Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremists in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- All For Luz:
- Governor Maxwell tries to present himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, explain his motive for kidnapping superpowered children to monitor said powers. Though its clear he's just making excuses for his disdain for superpowers and wishes them gone.
- While Tyler Wittebane believes himself to be an agent of God, simply trying to save humanity from the plague of super-powered people, he is actually just a classically delusional Knight Templar, and since he considers them the children of the Devil, including his own daughter, he will do anything to wipe them out and assert his Fantastic Racism. In short, he's an extremist bigot who only thinks he has good intentions. He gets this from his ancestor: Emperor Belos.
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel fic Bring Me to Life, Buffy and Angel both call Jasmine out as one of these, pointing out all the chaos she's caused under the excuse of trying to save the world; Buffy even tells her point-blank that she was trying to rule the world, not save it, and didn't care who she killed or whose lives she ruined along the way.
- Bruised (DizzlyPuzzled): The GIW want to sever the connection between Earth and the Ghost Zone entirely, supposedly in order to protect humanity from ghosts. In reality, they're hoping that doing so will grant them immortality as a side effect. In addition, their Van Helsing Hate Crimes are responsible for pushing matters to the brink of war in the first place, and they've actually caused human fatalities by interfering with ghosts.
- Code Prime:
- After making a name for himself in the Pits of Koan, and becoming a revolutionary, Megatron proclaimed he would challenge the old Cybertronian system and that everyone would be treated as equals. However, when Megatron was granted an audience with the council, he had demanded that they name him the next Prime. The council however chose Orion Prax’s more peaceful views instead, which led to Megatron to cut ties with him and start the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. As Optimus Prime is explaining this to Lelouch and Princess Euphemia, Lelouch says that it must have been Megatron's real intentions from the beginning, that he wanted power for himself, and was never interested in bringing peace to his race.
- Charles zi Britannia claimed that through the Ragnorök Connection, humanity could truly be at peace, as it would sever the boundaries between life and death, and everyone would become one, as he believed that humanity could never truly unite. However, when Megatron learns of the Ragnorök Connection, he could see that Charles’ plan was not out of an altruistic belief to rid the world of lies, but of a childish desire to make the world revolve around him, as he never truly grew up from the scared little boy that Megatron had first met decades ago.
- Danny Phantom Vs American Dragon Jake Long: The Novelization: Danny calls out the Dark Dragon's claims of claiming the world for Magical Community by pointing out other magical creatures are afraid of him and don't share his goals for genocide. Jake also brings up that when all is said in done, the Dark Dragon will essentially rule the world. The Dark Dragon doesn't bother arguing against them on this.
- Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: Tharquin, a leading member of the Rebellion, claims that all his extreme actions are what's necessary for the safety of Meridian. However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that he's a racist and a fundamentalist who's merely lashing out at anything that doesn't fit into his narrow worldview.
- The Night Unfurls: When revealing his motives for building a Sex Empire, Vault calls out both the Seven Shields and Olga for starting a century-old war that costs countless lives, including his own men. He claims that they have done nothing good to the people, enjoying their riches while forgetting that men like the Black Dogs fight tooth and nail to bring peace. Despite his reassurance that no one will have to worry about warfare and starvation, his response is to stage a military coup to seize power for himself, together with raping the Seven Shields into submission for men to live like kings. Besides, the fact that he leads armies who rape, pillage, and burn inevitably devastates men and women alike.
- A Possible Encounter for a Phantom: Thirorex claims that he wants to wipe out the human race in order to return the Earth to its rightful rulers. In reality, he's just a bully who enjoys having power to throw around, showing little empathy even towards his own kind.
- A Quincy's Fairy Tail: Quilge believes that the best way to create a utopian society is by wiping out all but those few strong enough to survive. That way, the survivors wouldn't have anyone else left to push around. Erza calls him out on this, and Quilge himself eventually realizes the truth by the end of their battle.
- The Silver Raven: The Rogues want to see an end to Belos' reign, which sounds well-intentioned on paper given he's an oppressive tyrant, but it's clear that they're more driven by revenge than any actual altruism. They also have zero qualms about killing off countless innocent people if it means they'll have the support of Demon Lords from the lower circles.
- There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: In The Girl Who Could Knock Out The Hulk, Doctor Doom claims that everything he's done — from working with Centipede to dragging Kara out of her own universe — is to make Earth strong enough to fight off a great threat he's foreseen. Tony counters his reasoning by pointing out that if Doom really cared about making sure that the Earth has the best possible defenders, he'd be helping the Avengers, not beating them up and putting their heaviest hitter in the ICU, and that whatever his intentions are, and whatever priorities that he claims to have, are overshadowed by him being a massive dick.
- Yugioh EQG: XX: During their second duel, Storm King Dominator tells Flash how humans have been fighting for years using the Duel Spirits as weapons, leading to countless deaths. Claiming that it's just a matter of time before the humans destroy themselves and take their realm with it, the Dominators state their intention to destroy the human world, thus freeing the Duel Spirits from human oppression. However, this claim falls flat due to the fact that the Dominators are stealing human bodies for themselves to accomplish this task, further compounded by the fact that they clearly have no respect for the Duel Spirits connected to their hosts' decks, treating them the exact same way they claim all humans treat their species. species. But the final nail in the coffin comes with the reveal that the Dominators want to revive their lord Zeronull to destroy the human world AND the Duel Spirit world while creating a new dimension where they can all "live" for eternity. At the end of the day, the Dominators are really just a bunch of selfish cowards who don't care how many lives they destroy, as long as their own safety is secured.
- In Three Strikes, General Parrish always finds a reason to convince the King of Erusea to justify a prolonged war with Osea by claiming that it's for the good of Erusea, but in reality, he just personally hated Osea and wanted to see them suffer, as well as finding an excuse to unleash his drone army in combat. He also won't hesitate to threaten Rosa, a member of the Royal Erusean Family, once he realizes that she won't support him in his crusade against Osea.
- Animorphs Redux has David, who is absolutely obsessed with "proving" his superiority to everyone else, including the other Animorphs. He blames them for supposedly driving him into villainy by rejecting him, refusing to recognize how he was responsible for getting himself kicked out of the group.
- Shadow of the Dragon: The entire reason that Meiling's grandfather is staging attacks on Sakura is because he wants Meiling's engagement with Syaoran to be reinstated. However, while he claims he's doing it for Meiling's happiness, Sakura and Syaoran are able to piece together rather quickly that he's only doing it because he wants to "correct" his failings to the Li clan and produce a purer heir by having magic-wielding great-grandchildren; Fanren even states outright in chapter 18 that he's only doing it for himself. In any event, the fact that his plans have repeatedly caused collateral damage and endangered innocent lives prevents him from being sympathetic.
- Contrasting his portrayal in comics, Lonnie Machin/Anarky in Batman: Anarchy for All. From the beginning, he's a hypocrite, claiming to be among Gotham's oppressed when he lives in a luxury townhouse with a Latina housekeeper and has cash to burn on top shelf hacker equipment. As his morality slips further from Grey to Black, the war on the elite becomes a mishmash of lashing out at whatever he associates with his emotionally abusive father, living up to his idea of a cool anti-authority rebel, and doing Hugo Strange's bidding as an Evil Counterpart to Robin.
- one day at a time (Nyame) has the Peggy Sue Jason Todd, now Older and Wiser, calling Ra's Al Ghul out as this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the man in the penultimate chapter."All your claims to my father about how much you needed him as an heir for when your time came, about how Talia and him would bring your dreams to fruition, and yet, when the Grim Reaper finally came knocking, what did you do? You take my big brother hostage to try and force Damian to give his body up to you. Because in the end, your legacy has never been about your family, has never been about bettering the world. It's only ever been about you. And guess what? Every single person here (The League of Assassins/Shadows) paid the price for it, and had nothing to show for it. All because they fell for your bullshit, all because they failed to see what you really were: a self-obsessed coward who is so high on himself that he's deluded himself into believing that his wish to make the world pay for his own tragedies is for its own good. All because you found some magic hot springs that made you live a little longer than the rest of us. What a sad story all around."
- Wolf in the Streets, Sardine in the Sheets: The whole reason Fenrich is working with Carter in the first place is because he believes his employer intends to get rid of all of the local gangs. In reality, Carter was actually working with them in order to strengthen his grip on the city.
- Partially Kissed Hero: This fic's version of Albus Dumbledore justifies his actions to others by declaring them to be "For the Greater Good"... while mentally redefining the phrase to refer to advancing and benefiting his own interests.
- Kingdom Hearts 3: Final Stand: The Insurgos are firmly convinced that the royal family of Radiant Garden are all irredeemably evil purely because they're related to the tyrannical Hanako, and want to overthrow them. However, their methods are openly brutal, and they have no qualms against killing or attempting to kill innocent bystanders, including pregnant women, to get their way; in Moons of Fate, Yamato even tells them point-blank that they're nothing but terrorists whose actions are more about spiting Hanako than anything else.
- Bound Destinies Trilogy: In Wisdom and Courage, Veran repeatedly claims that she does what she's doing to avenge her fallen ancestors and get her people to see the error of their ways, but it falls flat because she commits random acts of violence and mass murder for no other reason than to acquire power for herself and her own sadistic amusement. Zelda even calls her out on it during the final showdown, stating outright that it's clear that all Veran truly wants is to satisfy her own bloodlust.
- For His Own Sake: Naru and Motoko repeatedly insist that they're protecting others from Keitaro's "perversions"; the fact that he never actually did anything is completely irrelevant to them.
- When Seta confronts Naru over being a Toxic Friend Influence upon his daughter Sarah, Naru insists that she was worried about how Keitaro might mistreat or "take advantage of" the younger girl. Seta retorts that her attacking Keitaro whenever he attempted to scold Sarah for her bratty behavior just taught Sarah to be even nastier, as she expects would-be disciplinarians to be punished instead of her. Naru doesn't see anything wrong with this since she similarly expects everything to go her way, using tantrums and violence to try and force others to cater to her every whim.
- Motoko's family and the elders of the God Cry School call her out on her hypocrisy after discovering the erotic novels she'd written about Keitaro, proving that for all her screeching about Keitaro's supposed "perversion", she treated him as a lust object herself.
- Dad Villain AU: Gabriel's primary self-justification for his reign of terror as Hawkmoth is that he wanted to save his wife from her magically-induced coma. Yet when he actually gets his hands on the Miraculouses he needs to make his reality-altering Wish, he promptly devotes it to punishing Ladybug. Rather than preventing Emelie's condition by Wishing they never found the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses in the first place, or simply repairing the Peacock Pin, he Wishes for the magical backlash to be redirected onto Ladybug and her loved ones. And when Viceroy finds a way to counter this effect and bounce it back onto the unwitting Emelie, Gabriel is more upset by the fact this means Ladybug isn't suffering than by how this hurt his wife.Duusu: Ooooohhh, I get it! You wanted revenge on Ladybug first and foremost...Emelie's survival was just a participation prize, huh? You really think it's justified behavior so long as you win.
- lies of attrition: While Chrysalis's stated goal is to undo Monarque's Wish and put things back to the way they were, it's clear that she's ultimately only in it for her own secret agenda. This is underscored by the way she sadistically taunts Ladybug while she's incapacitated, and specifically mentions that she plans to let Chat Noir take her Miraculous off her rather than just doing it herself.
- Truth and Consequences: Marinette claims to have made her deal with Hawkmoth and betrayed Chat Noir for the greater good, as well as to protect Adrien from the Awful Truth about his father. As the story goes on, however, it becomes increasingly clear that she desperately wants to be freed from her responsibilities as Ladybug and able to have a normal life, and is lying to herself about the Secretly Selfish aspects of her motives. At one point, she outright admits to Tikki that she's doing this because she wants to be able to put herself first for a change, rather than having to constantly sacrifice everything in the name of being the Ideal Heroine everyone expects her to remain. She quickly slips back into Believing Her Own Lies afterwards.
- Villain Of Your Own Story: AU!Alya justifies her use of the Butterfly Brooch by claiming she's giving her akumatized victims the ability to get Revenge upon those who wronged them, and that they're Anti-Heroes rather than actual villains...or victims. In reality, however, Alya became Hawk Moth in the first place because she dislikes the Butterfly's power and wants to steal Miraculous with more direct abilities so that she can live out her superhero fantasies.
- Weight Off Your Shoulder: As Bunnyx, Future Alix claims to be concerned about preserving the future, which threatens to change dramatically after Marinette decides to step down as Guardian and pass on her Earrings to a new Ladybug. In reality, however, she's a massive Hypocrite — the canon timeline that she insists is so sacrosanct is actually the result of her personally meddling with time, trying to force Marinette and Adrien into a relationship despite how it always ends in disaster. In essence, Future!Alix wants to Make Wrong What Once Went Right for the sake of her ship, not caring one whit about what harm she or any of the villains cause in the process. All of this is because she can't accept that her own suffering might have been All for Nothing — she's desperately trying to convince herself that if she can engineer a timeline where Marinette and Adrien get together, it will prove that everything has all been Worth It.
- Mortal Kombat: Desperation: Raiden claims that he wants to "protect" Earthrealm from external threats. However, his real motive seems to be genocide against all those realms that he considers a threat to Earthrealm, especially Outworld.
- Cain: According to Katsuki, Izuku is a manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who's obsessed with ruining Katsuki's life and reputation with his Malicious Slander. In reality, Katsuki is projecting all his own faults onto his favorite victim. This escalates to the point that Katsuki attempts to murder Izuku outright, completely convinced that he'll be praised and rewarded for his "heroism".
- Whispered Tribulation: Aizawa and his co-conspirators are desperate to find the mole that's supposedly infiltrated U.A., using this to justify kidnapping Izuku with the intent of interrogating him until he breaks when Aizawa zeroes in on him. But their refusal to acknowledge any evidence that they might be mistaken drives home that they're more interested in finding somebody to blame than anything else.Aizawa: I just want justice for what was done to my students!
Principal Nedzu: You're not out for justice, Aizawa Shouta, you're out for blood! And your behavior in that room makes it quite clear that you don't care whose blood you spill so long as you're the one who walks away satisfied!
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- How I Lost My Mother: Princess Celestia justifies her decision to Un-person her own daughter by clinging to a prophecy that foretold said daughter would eventually turn against her. However, she herself acknowledges in her own diary that she may have turned this into a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy... and rather than making any effort to fix her mistakes, has doubled down on hiding the truth, not wanting to face the fallout should anyone learn of what she did.
- Loved and Lost: When Prince Jewelius seizes the throne of Equestria, he has the princesses along with Shining Armor, Spike, and the Mane Five exiled/sentenced to slavery as punishment for allowing the Changeling invasion to occur. When the disgraced heroes return a week later to redeem themselves, he has them imprisoned, publicly shamed, flogged (in Shining Armor's case), and sentenced to death in the case of Celestia. He justifies his actions to Twilight and Canterlot's population by saying that he's only doing what's best for everypony and that the failed former protectors need to be made an example of. In reality, he's a spiteful sadist who orchestrated the invasion of Canterlot as a means to overthrow, and eventually kill his aunt Celestia and cousin Cadance.
- The Evil Queen: Makoto suffers from Black-and-White Insanity, being thoroughly convinced that she's innately morally superior to everyone else at Shujin and must guide everyone there down a better path... even if she has to drag them along kicking and screaming. Her Absurdly Powerful Student Council rules the school with an iron fist, and she makes the lives of anyone who defies her will a living hell.
- We See Them: While Dr. Maruki claims that he wants to create a better, happier world, he refuses to let anybody else decide for themselves what would make them happiest, even going so far as to prevent ghosts from passing on to the Sea of Souls. He also responds to Ren's resistance by putting him into a magical coma, then forces the rest of the Phantom Thieves to fight all of Ren's Personas save for Satanael when they arrived to rescue their leader. Suffice to say, none of them believe any of his self-justifications after that.
- Crimson Rising: General Gorbin publicly claims that he’s making the Power Rangers official because they can’t be trusted as rogue vigilantes, but his talk with Mr Collins makes it clear that he’s only interested in getting control of their powers to increase his own authority to the extent of basically making himself a dictator, even before he shows a willingness to work with Master Vile.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness:
- Kiria's plan in Act III involves using Chrono Displacement to rewrite history. Akua and Kahlua believed that he just planned to change the outcome of the Battle of Kahdaln, which forced the monsters to set up The Masquerade in the first place, in favor of the monsters using Tsukune's inner ghoul, creating a world where monsters reign supreme and they wouldn't be confined to the monster world, which would give their father a high ranking position. In the final chapter, Tsukune and the others deduce by the massive amounts of Blackheart that Kiria has at the ready for his plan, as well as his intent to duplicate the Chrono Displacement spell, that Kiria planned to do far more than that; he in fact planned to send out multiple Blackheart-infected monsters to wipe out all of the Dark Lords and any other powerful beings who could pose any threat to him, remaking history in his own image.
- Throughout Acts III and IV, Hokuto Kaneshiro states repeatedly that what he's doing is right, declaring that humans and monsters are all equal bastards and that reviving Alucard to destroy every living thing will bring about true peace. Of course, everyone can tell right away that he's nothing but a crazed, nihilistic, and heartless sociopath who Hates Everyone Equally.
- In the Kingdom's Service: the Vale Secret Service is a group of Well Intentioned Extremists who do what they have to in order to protect Vale and its citizens, with Oobleck stating that they put it all on the line to protect them "because we love them". After Oobleck dies, it's revealed that only his faction had pure intentions; the rest (fellow director Alpha in particular) only care about staying in power. Alpha kidnaps multiple agents, including one from another Kingdom's agency, to torture them for information or to break them into being loyal to him. He even has Ruby kidnapped both as a trap for Jaune, and to harvest her eyes in the (correct) belief they would be a powerful weapon.
- Linked in Life and Love: Adam Taurus, as in canon. Here, the circumstances of Blake leaving him are slightly different. When they became Mind Link Mates and went on a mission together, the bond finally solidified and Blake could feel his emotions... at which point she discovered he didn't want to help anyone, he just wanted the world to burn for what it did to him. She immediately ran as far away as she could and had to endure Adam's unending rage through the Link for a week before her Mark burned out and she was free. When she finally confronts him again, she lays it out clearly in front of all of Adam's men: She fought beside him for three years as his second in command, but she threw that all away after five seconds of seeing his soul. All of Adam's men are extremely disturbed by this, though it's not quite enough to get them to abandon him.
- Null: The Chivalric Arms corporation and the attached Government Conspiracy insist that their crimes, including their human rights-violating experimentation to replicate and transfer Semblances, are aimed towards making the world more secure against threats from the Grimm and criminals, by making the most useful and specialized Semblances as transferable as weaponry for the appropriate authorities' usage. Not only do CA kidnap, torture, and sacrifice hundreds of individual citizens from the kingdoms, but in practice, they've only shown themselves to be interested in using their Semblance research to augment their own conspirators; specifically those who are in the most elite positions in the conspiracy's native kingdom of Atlas. It's also revealed that Chivalric Arms are planning to solve the contemporary problem of the White Fang (which Atlas' racist rhetoric gave birth to) by clandestinely sterilizing the entire Faunus population, wiping an entire sapient species off the face of Remnant forever. All in all, the conspiracy's actions are geared less towards genuinely benefitting the world at large, and more towards taking the very worst aspects of Atlesian idealsnote to their logical extreme in an Atlesian elitist club's image.
- War of Remnant: A RWBY Anthology: Adam is this, perhaps even more so then canon. He is a vicious, monstrous killer and rapist whose claims to be fighting for Faunus rights falls so flat nobody believes them.
- Aimless: Bianca proves to be much more cold-blooded than her canonical counterpart, willing to let villages be raided, causing numerous deaths (including children) and inciting war between the Skylands and the Allied Territories, all for the sake of advancing her "path of truth" alongside Cauldra.
- What If The Mario Brothers Were Imprisoned in Paintings?: King Boo likes to act like he is doing what he is doing to get revenge for his people's mistreatment. However, it becomes increasingly clear that King Boo is doing it to get revenge only for himself, no matter how bad of an idea that revenge is or how little it makes sense. Eventually, the rest of the Boos realizes this and overthrow him, with King Boo declaring them all traitors and trying to kill them.
- In Maybe Sprout Wings, anti-slavery extremists are bombing brothels that use slave labor. However, because in this AU slaves must sign themselves over by choice, the extremists don't mind killing the slaves along with the masters and customers because they see them too as immoral. They don't factor in the fact that most slaves are manipulated or coerced into signing themselves over.
- In Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Jason Vaugn claims to be simply trying to protect the city. However, as Mei points out, he only cares about himself and is later revealed to be trying to sell the giant red pandas, aka Mei's family, at an Auction of Evil.
- The Reason He Lies: Grande plans to evacuate the warlocks from the dying Magical Realm with the forbidden dark magic, but as Sigma points out, "there was no way Grande truly cared for the lives of his own people when he ate Sigma's father alive merely for disagreeing with him."
