[[DeathNote http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kira-i-am-justice-light-yagami-2707766-576-432.jpg]]
[[caption-width:576:I am Light Yagami, and... [[AGodAmI the god of this world.]]]]

->''"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."''
-->-- '''Western European proverb'''

->''Zaibach: Kicking your ass for the greater good.''
-->-- ''VisionOfEscaflowneAbridged'', '''Episode 9'''

A villain who has an overall goal which the heroes can appreciate in principle, such as saving the environment or protecting a minority. However, it is the methods the villain uses (such as mass murder) which are the problem; despite any sympathy they may have with his cause, the heroes have no choice but to stop him. Taken to extremes, he may fully believe that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans.

Other times, the villain may be out for simple {{revenge}} against a person or corporation or other entity that has undeniably wronged him. Again, the heroes may sympathize with his plight, but are obliged to stop him because he cares not who gets in the way of his planned revenge. However, the heroes will often investigate the villain's grievance themselves and will complement stopping the villain with taking down the offending party as well.

Either way, it's a common end result of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. Their favorite phrase is IDidWhatIHadToDo. They are not afraid to [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning sacrifice themselves for the cause.]]

Often a TragicHero that became an AntiVillain, and sometimes a WorthyOpponent or even ReluctantWarrior. The extreme of this is the KnightTemplar who [[VisionaryVillain fully believes that they are in the right]] and the best way to save the world is to [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill remove free will.]] VigilanteMan is a case where the WellIntentionedExtremist [[MotiveDecay hasn't (yet) descended]] to the point of not caring who gets hurt. Often ends up in rivalries with the KnightInSourArmor. Some of those seeking to bring about a OneWorldOrder to end international strife may count as these.

Contrast with NecessarilyEvil, where he has a HeelRealization and recognizes that he deserves punishment. (Of course, he may always choose to just [[IgnoredEpiphany Ignore That Epiphany]]). Often TheFettered. See also ALighterShadeOfGrey.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': SEELE's leaders want to eliminate sorrow in the world...through murder and manipulation galore. Gendo wants to reunite with his wife and not cause his son pain...which causes him to be a jerkass of a father and a cruel manipulator of his lovers.

* Almost the entire cast of ''CodeGeass''. In fact, it's probably the point of the series.
** MagnificentBastard protagonist Lelouch, who is [[WhyDoesEveryoneThinkImDeadpool often compared]] to [[DeathNote Light Yagami]], is actually much closer to well-intentioned extremism. His primary goal is overthrowing the oppressive {{Darwinist}} [[TheEmpire empire]] because it tramples on those who are weak or kind-hearted. In a subversion, even he has trouble stomaching some of the steps it takes to achieve his goal, as seen when [[spoiler:he becomes physically sick after killing a half-brother who fully supported the empire, and nearly breaks down after unintentionally causing the death of his beloved half-sister who was much nicer and dedicated to similar but less extreme goals.]]
** Then the show ''really'' messes with the audience when it reveals that [[spoiler:'''both''' of Lelouch's parents, Emperor Charles (whom he despises) and Marianne (whom he admires) intended on creating an ideal world free of war, strife, or lies, by slaying the gods and starting their own version of Ragnarok. Oh, and they ask him to go along with it too.]]
** Lelouch [[spoiler:throws the "Well-Intentioned" out of Extremist when he becomes a despotic overlord and Emperor of the world, and moves to execute any and all political opponents.]] Oh, wait, no, that's [[spoiler:how he '''wants''' to portray himself, so that once the world's hate is concentrated on him, he can arrange for himself to be publicly assassinated, ending the chain of hatred by setting up the infrastructures and political status quos he had set up earlier himself and achieve world peace through his death.]]
** Schneizel [[spoiler:had his own designs for bringing about world peace. They just happened to involve nuking a bunch of key cities and using the Black Knights as pawns. ItRunsInTheFamily I guess.]]
* PLANT Chairman Gilbert Durandal in ''GundamSEEDDestiny'', inspired by Rau Le Creuset's inability to understand his own existence (which drove him insane and allowed him to nearly wipe out the human race), decides that human conflict stems from human dissatisfaction of their own roles and abilities, and attempts to implement an utopian society through the Destiny Plan, which would craft a world civilization under genetic determinism. To this end, he is perfectly willing to manipulating the masses, assassinating his political opponents, destroying countries, using superweapons, and doing that all while maintaining an extremely high level of charisma throughout the world.
** And another ''Gundam'' example, Zechs Merquise/Milliardo Peacecraft of ''GundamWing'', who became convinced in the final episodes of the anime that the only way to end humanity's penchant for war was to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the Earth]], the cradle of humanity's bloody history, as he believed that the people of the space colonies were purer in purpose in regards to peace than those who lived on Earth.
*** Both of them were [[{{Expy}} inspired by]] Char Aznable (Durandal even has the same Seiyuu) from the first ''MobileSuitGundam'' series, or to be more precise, ''Char's Counterattack'' in which Char tries to make the Earth uninhabitable to force the population to migrate into space, which he believes will prevent wars by making everyone a [[EvolutionaryLevels Newtype]].
** And ''GGundam'' has Master Asia, Domon Kasshu's OldMaster. When he's first revealed as a villain, he seems to be just another {{Brainwashed}} minion of the [[BigBad Devil Gundam]], but he eventually reveals that he's NotBrainwashed and is aiding the Devil Gundam of his own free will. From his time on Earth in the previous Gundam Fight, Master Asia concluded that humans were destroying the planet. The Devil Gundam had been made (as the Ultimate Gundam) to restore the Earth with its {{Nanomachines}}, but due to a malfunction concluded that this mission required it to KillAllHumans. Master Asia agreed. [[spoiler:When Domon finally defeated Master Asia near the end of the series, Master saw the error of his ways. But of course, RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]
* Celestin from ''AhMyGoddess'' TheMovie is, in tune with the emphasis on romance in the series, a much lighter version of this. Still, the fact that he [[spoiler: purposely erases Belldandy's memory of her love for Keichi specifically, infects her with a virus that uses her as a contact point to infect Yggdrassil, and forces her to undergo a procedure that has a 16% chance of working properly, otherwise erasing ''all'' of Bell's memories of not only Keichi but her sisters and Heaven itself, all in order to gain the power necessary to eliminate sadness and suffering from the world by force, he's not exactly ''nice'' either.]]
* The [[spoiler:Anti-Spirals]] from ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' are out there to prevent the universe from being destroyed by an overload of Spiral Power, and in order to do that, they take TheHeartless way and prevent any feelings of hope and courage from sprouting around the Universe.
** Rossiu from the same arc of the same series qualifies, as he [[spoiler:betrays his friend Simon by placing the blame for the Anti-Spiral attacks on him, sets him up in a [[KangarooCourt phony trial]], and sentences him to death so he can stop the riots. He realizes that the [[WrongGenreSavvy only way to save any part of humanity]] is to let a majority of them die. [[IDidWhatIHadToDo There's no other option, he tells himself]]. After Simon escapes custody and saves the day (and the world), Rossiu remembers what genre he's living in and decides to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath take his own life]], but Simon forgives him and shows him the light. And by "the light" I mean [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan a clenched fist moving slightly below the speed of sound]] followed by a pep-talk. Gotta love that little guy.]]
*** Ironically, he actually commented on this ''himself'' a while earlier:
---->'''Rossiu''': Sometimes the best intentions can lead us down the wrong path.
** Similarly, Lord Genome. To protect humanity from growing too numerous and being wiped out, he forced it underground and had the Beastmen kill anyone who wandered onto the surface.
** Finally, at least from the viewpoint of the three above, Simon himself and the Dai Gurren-Dan, who are doing exactly what the antagonists fear will destroy humanity/the Earth/the universe, and with no other justification than "Who the hell do you think we are?" [[HeelFaceTurn Some of them come around by the end, though]].
* Light Yagami from ''DeathNote'' claims to have good intentions in the first half of the series, by using the Death Note to get rid of the criminal element. After [[spoiler:L dies]], it becomes clear that making the world a better place has been put on the backburner, while he instead acts purely to inflate his own ego.
** Only then? One would think his AGodAmI speech in the first episode would have been a red flag.
** Light believes, even until [[spoiler: his defeat and death]], that his actions as Kira have made the world a better place. (In purely statistical terms, he's correct; murders, wars and crime drop significantly worldwide due to fear of Kira.) But his tremendous ego means he can't conceive of a world where he's not directly running the show.
**Not to mention Teru Mikami, who, as a lawyer, saw helping Light achieve his goal as the best way to serve justice. Too bad he quickly devolved into a rambling psycho that made Light look well-adjusted by comparison.
** He makes the Joker look well adjusted. To be fair, though all crime has dropped to pretty much zero percent, the whole of humanity is living in fear. And then when Kira says he is going to begin killing lazy people...
***That was Teru's idea, though Light does monologue his approval.
* Makubex of ''GetBackers'' is a great example of this trope. He's introduced as the villain of the I.L. story arc with the goal of [[spoiler: creating an atomic bomb to use as a bargaining chip for the God of Infinity Fortress, in order to say 'stop controlling us or else'.]] Of course, [[spoiler: trying to make a deal with God by using an atomic bomb]] may not be the best METHOD of madness, but at heart his goals are to make life better for the enslaved masses of Infinity Fortress' Lower Town, which has become a living Hell since Ginji left.
* In ''SpaceRunawayIdeon'', the Buff Clan's supreme military leader, Doba Ajiba, was willing to risk the destruction of the majority of his race if it meant the destruction of the Ideon. Of course, when one considers that the power of the Ide was forcing the Earthlings and Buff Clan to genocidally slaughter each other, it probably is the lesser of two evils.
** Not to mention that [[spoiler: the home planets of both the Earthlings and the Buff Clan were just destroyed by meteors, leaving those fighting as the few left of their kind.]]
* The villain of the third ''{{Tenchi Muyo}}'' OVA, Z, becomes one due to unfortunate circumstances.
* Nagi from ''{{Mai-Otome}}'' believes that the Otome system of sending female bodyguards off to war in place of their country's leaders is an outdated model, and wants to put an end to it (which is exactly what series protagonist Arika wants to do)...by ''literally'' destroying the system from which the Meisters derive their abilities, using [[LostTechnology ancient weaponry]] and a horde of sentient monsters (summoned by {{cult}}ists willing to give up their lives for the cause).
*Dewey, from ''{{Eureka 7}}'' fits this to a T. After all the spiels about human dignity, it's not hard to believe he truly believes that [[spoiler:obliterating the hive mind of the Coralians]] is the best way to save the planet. Unfortunately [[spoiler:this actually would have ended the entire universe because the rest of the Coralians would have woken up and there would be too much thought in the universe]]. Even worse [[spoiler: he had a backup on him to take out the backup hive minds... Eureka and Anemone.]]
* Itachi Uchiha in ''{{Naruto}}''. Kill your entire clan, including your mother, father and best friend for peace? MindRape your brother into becoming an "avenger"? Sympathetic Good or Stupid Evil? You decide, but he ''did'' get a FreudianExcuse.
** Also, Pain, whose goal is to eliminate war. His plan involves collecting all of the Tailed Beasts (killing their human containers in the process) to make a weapon of mass destruction that will kill millions and scare all of the countries into [[strike: never fighting again]] not fighting for a while before fighting inevitably returns, at which point one side will get hold of and use this weapon again, giving rise to another short time of "peace". Small periods of peace is his ''goal'', which shows he has a better grasp on human nature then Watchmen's Extremist.
*** Human nature perhaps, but international relations? No. He fails that forever.
** Danzou also qualifies. His ultimate goal, much like Naruto and Pain, is to bring about peace in the ninja world. However, he believes this can only be done through power, to the exclusion of hindrances like emotion. He's not above brainwashing people or attempting to subjugate all other ninja villages, even if that requires the deaths of countless people, to achieve his goals.
* [[spoiler:[=The British Library=]]] in [[ReadOrDie [=R.O.D the TV=] ]]honestly believe that the world will be a better place if [[spoiler:Mr. Gentleman rewrites everyone's memories and personalities however he pleases, including their own. Strangely they never think to ask him if he thinks it's a good idea...]]
* ''{{To Aru Majutsu no Index}}'': Aureolus Izzard, who isolated himself three years ago after [[spoiler:failing to save Index from having to have her memories erased]] and has been desperately trying to find a cure ever since.
* In ''HunterXHunter'', Meryem, the Chimeran Ant King, suddenly makes a dramatic change into a WellIntentionedExtremist from a CompleteMonster who wants to KillAllHumans. After [[ThePowerOfFriendship befriending a human girl]] (whom he originally kept alive so he could one day defeat in the only strategy game he wasn't prodigal at), he learns that there are certain humans that deserve to live, and remakes his plan for the [[TakeOverTheWorld Chimeran Ants inheriting the Earth]]. Instead, he decides to protect the weak and remake the world so that it is ''so'' equal, the word "equality" doesn't even exist any more. The extremist part? He wants to abolish the old system by force, and is only willing to protect the weak he deems "have the right to live."
* [[spoiler: Admiral Gil Graham]] from ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha A's'' wanted to stop the [[OmnicidalManiac Book of Darkness]] and its multi-dimensional destructive ways, even if [[spoiler: it would cost the lives of the Wolkenritter and result in Hayate being sealed away with the book]].
** From [=StrikerS=], the TSAB high council, who are responsible for [[spoiler: creating Scaglietti and letting him build combat cyborgs and artificial mages for them]] to ensure the safety of the TSAB controlled worlds.
* Donan Cassim, the governor of the colony planet Deloya in {{Fang of the Sun Dougram}}, stages a fake coup d'état and uses it as an excuse to order a planet-wide hunt for dissidents and guerrillas, simply because he believes the planet can only prosper as a part of the Earth Federation and that most Deloyans are opposed to independence anyway. He actually believes in making the colony prosper a bit too much to become the show's {{Big Bad}}, so [[spoiler: he is later killed by his {{Evil Chancellor}} aide]]
* Elite Four Lance in ''{{Pokemon}} Special''. He views humans as completely incompatable with Pokemon, so he plans to commit genocide against the human race so that pokemon can live in peace and so the world can return to its natural glory.
** There's also Mewtwo from the first movie. Enraged by humanity using Pokemon as tools and disgusted by the Pokemon accepting this, he sought to remake the world by exterminating everyone and replacing them with clones. This way, he thought, Pokemon would have the freedom they deserve.
*** Of course, Mewtwo didn't bother asking pokemon just why they accepted humans as masters. It may seem cheesy, but friendship and trust are basically what make the Pokemon world even work. Just don't expect fanfiction to acknowledge this.
* The entire cast of MiraiNikki, no exceptions. Yes, even [[TheWoobie him]]. ''No Exceptions''.
* Hitomi in ''Code: Breaker''. He just wants recognition for the scores of anonymous, mostly teenaged Code: Breakers who died in the line of duty [[spoiler: by killing 50,000 people and the prime minister of Japan, whose estranged son is also a Code: Breaker. His goal is spat back in his face by his own protoge, who reminds him that all Code: Breakers are just superpowered murderers put to good use and that their anonmity is for the best.]]
* From ''JoJosBizarreAdventure : Stone Ocean'': [[spoiler: The truely faithful Father Pucci, whose ultimate goal is to reach the "Heaven" he heard his mentor Dio talk about. He'll do anything and sacrifice anyone to get to it, and apparently he does: He rewinds, remakes, and resurrects the world (that he completely messed up), but is killed before he can join it.]]
* ''WitchHunterRobin'' [[spoiler: The characters discover they're a part of this when the truth about the witch-proof substance Orbo is revealed (it's made of [[strike:people]] witches!).]]
* Two of the major {{Filler}} villains in the ''{{Bleach}}'' anime fall under this trope, choosing to side with villains or adopt villainous powers and methods to bring about (what they feel) would be positive changes in Soul Society.
** ''Two'' of them? [[spoiler: Amagai]] I can understand, but unless there's one I'm missing, the other one is at best a KnightTemplar. Jin Kariya's goal [[BestServedCold is to destroy Soul Society because of what they did to the Bount]].
* An interesting case is PrincessMononoke as both sides of the conflict are led by [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremists]]. The central plot of the film is Ashitaka's attempt to stop the unnecessary fighting.
* Most of the villains from ''GetterRobo'', curious for a classic SuperRobot series. The Dinosaur Empire were caught up in a war of species dominance, trying to stop their extinction, while Burai and the Andromeda Flow Country were commited to stopping the use of Getter Energy - the power of evolution - before it endangered the whole universe.
* Lucif from ''VenusVersusVirus'' seeked the True World which is some kind of {{Utopia}} without suffering.
* In ''VisionOfEscaflowne'' the anime, Emperor Dornkirk and [[TheDragon Folken]] sought an {{Instrumentality}} where there would be no war or fighting even if it involved [[KickTheDog kicking a few puppies]] along the way.
* The Koorime from ''{{Yu Yu Hakusho}}''. They believe that, as long as there are no males living among them, they will survive and be peaceful, and they'll do anything to keep it that way [[spoiler:even if it means separating a baby from his mother and tossing him off a floating island miles high in the air]].
* [[spoiler:Yoki]] in WaqWaq, who wants to [[spoiler:end the tyranny of the red-blooded humans over the black-blooded ones by sacrificing a red-blooded girl, then betraying the villains]].
* In ''SpeedGrapher'', the BigBad Suitengu's life was ruined by greed, money, and corruption. His intention was to destroy these things. However, he had to become a monster in order to do it.
* Many of the "[[AntiVillain villains]]" in MahouSenseiNegima, but espeically [[BigBad Fate]], who claims to be trying to save the inhabitants of the Magic World [[spoiler: by erasing it from existance.]] [[ManipulativeBastard Kurt Godel]] would probably count too, if we can ever [[WildCard confirm his ultimate goal]], though he also claims to be trying to save the world [[spoiler: by keeping Fate from destroying it.]]
* [[spoiler:Ryouko Asakura]] in ''The Melancholy of HaruhiSuzumiya''. Problem: She wants to study Haruhi's reaction to controversial events. Solution: [[spoiler:Kill Kyon.]]
** How the hell is any of that well intentioned? You want to see the reaction someone has when a person close to them dies? [[spoiler:And the person can warp all of reality at a whim?]] Ya, well intentioned......
* The eponymous ''{{Noein}}'' is suffering from grief from losing the love of his life, Haruka. He then searches for other dimensions where she might have survived, but finds that she's always destined to the same fate in every universe. His intenion is then to converge all universes to stop all suffering, erase all existence and start it anew.
* ''{{Monster}}'' has Lawyer and Secretary.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Ra's al-Ghul's intentions in the ''{{Comicbook/Batman}}'' comics (and ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'') were to stop mankind's destruction of the environment. This could be accomplished by wiping out roughly 2 billion people. In the movie ''[[DarkKnightTrilogy Batman Begins]]'', he attempts to make Gotham an example of crime and decadence in order for the world to see its own horror.
** Bioterrorist Poison Ivy wants plants to be respected. It's the ''and completly dominant'' part that causes trouble.
* Magneto in ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}''; a common comparison, implicit in the LiveActionAdaptation, is that Lensherr is the 'Malcolm X' to Charles Xavier's more moderate 'Dr. King'. Of course, Magneto goes much further than that.
** Xavier himself can be quite unscrupulous. Danger and Vulcan are both consequences of his 'whatever it takes' attitude.
* {{Spider-Man}}'s enemy the Vulture is a good example of the other type of this trope. Many years after his debut he was given a backstory in which an unscrupulous business partner cheated him out of the proceeds from his inventions. He wrecked said partner's business, stole back his money, and discovered that he enjoyed the thrill. Eventually the partner surfaced, and the usually not-murderous Vulture went after him; Spidey stopped the Vulture but taped the partner's confession.
* Grant Morrison's ''Marvel Boy'' is a good example of this. The miniseries' alien protagonist, the extradimensional Kree, Noh-varr, has his ship shot down and the rest of his crew killed by a supervillain that wants to make a profit off of its technology and his dissected remains. As such, he winds up understandably pissed at the human race (to the extent that he knocks down buildings to spell out "F#$k you" to the human race in letters several blocks high, though he herds the inhabitants away so there are no casualties). Noh-varr finds Earth's social ills to be ridiculous and unreasonable and intends to make war on Earth and "{{terraform}}" it to be like his home planet, Hala. He would be a classic VillainProtagonist, but genuinely does seem to believe that what he's doing will better Earth for its inhabitants.
* Professor Fairfax in ''PaperinikNewAdventures''. The problem: as the years go on, overpopulation and dwindling natural resources will become more and more of a problem. The solution: using earthquake machines to raise a large section of the Pacific Plate above sea level, freeing up space for new cities and cultivations. Never mind that the ensuing earthquakes and floods would have all but wiped out the entire west coast of the United States. As one character put it: "If you think about it, his plan isn't illogical at all: he's simply willing to kill millions of people to give ''billions'' of people a better future."
* Rayek in ''ElfQuest'' claims to want what's best for all of elfkind, but is also convinced that he's the only one who ''knows'' what's best for them, in spite of all arguments to the contrary. This comes to a head when, in an attempt to correct a TimeParadox, [[spoiler:Rayek takes Leetah, Skywise, Ember, Suntop, and Picknose and his family, ten thousand years into the future in the Palace - leaving Cutter and the rest of the Wolfriders stranded in the present]].
** Winowill starts out as one of these. She just wants to keep all the "real" elves nice and safe, even if it means keeping them locked in perpetual stasis and committing genocide on the Wolf Riders. Later she just becomes plainout and out AxeCrazy evil.
*** The major turning point seems to be the time she [[spoiler: drove her own son insane in order to cover up the murder of her troll lover.]]. After that, there were no limits to what she'd stoop to.
* ''{{Watchmen}}'': A very [[{{Spoiler}} spoilerish]] example, but: [[spoiler: Ozymandias? Possibly the most successful Well Intentioned Extremist in fiction, he kills three million people to achieve world peace... and, as far as the reader can tell, ''it works,'' though the last panel opens up the possibility that it will have all been for nothing.]]
** Another example would be Rorschach, whose violent and murderous behavior towards criminals is fueled by his own twisted desires to protect the world and defend the good. However, due to mental trauma, he tends to view almost everything and everyone as bad and needing punishment, making him come off as a HeroicSociopath.
* V from ''VForVendetta'' is the poster child of this trope. He wants to free England... by causing riots and crippling the government.
** To be fair, it's a fascist government that threw him and millions of others into concentration camps, of which he was the ''only'' survivor.
*** But on the flip-side, it's pretty explicitly stated that the collapse of the fascist government would result in the total breakdown of English society, killing the vast majority of the population not dead yet.
*** Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
**** Ah, the cry of well-intentioned LaResistance extremists everywhere!
*** And better still to have a choice. No doubt history would vindicate him, and he'd be a hero for overthrowing the Fascist pig-dogs. For the next 10-20 years, he'd be a great villain, for throwing society into anarchy.
**** Unfortunately, this interpretation of the character is more or less shot to pieces in the comic (as opposed to the [[AdaptationDecay movie version]], where there's more than enough evidence to suggest that V is simply a psychopath, driven to avenge himself upon the people responsible for his tormented past, who likes to dress his revenge quest up in fancy speeches and motivations, which he doesn't even remotely believe in. While he's certainly an extremist, he's hardly well-intentioned.
***** Huh? Both versions of V believe ''deeply'' in what they do is right and just, not only for himself, but for all of England. The question is how right he is in this assessment. He is quite well-intentioned, but also very, very extreme.
***** The whole point of V is whether he was doing it for the people, or was he doing it for himself and "freeing the people" was just a side effect, the idea is that you work it out for yourself and discuss it with others
****** Put more simply, WordOfGod was that the problem with the movie is that it made V a LighterShadeOfGrey, when the original was careful to avoid that trope.
*Sinestro falls into this, especially during his debut and the Sinestro Corps War. His planet was, by all accounts, lawless and wild, so he used his GreenLantern ring to conquer it and instill order. By brutally oppressing the entire population. When the Sinestro Corps starts up, he seeks out people who can instill great fear, including {{ComicBook/Batman}} (who refuses), so he can save the galaxy from itself. Again, by ruling the entire population through fear.
*{{ComicBook/Batman}} himself comes close to this from time to time, especially the FrankMiller variations. It's implied that the reason Batman sticks so close to his code of no killing is because he's afraid that once he crossed that line, he would become this.
**In the Batman: Red Rain sequels, Batman does exactly this. He drains Joker of blood and stake him to prevent him from coming back as a vampire. He then has Alfred stake him to keep himself from coming back. It doesn't work, though, and he comes back, decapitating and draining the blood from many of his old enemies.
*John Horus, from Warren Ellis' BlackSummer. As many characters note, he just want everyone to be good. It's fine that he thinks the US government has perpetrated an illegal war, and as a condoned costumed vigilante, he might be expected to act against such. But he decides the best way to deal with this is to kill the president.
* Rainmaker from ''{{PS238}}''. The namesake of the Rainmaker program, which was intended to discover the cause of superpowers by experimenting on metahumans that couldn't fight back, he was treated more as a lab rat than a child to be taught and ran away after a lab accident gives his powers a boost. After finding out that the titular school has re-instituted the Rainmaker Program, the Rainmaker invades the school facility and disables several of the teachers and students in an attempt to 'rescue' the participants in the program. The Rainmaker program turns out to have changed a bit in 40 years and is now a volunteer school program for grooming metahumans with non-combative abilities for work in the private sector.
** In Rainmaker's defense, though, he had been, ah, influenced by the head of Dr Irons, who was not acting with the best of intentions.
* Jei-san from ''UsagiYojimbo'' wants to rid the world of evil. Unfortunately in his MilkyWhiteEyes just about ''everyone'' is evil. It's [[DemonicPossession not really his fault]], though.
* The Deacon from ''Ghost Rider'' just wants everyone to go to Heaven and be at peace. So he kills them to expediate the process.
* ''Enginehead'' is extremely simple in his "programming", with the single-minded directive to "fix" humanity by eliminating "flaws". When he sees that someone is "broken", he "fixes" them by literally tearing them limb from limb. His genuine inability to fully understand the ramifications of his actions causes Dr. Grass to peg him as not a superhero, but an entirely new breed, here to save us all by scorching the earth until none are left standing.
** To give an example: When he discovers his brother romancing a schoolgirl, he realizes he's "broken" and "fixes" him by rearranging his face tearing off his genitalia (and legs), and crudely stitching his body back together before altering his brain so he can't commit violent acts. Sam was a freak, but god''damn'', overboard much? Later, when he hears of a drought in New Jersey, he fixes it up to the point that it becomes an equally debilitating water ''surplus''.
* ''{{X1999}}'''s Dragons of Earth seek to save the Earth from those destroying it -- Humans -- by eliminating them, and allowing the Earth to regrow and return to nature.
[[/folder]]


[[folder: Film ]]
* ''ThePunisher'' is made of this Trope.
* HAL9000 in [=~2001: A Space Odyssey~=]. He is only devoted to the mission at hand, and believes Dave and Frank will jeopardize the mission by disconnecting HAL after lip-reading from them that they intend to disconnect HAL if AE-35 component does not fail as HAL had predicted. [[spoiler: It's argued this could be a paranoid development within HAL's systems, due to his programming disallowing him from lying, whilst he is also keeping hold of a pre-recorded message from Dr. Floyd that he is to keep hidden from the rest of the crew.]]
** HAL later shows remorse for his actions, leading up to a surprisingly powerful TearJerker moment.
--> [[spoiler: '''HAL''': Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over. I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''HAL''': I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.]]
* Poison Ivy in ''Batman and Robin'' (though she does make her extremist ways known from the outset), as well as the version of the character from ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. In fact, most of the animated Bat-villains are sympathetic in their first appearance, then less so as their [[MotiveDecay motivation shifts]] to "revenge on Batman".
** A similar thing happened with the version from ''TheBatman'', who was set up as even more sympathetic due to being a teenager, but in subsequent appearances is simply a villain. Subverted in the show's spin-off comic "The Batman Strikes", in which her sympathetic aspects and good intentions are retained.
* The Operative in ''[[{{Firefly}} Serenity]]'' is very extremist but still fits in this category. He attempts to paint himself as NecessarilyEvil, however.
* The Paladins from ''{{Jumper}}'' hunt and slay members of the titular breed of humanity to protect the world from the Jumpers' sociopathy that descends into evil. This would be a reasonable claim if not for the Paladins' killing of Jumpers' [[AndYourLittleDogToo friends and family too]].
* Jigsaw in the ''{{Saw}}'' movies claims that his sadistic deathtraps give people an opportunity to truly appreciate what they have by making them fight for it. That the survivors are left [[BreakTheCutie emotionally traumatized]] and usually [[ScarsAreForever horrifically mutilated]] seems to be merely an unfortunate side effect.
* The Galactic Empire from ''StarWars'', most generally believe they are the good guys fighting rebel "Terrorists"
** Not to mention Count Dooku...for a while, anyway.
** In the Expanded Universe, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation this is often made the Sith's hat]]. Some writers portray the Jedi/Sith rivalry as less of a Good versus Evil conflict, and more of an OrderVersusChaos, or [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters stagnant repressive goverment versus anarchy and freedom]], dichotomy.
* ''HotFuzz'': [[spoiler:The Neighborhood Watch Alliance of Sandford have been killing off anyone who might lower their chances at getting the "Best Neighborhood" award. Not well-intentioned enough? It's because one of the protagonist's mother committed suicide after the neighborhood didn't win once. One of the villains is the mother's husband, thereby, said protagonist's father. He always knows he's his father though, so this is not an example of IAmYourFather.]]
* [[TheRock Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel]] is driven to [[{{Understatement}} rather questionable]] ends to get compensation for the families of soldiers killed on secret missions in the film "The Rock".
* DFENS from the film ''Falling Down''.
* Father maintains a forced regimen of the anti-emotion drug Prozium on the populace in ''{{Equilibrium}}'', ostensibly to avoid future global conflicts like the one that drove them into semi-seclusion. Mildly subverted in the end when Father[[spoiler: /DuPont]], lamenting the imminent downfall of his society, [[spoiler: admits to Preston that he (Father) does not take Prozium, and thereby experiences emotion in opposition to his doctrine]].
* Gerard Butler's character in the drama/thriller ''{{Law Abiding Citizen}}'' is the textbook example of this. He's a man who saw his wife and daughter murdered by thugs and then watched one of the thugs get off lightly due to a dubious plea deal. That gives him a right to be pissed. And if he had simply botched the execution of one to result in a very painful death and murdered the other, he might manage to be simply an AntiHero and still sympathetic. On the other hand murdering every single person connected to the trial in some way with an extraordinarily executed BatmanGambit, and threatening and targeting even [[AndYourLittleDogToo their families]] might be seen as going a little too far.
* In ''TheBoondockSaints'' the brother's crusade against evil could be described as a mild form of this trope.
** Il Duce on the other hand takes it straight up.
* Christof in ''TheTrumanShow'' sees the real world as a place of pain and misery, so traps his adopted son Truman in a fake world where everyone he knows is an actor so that he won't have to face reality.
* Jet Li's character in [[{{Warlords}}]] started out as a straight hero until half way when he had to decide how to provision his limited supply of food. He had enough to feed his army for 10 days, but if he shared it with the army that had just surrendered to him, there wouldn't have been enough food for anyone to live. His solution: massacre the enemy army. He remained well intentioned and acted in the interests of the greater good, but his methods remained unsavory.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* [[spoiler: Tam Lin]] in HouseOfTheScorpion attemped to assassinate the prime minster of an unknown country, presumbly the [[spoiler: United Kingdom, judging by his accent and appearance]] but ends up taking out twenty young children on a school bus who were too close to the blast. He never forgives himself and later commits suicide by drinking wine that only he knew was poisoned.
* Literary example of the TragicHero who takes his mission much too far: AlexandreDumas' character Edmond Dantès, in ''TheCountOfMonteCristo''. The self-styled Count, having escaped prison after many years of undeserved confinement, devotes himself obsessively with taking revenge on those enemies who framed him and ruined his life. For most of the book, Edmond is able to ignore the fact that the grand machinations of his vengeance are heaping danger and grief on numerous {{Innocent Bystander}}s as well as the guilty.
* Arguably, the protagonist in RobertHeinlein's ''JOB: A Comedy Of Justice''. Not because of anything he does in the story (he's actually a really nice guy), but because of his BackStory; he comes from an AlternateUniverse where America is ruled by extreme conservative Protestantism, and finds absolutely nothing wrong with that. Among the things he talks about having contributed to are making abortion a capital offense and preventing the science of astronomy. Similar to a [[StrawmanPolitical Strawman Conservative]], but not actually meant to represent anyone in the real world. [[spoiler:Up until he's assumed into Heaven and finds out that [[GodIsEvil God doesn't really care]], of course.]]
* Captain Vimes from ''{{Discworld}}'' spends much of his time trying not to become this.
** His ancestor, Old Stoneface ''was'' this trope. Ofcourse he lived in a time when a WellIntentionedExtremist was sorely needed. In case anybody wonders, he was modelled after Oliver Cromwell. Plus his birth name was 'Suffer-not-Injustice' Vimes. It seems he lived up to it.
* In Terry Pratchett's ''OnlyYouCanSaveMankind'', the Gunnery Officer of the Scree-Wee cares about honor more than life and attempts to force the final battle despite the fact it could easily be avoided. On the other side, Johnny has to spend a long time persuading Kirsty to try to talk to the aliens instead of simply shooting them all.
* The antagonist corporation in ''RainbowSix'' by {{Tom Clancy}}, [[spoiler:who plan to kill everybody to allow nature to take over. Did anyone else notice how hypocritical they were, though? Planning to pollute just as much, but since they would be the only ones left, it wouldn't matter?]]
** [[spoiler:Well, they do get their just deserts. Clark has them stripped of all gear and left to die in the jungle. Protests ensue from the villains. His (paraphrased) response? "Hey, you wanted humanity to co-habit with nature. Go co-habit."]]
* Help Earth in the CHERUB books and Force Three in ''AlexRider'' (although [[spoiler:this turns out to be just be a cover]]) are both terrorist groups dedicated to helping the environment.
* [[spoiler:Kurda Smahlt]] of ''TheSagaOfDarrenShan'' does this when [[spoiler:he plans to use the night of his investiture as the night of the Vampaneze invasion and take-over of Vampire Mountain, all in order to bring the two warring clans together and even killing one of his best friends in the process. He is found out and stopped though. If Darren hadn't found out about the plan, however, chances are the whole War of the Scars would've been averted]].
* The young Albus Dumbledore, and his good friend Gellert Grindewald in the {{Harry Potter}} books. After a tragic accident, Dumbledore revised his attitude. Grindewald never did.
** Dumbledore can still be considered to be one, given his acceptance of Harry's home life in order to teach him humility and prevent him from growing up with his fame. Even after that, his {{Xanatos Gambit}} with the Elder Wand relied on some pretty extreme measures to pull off, despite it going wrong from the start.
*** Dumbledore accepted Harry's home life because [[spoiler: the BloodMagic that protected Harry from direct attack from Voldemort's forces would only work if Harry was living with his mother's sister Petunia]]. Dumbledore even [[CallingTheOldManOut rebukes the Dursleys for their abuse of Harry in Book 6]].
* Clemael, one of the protagonists of ''HandOfMercy''. The plan to undo all the evil in the world isn't bad, exactly, but Clem isn't bothered that this will destroy all of linear time.
* Akasha in ''TheVampireChronicles'' wants to create a peaceful world by killing almost all males.
* The Birds of Prey from ''ThePrincess99'' commit brutal murders against wizards through the entire book. But then you consider that they are trying to give Nons (non-magical people) civil rights in a world that pretty much considers them lower than animals. Of course, this doesn't excuse them after what they did to [[spoiler: Axel]].
* TheBible frequently portrays God this way in the Tanakh / Old Testament, where by divine sanction, direct intervention, or post hoc justification by his followers, thousands of people are brutally killed for angering God. Considering that God is often believed to be all-knowing and all-powerful, one would think he could devise a better solution for dealing with sin than to resort to bloodshed. This would especially be true if one believes God to be all-loving, just, and merciful. Historically speaking though, the Israelites were never a major military force, and more powerful civilizations were frequently conquering and enslaving them, so many of the violent sentiments expressed in the Tanakh may have amounted to nothing more than wishful thinking.
* [[StarWarsExpandedUniverse Grand Admiral]] [[TheThrawnTrilogy Thrawn]] really just wants to protect the galaxy (and his people in particular) from all threats. The problem is that he's an [[TheEmpire imperial]] trying to crush the New Republic, and he's not afraid to do some truly villainous things to achieve his goals, like oppressing and enslaving an entire race, or attempting to kidnap a pregnant Leia so that she and her unborn twins can get {{Mind Rape}}d by an insane dark Jedi. He's more [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatically ruthless than outright evil]], and as we find out more about him, he gets more and more [[ALighterShadeOfGrey morally ambiguous]], but by the end of his career, he ''definitely'' isn't a good guy.
* Abraham Quest and Robur in Stephen Hunt's ''The Kingdom Beyond The Waves'' seek torecreate the perfect society that once existed in the form of Camlantis [[spoiler: Unfortunately it requires the destruction of every other society on Earth and their inhabitants]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Several villains in ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', including Stephen Saunders, who threatens the US with a biological weapon to halt American globalism; [[spoiler:President Logan]] in season 5, who sold nerve gas to [[strike:Chechnyan]] Central Asian terrorists in order to frame them as an excuse for US intervention in [[strike:Chechnya]] Central Asia, and ordered the assassination of an ex-president to cover it up; and Tom Lennox in season 6, who seeks to inter thousands of American Muslims in the hopes of protecting the country from terrorism, and becomes involved in an assassination plot against the president when his proposals are declined. [[spoiler:Though in fairness he was only pretending to go along with the assassination in order to uncover the conspirators]].
** From another perspective, this applies to the [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique protagonists]] as well, especially Agent Jack IDidWhatIHadToDo Bauer. In later seasons, Jack flirts with a HeelRealization as he [[spoiler: questions not only the efficacy and morality of his methods, but even whether his life is worth preserving.]]
* The Others on ''{{Lost}}'' believe that they are the good guys. Just what good they're working towards is unknown, but most of their actions point to quite the contrary.
--> '''Michael''': Who ''are'' you people?
--> '''"Henry Gale"''': We're the good guys, Michael.
* These characters turn up in the ''LawAndOrder'' franchises all the time.
* Gideon the BigBad in ''{{Charmed}}''.
* On ''AmericanGothic'', after she [[spoiler:kills her new body to save the soul of a baby]] and is sent briefly to Hell, Caleb resurrects the spirit of his sister Merlyn. Apparently this brush with darkness changed her usually angelic personality into one that was vengeful, ruthless, and downright disturbing. Completely aside from the NightmareFuel (or {{Narm}}) when she [[spoiler:briefly speaks with a deep, demonic voice]], she declares war on Buck right in the middle of a church (a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for a character who rarely gets any). And when Buck [[spoiler:possesses Caleb and dares her to kill her own brother]], she goes completely too far, [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope deciding that since everyone in the town is either aiding Buck or looking the other way, they are all evil too]]...[[spoiler:so she sends a plague to slaughter the town]]. And all of this while [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience still wearing white]]!
** Dr. Crower ends up becoming one of these in "Doctor Death Takes a Holiday", and this is the ostensible justification for Buck [[PutOnABus sending him out of town to the loony bin]]. On the one hand, [[RoomFullOfCrazy plastering the walls of your room with newspaper clippings, death threats, photos, and a big red gun-sight target]] would definitely suggest someone is a danger to himself and others. On the other hand, considering Buck is the Devil Incarnate, being an extremist, well-intentioned or not, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo may be the only way -to- get rid of him]]. Which, [[XanatosRoulette since the whole thing was orchestrated by Buck anyway]] to get rid of who he thought was his biggest obstacle to claiming Caleb, really underscores how in Trinity, GoodIsImpotent.
* In ''StarTrek'' it's a common Villain motive that even the heroes are not immune to, especially on DS9 with Sisko's actions in "For the Uniform" and "In the Pale Moonlight" (the latter has Sisko stating that the anonymous quote at the top of the page was something his father used to say.) as well as everything Luther Sloan and Section 31 do.
** Unusual in that the actions of Sisko during "In the Pale Moonlight" are likely a large part of what won the Dominion War, and the actions of Section 31 allowed it to end MUCH sooner, saving billions of lives. The episodes hit hard because to protect the Federation and it's people, they had to do things they find abhorent.
* Mr. Linderman, from ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', who believes that [[spoiler:killing 0.07% of the world's population to end violence and war is an "acceptable loss by anyone's count"]].
** This (and Linderman's entire plot) is an obvious homage to/idea theft of [[spoiler:Ozymandias from ''Watchmen'']], in much the same way that most of the ideas from ''{{Heroes}}'' are stolen wholesale from comic books. It's still great TV though.
*** It's hardly "Stolen". It's a homage to it. There's a difference.
*** Adam Monroe also counts, as after 400 years of seeing mankind's hatred, bigotry, ignorance and warlike nature he's decided that the best way to save the world is to wipe out most of humanity with a virus and start over with the "Worthy" survivors. Again, a clear homage of sorts to Ras Al Ghul/Apocalypse, as like them Adam genuinely wants to help people, he's just become so warped and crazy due to his long life and powers that he feels he's got the right to play god.
*** And for the hat trick, "The Hunter" aka Emle Danko. A cold hearted son of a bitch who nevertheless sees himself as in the right as he feels that the evolved humans are too dangerous to exist. And, given people like Linderman, Arthur, Adam, Sylar, Maury, Candice, Doyle, Flint and the various others who've appeared in the show and in the graphic novels, it's easy to see how he arrived at this misguided viewpoint.
*** Both Angela, who started the Company to protect her people and nathan who started the whole "round them up" program.
* In ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'', both the Vorlons and the Shadows are guiding the younger races to be better and stronger. If "some must be sacrificed", so be it. The fact that the two are permanently at war is the first sign that something's wrong here.
* In ''{{Battlestar Galactica}}'', Felix Gaeta [[spoiler:launches a mutiny]] because he believes that Admiral Adama is too close to the Cylons. His worldview is understandable; his actions, not so much.
* Allison's stalker on ''{{Medium}}'', who thinks that her psychic powers are interfering with God's plans by saving people who are supposed to die and catching people who are supposed to be free. Allison tries to reason with him by suggesting that her powers are God's plan too, to no avail. The "Well-Intentioned" part is lessened a little when you consider how ''vicious'' he is not only towards Allison but also her children (there's also the fact that he's the Invisible Man from the ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' movie [[DisContinuety that never happened]]).[[spoiler: DeusExMachina steps in after the now-dead stalker reveals he's been interfering with her and other psychics' visions, resulting in the deaths of ''dozens'' of people whose very pissed-off spirits drag him to Hell.]]
* In the [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffyverse]], Watchers generally tend towards this. Both Rupert Giles and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce showed themselves willing to do ''whatever'' it takes to stop a greater threat. Made more effective because initially they tend to come over as befuddled librarians.
* Jasmine of ''{{Angel}}''. Also the other Powers in the comic series, now that they've hit upon the idea of sending angels to kill humans they think are destined to commit crimes.
* The Judoon in ''DoctorWho''. In ''Smith and Jones'' they're trying to stop a sociopathic killer. They do this by transporting an entire hospital to the Moon, with every intention of just leaving it there. Similarly, the book ''Judgement of the Judoon'' opens with them forcing their way into a spaceship by driving an access tunnel through the hull, in order to ask the occupants about the Invisible Assassin. On discovering they don't know anything, the Judoon leave ... and don't think twice about retracting the access tunnel to leave a gaping hole.
* Uther from Merlin actually believes magic is evil and is destroying his kingdom.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Machinima ]]

* The Director of Project Freelancer in ''[[RedVsBlue Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction]]''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* The Garou from [[WorldOfDarkness White Wolf Games]]' ''Werewolf: The Apocalypse''. Each of the Changing Breeds was created to serve Gaia, and the Garou served as her warriors, protecting her from all things "of the Wyrm." Unfortunately, Gaia never told them about the ''other'' Changing Breeds, or even some of the other tribes of Garou. Genocide ensued. By the time the game begins, three Changing Breeds and one whole tribe of Garou have been driven to extinction, the other Changing Breeds are mostly in hiding, and the Garou have finally come to realize just how much they shot themselves in the foot.
** Furthermore, while most of the tribes have valid motivations, some of them go much, much too far. Don't ask about Red Talon Christmas trees.
** To be fair to the Garou, in the old world of darkness, they were doomed from the start, since the three gods of the world, the Wyld, the Weaver and the Wyrm are all completely screwed up. Instead of the Wyld creating, the Weaver containing, and the Wyrm destroying (the natural order of things), the Weaver went crazy and captured the Wyrm in a web, making the Wyrm go completely out of control. The only sane god left is the Wyld (Gaia), the patron god of the Garou, and that's not exactly an advantage. The Garou are fighting to protect a system that is itself doomed from the get-go.
* The Technocracy from White Wolf Games' ''Mage: The Ascension'' is an organization dedicated to making the world safe and predictable for [[{{Muggles}} sleepers]]. Unfortunately, their plan includes exterminating any supernatural creatures they find, even those who are also trying to protect the helpless and innocent, as well as attempting to monopolize scientific research and advancement.
** And when you consider that the other supernatural creatures include parasitic bloodsuckers that seek to control all society in their games, genocidal furry monsters that want to return humanity to Stone Age population levels, and dream parasites that latch onto people and use them as hosts, you [[{{AlternativeCharacterInterpretation}} can see how they have a point.]]
* Essentially ''defines'' the Banishers of ''[[MageTheAwakening Mage: The Awakening]]''. They believe the supernatural, especially mages, to be inherently evil (not necessarily without reason). Their solution is to attempt to wipe out every single supernatural being (especially mages) that they come across. Also some interpretations of the ancient conspiracy, the Seers of the Throne.
** Banisher Mages see the entire cosmology as they Awaken (including the [[{{CosmicHorror}} Abyss]], and how it all fits together. And after that, they decide that they will use magic, but only to ultimately stop it ever being used again.
** Also a good description of the Guardians of the Veil. Probably the only WellIntentionedExtremist group that fully ''acknowledges'' that status. Its right there in their creed; "Sins for a just end bring wisdom to the Awakened".
* In the fan-made gameline ''[[GeniusTheTransgression Genius: The Transgression]]'' there are the Lemurians, Geniuses who haven't gotten the memo that they literally cheat reality and think that somthing [[GoneHorriblyWrong Went Horribly Wrong]] in the past, and think they have to fix it in the present. They range the gamut from CompleteMonster {{Knight Templar}}s to [[VillainProtagonist playable]] {{Anti Villain}}s.
** This game being set in the ''WorldOfDarkness'', plenty of non-Lemurian Hoffenhungs (those who became [[MadScientist Geniuses]] through a wish to change the world)) end up becoming this, particularly if their KarmaMeter falls too low.
* The Tau of ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' regularly employ mass murder and orbital bombardment when a species has denied multiple "offers" to join them. The "well intentioned" part is what sets them apart from everyone else - factions such as the Imperium will blow up their own planets and murder billions in the name of mere survival.
** It should be noted that some fanfiction claims the Tau make use of concentration camps or mass sterilization; however, fanfiction is not canon and such things never appear in any Warhammer 40,000 codex or rulebook.
**Which is a good thing that no fanfiction is like that. Games Workshop's policy is [[ShrugofGod Shrug of God]] which means that the Tau can have easily used those methods. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Alternate Character Interpretation]] after all.
** Also in the setting are radical Inquisitors who decide that the best way to defeat [[CosmicHorror the forces of Chaos]] is to turn [[TheCorruption Chaos]] against itself. If they're lucky, they end up executed by their colleagues for heresy. If they're unlucky, they are lost to TheDarkSide.
*** Even if Inquisitors are lost to TheDarkSide, many of them still try to serve the Imperium, no matter how many innocent lives are lost in their schemes.
* The Ashbound druid sect in the {{Eberron}} setting for ''DungeonsAndDragons'' believe in [[NatureHero the Power of Nature]]. Well, they are druids after all. The "extremist" part kicks in when you consider that they believe the best way to protect nature is ''ban all arcane magic, burn down all the cities, and go back to living in mud huts''. They can be any alignment (well, any of the Neutral variants at least, being mainly Druids and all), so they feature both the genuinely well-intentioned NeutralGood ecoterrorists and the rather less pleasant NeutralEvil ones who just like watching cities burn.
* The Guiding Hand of ''FengShui'' is a faction of {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who want to drive all foreign influence out of China. This may seem like a good thing, particularly because of the opium trade and general imperialism that the Western powers engaged in during the 1800s and the suffering it caused among the Chinese people, with the best known fighter of such being Wong Fei Hong. But the Hand's anti-Western and anti-modern mindset poses a serious problem for modern innerwalkers, especially since, among other things, they believe women should StayInTheKitchen and Kung Fu should not be taught to anyone who is not Chinese. And one should look no further than the Boxer Rebellion to find out how these guys view Western religion.
** In addition, there's the Jammers, who have seen the effects of the Buro's control of chi upon many of the populace of 2056, and have decided that no one deserves to be enslaved like this. To this end, they want to destroy all chi so that humanity can be truly free from its influence. There are just a few problems with that plan. One: the primary sources of such chi are the [[PlaceOfPower Places Of Power]] known as Feng Shui sites, which often take the form of places like schools, hospitals, and other places important to a community or where innocent people tend to gather, and these guys don't care one whit if these innocent people are hurt or killed in the process of "liberation." Two: the Jammers haven't given much thought about what will happen to the world once all its Feng Shui sites are blown to smithereens, and considering that chi is reportedly tied to life itself, the consequences of wiping out the world's chi may be quite bad indeed.
* The Bronze Faction in ''{{Exalted}}'' have managed to royally screw up the Creation in the process of attempting to save it. And yet, their leader, Chejop Kejak, is still convinced that he's doing the right thing, and that even now, with everything going straight to hell (possibly literally, if the Yozis get their way), the world is better off without the Solars.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure 2. Angry at a corrupted (most likely American) government from 50 years ago for killing his only friend, a 12 year old little girl named Maria, he tries to seek justice/revenge by sending the Ark, a giant space station, on a crash course with the earth. Thus killing everybody. YAY!
** He was the one who actually stopped himself, not the heroes. Well they tried...
* Pokemon. Even Pokemon. Team Magma and Aqua both believe that they'll be doing good for the world by flooding it/drying it up. Real smart, guys.
** To their credit, they did show an admirable patriotism to their cause. The only mistake was that they believed Groudon/Kyogre (for each team respectively) would help them achieve this goal. They did so too well. In stark contrast was the mindless Mooks of Team Galactic, who knew not that their boss was Lawful Batshit and carried out his sinister agenda with this lack of knowledge (seriously, if anyone knew that his plan involved resetting the entire world with a psycho like Cyrus as its god, would they have supported it thenceforce? I don't think so).
*** Once you defeat certain grunts, they start to question what the hell Cyrus is even doing. It can be assumed that before, they just liked having authority enough not to question why.
* The TalesSeries ''lives and breathes'' this trope. One of the reason the series is so beloved, in that the villains usually have sympathetic {{Freudian Excuse}}s:
** ''TalesOfPhantasia'': [[spoiler:Dhaos wanted mana from the planet's world tree to save his ''own'' home planet, and was only blowing stuff up because the rapid advancements in magitech were consuming all the mana and slowly killing the world. The party's reaction upon finding this out is something akin to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero "...Whoops..."]]]]
*** [[spoiler:Of course, the main reason things really got bad in the game was because Dhaos is utterly clueless to the ramifications of his actions at every level. The famous "If there is evil in this world..." quote is less thoughtful social commentary and more just illustrating Dhaos's ridiculous mindset that self-defense is a form of evil and mindraping people to commit atrocities somehow proves natural human malevolence. Check the game's entry on Anti Villain for more information.]]
** ''TalesOfSymphonia'': [[spoiler:Yggdrasill wanted to end discrimination and war, and resurrect his beloved sister (who had died as a result of said discrimination and war). He intended to do this by transforming everyone into the same souless lifeform, powered by crystals that are created from human suffering]].
*** ''[[TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn Of The New World]]'' had two: [[spoiler:Richter wanted to resurrect his dead friend and take revenge on the being who killed him; however, this would involve killing the innocent main character and turning the world into a demonic realm (though secretly, he planned to use a HeroicSacrifice to stop that last part happening). Ratatosk himself was the second example, wishing to restore the world's flow of mana by killing everyone who had distorted it: namely, all the humans, elves and half-elves in the world]].
** ''[[TalesOfTheAbyss Abyss]]'': [[spoiler:Van wanted to free humanity from the chains of [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight the prophecy of Yulia Jue's Score]]: an understandable sentiment, considering that the major leaders were willing to actively plunge the world into war simply because it was predicted, and unknown to everyone but Van the Score ends with humanity being destroyed. His plan was to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the current world]] and substitute {{Replacement Goldfish}}es for everything and everyone, because he believed that aforementioned Goldfishes were not predicted by, and thus not bound by, the Score.]]
** ''[[TalesOfVesperia Vesperia]]'': [[spoiler:Duke wanted to destroy the [[SealedEvilInACan Adephagos]] as much as anybody. Having lost faith in humanity, though -- they turned on him and [[DeadLittleSister killed his best friend]] even after they both fought on humanity's side in the war -- his plan was to [[KillEmAll sacrifice them all]] to fuel his strike against it. He is unique in that the party actually talks him out of it by the end of the game.]]
* Paxton Fettel of ''{{FEAR}}'' is ruthless and cold-blooded in his determination to wipe out every single employee of Armacham Technology Corporation...but, as his dialogue indicates, he genuinley believes that, because of the horrible things they did to Alma (a {{Woobie}} to most), they deserve everything they get, and then some.
* Illidan Stormrage from ''{{Warcraft}} 3''. Ironically, he went from apparently sliding down the slope to evil, to having his reputation ruin a chance at his actually getting some good accomplished (that and his cold-blooded murder of several of his pursuers), to going for personal power again, to being blackmailed into attempting to do good again (ironically, at the behest of TheDragon of the series deceased BigBad), all in the game he was introduced and its expansion pack. However, in ''WorldOfWarcraft'', he seems to have suffered CharacterDerailment and become yet another generic BigBad.
** Not really a generic big bad - the Horde and Alliance ARE kind of invading the home he fled to once his people had forsaken him. Plus he's an unwitting puppet of not just one, but TWO much more evil groups. Poor guy.
** Even Sargeras, the ultimate evil of the setting who created the [[LegionsOfHell Burning Legion]] to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all creation]] is one of these. After encountering the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Nathrezim]] he decided that the creation of the Titans was fundamentally flawed, and should be destroyed and remade perfect.
* In ''WorldOfWarcraft'', during the Opening the Dark Portal Raid, the Infinite Dragonflight tries to convince the players that they're doing good by keeping the Portal from opening by saying such things as "Many lives could be saved" and "The resulting wars could be erased". However, they forget to mention the fact that changing the past drastically will make the time lines collapse among themselves, destroying all existence, which is coincidentally [[OmnicidalManiac exactly what they are aiming for]].
** Also in ''WorldOfWarcraft'', you. Yes, you the player. You have to go back in time in several instances to make sure that occurrences, both good and bad, happen. So for every "Battle of Mt. Hyjal" you win, you still have to lead Arthas down the path of becoming one of the most evil beings of all Warcraft lore. Of course, as the above example shows, it's kind of [[OmnicidalManiac the lesser of two evils.]] Seeing as how you'll actually wake up tomorrow morning if Arthas is the Lich King.
* In ''HeroesofMightandMagic IV'''s Order campaign the antagonist, Gavin Magnus, is driven by the desire to safeguard the new world from those that might destroy it, like the old one from the previous games was. His method? Rob everyone of their free will.
* The Master, the [[BigBad villain]] of ''{{Fallout}}'', wanted to safeguard humanity... by converting all pure humans into hardier super-mutants more able to survive the wasteland, and destroying those "impure" strains who could not be converted. He believed his atrocities were in the interest of the greater good... and if you prove to him that his plan couldn't work and they were actually for nothing, he commits suicide out of sorrow and remorse.
** While we're at it - The Enclave.To the point where a lot of people were unhappy with their outright establishment as chaotic evil from start on Fallout 3. Sure, murdering all the wastelanders in East Coast is a bit nasty, but getting rid of all the raiders, supermutants, deathclaws and Talon Mercs as well being able to rebuild the country safe from any mutant threat far outweights that. Especially in a game that spends so much time babbling about sacrifice for the good of humanity etc.
**Not to be confused with the well written Enclave in Fallout 2 where they're not only evil enough to murder the innocent genocide-resistant Vault inhabitants but also your character has a real motivation to stop them, seeing how he and his tribe would be destroyed in the process.
***It could seen as some sort of character development of the Enclave. In Fallout 3, they operate under the order of President Eden (who is exactly as evil as the Enclave in the old days) and Colonel Autumn, who is far more realistic and far less idealistic. The struggle between Eden and Autumn drive the last part of the game.
* (Necro)saro in the video game ''DragonQuestIV''. The remake reveals that [[spoiler:his [[TheDragon right-hand man Radimvice]] is manipulating him to maximize the "extremist" part]].
** That was in the original too, if you knew where to look. The remake let you [[ItsPersonal work out]] [[BonusBoss the consequences.]]
* [[spoiler:Mitra]] in ''{{Treasure of the Rudras}}'' [[spoiler: she actually did this in case the destroyers she fought in the past were to return and threaten the planet]]
* [[spoiler:Seymour Guado]] of ''FinalFantasyX'' could be considered this. He only wanted to end the suffering and [[ViciousCycle cycle of death]] the people of Spira were trapped in. [[spoiler:By putting an end to life on the planet]].
** Considering Final Fantasy X confirms the existence of the afterlife, this troper isn't sure what the problem with [[spoiler:Seymour's]] plan was.
** Ironically, [[MisaimedFandom depending on your point of view]], [[spoiler:The ''heroes'' are an example of this. In their desperation to kill a giant monster that's reborn every time you kill it and poses a massive threat to the people of Spira, they decided it would be a good idea to ''kill the main religious deity'' of their world. They even manage to convince most of Spira to help them. The only thing that keeps this interpretation from being remotely valid was that Yunalesca and Yu Yevon ''made the monster''.]]
* [[FinalFantasyVII Barret Wallace]] starts out as one of these, blowing up power plants and mowing down {{Punch Clock Villain}}s without a second thought. Later on, he realizes he probably killed or hurt a lot of people he never meant to, and reconsiders his strategies. This doesn't stop him from continuing to slaughter {{Mook}}s whenever they get in his way.
* A much more personal version with Genesis in CrisisCore: FinalFantasyVII. Although he sends armies of [[strike:clones]] [[CloningBlues copies]] to attack various institutions, and seems very eager to fight one-on-one with [=SOLDIERs=], this is all just [[spoiler:to stop the degradation of his cells, so that he won't die.]]
* Both the Templars and the Assassins in ''[[AssassinsCreed Assassin's Creed]]'' are characterized as well-intentioned extremists, both fighting for peace but with distinctly different - but no less ugly - methodologies.
* An AlternateCharacterInterpretation of Vergil from ''DevilMayCry'' sets him up as one of these, making his quest for a power a desire to prevent any more personal loss the way his childhood weakness cost him his mother.
-->''Vergil'': "Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself."
* Inuart turns into this in ''{{Drakengard}}'s'' second ending. You can sympathize with him... all he wants is [[spoiler:his [[{{Necromantic}} dead pseudo-girlfriend back]]]]...but the method he wants to go about it has been repeatedly mentioned to cause [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the end of the world]].
* The Devouring Earth from ''CityOfHeroes'' are ultimately sourced in an environmental advocacy group that gradually descended into eco-terrorism before their fanatical leader got ahold of himself some Super Science. Now, the Devouring want to kill (or [[TheVirus "Devour"]]) all humans on the world. Apparently, Mother Nature is one mean broad.
** ''CityOfVillains'' introduced the Legacy Chain, a 'hero' group that seeks to "watch over magic to prevent its misuse and its corruption by evil, and to make sure it is used only for good". However, the 'purity of magic' is solely on their terms, and they have no hesitation in targetting heroes if they interfere with or violate their agenda.
* Alvis from ''FireEmblem 4''. Sure, he [[spoiler:[[MagnificentBastard manipulated the hell out of everyone and had them kill each other, and later kills]] [[TheHero Sigurd]] [[MagnificentBastard and steals his wife to the boot (though still out of pure love)]]]], but he has one noble goal: To make a world where there is no suffering. Hell, he even succeeded and created a peaceful, wonderful reign for 17 years... that is, until it's revealed that he's just a pawn of [[MagnificentBastard Manfroy]], who eventually uses his son to bring down his peaceful reign into oppression.
** From the same game, Trabant. In the said game, he looked really like one hell of a bastard. But in the side game, it is revealed that his pure intention is to see his homeland Thracia thrive, not oppressed anymore, can get a better territority to improve their living (the current living as a land of mercenaries is hell for his citizens). The fact that he didn't mind if his actions and atrocities will lead him to Hell, as long as it helps his nation, just cements him as one hell of a WellIntentionedExtremist.
** In ''FireEmblem: Radiant Dawn'', all of her enemies became convinced that Micaiah was this. [[DealWithTheDevil The truth was less clear-cut]] and also, not her fault.
** In ''FireEmblem: Sacred Stones'', Prince Lyon is the epitome of this. All he wanted was to stop a devastating earthquake that would have killed hundreds of his country's citizens. [[spoiler: And bring his father back from the dead.]] He ended up releasing the BigBad by mistake, then starting a war and trying to end the world because he got possessed by the aforementioned BigBad.
* Ganondorf from ''TheLegendofZelda''. In ''Wind Waker'', he reveals his original motive was [[spoiler:to free his people, the Gerudo, from the desert and move them to Hyrule.]] He just got swept up in the Triforce afterward.
* The BigBad in ''[[WingCommander Wing Commander IV]]'', after humanity barely escaped defeat at the hands of the Kilrathi, is terrified that the next threat could wipe humanity out. So he decides that humanity needs to continue to wage war, to improve weapons technology as far as possible, to be as prepared as possible. So he starts a civil war. It does kinda make sense...
** He's also something of an EvilutionaryBiologist, as he designs a bio-weapon that kills people whose physical characteristics aren't ideal, and part of his belief is that humanity has become complacent in peacetime.
* ''AceCombat Zero'' uses this as a plot twist. [[spoiler: The game's last bad guys, A World With No Boundaries, wanted to bring an end to war by [[OneWorldOrder eliminating (at least a sizable chunk of) the world's governments, thus eliminating the world's political borders that all too often start wars]]. Then, your former wingman shows up with the controls to nuke everything in his FinalBoss [[CoolPlane superjet]], which you defeat.]]
* In the ''{{Kirby}} Super Star'' game "Revenge of Meta Knight", the titular Knight attempts to forcefully take over Dream Land to end the slothful ways of the inhabitants. Kirby, who is willing to kill people over a slice of cake, decides to stop him.
* Kerghan, the villain of ''[[ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' is an example of this, he thinks that life itself is a form of purgatory that souls are unwillingly forced into and made to suffer through until they finally achieve the release of death. The natural solution is to kill everything in the world.
* Toyotomi Hideyoshi in ''SengokuBasara'', at first sight, might look like just another cruel warlord a la Nobunaga (or Motonari), ambitious and ruthless. However, what sets him apart was his true goal. While Nobunaga wants to rule Japan to make it his playground, being the born evil S.O.B he is, Hideyoshi has a goal to make Japan a strong nation and make it prosper. However noble the goal is, he became drunk with power (as shown in his StartOfDarkness in Heroes in the hands of Matsunaga Hisahide) and is willing to use ruthless tactics and get his hands dirty to fulfill his noble goal. This mindset causes him to view Nobunaga as an obstacle for 'Strong, prospering Japan', thus he opposes him.
* Caleb Goldman in ''The HouseOfTheDead 2'' and ''4''. He [[spoiler:attempts to protect nature by]] unleashing hordes of zombies throughout the world, because [[spoiler:he believes that humans are destroying nature. And then in the fourth game he claims that he "does not wish to kill humans," but "merely revert them to their natural state," which can be interpreted as either reducing humans back to being just like any other mammal, or [[CosmicHorror turning them into zombies]].]]
*In ''MetalGearSolid 2,'' Solidus Snake had the noble goal of wanting to free America from the shadowy rule of The Patriots, so that America could be brought back to the principles it was founded on (freedom, liberty and democracy). But he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to kill several innocent people, take out the electricity in Manhattan with a nuke, and even kill Raiden, the closest thing to a son he ever had. In fact, many of the MGS characters could qualify for this trope.
**Lets list them out
***The Boss [[spoiler: gave over massive nuke throwing death machine over to a rogue Russian military organization and have her disciple take them down and kill her to preserve peace between Russia and the U.S.]]
****Nope. Not even. She did every single thing in the entire game just so America could get their hands on the Philosopher's Legacy.
***Big Boss would go on to preserve her ideals. Liquid would in turn follow those ideals.
*** Despite ChronicBackStabbingDisorder coupled with a huge XanatosRoulette... [[spoiler:Ocelot]]
* ''BreathOfFire III'''s BigBad [[spoiler:Myria, who is also the God of the Urkan]] qualifies as well. She believes the Brood are far too powerful and could pose a danger to the planet, even though they're a peaceful people with no desire at world conquest or destruction. So what does she do? She orders the destruction of their entire race. Talk about blowing shit out of proportion.
** Blaming [[spoiler:Myria]] is very hard in light of dragons having destroyed the surface world in ''BreathOfFire: Dragon Quarter''. While it was a morally reprehensible action, it was also somewhat justified in that if the dragons ever went out of control, it'd have spelled instant doom for every other living thing.
*** This is AnAesop of the game; [[TheDarkSide Power corrupts,]] but not absolutely, [[EarnYourHappyEnding and it's the choices of the powerful that make that power good or evil.]]
* Volsung of ''{{Wild ARMs 5}}'' is eventually revealed to be this. The game frequently [[NotSoDifferent drew parallels]] between him and Dean, in that they both want to tear down the metaphorical "wall" that separates humans and Veruni. Volsung's method is more violent. [[spoiler:..And then it turns out he wasn't extremist at all and was just BrainwashedAndCrazy. WallBanger. Talk about TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot.]]
* ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'': Mr. Kitaniji's goal to turn Shibuya into a peaceful paradise [[spoiler: By brainwashing every last one of it's inhabitants with a fashionable pin of doom]], in order to avoid [[spoiler:Joshua destroying it outright]].
* [[spoiler: Damon Gant]] of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' puts the extrem(e) in WellIntentionedExtremist. Among his acts are [[spoiler:killing a co-worker (Neil Marshal) in order to get a criminal (Joe Darke) convicted of murder, manipulating the crime scene to make it look like an innocent girl (Ema Skye) had done the deed by accident in order to make her older sister (Lana Skye) into his pawn (by helping her fix the crime scene AGAIN so that it would look like the criminal had done it), killing ANOTHER co-worker (Bruce Goodman) who wanted to investigate the previous murder two years later, forcing Lana to take the fall for THAT murder, manipulating more events than possibly any other ManipulativeBastard ever, and generally making case 5 of the first game hell for Mr. Wright]]. His reasons for doing all this was to gain total control over the police force, so that criminals who were obviously guilty (such as Darke had been) would get brought to justice, no matter what.
** While we're at it, Edgeworth in the first game appears at first to be an AmoralAttorney who prosecutes innocent people for the sake of his own record. However, it is eventually revealed that he honestly believed in the guilt of all the people he used illegitimate methods to try to sentence, making him an example of this trope.
* In ''SilentHill 3'', the pious Claudia wants to invoke Paradise to destroy all the wrongs of the world. [[spoiler: Too bad she does this by trying to force the reincarnation of her childhood friend to give birth to a god whose influence turns the resort town in a nightmarish realm of darkness and decay. This same god requires hatred to be born, so Claudia has Heather's father killed. "Paradise" indeed!]]
** Subverted in that Claudia doesn't believe that she'll be a part of this paradise, having caused too much pain in her goals to deserve it.
*** Sad thing is this plan would ultimately succeed if ''SilentHill'' mythology is to be believed. The innocent aren't dragged into nightmare realm, and seem generally happy. Then again, how many truly innocent people are there in the world...
* Pretty much every single villain (and often, potentially, the protagonist, as in the main series the player can chose his alignment) in the ''ShinMegamiTensei'' series is an example of this trope - the Law aligned just want everyone to fall in line so that everyone can be at peace (under their strict rule, of course) while the Chaos aligned rebel against Law's strict rules and support something more along the lines of every man for himself, but either way ''it's for the good of us all, really.''
* Both [[spoiler: Douglas Shetland]] and [[spoiler: Admiral Otomo]] of ''SplinterCell: Chaos Theory'' want good things for their countries, but are entirely willing to cause massive death and destruction to achieve. In the former's case, he wants to trigger a world war between China and the United States, while the latter is [[spoiler: willing to force North Korea to nuke a Japanese city to force reforms in his government.]]
-->'''[[spoiler: Shetland]]''': We’ve been fighting their dirty little wars our entire lives and where do we end up, staring at each other down the barrels of our guns. Nothing has changed Fisher, and it won’t change by degrees. We have to tear it down, and start over, it’s the only way.
-->'''Fisher''': Your own little chaos theory, throw the world into war and hope that what comes out the other side is better?
-->'''[[spoiler: Shetland]]''': It will be better, because this war will change things, Sam. Every other war has been about keeping things the same, the status quo doesn’t work anymore. America is sick Sam, she’s dying. Politicians, the bureaucrats, the whispered backroom deals, its all life support for a sick old lady who was dead a long time ago.
* Team Aqua and Team Magma of the third generation of ''{{Pokemon}}''. They want to create more habitats for Pokemon! By resurrecting ancient Pokemon with godlike powers to cover the world with water/land!
**Let us not forget the world-exploding antics of Team Galactic. Why must they blow up the universe? Because we've screwed it up so much that it can't possibly go on existing, of course. (Come to think of it, I can see a definite pattern here...)
*Two words [[BioShock Andrew Ryan]]
* In ''BatenKaitos Origins'', [[spoiler:Baelheit]] wants to prevent people from relying too much on their powers of hearts so that they may not wage war with the said power again. However, he does so by [[spoiler:using machina to conquer all other islands and forcibly taking off people's wings of hearts, which brings unhealthy side effects such as concussion and inability to feel and taste]]. He is willing to go as far as [[spoiler:blowing up all islands, which used the power of hearts to float, when his attempt to machinate those islands fails]].
* Kane and the Brotherhood from ''CommandAndConquer''. He wants to ascend humanity.
* [[spoiler:Ghaleon]] from ''{{Lunar}}: Silver Star'' used to be one of the greatest heroes of all time. However, he is shocked when [[spoiler:the goddess Althena and his best friend Dragonmaster Dyne gave up their powers so people may gain control of their own destinies instead of relying on those powers]]. Believing that people are doomed to destroy themselves without the absolute power to govern them, he becomes the Magic Emperor and starts his plan [[spoiler:to hijack the power of the goddess and turn himself into the omnipotent being]] in order to give people the leadership he feels they need.
* The first two {{Big Bad}}s of the ''MegaManZero series'', Copy-X and Elpizo, are willing to do ''anything'' for their cause, the survival of the humans and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Reploids]], respectively. This involves, of all things, trying to orchestrate the extinction of the opposing race.
* Arantir from the fifth ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' game was originally a necromancer that was the poster child of DarkIsNotEvil; dedicated to ending the demonic corruption of Ashan. When he learned of the existence of the Demon Messiah [[spoiler: and the Skull of Sar-Elam, the wizard who originally defeated the Demon Sovereign Kha-beleth,]] he then dedicated himself to hunting down the Messiah and make sure that he couldn't [[spoiler: free Kha-beleth for good]]. Later in ''Dark Messiah'', the latest entry in the ''MightAndMagic'' series, Arantir takes it a step further and puts into motion a plan to seal away [[spoiler: Kha-beleth]] forever, as opposed to relying on [[spoiler: the original seal that allowed Kha-beleth's minions to appear in Ashan during an eclipse]]. The "extreme" part of this plan is that the ritual required to make a perfect seal [[spoiler: needs [[PoweredByAForsakenChild countless human sacrifices]]. Sar-Elam likely thought this was too high a price to pay]].
* The Church in {{Tsukihime}} is portrayed this way. They can't go ''too'' overboard because they're supposed to be secret. The only reason they're not trying to kill Arcueid is because, well, she's essentially unkillable. They gave up. Supplementary materials indicate that they prefer the 'kill the evil non human, burn the body and cover up all the evidence and ask questions if we are unable to actually kill said non human,' such as Arcueid, Ciel or [[MeltyBlood Wallachia.]]
* Every villain (at any point) in ''[[ArTonelico Ar Tonelico 2]]'', as well as some of your party. A big part of [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Cloche]]'s character development revolves around trying to reconcile her idealism with the extreme measures she supports as a government figurehead.
* [[spoiler:Vai]] from ''Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled''. [[spoiler:He took up arms against Bel Lenora because of his status as magic-less and discrimination by it. He then get banished out to Artania, appear in Seremaze, where he live there in peace with other majais that are not in Bel Lenora, and fathered Isa, the the town got attacked by the Guardians, killing his wife and most of other people. Sick of all violence, he planned to gather all the Armaments to get the power of the Forbidden to reshape the world into the world with no more violence where he can live with his daughter peacefully. The only problem is that this will work if he's in control of the power, [[{{Ptitle7xno8ayw}} he doesn't]]. Because of the last part, he became TheAtoner after you regather Armaments to piece his soul back.]]
* Several examples from ''MegaManX''.
** First is General, and by extension, Repliforce from ''X4'', who sought to create an indepent nation for Reploids. Unfortunatly, he sought to do this via a bloody coup against the world government.
*** Well, it wasn't so much a bloody coup as a peaceful yet stern declaration of independence. It just so happens that the Maverick Hunters saw this as rebellion against humans, labeled all of Repliforce as mavericks, and proceeded to slaughter everyone who said otherwise. This was such a [[{{WhatTheHellHero}} bad]] [[{{DisproportionateRetribution}} call]] that the then-leader of the Hunters resigned in shame between X4 and X5.
*** You must have been playing a different game then. The whole fiasco happens when [[HonorBeforeReason Colonel refuses to listen to sense and come in for questioning so an investigation as to why Repliforce droids were present in the destruction of Sky Lagoon could start.]] The main character even flat out tells him that if he does not come with them, Repliforce will be branded as mavericks. And yet Colonel still refuses (and leaves without even picking his sister up oddly), and later one of the Repliforce has the gall to state that the Hunters branded them mavericks when IT WAS ALL THE [[TooDumbToLive COLONEL'S]] FAULT.
**Second is Episilon from ''Command Mission'', whose goals were very similar to General's in that he wanted to create a nation where Reploids could live free of human politics. Again, its the fact he launches a violent rebellion against Giga City that makes him a villain.
* In the ''{{Xenosaga}}'' series, Wilhelm may seem like a shady character using people as a means to an end, [[spoiler:but he's really just trying to save the universe from annihilation.]]
* Saturos and Menardi from {{Golden Sun}}. Their reason for [[spoiler:lighting the four lighthouses]] is revealed in the second game to be [[spoiler:to save their hometown, Prox, from falling off the edge of the world.]] Although [[spoiler:the heroes end up finising this task anyway,]] Saturos and Menardi do it in the wrong way. For example, they [[spoiler:kill/maim most of the soldiers and scholars at Venus Lighthouse, kidnap several characters important to the plot, and drop a giant boulder on Vale, [[{{NotQuiteDead}} "killing"]] everyone is Jenna's family and Isaac's dad. And to top it all off, they yell at Kraden.]]
** The boulder was part of a poorly designed trap in Sol Sanctum that has the unfortunate effect of endangering Vale's residents when triggered, so what happened in the prologue wasn't completely their fault.
* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', Krellian who believed God did not exist or died and thus abandoned humanity when they needed him, wanted to create God with his own hands and return the world back to waves for some utopian existence.
* Atlas and Thetis from ''MegaManZX''. Unlike Aeolus (arrogant and selfish guy who believes that those he percieves as unintelligent should die) or Siarnaq (who just wants revenge on humanity due to a past betrayel), they genuinely seek to better the world. Atlas wants to help humanity evolve and become stronger, while Thetis wants to preserve the world's oceans. The problem? Atlas believes humanity can only evolve through suffering, and Thetis is a [[{{Understatement}} tad overzealous]] in his desire to protect the enviroment.
** The second problem is that they attempt to fulfill these goals via [[ArtifactOfDoom Model W]]; Atlas explicitly mentions feeding the Raiders to it before Grey/Ashe beat her silly, and Thetis confesses to a similar deed before the same happens to him. If anything, exposure to Model W may have extremely [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] the once-noble goals of these two and Aeolus as well. I needn't iterate on the implications of ''that''.
* In ''SupremeCommander'' the galaxy is thrown into a galactic war between the Cybran and UEF factions. The Aeon Illuminate believe that the only way to restore peace to the galaxy and stop the other two factions from fighting each other is to... eliminate them.
* Eddy Gordo commits all manner of atrocities as {{Tekken}} Force Commander in the name of saving Christie Monteiro's grandfather. [[spoiler: It seems to have been for nothing.]]
** Another person like this is [[spoiler: Jin Kazama, who reveals his entire assumption of power and unleashing of subsequent war to be in order to destroy himself and Azazel, as he considers the casualties of war insignificant in comparison to the entire world.]]
* Despite being one of the main protagonists of either route, Nanjo from ''{{Persona}}'' has some elements of this. While he wants to stop [[spoiler:Kandori]] and save the world as much as the others, whenever the party is given a SadisticChoice he always suggests making the less moral of the choices. Its implied that this is due to a sense of urgency to resolve the crisis rather then any actual malice.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Celesto Morgan in ''DominicDeegan: Oracle for Hire''. Compare him to the far more ruthless (and detestable) KnightTemplar Raf Maliksh, who tries to kill Celesto for being insufficiently fanatical.
* As shown somewhat earlier in the strip, Miranda West of ''TheWotch'' walks full stride into Well Intentioned Extremity in a recent arc, where she punishes [[SchoolNewspaperNewsHound Ivan]] for being too intrusive in his desire to discover Anne's secrets, also condemns two innocents, and then refuses when Ivan returns to plead that he has (apparently) learned his lesson, as well as refusing to help the ones who had nothing to do with her concerns, [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2008-12-23 threatening him]] when he calls her out out it. But her status as a WellIntentionedExtremist comes not just from her actions, but also from [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2009-01-09 her attempt to justify it]] to her familiar (and herself).
* Another example: Professor Broadshouders in ''[[http://zebragirl.keenspot.com Zebra Girl]]'' has made it his life's mission to rid the world of demons - and doesn't care who he has to hurt, damn, or kill to get the job done.
** Up to and including himself.
* Baron Klaus Wulfenbach in ''GirlGenius'' rules with a iron fist to protect the world from the sociopathic, unwittingly violent genius of the "[[MadScientist Sparks]]". Attempts are made to paint him as NecessarilyEvil, though; it is stated a few times that Klaus doesn't enjoy babysitting Europe.
---> '''Baron Wulfenbach''': [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20040806 "So I stopped it. And I did it my way this time. No more negotiating. No more promises. No more second chances. And I did it alone. Because I had to. And it worked."]]
** Othar from the same series plans to kill every spark in the world...ending with himself. This may explain why people often throw him out of airships.
** Pretty much EVERY Spark (who isn't already a full-time villain) is, at one time or another, one of these. It goes with the Sparkiness. Even Agatha. As demonstrated [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070216 here.]]
* In ''KidRadd'', [[spoiler:GI Guy]] believes that humans and sprites are too far predisposed to hurting each other to hope for peaceful existence, and that a mercy-genocide is in order to stop the suffering.
* Redcloak from ''OrderOfTheStick'', if one reads ''StartOfDarkness'', falls squarely into this. He wants to improve life for the goblinoid races, but attempts to do so by putting down the other humanoids with a case of divine blackmail instead of by actually helping the goblins improve their lot.
** On the heroic side, Vaarsivuus is getting there as well in recent comics. At this rate (s)he'll end up like [[HeroicSociopath Belkar]]...
*** ...quite possibly [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0331.html by saying the right four words to the right being at the right time for all the wrong reasons.]]
*** [[spoiler:[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0634.html Confirmed.]]]]
* It can be argued that [=VespAvenger=] from ''{{Questionable Content}}'' is a well intentioned extremist in the punishment she doles out to [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=743men who mistreat their girlfriends.]]
** However, Faye, Dora and Marten then quickly point out how wrong this is by asking her what she'd think if a ''man'' [[DoubleStandard did what she did]] to women who mistreat their boyfriends. She'd ask him out. And then she orders her Vespa-bot to shoot Dora and Faye. With the lasers set to "disfigure".
* [[spoiler: Ian Samael]] from ''ErrantStory'' comes from a culture where Elven oppression is common and whom many Elves wouldn't think twice before wiping out. His goal to keep his people from being hunted down by Elves is fine; pity that he tries to do so by [[spoiler: attempting to wipe out the Elves himself.]]
* Darkbringer form {{Lightbringer}} strongly belives, that the only way to fight evil, is by embracing it's ways, abaddon all hope, and give up himself into the darkness and despair. He belives that Lightbringer's actions gave people false hope and make them belive, that someone will going to save them in need, so he wants to kill him.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Lenny Priestly of SurvivalOfTheFittest V3 has shown that he would do anything to get his sister off the island, including kill his classmates. May be subverted; there are some implications that he may be using her as an excuse to go on a killing spree. Especially now that he's gone all AxCrazy and lost his AntiVillain status...
* [[DrHorrible Dr. Horrible]]. [[spoiler: At least in the beginning]], [[UnreliableNarrator if you believe him.]]
** [[spoiler: He tries to convince himself that this is still the case during the "Slipping" song. Probably unsuccessfully.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Dr. Horrible''': Then I win/And I get/Everything I ever, All the cash/all the fame/''and social change'', Anarchy/''that I run!'']]
* Dudley Griffin of ''{{KateModern}}'' is one of the few people prepared to confront the Order head on. Pity he's such a violent jerk.
*The SCPFoundation. And that's putting it ''lightly.''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The fanatic but charismatic Jet, a guerilla freedom fighter on ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' from mid-Season 1, who reappeared near the end of Season 2 with the intention of redeeming himself [[spoiler:only to discover that RedemptionEqualsDeath]].
* Waternoose from ''[[MonstersInc Monsters, Inc.]]'' is a father-like figure to Sulley and his motto "We Scare because we Care" is genuine, as he really does wish to maintain the Monster World through providing energy from childrens' screams. So to this ends, he builds a horrifying machine that will suck the screams out of children and, [[EngineeredPublicConfession as he says to Sulley]], is willing to "kidnap a THOUSAND children before he lets the company die...and silence anyone who gets in his way!"
* Equinox in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold". He wants to balance Chaos and Order: BY DESTROYING AND RESETTING THE UNIVERSE.
** Kr'ull the Eternal simply wants to have an empire that won't age and die while he has to watch it suffer. He plans to replace all the humans in the world with eternal bodybuilders just like him. [[spoiler: By the 25th century, he seems to have gotten over it.]]
* Played surprisingly straight in ''TheSimpsons''.
-->'''Sideshow Bob''': Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this: to protect you from yourselves.
** Similarly, the episode "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming". Certainly, Bob claimed he was doing a good deed by ridding Springfield of TV, but all it really did was make him the ultimate dog in the manger.
* Often featured on ''SouthPark'' in form of a StrawmanPolitical.
* Agent Bishop from the second ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' animated series has one mission: to protect Earth from alien invasion. In order to achieve this, he has: used aliens as unwilling test subjects for genetics experiments; faked an alien invasion and kidnapped the President in a ploy to guarantee funding for his agency, the Earth Protection Force; attempted to produce a sleeper army of super-soldiers to covertly kill people suspected of being an alien; and ironically, prolonged an alien invasion in order to fulfill the terms of an agreement with yet another group of aliens. Eventually, however, deciding that diplomacy is a more long-lasting and effective way of protecting Earth, he gives up Black Ops.
* In almost all incarnations of ''{{Transformers}}'', Megatron is forced to become one of these because Decepticons are second-class citizens after an earlier war. That is, of course, his only redeeming quality and it isn't a very good one.
** Well, some of them are nice guys to those troops that don't betray them, or give Prime the "worthy opponent" bit.
** And note that despite being "the bad guys", not all Decepticons are inherently evil. Many of them are just soldiers doing their jobs, and it's hardly their fault that the side they picked happened to have attracted the most psychos.
*''{{WALL-E}}'''s AUTO, the autopilot of the Axiom, [[spoiler:refuses to let the inhabitants go back to Earth, even though this directive is more than 700 years old and plant life does exist (as shown at the end).]]
** But hey, he's a computer. He can't choose ''not'' to follow his programming. It's not so much a [[AiIsACrapshoot crazy AI]] as an ill-considered directive [[spoiler:by a man seven centuries dead.]]
** Besides, realistically speaking, [[spoiler:one healthy plant does not promise enough resources for the entire population of that huge ship]].
*** Which another reason why Pixar decided to add that lengthy musical montage as the coda.
*** Pixar added the final montage because without it test screeners were debating whether humanity actually survives or only lasts a few weeks, which would have turned WALL-E, EVE, and Captain [=McCrea=] themselves into a good example of this trope. {{Word Of God}} established humanity's re-flowering on Earth as well as the re-flowering of Earth's ecosystem, thus averting any interpretations of the adorable WALL-E actually being a cruelly selfish individual who drives humanity to extinction just to be with his girl.
* Nerissa, main villain from ''{{WITCH}}'', used to be one of the good guys in charge of protecting the universe, but soon realized the only way to truly protect the universe was if it were under her rule, where she could ensure there would be no war, suffering, or injustice. For the most part, sure ensured no innocent people were harmed in her crusade, aside from {{the hero}}es who opposed her.
* Alvin from the ''SabrinaTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Planet Of The Dogs" becomes a mix of this and NobleDemon after Sabrina ignores him.
* AeonFlux's nemesis Trevor Goodchild honestly believes that by walling off his entire country, placing surveillance cameras everywhere, and conducting bizarre experiments in psychology and genetics, he's providing an unobjectionably safe existence for his subjects and gradually improving their quality of life. The frightening thing about this show is that half the time, you suspect he may be ''right''...
* Examples of this trope often turned up as villains/antagonists on ''{{Superfriends}}.''
** Including one villain who thought it was such a CRIME to spend money on space exploration instead of helping the poor... as opposed to shrinking a whole space center and kidnapping everyone inside? WallBanger.
* WordOfGod claims this is the way the Brain from ''PinkyAndTheBrain'' should be viewed. He wants to rule the world not for the sake of being a dictator like his rival Snowball, but because he believes he could do a much better job at it than the people currently in charge.
*Charlie Dog from LooneyTunes. Poor guy, all he wants is to be loved but he goes at it so wrong...
*Rameses the Pharaoh from ''ThePrinceOfEgypt''. Rather than making him a cardboard cut-out villain, the creators wrote him as a WellDoneSonGuy with a FreudianExcuse who has a very close relationship with Moses (they grew up together as brothers), who's just doing what he feels is right for the country and his dynasty. His father is the same, and even gives a little speech about how it is necessary to make sacrifices for the greater good (the "sacrifice" being a mass-murder of children). Of course neither of them feel particularly guilty about ordering the massacre of slaves.
* BatmanTheAnimatedSeries has Ra's Al Ghul, who ''barely'' manages to scrape into the "well-intentioned" category. His rather vaguely-defined motive is to restore the Earth to it's original, "pristine" state. His method is ''wiping out half of humanity''.
** This version of Catwoman probably also counts. Her goal: to collect funds for wildlife preservation. Her method for achieving this goal: dress up as a ninja kitty and raid jewelry boxes.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Animation]]

* The BigBad of ''BrokenSaints'', [[spoiler: Lear Dunham]], goes to ridiculous extremes (the most disturbing of which involve the torture of his own [[spoiler: daughter]]) to create a new world order that will set right all the wrongs of modern society.

[[/folder]]
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