History Main / MoralSociopathy

See also PrinciplesZealot, when one is completely obsessed with their moral code above everything; some moral sociopaths are twisted versions of these as well since they care about their empathy-restricted moral code almost as much as they do about themselves. This twist can be bad to be around, without necessarily being Evil or even conventionally [[GoodIsNotNice Good]] for that matter (it's going to hit [[ToBeLawfulOrGood Lawful]], though). However, moral sociopaths need not be always overwhelmed by extremism. Many can simply hit NominalHero, who, while lacking empathy, still have their moral codes to restrict them from dangerous, socially damaging behaviors in many ways. Also compare/contrast BlackAndWhiteInsanity, ByronicHero, and SociopathicHero. Also, at a bit more of a stretch, ComedicSociopathy.[[note]]A word of caution for all other characters in a work -- always remember to wear properly tested safety equipment if one of ''these'' is a main protagonist. Having "fun feels good and is liked by the crowd, so do what is fun for the crowd and avoid what the crowd finds unfun" as an actual moral stance can be draining to live with.[[/note]] See also EvilHero, in which the person in question truly ''is'' evil through and through but is merely doing a traditionally heroic job like police officer or firefighter.

* Bartemius Crouch Jr. in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is ruthlessly violent in service of the EvilSorcerer Voldemort. In the backstory, Barty was at least an accomplice, if not an active participant, in the ColdBloodedTorture of Neville Longbottom's parents, who were so damaged from the experience that they don't even recognize their son a decade and a half later. At the time of the story, Barty imprisons [[spoiler:Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody]] in a trunk for almost a year, kills [[spoiler:his own father]], and mind-controls one Triwizard Tournament contestant into torturing another. Yet his core value is UndyingLoyalty to Voldemort. He despises fellow Death Eaters (Voldemort's followers) who disavowed the cause after Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, especially those who ratted others out in exchange for amnesty. This could be considered hypocritical, as Barty himself denied involvement in the attack on the Longbottoms and begged not to be imprisoned. On the other hand, he never renounced Voldemort or the Death Eaters, and [[spoiler: after smuggling him out of Azkaban, his father had to use mind control to keep him from seeking out his presumed-dead master]]. So he likely wanted to avoid prison specifically to keep up the fight.

* Bartemius Crouch Jr. in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is ruthlessly violent in service of the EvilSorcerer Voldemort. In the backstory, Barty was at least an accomplice, if not an active participant, in the ColdBloodedTorture of Neville Longbottom's parents, who were so damaged from the experience that they don't even recognize their son a decade and a half later. At the time of the story, Barty imprisons [[spoiler:Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody]] in a trunk for almost a year, kills [[spoiler:his own father]], and mind-controls one Triwizard Tournament contestant into torturing another. Yet:
** His core value is UndyingLoyalty to Voldemort. He despises fellow Death Eaters (Voldemort's followers) who disavowed the cause after Voldemort's [[OnlyMostlyDead apparent]] death, especially those who ratted others out in exchange for amnesty. This could be considered hypocritical, as Barty himself denied involvement in the attack on the Longbottoms and begged not to be imprisoned. On the other hand, he never renounced Voldemort or the Death Eaters, and [[spoiler: after smuggling him out of Azkaban, his father had to use mind control to keep him from seeking out his presumed-dead master]]. So he likely wanted to avoid prison specifically to keep up the fight.
** He also shows disdain for people who attack when their opponents' backs are turned.

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': Zamasu, the ArcVillain of the Future Trunks Saga, truly and honestly believes that mortals are foolish and dangerous creatures that can challenge the gods and should be destroyed for the good of the universe. When [[spoiler:he tries to kill Gowasu for his earrings, he freely admits that what he's doing is evil, but he believes that [[NecessarilyEvil said evil will lead to a greater good]]]].

While it is somewhat TruthInTelevision, sociopaths are still human, and it's not unnatural that sociopaths have a sense of right and wrong, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality even though it is highly likely to be completely different from what other people consider that to be]]. Many diagnosed sociopaths are known to have moral codes, often [[{{Ubermensch}} unique to them]], but occasionally based on preexisting social codes (such as TheGoldenRule) as filtered through their very particular perspectives. Naturally, since these types of morality focus more on abstract concepts [[LackOfEmpathy rather than on the feelings or reactions of people themselves]], expect some rather interesting and/or nasty [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans extremism]] to crop up: either occasional or a lot. The upshot is, they can easily like individuals and work towards the welfare of people as groups without actually ''caring'' for or about them and what they feel all that much. Emotional toes are likely to be trodden on and then shrugged off with an easy smile, and not even out of any deliberate calculation on their part, because they might very well ''not'' even be fully aware that they have trodden.

* The Rani, from ''Series/DoctorWho'' and its extended universe. Unlike another former classmate of the Doctor's turned Time Lord renegade, the Master, the Rani dislikes needless violence and exercising power over others for its own sake. She'll even help people who are in danger when it doesn't benefit her. She genuinely sees herself as [[ForScience working toward scientific knowledge]] and at one point thinks an entire planet she's been experimenting on will benefit in the long term from her actions. It's just that her quest for knowledge tends to benefit her while inflicting ''tremendous'' suffering on beings she considers lesser species (which, naturally, would be any species that isn't Gallifreyan). Nor does she really understand the Doctor's ethics. In the Big Finish audio ''The Rani Elite'', when the Doctor is angry that she [[MercyKill kills a man who is trapped in a decaying body as a direct result of her experiments]], she's genuinely taken aback that the Doctor isn't instead praising her for her compassion.

* Sauron of ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'' was originally this. From the beginning, Sauron was an obsessive perfectionist, which served him well as a servant of [[UltimateBlacksmith Aulë]] but caused massive friction when confronted with the chaotic mess created by his master’s wife [[MotherNature Yavanna]]. Sauron defected to [[BigBad Morgoth]], but his goals were ultimately to impose his own sense of order onto the world. His frustrations mounted with the emergence of [[SmugSuper the elves]], who rejected his attempts at guidance and built a perfectly functional society entirely on their own. Sauron's intentions [[MotiveDecay slowly degraded]] from order to subjugation, refusing peace in favor of vengeance against those who had resisted him. By the time of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', he has become so bitter, frustrated, and sadistic that he can't [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget remember what it was like to feel for others]].

* In ''Literature/TheExpanse'', Amos is explicitly described as a sociopathic killer, although this is as a result of trauma he suffered as a child. He uses other, more moral people around him to keep him on the right track, as he's more than willing to just start butchering people who get in his way without someone to keep him in check. In ''Nemesis Games'', after [[spoiler:Earth is hit by meteor strikes]] and he's left without anyone to tell him what to ''not'' do, Amos takes extreme measures to stay alive, including seeking out and killing a survivalist so he can loot his bunker. In a few cases, however, we encounter instances of his bizarre moral code, such as his violent objections whenever he encounters someone abusing children, and his sense of moral obligation to those who are part of his self-identified "family", including a willingness to go to war against an entire crime family when they initially refuse to help pay benefits to his adoptive mother's widower. In short: Amos has worked out that a fully-expressed set of murderous behaviours even for immediate survival is ''a very, very bad'' longer-term survival strategy to have in space where you kind of need a lot of people on your side just to get air and water, so he tries to keep a small, trusted, cohesive and protected group around him to steer him in less accidentally suicidal directions and help him out of social jams he can't wrap his head around. Everything makes sense when you look at it that way. As for the "liking kids" bit, he knows he's damaged, and when it happened to him: what little empathy he has, he keeps for those who might wind up like him if he doesn't protect them when he actually sees stuff like that happening in front of him. He doesn't always get it right, but he tries. He is also quietly horrified by the idea that anyone would willingly submit to a procedure that strips them of their empathy.

* Creator/JRRTolkien writes that Sauron of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was originally this. Even when he was a good guy, Sauron always liked perfect order. This was not a particularly bad trait for a servant of Aulë, the smith of the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Valar]]. It helps to be an obsessive perfectionist when you're making jewelry, or languages, or helping design the bodies of a species. It was probably in fact Sauron's experience working with Aulë on creating the dwarves that started him thinking about what the perfect way to arrange nature for sentient life. And then Yavanna went and made a chaotic mess (from his point of view) when creating nature. Sauron defects to the BigBad, but he still very much has benevolent intentions. Then the elves wake up, and well... from Sauron's point of view, they are {{Smug Super}}s. Elves only take instructions from people they trust, don't fear death, and are supremely capable of building a perfectly functional society entirely on their own. This annoys both Sauron and his boss Morgoth to no end. Sauron's intentions start to become less benevolent, and he starts to have a sadistic side as a result of his mounting frustrations. However, a small glimpse of this previous Sauron can perhaps be seen in the city he sets up at Tol-en-Gaurhoth. He does seem to genuinely care about the werewolves, who are the primary permanent inhabitants of the city. By the time of The Lord of the Rings though, any hint of benevolent intentions within Sauron has vanished. He has become so bitter, frustrated, and sadistic that ''he'' can't remember what it was like to feel for others much less try to convince anyone else that he does. Hence why he cannot take a fair form, as was his custom in the 1st and 2nd Ages. Of course, that is not to say that Sauron couldn't eventually be redeemed: and after everything he has lost, he might just be tired enough to give up, repent and face the judgement of the Valar. Or then again, maybe not.

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': CorruptCorporateExecutive [[Characters/MonsterVerseWalterSimmons Walter Simmons]] is a [[TheSociopath high-functioning sociopathic]] {{narcissist}}, who seems to genuinely believe his own claims that he's bettering the human race... while [[CorporateConspiracy conspiring]] to endanger millions of innocent people and starting a needless, costly war against Godzilla for nothing better than his own wounded pride; having absolutely no empathy nor remorse for the people he's endangering, and calling their deaths amid Godzilla's rampage "providence".

* {{Subverted|Trope}} with Hrathen in ''Literature/{{Elantris}}'', who seems like a religious fanatic at first, but turns out to be one of the more reasonable antagonists and goes through crippling guilt for his actions -- he supports his theocratic religion because he believes it is too logical and well-organized to be wrong [[spoiler:and turns against it when it ''stops'' behaving logically]]. [[spoiler:Played straight with Dilaf, who is such a fanatic and has such a serious case of FantasticRacism for the Elantrians that he can justify any atrocity.]]

* Bartemius Crouch Jr. in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is ruthlessly violent in service of the EvilSorcerer Voldemort. In the backstory, Barty was at least an accomplice, if not an active participant, in the ColdBloodedTorture of Neville Longbottom's parents, who were so damaged from the experience that they don't even recognize their son a decade and a half later. At the time of the story, Barty imprisons [[spoiler:Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody]] in a trunk for almost a year, kills [[spoiler:his own father]], and mind-controls one Triwizard Tournament contestant into torturing another. Yet:

* ''Literature/TheTruth'': After being presented with proof of an afterlife, Mr. Pin becomes frightened enough to start acting in ways that conflict with his "shaky grasp of how things were supposed to work in a moral universe" in the hopes it might keep him out of Hell. However, his lack of enthusiasm about this and attempts to employ ruthless loopholes end poorly for him.

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': [[spoiler:Doctor Bowman]], thanks to faulty, uneven {{uplift|edAnimal}}ing combined with [[ManiacMonkeys a very poor choice of species]], is a violent, overly impulsive psychopath who is ''very aware'' that he is one. He had to build his own moral code from scratch and take extreme measures to make sure he could stick to it and minimize chances to break it; he outright warns Florence to not look him in the eye or touch him because he can't help reacting badly to it, and chats with her in an environment where he's likely to take out his rage on a punching dummy instead of her. When left alone to work with his thoughts in peace, and dealt with on his terms, he's utterly reasonable and an actual force of good with his scientific developments, but he's still aware he could kill someone if approached the wrong way.

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': CorruptCorporateExecutive [[Characters/MonsterVerseWalterSimmons Walter Simmons]] is a [[TheSociopath high-functioning sociopath]]ic {{narcissist}}, who seems to genuinely believe his own claims that he's bettering the human race... while [[CorporateConspiracy conspiring]] to endanger millions of innocent people and starting a needless, costly war against Godzilla for nothing better than his own wounded pride; having absolutely no empathy nor remorse for the people he's endangering, and calling their deaths amid Godzilla's rampage "providence".