History EvilVersusEvil / Literature

* Michael Marano's ''Dawn Song'', in which there is a battle for dominion over humanity between the demon lord Belial and his [[HornyDevils succubus]] minion who represent the [[EvilIsSexy aesthetic side]] of evil and the demon Leviathan who represents mindless, chaotic ugly evil.

* Literature/{{Kane}} is the world's first murderer, AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist, cursed by his MadGod creator to endlessly wander the world, bringing [[RapePillageAndBurn death and destruction]] in his wake. However, in the process he often happens to fight greater evils, [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] or simply characters that are even more repugnant than himself -- like [[KnightTemplar the Crusader]] Lord Gaethaa and his men.

** There's additionally the Seanchan: while they are are less expressly and all-consumingly evil in terms of the SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness of the series, and are convinced to make common cause against BigBad the Shadow for the Last Battle, they are also a brutal, expansionist, hegemonic culture with a rigid caste system, who are trying to systematically conquer the world and have a value system that allows them to quite comfortably oppress, enslave, abuse, or just outright murder anyone who opposes the will of their greedy, racially chauvanistic nobility and monarchy--all out of a sense of inherited manifest destiny. They kill male channelers outright and reduce female channelers to the status of animals, and it is implied that they committed a fair bit of genocide on the Seanchan continent to consolidate their power and (in one possible future at least) are set to do so again on the eastern continent, exterminating the Aiel and possibly others. For those that aren't just killed outright, sadistic physical, mental, and sexual abuse are all shown to be on the table when it comes to breaking the will of subjects and slaves, as we see in the case of Liandrin, Almathera, and Suroth, among others. While there are a handful of Seanchan "protagonists" who demonstrate that the Seanchan belief system is complicated and not completely devoid of a certain sense of honor, and it is also shown that the quality of life of those who accept Seanchan rule and bow to all of their cultural norms is mostly decently high, even these details only marginally soften the image of this highly tyrannical and culturally/militarily imperialistic state--and it is only by comparison to the world-ending, source-of-all-evil level antagonists that they can become "good guys" of a sort, in terms of the climactic conflict.

* Robert Reed's science fiction novelette "Five Thrillers", published in the April 2008 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', is about a sociopath who slowly rises through the political ranks, repeatedly prevents genocides and eventually (SPOILER ALERT!) saves the human race from complete destruction, all because he is disturbingly, creepily, stomach-turningly amoral, way moreso than the supposed villains of the story.

** There's additionally the Seanchan: while they are are less expressly and all-consumingly evil in terms of the SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness of the series, and are convinced to make common cause against BigBad the Shadow for the Last Battle, they are also a brutal, expansionist, hegemonic culture with a rigid caste system, who are trying to systematically conquer the world and have a value system that allows them to quite comfortably oppress, enslave, abuse, or just outright murder anyone who opposes the will of their greedy, racially chauvanistic nobility and monarchy--all out of a sense of inherited manifest destiny. They kill male channelers outright and reduce female channelers to the status of animals, and it is implied that they committed a fair bit of genocide on the Seanchan continent to consolidate their power and (in one possible future at least) are set to do so again on the eastern continent, exterminating the Aiel and possibly others. While there are a handful of Seanchan "protagonists" who demonstrate that the Seanchan belief system is complicated and not completely devoid of a certain sense of honor, and it is also shown that the quality of life of those who accept Seanchan rule and bow to all of their cultural norms is mostly decently high, even these details only marginally soften the image of this highly tyrannical and culturally/militarily imperialistic state--and it is only by comparison to the world-ending, source-of-all-evil level antagonists that they can become "good guys" of a sort, in terms of the climactic conflict.

** Also, when Harry was revealed to be a Parselmouth and everyone believed him to be dark because of this, somebody theorized he only defeated Voldemort to have no competition.

** ''Knight of the Black Rose'' novel sends one of Dragonlance most iconic villains, [[DarthVaderClone Lord Soth]], to ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' where he quickly comes to antagonize [[ClassicalMovieVampire Strahd Von Zarovich]].

* Happens in-universe in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', although it's more a case of JerkAss vs. Annoying. When Snape and Lockhart are dueling, Harry and Ron think the best outcome would be if they finished each other off. Also, when Harry was revealed to be a Parselmouth and everyone believed him to be dark because of this, somebody theorized he only defeated Voldemort to have no competition.

** One of the most significant events during the Second Age that determine the future of Middle Earth, is the military expedition of Numenorin order to contest for the control of its peoples with Mordor. By this point, Numenor has become a tyrannical conquering [[TheEmpire empire]] and has reached its moral nadir with its last king Ar-Pharazon, who in his greed and arrogance sees Sauron as a rival for the title of indisputable, absolute ruler over Ardar. Immediately Sauron realises that in order to win, he will have to feign defeat and submit himself to the king. This sets the first step into Numenor becoming a theocratic, tyrannical conquering empire.

* ''Literature/HaloPrimordium'' has a complicated example. In it, the Forerunners are revealed to have been at war with themselves (in isolated areas) for many years, with the war now in full force all across the empire. To the main characters, all human, this is an example of the trope, as the Forerunners have treated their species as animals and test-subjects for the Flood for years. Especially evident when the "spirit" of the ancient human known as the Lord of Admirals, who fought and lost to the Forerunners once and displays extreme RevengeBeforeReason tendencies toward them, finds a ruined city destroyed years ago in a battle. At first he is so overjoyed he is able to take control of his host and wander the ruins, but is quickly overtaken by sorrow at its pitiful attempts to rebuild itself, musing that humans and Forerunners are NotSoDifferent.

* The entirety of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' manages to be this, while impressively forgoing DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Alex is a VillainProtagonist gang leader, murderer, and serial rapist, who is betrayed by his own gang in revenge for the brutal way he asserts his leadership. His ColdBloodedTorture at the hands of the government and the PoliceBrutality that goes with it means that those stopping him aren't much better. Things get more complicated when he allies himself with LaResistance after that, and they betray him by [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide deliberately driving him to attempt suicide]]]] to give the government bad publicity, making ''them'' cross the MoralEventHorizon too. Then, the ''government'' publicly apologizes to Alex to restore their reputation... by [[spoiler: letting him go back to murdering and raping people]].

* This is how ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' comes across for some readers. It seems to boil down to how much BlueAndOrangeMorality a given reader can put up with: the book is written entirely from the perspective of two carnivorous canine characters who are ''very'' inhuman in their thinking and (lack of) morals. If a reader can't get into their heads, DarknessInducedAudienceApathy takes over and it becomes a story of [[VillainProtagonist two bloodlusting, villainous canine protagonists who hate each other]]. This goes for the human characters, too, since half of the book is from the perspective of a fox trying to avoid getting killed by them and all of it is from the perspective of [[HumansAreCthulhu two canines who can't wrap their minds around most of the things humans do]].

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', [[TheCaligula Visser Three]] and [[PragmaticVillainy Visser One]] are usually at each other's throats--Visser One has the higher rank and Visser Three isn't secretive about how much he wants her spot. The Animorphs and Visser One are [[EnemyMine willing to work together]] to stymie Visser Three, but they are in a tight position since she can be quite dangerous herself (especially after she figures out that [[spoiler:at least some of them are human]]). In one book, the Animorphs, Visser One, and Visser Three each had their own plans to kill off the other two at once. The two Vissers also have opposite plans about how the conquest of Earth should work: Visser One, who started the invasion, favors the slow, secretive route, while Visser Three wants to go into open war and just round up whatever humans survive the mass slaughter that will ensue.

** Also in the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' it is heavily implied that one of the reasons the Empire was created was to defend the galaxy against extragalactic threats like the Yuuzhan Vong - though less for the sake of the galaxy, and more because ''Palpatine'' wanted it. This is unambiguously one of Grand Admiral Thrawn's key motivations.

* This is how the {{Muggles}} of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' think about The Dragon fighting The Dark One in the back story, since The Dark One is an Expy of the devil, but The Dragon went on to destroy most of the world - people say "The Dragon Brings Both Despair and Hope" for a reason. This makes people understandably nervous about the coming of The Dragon Reborn, but it eventually turns out that The Dragon was a good guy who got a heavy dose of MindRape (which only partly carries over to his re-incarnation).

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* The theme of "evil against evil" is prevalent in the book ''Film/TheExorcist'', starting with Merrin's archaeological trip to Iranq where he finds a demon statue that the natives stated was an evil artifact to combat evil. This foreshadows Karras' "evil act" of [[spoiler: accepting Pazuzu into himself, to save Regan]].
** ShownTheirWork : the demon's Pazuzu, Mesopotamian King of Wind Spirits, [[GodIsEvil monster]] [[spoiler: and main antagonist of the story.]] As SummonBiggerFish noted, he was summoned (mainly by pregnant mothers) to combat his arch-enemy and wife, Lamashtu, who was known for killing or kidnapping young children.

* ''Literature/HellsChildren'' by Andrew Boland. Though most of the characters occasionally PetTheDog, it’s mostly Evil Versus Evil.

* Anything by Creator/SvenHassel. On one side there are ThoseWackyNazis - the protagonists' side - while on the other side are the hordes of DirtyCommies. and, yes, AnyoneCanDie. Expect a lot of [[SociopathicSoldier sociopathic soldiers]] and RapePillageAndBurn. Oh, yes, AnyoneCanDie.
* Creator/SMStirling's ''Marching Through Georgia'' pitted ThoseWackyNazis against Literature/TheDraka. Most readers end up rooting for the Nazis, because the Draka ''are even'' '''''worse.'''''
* Creator/BeatrixPotter employs this in "The Tale of Mr. Tod" in which the two antagonists, a fox and a badger, are enemies that end up fighting each other.
* The first part of ''Literature/TheTwits'' deals with the evil Twit couple facing off against each other before the heroes who take them down are introduced.
* Creator/HarryTurtledove has an interesting example in his ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series: we have a lot of scenes of powers often thought of as "evil" such as the Nazis, the Imperial Japanese, and the Soviets fighting the invading Race. The twist is that the Race are much more "civilised" even than the Western Allies (they're possibly an allegory for the Western world in the Nineties) yet they see us as inferior and want to conquer and assimilate us and erase our culture. It can often be an uncomfortable crux for the reader to decide who is the more evil.
** [[FromBadToWorse It got worse]] in the sequels (''Colonization''). When the Colonization fleet arrives and starts unloading civilians, someone uses a nuke against them, killing millions. [[spoiler:It was the United States that did it, and to prevent another war from breaking out the President allows the Race to nuke Indianapolis.]]

*** Yuuzhan Vong vs Ssi-ruuk - two races of ScaryDogmaticAliens go to war.
*** Yuuzhan Vong vs Yevetha - two races of ScaryDogmaticAliens go to war.

* ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'' by Thomas Harris. On one hand you've got Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself, serial killer and cannibal, versus [[spoiler: Mason Verger]] who abused his own sister as a child, moved on to molest more children and planned on [[spoiler: feeding Dr. Lecter to some pigs he's had trained to eat human flesh]].

* In the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar is described as this, since both sides are religious fanatics whose war aim is to [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar convert or kill the whole of the other side]].
* Harry {{Literature/Flashman}} is a loathsome, profiteering, traitorous cowardly braggart who'll KickTheDog for fun, betray his country at the drop of a hat, and lie shamelessly about it all to look like a hero afterwards. But he's generally up against some of the nastiest pieces of work the 19th century has to offer, so you'll (almost) forgive him for it as long as they lose in the end.
* This is how ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' comes across for some readers. It seems to boil down to how much BlueAndOrangeMorality a given reader can put up with: the book is written entirely from the perspective of two carnivorous canine characters who are ''very'' inhuman in their thinking and (lack of) morals. If a reader can't get into their heads, DarknessInducedAudienceApathy takes over and it becomes a story of [[VillainProtagonist two bloodlusting, villainous canine protagonists who hate each other]]. This goes for the human characters, too, since half of the book is from the perspective of a fox trying to avoid getting killed by them and all of it is from the perspective of [[HumansAreCthulhu two canines who can't wrap their minds around most of the things humans do]].
* ''Literature/CarrionComfort'', by Creator/DanSimmons. While there are good guys and they are the point of view about a third to half the time, the plot is ultimately driven by the two big bad chessmasters. Most of the cast happen to be their pieces, and a good chunk of the cast are sociopathic mind vampires.
* Michael Marano's ''Dawn Song'', in which there is a battle for dominion over humanity between the demon lord Belial and his [[HornyDevils succubus]] minion who represent the [[EvilIsSexy aesthetic side]] of evil and the demon Leviathan who represents mindless, chaotic ugly evil.
* The ending of the ''Dragonlance Chronicles'' trilogy has Raistlin, by this point an evil black-robe, helping Tanis kill [[BigBad Ariakas]] for his own purposes. In the sequel ''Legends'' trilogy, it is revealed that Raistlin's ultimate agenda is to kill and replace Takhisis, the head evil goddess of the setting. In the ''Lost Chronicles'' trilogy, particularly ''Dragons of the Highlord Skies'', it is revealed that there was in general a tremendous amount of infighting and back-stabbing among the Dragonarmies.
** The ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series does this a lot. The Knights of Takhisis were instrumental in the defeat of the Chaos armies. Lord Soth and several of the Dragon Overlords were killed by more powerful villains after tearing through the greatest heroes on the continent for years. Nuitari, god of the black moon, makes a habit of subtly disrupting any plots by his fellow evil deities that might disrupt the balance of the world. One of the central concepts of the setting is that Evil is typically more powerful, and almost always has the advantage of being the aggressor in a given conflict, but will inevitably turn upon itself and give Good a chance to restore the balance.
** ''Knight of the Black Rose'' novel sends one of Dragonlance most iconic villains, [[DarthVaderClone Lord Soth]], to ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' where he quickly comes to antagonize [[ClassicalMovieVampire Strahd Von Zarovich]].

* Creator/ThomasLigotti's [[GenreBusting odd little novel]] ''Literature/MyWorkIsNotYetDone'' has for its "hero" one Frank Dominio, an [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] RealityWarper who sits on the edge of NominalHero only by dint of the fact that nearly every victim of his RoaringRampageOfRevenge is, to greater or lesser extent, even worse, though only if we are to trust him at all.
* ''Literature/{{Grunts}}'' chronicles the struggle between the '''INCREDIBLY''' {{Jerkass}} Light, and the at best FauxAffablyEvil Orcs.
* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'', Corwin actually describes himself as "a part of that evil which exists to oppose other evil."
* A good portion of the ''Literature/WarOfTheSpiderQueen''.
* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'' we have [[spoiler: Tigerstar Vs. Scourge]] during ''The Darkest Hour''. And, depending on your view of them, [[spoiler: Stick Vs. Dodge in [=SkyClan's=] Destiny]] may count.
* Much of Glen Cook's ''[[Literature/TheBlackCompany Annals of the Black Company]]'' is devoted to the internal conflicts between powerful evil sorcerers. Much of the original trilogy involves the Lady's struggle to keep her EvilerThanThou husband, the Dominator, from freeing himself, so she can keep ruling her own empire as she pleases.
* Happens in-universe in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', although it's more a case of JerkAss vs. Annoying. When Snape and Lockhart are dueling, Harry and Ron think the best outcome would be if they finished each other off. Also, when Harry was revealed to be a Parselmouth and everyone believed him to be dark because of this, somebody theorized he only defeated Voldemort to have no competition.
* The final battle of the ''Literature/BookOfSwords'' trilogy is fought between Yambu, the Silver Queen, BigBad of the first 2 novels, and [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Vilkata, the Dark King]] of the 3rd book. Interestingly, Yambu only does her HeelFaceTurn ''after'' she wins the battle but loses her throne. The 3rd book does give Yambu a [[BrokenBird sympathetic backstory]], including something of a FreudianExcuse. But it's not an accident that she wins the battle using Soulcutter, also known as the Tyrant's Blade, a name she acknowledges.
* PrivateDetective and VigilanteMan Literature/MikeHammer, as quoted in ''One Lonely Night'' just before he blew away a bunch of DirtyCommunists who were torturing Velda.
-->''I was the evil that opposed other evil, leaving the good and the meek in the middle to live and inherit the Earth!''
* An extreme example is the alternate history novel "The Ultimate Solution" by Erik Norden [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Solution]], depicting a history in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan won the Second World War, divided the world between them and instituted a most horribly oppressive society ([[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking all Jews exterminated to the very last, Blacks and Slavs reduced to sub-human servitude, torture and child prostitution as encouraged pastimes, men making out with each other in public etc. etc.]]). Having destroyed everybody else, the Germans and Japanese fly at each other's throats, and by the last chapter are about to destroy each other and the entire world in a nuclear holocaust - with the plot slanted to make the reader feel this might be a good idea.
* [[BigBad Caine]] seems to be bumping heads more with villains like Drake and Penny than he does the heroes in ''Literature/{{Gone}}''. He actually ends up [[spoiler: being the one to kill Penny]], and [[spoiler: he [[GrandTheftMe gives his body]] to [[BigGood Little Pete]] for a Mutual Kill with Gaia.]]
* The third book of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' gives us two {{President Evil}}s battling for control of Panem: President Snow and President Coin. [[spoiler: They both die in the end.]]
* This is an explicit theme of the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy''. Gerald Tarrant, one of the two main characters, is an emotion vampire, an EvilSorcerer, and all around VillainProtagonist. The ''other'' main character is Damien Vryce, a [[WarriorMonk warrior priest]] of the One God, who spends most of his time making sure Tarrant stays pointed at the ''real'' bad guys, [[GodOfEvil Calesta]] and [[EvilOverlord the Undying Prince]]. This is explicitly a philosophy of the church that Damien follows [[spoiler: and Tarrant, during his mortal existence, helped found]]: if you bind evil to defeat a greater evil, you can change its nature and make it into something better.
* ''Literature/HaloPrimordium'' has a complicated example. In it, the Forerunners are revealed to have been at war with themselves (in isolated areas) for many years, with the war now in full force all across the empire. To the main characters, all human, this is an example of the trope, as the Forerunners have treated their species as animals and test-subjects for the Flood for years. Especially evident when the "spirit" of the ancient human known as the Lord of Admirals, who fought and lost to the Forerunners once and displays extreme RevengeBeforeReason tendencies toward them, finds a ruined city destroyed years ago in a battle. At first he is so overjoyed he is able to take control of his host and wander the ruins, but is quickly overtaken by sorrow at its pitiful attempts to rebuild itself, musing that humans and Forerunners are NotSoDifferent.
* The entirety of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' manages to be this, while impressively forgoing DarknessInducedAudienceApathy. Alex is a VillainProtagonist gang leader, murderer, and serial rapist, who is betrayed by his own gang in revenge for the brutal way he asserts his leadership. His ColdBloodedTorture at the hands of the government and the PoliceBrutality that goes with it means that those stopping him aren't much better. Things get more complicated when he allies himself with LaResistance after that, and they betray him by [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide deliberately driving him to attempt suicide]]]] to give the government bad publicity, making ''them'' cross the MoralEventHorizon too. Then, the ''government'' publicly apologizes to Alex to restore their reputation... by [[spoiler: letting him go back to murdering and raping people]].
* In the first book of the ''Literature/BekaCooper'' trilogy, the serial extortionist/childkiller called the "Shadow Snake" targets Amon "Crookshank" Lofts, a vile slumlord who is responsible for the book's ''other'' serial murder case. The Dogs take their time investigating, since some of them have family members whose lives were ruined by Crookshank.
* In ''Literature/TheBookOfLostThings'' both the Crooked Man and the Loups both want David for their own reasons.
%%* ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'': Gwilanna Versus Ix. Ix:1 Gwilanna:0
* In ''Juliette, or the Prosperities of Vice'', the Marquis de Sade tries to portray evil as triumphant, with his decadent villain-protagonists swimming in wealth and power, as they kill, rape, steal, and screw their way through the story. For the most part "wolves can lie down with wolves." Until they can't. Noirceauil murders Saint-Fond for his wealth, and the title character robs several other villains...killing one and leaving another alive because he is so ''awfully'' bad (but even that is not convincing; her extreme selfishness would normally lead her to cut his throat just to ensure he would not come back for revenge).
* In ''Literature/{{The Ties That Bind|Hayes}}'' by Rob J. Hayes, the heroes are pretty terrible people but they're in a GrimDark SwordAndSorcery world so they kind of have to be. Special attention goes to the Blackthorn and Inquisitor Darkheart, who would be villains in most other S&S novels.
* Gary Seven views this as the best way to play out the [[Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars Eugenics Wars]], playing the superhumans against one another. His plan succeeds, they spend more time fighting each other than anything else.
* ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheBlackSun'' starts out as an invasion of Ricalan by imperialist slavers is being held at bay almost single-handedly by a very powerful EvilSorcerer with his own agenda. A decisive victory for either one would be bad news for anyone caught in the middle. Later on, however, non-evil forces arise which rival them.
* Robert Reed's science fiction novelette "Five Thrillers", published in the April 2008 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', is about a sociopath who slowly rises through the political ranks, repeatedly prevents genocides and eventually (SPOILER ALERT!) saves the human race from complete destruction, all because he is disturbingly, creepily, stomach-turningly amoral, way moreso than the supposed villains of the story.
* The main conflict in Asi Hart's dark comedy ''Literature/TheUltimateKillingGame'' is this. It is cannibals versus some violent gangsters.
* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars The Gods of Mars]]'' has the [[LightIsNotGood Therns]] and the [[DarkIsEvil First-Born]] civilizations. They were [[NotSoExtinct supposedly extinct]] [[MasterRace supremacist]] AlwaysChaoticEvil races that secretly manipulated Barsoom's inhabitants for millenia into travelling to the River Iss in search of paradise so they could be enslaved. However, the Therns and First-Born have long clashed among themselves, with the latter regularly abducting the former's females to be taken to what is believed AFateWorseThanDeath. [[TheHero John Carter]] fights against both them over the course of the book when he is trying to expose their ploys to the rest of the planet.
* Many clients of ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' are just as bad, sometimes even moreso, than their opponents. Most of the time individual Slammers voice some objections, but ultimately the regiment as a whole is loyal to the [[PrivateMilitaryContractors highest bidder]]. Though in ''The Sharp End'' a survey team scouting out two drug cartels as potential clients decide that both of them are too repugnant to work for and decide unanimously to manipulate them into wiping each other out before sending off their report to Hammer. [[spoiler: Which leads to the planet's government hiring Hammer's Slammers to clean house anyways.]]
* The main villains in ''Literature/{{Somewhither}}'' is the Dark Tower, a brutal tyranny who have conquered most of the words in TheMultiverse. However, most of the worlds they've conquered weren't much better, being inhabited by such pleasant peoples as evil wolf-men and sadistic vampires.
* Literature/{{Kane}} is the world's first murderer, AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist, cursed by his MadGod creator to endlessly wander the world, bringing [[RapePillageAndBurn death and destruction]] in his wake. However, in the process he often happens to fight greater evils, [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] or simply characters that are even more repugnant than himself - like [[KnightTemplar the Crusader]] Lord Gaethaa and his men.
* The ''Literature/{{Parker}}'' series by Donald Westlake features the titular VillainProtagonist whose main redeeming quality is that he's just so ''good'' at being a [[ConsummateProfessional career criminal.]]
* This trope gets a mention in "Thor Meets Captain America" by Creator/DavidBrin. The Nazis gain the upper hand by using genocide as fuel for a necromantic spell to create the Norse gods. The protagonist realises this too late to pass the message on.
--> Better America and the Last Alliance should go down fighting honorably than even be tempted by this knowledge … to have its will tested by this ''way out''. For if the Allies ever adopted the enemy's methods, there would be nothing left in the soul of humanity to fight for.
* ''Literature/GlindaOfOz:'' Ozma and Dorothy travel to a remote corner of Oz to attempt to mediate a looming war between the Flatheads and the Skeezers. It turns out that neither side's leader (Su-Dic and Coo-ee-oh respectively) are at all nice people.

* [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]: Gwilanna Versus Ix. Ix:1 Gwilanna:0

* This is how ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' comes across for some readers. It seems to boil down to how much BlueAndOrangeMorality a given reader can put up with: the book is written entirely from the perspective of two carnivorous animal characters who are ''very'' inhuman in their thinking and (lack of) morals. If a reader can't get into their heads, DarknessInducedAudienceApathy takes over and it becomes a story of two bloodlusting beasts who hate each other. This goes for the human characters, too, since half of the book is from the perspective of a fox trying to avoid getting killed by them and all of it is from the perspective of [[HumansAreCthulhu two animal characters who can't wrap their minds around most of the things humans do]].

* Everyone in ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' is an unsympathetic {{Jerkass}} who are hostile to each other without a break from them. Special mention went to both Tod and Copper, the eponymous fox and dog who are {{Villain Protagonist}}s.

** When the Greyjoys (and, by extension, the entire Iron Isles) splinter and start fighting each other, we're left grading the relative shades of midnight blue ([[BlueAndOrangeMorality anybody banging the drum on behalf of the Drowned God]]), dark violet (Victarion Greyjoy's more [[ObliviouslyEvil oblivious to his heinous actions]] than anything else), various slates (most of the RapePillageAndBurn-happy Ironborn) and absolute pitch black (this would be Euron Greyjoy, primarily). When everybody's favourite immature, smug, JerkJock, rapist, turncoat and murderer, Theon Greyjoy, is about the closest we get to an innocent baa-lamb in this mess (he was too busy "entertaining" Ramsay Bolton in the North to be directly involved in the family spat when it kicked off), we've definitely hit this trope.

** ''Knight of the Black Rose'' novel sends one of Dragonlance most iconic villains, [[DarthVaderClone Lord Soth]], to ''TabletopGame/Ravenloft'' where he quickly comes to antagonize [[ClassicalMovieVampire Strahd Von Zarovich]].

* In the first book of the ''Literature/ProvostsDog'' trilogy, the serial extortionist/childkiller called the "Shadow Snake" targets Amon "Crookshank" Lofts, a vile slumlord who is responsible for the book's ''other'' serial murder case. The Dogs take their time investigating, since some of them have family members whose lives were ruined by Crookshank.

* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal]] by Thomas Harris. On one hand you've got Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself, serial killer and cannibal, versus [[spoiler: Mason Verger]] who abused his own sister as a child, moved on to molest more children and planned on [[spoiler: feeding Dr. Lecter to some pigs he's had trained to eat human flesh]].