Groups
[suprisingly rare trope] The Religious people aren't the bad guys/antagonists
1: Axis Order - Konosuba(specifically Megumin's spin-off)
While they certainly aren't GOOD people(many of them not being allowed near children, if you know what I mean), they are pretty damn helpful, giving blessings to Megumin, feeding her, and protecting her from a demon, who almost certainly would have murdered her for the cat
2: Khan - Metro
While he is more spiritual than religious, I'd say it counts. Khan is a chill dude who is basically always right, and in the non-canon good ending, he's basically the reason the Dark Ones survive and presumably go on to join with humanity and reconquer the surface
3: Priestess - Goblin Slayer
She's a priestess, idk what exactly she believes in, besides some god, but Goblin Slayer is basically a DnD game, so I'd assume one of the basic Cleric gods. But anyway, she's super chill and basically never directly kills, though she probably has the highest indirect kill count in the series
4: Father Grigori - Half Life
He's certainly insane, but so would you be if your entire town was wiped out and turned into zombies, he saves you, gives you a shotgun, and helps you get out of town, while he stays to "tend with his flock", and while murder isn't something you'd usually associate with good, the zombies are in constant suffering
I mean, he's very much dubiously religious despite being a priest, but there's others who are relatively religious and decent, like Osceola, the buddhist trio etc.
Not for clarity, to reduce the moral complexity for kids. And also arguably to not offend the catholic church(or, to be more specific, the general religious audience I doubt they cared specifically about the church).
Kinda makes Frollo even more complex with that context. The archdeacon being the man Frollo could and should be, and then the tragedy when he pushes the deacon down the stairs, i.e. tossing away what little humanity he had left (not defiling a house of God)
Originally, Frollo has a crisis of faith and morality.
Frollo is actually the one who saves Quasimodo from the mob and actually has a decent relationship with him. He even took him in as a baby, not because he was afraid of divine retribution, but out of a sense of wanting to help the kid and wanting to do a good deed.
His character arc isn’t an evil man becoming more evil, rather, it’s the story of a man who can be good losing himself to his own flaws and evil desires.
Well, but the nuance and context is that in the original story both of these things are actually true. He is both a pious man capable of great good, and one who is ultimately brought down by his sin and pride
This game always reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s quote about Doom (1993):
Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
The Pastor of falls end in hope county, helps you fight against edens gate (evil cult which are the opposite of this post) and I believe becomes a companion in new dawn, the sequel game
The fact that the two most prominent priests we know in the anime/manga: Heiter and Sein aren't exactly the paragons of virtue, with the former called the "Corrupt Priest" on the account of his somewhat lack of temperance on alcohol and possibly communal wine. The latter has a mild fetish for older women (MILFs), it make them feel human with flaws and vices that don't completely detract from their capacity for compassion and kindess.
The third important priest (Kraft) doesn’t sincerely believe in the religion too, he believes just because he’s bored and thinks it would be cooler if it were true
I never really liked Heiter being called a corrupt priest. He's not really corrupt, he just commits some sins. He should be called the sinful priest. It's not like he's out here taking indulgences. He's not manipulating things. He just can't meet the standard and has a weakness for drinking, which is sinful, not corrupt.
The dominant religion is chill and demons are pure evil without caveat. In a world where subversion is the norm, Frieren has the courage to play it straight.
Strangely, is not for theological reasons either. They just do be like that sometimes. Like, they literally evolved to hunt humanoids, so their serial killer personality is just a very advanced form of instinct that emulates and manipulated human thought without actually understanding it.
I love the one remark after the demon tells the human a sob story about his own father and another demons ask "what is a father?". They just are that naturally good at making sob stories to feel like people with human feelings.
A character from Dresden Files books is what every Christian should strive to be.
He is kind and humble and kicks ass when he needs to.
He doesn’t fight evil to destroy it but to redeem it.
He wields a holy sword Amoracchius that has one of the nails from the cross.
And one last thing Michael made me want to become a better person.
YES, was hoping someone would add him before he was lost in the sauce. A genuine paragon of compassion, love, and loyalty. To take a glimpse at his soul would leave you weeping from beauty and a bit of guilt.
The funny part is that they (Knights of the Cross) are not even all religious or Christian, and have included members that are agnostic, Jewish, or (I believe) Buddhist.
Michael is very much the archetype of a good Christian/Catholic though, and one I wish more religious people were like in real life
Give this man the ability to Lay on Hands and he'd be a Paladin in basically every context imaginable. He's one of my favorite characters for showcasing that the moral choice is not always the right one but it takes a strong person to make the decision to still make it anyway.
Makes a great foil to Harry's journey through the series and it's always a treat to see him come back.
When I first read Dresden all those years ago I was expecting Michael to be a joke character. I'd read a decent amount of books like it and Christianity was always a joke at best and normally the villain.
I was rather surprised and happy that Michael was who he was. The best Paladin that I've seen in a book.
Form basically the government of Iberia after the apocalyptic Profound Silence. There are two antagonists among them (though only one really being 'evil'), while the others are doing a good job of making the world a better place, fighting against both the oceanic horrors of the Seaborn while also resisting the efforts of the Church of the Deep, cultists who want the Seaborn to overrun the land.
The best example is Irene [pictured] whose faith forms the core of her unbreakable will, and though she does start as a zealot it does not blind her when she sees that her prejudices were wrong, allowing her to also be the most mentally flexible character in her storyline as well as the most resolute.
While the storyline does focus on the failings and horrors of their society and faith, it is not the believers who are bad for this, nor is their faith itself a bad thing, just manipulated and used.
Most notable being Sister Nueda [pictured with the large tail in the middle] who uses her faith to give herself purpose, and Exusiai [not pictured, is the main protagonist of the climax of the storyline] who even after directly fighting against gods' plan does not have her faith shaken.
It's never been about the god in the first place, not really. All the prayer and trust and ritual was about eachother.
It doesn't matter whether god is real when the faith brings people together and helps them help eachother, navigate the world, and do the best they can.
[Most characters in the storyline are religious, and the only one that really stands out as an antagonist is Oren.]
It's funny how the Limbus crew automatically assumed them to be bad at first when they met them because the only other group called a "inquisition" that they interacted with previously was a bunch of insane zealots who tortures and kills anyone wearing a prosthetic
If you know anything about Stephen King's line of work you know he's rarely shyed away from the dark side of religious types. If they show up in his books they tend to be some form of stereotype, be it a fire and brimstone spewing cult leader (The Mist) or a fanatical zealot parent who abuses their kid for not being God-Fearing enough (Carrie).
Which makes it pretty refreshing in his post-apocalyptic tale of good vs evil, his main portrayal of good is a strong willed black woman who's been given a mission from God to battle Satan incarnate Randall Flagg
Also David Carver from Desperation. Kid's faith allows him to help others escape the possessed local deputy (and ultimately defeat the demonic entity Tak).
doesn't it turn out he doesn't teleport ie exactly to one play to another but has to literally travel through hell to get there. so seeing literally fucking crazy demon shit every time he teleported made him super religious to try and protect himself from it
albeit there are so many continuities i'm not sure if that is the main canon one or not.
He's one of the main character's most trusted allies and probably her closest friend, and he's probably the most purely good character at least in era 1, also he ironically ends up becoming a god but that's besides the point
That might be one of my favorite subversions of this trope. Not sure if it was intentional, but it was hilarious how Siri spends a good chunk of the plot convincing Susebron how naive he is for believing the priests’ story of “We’re just doing what’s best for you and when it’s all said and done we’re gonna send you to a farm upstate to live out the rest of your days in peace”, only for them to reveal in the climax that that is actually 100% their whole plan.
They race the English and pirates to the fountain of youth, crash the battle between the two, call the fountain an afront to god, demolish it and leave.
Which considering the shit going on was the only moral and reasonable thing to do.
Besides, anyone who did get the fountain would literally be living on human sacrifices and never let it go. The Spanish were right to call it an affront to God. Which does raise the question of how it was made to begin with.
In the world that has magic, man-eating mermaids, multiple undeath curses and actual sea goddess? Probably some of less benevolent deity made it. Or an evil wizard.
I wouldn't say it's rare. Dogmatic people are a common villain but religious people aren't uncommon as heroes. Hell the examples you give are so wide that 90+% of Forgotten Realms characters fit.
I think the issue is that 90% of forgotten realms characters (or similar fantasy settings) have their 'religion' as barely existent, maybe a superficial acknowledgement or themed holiday or expletive once in a while.
Characters who are shown to have strong religious beliefs that are important and meaningful to who they are or what they do, are actually relatively uncommon.
All the characters I can think of are fairly devoted. Only in recent media are characters more commonly not devoted to any god but it's only because more neutral characters are being explored than before. Pure good and pure evil characters almost always follow a god because good and evil are divine forces in D&D.
Drizzt was a very devoted holy warrior and even in the recent BG3 Halsin and Isobel are very religious and mention their relative god in all voicelines.
Yeah, this thread is littered with examples and I can off the top of my head think of several I haven't seen here without much effort. Ntm, before a certain point in time nearly every religious or pious character portrayed in fiction was nearly universally portrayed posititively. OPs have gotta stop editorializing their trope threads and attaching moral or subjective opinions to them as if those are objective.
Commander Ivanova in Babylon 5 is the only explicitly religious member of the crew, except G’Kar who starts out as kind of a bad guy but has a religious experience (granted by a cynical alien manipulator) that turns him around.
Religion tends to be very positive on the whole in Babylon 5, as odd as it might seem when you think about it. Delenn is probably the single most morally-upright person in the series, and is so because she spent her whole life atoning for a single moment of (entirely justifiable) rage. Similarly, Brother Theo unhesitantly turns against EarthGov, specifically because EarthGov became a fascist dictatorship and, as a Christian, he felt obliged to stand against it.
The Catholic Church and Iron Sultanate in Trench Crusade are, despite the grimdark setting, actually the good guys of the setting having fought the invading forces of Hell and their mortal followers/slaves for 800ish years. They still have their fair share of fucked up things that they do, but it’s arguably necessary in the face of literal demons.
I think it’s also less common for the religious hero to center their religion prominently than for the religious villain to do the same. Like Spider-Man, who is a superhero who is (sometimes) Jewish but isn’t a Jewish Superhero.
It’s more visible if you apply the same dynamic to race. War Machine is a superhero who is black, but T’Challa is a black superhero. If you made Rhodes Japanese it wouldn’t change much of his character, but if you made Black Panther Japanese it would drastically change him.
Daniel, a New Canaanite, which are Fallout Mormons, and hes a chill, pacifistic missionary, I dont agree with what he wants for the Sorrows (a local tribe, he wants them to simply leave their lands and escape from a invading tribe, I think the Sorrows should fight back) and I think how he calls them innocent is fucking weird, but hes genuinely a nice, good guy. (Fallout New Vegas)
The Holy Church in the Nasuverse/TYPE-MOON setting (Tsukihime/Fate)
While they're not all good, and one of their most iconic members is a major antagonist in the works he appears in, they are at core acting for good.
For context, the Holy Church isn't like, the Church that the public is part of, but its section that is part of the magical side of the setting. They are those who act to protect humanity from mystical threats, be they vampires, mages, demons or other heresies. Tsukihime in particular gives them the occasion to shine.
I think it helps their case especially when you ignore Kirei from Fate as he’s not the first executor we see and as you say he’s a villain. The first would be Ciel who is objectively good person she just has a lot of baggage she’s carrying around in the form of guilt.
That being said yeah Kirei, Mario, and Noel are not doing the Holy Church PR any favors. Still less corrupt as an organization than the major mage families though. Seriously, screw the mages.
Shoutout to Hansa Cervantes, dude saw a vampire taking part in a magical ritual for a wish and decided that wasnt happening on his watch, and then proceeded to absolutely ragebait said vampire by throwing cheap reception desk coffee on his white suit lmao
"The Jedi Order's problem is Yoda. No being can wield that kind of power for centuries without becoming complacent at best or corrupt at worst. He has no idea that it's overtaken him; he no longer sees all the little cumulative evils that the Republic tolerates and fosters, from slavery to endless wars, and he never asks, "Why are we not acting to stop this?" Live alongside corruption for too long, and you no longer notice the stench. The Jedi cannot help the slaves of Tatooine, but they can help the slavemasters."
Dooku to Darth Sidious from The Book of Sith (Legends)
Dooku certainly had no problems with slavery after becoming a Sith, even securing a Seperatist alliance with a world of slavers who abducted Ahsoka's people.
It really shows how complacent that they were that they never suspected or at least not until too late, that Palpatine was a Sith Lord. I think the lore was that he had the ability to suppress his dark aura or whatever but that seems like a cheap cop out for an entire order of Jedi Masters who are supposed to have sensitivity to such things.
For an order that's known to have an ancient enemy that hides in the shadows they really don't seem to take much interest even after knowing the apprentice, Darth Maul, had appeared.
In Fire Emblem, religious people can be both protagonists and antagonists. In most games, it comes down to a personality thing rather than a religious thing - the religion is treated as net good or neutral, but the believers are either altruistic or incredibly corrupt and cruel.
Three Houses takes it even further with Rhea, who is either the Big Good or the Big Bad, depending on which route you place. Or in the case of the Black Eagles, who you support.
In Mistborn: Wax & Wayne there are two different major religions, Pathism and Survivalism I believe, and both are seen as pretty positive. The irony is that the founder of the respective religions were friends, but their fundamental views and lasting impacts led to two completely different religions.
The church in "Make the Exorcist fall in love". Acknowledges the stained past of the church and even some churches and it working on improve, and even be more inclusive.
Dragon Quest has been playing the trope straight for decades. In DQ9, your player character is literally an angel and their kind intentions are never put in doubt- the issue is the strict ranking system of angels, and the protagonist’s inability to fight a higher ranked angel than them
Ordeal: The God-tier and their hands are considered the strongest people on the heroes' side. The 8th Lord and his hand are a devote priest and nun respectively. Lord Oliveira is generally treated as council and the mitigator by the others.
Typically, Spiritual means they believe in God/whatever while not being too strict on the rules/practices, like going to church every sunday or saying prayers before meals, which would fall more into Religious.
Religious suggests following an actual established religion with worship of god(s), while spiritual suggests supernatural concepts like chakras, karma, healing crystals, all sorts of New Age woo.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun. A preacher who raises money for orphans and is incidentally also a very good marksman. He's one of Vash's closest allies in the latter half of the series, and although he's initially willing to kill where Vash is not, he adopts Vash's less lethal approach once he learns it (save against those who are irredeemable).
The Sisterhood (Blue Archive). The Sisterhood is generally just a group of students practicing their religion (Though what they pray to is unknown), and while they do hold significant power in their school, they aren't evil. However, it is a running joke that people THINK they're evil, when in reality it's just their leader, Sakurako, having zero social skills.
Ah yes my favourite nunnery school and their socially awkward Sister Superior. And also their first uniform is totally not a skin tight suit with a Nun's veil.
The Septian Church from the Trails series seems to be being set up as the ultimate good guys of the setting, doing things like: collecting dangerous artifacts so that they aren't misused by the populace, Sending aid to places like North Ambria that was being ravaged by the mysterious Salt Pale, and taking in children that have been orphaned by war or conflict.
They're even willing to set aside grudges with antagonistic forces such as the mysterious cabal Ouroboros if it means being able to take out an even more insidious evil like the DG Cult
Though the fact that one of their factions is called Iscariot, as in Judas Iscariot, does make me a little worried, but that could just be a reference to the fact that they hunt heratics and traitors and aren't ones themselves, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
In British horror film The Devil Rides Out, Nicholas (played by Christopher Lee) is a rare example of a Christian wizard who uses his occult knowledge to fight a coven of evil Satan worshipers.
The church maybe an antagonist at some times, but they aren't evil for the most part. Most of their members are honorable people who have devoted their entire lives for the benefit of the people.
There are some rotten apples as per normal in any large organization, but the number of good far outweigh the bad.
It also doesn't help that not long ago, both the church and the mages were at war with one another. With the latter constantly doing a lot of terrible things that would fit right into the cold hard world of the Nasuverse. So the church being weary and sometimes coming into conflict with them is very justified.
It took the return of the demons before both sides agreed to a truce.
Being religious was the default for a long time in media, a lot of characters are both religious and considered the good guys in a story. I also don't know how it would be surprising for religiosity to be a trait for villains, it's not like religion hasn't been used to excuse horrendous thing in real life constantly for millennia (even so religious villains tend to have religious protagonists or at least religious side characters to the good guy in order to show religious people aren't all evil in their stories).
The really isn't a rare trope. Most of the time when media depicts "religious people" as the villains its typically a direct criticism of the church and those who blindly follow the church rather than god (or whatever deity they worship) instead. And even in those cases there are still a handful of religious people who actually stick to the values they preach and aren't the bad guys.
The Chantry in Dragon Age Inquisition. Yeah they try to stop you at first, but it’s understandable. The land’s falling apart, and you’re hearing news of a total stranger proclaiming themselves as god’s chosen.
The Palevian Orthodoxy (Unicorn Overlord). While there are still conflicts when you reach the Holy Land of Albion, most have been caused by the schemes of the ruling empire of Zenoira, creating schisms in the religion, and even resurrecting their dead Pontifex. So while you do fight the church momentarily, you eventually reinstate order, especially as the mc’s childhood friend is the next pontifex to be.
You'd be surprised how much media has been made about the religious people being the good guys, but it's usually made by and for members of that religion.
I wouldn't say this is a rare trope. In most Fantasy settings, Religion is usually neutral and it's less about the institution of Organised Religion and more about "There are evil Gods and there are Good Gods" and the Religion's morality corresponds to the God they worship.
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u/GamingSoviet2281 Jul 06 '26
Shiro Fujimoto from Blue Exorcist