History WellIntentionedExtremist / WesternAnimation

** Equinox wants to balance Chaos and Order BY DESTROYING AND RESETTING THE UNIVERSE.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Unity wants to bring peace to the Universe by turning all life into a single HiveMind without any individuality.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode “Prehibernation Week”, the titular protagonist offers to spend one last week of playtime with Sandy before she goes to sleep for the winter. Unfortunately, her idea of fun involves dangerous extreme sports which soon become too much for him. Sandy is too engrossed in her games to listen to [=SpongeBob=], so he runs away and hides under Patrick's rock. In his rush to get away from her, he snags

* Bull Gator from ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' is this.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': Silco is absolutely correct that the people of the {{Undercity}} deserve better than the runoff of topside Piltover. The air is so polluted that [[RabidCop Enforcers]] sent down wear [[GasMaskMooks gas masks]] yet the local children breathe it every day. Hunger, poverty, crime are all rampant while the City Council of Piltover view them more as an nuisance than as fellow citizens. Becoming an independent nation of Zaun would at least allow the problems to be start to be addressed. The problem is that Silco would [[KickTheDog kick every puppy]] in the city if [[TheUnfettered that's what it took]], and he makes things worse in the name of acquiring the power to make things better.

*** This becomes a core part of Bubblegum's character as the series goes on. On the one hand, the Candy People are [[HobbesWasRight incapable of taking care of themselves, relying entirely on her autocratic role just to survive]], [[VetinariJobSecurity as is displayed anytime she's not around to babysit them]]. On the other hand, she's willing to go to some pretty scary lengths, including [[FinalSolution multiple counts of genocide]], [[PlayingWithSyringes unethical experimentation]], [[TheNeedsOfTheMany arranging the imprisonment of an (entirely unwitting)]] ApocalypseMaiden [[TheNeedsOfTheMany to make sure she never destroys the world]], [[SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands spying on her subjects and neighbors]] and later risking genocide ''again'' to disable an (already weakened) kingdom's remaining FantasticNuke arsenal. Notably, sometimes [[TheExtremistWasRight she's right]], other times [[KnightTemplar she really isn't]].

** Princess Bubblegum fits this trope in the episode "What Have I Done". She wishes to cure the Candy Kingdom of their freezer-burn flu, by making the Ice King howl in pain. When the Ice King refuses, she resorts to making Finn and Jake capture him so she can beat the howls out of him. She later learns that it is not in Finn or Jake's heroic nature to beat people for no reason, and apologizes for forcing them.

** [[spoiler:Katara ALMOST became this, seeking revenge after a Fire Nation soldier who killed her mother. She was driven to such rage that she casually uses blood bending to find the man. Only at the very last second does she hold herself back from actually killing him.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Lord Viren started out as the wise and loyal advisor of King Harrow, at first he seemed like a pragmatic leader that knew what was necessary for the good of the kingdom but as the series progresses, it is revealed that Viren's actions made things worse as he doesn't care about the morality and long term consequences as he consider collateral damage as acceptable loses. After Harrow pointed out is his fault everything got worse, Viren stopped caring about serving the king so he decided to betray him and overthrow him to prove that he is the smartest and strongest man in the kingdom and the only one capable of saving humanity from Xadia, although this is just an excuse to not admit he only cares about boosting his ego. Viren falls into this category for being someone who would cross every line to get what he wants with lies, blackmails, extortion, threats, betrayals and assassinations, especially using emotional manipulation and bending the law to his convenience, then breaking the rules behind everyone's back if persuasion doesn't work. Among other morally questionable things he did in his quest to "save humanity" are encouraging poaching rare and endangered animals and creatures for dark magic, convincing Harrow to kill dragon king Avizandum for revenge and kill unborn dragon prince Zym to make sure he wouldn't get revenge on Katolis when grows up, imprisoning elves into coins, ordering his children to kill the princes and get Zym at any cost including letting his son Soren die for it, locking Gren in his dungeon, stealing the royal seal to summon the kings into meeting, lying to the kings of being the regent and convince them to start a war with Xadia with lies and rumors, making smoke elves to assassinate the kings, make a coup in the kingdom, blackmail king Ezran to abdicate and send him to the dungeon, making an alliance with archmage Aaravos, destroying Lux aurea and stealing their power source, turning his army into mindless sunfire zombies against their will, attacking the storm spire, try to kill Ezran even when he lost the war, try to harvest Zym and then kill whoever he wants after absorbing his power.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': Surprisingly, [[WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck F.O.W.L.]] is this to an extent, specifically its leader, [[PragmaticVillainy Bradford Buzzard]]. A former accountant at S.H.U.S.H., he believed that the constant chaos of the world required someone to take it over and reign it in, but his ideas were understandably laughed off by Ludwig Von Drake. This led him to team up with noted villain [[CardCarryingVillain Black Heron]] to form F.O.W.L. so they could create an organization capable of putting the planet under their control while still enriching themselves in the process. The subsequent events of the first two seasons also lead them to trying to destroy the [=McDuck=] family, convinced their globetrotting adventures were putting the planet into too much chaos to effectively keep control over it.

** [[spoiler: The author, who turns out to be ''Stan's brother'' may have been one, hoping to create a device that benefited mankind, but caused a terrible accident, so bad that [=McGucket=], who was his assistant, created the memory gun just to forget about it]].
** [[spoiler: Stan himself spent thirty years trying to rebuild the portal and bring his brother back. But he committed a lot of crimes, from false identification to theft of toxic waste, to rebuild it. Not to mention lying to his family, and ignoring the warning that activating the device could have triggered TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].

** Zaheer and the rest of the Red Lotus want to bring balance and freedom to the world. [[BombThrowingAnarchist Unfortunately they want to do this by tearing down all of the nation's governments]], [[OrderVersusChaos seeing chaos as the natural state of the world]]. They also believe that, the world's leaders, such as the war-mongering Firelords, the incompetent president of the United Republic, and the tyrannical Earth Queen, [[VillainHasAPoint are the ones who end up doing the most harm to the world.]]

** [[GloriousLeader Kuvira]] is completely correct in her initial points. When she stepped in, the Earth Kingdom had collapsed into anarchy, the heir apparent was a [[RoyalBrat bumbling idiot]] and completely unsuited for the position, and the idea of a monarchy is itself an obsolescent relic in a technological age. That said, her solution is to overthrow the Earth Kingdom and declare an Earth Empire in its place, which [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire we know is a bad thing]], cementing it by forcing her citizens into slave labor ([[OffstageVillainy offscreen]]), [[PuttingOnTheReich jailing dissenters and anyone of non-Earth ethnicity]], and attempting to forcibly conquer every single state that was ever once part of the Earth Kingdom, including [[spoiler:Zaofu and the long-independent United Republic]]. [[spoiler: In the end, [[VillainHasAPoint the Earth King accepts her point about the monarchy and voluntarily abdicates to create a republic.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': As of Season 2, it's strongly hinted that [[BigBad Hawk Moth]] might be this. He wants the "ultimate power" that comes with possessing both Ladybug and Chat Noir's {{Transformation Trinket}}s not to TakeOverTheWorld, but simply to bring his beloved wife BackFromTheDead, and it's not yet clear whether or not he actually knows that the only way to accomplish such a feat is via BalancingDeathsBooks. This does not, however, make him any more of a sympathetic character, given that TheReveal of his motives came as a package with the reveal of his true identity as [[spoiler:Adrien's father.]]

** Come season five, Félix is revealed to be one as well, with his end goal being to liberate himself and Adrien (and eventually Kagami as well) from their ControlFreak relatives. However, his skewed moral compass as a result of [[AbusiveParents his late father's abuse]] leads to him not caring if he hurts innocents in the process, to say nothing of the fact that his scheme involved [[spoiler:giving most of the Miraculouses to [[BigBad Hawk Moth]] to protect his own existence.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Twilight Sparkle of all characters borders on this, given her tendency to resort to BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood in "Lesson Zero" and "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and otherwise coming up with ''very'' consequential solutions to problems like wanting to ''freeze time'' in ''It's About Time''. In canon she's never gone so far as to cause irrevocable damage, but FanFiction ''loves'' to give her a push [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope off the slippery slope]] and turn her into a KnightTemplar or [[AdaptationalVillainy full-fledged villain]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Hunter the Golden Guard carries out Emperor Belos's orders (including kidnapping [[BondCreature Palismen]] for Belos to consume and killing an innocent sea creature that wasn't bothering anyone) both because he believes everything he's doing is for the greater good, and because Belos is his uncle who saved his life as a child, taking him in and giving him an artificial staff after the rest of their family was killed, when Hunter likely would have never been able to build a future for himself otherwise. [[spoiler:When Hunter discovers all of this is a lie -- Belos's true intentions are to commit genocide on the Demon Realm and Hunter himself is the latest in a long line of clones made to look like Belos's late brother -- he has a massive panic attack, goes on the run, and pulls a HeelFaceTurn in his very next appearance]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''

* As seen in "[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Phineas and Ferb’s]] Quantum Boogaloo" , as a result of Candace busting Phineas and Ferb for their rollercoaster, MoralGuardians embark on a misguided crusade for the abolition of creativity in children, ultimately having children be stored in PeopleJars until adulthood. All for the sake of keeping children safe.

** Finn fits this trope a good deal of the time! If you've got a charismatic teenage boy who has super-strength and super-bravery, then odds are he'll probably use more than a few extreme methods during his zealous quest to conquer evil.
** The Ice King. He just wants to have friends and a wife, when you really think about it. All of the awful things he does stem from his desire for companionship.

** Magneto's depiction in the '90s ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' cartoon also qualifies. When Xavier questions his ideas, Magneto states that attempting to go with reason against an enemy using force led to it getting crushed.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Twilight Sparkle of all characters borders on this, given her tendency to resort to BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood in "Lesson Zero" and "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and otherwise coming up with ''very'' consequential solutions to problems like wanting to ''freeze time'' in ''It's About Time''. In canon she's never gone so far as to cause irrevocable damage, but FanFiction ''loves'' to give her a push [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope off the slippery slope]] and turn her into a KnightTemplar or [[AdaptationalVillainy full-fledged villain]].
** Starlight Glimmer wants to spread friendship and equality throughout all of Equestria...by robbing ponies of their special talents. Starlight, however, turned out to be a [[spoiler: {{hypocrite}} because she had her talent all along (though it is possible that [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation she was going to equalize herself for real once she'd done so to everypony in Equestria, and hadn't done so already because she knew that she would lack the drive to complete her goal)]]. This causes all her support to implode and she goes down in history as an evil ruler, undoing any good her methods might have brought.]]
** [[spoiler:The Season 5 finale later reveals that Starlight Glimmer adopted her ideology of friendship through total equality because her childhood friend, Sunburst, left her when she was a filly after receiving his cutie mark. This caused her to blame Cutie Marks for what happened, and to create her equality village, in hopes of creating a society where nopony could boast about being different or being better than others, and on top of all that, nopony would leave anypony else just to follow whatever destiny their Cutie Mark represents, like how Sunburst left Starlight.]]

** The Earl of Lemongrab fits this trope. Although he's a mean, sour, bitter, nasty-tempered JerkassWoobie, his intentions are pretty good. All he wants to do during his reign of the Candy Kingdom is live in a place that's quite and clean, free of pranks, trouble-makers, and anybody who bothers him. But he tries to achieve this mild goal through the worst, most extreme methods- screaming constantly and sending everybody in the Candy Kingdom to the dungeon for ONE MILLION YEARS!!!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Lord Viren started out as the wise and loyal advizor of King Harrow, at first he seemed like a pragmatic leader that knew what was necessary for the good of the kingdom but as the series progresses, it is revealed that Viren's actions made things worse as he doesn't care about the morality and long term concequences as he consider collateral damage as aceptable loses. After Harrow pointed out is his fault everything got worse, Viren stopped caring about serving the king so he decided to betray him and overthrow him to prove that he is the smartest and strongest man in the kingdom and the only one capable of saving humanity from Xadia, although this is just an excuse to not admit he only cares about boosting his ego. Viren falls into this category for being someone who would cross every line to get what he wants with lies, blackmails, extortion, threats, betrayals and assassinations, especially using emotional manitulation and bending the law to his convenience, then breaking the rules behind everyone's back if persuation doesn't work. Among other morally questionable things he did in his quest to "save humanity" are encouraging poaching rare and endangered animals and creatures for dark magic, convincing Harrow to kill dragon king Avizandum for revenge and kill unborn dragon prince Zym to make sure he wouldn't get revenge on Katolis when grows up, imprisoning elves into coins, ordering his children to kill the princes and get Zym at any cost including letting his son Soren die for it, locking Gren in his dungeon, stealing the royal seal to summon the kings into meeting, lying to the kings of being the regent and convince them to start a war with Xadia with lies and rumors, making smoke elves to assassinate the kings, make a coup in the kingdom, blackmail king Ezran to abdicate and send him to the dungeon, making an alliance with archmage Aaravos, destroying Lux aurea and stealing their power source, turning his army into mindless sunfire zombies against their will, attacking the storm spire, try to kill Ezran even when he lost the war, try to harvest Zym and then kill whoever he wants after absorbing his power.

* In the final episodes of Season Five of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', [[spoiler: Barriss Offee]] becomes one by bombing the Jedi Temple, because she believed the Jedi Order was degenerating from peace-keepers into warmongers, and believed they should be punished for it. That doesn't justify a bombing that killed many innocent people, however. Nor does it justify framing Ahsoka to cover your tracks.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has Mad Stan, who believes modern society is being crushed by information overload and a corrupt government and that everyone being connected by technology, the internet, and the media is destroying people with more information than they can process. [[StrawmanHasAPoint He might actually have a point]], but the issue is he's a MadBomber who thinks the "only sane way" to solve the problem is to blow everything up starting with the library of all places. He goes on in subsequent appearances to try and blow up Commissioner Gordon for being "part of the corrupt system" and trying to use Zeta to blow up the Department of Health to prevent [[DisproportionateRetribution an increase in pet license taxes]]. He's not a bad guy at heart, even intervening to save Zeta from the government by believing, [[RightForTheWrongReasons correctly so albeit for the wrong reasons]], that Zeta was an innocent man being victimized by the corrupt government, but the HairTriggerTemper, [[TheParanoiac crippling paranoia]], [[BombThrowingAnarchists love of explosions big and small and in-between]], and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans disregard of human life for his "cause"]] make it rather difficult for anyone to get along with him.

** [[GeneralRipper General Fong]]: He continuously pressures Aang to forgo the elements he has yet to learn and go into the Avatar state so they can take out the Fire Lord, not knowing the implications of doing so (as did the cast and audience at that point). He points out all the soldiers in the infirmary, and mentions the many that have died. He even starts attacking Aang with his soldiers, so they can release the state. [[spoiler: He also buries Katara alive though not killing her because he doesn't want Aang to turn on him.]]

* While the villains of ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' are strawmen at best, Sly Sludge and Looten Plunder occasionally come off as this. Sly Sludge's plans normally result from carelessness while trying to dispose of waste. It's not a bad goal by any means... he just doesn't know any better.
** Looten Plunder happens to come off as this during the episode "Bitter Waters". He approaches an Indian Reservation barely sustaining themselves with a proposition of setting up a business there. It provides the people of the reservation with paying jobs and money to spend, but causes environmental damage when Selenium starts tainting the water and he starts wasting it. For once, he doesn't get away because this was on an Indian reservation, and at the end of the episode when the people set up wind turbines and grow crops native to the area, admits they didn't need him after all, while working in the fields as punishment.

** ComicBook/{{Magneto}} of ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'' sees himself as closer to this than KnightTemplar, but considering his plan... well, it's probably closer to the latter in the eyes of others.

* The SequelSeries, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':

* ''[[VideoGame/DantesInferno]]: An Animated Epic'': Dante, before and during his time in the crusades. His unquestioning loyalty in his religious mission causes him to justify the beating of a prisoner for protecting a woman by claiming that he deserved what he got for being a heretic. He also uses his status as a soldier of god to gain comfort from the women whom the beaten prisoner was protecting, despite promising his wife that he would remain true to their marriage.

* ''Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic'': Dante, before and during his time in the crusades. His unquestioning loyalty in his religious mission causes him to justify the beating of a prisoner for protecting a woman by claiming that he deserved what he got for being a heretic. He also uses his status as a soldier of god to gain comfort from the women whom the beaten prisoner was protecting, despite promising his wife that he would remain true to their marriage.

** [[GeneralRipper General Fong]]: He continuously pressures Aang to forgo the elements he has yet to learn and go into the Avatar state so they can take out the firelord, not knowing the implications of doing so (as did the cast and audience at that point). He points out all the soldiers in the infirmary, and mentions the many that have died. He even starts attacking Aang with his soldiers, so they can release the state. [[spoiler: He also buries Katara alive though not killing her because he doesn't want Aang to turn on him.]]