonished at how rapidly the human population expanded, so he casually [[WouldHurtAChild culled off many children]] in a bid to control this boom. In a rage, the rest of the humans declared war on Hyne, and, through [[ZergRush sheer numbers]], they cornered him, forcing him to sacrifice his magic and secretly hide it in the bodies of [[GenderRestrictedAbility women]], while making the humans believe it was truly hidden in the half of his body he left behind in his escape. When you look back at it, it's a huge {{Foreshadowing}} by a nobody. [[spoiler:Just replace Hyne with Adel or her future counterpart Ultimecia.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsGame''. [[spoiler: After failing to save Springfield by [[RageAgainstTheAuthor beating up Matt Groening]], the Simpsons to take their case to God, whom they eventually defeat in a Dance Dance Revolution-ish minigame.]]

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', [[spoiler: the [[BigBad Agarthans]] were a race who rebelled against the goddess Sothis in the hopes of [[AGodAmI usurping her power]] and were [[UndergroundCity forced underground as a result]]. Many years later, they manipulated a bandit named [[GreaterScopeVillain Nemesis]] into murdering her in her sleep and slaughtering her [[DivineParentage children]] so they could [[CreepySouvenir forge powerful weapons from their remains]]. And to take it even farther, the game's Crimson Flower route has you murder at least one of her remaining children (albeit one who's undergone severe SanitySlippage into villainy and starts murdering people despite being offered a peaceful surrender) and possibly two others (though you can spare and let them go).]]

--->'''Corypheus''':[[spoiler: ''Dumat!'' Ancient Ones! I beseech you! If you exist - ''if you ever truly existed'' - '''''aid me now!''''' (They don't)]]

* In ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'' you can perform this if you go beyond Death's Door. You can choose to fire upon the celestial machinery and servants with your engine's artillery, but because you're just a human assaulting a [[SentientStars Judgement]], you are near [[DoNotTauntCthulhu instantly removed from existence]] by merely being looked at. Your complaint is registered however. [[spoiler: One ambition (Truth) however, allows you to do [[KillTheGod more than just complain]]...]]

** Bender gets another minor example in a ''Ghost in the Machines''.

** French Canadian cursing is ''extremely'' church-centric; some of it combines the sacred with the profane, but a lot of it, when translated, comes across to English-speakers as just weird, along the lines of "Christ of the chalice of the tabernacle of the [communion] host of the sacrament".

* Early 20th century Chinese warlord Zhang Zongchang was known for being both extremely colorful and extremely ruthless. Website/TheOtherWiki includes this story about him:
--> During the Famine of Northwestern China in 1928-1930, a famine that struck Shandong particularly hard, Zhang Zongchang was reported to have gone into a temple of Zhang Xian where there were many people praying for rain and offering gifts to the deity, then walking up to the statue, he slapped it and said "Fuck your sister! How dare you make Shandong's people suffer by not giving us rain!" He then left the temple, the next day ordering his artillery to shoot into the sky until it rained. It rained the next day. This is also where his nickname of "72-Cannon Chang" came from.

-->-- '''Touma Kamijou''', ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''

* The plot of ''Manga/ShuumatsuNoWalkureRecordOfRagnarok'' revolves around the JerkassGods deciding to KillAllHumans, and the thirteen most powerful humans who ever lived challenging them to a series of death matches in order to ensure our survival.

* The main character of ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'' curses God, or as she calls him, Being X, a lot. On one hand, Being X is a JerkassGod who is forcing her to live through a magical WWI in a twisted variant of the Book of Job to see if she will break down and pray to him if he makes her miserable enough. And forcefully transitioned Tanya against his (now her) will. On the other hand, after dropping her into that setting, most of Tanya's problems aren't actually his doing, just the results of ordinary men making bad decisions in the name of personal or national pride, and/or Tanya's own character flaws.

* ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'' contains a more metaphoric example. Izuzu is outraged that "the gods" (i.e. ''Elder Tales''' programmers) only gave the Landers 42 songs. She claims that she is going to beat up the god that made up such a rule.

* Guts, the main character of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', spends more than a year hunting and killing the demonic Apostles, the subordinates to the [[BigBad God Hand]]. It hasn't been made clear if a [[DevilButNoGod supreme deity higher than the God Hand]] exists, but if it does, Guts has requested that it leave him the hell alone.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is a bit of an odd one, because [[spoiler:the "being that rebels against the order of God" does so because [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she (Homura) loves God (Madoka) and thought the latter was not truly happy being God.]] So she yanks Madoka out of the heavens and becomes a GodOfEvil so she can reconstruct an idealized version of Madoka's old life as a mortal. [[KickTheSonOfABitch As an afterthought, she also bitchslaps the Incubators.]] Madoka wasn't evil and didn't seem unhappy, but the entire movie sneakily justifies Homura's actions, so it's pretty hard to tell who to root for.]]

* The second half of ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'' reveals that the titular tower is [[spoiler:an ancient weapon built to wage war on the gods in heaven. After acquiring the Blue Crystal Rod at the end of the 1st half, Neeba takes control of the tower, activating the top portion, and uses it to do just that — firing great blasts of energy into the heavens, which the gods swiftly return. Of course, he is an embodiment of [[GodOfEvil Druaga]] at this point...]]

* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Reed Richards does this literally. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome He builds a portal into heaven and, after fighting through hordes of angels and hammering on the pearly gates]], he politely asks God (represented by Creator/JackKirby) to bring Ben Grimm back to life.

** Gorr the God Butcher is a NayTheist who managed to take hold of All-Black the Necrosword, a god-killing super-weapon, and promptly went mad with power, devoting the rest of eternity to slaughtering gods across the universe due to having formed the belief that GodIsEvil. Ironically, this basically makes him a ''GodOfEvil'' in his own right.

* The protagonist of ''Fanfic/SophisticationAndBetrayal'' quite literally rages against the heavens when he gets caught in a rainstorm after a bad day at work. He lampshades it as being the completely logical thing to do.

* In the obscure movie ''Film/WhollyMoses'', after an entire film worth of the world dumping on him, the title character has it out with God. Despite some really great cameos by Richard Pryor and John Ritter, the movie would have been forgettable if not for his great response to God's questioning.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', the entire [[ReligionOfEvil Sith religion]] is based around this. Both sides are aware that [[SentientCosmicForce the Force is sentient]], but while the Jedi seek to [[WarriorMonk understand and live in harmony with it]], the Sith are powered by TheCorruption within it, seeking to enslave the Force as a whole and bend it to their will. The Light side is the Force's natural state of being according to WordOfGod, and so it tries to destroy its own corruptive influence by [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin tipping the odds in the Jedi's favor]]. TheChosenOne was the direct result of this; Literature/DarthPlagueis sought to use his powers in a Sith ritual to directly assume control of the Force, but it [[CreateYourOwnHero rebelled against him]] and [[MysticalPregnancy created]] [[LegacyOfTheChosen the Skywalkers]], who then [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends spent generations]] [[ForeverWar kicking the Sith back into the shadows whenever they popped up]].

* At the end of the second ''Literature/LeftBehind'' movie, [[HamAndCheese Gordon Currie's Antichrist]] takes a moment to issue up a vitriol-laden prayer castigating God for, basically, cheating on their deal by having someone proclaim Jesus the Messiah and not him.

* ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'': Gorr the God-Butcher's entire schtick is that he will kill all gods, having met the god he originally believed in and discovered him to be an unrepentant JerkassGod who laughed at his suffering (and most of the god in the movie, while not actively assholish, don't seem keen on the whole "answer prayers" bit).

* The basis of the plot in Julian May's ''Literature/GalacticMilieu'' trilogy centers around the main protagonist rebelling against galactic civilization and it's implied Ascended state because of his immense ego and jealousy of his brother's mutation. The trilogy is basically a homage to ''Literature/ParadiseLost'', and is subverted rather neatly: [[spoiler: the creator of the galactic civilization is the antagonist himself, after a trip through a one-way time gate and a HeelFaceTurn. The post-climax confrontation between the antagonist and his future self directly alludes to the antagonist playing the part of Lucifer in a modern-day allegory.]]

* In Creator/CormacMcCarthy's ''The Crossing'', a priest tells the story of a heretic who lost his entire family and demanded that if God exists, that he reveal himself by [[SmiteMeOhMightySmiter killing him on the spot]] or showing him some sign of his existence. The heretic sat for days in the same spot under a tower, asking for God to cause the tower to fall and kill him.

* In Elie Wiesel's ''Literature/{{Night}}'', his autobiography about the Holocaust, Elie starts to show a shaken faith in God after a beloved servant-boy is hanged. During Rosh Hashanah, he starts to question God's will and even condemns Him for putting him and the other Jews through hell for no reason. Later, during Yom Kippur, when his father tells him not to fast, he decides not to... although mainly as an act of rebellion against God.

* Occurs on a national scale in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', when the men of Numenor begin thinking that the Valar and elves are holding them back from immortality. They start to hate the Valar, eventually adopting Sauron's ReligionOfEvil and ultimately attempting to launch an invasion against them. Unlike many other examples on this page (but in keeping with Tolkien's beliefs), this is shown to be both futile and self-defeating: their hatred and rebellion only make their lives shorter and more unpleasant, through no actual effort of the Valar, and their attempted invasion is stopped cold by an act of God that wipes out the entire fleet ''and'' their home island.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' has its main plot arc close with the rejection of the two races of SufficientlyAdvancedAliens seeking to win over the humans and the other younger races. While they're not gods, they go to great lengths to set themselves up as such: one goes to great lengths to be mysterious, and when they're seen outside of their encounter suits, they look like [[spoiler:angels]]...[[spoiler: because they inspired all races' angel myths]]. [[spoiler: The others are basically [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]].]] And while they're not destroyed, they're run out of town with a resounding "Now get the hell out of our galaxy -- both of you!", with the clear message that they're no longer needed.
* Used in later seasons of ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' to a lesser extent. After building up the concept of the ''Ancients'' as the most powerful race ever, Daniel Jackson can't wait to meet them. But after he finds out that their belief in free will is so strong that they will not even interfere in someone's plans to annihilate an entire galaxy, he takes the opportunity to rage at them a little. Michael Shanks (the actor who plays Daniel) even stated in an interview that he likened a scene in ''Film/StargateTheArkOfTruth'' in which Daniel pleads an ascended Ancient to help him as Daniel talking to God.

** Castiel's vessel, Jimmy, literally rages against heaven after [[spoiler: his wife and daughter are taken hostage by demons and Castiel is nowhere to be found.]]

* {{Defied}} in ''Literature/BookOfJob'' from ''Literature/TheBible''. {{Satan}} challenges {{God}} that if Job suffered a lot, he would curse God for his suffering. Job has lost his children, wealth, and health in the hands of Satan ([[GoodRunningEvil albeit under the permission of God]] as a SecretTest and Satan is not allowed to kill Job). Job remains faithful no matter what happened to him and how many of his friends told him to curse God. He does, at one point, [[HeroicBSOD break down]] and [[DespairSpeech curse himself and the day when he was born]]. [[spoiler: The end result is God himself [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling Job and his friends out]], Job repents and God restores the damages by giving Job new daughters, restoring his home and his livestocks.]]

* This is the entire point of the Silver Ladder in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', and in fact has already happened once before. The inhabitants of the Awakened City build a ladder construct up to the Supernal, and kicked all the gods out or killed them. The new human overlords then became the Exarchs and reshaped the cosmos so that people couldn't follow them, breaking the cosmos and releasing {{Cosmic Horror}}s. Naturally, Mages being Mages, the Silver Ladder thinks they had the right idea but went about it the wrong way, so they want to do it again, replacing the Exarchs with all of humanity.

** Well, technically it was possible to walk into the supernal if you knew the way, and the dragons (mage gods) were actually leaving already when they led the awakened to Atlantis. It was more like the Exarchs built a highway to the supernal realms, dug a moat, then burned the highway. They can't actually get back to the physical world either and have to basically phone a minion to do anything there.

* Inverted in ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'', where the Titans seek to overthrow the Gods... and it's your job to stop them, in part because you're the child of one of those gods; even if you don't like your divine parent, you're automatically on the Titan shitlist just for that half of your DNA. Although there is nothing to stop you CallingTheOldManOut, which in the ''Scion'' setting is basically this trope.

** The Player Characters themselves assume this role in the module ''Die, Vecna, Die!'' (Of course, if heroic [=PCs=] are going to oppose ''any'' god, it would likely be Vecna, and given his apocalyptic goals in the adventure, they should.) Even if the heroes are triumphant at the end, they cannot actually slay Vecna, but they can halt his evil plan and save all reality from a dark fate.

* ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' has an entire musical number, [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Hakuna Matata-style]], called "Hasa Diga Eebowai", about the Ugandans' hatred of God.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', the entire worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse are run by the godlike fal'Cie, who occasionally force recruit humans into their service for special tasks. Not only do they not tell their new servants what they are supposed to do and the punishment for failure is being turned into a [[FateWorseThanDeath Cie'th]], even if the task is completed, the "reward" is being made "immortal" by being turned to stone [[spoiler:(so they can store their most useful servants for later use.)]]. After the Cocoon fal'Cie attempt to exterminate Lightning's entire town because her sister might possibly have come into contact with a Pulse fal'Cie, her sister gets turned into a big chunk of crystal, and Lightning gets forced to perform a task without knowing what it is. Lightning, deciding that she won't take this kinda shit, storms off to use the time left before she turns into a Cie'th and destroy all of the fal'Cie. [[spoiler:She later backs off from her plan when she realizes that destroying the fal'Cie would mean turning off the Sun, the world's only source of electricity, and the entire automated water and food supply, dooming everyone to death. In a way, this makes the whole situation even worse, since this seems to mean that to the fal'Cie humans are not slaves, but just pets.]]

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' is entirely built around this trope with everyone (with the sole exception of Merkabah) in this massive conflict want a piece of him, including an alliance of polytheistic gods who are more than a little peeved at the Almighty hogging the divine spotlight for himself. [[spoiler:It ultimately culminates in a final battle against YHVH, and depending on the path, to either create a future where humans and demons can bury the hatchet and create a peaceful future or to become the new creator in a world free of His influence.]]

* The climax of ''VideoGame/RakugakiShowtime'' involves [[spoiler:the entire cast [[EnemyMine joining forces]] in order to liberate themselves from the God Hand]].

** [[spoiler:Kisuke impulsively plans to cut Amitabha (the reigning Buddhist deity, basically) in his normal ending, but quickly abandons the idea as futile once he actually meets him in person.]] Likewise, Momohime's path consists mostly of Jinkuro hacking his way through the Japanese pantheon [[spoiler:until Heaven gets annoyed enough to send down one of the Thirteen Buddhas to tell him to cut that shit out.]]
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Mask of the Betrayer'' culminates with an assault against the residence of Kelemvor, the god of the dead, by those who think the Wall of the Faithless is an unjust punishment. If you join them, said god doesn't allow you to demolish the Wall, claiming that it would damage the cosmic balance, but allows you to literally tear your soul out of it just so that you stop causing any more trouble.\\\

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' ends in a fight against a goddess bent on passing judgement of destruction on the entire world.

* ''[[VideoGame/FZero F-Zero]] GX's'' story mode pits Captain Falcon against "The Creators". Whether they created the whole universe or just F-Zero goes unsaid (it's really just riffing on the fact that the enemy is a staff ghost, literally representing the creators of the game).

** The main villain from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' is pretty much the walking embodiment of this trope; as one of THE original magisters who entered the Black City (In fact the same one from the previous ''Dragon Age II'' DLC), he not only lost his faith in the Maker and the Tevinter Old Gods but resolves to ''become'' the Maker, by essentially blasting a massive hole in the barrier between the spirit world and the living world. Almost literally every line of his dialogue is some form of [[LargeHam dramatically declaring his intention to usurp the Maker and remake the world in his image.]] [[spoiler: Even his final words, while seemingly a final desperate plea, still hold a heavy dose of raging.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', the BigBad is the leader of the angels who guide the CrystalDragonJesus church. The Goddess is [[spoiler:actually his Dead Big Sister, and the entire system of the ChosenOne is an EvilPlan bent on reviving her into [[GrandTheftMe a new body]].]] He goes the extra mile and makes it a XanatosGambit: [[spoiler: If one Chosen fails then the next Chosen is automatically queued up and ready for sacrifice.]]

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', [[spoiler:Kreia/Darth Traya]] comes to the conclusion that [[SentientCosmicForce The Force]] exerting its will on individuals is the single greatest evil in the galaxy, and the attempts to [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil balance it]] through the constant warring between the Jedi and the Sith is an unnecessary loss of life. [[spoiler: At the end of the game she even goes so far as to try to ''destroy it entirely'' by killing [[PlayerCharacter The Exile]] and creating a WorldOfSilence.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'' features a pantheon of about ten gods you can invoke over the course of the game. Of course, it would appear they're not too happy with the way your old culture trivialized them because doing so actually makes fights ''harder'' (but in return you get better rewards). So not only are you raging against them, they're raging right back.
* A number of characters in ''Franchise/TouhouProject''. Yukari plots to put the fear of the dark back into the immortal and god-like Lunarians (who also live alongside more literal gods, implying at least that some of them approve of Lunarian superiority), Seiga thumbs her nose at the idea of dying even when Heaven and Hell team up to hunt her down, and even Kasen consistently questions the judgments of the afterlife's Bureau of Right and Wrong.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': This is Salem's backstory. [[spoiler:After the gods refused to resurrect her dead lover, they cursed her with CompleteImmortality, after she tricked one of them and nearly turned them against each other until she learned to understand the importance of life and death. Instead of learning her lesson, she used her immortality to raise an army to attack the gods. The God of Darkness reduced her army to dust but left Salem alive. When she boasted she would return with a better army, the gods explain that they didn't just destroy her army. [[JerkassGods They destroyed]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution the entire human race]]''. The gods then left, leaving her completely alone and still immortal on her empty planet. Later, the gods brought humanity back, but Salem decides to spite them; [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen first by reigning as a tyrannical god-empress]], then by using the Creatures of Grimm to slowly crush humanity's hope and wipe them out.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'': At the end of Book 1, Parson literally says "fuck you" to the universe and promises to break it. This also counts as a ScrewDestiny moment since it came after Wanda told him everyone was a puppet of Fate. Parson may well be ''able'' to break the universe, since merely swearing is already a breach of the universe's laws of physics (all previous attempts at swearing had come out as "boop".) This is ''[[http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F141.jpg stated]]'' [[http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F150.jpg to be a Good Thing.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Redcloak's {{Plan}} involves this. [[spoiler:The Dark One learned the entire goblin species was created as mere cannon fodder and designated Always Evil so clerics can kill them with no problems.[[note]]They weren't, but they're Fenris' latest attempt to create a fast-breeding race of faster conquerors. He's done this ''multiple'' times, always abandoning them when they don't meet his unreasonable standards, and hasn't learned a thing.[[/note]] As the Dark One became a god in the first place due to the leaders of other species assassinating him back when he was mortal, it's fairly reasonable logic that the only way the Good deities will take anything the Goblins say as valid is to give them a wake-up call.]]

** In the background a fundamental tenet of the Ssaelit faith is that the four Gefendur gods who made the world were cruel beings who afflicted humanity with death and a world filled with suffering for their own amusement and that after being slain Ssael gathered an army of the unhappy dead, made war upon the gods, and cast them down to become God himself. A traditional phrase among the Ssaelit seems to be "Death is the gods' crime." As a bonus, this neatly solves the Problem of Evil that normally comes up when you have a single benevolent god. Why is there evil in a created world? Because Ssael didn't make the world, he took it from the callous old gods who did. Why is suffering allowed to exist? Because suffering is a fundamental property of the universe, and Ssael can't get rid of it without remaking the world entirely. Not a good idea when people still live in it.

** Basically Yahweh (the "deity" behind the Abrahamic religions' monotheism) tells humanity that the Pearly Gates are closed, that they are all going to {{Hell}}, and that they should all lie down and die, while Satan in turn sends demonic heralds to the national capitals of Earth to demand submission to eternal torment. Humanity's response is to declare war on [[TakeAThirdOption both sides]] by [[ShootTheMessenger shooting or blowing up the heralds]]. (An angelic diplomatic group going to Satan's capital and a lone angelic emissary later get theirs too.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', Ben gets a moment of this when dealing with the other two personalities of Alien X -- he chastises the voice of love and compassion for allowing an entire planet to be destroyed, and the voice of anger and aggression for not punishing those who would destroy it.
* The second ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie, ''The Beast With a Billion Backs'', had this happen literally when [[spoiler:Bender, along with his Damned Army that he gained by sacrificing his firstborn son to the Robot Devil, drags Heaven, where all of the universe sans robots has gone to exist for all eternity, out of its pocket dimension. He then leads a pirate invasion culminating in a duel between himself and the kraken-like Heaven being, Yivo. The fact he did all of this out of jealousy that Yivo had taken Fry from him demonstrates how much his friendship with Fry means to him.]]

** French Canadian cursing is ''extremely'' church-centric; some of it combines the sacred with the profane, but a lot of it, when translated literally, comes across to English-speakers as just weird, along the lines of "Christ of the chalice of the tabernacle of the [communion] host of the sacrament".

* Music/{{Rush}}'s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ0vQ_r6ghU The Stars Look Down]]" has the protagonist asking God, "Why me?" and receiving no answer.