History Main / GoodRunningEvil

There's a NebulousEvilOrganization, often run by an EvilOverlord and chock full of [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] and legions of mooks. And then one day, either as part of an EvilPlan or out of [[EnemyMine dire necessity]], our heroes end up running it! They may have inherited the position or they may be going through a FreakyFridayFlip or some other situation. Either way this casts the organization as less than impenetrable to outsiders. Often they jump at the chance because now all those [[OffscreenVillainDarkMatter resources]] can be turned to good, or simply out of a belief that nothing else works: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

* In ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', Riddick becomes the new ruler of the evil Necromonger army after he kills their leader, [[BlackAndGrayMorality although it's debatable just how "good" Riddick actually is]].

* "Good" is a stretch in this case, but at one point ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' took over a mafia family so use their resources to take even worse criminals out.

* For a while Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} ran the evil ninja assassins called the Hand.

* After "The five books of Blood," DC heroine [[Comicbook/TheQuestion Renee Montoya]] finds herself the leader of the [[ReligionOfEvil "Religion of Crime"]] that she had been hunting down for more than a year because she (accidentally) [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt caused the death of their previous leader]].
* In the MarvelUniverse, the Shroud set up a gang called the Night Shift. The other members thought they were preying on the organised crime gangs of LA so they could take over the city. Actually, he was just using them to shut down organised crime in LA.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', after [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] quits, throws everyone out of Hell, and hands the keys over to Morpheus, God decides that Hell will be run directly by Heaven from now on and appoints two angels to be his overseers there.

* In ''Comicbook/GhostRider'', Noble Kale takes over Mephisto's realm, which effectively put an end to Mephisto and Blackheart for good, or would have if {{StatusQuo|IsGod}} wasn't so prevalent in Marvel comics. So he was kicked out of hell by demons for being ''too benevolent'' for their tastes and later disappeared into comic book limbo while Mephisto and Blackheart returned.

* At one point it was suggested that ''Comicbook/{{SHIELD}}'' was allowing HYDRA to believe they were secretly running S.H.I.E.L.D., while actually S.H.I.E.L.D. was secretly running them. It may have got even more complicated than that.

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* This is basically what FanFic/DungeonKeeperAmi is all about, by taking a through-and-through good girl like Ami and forcing to use the most hated powers of the land to survive. [[RuleOfCool In an Awesome Manner.]]

* The comedy of ''LightNovel/ThereWasNoSecretEvilFightingOrganization'' comes from the threat of the murderous World Shadows...a threat that doesn't actually exist, but is carefully orchestrated by older espers to ''look'' real, so that younger espers will have fun fighting them and learn valuable life skills. (Hence the title. There is no secret evil-fighting organization, but there is an organization that ''believes'' itself to be one.) In reality, there are no supernatural monsters in the world, or any inherent meaning to the espers' power at all...something that causes Amaterasu's founders no small amount of [[JumpedAtTheCall frustration]].

* [[Franchise/MortalKombat Sub-Zero]] went from being a renegade on the run from the Lin Kuei, a shady assassin clan from China, to becoming the clan's leader and changing its purpose to protecting Earthrealm from outside threats.

This is rarely an easy task, of course: the bulk of the conspiracy is still made up of evildoers and scum, and solo heroes may well end up with TrueCompanions who are all {{Poisonous Friend}}s. Sometimes the hero will even need to hide their real motives from their assorted underlings. This plot can also often involve the hero becoming [[TheManBehindTheMan the Man In Front of the Man]] and having to answer to TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' has [[spoiler:a self-inflicted version taken UpToEleven with Akuma Homura - the evolution of DarkMagicalGirl Homura into a ''SatanicArchetype'' out of the belief she needed to do so in order to save her friend and probable lover. PlayedWith, in that it's also implied her motive was a ''misunderstanding'' (the conversation that convinced her to betray Madoka was with her pre-CharacterDevelopment NaiveEverygirl version who was trying to cheer her up) and it's made quite clear that part of it is still massively selfish (she links her own happiness to Madoka's safety so utterly she dismisses the idea of letting her be free out of hand).]]

* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': In a setting where the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality and BlackAndWhiteMorality are objective reality, one of the previous [[EvilOverlord rulers]] of [[TheEmpire Praes]] was Dread Emperor Benevolent, the first and only good-aligned Dread Emperor in history. He's described as having been at war with half the realm for the entire duration of his rule, which racked up a gargantuan body count, yet was so successful that later rulers had him {{Un-person}}ed for fear of what he represented.

* [[spoiler: Prince Zuko]] of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' technically ends up in this role in the finale. While the Fire Nation is an evil, corrupt, warmongering empire, it's explicitly pointed out that this is because propaganda has raised everyone to believe its necessary, even good. They aren't AlwaysChaoticEvil. [[spoiler: Zuko]] himself spent about two and a half seasons realizing it was wrong, and eventually pulled a HeelFaceTurn. When the finale comes around and Team Avatar places him in charge, he's more than happy to rebuild the nation. Follow-up comics make it clear how very, ''very'' hard this is, especially when everyone has been conditioned to hate you ''and'' you're simultaneously trying to fix an entire nation while not being as authoritarian as your father (though canonically he survives, abdicates his position to his daughter, and is still traveling as an ambassador at ninety-three, as per [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra the sequel show]]).

There's a NebulousEvilOrganization, often run by an EvilOverlord and chock full of [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] and legions of mooks. And then one day, either as part of an EvilPlan or out of [[EnemyMine dire necessity]], our heroes end up running it! Often they jump at the chance because now all those [[OffscreenVillainDarkMatter resources]] can be turned to good, or simply out of a belief that nothing else works: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. In Season 5, Team Angel are put in charge of the Los Angeles branch of supernatural law firm Wolfram & Hart. It doesn't work well, with our heroes finding themselves increasingly morally compromised and demoralized. Wolfram & Hart were fairly open about this being the point of giving them the job. [[spoiler:The lead-up to the GrandFinale had Angel exploit this by [[FakeDefector pretending to be corrupted]] in order to [[ReverseMole infiltrate the Circle of the Black Thorn]], the CoDragons of [[GreaterScopeVillain the Wolf, Ram and Hart]].]]

* "Good" is a stretch in this case, but at one point ''ThePunisher'' took over a mafia family so use their resources to take even worse criminals out.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features a variation where [[spoiler:Daenerys conquers a slave city using an army of slaves she bought and then freed, and then decides to settle down and rule rather than leave its people to starve. She then has to deal with the city itself, whose entire economy depended on slavery. Like most of Martin's works, institutional problems prove hard to fix from the top down.]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. In Season 5, Team Angel are put in charge of the Los Angeles branch of supernatural law firm Wolfram & Hart. It doesn't work well, with our heroes finding themselves increasingly morally compromised and demoralized. Wolfram & Hart were fairly open about this being the point of giving them the job.

* In ''Series/{{Supergirl}}'' the Department of Extranormal Operations was founded specifically to act as a counter to Superman if necessary, which evolved into a KnightTemplar organization that considered ''all'' extraterrestrials as threats, run by rabid bigot Hank Henshaw who saw its responsibility as protecting humans from aliens at almost any cost. When J'onn J'onzz secretly replaced Henshaw, he was obviously able to quietly adjust its mission and personnel to the point that when Supergirl became active the DEO aided her, and when he was outed as a Martian the majority of people within the organization took it in stride and cheered when he was formally re-instated as director under his true name. The DEO has since become one of the biggest ''protectors'' of law-abiding and innocent extraterrestrials in the United States.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'''s ''Ravnica'' cycle, Jarad takes over as Guildmaster of the Golgari after Savra is defeated.

This sometimes overlaps with MoleInCharge. Contrast EvilRunningGood.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner'' episode "Free For All": Number 6 is elected to the position of Number 2, technically putting him in charge of the Village.