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The Seven Deadly Sins trapped in the Rock Of the Ages, mid 1940s Shazam! Take a gander at Lust on the far end.
So sail away aboard our rig The moon is full and so are we We're seven drunken pirates We're the seven deadly sins —Flogging Molly
The Operative: Do you know what your sin is, Mal? Mal: Aw hell, I'm a fan of all seven. (headbutt) But right now, I'm gonna have to go with wrath. - Serenity
The Seven Deadly Sins are the seven basic concepts that will lead your soul to ruin. They're the basic seven personality traits which lead people to wrongdoing, and the various ways to sin are just combinations and permutations of these seven ideas. Originally they were termed the seven deadly VICES. Obviously, these are the basic "rules of behavior" for any self-respecting Card Carrying Villain.
In alphabetical order, here are the big seven, along with a couple examples of tropes embodying each (keep in mind that there are plenty of tropes that reference them, but including them all would make this entry nigh-unreadable):
Avarice - Desire for Things. Often simply referred to as greed, but avarice includes spending money pointlessly as well as hoarding it. An oft-misquoted passage in The Bible says that "the love of money is the root of many kinds of evil." This one is popular amongst Rich Bitches, Corrupt Corporate Executives, and anyone who would say Screw The Rules I Have Money. When treated as a vital part of the economy rather than a sin, it's called "the profit motive". The patron demon of Avarice is Mammon (as in the Mammon Machine).
Envy - Desire for Other People's Things. Or simply hatred of others' good fortune. Hey, sometimes others get the cool stuff first. Doesn't stop you from wanting it. Those that act on this tend to be thieves of any stripe, be it a Gentleman Thief, a Classy Cat Burglar, a highwayman, or a plagiarist. What separates Envy from simple Jealousy is that Envy is Jealousy with a malicious desire to harm or punish the person you're jealous of. The patron demon of Envy is Leviathan.
Gluttony - Desire for More. Have you ever wanted to just sit around and eat all day? That's a start, but to fully commit gluttony one must also waste food. This is one of the sins more likely to appear in heroic characters - after all, Big Eaters are funny, and their obvious extension Extreme Omnivore is even funnier. Also, this might explain why so many tropes have food in their names while having nothing to do with food. The most villainous practitioners of this sin typically say Im A Humanitarian. (Note: in pop culture, gluttony is almost always associated with overeating, but theologically it applies to overconsumption of anything. Taking more than your share is the key thing. It has also been equated with any kind of addiction in modern times, but see Lust below.) The patron demon of Gluttony is Beelzebub.
Lust - Desire for Pleasure. It's the desire to know someone biblically, but traditionally included all other sins of physical desire or luxury (such as drug addiction), not just sex. How evil this is depends often on the author's view of sex. Authors with a much more positive view of the matter will show this trope via Lovable Sex Maniacs and occasional bouts of Deus Sex Machina, and maybe a Parental Bonus if the work is theoretically for kids. Authors more negative on the concept will say No Sex Allowed, Evil Is Sexy (possibly reversed to " Sexy is Evil"), or Death By Sex. The worst practitioners of this sin are usually predators of some kind who prey on others, like the Stalker With A Crush, those who practice Villainous Incest, the vilest of Serial Killers or the villain who says " I Have You Now My Pretty." The patron demon of Lust is Asmodeus.
Pride - Desire for Attention. Often said to be the big one, as "pride cometh before a fall." Traditionally the most vile of the Seven Deadly Sins, it was the one that corrupted Satan as it involves placing yourself above God (or whatever deity you're invoking) and all others. In fact, pretty much every villain, in part, is motivated by pride - the idea is, they'd make things work better than what's going on now. So, they feel it's only right they should Take Over The World. The ones more blatant about it are the Evil Overlord, the Nietzsche Wannabe, and the Corrupt Hick. By definition, it is the one Sin that prevents the sinner from repentance, as they are too proud to admit that they were wrong. Termed "self respect" when treated as a virtue. The patron demon for Pride is, understandably, Lucifer.
Sloth - Desire for Rest. The reason this entry didn't become into existence earlier despite the fact that everyone liked the idea, sloth is the lack of desire to actually do some work. This one isn't possessed by villains often, but if heroes possess too much of it the Big Bad will find it much easier to succeed. Sometimes this results in a Refusal Of The Call, and more than one creator who Did Not Do The Research has been accused of this. While obviously not main characters, Apathetic Citizens are clearly slothful. The Dumb Blonde and the Brainless Beauty may not be so much lacking in intelligence as too slothful to cultivate it. Sloth may result in Silly Rabbit Idealism Is For Kids; idealism is too much work. Frequently results from the Despair Event Horizon; in fact, the sin of Despair was classified under this because to despair is to give up (the Eastern Orthodox Churches actually have an "Eight Deadly Sins" list, where Despair is a separate Sin; this is why it you are more likely to find someone being accused of "the Unforgivable Sin of Despair" in a Russian classical novel than in a Western European one). The patron demon of Sloth is a little-known figure named Balphegor.
Wrath - Desire for Harm. Darth Vader tried to lure his son to The Dark Side by using his anger. He ought to know that lust was a much better temptation. Star Wars complaints aside, this is rage taken up a few dozen notches, combined with blood-thirstiness and a general appreciation of too much violence. It can be easily seen in a Blood Knight, during an Unstoppable Rage, and in general anyone with a Berserk Button. It's also a common problem of those who seek revenge. Hatred and racism ( fantastic or otherwise) can also fall under this. The patron demon of Wrath is Satan.
Remember them with the handy acronym WASPLEG! Alternatively, to sound more mysterious and intellectual, use the Latin names for the sins * Avarice = Avaricia, Envy = Invidia, Gluttony = Gula, Lust = Luxuria, Pride = Superbia, Sloth = Acedia, and Wrath = Ira , which can be arranged to form another handy acronym: SALIGIA.
There are also seven holy virtues, but those don't get as much play on their own, even as a contrast to the deadly sins. In order of their opposites above, they are charity, kindness, temperance, chastity, humility, diligence, and forgiveness.
There is another traditional list of Seven Virtues which do not precisely correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins: The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude (or Courage); and the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity (or Love). The first four were recognized by Classical pagans, the rest added by Christians (St. Paul specifically). These virtue are presented in the Divine Comedy as angelic women, in keeping with the work's tendency to appropriate classical ideas into a Christian context.
One more list of Seven Virtues comes from the musical Camelot, sung by Mordred. Those "Seven Deadly Virtues" are: Courage, Purity, Humility, Diligence, Charity, Honesty, and Fidelity; these, in turn, are the aspects which a Knight of the Round Table were supposed to adhere to from mid to late Arthurian Mythology.
Compare the Scale Of Scientific Sins. See also Mr Vice Guy.
Examples:
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, the homunculi are named after the sins. Many of them have powers appropriate to their name: Envy is a shape shifter who can imitate anyone, Gluttony can consume anything, and Lust is beautiful but deadly. This is made more obvious in the manga where Sloth is a giant that frequently falls asleep, Pride looks like Father's original form, and Wrath constantly mentions how angry he is.
- And Greed actually betrays Father and runs away to lead his own life because, as he explicitly tells Father, following him wouldn't satisfy his consuming greed.
- Let's be fair to Wrath. Despite what he says, the real expression of his nature is in how he fights and how he runs Amestris. The guy is an absolutely brutal fighter; in his fight with Greed, he could have pinned him and ended the battle quickly, but chose instead to "kill" him at least 15 times before ending it. And as Führer, he leads Amestris in constant wars and pointless campaigns meant only to cause bloodshed for Father's plans. As Ed says, Amestris had always had a few boarder conflicts, but "it wasn't until King Bradley became Führer that war became our life."
- In the anime, Pride is King Bradley, who's Wrath in the manga but who does act very arrogant. Wrath is a character original to the anime and is indeed one angry little guy. And Sloth doesn't seem particularly lazy, but her 'nature' as a kind of slimy water-like thing that creeps on the ground and walls possibly fits... plus her desire to take the easy way out by killing Ed and Al rather than come to terms with what she is.
- Thats probably because the original meaning of sloth as a deadly sin was sadness to the point of despair.
- In one of the recent manga chapters Hohenheim says that the seven sins are the seven emotions that constitute human nature. This is why Father discarded them and formed the seven Homunculi from them.
- No such justification for their naming is presented in the anime, where the creation of homunculi is a completely different process. Most likely, Dante probably just thought it was a good theme.
- Digimon has the Seven Demon Lords, each one representing a sin. Digimon Savers used the general sins as part of the reason for the Monsters of the Week showing up for the first 12 episodes, and the Digimon representing Sloth was used for the Magnificent Bastard to control.
- The shonen manga series Katekyo Hitman Reborn has the seven sins represented by the seven top members of an elite assassination squad, the Varia. The seven protagonists set to battle against them in a fight for the right to inherit a powerful mafia family embody the seven holy virtues (but not as obviously as the antagonists).
- Umineko No Naku Koro Ni features the Stakes of Purgatory, a group of seven sisters with red eyes who serve the Golden Witch, Beatrice. They turn into stakes to kill those guilty of their respective sin. They're named after the patron demons and even have personalities that reflect each sin, although sometimes in weird ways; Belphegor, for instance, is a hard worker, but said hard work leads others to be lazy, perpetuating her sin of Sloth.
- A prominent motif in 11eyes. The main enemies, the Black Knights, are named after the Latin names of the sins (only Lust is absent), and the traits are reflected in the heroes.
- Bleach had a series of chapters named after the Sins, each seemingly referring to the characters and their actions (sorta, it's a bit vague)
- 341 - The Envy: Clingy Jealous Girl team Lolly and Menoly
- 342 - The Greed: Ichigo shuts down Orihime from getting involved in HIS fight
- 343 - The Gluttony: starts with Yammy stuffing his face, then has him kill Lolly and Menolly for the lulz
- 344 - The Pride: subverted Ishida has accepted help from Mayuri, likely a big blow to his pride, but doesn't really fit the "Sin" theme
- 345 - The Sloth: Rudobone's fighting style, maybe??? (this is where the theme gets a bit convoluted)
- 346 - The Wrath: Ulquiorra's Tranquil Fury as he thrashes Ichigo
- 347 - 352 - The Lust 1 - 6: The emergence of Ichigo's new hollow form, its vicious overkill of Ulquiorra, and attacking Ishida for getting in its way. All of this to protect Orihime.
- In Karakuridouji Ultimo, there is a group of 50 evil robots called Douji who each represent a different negative trait. The seven deadly sins are something of a subgroup within their ranks. There is an equal number of good Douji representing positive traits, but it is currently unknown whether the seven heavenly virtues are among them. However, in a rare Buddhist twist on the trope, the six perfections are among the good Douji.
- In the DC Comics Universe, the Seven Deadly Sins, or rather their Anthropomorphic Personifications, are imprisoned inside the Rock of Eternity by the wizard Shazam (Same guy who empowered Captain Marvel of I Am Not Shazam fame), though their influence is still passively felt throughout creation.
- Until recently "Injustice" took the place of "Lust", presumably due to the Comic Book Age Ghetto.
- Lust first appeared in 2002, as the Sins were released as part of an attack on the JLA & the JSA. The Sins ended up possessing various members of both groups.
- Alan Moore's run on Supreme included the seven-headed demon lord Sin. Each head represented a different Deadly Sin, and their sometimes conflicting motivations were his greatest weakness.
- A French graphic novel, Seven Monks, told the story of seven irish monks, each embodying one of the deadly sins, receiving punishement for their sins by being sent to convert a village of pagan vikings. Incredibly, by applying their sinful behaviors in creative ways (the avaricious monk uses the lure of profitable trading with Byzantium, the envious monk convinces the chieftain's second-in-command to take over upon his death, the lustful monk seduces just about every important wife in the village, and so on) and with some incredible coincidences, they succeed in their mission without changing their ways in the slightest.
- The 2009 Batman annuals feature a group of seven villains who call themselves La Saglia (an acronym of the Latin names of the sins), and seek to awaken the Eighth Sin. Any connection to the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man is unknown.
- Yet another example from DC: in Titans Together, six sons of Trigon sired from human mothers at around the same time as Raven have emotion-manipulating powers based on the sins. They try to awaken Raven's evil side and get her to join up. In an open defiance of convention, the one female in the group isn't lust; Raven instead filled the "pride" slot.
- This is a stretch, but it's probably not a coincidence that the more "evil" colors on the Emotion Spectrum introduced in the Green Lantern mythos embody some of the Sins. The Red Lanterns embody Wrath. Orange Lantern Larfleeze is trickier; Orange is called the light of Greed but in practice Larfleeze embodies Gluttony and Envy as well. His sole motivation is to own anything of value in existence, especially if it belongs to someone else, while stuffing his face with as much food as possible. In their darker moments the Star Sapphire Corp embody Lust rather well. The Sinestro Corp's goal is to bring order to the universe by spreading fear to the point where everyone is in too much Despair to resist; thus they embody the original meaning of Sloth. It's also easy to see that Pride is a recurring problem for the Green Lanterns themselves; people who are told that, out of their entire space sector, they are the most courageous ones and worthy of joining an ancient order of space police and given a Magi Tek superweapon are at a higher risk of developing inflated egos than most.
- Se7en centered around a serial killer committing his murders based on these sins.
- In the 1967 Deal With The Devil film Bedazzled, the protagonist meets incarnations of the seven deadly sins. In the 2000 remake, Brendan Fraser receives seven wishes, six of which correspond to a sin (such as the wish for a hamburger for gluttony or sensitivity to the point of inaction for sloth)
- 1927's Metropolis includes a dream sequence featuring embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins and Death. Death aside, you'd be hard pressed to recognize them, but they are listed in the credits, apparently playing themselves.
- Serenity revolved somewhat around the nature of sin, with the Operative remarking on what he perceived to be his victims' sins, and the attempt to eliminate sin being the cause behind the deaths of thirty million people and the creation of the Reavers.
- Oddly enough the sins of the Operative's enemies were perceived quite well. Dr Matthias certainly was Pride(in a rather banal sense)in thinking his subjects less human then himself. And as Mal admitted, his sin was Wrath. But the Alliance's sin of trying to eliminate sin by mere human effort would certainly be Pride as Shepherd Book would note.
- The point that Joss was trying to make with the film (which he makes clear in the commentary) is that while the Seven Deadly Sins are bad, they are also inseparable from human nature. The Alliance thought that sin was something that could be stamped out (which was a sin in and of itself, as pointed out above) and the result was Miranda: a world where everyone was either dead or completely inhuman.
- In Dante's Divine Comedy , both the Inferno and the Purgatorio were arranged basically around the deadly sins. In the Inferno, it's sinners who did not repent before their deaths, in the Purgatorio, those who did; making this Older Than Print.
- The Lustful are in the Second Circle of Hell, constantly blown about by winds, symbolizing their their surrender in life to their desires of the moment; and on the Seventh and last Terrace of the Mount of Purgatory, where their sin is purged from them in a wall of fire.
- Gluttony is punished in the Third Circle of the Inferno where they lie in a slush of rain, hail and ash, symbolizing the foul waste of their lives. In Purgatorio, they are on the Sixth Terrace and their penance is to pass through groves of fruit and by waterfalls of pure water without eating or drinking.
- The Avaricious (both the greedy and the squanderers) are in the Fourth Circle of Hell, pushing large, heavy weights at and into each other. On the Mount of Purgatory, they are on the Fifth Terrace, lying face down on the ground.
- The Slothful lay beneath the surface of the river Styx, which forms the Fifth Circle of Hell, sunk in the slime and mud of the riverbed, while in Purgatory, they are purged of their sin by constant running on the Fourth Terrace
- The Wrathful are also in the Fifth Circe of Hell, tearing at each other as they swim. In the Purgatorio, they are on the Third Terrace, where the walk constantly, blinded by acrid smoke.
- The Envious and the Proud are not assigned to any particular Circle of the Inferno, because those sins lead other, more specific sins which are each punished in their own manner, for example those who were envious and stole are placed in the circle with the Thieves, while those who turned traitorous because of their Pride are with the Traitors.
- The Envious, on the Second Terrace of Purgatory have their eyes sewn shut. In life they envied what they saw; to purge their sin, they see nothing.
- The Proud, on the First (lowest) Terrace, walk carrying heavy stones on their backs, so that they cannot stand straight or look down on anyone else.
- Garth Nix's seven-part Keys To The Kingdom series features a different villain in each one, named after a different day. Since the breaking of the Will, each of these Trustees has also been afflicted by a particular Deadly Sin.
- Monday is Sloth - he allows his dominion to fall apart because he can't be bothered to do anything about it.
- Tuesday is Avarice - He is desperate for Nothing, the raw material of everything, and his mining operations almost makes his Realm collapse into the Void.
- Wednesday is Gluttony - she is cursed to eat constantly and has swollen to become a giant whale.
- Thursday is Wrath - He can't control his anger.
- Friday is Lust - She is addicted to mortal experiences and uses her magic to steal them.
- Saturday is Envy - She is resentful that Sunday rules the House, when she is the elder of the two.
- Sunday is Pride. Thus far, he has refused to get involved in the battle for the House, believing there can only one result, and instead delights in his demesne, the Incomparable Gardens, and is fond of showing Saturday brief glimpses of it. He also controls the most powerful of the Seven Keys.
- Also, the Keys themselves seem to be reflective of the sins. Sloth, a waste of time, is paired with a sword resembling a clock hand. Greed, a pair of gloves, wrath a sword, gluttony a trident (and in some descriptions, very obviously portrayed as a big fork), lust a mirror, and envy a quill. The last 2 I have trouble figuring out. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into this.
- This series is also an example of the Seven Heavenly Virtues, exemplified by the seven pieces of the Will. Fortitude, Prudence, Faith, Justice, Temperance, and Charity have been seen so far, with the first five having merged together. These characters are highly unbalanced and are supposed to become more reasonable as they merge into one entity. This doesn't seem to be working.
- An incomplete example-given that there's four, not seven-is that many people believe the four bad children from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be representatives of sin; Augustus Gloop is gluttony, Veruca Salt is greed, Mike Teavee is wrath and Violet Beauregard is pride.
- Interestingly, in the new movie, the parents also have a dominant sin. Mrs. Gloop as pride- though for Augustus, not herself, Mr. Salt as sloth, and Ms. Beauregard quite explicitly as lust.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld. In the country of Lancre, one family went and named their daughters after the virtues, Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence so forth. And out of a misinformed sense of continuity, named their sons along the lines of Bestiality, Anger (among others). Subverted, because each of the daughters came to embody the sin opposite of her virtuous name. Meanwhile, despite everything else, Anger is a kind and calm man, while his brother Bestiality is kind to animals
- Also, in Going Postal, it turns out that there are actually eight virtues: Patience, Chastity, Silence, Charity, Hope, Tubso, Bissonomy and Fortitude.
- We don't know what those two are either.
- Arguably, the doomed characters in Sweeney Todd represent the seven deadly sins: Todd is Wrath, Mrs. Lovett Avarice, Judge Turpin Lust, Pirelli Pride, the Beadle Envy, and the citizenry of London generally Gluttony.
- Sloth could be the Beggar Woman Sweeney's wife who "just lay there in bed" and hasn't really bettered herself since the "incident" (but really, can you blame her?) or Toby, in an ironic way: he's very industrious (mild gin addiction aside) until the very end where he just wants to sing nursery rhymes.
- If you want to add "Ignorance" as a sin, Anthony could qualify for being woefully Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Some people have argued that C. S. Lewis' seven Chronicles Of Narnia each focus on one of the seven deadly sins: so Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is symbolic of Gluttony by betraying his family for candy, whereas Jill in The Silver Chair represents Sloth since she keeps forgetting to look for the "signs" she was told to watch for. The main conflict in The Horse And His Boy centres around Prince Rabadash's lust for Queen Susan. This is quite possibly an Epilectic Tree however.
- Continuing this Epileptic Tree: Eustace in Dawn Treader would probably be Avarice, with his "greedy, dragonish thoughts," and the villains of The Last Battle, who want the "perks" of being Aslan are motivated by Envy. Jadis in The Magician's Nephew is pure Pride, and, well, there's a lot of anger in Prince Caspian(?)...
- Four of the Seven Deadly Sins yield bigotry in The Cold Within. The first and second people are consumed by Pride, the third by Envy, the fourth and sixth by Greed, and the fifth by Wrath.
- The Redcrosse Knight meets the Seven Deadly Sins in the first book of The Faerie Queene. Their leader is Pride, who is, interestingly, the only one portrayed as a woman, when most personifications make Lust a woman (since All Women Are Lustful). Here, people are invited to party in their mansions, only to eventually end up rotting to death in their dungeon. Fortunately, Redcrosse's dwarf sidekick warns him in enough time to help him flee.
- Top Chef and Americas Next Top Model have each had challenges associated with the seven deadly sins, where each contestant (at the stage where there were seven remaining) was assigned a sin to represent through cooking or modelling, respectively. (This editor is disappointed that in neither case did the person assigned Sloth have the chutzpah to say "I'm representing Sloth by not doing anything at all.")
- An episode of Supernatural had the protagonists fighting seven demons who were the deadly sins personified.
"All right, guys, the big man is here!"
"Let me guess. You're Pride."
- The Other Wiki lists the Rogues Gallery of the Phillipine superhero series Lastikman to each represent one of the deadly sins, with the Big Bad representing Greed.
- An episode of Charmed — Or So I Heard — had a demon hitting residents of San Francisco with concentrations of the Seven Deadly Sins; those who got infected pursued said sin with ever mounting concentration. Needless to say, the main cast got hit, with Phoebe getting Lust, Piper getting Gluttony, Leo getting Sloth, and Prue getting Pride.
- The never-aired The Muppet Show pilot featured personifications (Muppetifications?) of the seven sins for a pagent, and the host receives a call asking if they're interested in an eighth—Wearing Funny Pants to a Funeral.
- In the Flogging Molly song "Seven Deadly Sins", the sins are personified as pirates tempting people to sail away with them and be free.
- The page quote, which appears at the beginning and end of Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
- The Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht cantata/ballet The Seven Deadly Sins.
- The videoclip for the Pet Shop Boys song It's a Sin has a bunch of actors personifying the Seven Deadly Sins. Particularly noticeable is Geena Davis playing Pride as a Rich Bitch in black with a huge peacock fan.
- In the New World Of Darkness, all characters have a Vice, selected from one of the seven deadly sins. By fulfilling their Vice, the character can gain a point of Willpower (a vital resource) due to gratifying their ego. (A character with Greed as a Vice, for example, can fulfill it by screwing someone over for a quick buck.) However, acts that fulfill Vices are usually going to damage the Karma Meter, so the player has to weigh the cost against the gain. In contrast, characters also have Virtues (such as Charity or Faith), which take much more work to fulfill, but fully restore Willpower when pulled off.
- Then, in Werewolf The Forsaken, you have the Maeljin - powerful spirits that embody abstract concepts that twisted in upon themselves until they just became wrong. Needless to say, the Seven Deadlies are well represented.
- In The Book of Fiends, a third-party Sourcebook for Dungeons And Dragons 3rd Edition from Green Ronin Publishing, the embodiments of Neutral Evil, the daemons, are ruled by the Exarchs of Gehenna. These seven near-godlike daemons each represent one sin: Tyrexxus for wrath, Ulasta for envy, In'nassi for lust, Viasta for sloth, Yungo for gluttony, Myrtaxx for greed, and Gravicarius for pride.
- The Gods of Chaos from Warhammer/40k fit the Deadly Sins very well, altough since there are only four of them, you'll have to assings some Gods with more than one Sin.
- Khorne: Wrath (obviously)
- Nurgle: Sloth (specifically, despair)
- Slaanesh: Lust, Gluttony, Pride (s/he represents exess and many of hir followers fit the Pride archeotype very well)
- Tzeench: Envy, Greed (technically he's hope, but envy and greed are essentially the dark sides of hope)
- In the backstory of the first adventure path for Pathfinder, "Rise of the Runelords", each of the seven runelords of ancient Thassillon are associated with a Deadly Sin. The Runelord of Gluttony consumed the souls of his servants, the Runelord of Pride has an army of enslaved angels, and so on. The master villain of the story arc is Karzoug, the reawakened Runelord of Greed, who wants all the world for himself.
- In Overlord, the fallen heroes who serve as the bosses are each themed for a sin.
- Melvin Underbelly (Gluttony): A small halfling who discovered he could have all the food he wanted and forced nearby villagers into slave labour, becoming morbidly obese from all the food.
- Oberon Greenhaze (Sloth): An elf who's fallen into a deep sleep... which lead to his fellow elves being all but slaughtered by the invading dwarves, and Oberon's nightmares becoming real, in case you were wondering what was so bad about this.
- Sir William the Black (Lust): Abandoned his fiancee after being seduced by a succubus.
- Goldo Golderson (Greed): Kidnapped the surviving elves and forced them to mine gold for him.
- Jewel, the Thieving Hero (Envy): Kleptomanic thief, constantly steals things other people want.
- Kahn the Warrior (Wrath): He gets really angry when Jewel is defeated...
- The Wizard (Pride): Possessed by the protagonist's predecessor. He was responsible for the downfall of the other heroes and attempts to usurp (well, reclaim) the player's position as overlord.
- Devil May Cry 3 uses the seven deadly sins to represent both the standard scythe-bearing enemies and various bosses. In a semi-subversion, Pride is the weakest of the normal enemies.
- Shadow Hearts: From the New World features a dungeon called "Purgatory" where the monsters and bosses are all themed on the seven deadly sins. The most powerful is envy.
- The Four Masks from the first Shadow Hearts are, according to their monster information, based on four of the seven deadly sins. And more obviously, on the four suits minor arcana of tarot, and by extension the four Western Elements. Because just one numerical theme isn't enough!
- In the Worlds of Power book based on Castlevania II, Simon Belmont instructs his companion to hit him any time he acts out any of the seven deadly sins, as Dracula can claim his soul if he is not virtuous enough.
- The Seven Deadly Sins are skills one can buy and learn from
Hell Hey Deze in the special "Bad Moon" difficulty of Kingdom Of Loathing. Each one gives an advantage and disadvantage, but you can strategically cancel the disadvantages out with each other.
- The little-known Lucas Arts world-building (or, technically, worlds-building) game Afterlife had this as one of its primary game mechanics. As the Demiurge charged with building both Heaven and Hell, you had to construct zones for each of the seven vices or their corresponding virtues (most with PunnyNames, and entering Ironic Hell).
- Four of the Sins are embodied in Jeanne D Arc's major Reapers, and Gilvaroth's lieutenants: Superbia (Pride,) Luxuria (Lust,) Avaritia (Avarice,) and Ira (Wrath.) They have thus possessed humans, usually in the upper echelons of power, that have fallen prey to their particular sins. Ira itself manifested when Roger's unmeasurable rage at Jeanne after Liane's death made him go mad, and was only redeemed when the soul of Liane herself helped Jeanne release his heart from the Reaper.
- Many of the enemies in the Flash game Grey Matter
 are named for the Seven Deadly Sins, albeit in Latin like the Jeanne D Arc example above: the exception is Gluttony, which is inexplicably named in English.
- 7 Sins. The entire game is about this. You play a Ladie's man/porn star/criminal (well, you get 7 different jobs actually) and you have to build up your reputation and become successfull, and you do so by commiting sins.
- In the Ultima series, starting from the fourth game, there are eight sins that are the opposite of the eight Virtues. While the Virtues are represented by seven shrines throughout the land and the eighth in the Ethereal Void, the Vices are represented by seven dungeons and the eighth in the vast underworld.
- Honesty / Deceit, Compassion / Despise, Valor / Destard, Justice / Wrong, Sacrifice / Covetous, Honor / Shame, Spirituality / Hythloth, Humility / The Great Stygian Abyss
- Persona has you fighting embodiments of the deadly sins during your Journey To The Center Of The Mind.
- In DevilBear , each of Bearalzebub's female assistants, called Daivas, have jobs representing a different deadly sin.
- The Sins now star in their own webcomic.
- Jack beats that record. The title character is Wrath, as well as The Grim Reaper.
- It also avoids the usual "hot chick" depiction of Lust in that the personification of Lust is a serial rapist/murderer with a mutant penis. An excellent example in that it shows how it's not lust itself that's bad, it's what it can make you do.
- An 8-bit Theater arc shows the Light Warriors in the "Castle of Ordeals", wherein each warrior has to face a personification of their own personal sin. Played straight and subverted seemingly simultaneously:
- Thief, whose sin is Avarice, does not actually face his ordeal, as Black Mage stumbles into the room and kills it for him.
- Fighter, whose sin is Sloth (for not seeking to hone his swordsmanship, and instead relying upon what he already knows). The personification then explains that he must learn to use his brains instead of his brawn, prompting Fighter to slay him on the spot because his "brain said this was faster."
- Red Mage's sin is Pride, because he severely lacks humility, demonstrated by his Munchkin trait as he changes his character sheet to say "Humble +2000". Eventually realizes that he cannot argue his way out of the ordeal, and submits. He passes the ordeal. He then proceeds to gloat about his mind working on levels he isn't consciously aware of.
- Black Mage's sin is Black Mage.
- Subverted in Nodwick; Yeager (who indulges in all of them to some degree) is implied to have given them up as a New Years Resolution some time before Nodwick was hired, but promptly invented an eighth - blasphotrociterra-o-rama.
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