Pure Is Not Good - Television Tropes & Idioms

"The legend said the heart must be pure—it never said pure good."

— Harm, Young Justice

Okay, so you've been told that in order to make the Phlebotinum work, or go to this particular place, or what have you, you have to be pure of heart. And then you get there, and there's the Big Bad. What?!? Turns out Pure Is Not Good.

In fact, it's perfectly possible to be Pure Evil.

This trope is solely for "pure of heart" where purity does not necessarily denote goodness. Any resemblance to being a trope about pure substances is... ahem... purely coincidental.

May make use of Virgin Power as a specific form of purity. See also Ambiguous Innocence, Light Is Not Good, Straight Edge Evil. Contrast Incorruptible Pure Pureness.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

In Dragon Ball Z, it's explained that Vegeta was able to obtain his Super Saiyan form, thought to require a "pure heart", by having a heart of pure evil. One of the difficulties of fighting as a Super Saiyan is the sheer rage that overcomes the Saiyan. This is because their purity of heart is transformed into pure rage. Even for Goku, Super Saiyan was his Super-Powered Evil Side (at first, anyway), which is why he never used the spirit bomb in this form except in a Non-Serial Movie (even then, he had to actually absorb it into his body so it wouldn't backfire on him when he transformed).
- In the DBZ Video games, Cell is able to use the Spirit Bomb as his ultimate attack by being pure evil. Incidentally, the Viz translated manga does indeed give this line as a heart of "pure evil".
- Kid Buu (Yes, the absolutely insane destroyer of all worlds) is hinted to be pure of heart during the climax of the battle with Goku, since he was able to not only catch the Spirit Bomb and move it back, but was also quite capable of deflecting it back at Goku (During the Vegeta Saga, Goku stated that the Spirit Bomb could be deflected by those pure of heart, and thus could not hurt them). This is probably because of Buu's childlike mentality.
In Bleach, Kaname Tosen says that Wonderweiss Margera likes being near him because pure creatures gravitate toward each other, but that he isn't sure where along the spectrum Margera's purity lies.
A Sailor Moon episode has Minako depressed because the villains haven't tried to steal her pure heart crystal. In order to cheer her up Luna tells her that Usagi had her heart crystal stolen because of her pure love for Mamoru but still has plenty of bad traits like a pure love of eating.
Naruto: Itachi notes that Sasuke is "still pure, and can be colored by anything", and as a result the Big Bad had a fairly easy time manipulating him. Further events indicate this purity likely stemmed from his ignorance of the darker goings-on of his village. The person to first introduce him to the reality could bend his perception of the conflict as they pleased.
YuYu Hakusho has Sensui, who once was extremely pure. If he wasn't so pure as a good guy, he couldn't have become so tainted as a villain. And out of his seven personalities, "Shinobu" (the original) remains very pure and innocent.
Mao from Code Geass is as innocent as a child, and can also read people's minds. If he sees that they've done or thought anything bad, hen automatically assumes that they're bad people. And then he'll use what he knows about them to Mind Rape them. And his victims include the show's resident Messiah and (then) Knight in Shining Armor! It's explained because he received his mind-reading powers when he was only six, and so learned about the bad thoughts everyone gets at some point before he was old enough to understand that you can have bad thoughts or make mistakes and still be a perfectly decent person. To really drive the point home, his signature color is white!
Takato of Digimon Tamers is probably the purest and most innocent of all the "Goggleheads" in the series is also the quickest to flip extremes. Thankfully this only becomes a problem if you happened to have killed Leomon.
There's an angelic character in O Parts Hunter who is a genuine angel and doesn't have one iota of evil in his heart even when disemboweling his enemies he loves everything. He's on the "evil" side, and since the hero's weapon is only as powerful as the amount of fear of his enemy he's screwed.
- This is a standard trait of O Parts angels. Their so-called goodness doesn't prevent their vessels from destructive agendas. All an angel can really do is to kill their vessels' malice, bolster their altruistic sentiments and grant them a sense of justification instead of, say, actually improving their morality. If, however, the holder is good already, that's a different story.
The two antagonists in season 2 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are both different facets of this trope.
- Gouda thinks of himself as a pure person who has only the best for everyone in mind, but is treacherous bastard who always dresses in black and never had his terribly disfigured face restored, so everyone who meets him will always remember him.
- Kuze has given up on all kind of idealism and turned to terrorism, but is completely devoted to helping the people suffering in the internment camps and sacrifices everything he has to improve their situation. He also had his cybernetic body custom build with white skin and hair, and a face so perfectly sculpted that it allows for almost no facial expressions or even mouth movement so to not distort it's unfading beauty. He also dresses completely in white when possible evoking at the same time an image of purity and death. He gets rid of the white getup after quitting Individual Eleven and joining the Asian refugees, switching to more practical jeans and leather jacket. Characterwise, he is compared to Che Guevara, Malcom X and Cassius Clay (the 19th century abolitionist, not the 20th century boxer who changed his name to Muhammed Ali) - a person utterly convinced of the rightness of his cause and with ability to steer others to it with his massive charisma.
Shiori Takatsuki from Revolutionary Girl Utena takes this to new levels. "Innocently cruel", indeed.
In one episode of 009-1, 9-1 meets a young woman who she can only describe as "pure." Later, the woman tries to kill her when 9-1 tries to stop her from meeting up with enemy agents. It turns out that the girl is actually an android made mostly out of very pure gold that the enemy agents were trying to smuggle out of the country.
In InuYasha, Naraku corrupts Hakushin, a Living Buddha who has become bitter over his Heroic Sacrifice, into protecting him by erecting a purifying barrier that destroys demons (except for Naraku's). Kikyo at times is also aligned against the protagonists, and uses her purifying priestess powers to thwart their efforts, since she's a Dark Magical Girl who wants to face Naraku all alone. Ironically (or meaningfully), Kikyou is the one who actually convinces Hakushin to stop serving Naraku, which finally allows him to stop hating people and pass on.
Code Breaker has the pure, innocent killer child-Sakura. Her pal Ogami shows her that killing is bad and hugging is good, although she kills him anyway (they get better).
In Fullmetal Alchemist, the Big Bad insists that he has purified himself by giving his Seven Deadly Sins their own bodies in the form of homunculi. When he reabsorbs Greed into himself, he becomes Affably Evil, only to create a new Greed.
Kyouko Sakura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica describes her father like this. And she does so a while after he actually lost his mind after learning of Kyoko's Selfless Wish and went the Pater Familicide route, since his mind simply broke after that. Confirmed when the Drama CD shows us what kind of person Minister Sakura was before breaking himself and everyone else but Kyouko: a soft-spoken, kind Nice Guy.
Kyouko: "He was too honest. Too kind. Every morning reading the paper, the worries of the world brought him to tears(...)"
Lucy from Elfen Lied. Pure, sweet, kind... psychotic killer, her theme song Lilium is Ominous Latin Chanting for "pure as the lily".
- In addition, Number 35 (Mariko) is a five year old girl, filled with childish innocence and playfulness. And Cruelty.
Mato Kuroi from Black★Rock Shooter is this. She happens to be a genuinely pure girl that has no sorrow or worry, and wants other people to be just like her. In similar case like Light above, she also realizes that people aren't as pure as her and wants to change that. That desire manifests into Black★Rock Shooter and, true to her nature, strives to help others. It's just said Otherself lives in a place where suffering and sorrow are the society, and her method of saving everyone is to kill everyone and everything as a form of Mercy Kill. This makes Black★Rock Shooter extremely homicidal (as the Otherselves are Emotionless Girl race and only acting on their counterparts' behalf) by going around and killing her own kind in a giant massacre for years without batting an eyelash because Mato is ignorant of such world and would never thought that her ideology will result in something like that. When Mato finds out about this, she understandably freaks out.
Black Butler: Both Queen Victoria and the angel Ash/Angela's ultimate goal is to purify England of its sins... with fire and brainwashing.
Psycho Pass: Big Bad Makishima has a pure-white psycho-pass, indicating a perfectly sound mind, which peaks at its purest even as he kills the Akane's friend Yuki with a straight-razor.

Comics

Watchmen: Rorsarch has an incorruptible black-and-white world view, that, while admirable in a Crapsack World of Black and Grey Morality, causes him to do some pretty horrific things to people who fall under the "black" part of it. When he knows that the only pragmatic thing to do is to compromise his ideals, he chooses to die instead.
Jei-san of Usagi Yojimbo sees himself as the only person who can eliminate evil. Unfortunately, he is pure evil (with pure white eyes and a creepy voice to boot) and everyone is evil to him, except for his "innocent niece" Kyoko, who is so innocent (or severely traumatized) she isn't afraid of a pile of corpses, only happy that "Uncle is nearby!" Interestingly, Kyoko seems to be the only one (not counting Jei himself or later Inazuma who can safely touch Jei's soul-sucking black blade. Word Of God is that Kyoko was supposed to become Jei's new host, but the author felt uncomfortable about it so Inazuma and Jiro were created.
It's established during Final Crisis that the Green Lantern Ring requires a pure willpower to work, and creating a simple arrow is enough to almost take Green Arrow out of combat. It didn't prevent Parallax-possesed Hal Jordan from using it. The other Power Rings appear to work on a similar base, requiring a pure emotion to feed them, not related with straight out good or evil.
In Judge Dredd, when some satanic cultists need to sacrifice a "pure" soul, they choose fascist Anti-Hero Judge Dredd as he's the closest thing to pure in their Crapsack World. Dredd is certainly not ''just'', but he is utterly incorruptible and the living embodiment of law, order, discipline, duty and sacrifice.

Fan Works

Like in Death Note canon, Light in A Cure for Love: "At one point he had felt such overpowering empathy that he had to ignore it completely, like flicking a switch. He didn't realize that it was that which had made him cruel."

Film - Animated

In the movie 9, the Fabrication Machine is powered by/contains pure intelligence. Unlike the nine ragdolls, it has no human soul, and therefore no conscience, no sense of right and wrong...Toward the end of the movie, The Scientist explains that it's because of this that the Fabrication Machine is so dangerous: containing only pure intelligence and no human soul, it could be all too easily corrupted.

Film - Live-Action

In Alien, the Xenomorph is said to be "the perfect organism", with "structural perfection" matched only by its hostility, a pure survivor "unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

Literature

In Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, Solomon's lamp is supposed only be destroyable by the pure in heart. In this case, "Purity of Heart" seemed to mean "not acting out of selfish motives". Or maybe, (as the hero suspects) the Purity judge was on a coffee break.
In one of the Magic: The Gathering novels, it's mentioned that pure hearts can become pure evil.
The Pure Ones in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series of books are owl nazis (though not explicitly stated).
In Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality, God is so pure that he cannot comprehend human evil, and so spends all his time contemplating his own greatness. This turns out to be the whole point of the series. God, contemplating himself, isn't doing his job of promoting goodness (or doing anything else at all, for that matter) and needs to be replaced.
In Mark Twain's short novel The Mysterious Stranger, angels are pure - meaning that they have no knowledge of good or evil. The angel in the story causes many characters to suffer horribly, explaining that he can "do no evil" because he is innocent. The angel's name is Satan...
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray, early in the book, is described as having the "candor (purity) of youth".
There are several modern takes on Arthurian stories that play up Galahad's faith and purity to the point where he seems distant, inhuman, and utter unsympathetic.
In Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky Trilogy, the Kindar race has done very well in purging negative emotions like anger and malice from society, to the point where 2 year olds squabbling over a toy is considered an embarrassing example of poor parenting, and "sorrow" is about as strong as it gets (it's also considered a borderline swear word). Unfortunately for the Kindar, this has led to a very broken Utopia, where the people are dying off.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "I have observed that when I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde, none could come near to me at first without a visible misgiving of the flesh. This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil."
Harry Potter : One could see Dolores Umbridge as indicative of this trope if only as a representative of the concept of purity... in a KKK kinda way.
- Umbridge was able to make a Patronus, which requires pure happy thoughts, even while wearing a horcrux, which rendered the heroes unable to create a Patronus. Of course, nobody stated what those happy thoughts had to be about.
- And Purebloods in general. Not all pureblood wizards are bad, but those who feel the need to point out that they are pureblood most certainly are. After all, the very notion that those from all-wizarding families are "purer" in blood implies that Muggles and Muggle-born wizards are "dirty" (with the "Mudblood" slur making this clear).
In the Warhammer 40000 Eisenhorn novel Hereticus, Cherubael appears naked as pure light. The title character notes that its purity is "an abomination".
In Leo Frankowski's Conrad Stargard series, the title character reflects on his pastor's words that one with a pure heart has the strength of ten men. He realizes that it could be pure anything; pure love or pure hate, pure greed or even pure evil.
One of the most common Kurt Vonnegut quotes comes from the protagonist in Mother Night, and it could be this trope's page quote: "Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!"
In His Dark Materials specifically the last installment The Amber Spyglass a priest is sent after our hapless heroes; this man's special because among his peers he is seen as inexplicably pure - he has spent a long time praying and being absolved so that he could 'make room' for the sin of committing murder.
In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Hunchback and Count Frollo are similar to Light Yagami in that they are so pure (they lived their whole lives in the cathedral) that when sin (in the form of Esmeralda) enters their lives, they have no idea how to deal with it. Frollo becomes obsessed with her yet hates her for giving him impure thoughts.
In the Lord of the Rings series, as a being of pure hunger, Shelob cannot be tempted by The One Ring's promises of power.

Live-Action TV

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Spike and Drusilla unleash the Judge (whose touch destroys anyone that isn't sufficiently pure), they run the risk of being incinerated—but he can't hurt the recently-restored Angelus, who is pure evil.
The Judge: There's no humanity in him.
Angelus: I couldn't have said it better myself.
- The demonic types that make the most of being pure are the Scourge (who want to exterminate both humanity and impure demons, though their own purity is dubious by other canon) and the Old Ones, the monstrous original demons.
- Xander also attempts a love spell on Cordelia so he can dump her, and is told that the emotion has to be pure. He replies that he intends pure revenge. The spell works, although not the way he wants it to.
The Daleks from Doctor Who are, as a species, obsessed with genetic purity-and exterminating everything else.

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