History Main / EvilRunningGood

Compare TheParagonAlwaysRebels where the good leader ''turns'' evil, rather than ''turning out to be'' evil from the get-go.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** Among the companies that Wilson Fisk owns is Union Allied Construction, with whom he's skimming on Incident reconstruction contracts in Hell's Kitchen.
** In season 3, Wilson Fisk sells out the Albanians and paints himself as one of these to manipulate Ray Nadeem.

* In ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', MI6 is run by a man known as "M", which they assume to be Mycroft Holmes. This causes some hilarity in M, who is actually Professor Moriarty.

* In the ''Film/StarWars'' prequel trilogy, Senator Palpatine is elected Chancellor of the Republic, which has kept a precarious semblance of peace since its inception. By the third film, he has almost absolute control over the Republic and is revealed to be the Sith leader, Lord Sidious, who has been manipulating both sides of Republic and the occurring wars since the first film.

And then one day or perhaps from the beginning, either as part of an Evil Plan, a cover-up, or just a HeelFaceTurn, a bad guy ends up running it. Often villains would refuse the chance because all those goody goodies would be consistently around them, but some take the chance to use it to their advantage. Rarely are these villains anything but a BadSamaritan, BitchInSheepsClothing, TreacherousQuestGiver, or FauxAffablyEvil characters, but at times they may be [[AffablyEvil genuinely polite]], [[StraightEdgeEvil proper]], and thoughtful folk. They just happen to have sinister pastimes on the side or a grand malevolent goal in the future.

* In ''Series/MarvelAgentsOfSHIELD'' a number of storylines deal with the fallout of ''The Winter Soldier'' in which HYDRA was found to have infiltrated SHIELD, with the latter half of season 1 dealing with the civil war that broke out inside the agency as a result and subsequent seasons dealing with SHIELD loyalists trying to rebuild it. The third season also reveals that Gideon Malick, a member of the United Nations Security Council from the first ''Avengers'' movie, was yet another HYDRA leader.

* In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Emilio Largo is in charge of the International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. He is also "Number Two" in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE [=Special=] Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). The Brotherhood acts as a front group for SPECTRE.

* In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Emilio Largo is in charge of The International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. He is also "Number Two" in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE [=Special=] Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). The Brotherhood acts as a front group for SPECTRE.
** SPECTRE and its mysterious leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is behind many criminal schemes involving {{Evil Plan}}s of the TakeOverTheWorld variety. And its ruling council is a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — [[NebulousEvilOrganization SPECTRE]] is essentially a [[CovertGroup shadow]] [[ShadowDictator government]], whose members choose to operate in the dark but present themselves to the public as VillainsWithGoodPublicity.

* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has a rather peculiar version of this trope with the Sentinel storylines. An organization bent on humanity destroying itself is actually behind projects like orphanages and bringing resources to poverty-stricken areas, because this will encourage a population boom that will drive mankind to extinction faster. The Sentinels are now wander the world blowing up such projects, in the name of good.

[[quoteright:265:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxwell_lord_manipulation.png]]

* In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Emilio Largo is in charge of The International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. He is also "Number Two" in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE — ([=Special=] Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. The Brotherhood acts as a front group for SPECTRE.
** SPECTRE and its mysterious leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is behind many criminal schemes involving {{Evil Plan}}s of the TakeOverTheWorld variety. And its ruling council is a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — [[NebulousEvilOrganization SPECTRE]] is essentially a [[CovertGroup shadow]] [[EvilRunningGood government]], whose members choose to operate in the dark but present themselves to the public as VillainsWithGoodPublicity.

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' [[spoiler: for the whole first season Prof. Eobard Thawne a.k.a the Reverse Flash was using S.T.A.R. Labs crew and Team Flash under the guise of Dr. Harrison Wells, who was Flash's mentor and boss of S.T.A.R. labs.]]

* In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Emilio Largo is in charge of The International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. He is also "Number Two" in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE - ([=Special=] Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. The Brotherhood acts as a front group for SPECTRE.
** SPECTRE and its mysterious leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is behind many criminal schemes involving {{Evil Plan}}s of the TakeOverTheWorld variety. And its ruling council is a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — [[NebulousEvilOrganization SPECTRE]] is essentially a [[CovertGroup shadow]] [[EvilRunningGood government]], whose members choose to operate in the dark.

* In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', Emilio Largo is in charge of The International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. He is also "Number Two" in the criminal organization known as SPECTRE. ([=Special=] Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). The Brotherhood acts as a front group for SPECTRE.

[[Live-Action TV]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', there is a case revolving around the figure of worship and veneration in the Adeptus Mechanicus. DependingOnTheWriter, the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is responsible for running the Imperium's machines and starships, actually worships the C'tan star god called the Void Dragon as the Omnissiah (as opposed to the Omnissiah being an aspect of the GodEmperor, the in-universe explanation).

* Both the comic-book MarvelUniverse and the MarvelCinematicUniverse versions of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} were eventually showcased to have been run for a very long time by HYDRA (DependingOnTheWriter, the comic-book SHIELD was even led by HYDRA as far back as ''its inception'').

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'', there is a case revolving around the figure of worship and veneration in the Adeptus Mechanicus. DependingOnTheWriter, the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is responsible for running the Imperium's machines and starships, actually worships the C'tan star god called the Void Dragon as the Omnissiah (as opposed to the Omnissiah being an aspect of the GodEmperor, the in-universe explanation).

* In the ''Spawn/Batman'' crossover, the main villain of the story, Dr. Margaret Love,would be an example. She's the founder and leader of the ''Heal The World''charity foundation mentioned in the story that provided food and shelter to New York's homeless population along with social realignment. She also experimented on homeless men to turn them into robotic slaves and tried to start a war that would kill off humanity using stockpiled nuclear weapons due to becoming a MisanthropeSupreme after seeing the world fail to become the paradise she desired.

* In the ''Spawn/Batman'' crossover, the main villain of the story, Dr. Margaret Love,would be an example. She's the founder and leader of the ''Heal The World''charity foundation mentioned in the story that provided food and shelter to New York's homeless population along with social realignment. She also experimented on homeless men to turn them into robotic slaves and tried to kill millions in New York using stockpiled nuclear weapons due to becoming a MisanthropeSupreme after seeing the world fail to become the paradise she desired.

** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/MegaManZx'' Advent where it is a case of evil "hiring" good, but [[TheObiWan Master Thomas]] has given the player orders to thwart the enemies'plans and also commands the BountyHunter organization to stop the BigBad. In TheStinger, your benefactor reveals himself to have a similar goal as the BigBad's (RestartTheWorld), but he just did not like how the BigBad tried to go about it.

And then one day or perhaps from the beginning, either as part of an Evil Plan, a cover-up, or just a HeelFaceTurn, a bad guy ends up running it. Often villains would refuse the chance because now all those goody goodies that would be consistently around them, but some take the chance to use it to their advantage. Rarely are these villains anything but a BadSamaritan, BitchInSheepsClothing, TreacherousQuestGiver, or FauxAffablyEvil characters, but at times they may be [[AffablyEvil genuinely polite]], [[StraightEdgeEvil proper]], and thoughtful folk. They just happen to have sinister pastimes on the side or a grand malevolent goal in the future.

Polar Inverse to GoodRunningEvil. Often a sister trope to TyrantTakesTheHelm if the figure in question is newly appointed after a benevolent boss has been removed. The malevolent figure in question is often a MoleInCharge if working for a separate sinister organization. If not, it is often a case of ConspiracyRedemption for a protagonist who has joined the organization.

* In ''Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco'', it's revealed that the leader of the Space Patrol is actually a Blackholian (an AlwaysChaoticEvil race of ImpossibleThieves).

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxwell_lord_manipulation.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Meet Maxwell Lord. Wealthy Philanthropist. Founder and long-time leader of the Justice League International. Manipulative Sociopath]]

* In ''Anime/SpacePatrolLuluco'', [[spoiler: it's revealed that the leader of the Space Patrol is actually a Blackholian (an AlwaysChaoticEvil race of ImpossibleThieves).]]

* In the original ''{{Comicbook/Runaways}}'', most of the kids believed that they'd been brought together by Alex Wilder to stop their supervillain parents from bringing about the end of the world. [[spoiler: In reality, their parents' plans were already likely doomed, as the human and non-human families were planning to double-cross each other at the last possible moment. Thus, the real reason that Alex brought them together was to create a common enemy to force their parents to work together so that they would carry out their plan and bring about the end of the world, at which point he expected that his family would get special favors from their benefactors.]]

-->--'''Jade''': ''Film/BulletProofMonk''

* In ''{{Comicbook/Aztek}}'', the Q Society is an Ancient Tradition working to avert the end of the world. In the present day, it's heavily dependent on financial support from a wealthy sponsor is revealed partway through the run to be [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lex Luthor.]]