Pragmatic Villainy / Fan Works

Dagur: Look, Viggo's a guy who's all about the money. And what makes him money, is dragons. Why would he steal a couple of kids? There's nothing in it for him.
Astrid: I dunno, I feel like some sicko would pay a lot to get his hands on magical children...
Dagur: Nah, Viggo's practical. A complete and utter egotist, but practical. If he ever found out that magic was real, he probably wouldn't mess with it. He'd think about it like this. Either he screws around with supernatural forces he doesn't understand, and it comes back to bite him in the butt. Or he leaves it alone, and keeps selling his dragons. Even if he did run into those kids, the moment he found out they were magic, he'd leave them right where he found them. It wouldn't be worth the risk, to him. And he definitely wouldn't sell them. There's a chance they could fall into the hands of one of his enemies, and he can't have that either. I'm telling you, Viggo doesn't have them.

— Dagur the Deranged, The Dragon and the Butterfly: Whiteout, "Chapter 23: Interrogation Revelation"

Examples of Pragmatic Villainy in Fan Works.

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Crossovers

• All For Luz:
  • When an angry Luz believes All For One is implying she should kill Julia after taking her Quirk, he quickly corrects her he isn't, as it would make her quality of life worse. Though its most likely he doesn't want to lose what little trust girl has in him.
  • All For One strongly recommends that it would be better for Luz if she didn’t kill anyone she took the Quirk off of, if it can be helped. Otherwise, they'll both be bombarded by the voices of those who Luz has stolen the Quirks of. This changes when they find out that the vestiges of stolen Quirks don't fully form in Luz's Mental World unless they have a good relationship with the girl.
  • All For One admits to himself that he enjoys tormenting and manipulating poor Luz for his sadism in Chapter 16, only holding himself back to not lose her faith in him for his Evil Plan to work. Also if she dies, he perishes along with her.
  • When Jonah has Millie at gunpoint for disrespecting his boss in Chapter 18, Tyler Wittebane orders him not to kill the witch but not because he cares about her wellbeing but because she's still useful to him in goal to kill Luz, the new all For One, and needs all hands on deck to beat her. He also doesn't want any infighting in his ranks either, as that's bad for business.
  • Despite seeing him as a filthy magical beast, Tyler decides to play nice with Emperor Belos, as he and his pregnant wife are now homeless in an alien world with only him as protection from supernatural threats, due to the destruction of Gravesfield.
• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: While Adam is an insane, Ax-Crazy killer, he has enough sense to understand that lashing out in violent rage in front of his own men would weaken his standing within the White Fang, so when Terumi pisses him off, he opts to lure him to a secluded portion of the warehouse in order to kill him.
• The Bridge (MLP):
  • Xenilla decides to act civil to the ponies instead of attacking them because it's too risky to incur the wrath of Princess Celestia, who is more powerful than him in his current state, and other Equestrians might have potent gifts like Fluttershy, who can subdue any creature with The Stare. He encourages Destroyah to do the same. He also mentions that he doesn't engage in "brutish behavior" like random destruction because it's pointless and will not help him achieve his goals. This later comes to the forefront when he decides his research in the Crystal Empire be more stable with Princess Cadance in charge, as oppose to the returning King Sombra; causing him to go after the latter. Played with, as ultimately Xenilla had far more noble intentions he first let on and his actions were more moral than he let on.
  • Bagan is an Omnicidal Maniac and desires nothing more than to snuff out every living being in the universe. However, he's in a weakened state and needs outside help to restore him. After gathering several servants, he strikes up the appearance of a Benevolent Boss so that they will obey him, and curbs his desire to kill them until he's been restored to full strength because they can't serve him if they are dead, and hurting one would get the others to turn on him. He also has his troops act subtly most of the time to avoid damaging the artifacts they have been sent to retrieve. Played with in the long run, as he comes to genuinely like the Dark Hunters on some level.
  • Grand King Ghidorah, also an Omnicidal Maniac, briefly gets into a fight with Starlight Glimmer, who actually manages to affect him with her spells and drain his power before getting knocked out. Ghidorah considers killing her, but impressed by her power, decides she is much more useful alive and brainwashes her to target Godzilla Junior, noting that he can kill her after she has drained his enemy and made him easier to defeat.
• In a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Star Wars crossover snippet by dogbertcarroll, Jabba implements Andrew's and Xander's method for cloning organs as it's far more profitable than having to capture beings and harvest their organs to sell on the black market, particularly since it's renewable unlike harvesting. Though actually, it's a Batman Gambit the two came up with to shut down the organ trade, and Xander purposefully "lost" the data to Jabba in a bet so the big slug would see him as a sucker in the process.
• The entire motivation of Harry Potter aka James Moriarty in Business. Everything he does is to either gain more money, power, or both, everything else is irrelevant. He even acknowledges that his plans wouldn't see any profit for several months but would rake in mountains of gold afterwards.
  • Furthermore, when he learns that many of his "employees" are werewolves, his only response is to make sure they have access to Wolfsbane Potion if they want it and are given the week of the full moon off.
• The Chronicles of Tanya the Holy: Tanya does her best to heal as many injured as possible while striking up a rapport with them as well to help ensure they're likely to take an attack meant for her during battle. She doesn't care about any of them and just wants to increase her chances of survival.
• Code Prime: When the Decepticons take over Britannia, they wipe out all resistance, and enslave the rest for their own purposes. That being said, despite having a broader range of oppression, the areas they take over make sure that slaves can still work effectively enough. After all, needless loss of workers would take away from their main war machine.
  • In addition, Megatron is ruthlessly practical when it comes to holding land. He has no interest in ruining cultural landmarks so long as they aren't in areas of value. (for example, with little Energon scouted in the area, the Decepticons have no interest in invading Australia)
• Damaged Defenders: This fic's version of Baron Zemo is mentioned multiple times as being a Benevolent Boss, especially when compared to his fellow Hydra officers, and raises Laura/X23 to think of him as her father. This is because he finds that treating your underlings and assets well is a much better way to secure their loyalty than through fear. For example, rather than shoot the messenger upon the arrival of two survivors of an Avengers raid, he makes sure to have their injuries and traumas taken care of:
  The mentally intact survivor got a few quiet words of encouragement, congratulations, and thanks. Such things cost Zemo literally nothing and would ensure the man at least thought well of him. Depending on just how bad the von Struckers had been as bosses, it could earn him the man's undying loyalty. Certainly, being willing to shell out for the procedures and therapy necessary to get the man back to full working order would earn Zemo a lot of points with the man. All too often, such badly wounded minions were simply disposed of. Really, Zemo thought, his fellow HYDRA officers were largely very dumb in their handling of their subordinates.
• After being sent back in time with his morals replaced by those of a demon (specifically Mara) in The Demon's Contract, Ranma decides to become engaged to Kasumi while manipulating the sisters to think it's their idea. Afterwards, he takes her out, helps her enjoy herself, and encourages her to pursue any job or hobby or lifestyle she wants. The reason for all of that? While he doesn't love any of the Tendo sisters, he wants out of that house and the only way to do so is with a fiance who will support him on anything. Like say, the one he saved from a lifetime of being stuck at home caring for her family.
• In Dexter's Lab: Equestria, the Changelings avoid attacking the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, because they are the only ones capable of stopping threats like Discord and King Sombra.
• In The Dragon and the Butterfly: Whiteout, the Madrigals come to the (incorrect) conclusion that Viggo Grimborn had kidnapped Karla, Pedro and Peep. Dagur dissuades this notion, citing that Viggo is a rationalist. Even if he did know about kids with magical powers, he would recognize it was way too unpredictable to bother messing with and would steer clear of them. The fact that the triplets have an entire family of magical dragon riders looking for them only proves Dagur's point.
  • While Dagur is perfectly willing to torture a child, Drago decides not to do anything to her, seeing no point in doing so with their bargaining chip.
• Dungeon Keeper Ami is an odd case — Ami has to resort to this, as opposed to acting the part of a hero, like she wants. If she were too nice, her minions would have discipline problems, and the dark gods might even call a crusade against her. She actually accepts the title of Empress after releasing the Avatar primarily so that she can publicly spin her actions as devious instead of charitable. Of course, the heroes wouldn't believe her anyway...
• All For One chastises Shigaraki for attacking Inko Midoriya in Ere we go, Pluz Ultra! because breaking the unspoken rule of villainy and attacking someone's family is never truly worth the hassle it causes. Rather than frighten people, such things instead anger them into escalating further. And frankly, neither Shigaraki nor the League of Villains is strong enough to withstand such retaliation.
• Harry Potter and the Natural 20: Lucius Malfoy doesn't actually want Voldemort resurrected. His Cartoonish Supervillainy ways are simply too destructive — far better to advance pureblood supremacy through the Boring, but Practical method of exploiting corruption in the Ministry of Magic.
• The J-WITCH Series:
  • Both times Valmont steals the Heart of Kandrakar, Hak Foo suggests using it to empower the Dark Hand. Valmont states on both occasions that he's not interested in using it himself, but rather plans on auctioning it off with the other artifacts the Dark Hand have stolen. He justifies this by pointing out how the last couple of times the Dark Hand has meddled in magic, they were bankrupted into near oblivion.
  • When MC Cobra suggests blowing open the Golden Dragon's vault, Valmont at first rejects the idea because it would risk the sinking of the ship, but he relents because someone might have caught Jade's mayday and he knows from experience that Jackie won't remain trapped. As the Dark Hand is escaping with the Golden Dragon, Valmont remarks that while they were successful, he would have preferred if they could have done it more discreetly.
  • Uncle speculates that Shendu settled for controlling just one Shadowkhan tribe because trying to control them all would risk the return of the Oni, and Tarakudo has proven himself to have potential to rival Shendu's might. That's why he must have kept in his palace one part of the tablet telling about the Oni Masks and destroyed the rest of it to prevent others from trying to obtain all the masks.
• Kings of Revolution: Simply go to an undeveloped planet unnoticed, reverse-engineer your technology and sell it to the highest bidder. As long as you remain under the Alien Non-Interference Clause, you'll have a bountiful cache of resources and manpower to compete against the Space Navy that can do nothing to your home base for obvious reasons.
• In Lex Marks the Spot, Xander explains away his altruistic actions as pragmatism after he finds himself in Lex Luthor's body. Decisions such as providing full medical insurance for employee families are coached as increasing employee retention and potentially saving billions in lawsuits should someone get injured on the job.
  • After trying and failing to assassinate Lex Luthor (due to the man now having Plastic Man's powers), Deadshot first goes to the one who hired him to renegotiate before eventually contacting Luthor and letting him know that he's dropping the job, citing an "insufficient cost benefit ratio".
  • Xander in Lex Luthor's body convinces a group of bank robbers (he just happened to go to the Star City branch of Lex's Bank when someone decides to rob it) that the reason none of Flash's Rogues Gallery kill in his city is due to the Flash Flipping Out, Ret-Gone them, and using his Paradox Immunity to survive. Rogue never existed, so little 4 year old Sally never gets murdered, and new iteration of the Flash has no memory of the entire affair. Supposedly, this is just a scare tactic, but the scenario is treated as plausible. The Flash even frantically thinks 'How would anyone know that's not exactly what I'm doing?'
• In Megamorphs: The Wizarding World, it is noted that the Yeerks are being relatively cautious about what wizards they take as hosts due to the current war, as they don’t want to risk getting killed with their hosts before it’s clear which side will win; this helps the Animorphs choose who to contact by finding the leaders of the student resistance in Hogwarts and thus being guided to contact Harry and his allies.
• Metal Gear: Green:
  • Madam President refuses Night Owl's request for a nuclear reactor for dimensional exploration because of the fact the Japanese Government would have to investigate it, and if it came out what it was going to be used for, it would end with most of the HPSC's top brass facing a firing squad. Night Owl accepts having a few smaller power plants.
  • When the Brothers had captured Snake, Diego wanted to just put a bullet in his head and be done with it. He didn't care about the bounty, for he knew if they just hand him to the HPSC, he'll break out and kill them. His brother argued that if they do that, they won't be reimbursed or get the 40 million the HPSC promised. When Snake escapes and destroys their operations, Diego accepts that they no longer have any chance of regaining their stature.
  • When investigating the money diversions to the Congo Tyrant, Nezu points out that while the HPSC would arm the warlords in Africa with anything, nukes or extremely deadly gas classified as WMDs are a no-go. After all, why would the HPSC give a warlord a nuke if their first target is them? There is a saboteur in the HPSC, and they know who.
  • While Luan Igwe was untrusting of the whole offer Madam President gave them, he's not wrong to point out that their leader axed the Congo Tyrant and that attacking Outer Heaven is tantamount to suicide. Madam President explains that he can sit this out, but eventually, the MSF will show up on their doorstep.
  • While amazed by the USJ Nomu, Madam President chooses not to follow it for both financial and practical reasons. A dangerous bioweapon that cannot be controlled and doesn't scream hero-friendly isn't a good merch-selling line for heroes.
  • Upon finding out that the MSF's most recent advance has nearly liberated half of Cameroon, combined with the absence of Razak's forces and 30,000 casualties upon the warlord factions, Luan orders the officer giving this report to pull back all of his forces and focus on fortifying his territories. Let the idiots up North hold them off while he builds his defenses.
• In My Huntsman Academia, Neo and Roman Torchwick have a strict Thou Shalt Not Kill rule while working in Vale. This isn't out of any sense of honor or morality, but simply because they don't want to incite a Roaring Rampage of Revenge from the local Hunters. It's easier to fly under the radar when there isn't a body count to your name.
• Mythos Effect: The Batarians basically laugh at the idea of taking slaves from the NEF, stating that not only is it a pipe dream, given that the Federation isn't on the relay network, but that the current war has proven that doing so would be far more trouble than it's worth.
• In Necessary to Win, after some consideration, Shiho decides not to disown Miho after she wins the tournament, realizing that not even she can see it as a solution to her family's school's present situation.
• In Prehistoric Earth, Percival von Grimm proves very smart and reasonable when it comes to how he works to accomplish his acts of villainy. To start, he has his underlings in the secret prehistoric animal smuggling ring he's set up always do their business without directly getting involved with any of the staff or animals at the titular park positioned on the same island as their basecamp due to not wishing to risk having unnecessary attention drawn to them and their operation. Secondly, while he initially explicitly forbids his right hand man Frank from calling in a black-ops squadron to provide assistance in stealing the time portal due to feeling this could draw too much attention, he ultimately decides to allow Frank to call in such a group anyway once it becomes clear that this is their only viable means left to acquire it once the park staff start slowly catching onto their presence at the island. And finally, once even the black-ops unit proves unable to tip the scales in his favor, he personally comes to the island himself to make sure that the necessary evacuation procedure goes smoothly.
• In The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor, Oma utilizes this when convincing Naruto and Xanna to make more humane decisions regarding their empire. Naruto is annoyed he can't simply punch out dissenters then lecture them, but Xanna admits ordering mass executions didn't work the last time she was a ruler.
  • Xanna easily admits that the sole reason she became a benevolent rulers is that it gets better results than tyranny. Also, her subjects do what she calls "stupid-but-interesting things" (such as trying to inhabit a Death World) instead of trying to rebel.
  • Early on, Naruto and Xanna cure one of the Asgard of their degeneration which earns them a great debt from the race. Xanna decides to hold off on collecting for a few centuries as their budding empire is still in the Stone Age. Once their society advances far enough to make use of Asgard technology, her requested reward is for them to teach her scientists, citing that it's more useful in the long run to make advanced technology themselves rather than take the Asgardians'.
• Shadows over Meridian:
  • Once Phobos figures out that Jade is royalty, he decides to act civil with her and accept the terms she places in exchange for her help as a means to regain his throne.
  • Even though the Shadowkhan come close to taking down Elyon's castle all by themselves, Jade has them pull back immediately after Phobos and his minions are freed. She justifies this by reasoning that crushing Elyon now would only rally the rest of her supporters and the Guardians to defeat Phobos once again. She then convinces Phobos to instead work to dispel the people's faith in Elyon and make them accept that for all his faults, he's overall their less problematic option for a ruler.
  • Phobos decides to give all the guards who turned on him a chance to reaffirm their loyalties and serve him again in retaking the throne... and then he'll punish them for betraying him in the first place.
  • Jade prefers using the Leech Khan as minimally as possible since their taste for living creatures' shadows makes them too dangerous to be left to their own devices for extended periods of time.
• Spider-Ninja: Doctor Octopus plans to use non-lethal methods of experimentation on the Turtles as immediately dissecting them would just be incredibly wasteful, especially since there are only four of them in existence.
• The Tick vs... MY HERO ACADEMIA! has Chairface, whose evil plans in Japan involve cornering the H-Doujinshi market, the unlicensed hero merchandising market and other more profitable endeavors then just plain out villainous actions. This gives him low expenses, decent profit, and the only heroes who can be bothered to act against him are those who have been embarrassed by their starring role in some of his doujins (most notably Mount Lady and Kamui Woods).
• In the epilogue of Trolling the League, Poison Ivy is head of a MegaCorp that's far ahead of every other company in eco-friendly technology and has even developed an algae that's terraforming Mars to make it fit for human habitation. All of it to reverse damage to Earth and eventually get humanity off the planet after Naruto explained to her that it was impossible to wipe out humanity without wiping out all life on Earth period.
• In Waking Nightmares, Medic points out that although he once invented a zombie plague, he never would actually use it. Not because of the moral implications, but because a zombie horde cannot be controlled. When Twilight inadvertently remarks that uncontrollable infection vectors are an additional risk, he congratulates her for having the right priorities.
• Wandering Pilot has the Swamp Witch, who wants Shinji Ikari and wants him alive. The reason? Because he has divine healing abilities and has a demonic staff (which few know is the Unit 01) with incredible power. That still doesn't keep her from putting multiple curses on the poor kid or even Melona from forcibly milking him.
• While normally portrayed as Stupid Evil, Travers in the Warslayer works with Buffy since she's both highly effective and supplying the Watcher's Council with two squads of Battle Sisters. He also realizes the Cruciamentum is pointless since each of the three Slayers regularly fight vampires and demons without even using their powers (Powered Armor, Chainswords, and BFGs help).
• Onyxia initially sides with Harry Potter and his group in Wizard Runemaster after he explains that her current location is known to her enemies and they will continue assaulting her lair until she is dead. However if she helps Harry with a particular quest, he'll help relocate Onyxia and her clutch to a new, more secure location. Furthermore, she later helps free several Emerald Dragons from the Emerald Nightmare to start making inroads with the other Flights when she becomes the new Aspect of Earth.
  • Eventually however, she pulls a genuine Heel–Face Turn.

Amphibia

• Sasha and the Frogs: Grime's sole reason for keeping Anne around in Toad Tower during chapter 9.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

• In The Stalking Zuko Series, the Dowager of the Earth Kingdom (Earth King Kuei's mother) isn't evil, but she is an antagonist of sorts as a result of her opposition to Kuei getting together with Song, a commoner and a healer. She's willing to let them be together, as long as they keep their relationship secret... because she's sure that the stress of keeping a Secret Relationship secret will cause them to break up without her having to do anything. When that doesn't happen, she changes tactics and tries to bribe Song to break up with Kuei.

Back to the Future

• In Ripple Effect Part I Damage Control, Buford Tannen refuses to kill doctors. "You can threaten, bribe, blackmail or not pay their bill but you don't kill someone who might save your life in the future."

Batman

• Dance with the Demons: Whatever you may say about Batman's villain Ra's Al Ghul, he's a very practical man who doesn't take -most- things personally, doesn't bear grudges and doesn't act rashly or carelessly. So what if Batman put him in jail? He escapes. So what if Batman ruins several of his schemes? He's hatched and brought to fruition many, many more.
  Ra's Al Ghul: True, I could have done such a thing, for that reason. Yet, I did not. Why? Because, above all, Detective, I am a very, very practical man.
  To begin with, there is the concept of justice. Your wife stood against me, once and only once. It is true, you gave me a death in that adventure. A quite painful death. But it was not permanent. Thus far, my deaths have been but trifles. One renewal in the Lazarus Pit and I am reborn. Her discomfiting of me was substantial, but not as great as your own.
  No, her death would add but little to my power, and no profit. If I wished redress for my many hurts at your hands, then have no doubt, Detective: I would kill you. Someday, perhaps I shall. Perhaps not. Be that as it may, if I wished to use her against you, why would I kill her?
• Poison Ivy in Marry The Knight initially wants to expose her husband Bruce Wayne as Batman to get a random supervillain to murder him so she can inherit his fortune. However, Nightwing points out that if Batman's secret identity gets out, every criminal he's ever apprehended would file lawsuits for assault, which given how many he's apprehended would drain even his fortune. And if she simply lets Batman get killed by the two assassins currently after him, she'd be under suspicion for her husband's disappearance and lose his fortune as well. Even if she could raise another fortune afterwards, why forfeit the perfectly legal fortune and respectability she currently has in hopes of gaining an illegal fortune later? Lastly, Bruce keeps Harley's needs in check and prevents her from going back to the Joker. In the end, Ivy decides to not only not expose Bruce but also save him from the assassins after him.
  • There's also the matter of her personal safety: As Nightwing puts it, if Bruce dies, she'll have to deal with vengeful heroes-including ones like Red Hood and Huntress, who aren't ardent followers of the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, and there's no guarantee she'll be able to deduce all the Bat Family's identities (she'd managed to unmask Dick, and deduced that Tim and Cassandra are Red Robin and one of the Batgirls, respectively). Likewise, if word got out that Bruce Wayne and Batman are one and the same, then every villain in his Rogues Gallery will assume Ivy and Harley knew, and be out for their blood (mentioning an earlier incident when the two nearly killed Catwoman for similar reasons).
  • Harley Quinn has a similar moment earlier in the story, when she points out a major flaw in Ivy's plan: if they flat out kill Bruce, then the various young wards he's taken in will swarm in to battle for the inheritance, slinging all sorts of slander her and Ivy's way. And even if nothing was ever tied to the two of them, the media would have enough of a field day to make their legitimacy as heirs highly questionable. Ergo, one of them (namely Harley) should at least get pregnant first, so that they'll at least get something for child support.

Bleach

• In one story, Liltotto manages to get the drop on a weakened Ichigo but decides against eating him because he's half-Hollow and a Hollow's reiatsu is toxic to Quincies like her.
• Aizen decides not to kill Hinamori in What Hides Beneath the Surface because he's managed to make some inroads with Ichigo and wants her to help keep Ichigo from becoming his enemy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• A number of Cleveland vampires in Father Goose and the Black Knight avoid killing people as much as possible, simply to stay off the radar of the local Slayers. One outright states that so long as you're smart, you actually can live forever; buying into your own invincibility gets you killed. At the same time, the story also shows using newly sired Carla as an example of how difficult it is, for a being whose soul was replaced by a blood-borne warrior demon that craves blood and slaughter, to live like this, even if they rationally know it's the best way to avoid being killed.

A Certain Magical Index

• A Certain Crazy Christmas Special has a hilarious version in the reason why Bad Santa kidnapped a bunch of girls to pull his sleigh instead of using real reindeer:
  One might ask why he did not use real reindeer
  It probably would have been just as cool
  Simply Santa didn't want to mess with PETA
  He was crazy but not that much of a fool

Code Geass

• Lelouch of the Apotheosis:
  • Clovis's stated reasoning for his massive reforms that help uplift the oppressed Elevens is that he's been made to realize that not utilizing them squanders a precious resource. After all it was (officially) Elevens who defeated his military and an Eleven who can pilot the Lancelot almost perfectly on his first try.
  • The scientists working on Code-R are let go with a hefty bribe after Bartley's death. When Joseph Fennette questions why they're not even being threatened into silence, an OSI agent flatly retorts that if any of them talk about what they were working on (super soldiers, magic powers, and immortality), they'd be thrown in a mental ward, so there's no point bothering.

Danganronpa

• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Denial: After learning about the role Mahiru played in the possible death of Fuyuhiko's sister, the only reason they aren't immediately murdered for revenge is Monokuma's rules. In the Deadly Game, killing someone will have one of two outcomes: One, the killer graduates and everyone else dies (which Fuyuhiko doesn't want, especially as Peko is part of 'everyone else'), and two, the killer is found out and executed in some gruesomely ironic fashion. Fuyuhiko may want someone dead, but not so much they're willing to bet their own life on being able to kill without being exposed in a class trial.

The DCU

• In Funeral for a Flash, the Rogues do not kill people for two reasons: first, murder will get you a life sentence; second, Flash would stop treating you as a Friendly Enemy, and he's one of the most powerful heroes in the DCU.
  Another tip was: don't kill anybody. Except maybe try and kill the Flash, because nobody seemed to hold that against you. But if you committed murder, you could expect to go up for the rest of your life, or maybe face Old Sparky. Central City was not Gotham and they didn't pack you away to Arkham there.

Death Note

• In A Cure for Love, Light becomes irritated when he learns his followers have opened death camps because it's not as efficient nor as controlled as killing with the murder notebook, not to mention it's bad for P.R.

Disney Animated Canon

• In Crowns of the Kingdom, Lady Tremaine elects to stay out of the villains' team up because it wouldn't benefit her or her daughters.
• In the big Disney crossover Disney's War -- A Crossover Story, as well as its follow-ups End of Worlds and The Final Adventure, Chernabog from Fantasia is surprisingly portrayed as such instead of pure evil; he knows that even he wouldn't be sure to survive if the Worlds' balance^note A very important plot point of the series. was broken, and conquering other worlds than his or even harming visitors from outer worlds would most certainly break it. He doesn't mind answering questions from Mickey and the gang, who sometimes come to visit him when they really need an information only a powerful being such as him is likely to know.
• In Hope for the Heartless, the Horned King is portrayed as a warlord who doesn't believe in any sort of waste, especially when it pertains to him. For example, he has kept Creeper around for as long as he has because the cowardly little goblin the lich despises has uses. After he's convinced to keep Avalina as his prisoner, he reins in his murderous nature and saves her life initially just because she's his only chance to avoid being imprisoned inside the Black Cauldron forever. However, he does gradually start genuinely caring for her over time.
  • The former master of the Horned King, Arawn, gets this characterization a bit as well. While worse than the Horned King, the Death Lord of Annuvin is not petty, and isn't one for evil that doesn't in some way advance his goal. He won't waste the time and resources to torture random people, which is why when he starts going after Avalina in her dreams, the Horned King is tipped off that she has real potential to screw with Arawn's plans.
• Light of the Moon: Gothel allows Varian to continue to do alchemy because it gives him something to do other than be mad about being held captive. She forbids him to make anything explosive, though (mostly because his failed experiments cause enough explosions). The same goes for Rapunzel and her hundreds of hobbies, as most of them are either productive (i.e. cooking and candle-making) or keep her busy (i.e. painting). That said, she still heavily restricts what the kids can and can't have, as Rapunzel hides Pascal's existence from her just like in canon.

Dragon Ball

• Both Cooler and his deceased mother display various shades of pragmatism in Frigid Future. Cooler is willing to work with the Earthlings then later Gohan because the former knows the androids better and the latter is the only one strong enough to help him kill them. He still wants to kill Gohan as well, but is willing to put their fight on hold until the androids pay for first killing Goku (and denying Cooler his revenge) then later destroying his ship and stranding him on Earth. His mother, Empress Arctiza, imprisoned Freeza for destroying a planet under her protection and cited his foolishness for doing so, as destroying a planet negates the point of conquering it in the first place.

The Familiar of Zero

• Derflinger brings this up to Saito in Enslaved on why rape isn't as common as Saito seems to think it is in Halkagenia. Mercenaries are often followed by groups of whores and rape in war is a war crime, so any mercenary who does so will at best find himself out of work. Nobles could rape peasants but it's easier to find a willing peasant girl (or a whore) and, according to Derflinger, peasants belong to the noble they work for, why would a noble deliberately devalue his own property?
  • On another note, most mercenaries try to avoid killing in battle. It's hard to get paid when you're dead so most just try to rough each other up some then retreat if things are going poorly for them. Furthermore, they might just be working with their current enemies some day.

Fate/stay night

• Fate/Black Dawn: Morgan could have destroyed Camelot years ago through various means, but has no interest in ruling over ruins. Though she does admit that she's getting more vindictive over time, and maybe eventually she'd reach the point where she'd pull an If I Can't Have You… on the entire kingdom.

Final Fantasy

• ShinRa at the end of The Fifth Act is willing to forgive the main characters for going AWOL (and possibly being responsible for Hojo's death) because the six of them are not only the entirety of their SOLDIER first class, but are also far stronger than the rest of SOLDIER combined.
• Seventh Endmost Vision has this as Dr. Lucrecia Valentine's defining trait. She's a Benevolent Boss to her workers in Shinra, giving great hours and better pay, and receiving good work and better loyalty in return. She tends to go for slower plans, too, though her immortality probably helps considerably with that. Her one real blindspot seems to be that she was a horrible mother to Aerith, which looks like it's going to backfire on her in the near future.
• There's a fanfic for the Dissidia Final Fantasy fandom, titled You'll Be Well Done!, wherein Kefka tries to pull a Rape by Proxy on Terra by using a lust-inducing potion to set Sephiroth on her trail. Sephiroth would prefer to seduce Terra if possible instead of raping her, however, because whether he intends to sway Terra willingly back into serving Chaos or see her remove Kefka from Chaos's ranks after he has boosted her power via their liaison (his only two probable reasons for forming designs on Terra), harming her in any way runs contrary to both possible outcomes. Hence he visits Ultimecia to request a small flask of lust potion, intending to use it to make Terra easier to beguile. True to his usual motive of baiting Cloud into confrontation, however, Sephiroth kidnaps Terra on the Onion Knight's watch — knowing that the boy will all but certainly run to Cloud for help.
  Sephiroth (narrating): I meant to seduce Terra, not to rape her, and I was telling the truth when I promised not to harm the girl unless she happened to be a virgin, in which case some slight harm couldn't be helped.. But I certainly had no qualms about doing what would cause Cloud to fear the worst on account of the lovely green-haired mage — namely, capturing her and sending a clearly-outmatched witness running to the puppet with the terrible news.

Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire

• Of Gold and Iron: Tywin Lannister, though not squeamish about causing death generally, flatly tells Arya that he didn't kill Ned Stark because it would be much less trouble to simply drive a rival corporation such as the Starks' into bankruptcy.

Godzilla

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Ghidorah intervenes to save Vivienne's and San's lives after they've been blown blown apart, solely because it needs Vivienne alive with her soul intact for its evil plan to assimilate her. San is only saved by circumstance because Ghidorah needs his head to repair Vivienne's.

Gundam

• A Feddie Story has Garma Zabi demand his subordinates be respectful of the natives and keep the destruction to a minimum when fighting on Earth, for the simple reason that he knows Zeon does not have the manpower to conquer eight billion people who all hate Zeon uniforms, their contents, and everything they stand for.
  Zabi: Conquering Earth will take more than revolutionary zeal. It will take pragmatism, and an ability to show we are not monsters.
  • He justifies the evacuation of New York City to his father by arguing that allowing the murder of the citizenry in addition to the destruction of the city would cause the Federation to fight harder, pointing to the fact that the colony gassing and the destruction of Seattle before he was placed in command of the Earth Attack Force provoked spasms of no-surrender fanaticism.

Harry Potter

• Both Another Perspective and Defending Sirius Black have the Dursleys help Sirius Black clear his name, simply so he can get custody of Harry and they'll never have to see him again.
  • From the same stories, several Death Eaters support Sirius Black getting a trial because they don't want to set a precedent of rich purebloods being sent to Azkaban without a trial.
• In Departure From The Diary, Tamelyn Riddle spares Ginny and instead combines with the Horcrux in Harry's scar because it's faster and easier, while leaving behind far less evidence, compared to killing them both.
• In Dungeons and Drow, the titular Drow is told by her new owner (Harry Potter) that he doesn't plan to rape or torture her for the same reason she wouldn't use her concealed dagger to chip stone: it ruins a useful tool to accomplish something meaningless.
• In Empire when Lucius Malfoy learns that Snape used his rep to help the Boy-Who-Lived, he gives his actual support because it's a politically smart move.
• In For Love of Magic, Adrastia Zabini abandons her plans to seduce Harry as well as Sirius, make one kill the other then later make the winner commit suicide when she realizes Harry is too strong and too self-aware for her magical seduction to work. Instead she settles on an alliance between the two as both know about the other's highly illegal activities but also has sufficient gold to bribe investigators even if either had enough evidence to truly condemn the other.
  • A later chapter shows that Quidditch is one area where being a pureblood won't cover for incompetence. Even the most devout blood purists want their team to win and would rather have skilled muggleborns carry them to victory than unskilled purebloods cost them a match.
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality features an antagonist who is equally capable of killing you as he would swat a fly, or bowing to you and praising you, if it serves his goals. He could protect children from bullying, because he hates bullies, or if those children were in his way, he could instead arrange their untimely deaths, and lose no sleep over either action.
• Theodore Nott in Harry Potter: The Serpent Lord differs from many pureblood supremacists in that he isn't interested in killing anyone of "lesser blood". His reasons for such are strictly because regardless of who's in charge, the world needs people working blue-collar jobs to make society function.
• Limpieza de Sangre: Voldemort offers to simply ignore Harry, citing that as far as she's concerned, the prophecy between them has been fulfilled already. She tried to kill someone born as the seventh month died to those who thrice defied her and was vanquished. And frankly, every attempt to kill Harry has ended poorly for her anyway.
• A hag in No Competition claims that her kind never eat family members because "your own blood never tastes quite right".
  • Dudley's friends have no problem vandalizing gardens but are hesitant to set them ablaze because it might burn down the houses as well. Most people won't call the cops about ruined flowers but they definitely will over arson and none of them want to go to jail.
• Combines with Even Evil Has Loved Ones in Petrification Proliferation when Narcissa Malfoy throws Lucius under the bus after he's arrested for opening the Chamber of Secrets. The Malfoy name is ruined and she has to do everything she can to salvage their reputation, including possibly reaching out to the recently freed Sirius. Also, a Basilisk is considered a Weapon of Mass Destruction and could have killed their son Draco.
• Draco Malfoy/Black in The Power He Knows Not Is gives up on the idea of ruling the muggles after he learns there's roughly 70 million in England alone. In his words, there's maybe 100 thousand wizards in magical England. Factor out the underage, old, and sick and you have maybe half that. Even if Voldemort had the loyalty of every witch and wizard in England, they'd be outnumbered hundreds to one. He still thinks the "Light side" are a bunch of idealistic fools but understands the sheer futility of ever trying to conquer the muggle world.
• Princess of the Blacks:
  • Jennifer Black releases Cedric Diggory from a Life Debt after deciding that the potential ill-will from him and the rest of Hufflepuff aren't worth having the Head Boy at her beck and call. The goodwill she builds up by doing so also helps. She's extremely annoyed however to learn that, despite her beliefs, Cedric didn't expect her to release him from the debt.
  • Despite his anger at her for killing his familiar, Voldemort decides to offer Jen one last chance to join him, both because of her remarkable ability and because she's apparently Bellatrix's daughter and he doesn't want to risk Bellatrix turning against him if he kills her.
  • Jen tries to find criminals to use as sacrifices for her voodoo rituals as their disappearances won't be investigated as closely as say, a married couple with children.
  • Narcissa's problem with Jen mind controlling Rita Skeeter is that Jen didn't consult anyone and thus might have overlooked a flaw in her plan.
  • Umbridge is less overtly evil than canon, instead coming across as someone genuinely trying to improve things at Hogwarts. She's still extremely bigoted, but she understands that she needs more reasons than that to make removing those she disapproves of for personal reasons acceptable to the public.
  • Jen is utterly pissed with the manager of Candyland for bringing a kidnapped kid there to work, because kidnappings bring more attention their way and cause problems. Runaways and children who want to work there cause far fewer problems for everyone involved.
  • Jen's lack of interest in becoming an Evil Overlord like Voldemort seeks to be stems from the fact that all forms of power she can think of are things she already has or can get without trying to launch a coup (Magical power: Already one of the strongest witches in the country, and still growing stronger. Political power: The Blacks have a lot of it, and she's next in line for head of the family. Economic power: Again, the Blacks have a lot of it already. Popularity power: Defeat Voldemort, and she'll get it in loads). As such, there's no point in waging a war that she could either lose, or win and have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder for a possible overthrow, just to get a little more.
  • Narcissa dislikes having to kill Rita simply because she was rather useful.
  • Jen is rather disgusted by Menagerie slaughtering an entire family even after learning they weren't sheltering the Turk because it serves no purpose to her. Though for Menagerie, her patron demands tributes of fear and pain.
  • During the final book, Voldemort becomes exasperated with his more fanatical followers for creating the Department of Inquisition to round up and kill muggleborns, citing that if they'd only waited a couple years, it could have been done quietly and with minimal fuss.
• Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum: Once Draco realizes that his only "friends" Crabbe and Goyle would abandon him the moment his father lost his influence and/or money, he starts going out of his way to act friendly towards younger students, especially the first two years who have minimal exposure to him. Over the course of months, he gains support from people who genuinely like him, or at least believe he can help them with their problems. His growth is best characterized when his father rages about Fudge blackmailing everyone bribing him. Lucius wants to have Fudge killed and believes the other lords would support him. Draco knows that doing so to a minister gearing up for a war against dark wizards would make the man a martyr and the other lords would throw Lucius to the bloodthirsty crowds in order to save themselves.
• A Year Too Soon
  • Lucius Malfoy invites Harry to the Yule Ball he's hosting. When Harry can't come because Dumbledore won't allow it, Lucius does his best to placate everyone who expects Harry to be there without tossing the blame on Harry. Regardless of what Lucius personally thinks of the lad, Harry Potter is the greatest celebrity in the Wizarding World, and it would benefit Lucius to ingratiate himself with him.
  • Harry later convinces Slytherins not to use the slur "mudblood" by pointing out that not only is such language unbecoming of someone of their upbringing, but it's a rather foolish idea to potentially insult someone who might have more power than you, magical or political.
  • After Harry has the goblins of Gringotts remove the horcrux from his scar, they decide to keep an eye out for potential horcruxes in their vaults on the basis that dark lords like Voldemort are "bad for business".
  • Unlike his son, Lucius doesn't want Voldemort to return to power due to both the man's cruelty to his own followers and because Lucius functionally runs the country already by manipulating the Minister of Magic.

Jackie Chan Adventures

• In Queen of All Oni, Jade fits this trope — being very clever, and a Fallen Hero (as well as at least partially Affably Evil), she realizes that a plot to Take Over the World would be unwise, since the Demon Sorcerers attempting to do so was the very thing that turned them into Sealed Evil in a Can, and she wants to avoid the same fate.
  • The Cuban refuses to get into a turf war with the Shadow Hand when they show up in Mexico City looking for the Vault of Endless Night, as he figures it's too dangerous to fight them, and that it's a win-win situation whether they succeed or fail anyway.
• The Ultimate Evil: Shendu has several moments of this as the Villain Protagonist. One of the straightest examples is when he betrays his brother Hsi Wu's and Jade's location to Valerie, and by proxy to the Chan Clan, so they can banish Hsi Wu before he bonds with his Other and surpasses Shendu in power.

John Wick

• After John Wick kills Santino off Continental grounds in Click, Mr. Matteo, the leader of the Camorra branch of the High Table, gets the bounty on John's head rescinded and offers to rebuild John's house so long as John stays retired. As Matteo puts it, Santino's attempt to kill John Wick costs them considerable manpower and continuing would only cost them more. It's far more practical to simply bribe him to stay out of the game.

Justice League

• Numerous villains in A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action Please either fight the Imperium by themselves or pull an Enemy Mine with superheroes because Earth's defeat means humanity's extermination. Static Shock lampshades that yes the police might try to arrest the villains afterwards, but they can always break out of jail anyway.

The Legend of Zelda

• Ganondorf in Tangled In Time decides not to kill the infant Link because doing so would only have the child reborn. He decides to raise him as his own so Link would be too attached to him to fight and so he wouldn't learn anything that he could use against Ganondorf. As a result when Link is forced to answer the call and rise against him he barely has any skill in handling weaponry and has no idea who he's fighting against.

The Loud House

• In Chapter 13 of No Such Luck, No Such Love, Chandler gives Lincoln his bags after dodgeball practice, but it's only because the boys will attack Lincoln in the locker room and he doesn't want to get in trouble if everyone in the room ends up getting punished for it.

Mass Effect

• Due to actions in a previous cycle, the Reapers in Mass Effect: Synthesis desire to achieve synthesis but each requires a specific individual from a yet unknown species to do so. When they finally discover said species (humanity), they decide to aid them and convince them to willingly achieve synthesis on the basis that the individuals the Reapers need might be killed if they use force and/or indoctrination.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• In Balance, despite Odin's claims, Hela never betrayed him, because unlike him she had Complete Immortality and simply had to wait until he died.
• At the start of One Hell of a Ride, Tony Stark convinces Hela not to kill all who refuse to serve her and to rule as a legitimate queen rather than a tyrant by making her realize it'd be a more satisfying revenge against both her doubters and Odin if she was recognized as a better ruler than her father. For example, making Fandral apologize for challenging her and swear his loyalty by summoning Gungnir to her, something Hela could only do if she was Asgard's rightful ruler.

Mega Man

• In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Terra elects to not kill the humans of Earth until after his group conquers them, as he would rather they relinquished power to the Stardroids.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Dad Villain AU: While Viceroy is more of an Anti-Villain, he also engages in a lot of this. Rather than openly terrorizing Paris as Hawkmoth did, he uses his butterflies primarily to gather information — and Blackmail material on the Mayor and other corrupt members of Paris' "upper crust".
• The Karma of Lies: Lila may be a greedy Con Artist, but she actually recognizes her own limitations to some extent, proving to have done her research and set up various precautionary measures, enabling her to have a chance of cutting and running once karma starts catching up. Unlike Gabriel and Adrien, she recognizes the importance of giving up while she's still ahead; while she laments having to sacrifice various prospects in the process, she'd rather not risk losing everything trying to hold onto those potential payouts. So when Gabriel is unmasked and Adrien accidentally gives her the passwords for the Agreste emergency accounts, she just drains them to a secret account she had set up long ago for just such an opportunity and leaves the country.

Monster Rancher

• Phoenix's Tear: Reignition: It's noted that Muu doesn't have any human followers; while there are certainly people who might hope to profit by throwing their lot in with the conquering overlord, many of Muu's willing recruits are driven by their own grudges against humanity. Therefore, it's simply not worth the potential infighting and strife that could cause.

My Hero Academia

• Mastermind: Strategist for Hire: During their attack on Endeavor at a press conference, Shouto Todoroki and Dabi attack a nearby crowd, making sure to only injure rather than kill them - the approaching Pro Heroes wouldn't be distracted by trying to save a bunch of corpses.
• In Quoth the Raven, "Forevermore", All For One's daughter decides against having Izuku turned into a High End Nomu because he'd be more useful as a loyal and intelligent soldier than a mindless slave. Instead she "awakens" his Quirk (in reality, she's giving him Quirks), earning Izuku's eternal gratitude, then spends years conditioning him to hold her above all others.

My-HiME

• In Perfection Is Overrated, The Usurper doesn't like Hitomi killing indiscriminately, as he feels it draws too much attention to her. Word of God reveals that none of the other SUEs would be willing to team up with Hitomi, partly out of a sense of self preservation and partly because they consider what she is doing unacceptable.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• The Ending of the End - Love and Tolerance Edition:
  • Underneath her cheerful exterior, Cozy Glow is livid over Grogar annihilating Canterlot. Not for any moral reasons, but because she wanted to manipulate the ponies into letting her take the throne willingly. To give her rule of Equestria some legitimacy in the eyes of foreign powers and help deter reprisals. But with the capital completely in ruins, that option is off the table.
  • More importantly to the plot, the trio realizes the return of the Windigos and strife they will bring to the world would ruin their personal ambitions to rule over it. Prompting them to offer a truce with the heroes.
    Cozy: So... what does this mean? Them being back, I mean.
    Chrysalis: It means there will barely be any love for me or my changelings to feed on.
    Tirek: Ponies can't bow to my will if they're always battling each other.
    Cozy: And an army that’s always fighting itself isn’t an effective army. So… what do we do now?
  • After forming a truce with the heroes, the villains, mainly Cozy Glow, get to work helping repair the very division they helped exasperate between the ponies. Because they realize it's giving power to The Windigos, and therefore, Grogar.
  • When Starlight goes to talk to the villains at their hideout, Chrysalis immediately pounces on her while she's alone with them. Ready to take her revenge. While her cohorts range from indifferent to mildly concerned about her killing Starlight, but still not doing anything about it. It's only when Starlight mentions the others know where she is, that Cozy Glow steps in to convince Chrysalis to back down. Realizing that killing her would definitely jeopardize their already fragile, but vital alliance with the heroes, if they know the last place Starlight went before disappearing was to see them.
• At one point in Everybody Does Sunset Shimmer!, Sunset Shimmer agrees to be Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna's BDSM slave for one night to avoid detention. The two take delight in torturing and humiliating her. When Luna wants to record the session to further humiliate her, Celestia stops her. While it would be amusing, there's too great a risk that the footage could leak, resulting in them getting fired and arrested. Celestia also takes measures to prevent Sunset from being permanently injured or scarred for similar reasons.
• In a chapter of Direction, the third story in The Nuptialverse series, Discord scolds Queen Chrysalis for trying to kill the Mane Five, in that doing so would alert the llamas of their presence, and besides that, they no longer provide a threat without Twilight.
• Pony POV Series:
  • The Dark World version of Discord often has to rein in Fluttercruel and keep her from killing their victims, because he feels that having subjects to torment in the long run is better than killing for a thrill in the here and now. It later turns out he's already made a Heel Realization a long time ago during the "Groundhog Day" Loop and is just disguising his acts of genuine mercy as this so Nightmare Eclipse doesn't force him to be evil.
  • In the Finale arc, Discord's brainwashed minion Diamond Tiara suggests altering history so that Megan died before becoming a hero. That way, the Rainbow of Light aka the Elements of Harmony would never have been discovered, and Discord would never have been stopped and his reign would have lasted forever. Discord vetoes this; while he admits he'd be willing to do that if he was guaranteed it would work, Discord points out that there are so many things that can go unpredictably wrong with altering history (citing the Butterfly of Doom) that it's simply not worth the risk. And without Megan, the villains she stopped like Tirek, Grogar, and Lavan would still be around, and all of them are powerful enough to threaten even Discord and would not work with him. Finally, he points out altering history could risk erasing Silver Spoon, Tootsie, and Alula, among the only characters Diamond Tiara cares about.
• Retired to Equestria: Former Evil Overlord Damien makes it clear to Princess Luna that he has no interest in taking up his old occupation for two reasons. First, it will be at least a few centuries before he recovers enough power to challenge her and Celestia. Second, he's retired. Even if he defeats them, it'll just leave him as the Evil Overlord in a world where everyone wants him dead and that's precisely why he left his old world to retire.
  • He later helps a former enemy land a job, not because he wants to help the man, but because he's said enemy's landlord. He wants the man to earn enough money to pay his rent.
• In The Rise of Darth Vulcan, the villain avoids lines like murder and slavery. It's both that Even Evil Has Standards and the fact that crossing those lines would bring down on him a greater show of force from his opponents.
• In Spectacular Seven, the thief Snake Queen Lamia explicitly avoids killing anyone on her jobs. While this is partially because she's morally opposed to the idea, Lamia also points out that it's far more useful to her goals to not kill anyone; she wants to fence the best relics she can get her hands on, and the police are going to search far harder for a killer than they ever would for a thief.
• In Three Evil Rulers, Three Cold Hearts, the three rulers from the Hearth's Warming Eve play are revealed to still have been encased in ice, and Discord revives them to wreak havoc. The three rulers are finally defeated when their former assistants are also seemingly revived, and show up to help the Mane Six fight the rulers with love and friendship. Except they aren't really the former assistants—they're Queen Chrysalis and a couple of changelings in disguise. Queen Chrysalis and her species feed off love; if the evil rulers keep spreading hatred, the changelings would starve after the wendigos froze everything, so the queen temporarily gave her aid to the heroes.

Naruto

• Many Naruto fanfics have unspoken codes among ninja based on this trope. These include:
  • Limiting the torture of Genin because they're less likely to have valuable information.
  • Not raping women because their kunoichi comrades would kill them.
  • Not taking certain jobs no matter how lucrative because the loss of P.R. would cost them more money than they'd make.
• Menma/Naruto pretends to be this in Eroninja when a man owing him a large gambling debt tries to sell his daughter into prostitution to pay off his debts. Naruto tricks him into selling himself (and being put to work in a mine), then plays it off as him not wanting a subordinate sweet on the daughter to turn against him. Furthermore, he owns a 30% stake in the family store and the father would run it into the ground with his gambling whereas it's profitable under the daughter.
  • He also forgives the debts of the women working at the brothel he took over. With more money going to the workers instead of their husbands/fathers debts, they're more enthusiastic about their work which draws in more customers, earning both him and them far more money.
• In First Try Series Haku and Zabuza do not attack Tazuna's family when they have to kill Tazuna, not because its wrong but because it would breed ill will among the locals, who might help any ninja hunting them down.
• Most ninja in Go Through His Pockets and Look for Loose Change didn't loot the corpses of dead enemies because there was always a chance they weren't actually dead yet. In more recent years, it became a case of Everyone Has Standards due to an increasing civilian influence making most shinobi see robbing the dead as abhorrent.
• In Lay Down Your Burdens, the Kyuubi agrees to tutor Naruto in the sealing arts because doing so will allow Naruto to free him so they can both be free of Konoha.
• Slavers in Leftovers don't rape the kunoichi they capture purely because the girls are worth more if they're virgins.
• The Self-Insert of Orochimama portrays a great deal of her actions this way, such as vastly reducing human experimentation, encouraging training and friendship, and insisting on taking lower risk missions to all serve the purpose of increasing her standing forces as she needs a great deal of manpower in the coming months. Kabuto also sees her acting as a nurturing mother towards her subordinates, especially the young children, as nurturing their Undying Loyalty, citing that many will die for their country but far more would die for their mother. In reality, she's just doing her best to make Oto into a proper Hidden Village rather than a group of psychopaths and monsters.
• While they're mostly Anti Villains, Konoha decides not to pursue Naruto in The Pride after he and several Kunoichi go missing-nin because Naruto is far too powerful for them to realistically do anything about and it's not worth trying to capture or kill him when he's neither antagonizing Konoha nor joining its enemies.
• Sasuke Uchiha in Unconventional Win decides against trying to assassinate the Five Kage and instating a new world order after Naruto hooks up with Kaguya as not only would pissing her off be a bad idea, but the only person who could help him beat her would instead be helping her.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Ritsuko Akagi in Science: Saving Humanity without Regard to Morals or Ethics suggests Misato and the rest of the NERV staff show Shinji more appreciation, citing that he'll pilot better if he doesn't outright hate it. And since humanity's survival hinges on Shinji's success, his happiness is paramount. It's also the reasoning she gives to Gendo and Fuyutsuki when they question her on it. Ritsuko's real reasoning is she gave Shinji a retrovirus that should boost fertility and sexual appetite, but it won't accomplish anything if he's too miserable to actually notice women.
  • She'd also initially refused to test the retrovirus on Rei because not only does she lack a reproductive system, but Gendo would most certianly notice. Though once Ritsuko learns that Gendo basically set her up to die the same way he had her mother, she promptly decides to restore Rei's reproductive organs and encourage her to act on her feelings for Shinji.

One Piece

• The Logia Brothers: Akuma awakens Pell's Devil Fruit when the latter is carrying off Crocodile's bomb, thereby saving his life, purely because he doesn't want the guard's death interfering with his plans for Vivi.
• Smoothie convinces Big Mom in Smoothie and Luffy not to force Luffy to become her subordinate, citing that the planned alliance with the Revolutionary Army will only go through if Luffy marries Smoothie of his own free will. As a result, Big Mom allows Luffy to officially be allied to her rather than a subordinate.
• The Self-Insert Celestial Dragon in The World, My Oyster forges his father's will after killing him, citing that the man's desire to have all of his (still living) slaves cremated along with him would be a complete waste of good slaves.
  • The reason he kills his parents is to save a particular slave (Donquixote Homing's wife) that they'd been abusing, but only because he was worried they'd kill her before he could make use of her.

One-Punch Man

• Any monster that survives fighting Saitama in Hero's Harem abandon their plans to destroy humanity out of sheer terror of his power.
  • Deep Sea Queen (Deep Sea King's sister) overthrows her brother over his plans to wipe out humanity, citing that there's no reason to exterminate a perfectly adequate workforce.
• The Strongest Hero has the world know Saitama is by far the strongest around, and thus offers a few examples:
  • The House of Evolution stops trying to take over the world and effectively becomes a subgroup of the Hero Association when Saitama asks them to not because Genus had a change of heart, but because he knows he could wipe out all his creations in a heartbeat. They've also started a Heel–Face Turn even before meeting him precisely because of that knowledge.
    • Indeed, any villain who sees him around immediately gives up because they know they'd lose, and the ones who don't, that is Sonic and the Sea Folk, explicitely don't know who he is at first (and the Sea Folk believe themselves superior to humanity and wouldn't even entertain the idea).
  • Bofoi convinces the Hero Association to give him control over the prison where the monsters and criminals that surrendered to Saitama are imprisoned not to experiment on them, but because there's the chance one of the inmates could organize the others into an army that could overwhelm Saitama through sheer numbers and he seeks to avoid it. In the same vein, he improves the inmates' conditions, and limits the experiments he'd run on them, because it helps prevent the revolt, and while he could just dump the prison into lava there's no guarantee some of the inmates could survive even that.
  • Vaccine Man and the Brain and Brawn Brothers are the inmates who could organize the others into an army, but refrain to do so, and even collaborate with whatever experiment Bofoi runs that day more than the others, because with him in charge there's no chance to get away with and collaborating grant them rewards. They even get the chance to be released one day (with the understanding that if they go back to be criminals the Hero Association will have Saitama kill them) in exchange for collaborating with Genus' experiments because they could pose a danger but are smart enough to instead collaborate with Bofoi.

Persona

• The Crimson AU has Sugimura's father berate him for having a very public confrontation with Makoto, reminding him that she's the younger sister of public prosecutor Sae Niijima. He informs his son that if he wants to do anything villainous, he needs to be more careful and not risk drawing attention and scrutiny their way.

Pokémon

• Ashes of the Past has Giovanni, boss of Team Rocket. He has an entire department dedicated to directing heroes to possible world-threatening crises. Why? Because you can't conquer/rule/extort the world if there is no world. Also, he sees the ability to remake reality useful, but ultimately too flashy and too risky to gain.
• Common Sense: Giovanni avoids having too many people eliminated, as that would encourage the police to crack down on Team Rocket.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
  • Team Rocket doesn't deal in prostitution, not because Giovanni has any kind of moral objection to the practice, but because he considers the industry too trackable.
  • Sabrina lets worthy trainers live in order to attract mediocre ones, due to the fact there's a chance for survival. She also follows Social Darwinism to a different degree than most who practice it: no matter what it is one does, she simply cares if you are good at it. Even a good thief or con artist is acceptable in her book.
  • Unlike canon, Giovanni doesn't use Mewtwo in gym battles as it'd draw too much attention and might out him as the leader of Team Rocket.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

• The Soulmate Timeline: Kyubey has several of these.
  • When Suzumebachi suggests he just contract a lot more girls in Japan than usual to replace going after targets that are harder to break, Kyubey rejects the idea not out of the idea that he wouldn't be able to collect the energy he's after that way, but because the required replacements to match the energy he'd be ignoring would cause a demographic crisis in Japan and render it useless to him for generations, if not outright destroy it.
  • The story's titular Soulbonds are considered by humans to be sacred things that are never to be interfered with. Kyubey also ignores them, but not because he treats them as anything sacred. If anything they are something that has long puzzled him and he wants to understand them more to make better use of them. The problem is that they have eluded his understanding for thousands of years and trying to manipulate those with Soulbonds has often proven to be more trouble than its worth to cause them to become Witches. If he does manage this, he gets tremendous levels of energy, but he's had such little luck with it he avoids contracting with anyone in a Soulbond unless their payoff is worth the effort, and tends to leave any Magical Girl who gets one after contracting alone unless they are in a vulnerable mental state on their own. Then he goes in for the attempted 'maturation'.

Ranma ½

• In the mature fic How I Learned to Love the Wild Horse, the reason normally amoral Genma never used the Umisenken technique to become the world's greatest thief is due to it not being able to affect cameras, meaning he'd only be able to use it so many times before being caught.

The Rising of the Shield Hero

• Malty in Ambition of the Red Princess decides against her father's plan to frame Naofumi for rape because it won't advance her ambition of becoming Queen of Melromarc. There's also the fact that because her father summoned all of the heroes rather than just one, Malty wants to make sure she attaches herself to the right one, especially if her sister attaches herself to a hero as well. Malty also disapproves of her father's initial shunning of the Shield Hero because it's based solely on his sister being killed by a demi-human and alienating one of the legendary heroes is too dangerous to be done frivolously. She eventually decides against her own original plan of betraying Naofumi for one of the other heroes when she realize he's the most useful/stable of the bunch^note Motoyasu is regarded as too stupid/brash to be useful except in the short term, Ren is too condescending to be helpful, and Itsuki's obsession with justice has left him noticeably unhinged.
  • Beloukas the slave trader is willing to sell his services to Naofumi at a loss because his specific request^note branding some Balloon monsters in the hopes of leveling them up and using them as attack dogs could open an avenue for Beloukas to earn mountains of gold by enslaving low level monsters for cheap then leveling them up and selling them for considerable profit. If Naofumi's plan succeeds, Beloukas will corner the market before it even forms. If it fails, he's only out a little money, far less than if he tried to do it himself.
• The Villainess Quits: Malty dies in canon only to awaken two weeks before the heroes are summoned. While she initially plots her vengeance on all who wronged her, a couple days of pampering reminds her how much easier life is in the castle. If Malty wanted revenge, she'd have to go adventuring and live as a commoner. Instead she forgoes any plans of revenge (and even offers Naofumi some advice) so she can spend the rest of her life living in luxury.
• By the same author as The Villainess Quits, Iwatani Naofumi - BitchSlayer:
  • After learning Malty plans to frame him for rape, Naofumi convinces her to secretly support him because he'd be a viable failsafe in case her plans involving the church fail. If she succeeds, she becomes queen just like she wanted. If she fails, she can turn on the church and say she was spying for Naofumi.
  • Naofumi treats Raphtalia like a daughter, including deactivating the Slave Curse which punishes her for disobeying him, because he wants to earn her Undying Loyalty. His reason for buying her specifically is also because she'd be the most useful of the slaves within his (fake) price range.
  • Similarly to Naofumi, Malty treats Raphtalia well after reasoning it'd be less hassle than having the girl trying to supplant her. Naofumi's fully aware that her affection for his slave isn't genuine but decides the result is the same either way so it doesn't matter.

Rosario + Vampire

• Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness:
  • In Act II, this is the only reason Tsukune's inner ghoul helps save Kokoa from a Superpower Meltdown; so it could use Kokoa's newfound feelings for Tsukune to its advantage by manipulating her into giving it enough power from her overcharge to hijack Tsukune's body completely. The others are Properly Paranoid enough to suspect that the ghoul had an ulterior motive, but, unfortunately, fail to realize just what until it's too late.
  • In Act III, Falla helps Luna figure out how to save Rason by freeing her from her prison and avert Luna's Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum. Not because she actually cares if Luna destroys the world, but because Luna is The Only One who can free her.
  • Also in Act III, Hokuto outright states he hopes that Tsukune and co. thwart Kiria's Evil Plan, but only because if Kiria fails, then Hokuto will have free reign to enact his own Evil Plan as per his agreement with Kiria.

RWBY

• While acting as The Mole in In the Kingdom's Service, Jaune criticizes another potential henchman for firing a gun to threaten the owner of the store they're robbing into giving up the combination to his safe. As Jaune puts it, Roman ordered them to get in, steal as much dust as possible, and get out, not hold up an old man for cash. Furthermore, not only is there a huge difference in being hunted for theft and being hunted for murder, but firing a gun is almost guaranteed to alert someone to what they're doing with how loud it is. Afterwards, Roman approves of Jaune's decision, especially since Jaune was the only one to actually bring back some dust while fleeing Ruby.
• Lost to Dust: Roman Torchwick pays Miltia and Melanie Malachite to help Blake Belladonna with her mission of finding the White Fang Killer, reasoning that if Blake gets herself killed, Ruby Rose and her friends will somehow blame him and seek revenge.
• In Playing Our Roles, Roman Torchwick's stated reasons for wanting Cinder gone is because her plans are going to seriously disrupt things and make his cushy lifestyle much harder to maintain. Though his real reasons are considerably more altruistic.
• A Rabbit Among Wolves:
  • Several characters mistake Jaune's acts of charity and goodwill as such, believing that he's only acting in the interest of personal advancement and power rather than out of an honest desire to help people.
  • Many of the White Fang's extremists aren't thrilled about Jaune helping humans, but are willing to go along with it so long as it gets results. Sienna admits to Jaune that she'd rather he not aid humans, but accepts it because it advances her cause.
• Salem in Relic Of The Future offers Jaune a chance to Set Right What Once Went Wrong because even if it was a Pyrrhic Victory, Ozpin's forces did manage to defeat her armies and mortally wound her. If Jaune tries to change the past for the better, there's a chance it will actually be worse and she'll triumph.
  • Most of the gangs and criminal families in Vale refuse to sell the really hard drugs that kill users or mess up them permanently, because they want easy business and repeat customers and dead bodies are the opposite of both.
• Service with a Smile:
  • Junior, Roman Torchwick, Cinder, and Adam are all perfectly polite to Jaune because they have no reason to oppose him and he makes good coffee. Roman stops Mercury from robbing Jaune because Jaune is the only person willing to stay open late enough for Roman to actually get a decent cup.
  • Junior protects Jaune not just for the good coffee, but because Jaune's business is in his territory, and if Junior lets another gang mess around his entire organization will fall apart.
  • When Roman finds the kid who was hired to smash Jaune's shop, he decides not to kill him after torturing the information out of him. He's just some stupid kid who needed money; there's no need to get worked up about it. Besides, disposing of bodies is expensive. Neo disagrees.
• White Sheep:
  • Roman Torchwick decides against trying to manipulate the powerful but naive Jaune. As Roman explains to Neo, people get smarter faster than they get stronger, and manipulating someone as powerful as Jaune only works until they learn you're doing it. Instead, Roman does Jaune a favor and sends him on his way so that Jaune is unlikely to move against him. Roman does end up on Jaune's bad side due to bad luck, but has enough blackmail to stay alive until Jaune leaves Vale and forgets about him.
  • Cinder eventually abandons her plan to attack Beacon to steal the Fall Maiden's power because, due to Jaune's accidental meddling, Ozpin offers to make her the Fall Maiden freely.
  • Watts got tired of kidnapping people whenever Salem needed an expert for something, and just started learning the skills himself. He's an ordained minister (as is Tyrian, somehow), engineer, dentist, and doctor. If Salem needs something he can't provide, he just hires someone to make it using their practically unlimited money.

Sherlock Holmes

• Missing: Watson's kidnappers intend to leave him critically injured rather than killing him, not because of any scruples but simply because if he's hurt but alive Holmes won't immediately start after them.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• Maledict from Sonic X: Dark Chaos doesn't want to destroy the galaxy with his galaxy-destroying superweapon because the resources of the Milky Way are too useful to squander - and trillions of his own subjects would die in the process, which could form another rebellion and hurt the Demon Empire. He only eventually relents once the Shroud start devouring the Milky Way in force under Dark Tails. The rewrite makes him so pragmatic that he quickly turns into an Anti-Villain, often criticizing the excesses of his servants and turning him into a personification of Hobbes Was Right.
  • Jesus decides to ally with Sonic and friends even though his Angels considers them evil, understanding that they're both a valuable distraction and could do serious damage to the Angels if they were antagonized.

Star Trek

• Peace Forged in Fire: Praetor Velal of the Romulan Star Empire, initially. By his own admission, he sues for peace with the Romulan Republic not because he likes D'Tan's splinter state, but because the Empire simply no longer has the resources or political will to continue fighting, what with Empress Sela's kidnapping and uprisings over the news that the Tal'Shiar were responsible for the supernova that destroyed Romulus. He later joins the Republic in an Enemy Mine against the Tal'Shiar, because they attacked his men to break up the peace talks.

Star Wars

• Darth Vader: Shattered Galaxy: As Vader explains to Jango, he only prevented Ashaar Khorda's attack on Coruscant, and killed him to prevent him trying again instead of recruiting him to their secret alliance, because he didn't want the planet to be martyred for the failing Republic and inspire people to stay loyal to a system that's falling apart.
• Imperium of Vader: Vader proposes to decentralize the Senate by setting up regional Sub-Senates that will manage their sectors and appoint members to a reduced Imperial Senate, giving up much of the central government's (ie, himself and the Moffs) administrative authority in order to streamline the bloated bureaucracy and make things more efficient. He also promises to relinquish some of the emergency powers Palpatine acquired during the Clone Wars, making the Senate more than just a rubber stamp in order to appease them and limit the justifiable reasons for possibly rebelling.
• A Self-Insert fanboy in Screw the Rebellion, I want Cookies convinces Emperor Palpatine and Tarkin not to conscript Wookies to build the Death Star, but to reprogram the Separatists droid armies, citing that not only are they far more numerous, but they can work longer and in more extreme conditions with far less upkeep.
  • A later suggestion has Palpatine order a campaign against the Hutts since it would 1) Increase the average citizen's loyalty to the empire, 2) Silence some of his political opponents that aren't worth the hassle of killing, and 3) Allow him to install a puppet to takeover the power vacuum left in the wake of the Hutts' annihilation.
• Discussed by Revan in So Not My Problem. He doesn't deal in slavery because it's risky, expensive, and a PR nightmare. He prefers to underpay the disenfranchised or convince them to do it for a cause (and for free); fair wages are an option, but if you're evil enough to consider slavery, you're probably not going to care.
• Tarkin's Fist: Aveo Yos frees the slaves brought along with Tarkin's Fist upon arriving in the Milky Way. The emancipated slaves go on to form the backbone of the new Empire's lower and middle classes. This earns him their undying loyalty and admiration.
• Examples from Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion:
  • Emperor Palpatine has a few moments, on accord it makes ruling the galaxy easier:
    • Upon discovering the general in command of the Siege of Lasan has ordered to use ion disruptors on everyone as a terror tactic, Tarkin reassigns him to a shipyard as an accountant citing the immense expense as justification, and Palpatine, as his actions were ludicrously expensive and inefficient.
    Palpatine: General Jal Jaset... Do you think lord Vader has an ATM on his torso?! The only reason I'm not adding to the Grand Moff's punishment is that I can't think of anything to make it more humiliating! You're now an accountant at the Fondor shipyards, now go!
    • Palpatine acts as a Benevolent Boss to his immediate subordinates such as Tarkin and the Imperial Ruling Council not out of any kindness but because they're more useful if they work for him willingly, are more easily manipulated if they want his favor, and, aside for Darth Vader, many would turn on him if they realized the truth (this being the precise reason why Tarkin is secretly a founding member of the Rebellion in this AU).
  • Invoked by Tarkin to justify why he doesn't commit genocide on the Atoans even if he believes they killed his son (something that he actually considered doing): it would cause far more hatred than fear when they don't have an invincible planet killer to back them up thus eventually causing a rebellion when the Empire's goal is (ostensibly) to bring peace. He also uses this argument, and the past Sith's failures to follow this trope leading to their defeats, to start planting into Vader the seeds of doubt about Sith ideology.
  • Jabba helps the project to bring back water to Tatooine not out of the goodness of his heart, but because it doesn't damage his interests and can profit (legitimately) out of it. This kind of attitude actually makes him more dangerous (it's said he's to be respected as one does with an orbiting warship), as it makes him more powerful and reduces the enemies to turn said power on at the same time.
  • Raith Sienar isn't exactly evil, just a Mad Scientist severely lacking in empathy... And even he is appalled when the Imperial Navy decides to approve the latest TIE Fighter demonstrator for mass production, without installing the full sensor suite, missiles, and shields. Subverted in that he doesn't care for the pilots' lives, just for his reputation as a designer and for doing a proper job with all his inventions, and that demonstrator was intended as a step in that direction.
    • He's also appalled at the idea of the Death Star, though when he learns that Krennic is supervising the construction he consoles him that at least he put someone qualified to do the job.

Storm Hawks

• A Raven Under the Starlight: At first, Master Cyclonis restrains herself from abusing Phoenix in front of her subordinates for his slights, because she knows that he can break her like a twig if he has to defend himself against her, and because she also knows that his reputation also carries a lot of weight in the Far Side of Atmos.

Total Drama

• In Courtney and the Violin of Despair, the spirit inhabiting the titular Violin decides not to kill the 11-year-old Courtney when she acquires the Violin because it deems a little girl to be not worth the effort. For a time, the Violin Spirit is content to merely erode Courtney's spirit instead.
• Courtney's Crusade for Redemption: Courtney, with Chef's help, convinces Chris to handle eliminations and voting fair and square, by reminding him of her own lawsuits against the show.

Transformers

• Unity (pink_shoes): Megatron decides to leave the Sky Convoy project alone because interfering with it has no benefits whatsoever for the Decepticons. If the combiner succeeds in destroying Unicron, they'll still have access to the Earth's resources; if it fails, they can easily retreat to Cybertron before the monster planet arrives. He even indirectly helps the Autobots by not telling Starscream that Skyfire is part of Sky Convoy, as his second-in-command is on good enough terms with Skyfire to convince him to not merge with Optimus again. As the Autobots lack a backup plan, this would force the Decepticons to either go home or perform an Enemy Mine with the opposing faction to fight Unicron – neither possibility of which Megatron finds appealing.

Turning Red

• In The Great Red Panda Rescue, after an especially abusive guard beats up Mei for biting him ^note he deserved it, the scientists treat her injuries. This is only because they still need her alive to further their experiments.

Vocaloid

• In From Concert to Chaos, Arakawa admits she doesn't want to go through Zatsune's plan to sabotage the Vocaloids' concert, only because she believes it wasn't worth the time, effort, and risk on being arrested for terrorism.

Warrior Cats

• Better Bones AU: Unlike in canon, Brokenstar does not kits into battle and harsh training. This is not because of kindness but because he doesn't want to lose weak kits before they can become adult warriors that can help him in battle. He does use kits in one case, the attack on WindClan to drive them out of the forest, and that is where Badgerpaw dies.

Worm

• A Ruinous Gift: Kaiser would prefer to drop the white supremacist part of the Empire-88 and instead focus on a Norse Mythology motif, simply because Neo-Nazis are particularly reviled and he doesn't see the point in antagonizing most of the population for so little gain. Not to mention, there are people of other ethnicities that could be very useful for the gang.

Young Justice

• The protagonist of With This Ring despises ludicrous supervillain schemes, like Ra's al Gul attempting to save the environment by launching an orbital laser to destroy cities and reduce the level of industrialisation, instead of proven solutions like improving access to education and contraception for women in third world countries. When Paul sets up a wargame for the Justice League, he refuses as a matter of principle to have the villain trying to get rich (since there are always better ways to do that than supervillainy), and instead ensures that his villain has a plausible goal and a somewhat sensible plan to achieve it. The Mister Atom robot intends to collect enough radioactive material to become unstoppable, then forcibly convert the world's energy production from fossil fuels to nuclear.

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