History Main / UnfeelingHeavens

** Eventually, the Kyrians are forced to acknowledge they ''don't'' have an Omniscient Morality License; they lost the ability to care about the possibility that the system may be flawed [[ReroutedFromHeaven until it was too late to save thousands of souls from being shattered by the Maw]], purgatory was slowly tainted by the corruption it was meant to cleanse while the only people capable of saving it at the time said "we shouldn't interfere with other realms over suspicions, they're always kooky like this", and losing their memories meant they no longer identified how dangerous Azeroth's usual threats are - like, say, a demonically-possessed prince wielding a soul-crushing sword.

* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': God is absent from his kingdom, his second-in-command is mindlessly obedient and refuses to disobey orders to stand by even though she could easily fix the CrapsackWorld Earth has become, and his third-in-command has partial clairvoyance and knows everyone is screwed so he doesn't see the point in trying to change anything. The fourth-in-command gives a crap about Earth, but is too detached from it to understand the damage she does whenever she visits. Even worse, the Akashic Records reveal that God was born without emotion or empathy, and had trouble understanding what he was experiencing when he finally evolved a sense of feeling. [[spoiler:Episode 130 reveals that the purpose of existence is for God to understand empathy and themselves - by devouring Heaven and Hell after the final apocalypse.]]
* ZigZagged in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. White Chain first appears as this and so do some of the angels met later, but that's more due to their mission in their existence than to being intrinsically cold.

* In the ''Blood War Trilogy'' the Upper Planes are presented this way, In the first book one of the "patry members" Phaeton the Deva is presented as completely detached from how mortals live their lives, at one point he kills a Mook with a lightning spell only for a Dwarf party member to [[WhatTheHellHero chew him out for it]], claiming he should have tried to reason with him first, over the course of the books however he [[CharacterDevelopment grows out of this as he lives among mortals]], even becoming a godfather to a child, exemplified at the start of the third book where the party visits him on Mount Celestia, his Neighbours are a bunch of self righteous jerks living in white marble palaces with golden roofs while he lives in a more humble [[CaringGardener overgrown tower with a herb garden]], when his neighbours find out that the rest of the party are fought in the Blood War they form an [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob]] and try to have them killed.

If they are collectively on the side of good, however, it's usually because GodIsGood or maybe they are IntriguedByHumanity

This trope is in action when heavenly creatures are outright robotic or simply out of touch with human feelings and attachments, viewing them as unnecessary and nonsensical, and in the worst case scenario, seeing mortal lives as worthless. This alienation often puts them into antagonistic roles. It's not that GodIsEvil -- it's that he just doesn't care.

Subtrope of PureIsNotGood. {{Angelic Abomination}}s and LightIsNotGood might be expected.

* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': God is absent from his kingdom, his second-in-command is mindlessly obedient and refuses to disobey orders to stand by even though she could easily fix the CrapsackWorld Earth has become, and his third-in-command has partial clairvoyance and knows everyone is screwed so he doesn't see the point in trying to change anything. The fourth-in-command gives a crap about Earth, but is too detached from it to understand the damage she does whenever she visits. Even worse, the Akashic Records reveal that God was born without emotion or empathy, and had trouble understanding what he was experiencing when he finally evolved a sense of feeling.

* ''VideoGame/Diablo'': A major problem throughout the series; while some angels (Tyrael in particular) care about the fate of humanity, the ruling caste and majority generally leave the mortal world alone, especially when demonkind eagerly rampage all over the face of the planet. They do give supernatural aid from afar (such as supplying Hope to mortal souls), but it's never a shield to stop a demon from stabbing mortals in the face.

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', when Hell is put up for sale by Lucifer, the Shining City deploys two angels to the Dreaming in order to observe the sale. Just as Dream is about to announce his intention to leave Hell empty, the Shining City suddenly intervenes, announcing that there must be a Hell, and therefore the two angels, Remiel and Duma will become its new administrators, even though neither of them have ever rebelled as Lucifer did, and even though it's clear that neither of them expected to get this gig.

When was the last time the afterlife gave a direct call to the public? Nobody knows...

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' has a variation. The residents of the Good Place ''are'' genuinely nice, well-meaning, and accommodating, but they're so detached from humanity and obsessed with bureaucracy that they are completely ineffectual against the Bad Place's machinations and prove to be no help to the heroes.

* The Kyrian of ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' {{downplay|edTrope}} this; they're reality's anglic {{Psychopomp}}s residing in a parasidical realm full of SceneryPorn, it is an assigned afterlife by [[JudgementOfTheDead The Arbiter]] only to the souls who were truly selfless in life... Because you ''have'' to be truly selfless to become a Kyrian: It entails giving up ''everything'' that made you, you; Your mortal identity, relationships, biases, doubts, and memories have no place in a {{Psychopomp}}. Everything you once were must be removed or forgotten before you can take on the impatial AboveGoodAndEvil role of being a {{Psychopomp}} - the entire goal of their training is for you to be comfortably able to say [[ThatManIsDead That (Wo)man Is Dead]]. What makes it downplayed is that they're not antagonistic, fulfilling an important role in the cosmos, they are okay with emotions and memories between their own kind, and The Arbiter [[OmniscientMoralityLicense doesn't make mistakes]] - this does not stop this trope from being the root cause in a Kyrian CivilWar between those who view all these sacrifices of their memories as unacceptable, and those who view them as necessary.

Everything in the Heavens is pure (most of the time). Of course, PureIsNotGood, so any gods or angels residing there might be too detached from the "impure" mortal life to understand some feelings or maybe all of them.

This trope is in action when heavenly creatures are outright robotic or simply out of touch with human feelings and attachments, viewing them as unnecessary and nonsensical, and in the worst case scenario, seeing mortal lives as worthless. This alienation often puts them into antagonistic roles. It's not that GodIsEvil, he just doesn't care.

This trope is in action when heavenly creatures are outright robotic or simply out of touch with human feelings and attachments, viewing them as unnecessary and nonsencial, and in worst case scenario, seeing mortal lives as worthless. This alienation often puts them into antagonistic roles. It's not that GodIsEvil, he just doesn't care.

* ''WesternAnimation/KuboAndTheTwoStrings''. Kubo's aunts and his grandfather, The Moon King, want his remaining eye so that he will be as blind to humanity as they are.
* The Heavenly Beings in ''Anime/TheTaleOfPrincessKaguya'' do not show or seem to understand any emotion other than joy.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder: Mythology and Religion]]

* In {{UsefulNotes/Islam}}ic teachings, angels are creatures of pure reason and no desires of their own. While they make good servants, they don't make good "Earth managers" -- which is why God created humans with both reason and desire.

* ZigZagged in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. White Chain first appears as this and so do some of the angels met later, but that's more due to their mission in their existence than to being intrisically cold.

* In ''ComicBook/TomJudgeRapture'', Angels, and by extension Heaven, are presented as this. The Angels are shown as apathetic and indifferent to suffering and insults and only concerned with enforcing decrees from Heaven. They are also fiercely militaristic and cynical of demons and humans alike.

* The Kyrian of ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' {{downplay|edTrope}} this; they're reality's anglic {{Psychopomp}}s residing in a parasidical realm full of SceneryPorn, it is an assigned afterlife by [[JudgementOfTheDead The Arbiter]] only to the souls who were truly selfless in life... Because you ''have'' to be truly selfless to become a Kyrian: It entails giving up ''everything'' that made you, you; Your mortal identity, relationships, biases, doubts, and memories have no place in a {{Psychopomp}}. Everything you once were must be removed or forgotten before you can take on the impatial AboveGoodAndEvil role of being a {{Psychopomp}} - the entire goal of their training is for you to be comfortably able to say [[ThatManIsDead That (Wo)man Is Dead]]. What makes it downplayed is that they're not antagonistic, fulfilling an important role in the cosmos, and The Arbiter [[OmniscientMoralityLicense doesn't make mistakes]] - this does not stop this trope from being the root cause in a Kyrian CivilWar between those who view all these sacrifices of their memories as unacceptable, and those who view them as necessary.