History Main / NecessarilyEvil

** Lelouch, TheProtagonist, openly admits that he's doing reprehensible things in pursuit of noble goals (bringing down TheEmpire and making the world a better place for his MoralityPet sister). This is pointed out in an early second season episode where he engages in a short BreakThemByTalking to HonorBeforeReason Guilford about the best way to confront an overwhelming evil. [[spoiler:In the end he has himself killed to create world peace; whilst he never explains (to the viewer) exactly why he did it, the implication is that it was [[NoPlaceForMeThere as redemption for the sins he committed]] during the course of the series.]]

** In the latter parts of the series [[spoiler:after Suzaku has his HeelRealization moment he attempts to kill his [[TheEmperor benefactor]] for the last year, and then helps his best, and probably only, friend in the world, become evil dictator of the world, then kill him. And having done that, [[ThatManIsDead he must sacrifice his identity as Suzaku]] and [[BecomingTheMask live as Zero for the rest of his life]].]]

* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Light Yagami starts out this way, determined to sacrifice himself for the greater good. However, [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil less than a week later]] he's {{squee}}ing over his [[AGodAmI promotion to Godhood]]. It doesn't keep him from occasionally toying with the concept of himself as selfless and self-sacrificing though, and in his climactic MotiveRant, he claims that his ascent to Godhood and becoming Kira was a purely selfless and altruistic act on his part.

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': How Zamasu initially justifies his plans of [[FinalSolution mortal genocide]] and every heinous act he commits, up to and including [[{{Gotterdammerung}} slaughtering the other gods as well]]; yes, what he's doing is evil, but as far as he's concerned, his actions are necessary to bring about a greater good. Eventually, he spirals and [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist it becomes clear]] that his actions aren't about justice and order, but about ridding TheMultiverse of everything he sees wrong and imperfect... which is basically everyone and everything [[HolierThanThou but himself]].

* Fanfic/TarkinsFist: The attitude taken by the more introspective Earthlings towards the more draconian efforts they are willing to resort to to win the Empire-Earth war. They know that, before the war, the brutal suppression of food riots, ruthless crackdowns on protestors, and blatant abuses of power by the central government would never have been acceptable. But with the global economy gutted, global civilization crumbling on the edge of the abyss, and the Empire threatening to reduce them to eternal serfdom, any method of extricating themselves from the bleak situation they find themselves in is preferable to defeat.

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': This is Jason Todd's original characterization and goal post-resurrection - he believes there is no way to stop crime legally, so he aims to ''control'' all the crime in Gotham instead and quell the worst the city has to offer on threat of death. Batman essentially counters that instead of saving Gotham by controlling crime, he's making things worse and driving the city into a gang war and, naturally, a fight ensued. Afterwards, DependingOnTheWriter, he either kept this characterization or descended into more insane revenge schemes (until the New 52 happened and he went back to being a hero).

* [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' constructs himself as Necessarily Evil in his final conversation with Dr. Manhattan, [[spoiler:justifying murdering millions of people with his success in preventing further escalation of the Cold War and claiming 'he has made himself to feel every death']]. He is never brought to justice for his acts and the comic does not judge either way, leaving the readers to make up their own minds on the subject. [[spoiler:A throwaway comment that references the [[TwoForOneShow Black Freighter comic]] implies that, ultimately, he has availed nothing.]]
** ComicBook/DoomsdayClock still shows [[spoiler: Ozymandias doing whatever it takes to achieve his goals, after his so-called 'achievement' in maintaining world peace has completely shattered in his own world when Rorschach's journal has been publicised to the public, and leading the whole world into WorldWarIII thanks to his antic. This time however is that he must seek Dr. Manhattan and bring him back to their world as a way to fix this, but when the latter refused, he resorted to having a plan to save ''both DC and Watchmen'' Universes, which so far involves shattering the public's faith in the metahuman community, and [[CurbStompBattle falsely framing Dr.Manhattan for his actions in Moscow and sending a majority of DC superheroes there just to be incapacitated by him]].]]
* This is Jason Todd's original characterization and goal post-resurrection - he believes there is no way to stop crime legally, so he aims to ''control'' all the crime in Gotham instead and quell the worst the city has to offer on threat of death. Batman essentially counters that instead of saving Gotham by controlling crime, he's making things worse and driving the city into a gang war and, naturally, a fight ensued. Afterwards, DependingOnTheWriter, he either kept this characterization or descended into more insane revenge schemes (until the New 52 happened and he went back to being a hero).
* Alter from ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'', after dealing with internal discord in Israel thanks to [[DepopulationBomb an abrupt end]] to their conflict with Palestine, concludes an outside enemy is necessary to distract them and engineers a conflict with America. [[spoiler:This is later revealed to be a cover for her real plan to [[DeathSeeker be killed by Yorick]].]]
* ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, who over time has oscillated between hero and villain a few times, is perhaps written most convincingly this way. A classic example occurs in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #275 (written by Creator/ChrisClaremont). Confronting a Russian colonel trying to kill him to avenge the death of his son (who died when Magneto sank a nuclear submarine 125 issues earlier), he admits he considers himself damned as well. And later he insists on killing world-threatening supervillainess Zaladane even though this means that he will now have to part ways with Rogue, with whom he had just started sharing romantic feelings. (See the Quotes sub-page).
* Creator/ChrisClaremont [[WriterOnBoard also insists]] that everything ComicBook/{{Mystique}} did before Irene's death was [[OmniscientMoralityLicense to prevent prophesied worse evil from taking place if she didn't]].
* ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, the Franchise/MarvelUniverse [[PlanetEater eater of worlds]] [[GodzillaThreshold is needed]] for the survival of the universe... but only because if he dies, than something even worse will take his place. And unlike Galactus, it won't just drain some planets of life after giving its inhabitants a heads-up that their world's about to be eaten, it would just ''destroy everything in the universe''. His role as a necessary evil became a very big problem (well, bigger than usual) when he ended up being teleported into the Ultimate Universe. The Ultimate version of Galactus is a HiveMind being that isn't required like mainstream Galactus is, but mainstream Galactus was so trained to his job of eating planets, that he refused to listen to reason and set about trying to eat Ultimate Earth and other inhabited planets... after [[OhCrap taking control of the Ultimate Galactus and making himself even more powerful]]!
* In the DCU, ComicBook/AmandaWaller's original characterization. One storyline had the Comicbook/SuicideSquad being forced into disbanding. Amanda's response: hijack three of the prisoners who made up the Squad, offer them their freedom in exchange for their cooperation, brutally massacre the gang of thugs who had set in motion the disbanding (and who were preparing to release a flood of zombifying drugs onto the streets)... and then turn herself in to face trial. Going further, she refused to use her knowledge of American espionage to get a better deal, reasoning that they'd dig her out if they ever needed her again. She ended up spending a year in prison.
* The ending of ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' features this trope, [[spoiler:though it's the protagonist who realizes that he can't live in the utopia he's spent the entire book trying to birth.]]
* In ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool'', ComicBook/{{Cable}} endeavors to unite the world against a devastating enemy -- himself. The idea being, with his powers spiraling out of control and becoming a threat, everyone would team up and [[DeathSeeker kill him]], and then feel guilt for doing so, as his public plan is to establish an island utopia. Later in the same book, he aids the revival of Apocalypse so the decimated mutant race would have an enemy to unite against.
* The reason ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} is recruited by ComicBook/IronMan and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica to join the ComicBook/NewAvengers is that he would be able (and willing) to kill if necessary, whereas the rest of the team wouldn't.
* ComicBook/NickFury, [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel's]] resident SpyMaster is often a jerkass who performs morally questionable, but necessary actions due to the [[GreyAndGrayMorality grey world]] he lives in. This was eventually deconstructed in ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'', where [[spoiler:Dum Dum Dugan (or rather the android programmed to believe he was Dum Dum Dugan because Fury wanted a MoralityPet and promptly disregarded it -- ItMakesSenseInContext)]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells Fury off]] on the fact that he has gone so deep with the whole "I am the man who makes the hard choices" mentality that he has completely forgot about keeping the damned world safe, [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and instead turned it into a reason to become]]] a monstrous ControlFreak.
** {{Ultimate|Universe}} [[ComicBook/TheUltimates Nick Fury]] is this even ''more so''.
* This is precisely why ComicBook/TheKingpin is still in business and also the reason why no one has made any serious attempts to get rid of him for good. If someone ever actually did kill him or ruin him so thoroughly that he had no hope of ever rebuilding his empire, the resulting power vacuum would lead to an innumerable amount of low-level crime lords fancying themselves the next Kingpin going to war with one another over his spot, and the carnage that would result would be far greater than Fisk could ever dream of causing himself. Or for that matter, ''would'' dream of causing, because [[PragmaticVillainy that kind of mass carnage would hurt his profit margins]]. He knows this, Spider-Man and Daredevil know this... hell, just about everyone who could remove him from power knows this, and they sure as hell aren't about to disregard it. Hell, even ''ComicBook/{{the Punisher}}'' won't take a run at the Kingpin, which says a lot. It's not that Frank doesn't want Fisk dead, he just knows that he's already got his hands full and taking down Fisk is going to increase his workload exponentially.
* ComicBook/{{Mephisto}} from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse often comes across as this. {{Hell}} is a necessary part of the universe. It inevitably corrupts any good person who tries to rule it, the exception being Noble Kale, who was the result of a centuries long gambit by Uri-El to get rid of Mephisto for good. Any attempts at reform fail, even [[SatanIsGood Kale ruling hell benevolently]] got him kicked back to Earth by demons that ''wanted'' Mephisto back. And any other hell lord besides Mephisto tends to be worse. So for better or worse heroes will sometimes work with Mephisto to restore him to his throne since someone has to do the job as Lord of Evil and keep worse hell lords in check.

* NecessarilyEvil: [[Characters/TheDragonPrinceViren Lord Viren]] belives that sometimes a problem requires a "creative solution". If it works, then why care about the details?