History WellIntentionedExtremist / Literature

* Luke Castellan from ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' could qualify, as he genuinely believes that the gods are selfish and evil. He isn;t wrong - most of the gods don't care about their children or even each other. Even Percy thinks he has a point, and he hates Luke with a passion for the majority of the series. Unfortunately, Luke's methods include siding with a Titan that's much worse than the gods, and the war he helps start results in many demigod deaths. (Although it's debatable as to whether or not Luke was completely in control of himself; remember, Kronos was able to manipulate an actual ''god'' before Olympus even knew he was back.)

* Luke Castellan from ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' could qualify, as he genuinely believes (and perhaps could even have a point) that the gods are selfish and evil.
** He ''definitely'' has a point. The gods ''are'' selfish and most of them don't care about their children or even each other. Even Percy thinks he has a point, and he hates Luke with a passion for the majority of the series. Unfortunately, Luke's methods include siding with a Titan that's much worse than the gods, and the war he helps start results in many demigod deaths. (Although it's debatable as to whether or not Luke was completely in control of himself; remember, Kronos was able to manipulate an actual ''god'' before Olympus even knew he was back.)

** [[NebulousEvilOrganization Cauldron]] is an organization that regularly performs human experimentation and brainwashing on prisoners, [[spoiler:secretly run the Protectorate, and have accidentally spawned horrible monsters that have killed millions of people]], all to [[spoiler: save the world from Scion. It turns out that their [[SarcasmMode brilliant]] plan was to wait for Scion to start killing people and then attack him with an army of capes, which fails so badly that the apocalypse gets ''worse'' as a result.]]

* In the ''Franchise/EvilliousChronicles'':
** Gatt Coulomb is an assassin for the criminal organisation Père Noël- and sincerely believes that everything he does is necessary in order to "correct" the world.
** As the leader of the Tasan Party, Gammon Octo firmly believes that the ends justify the means when it comes to bringing an end to the corruption and suffering in Levianta and Elphegort. Later, he seems to reject that mindset, even condemning it in his commentary on the Red Shoe Parade.[[spoiler: Still, he works to destroy the sin contractors after the world ends, in order to to save the rest of the world.]]

** ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', [[spoiler:the Lord Ruler]]. Turns out he really was trying to save the world, and was even successful for quite a while. [[spoiler:Elend]] gets shades of this in later books as well. A key difference being that [[spoiler:Elend]] fully acknowledges (and regrets) that he's doing bad things to enable humanity to survive. He may not like it, but most of what he does is genuinely necessary. Meanwhile a lot of what [[spoiler:the Lord ruler]] does is needlessly cruel and doesn't seem to bother him at all. Of course [[spoiler:having [[OmnicidalManiac Ruin]] speaking in his mind for a few hundred makes it pretty obvious why The Lord Ruler ended up as [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity crazy as he was]].]]
** Hrathen from ''{{Literature/Elantris}}''. He is a high priest of a [[TheTheocracy military Theocracy]] and is currently assigned to convert the nation of Arelon. He believes that Arelon being converted and subjugated is inevitable and, considering the current political climate, he's almost certainly correct. Wyrn's martial forces could easily crush the the Arelene government and slaughter it's people at any time, so he's hoping to sway the people to his side through whatever means necessary in order to prevent a full fledged military invasion. He also [[spoiler: eventually acknowledges the flaws in the church when he finds out a higher ranking priest is planning on having everyone slaughtered regardless, with the church leader's blessing. He still believes in the religion, but concludes that it's leadership is flawed]].
** They're all over the place in Literature/Warbreaker. King Dedelin is, as far as he knows, giving one of his daughters up to monsters in Hallandren in order to save his kingdom of Idris from being invaded. The Gods of Hallandren are genuinely concerned about Idris trying to leverage their royal blood and reclaim rulership of Hallandren. [[spoiler:Vivenna]] begins waging a guerrilla war against Hallandren in order to weaken them for the upcoming war. Last but not least [[spoiler:Bluefingers is's trying to ignite a war between Idris and Hallandren to give his own people an opportunity to finally break free of their subjugation under Hallandren.]]

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** As one of the Sons of Honor, Amaram wants to bring back the Heralds so that they can "properly" lead humanity under the doctrines of the Vorin church. The Sons of Honor believe that to do so, however, requires them to start another Desolation, unaware that the Heralds both already live on Roshar, and desperately want to avoid another Desolation to the point that the Skybreaker order are actively assassinating Sons of Honor agents as well as potential Radiants. And even if their goals weren't terrible, Amaram has no problem murdering his own men when it's convenient for him, justifying it all as necessary.
** [[spoiler:King Taravangian]] is willing to go any lengths to save the world. Thus far, he's released Szeth to go on an incredible killing spree, reduced the nation of Jah Kaved to burned-out anarchy, and countless other crimes. In ''Literature/RhythmOfWar'', he [[spoiler:tops it all by ''killing Rayse'' and becoming the new [[GodOfEvil Odium]]. He looks out upon the Cosmere, decides it is too disorderly and filled with broken gods, and decides to use his newfound power to "save everyone." This starts with him continuing Odium's war, but from a more competent place]].
--->'''The Diagram:''' Q: For what essential must we strive? A: The essential of preservation, to shelter a seed of humanity through the coming storm. Q: What cost must we bear? A: The cost is irrelevant. Mankind must survive. Our burden is that of the species, and all other considerations are but dust by comparison.

** ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', [[spoiler:the Lord Ruler]]. Turns out he really was trying to save the world, and was even successful for quite a while. [[spoiler:Elend]] gets shades of this in later books as well. A key difference being that [[spoiler:Elend full recognizes and regrets when he's doing bad things to enable humanity to survive. He may not like it, but most of what he does is genuinely necessary. Meanwhile a lot of what the Lord ruler does is needlessly cruel which doesn't seem to bother him at all. Of course having [[OmnicidalManiac Ruin]] speaking in his mind for a few hundred makes it pretty obvious why The Lord Ruler ended up as [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity crazy as he was]].]]
** Hrathen from ''{{Literature/Elantris}}''. He believes that his religion's conquest is inevitable (and it's not a particularly unreasonable belief), so he thinks undermining the Arelene government and forcing the populace to convert, rather than simply allowing the army to slaughter them, is actually the best way to go about things. He also [[spoiler: eventually acknowledges the flaws in the church when he finds out a higher ranking priest is planning on having everyone slaughtered regardless, with the church leader's blessing. He still believes in the religion, but concludes that it's leadership is flawed]].

** The young Albus Dumbledore and his good friend Gellert Grindelwald, whose slogan was, "For the greater good." This "greater good" meant tearing down the international statue of century that'd been in place since the late 17th century so wizards could come out of hiding and subjugate muggles. After a tragic accident, Dumbledore revised his attitude. Grindelwald never did (or at least until he was much older and there was nothing that could be done about it).

** The young Albus Dumbledore and his good friend Gellert Grindelwald, whose slogan was, "For the greater good." After a tragic accident, Dumbledore revised his attitude. Grindelwald never did.

* From Creator/BrandonSanderson's ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', the [[spoiler:Lord Ruler. Turns out, all his crimes stem from an attempt to save the world. Elend gets shades of this in later books, as well. The difference between them is that Elend doesn't inadvertently open his mind to an AxeCrazy EldritchAbomination. The Lord Ruler did. It drove him [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity mad]].]]

* Menos, in ''Literature/{{Threadbare}}'', rules the kingdom of Cylvania with an iron fist. He consorts with demons, wages constant war, confiscates all magical items, closes down the dungeons that supply the villages, orders his troops to kill any village that has had any contact with a rebel, and uses his personal hit squad, rumored to be the reanimated bodies of the former heroes of the realm, to kill again and again. [[spoiler:An attempt to temporarily seal the realm off from invaders has left it in an unstable state, requiring demons, dungeons cores, and reagents from destroyed magic items just to keep it patched together enough that Cylvania doesn't just fall into the Void. Menos himself is grievously wounded, only able to step outside of his dungeon core for less than a minute at a time to restore his resource pools, and when he does sleep, a demon takes over his body and kills for amusement.]]

* ''Literature/TheHeroIsOverpoweredButOverlyCautious'': The residents of the Dragon Village [[spoiler:want to sacrifice Elulu to create the holy sword Igzasion, all to defeat Gaeabrande's Demon Lord. They'll go as far as to slip the party paralytic drugs to ensure that they can't interfere with the ritual. They also killed any of their citizens who opposed the sacrifice, including Elulu and Mash's families.]]

* ''Literature/TheHeroIsOverpoweredButOverlyCautious'': The residents of the Dragons' Den [[spoiler:want to sacrifice Elulu to create the holy sword Igzasion, all to defeat Gaeabrande's Demon Lord. They'll go as far as to slip the party paralytic drugs to ensure that they can't interfere with the ritual. They also killed any of their citizens who opposed the sacrifice, including Elulu and Mash's families.]]

** The Dirk Pitt adventure ''Celtic Empire'' has industralist Evanna [=McGee=] concluding that men have made a mess of the world. She thus plans to release a virus that will destroy any embryo with a Y chromosome inside it so only females are born. This would mean that within a few generations, no men are left on Earth with cloned embryos ensuring a female race survives. Pitt openly lampshades that the troubling part of this is that [=McGee=] A) truly thinks greed, violence and stupidity are ''only'' male traits; and B) that every other woman on Earth will be perfectly happy to go along with this mass gendercide.