Basic Trope: Satan is portrayed as a heroic figure.
- Straight: Satan is the
Chaotic Good hero who looks out for humanity's best interests. - Exaggerated: Satan is the Always Chaotic Good All-Loving Hero who makes hell a fun place to live for humanity to live in for eternity.
- Downplayed:
- Satan isn't that much of a saint, but he's a Nice Guy at best.
- Satan is still evil, but there is a more powerful and evil entity than Satan himself.
- The trope is played straight to a Satanic Archetype.
- Alternatively, Satan is Good Is Not Nice
- Satan and God act on decisions most humans can barely understand. Some humans interpret God as the good guy and Satan as the bad guy based on parables and divine intervention, but cannot grasp the true goal of either entity.
- Justified:
- Satan thought that God was being a bit harsh on enforcing His laws and commandments to humanity.
- Satan is a Trickster Mentor who plays the villain to locate the guilty.
- Satan is acting as an advisor for God and acts as the accuser of the sinful in God's court.
- Satan is the original Devil's Advocate.
- Satan and God are the same person. God is a Secret Identity Satan uses to keep humans from committing horrible acts, and both rewards the pure and punishes sinners himself.
- Inverted:
- God Is Good
- Satan is the biggest force of evil.
- God Is Evil
- Subverted:
- Satan is a hero to humanity until he starts torturing humanity.
- Satan seems good, but only towards "his own": demons and/or complete sinners.
- Satan is a hero solely in his own mind.
- Double Subverted:
- Satan only tortures humanity under God's commands to test their faith. Satan doesn't enjoy it one bit and wishes humanity deserves better than this.
- But considering how horribly God acts, humanity consider that Satan is the better side of the two.
- Satan only looks out for sinners while God looks out for the pure - but most of humanity falls under the first category.
- Parodied: God appears as a literal bully to humanity while Satan comes out telling Him to pick on somebody His own size.
- Zig Zagged:
- Satan has a Heel–Face Revolving Door. At one time, he helps humanity, but he then hurts them. Now he is confused about whether he's good or evil, despite God warning His creation that Satan is always going to be evil.
- Satan is a Chaotic Neutral Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely wants the best for humanity but has a tendency to put 'the bigger picture' above individual people and is just as willing to sacrifice people as he is to help them.
- Satan is more of a role: some of the entities that fill it over time are good, others... not so much.
- Averted:
- Satan is neither good nor evil or is completely amoral from our perspective.
- Satan does not exist.
- Enforced:
- The writer of the show believes that people demonize Satan too much and decides to portray him on a positive light.
- The writer thinks Humans Are Flawed, and a supernatural force of evil responsible for our flaws would detract from that.
- Lampshaded: "The guy downstairs is much better than the guy upstairs."
- Invoked: "Thank Satan!"
- Exploited: Satan disguises himself as a benevolent figure so he can send humanity to be tortured in hell along with him."
- Defied: "Why would I want to be good? I'm evil, and I'm staying that way!''
- Discussed: "So, who are you rooting out for in the Hell-versus-Heaven debate?"
- Conversed: "Many say that Satan is evil, but in this show, he's anything but."
- Deconstructed: Because Satan is seen as more sympathetic than God, this stirs up an all-out war between those who are on God's side and those who are on Satan's. As a result, God's followers win.
- Reconstructed: But the war isn't over yet. As Long as There Is One Man who believes in freedom from God, Satan can never truly be killed, just As Long as There Is One Man who wants the safety and security offered by God, He will always come back.
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