History Main / NotQuiteTheRightThing

* In ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'', this is {{Downplayed}}. A midgame SadisticChoice requires you to choose between robbing an enemy-controlled bank for important intel or preventing their bomb-maker from committing suicide. [[ToBeLawfulOrGood If you're the kind of person who puts saving lives above stopping the bad guy]], it would seem like the right call is to stop the bomb-maker. However, doing so prevents you from acquiring [[spoiler:an antidote to the Orchid weapon]] at the bank, which is required to save [[spoiler:Director Miller]] come endgame. Of course, [[spoiler: things are complicated by Miller objecting to the cure (he's greatly to blame for the endgame situation), on top of the fact that pursuing the bomb-maker is your actual job, and doing so rewards you with a jammer that makes an endgame TakeAThirdOption easier, though isn't strictly necessary...if you're ok with letting dozens of people die horribly for a lie just because you don't know them personally.]]

** One of [[EvilMentor Kreia's]] ongoing lessons. At the Nar Shaadaa docks, you can give a beggar a few credits. After all, you're a Jedi, Jedi help people, and it's not all that many credits. If you do that, then the beggar is mugged and killed for those credits just as soon as he turns the corner.

** Kuvira's achievements in bringing order back to the Earth Kingdom, reuniting the different states and defeating the rampant banditry, are good. Her methods are not. Similarly, her distrust of the Earth Kingdom royalty after generations of either ineffective kings or petty tyrants is perfectly understandable, especially when the heir apparent is a ShelteredAristocrat ManChild like Prince Wu. The decision to [[MilitaryCoup usurp Wu by placing herself in charge of a military junta]], that is aggressively antagonistic towards all the outside powers that just wanted to put Wu on the throne and let the country be run by more experienced advisors is definitely not the right solution.
** Bolin initially joins Kuvira's forces out of a desire to help restore Ba Sing Se, the home of his extended family, and to do good. However, he is so focused on that he completely blinds himself to Kuvira's true nature or the drastic and authoritarian methods she uses to achieve her goals and reunite the different Earth Kingdom states.
** Opal, Suyin's daughter, accurately sees Kuvira's ruthlessness and how she is becoming a dictator, but adopts a WithUsOrAgainstUs mentality when it comes to Kuvira, which results in her lashing out when anyone suggests doing anything less than taking immediate direct action against Kuvira. Even things as simple as suggesting a temporary truce or an attempt at dialog has been met with a furious "I can't believe you're on ''her'' side," without even attempting to convince potential allies with anything else.
** When Kuvira moves to assimilate Zaofu into her new Earth Empire, a desperate Suyin attempts a DecapitationStrike by attempting to take out Kuvira. Considering Kuvira has already said that she isn't going to back down from attempting to conquer Zaofu, has already shown herself to be a dictator, and is at the head of massive army that can easily overcome Zaofu's defenses, this is an appropriate if risky move. Attempting to do it while a neutral third party like [[TheChosenOne the Avatar]] is frantically trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution and has gotten Kuvira to agree to a temporary truce... not so much.

* The first half of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'' ends like this. The good guys aligning with Zein managed to render the Ark off the grid. However, the Ark being destroyed doesn't rid the world of malice even with [[spoiler:the powers of [[BewareTheSuperman Kamen Rider Zein]]]]. Instead, [[spoiler:Zein its [[EvilAllAlong true colors]] towards its own followers]]. With one [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue A.I.]] taken out of the equation, another one far worse takes its place. Once all is said and done, [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins the entire human race is now under the mercy of a tyrannical A.I. with no hope of opposing it]], while proceeding with its plan to [[KillAllHumans wipe out all human life]] on Earth unimpeded under the name of "eternal benevolence"]].

* The first half of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'' ends like this. The good guys aligning with Zein managed to render the Ark off the grid. However, the Ark being destroyed doesn't rid the world of malice even with [[spoiler:the powers of [[BewareTheSuperman Kamen Rider Zein]]]]. Instead, [[spoiler:Zein its [[EvilAllAlong true colors]] towards its own followers]].]] With one [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue A.I.]] taken out of the equation, another one far worse takes its place. Once all is said and done, [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins the entire human race is now under the mercy of a tyrannical A.I. with no hope of opposing it]], while proceeding with its plan to [[KillAllHumans wipe out all human life]] on Earth unimpeded under the name of "eternal benevolence"]].

* The first half of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'' ends like this. The good guys aligning with Zein managed to render the Ark off the grid. However, the Ark being destroyed doesn't rid the world of malice even with [[spoiler:the powers of [[BewareTheSuperman Kamen Rider Zein]]. Instead, [[spoiler:Zein its [[EvilAllAlong true colors]] towards its own followers]].]] With one [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue A.I.]] taken out of the equation, another one far worse takes its place. Once all is said and done, [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins the entire human race is now under the mercy of a tyrannical A.I. with no hope of opposing it]], while proceeding with its plan to [[KillAllHumans wipe out all human life]] on Earth unimpeded under the name of "eternal benevolence"]].

* The first half of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'' ends like this. The good guys aligning with Zein managed to render the Ark off the grid. However, the Ark being destroyed doesn't rid the world of malice even with [[spoiler:the powers of [[BewareTheSuperman Kamen Rider Zein]]]]. Instead, [[spoiler:Zein its [[EvilAllAlong true colors]] towards its own followers]].]] With one [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue A.I.]] taken out of the equation, another one far worse takes its place. Once all is said and done, [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins the entire human race is now under the mercy of a tyrannical A.I. with no hope of opposing it]], while proceeding with its plan wipe out all human life on Earth unimpeded under the name of "eternal benevolence"]].

* Chapter 19 of ''VideoGame/ActionTaimanin'' ends with Kotaro sparing [[spoiler:[[GreaterscopeVillain Edwin Black]]]] to avoid the EvilPowerVacuum that would follow and because [[spoiler:Black]] at least understands the use of PragmaticVillainy and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good publicity]] unlike a great number of his underlings. Story events happening after that and the following story mode chapters show that while it did limit the damage to a slight degree, the mere fact that [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded Edwin Black]]]] was defeated by humans ''at all'' (and [[spoiler:Black]] being too busy recovering from the wounds suffered to bring order back himself) caused dozens of groups with their own ideas to splinter from [[spoiler:Nomad]], to the point some very dangerous equipment can be gotten by common thugs, and [[spoiler:Astaroth releasing Toyo Momochi's data to the entire world, revealing how much demons have their hands in various governments and organizations]] caused tensions to flare up within and between many countries and groups. Meaning that the end result of Kotaro's decision is that on top of the global unrest that would have occured anyways [[spoiler:Nomad is still standing and now Black, one of ''the'' most powerful demons in the universe, [[ItsPersonal personally wants to end Kotaro's life]] for the humilation]].

* In chapter 2 of ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/41851284/chapters/137571748 They're Twins!!!]]'', Mirelle, after researching and finding out that the Weather Girl contest was rigged in her favor, which lead to her rival Aurore's humilation and becoming the akuma Stormy Weather, shares the news with Stormy Weather and the two decide to expose the truth [[WellIntentionedExtremist by forcing everyone indoors then take over a TV studio to expose the truth]]. Ladybug tells them that while she undertsand why they did that, it wasn't the best way to expose the corruption. That said, she provides them the phone number of reporter Nadja Chamrick so they can publish the truth in a more legal matter.

Sometimes, [[BeingGoodSucks it hurts to do the right thing]]. Sometimes, [[ConflictingLoyalty it's damned if you do and damned if you don't]]. And [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime sometimes, what seemed a good idea at the time]] [[SenselessSacrifice turns out otherwise]]. It sounded like the right thing... but it turned out to be [[TitleDrop Not Quite the Right Thing]]. May lead to HeelRealization and MyGodWhatHaveIDone.

* The fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is filled with this, as many characters act according to what they believe is the right thing, but due to various facotrs including miscommunication, lacking critical information, or not being willing to listen to the point of view of other people, they wind up taking actions or saying things that become detrimental.
** Suyin refused pleas from world leaders to help reform the Earth Kingdom in the wake of the Earth Queens death at the end of the previous season, believing that it was time for the Earth Kingdom to evolve past its monarchy (and likely thinking that she would simply wind up perpetuating the monarchy by helping to hold the Kingdom together until a relative of the Queen assumed the throne), and worrying that bringing her forces from her city-state of Zaofu to the capital of Ba Sing Se would be met with resentment by the locals of Ba Sing Se and be seen as a foreign occupying force. Fair enough, but her seeming intent to take no action whatsoever while most of the country besides Zaofu descendes into chaos infuriates a number of her followers, most notably the Captain of Zaofu's CityGuards, Kuvira, and Suyin's oldest son, Bataar Junior. Those two and many like-minded people in Zaofu and its security forces leave Zaofu to try bring order and peace back to Ba Sing Se, and after their success there, the rest of the Earth Kingdom.

* Flashbacks in ''Blog/TheRoyalSketchbook'' show that Luna was struggling a lot with her sexuality as a teen, since lesbians weren't accepted or even commonly known back then. In an attempt to help her, Celestia takes her to see some gay stallions in the next town over in the hopes that they can give her advice. Sadly, the stalliond are old, jaded, and brutally honest, so their advice amounts to "Lay low, hide who you are, join the military, and ''maybe'' you will find someone like you and won't get killed for it," which only makes Luna feel worse.

* ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndEmerald'': Since [[ForWantOfANail Izuku was born with a Quirk]] similar to All for One's, Hisashi bribed Doctor Tsubasa to fudge his test results and diagnose him as Quirkless. While this protected Izuku and Inko from All for One's enemies, it also led to Izuku being ostracized for his Quirklessness, destroying Izuku and Inko's self-esteem.

* The Age of Dark ending in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' was already extremely {{ambiguous|ending}} about whether or not [[spoiler:letting the First Flame die so humanity can [[DawnOfAnEra start a new age themselves]]]] would be a good thing. Come ''[[DownloadableContent Artorias of Abyss]]'' and we discover that [[spoiler:the power of humanity, the power of the Dark Soul, going unchecked swallows whole lands with darkness and turns people into horrific monstrosity. Kaathe knows a similar event is possible without the Flame, but decides against telling the player the Dark's big downside in the hopes that the player can overcome the odds. Unbeknownst to both of you, either Gwyn or another supporter of the Fire created a contingency to remake the Fire in case the Dark ever actually won, so a "natural" age of Dark is no longer possible. Learning this doesn't stop Kaathe, but does change his methodology [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII two sequels later...]]]]

* ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'': Theodora meant well when she [[spoiler:ordered Spitelout's letters to Snotlout be intercepted]], but this left Snotlout believing [[spoiler:Spitelout did not ever want to talk to him again, which ruined any chance of them reconciling before Spitelout's death]].

* VideoGame/AiTheSomniumFiles hits you with this trope BRUTALLY. [[spoilers: The first [[Multiple Endings major divergence]] in the story is whether [[PlayerCharacter Date]] can cure Mizuki’s Aphonia/Aphasia from witnessing her mom’s corpse, logic would dictate you should cure a 12 year old girl’s trauma right? WRONG! If Date does, he ends up causing a series of events that let the [[SerialKiller Second Cyclops Killer’s]] plans to go off nearly perfectly (or just [[TheBadGuyWins flat out succeeding]] one route) in leading to a decent chunk of the main characters dead or maimed, even in the better routes. The correct solution is to pick the choice that leads to not being able to cure Mizuki as that leads [[Golden Ending]] by virtue of being a SpannerInTheWorks (and Mizuki gets better anyways)]]

Sometimes, [[BeingGoodSucks it hurts to do the right thing]]. Sometimes, [[ConflictingLoyalty it's damned if you do and damned if you don't]]. And [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime sometimes, what seemed a good idea at the time]] [[SenselessSacrifice turns out otherwise]]. It sounded like the right thing... but it turned out to be Not Quite the Right Thing. May lead to HeelRealization and MyGodWhatHaveIDone.

* ''Anime/StrainStrategicArmoredInfantry'': Sara can't bring herself to kill her brother, despite witnessing the massacre at Grabera. Because of this, he kills yet another person that Sara has allowed herself to care about. Although he is still the most important person in her life, she decides to stop him from hurting anyone else.

* Directly invoked in ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. After Boo Radley kills a drunken, murderous Bob Ewell in defense of Atticus's children, Atticus Finch is all set to get the authorities involved and begin processing the matter by-the-book. The [[MoralPragmatist local sheriff]], however, warns him that it's an open-and-shut case of self defense, Bob Ewell is [[AssholeVictim widely known and hated,]] and Boo Radley's extreme social phobias would make the resulting trial [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished absolute hell for him,]] however pure and innocent Atticus's intentions might be. The sheriff therefore 'officially concludes' that Bob Ewell [[CutHimselfShaving got drunk, slipped, and fell on his own knife.]]

* Chapter 19 of ''VideoGame/ActionTaimanin'' ends with Kotaro sparing [[spoiler:[[GreaterscopeVillain Edwin Black]]]] to avoid the EvilPowerVacuum that would follow and because [[spoiler:Black]] at least understands the use of PragmaticVillainy and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good publicity]] unlike a great number of his underlings. Story events happening after that and the following story mode chapters show that while it did limit the damage to a slight degree, the mere fact that [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded Edwin Black]]]] was defeated by humans ''at all'' caused dozens of groups with their own ideas to splinter from [[spoiler:Nomad]](and [[spoiler:Black]] being too busy recovering from the wounds suffered to bring order back himself) to the point some very dangerous equipment can be gotten by common thugs, and [[spoiler:Astaroth releasing Toyo Momochi's data to the entire world, revealing how much demons have their hands in various governments and organizations]] caused tensions to flare up within and between many countries and groups. Meaning that the end result of Kotaro's decision is that on toop of the global unrest that would have occured anyways [[spoiler:Nomad is still standing and now Black, one of ''the'' most powerful demons in the universe, [[VillainTakesAnInterest personally wants to end Kotaro's life]] for the humilation]].