History Main / ObliviouslyEvil

* The chef of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}''. He just loves (maybe a little too much) to cook fish. Not knowing they were actually sentient. That said, he's borderline AxCrazy when Sebastian starts evading him and showing clear signs of sentience does nothing to deter him from turning the poor crab into a meal.

* The chef of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}''. He just loves (maybe a little too much) to cook fish. Not knowing they were actually sentient.

** Light Yagami himself is firmly convinced that he's a DarkMessiah WellIntentionedExtremist whose actions are [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans justified]] and [[NecessarilyEvil necessary]]. When Ryuk remarks that he'll be the only evil person in the world left should his plans succeed, Light is perplexed and states outright he doesn't know what Ryuk is talking about. He's also a good example of how this trope does not '''remotely''' excuse a character by its mere existence, as his complete inability to recognize himself becoming increasingly sadistic and crossing [[MoralEventHorizon moral event horizons]] left and right arguably makes him worse than if he simply murdered people for money or power, as Near points out during his KirkSummation.

** The Ice King falls under this. He kidnaps countless women because he wants nothing more than to marry a princess. Later, he actually ''steals body parts from his favorite princesses'' and makes them into a princess for himself. He treats his Princess Monster Wife like a sweetheart, oblivious that he has committed a hideous crime. It's because [[spoiler:he's been driven completely insane by centuries of MindRape from the spirits in his [[ArtifactOfDoom crown]] and [[LossOfIdentity all he remembers]] of his old life is the loss of his fiancee, who he called his princess]].

[[AC:Unsorted/Dormant/Dead]]
* ''Fanfic/ArrowRebirth'':
** When his MaskOfSanity is in place anyway, Malcolm sincerely believes himself a good man acting in the best interest of his city, and sees the Undertaking as the ultimate demonstration of PayEvilUntoEvil. He's even stopped all attempts at gentrifying/improving the Glades to keep it a crime ridden slum, and wants both Rebecca's clinic and C.N.R.I. closed to ensure there are no good people in the Glades when he destroys it.
** Tommy, in ''Rise'', is elitist and naive, and thus a SpannerInTheWorks for Oliver and co. because he thinks Oliver is insane and needs genuine psychiatric help. He goes to the extreme length of exposing Oliver as the Green Arrow to do that, with catastrophic consequences.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': The titular character is a rare [[InvertedTrope inversion]], as his own philosophy makes him Obliviously ''Heroic''. To the rest of the world, and to an outside observer, Sonic as an AllLovingHero who always beats the villains (sometimes even [[HeelFaceTurn convincing them the error of their ways]]), believes in ThePowerOfFriendship, and saves the day. But his theme song, "It Doesn't Matter", directly states that he [[AboveGoodAndEvil doesn't care who's wrong and who's right]], he just does what ''he'' feels is right, and sees himself not as a hero, but "just a guy who loves adventure". It just happens that following his heart typically leads to conventionally heroic deeds. As one example, his response to opposing King Arthur in ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'' is "guess I can't be the hero every time", but said king is ObviouslyEvil and making the kingdom miserable.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the Children of Atom are a cult of radiation worshippers who believe that, through irradiating living cells until they break down, entirely new universes that were previously locked up in-potentia spring into existence. They're not '''malicious''', they're just [[BeliefMakesYouStupid blinded by their own religious fanaticism]], leading them to undertake "holy" events that cause them to kill people in the name of "helping them". In ''Fallout 3'', they start stealing bottles of the pure water the Lone Wanderer helped create and contaminating them with radioactive pollutants before giving them out to ignorant, innocent travelers, who proceed to die from radiation poisoning. In ''Fallout 4'', one band who has settled on the island of Far Harbor is determined to destroy the devices that ward off the lethally radioactive mists from settled zones.

* [[Characters/AmphibiaSashaWaybright Sasha Waybright]] from ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' is ''really'' not a good person, but she'd be shocked and offended to hear you say it. She's completely convinced that she knows best, and everyone who doesn't follow her lead is an idiot or an obstacle. Between being a complete ControlFreak, totally [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]], and a ManipulativeBitch, she is, by any objective metric, a ''horrible'' friend, and yet, she actually ''does'' care about Anne and Marcy, and sees her bullying behavior as harmless fun, "protecting" them, or encouraging them to live a little. [[spoiler:Anne [[GrewASpine grows a spine]] and calls her on it, and while she does [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone show some regret]], she refuses to acknowledge her faults and goes full RedemptionRejection instead. It's not until the third episode of Season 3, "Turning Point" that Sasha [[HeelRealization finally realizes just horrible she was as a friend and starts working to become a better person]].]]

* ''Series/SweetVicious'': Applies to the series antagonist, Nate Griffin. Despite raping Jules' years prior to the series, he generally doesn't seem to grasp what he did to her was wrong; or at least ''why'' he did it was wrong. As far as Nate himself is concerned, he only slept with Jules while she was drunk, and that the worst thing he did was "cheat" on Kennedy. As such he spends much of the series as a casual and lingering presence in Jules' life, even going as far as to ''enter her bedroom and sit on her bed'' to talk to Kennedy while she and Jules were already having a conversation. When Jules confronts him about his assault, he can only respond with a confused "What are you talking about ?". [[spoiler:Subverted towards the end of the series; after Nate is officially charged as a rapist, while on a drug fueled rant, Nate showcases that if he's aware of the severity of his actions now, he just doesn't care.]]

** Fluttershy in ''Pattycakes'' doesn't seem to realise that [[MindRape psychologically and chemically mind-raping]] Dash until her spirit breaks and she becomes convinced that she's Fluttershy's baby is in any way unethical. Sure, she was breaking her own rules involving her mental regression serum -- specifically, the one about only using it consensually -- but she wanted to be a mother ''so badly'' and, well, regressed!Dash is so happy to be a foal again, how could that be wrong? And making Scootaloo run a course of insane "tests", well, Scootaloo will either come out of it happy and well-adjusted as Dash's new adopted ''big'' sister (StockholmSyndrome is a real bitch, isn't it?), or she'll come out of it happy with her mind almost totally destroyed as her ''little'' sister! Win-win!

'''[=MePad=]:''' Oh, the great mysteries of life…

* The ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' has a couple cases, mostly with their GreenAesop episodes. In "Space Moby," the whales didn't understand that their asteroid feeding endangered the miners and the HonestCorporateExecutive that wanted the whales destroyed was just trying to protect his employees. A compromise is reached, and everyone wins. And in "Progress," the pair of aliens who set up a factory on a remote world didn't realize their "progress" was causing damage to the environment and driving the ocean-swelling inhabitants insane. They figure out how to turn a profit making pollution ''cleanup'' machines instead.

* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' the Wang Pu family are so used to their noble status and the ingratiating attitudes of the servants that they easily decide their fates on a whim without their consent, including giving them away, forcing female servants to become mistresses and executing them for wrongs committed by ''other people.'' For the first two, the Wang Pu family considers this doing them a ''favor.'' Xiaxi looks at the daughter doing one such thing for her family and lampshades the trope, thinking that Yixin's kindness towards her family is rooted in pure evil.

* They could just [[LethallyStupid be too stupid]] [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior or too young]] to understand that there are consequences for their actions.

Very much TruthInTelevision -- humans tend to do what they think is right based on their beliefs, regardless of how wrong those beliefs may be to outsiders or if those beliefs utilize InsaneTrollLogic; and while beliefs are malleable and subject to pressure and change, pretty much nobody in RealLife is a CardCarryingVillain explicitly thinking things like "Hmm, what evil deeds should I commit today?" or "I love being evil! [[EvilLaugh Mwahahaha!]]"

* One of the oldest immortals on ''Series/HighlanderTheSeries'' seemed to fit this trope. A mentally disabled man who loved animals and his [[BloodBrothers brother]] Methos, [[PsychopathicManchild Silas was also War]] of the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], someone who had spent centuries [[RapePillageAndBurn terrorizing the known world]] during the Bronze Age. He also probably didn't have the mental capacity to completely understand the morality of his actions or learn to change with the world around him.

* ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'' plays this [[PlayedForHorror horrifically]] with [[BigBad Dream]]. He's so narcissistic and arrogant that he genuinely believes himself to be the good guy, even as he engages in torture, murder, and the destruction of nations out of little more than petty spite. Any attempt to call him out on it leads to Dream insisting he did the right thing and that [[BlamingTheVictim his victims were the ones]] ''[[BlamingTheVictim really]]'' [[BlamingTheVictim at fault]].

* The shibito (literally "corpse people") in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' fit this trope precisely. They seem like zombies, walking around with fatal wounds, but their motions resemble that of a marionette on invisible and intangible strings, they speak with [[VoiceOfTheLegion a reverb in their voices]], go about twisted parodies of their living existence, and they seem genuinely ''happy'' with their condition. They wish to spread this "happiness" to others, attempting to cheerfully slaughter any living person they can find. Some of them have found beaches to lounge on, cities to live in... and in some of the endings, the protagonists go on a one-man rampage mass-murdering any shibito they can find, even the ones that are clearly running for their lives while wailing in fear. By then the protagonists have been conditioned to believe that any and all humanlike behavior from the shibito is a WoundedGazelleGambit.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' has the Flesh-Eater Courts. They see themselves as beautiful kingdoms of rich nobles and holy knights fighting evil. In reality they are hoards of twisted cannibalistic monsters under contagious shared delusions and may be fighting against good or evil depending what their insanity makes them see.

** All of the main characters represent one of the seven deadly sins, but the only character who's ''consciously'' evil is Plankton.

* This happens in the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorMenAgainstFire Men Against Fire]]", [[spoiler:in which soldiers are outfitted with a combat computer upgrade to their brains, which, among [[VictorySex other]] [[SexforServices motivational]] [[TheresNoPlaceLikeHome tactics]], makes them see undesirables targeted by the state as inhuman creatures that should be killed on sight]].

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* In ''Film/GlassOnion'', Birdie appears to be simply too ignorant and self-absorbed to notice when she does bad things or learn from the consequences. She casually drops ethnic slurs on social media without knowing what they actually mean and why they're offensive, is implied to have put on {{Blackface}} makeup intended as "a tribute to Beyoncé," and [[spoiler: her use of sweatshop labor turns out to stem from her not knowing what a sweatshop even is and thinking they're just where sweatpants are made.]]

* The WellIntentionedExtremist, who is aware that what they're doing isn't always right but believes that it [[NecessarilyEvil needs to be done anyway]].
* The WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, who is aware they're doing bad things but blames their victims or their own past mistreatment.

* PsychopathicManchild: Similar to the above, but this character is a grown adult with the mentality of a child.

* Marcus Immortus from ''Fanfic/APrizeForThreeEmpires'' intends to abduct [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers a woman]] into the Limbo dimension and implant his "essence" in her in order to be reborn in the physical world and use his father's science to make a Golden Age on Earth. It never occurs to him that his chosen mate would object to his actions.

->'''Trophy:''' Why in the world would the viewers vote ''me'' off?\\

* In ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'', Rusty thinks he's doing just fine, but his Pokemon tend to disagree.