History KnightTemplar / AnimeAndManga

* Suzaku of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' starts out as a WideEyedIdealist and a KnightInShiningArmor. After [[spoiler: Euphemia's death]], he falls into Knight Templar territory when he starts conquering/enslaving other countries for the Emperor in the hopes of gaining control over Japan some day. [[spoiler: Eventually, after a couple of MyGodWhatHaveIDone moments, he gets better -- or at least self-aware enough to point his NecessarilyEvil tendencies in the right direction]].

** [[VillainProtagonist Light Yagami]], a.k.a. "Kira", believes himself to be an ally of justice, and the "God of the New World" that he wants to create by using the Death Note to kill off what he believes to be the worst of humanity. When the police seek to interfere with this crusade (because [[WellIntentionedExtremist well intentions or not]], killing people is still against the law), Light soon turns his focus to getting rid of those who want to stop him, and does [[BerserkButton not take kindly]] to any suggestion or statement that what he is doing may be wrong or evil in itself. And that's even before he develops his infamous [[AGodAmI god complex]]...

* [[VillainProtagonist Eren Yeager]] from ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' becomes one later in the story arc, especially after the four-year time skip to 854, when Eren has fully transitioned into this, in spades. [[spoiler:After a lot of thought, he decides to destroy the world outside Paradis, and erase the hatred against the Subjects of Ymir.]]

* The 12th from ''Manga/FutureDiary'' is definitely this.

* Seryu Ubiquitous from ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' is one of the fiercest adherents of the Empire, and is sworn to eliminate all who dare to oppose it. She is very dedicated to what she considers "justice," but her moral compass is ''severely'' off-kilter. Not only does she turn a blind eye to pretty much every evil thing that her beloved Empire does (some of which gets pretty damned awful because the Empire has some serious monsters in its ranks) because she is fully convinced that the Empire represents the ultimate good, but she is also very sadistic and has an AllCrimesAreEqual approach to dispensing "justice," with even the smallest crime against the Empire being punishable by death in her eyes. And man-oh-man-oh-man, [[AxCrazy does she ever relish delivering "justice."]]

* Satyajit Shyamalan from ''[[Anime/BirdyTheMighty Birdy the Mighty: Decode]]'' is this, believing that it's his duty as one of the "chosen" to [[spoiler: use an alien super weapon to wipe out all of humanity except the "chosen" few]]. He never once remotely considers that he might not be doing the right thing, or even that he might not succeed, and he ultimately [[spoiler: gets killed by that same super weapon without ever realizing his mistake]].

* Almost all of the side of Good from ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' fall into this to various extents, since after all, they are born good so of course their actions are good as well. Special mention goes to [[TokenEvilTeammate Magsarion]] who is considered extreme even by the settings standards. He will slay evil without any remorse for what he does to accomplish it, be it to [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure slaughter a whole village of good people just to make sure that a single evil entity is thoroughly gone]].

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' has quite a few bloodthirsty crusaders for justice -- notable among them is Brother Petros, [[RankScalesWithAsskicking director]] of the [[ChurchMilitant Department of Inquisition]], who can favorably be described as "zealous though unsubtle" and accurately described as a bloody lunatic.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'':

* Seryu Ubiquitous from ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' is one of the fiercest adherents of the Empire, and is sworn to eliminate all who dare to oppose it. She is very dedicated to what she considers "justice", but her moral compass is ''severely'' off-kilter. Not only does she turn a blind eye to pretty much every evil thing that her beloved Empire does (some of which gets pretty damned awful because the Empire has some serious monsters in its ranks) because she is fully convinced that the Empire represents the ultimate good, but she is also very sadistic and has an AllCrimesAreEqual approach to dispensing "justice", with even the smallest crime against the Empire being punishable by death in her eyes. And man-oh-man-oh-man, [[AxCrazy does she ever relish delivering "justice"]].

** Some of the witches are this. Elsa Maria "saves" people by absorbing them into her barrier. Kriemhild Gretchen, [[spoiler: Madoka's witch form in the alternate timelines]], wants to do the same thing to [[KillAllHumans everyone in the world]]. And of course there’s [[spoiler: Homulily/Homucifer, who traps Madoka and the others in a LotusEaterMachine to “protect” them]].

* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' has quite a few bloodthirsty crusaders for justice -- notable among them is Brother Petros, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking director]] of the [[ChurchMilitant Department of Inquisition]], who can favorably be described as "zealous though unsubtle" and accurately described as a bloody lunatic.

* ''Buraiden Gai'': the Director of the Human Institute.

* ''Buraiden Gai'': the Director of the Human Institute.
* Suzaku of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' starts out as a WideEyedIdealist and a KnightInShiningArmor. After [[spoiler: Euphemia's death]], he falls into Knight Templar territory when he starts conquering/enslaving other countries for the Emperor in the hopes of gaining control over Japan some day. [[spoiler: Eventually, after a couple of MyGodWhatHaveIDone moments, he gets better -- or at least self-aware enough to point his NecessarilyEvil tendencies in the right direction]].
** Many of the major noble characters in the Holy Britannian Empire are self-righteous. The Emperor believes that what he's planning to do is so righteous that conquering and dehumanising entire countries, [[spoiler: which is the opposite of the ideology he claims]], is justifiable, even though it's only buying him time. [[spoiler: Schneizel, too, believes that world peace is worth murdering somewhere around 10 digits worth of people and then oppressing the remainder for]]. Even ''[[PsychopathicManchild Mao]]'' has his Knight Templar moments, though he doesn't seem to care enough to actually ''be'' a Knight Templar.
** Lelouch and Suzaku veer into this in the final arc when they [[spoiler:conquer the world and oppress it under the most brutal dictatorship in history, in the hopes of getting everyone to hate Lelouch rather than each other.]]

** Some of the Marines, such as Akainu, are downright dogmatic in their devotion to the concept of "absolute justice" and can give the impression of a massive, sprawling organization comprised almost entirely of Knights Templar. This is somewhat tempered by the presence of more reasonable characters like Smoker, Garp, Koby, or Aokiji. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, the latter example is no longer in the Marines, largely in part due to not approving of being under the command of people like Akainu]]. Other Government-related examples are the CP9, ''especially'' Lucci, who believes in "Dark Justice" and that this allows him to slaughter not just his targets, but even their hostages for "standing on the way of justice".

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', since the [[VillainProtagonist heroes are pirates]], many of the Marine officers are Knights Templar, the most notable of whom is probably [[spoiler: Admiral Akainu. The very first thing we see him do is [[MoralEventHorizon blow up a civilian ship]] simply because they ''might'' have one of the archaeologists the World Government wanted to wipe out aboard. They didn't]].

** Some fans view [[spoiler: the Anti-Spirals]] as being thoroughly evil examples of the KnightTemplar, due to their repeated crossings of the MoralEventHorizon. [[spoiler: First, they [[MindRape turned]] Lordgenome to their side against his will,]] making him massacre his own people. Second, they turned [[TheCutie Nia]] into their slave, and then [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] her, ripping her apart from the inside. Finally, the reason they tortured her? They were sick of merely oppressing Spiral races, and wanted to KillEmAll. Oh, and in TheMovie, the torture/interrogation scene? It involved Naughty Tentacles.

** [[BigGood Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto]] has an utter convicition to the laws. This guy generally means well, but he has a rather high respect for the laws of Soul Society, and will kick anyone's ass for daring to defy them. When Rukia was arrested and slated for execution, Yamamoto does not question the decision, which sets him in opposition to the heroes. He is essentially the main antagonist of the Soul Society Arc until Aizen is revealed as a villain. It's implied that his adherence to the law is his way of making up for his previous life as a warlord presiding over a lawless Wretched Hive that was once (and largely still is) the Soul Society.

** Some of the Marines, such as Akainu, are downright dogmatic in their devotion to the concept of "absolute justice" and can give the impression of a massive, sprawling organization comprised almost entirely of Knights Templar. This is somewhat tempered by the presence of more reasonable characters like Smoker, Garp, Koby, or Aokiji. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, the latter example is no longer in the Marines, largely in part due to not approving of being under the command of people like Akainu]]. Other Government-related examples are the CP9, ''especially'' Lucci, who believes in "Dark Justice" and that this allows him to slaughther not just his targets, but even their hostages for "standing on the way of justice".

* [[VillainProtagonist Eren Yeager]] from ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' becomes one later in the story arc, especially after the four-year time skip to 854, when Eren has fully transitioned into this, in spades. [[spoiler:After a lot of thought, he decides to destroy the world outside Paradis, and erase the hatred against the Subjects of Ymir. Subverted because Eren does acknowledge that his actions are immoral. On the other hand, the racial policies of other nations had morbidly escalated the persecution of the Subjects of Ymir. This is the reason Eren doesn't strip the other Titan shifters of their powers, to give them some freedom to defeat him.]]

* The Royal Knights organization from the various versions of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' are the incarnations of this trope, following anyone who possesses holy or god-like powers with a sense of unquestioning dogmatic loyalty. Usually, whoever is bossing them around goes nuts, and they end up acting as honorable villains until several of them wise up and turn "true good".

** Some of the Marines, such as Akainu and Lucci, are downright dogmatic in their devotion to the concept of "absolute justice" and can give the impression of a massive, sprawling organization comprised almost entirely of Knights Templar. This is somewhat tempered by the presence of more reasonable characters like Smoker, Garp, Koby, or Aokiji. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, the latter example is no longer in the Marines, largely in part due to not approving of being under the command of people like Akainu]].

** [[DrillSergeantNasty Quilge Opie]] views Arrancar as filthy, sinful creatures. He sees himself as righteous man enacting justice by brutally slaughtering the Arrancar. His Quincy: Vollstandig, Biskiel, is aptly translated as the "Justice of God".

** Some of the Marines, such as Akainu and Lucci, are downright dogmatic in their devotion to the concept of "absolute justice" and can give the impression of a massive, sprawling organization comprised almost entirely of Knights Templar. This is somewhat tempered by the presence of more reasonable characters like Smoker, Garp, Koby, or Aokiji. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, two of those examples are no longer in the Marines, largely in part due to protesting the actions of people like Akainu]].

** [[VillainProtagonist Light Yagami]], a.k.a. "Kira", believes himself to be an ally of justice, and the "God of the New World" that he wants to create by using the Death Note to kill off what he believes to be the worst of humanity. When the police seek to interfere with this crusade (because [[WellIntentionedExtremist well intentions or not]], killing people is still against the law), Light soon turns his focus to getting rid of those who want to stop him, and does [[BerserkButton not take kindly]] to any suggestion or statement that what he is doing may be wrong or evil in itself.

* ''Manga/DeathNote'''s main character, [[TheSociopath Light Yagami]], a.k.a. "Kira", is a Knight Templar, [[spoiler: though he's not as severe on punishment as other Death Note users]]. In fact, most of the interesting characters at least border on this; L is willing to torture people (albeit [[spoiler: another Death Note user]]) to capture Kira, Mikami is eager to kill for Justice, Misa for love, and Light himself...This series has an extra-lubricated [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Slippery Slope]].

** Some of the Marines, such as Akainu and Lucci, are downright dogmatic in their devotion to the concept of "absolute justice" and can give the impression of a massive, sprawling organization comprised almost entirely of Knights Templar. This is somewhat tempered by the presence of more reasonable characters like Smoker, Garp, or Aokiji. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, two of those examples are no longer in the Marines, largely in part due to protesting the actions of people like Akainu]].
** And now we've got a slighter version in the Fish-man Society. Since the World Government have been heavily invoking HumansAreTheRealMonsters on the Fish-men, some of the more extreme segments are ready to wage war on the entire effing world to secure decent treatment of their kin. Suffice it to say that most of said kin realize how batshit insane a solution this is.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'': Fairy Tale is a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] terrorist organization that is firmly convinced that HumansAreTheRealMonsters and wants to wipe them out and conquer the world for monsters. Of course, a significant chunk of their time and resources is also spent towards oppressing and killing their fellow monsters for not agreeing with their extremist views; Kuyou, the former head of Yokai Academy's Security Committee, and secretly TheMole for Fairy Tale, comes right out and says that humans are disgusting scum and vermin who are worthy only of death, even flat-out telling Moka and the rest of Tsukune's UnwantedHarem that they deserve to die simply for even ''daring'' to associate with a human.