History Main / EnlightenedAntagonist

* In last few episodes of the first season of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', [[spoiler:John Garrett]] is given the same serum that [[spoiler:brought Coulson and Skye back to life]]. He starts claiming he is "one with the universe" (a lot of the cast think he's gone crazy, but [[MadScientist Raina]] at least seems to think he's genuinely enlightened) while remaining no less malevolent.

* In ''Manga/SoulEater'', the main antagonist, [[MadGod Asura]], is shown as a demonic god with an understanding of the nature of human fears, insanity, and the flaws of order. He also possesses a desire to administer true peace by spreading his influence across the globe. However, his version of peace involves plunging the world into insanity and chaos, not to mention the fact he is a [[AxeCrazy psychopathic]] [[CowardlyLion agoraphobe]] with a lust for power.

* In ''Manhua/FengShenJi'', Zhen Chan is a modest and humble enlightened deity who only wishes to unravel the truths of the universe. However, he abides by a core belief that beautiful and good should not be replaced by barbaric and ugly and mercilessly slaughters those he considers evil and vicious as to him they had no place living to begin with. [[spoiler: He also conceals a psychotic inner dark self named Er Chan that manifests when faced with others who will not heed his words and fanatically kills them whether they are fellow gods or not.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': Invoked but ultimately Subverted in ''Batman: Gothic'' by Creator/GrantMorrisson; during the outbreak of the Black Plague in 16th century Austria, a monk named Manfred had a religious epiphany revolving around the idea that men could become more humble in the light of God's perfection by indulging in the blackest sins they could imagine, and corrupted his fellow monks into embracing this blasphemous ideology, which culminated in the brutal murders of a group of nuns seeking shelter from the Plague, before gang-raping the youngest and burning her at the stake as a tribute for their monstrous God. The shine quickly came off Manfred's new philosophy shortly afterwards when he discovered he'd caught the Plague, and just outright sold his soul to the Devil in return for health and 300 years of life. [[spoiler: He got it, and has spent the centuries since murdering children as part of a plan to avoid being DraggedOffToHell, including one of Bruce Wayne's childhood friends.]]

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Kronos, the Prince of Fate, is some kind of higher being, either a higher order of celestial or an aspect of God, that was broken off and Fell during the War in Heaven, and retains an understanding of the Symphony and of the universe's Destiny and Fate that surpasses any demon's and quite likely almost any angel's. While the rest of Hell divides itself through squabbles, power plays and petty self-interest, Kronos is focused entirely on the perfect darkness of Fate. In every way he gives off the sense of a higher being that transcends even the Celestial realm... and looks on everything beneath it with unending hatred.

* In ''EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'', Jobu Tupaki's mind was forcibly opened to the multiverse, turning her into a RealityWarper capable of effortlessly jumping into any one of her alternates. However, the sheer enormity of the multiverse caused her to see the entirety of human existence as meaningless. She created the Everything Bagel in an attempt to [[spoiler:find some meaning or at least destroy herself]], uncaring of the devastation it caused throughout the multiverse.

* The ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' supplement "Secrets of Japan" outright says that the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos and its human cultists are actually this trope - including the Buddha himself!
** Buddha may or may not be the historical human Siddharta Gautama ascended to become an outer god. If it ''is'' Gautama, then his newfound BlueAndOrangeMorality may be explained by the fact that, through enlightenment, he gained perfect knowledge of the universe. Considering that we're talking about Lovecraft's universe...
* This is a recurrent trope in ''TabletopGame/{{Kult}}''. Humans who are close to awakening are know great cosmic secrets, detached from the mundane world and have unlocked aspects of themselves that leave them greater and wiser then any normal human. They're also increasingly alien monsters with immense power and no grasp of conventional morality. [[spoiler: [[HumansAreCthulhu That is, after all, why we were put to sleep in the first place...]]]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Lizardmen are the faction most devoted to fighting against Chaos, being nearly immune to its effects and devoted to destroying wherever they find it. Unfortunately, because they're simply not concerned about what other species do, this causes a lot of entirely avoidable conflict such as completely ravaging the dwarf's subterranean empire because they thought the continents were in the wrong place and "corrected" several millennia's worth of continental drift or killing elf ambassadors because "they should not be here" as the elves were originally a single race living on Ulthuan before splitting into the High Elves, Dark Elves and Wood Elves, who all hate each other, much of which has allowed Chaos to prosper.