History Main / InternalReformist

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' . Grantville in general maintains its security by the type of {{Realpolitik}} that [[NotSoDifferent any small state of the time]] would have engaged in, and mainly desires breathing room to become an economic and technological powerhouse. The Committees of Correspondance are a more radical group and have a GoodCopBadCop relation with Grantville.

* Reeve Tuesti from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', starts out as the only member of MegaCorp Shinra's board who isn't a complete psychopath, but largely goes along with their wishes. As he pilots the robot Cait Sith, which becomes part of your party, he increasingly gets convinced of the rightness of your cause and become TheMole, helping the party against the threats of both Sephiroth and Shinra.

* In ''Videogame/Cyberpunk2077'', Yorinobu Arasaka went from being a rebellious biker boss opposing his father [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Saburo Arakasa]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' to a member of the Arasaka Corporation's board with the intent on reforming it from within. In the ending path where [[spoiler:V sides with Hanako Arasaka, it's revealed that his endgoal was to eventually destroy Arasaka via instigating a world war focused against the corporation itself]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' gives a ''very'' interesting twist on this trope; the central conflict of the game is between [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]] and [[TheEmpire Nohr]], with the Avatar being a child of both worlds. If the Avatar chooses to side with Nohr, they not only do it out of objection to Hoshido's [[FantasticRacism xenophobia]] but [[IChooseToStay largely because they couldn't bring themselves to betray the family that loved them for all these years]]. Despite his noble intentions to reform Nohr, [[spoiler:the situation eventually becomes untenable, forcing the Avatar to go along with an invasion of Hoshido in order to get people to see Garon's true, possessed self, whom is a VillainWithGoodPublicity thanks to his massively populist policies. This leads to a ''lot'' of suffering for both factions, and the Avatar's [[CharacterDevelopment character arc]] has him finally gain the strength alongside his foster siblings to stand up to tyranny and change Nohr for the better]]. Change for the better is always good, [[RealityEnsues but it doesn't mean]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding it comes easy]].

* UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev tried to be this to the Soviet Union. Things didn't go as planned, and eventually it came down to implementing Stalinist-Communism or [[RealityEnsues letting "Real Existing Communism" reform itself out of existence]]. He chose the latter, though some people in government didn't like that and tried a coup. It ground to a halt when thousands of people showed up outside the residence of Yeltsin's government as a living roadblock for the coup's tanks. Yeltsin then ended up rescuing Gorbachev from his house arrest… and then dissolving the Union altogether, removing Gorbachev from power.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation The Protestant Reformation]]:

* [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious Deng Xiaoping]] did this with China and its economic system. [[MemeticMutation It was super-effective.]]

* When UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco, the fascist leader of Spain, began considering who would run the place when he died, he selected a member of the exiled royal family. The young prince seemed to be a loyal fascist and Franco groomed him to take over as leader, setting up a revived Spanish Crown that would operate according to fascist ideology. Almost as soon as the old goat was buried, King Juan Carlos I started, supported, and in one foiled coup attempt, personally saved, reforms that more or less peacefully transformed Spain into a democratic constitutional monarchy. It's generally believed that Juan Carlos was planning this the whole time and had some serious ideological commitment to democracy — he was ''not'' the first-in-line to the Spanish Crown according to usual monarchist rules when he acceded to the throne as his father, the Infante Juan, was still alive, but Franco had skipped over Juan because he had been a vocal critic of Franco and supporter of democracy, and it seems from everything we know about the man that Juan Carlos was/is (he's still alive, although he abdicated in favor of his son Felipe) privately very much in the mold of his father, but just better at holding his tongue. That said, Juan Carlos was not ''entirely'' without a personal stake in this: his actions made the previously very controversial existence of the Spanish monarchy much firmer, and although the institution is still not as popular as the other remaining European monarchies, it has weathered many crises surprisingly well in a country with such a strong republican movement — possibly because people remember the role of the monarchy in protecting Spanish democracy.

!!!Type 1: Working the System

!!!Type 2: Exposing the Corruption

!!!Type 3: Becoming An Icon

* Public Safety Section 9 from ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'', when not taking care of terrorists and other criminals, is a type 2 with a healthy mixing of type 1. They uncover corruption within the government, forcing it in the open where the public outcry means it will get addressed.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'', Gaelio Bauduin is a type 1 working for Gjallarhorn; while he has a GloryHound tendency, he believes in justice and wants to reform the organization from the inside. [=McGillis=] Fareed, on the other hand, is a [[LackOfEmpathy ruthless]] Type 2; his method of exposing the corruption within Gjallarhorn involves [[spoiler:turning Ein Dalton, Gaelio's maimed friend, into a ''[[{{Cyborg}} Mobile Suit]]'' and letting him cause havoc in Edmonton, [[KillTheOnesYouLove sending Carta to]] [[UriahGambit duel Mikazuki]], and in the end, he murders his OnlyFriend Gaelio in cold blood in order to overthrow his father and become the only heir of the Seven Stars family to take advantage in an ArrangedMarriage with none other than 9-year-old Almiria Bauduin. In the end, the absolute best example of this trope is Rustal, a type 1, who achieves enormous reforms at the end of the series.]]
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Colonel Mustang and his allies within the military who are trying to make him the Führer are an example of a type 1. Naturally the only way to be an internal reformist within a dictatorship is to become the dictator.
* From ''Manga/TeamMedicalDragon'', Dr. Akira Katou is a type 1 trying to reform the Japanese Medical System by getting on the board of directors of their hospital.
* From ''Manga/{{Shitsurakuen}}'', Himoto Sora is a combination Type 1 and Type 3.
* The members of the Six Houses of Kyoto of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' secretly fund resistance groups, making them a Type 1.

* Until his fall from grace, Harvey Dent/Two-Face from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is a type 1, using his position as District Attorney to bring criminals to justice. Bruce wanted him to be a Type 3 as well, but yeah, we know how well that turned out. Also, Gordon, who is a type 1 and 3, doing the best he can in the existing system and refusing to participate in the corruption that other {{dirty cop}}s in Gotham do, even if it would mean he was safer.
* In ''Film/TheInformant2009'', Mark Whitaker starts the movie as a type 2. [[spoiler:By the end of the movie, his web of lies has become ridiculously tangled, and as it turns out, he had been embezzling money from the company for years. WHAT??]]
* ''Film/IHeartHuckabees'': Brad attempts to be a type 1, saving the marshlands by giving the woods over to the developers.

* Julia in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is a Type 1; she works for the Party to survive, but does various illegal things when she is not being monitored.
* In the ''Literature/{{Deryni}}'' novels, Denis Arilan functions as a Type 1 in contrast with a mixed Type 1/3 and a full Type 3: his human colleague Thomas Cardiel and his Deryni subordinate/eventual colleague Duncan [=McLain=]. Arilan is all about the rise-through-the-ranks and the secrecy all the time. Cardiel rises within the ranks (Type 1) but then leads the schism (Type 3) which helps him rise further so he goes back to working within the system (hence the cussing quotation). Duncan tries the secrecy for a while, but events and his other roles quickly prompt him to go more completely the Type 3 Icon.

** In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', Vimes briefly wonders if he should have been a Type 1 Internal Reformist to Rust's regime, rather than throwing down his badge and storming out, before thinking "No. That never worked." [[spoiler:Indeed, Vimes manages to get a peek into an AlternateUniverse where he ''did'' decide to play internal reformist, and it ''[[KillEmAll really]]'' would have led to absolute disaster.]]
** Ironically, in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', he acts as an odd Type 2/Type 3 variant — [[BotheringByTheBook "Let's have a bit of law around here, shall we?"]] [[spoiler:Though it ''doesn't'' work, at least not for long enough...]]
* The Vorkosigans and their circle of friends in Literature/VorkosiganSaga are type 1.
* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' is a combination of types 1 and 2. Grantville in general maintains its security by the type of {{Realpolitik}} that [[NotSoDifferent any small state of the time]] would have engaged in, and mainly desires breathing room to become an economic and technological powerhouse. The Committees of Correspondance are a more radical group and have a GoodCopBadCop relation with Grantville.

* ''Series/That70sShow'': Hyde meets a girl as rebellious and anti-establishment as he is, but she leaves because she wants to go to college so she can get a job in the government to do this. She's a Type 1.
* In the fifth season of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Angel Investigations take over the LA branch of Wolfram & Hart and attempt to do a Type 1 and use the firm for good purposes.

* Ted from ''Series/BetterOffTed'' is a Type 1, often reluctantly. He is a company man but is often guilted by his daughter into doing the right thing. His main job is to keep his morally dubious boss Veronica in check and protecting the people in his division from any wrong-headed corporate decisions, which are quite frequent. Linda is a more enthusiastic example.

* Renee from ''Series/AlloAllo'' has strong moments of type 1, although he is much less selfless than most.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', this was Flynn's motivation for joining the Imperial Knights. He's a strange blending of type 3 and type 1 in style [[spoiler:which ultimately settles as type 1 when he gets pushed into the Commandant role due to the previous one turning out to be the BigBad]].

* [[spoiler:Captain Gen]] in ''VideoGame/RPGShooterStarwish'' is either a type 1 or type 3, it isn't really clear which. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:he is killed before he can make any lasting changes]].

** [[TheHero Phoenix Wright]] himself manages to become one via a BatmanGambit after [[spoiler:being unfairly disbarred]], using type 1 (which has a bit of type 2 as a side effect, allowing him to [[spoiler:clear his name]]).

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' gives a ''very'' interesting twist on this trope; the central conflict of the game is between [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]] and [[TheEmpire Nohr]], with the Avatar being a child of both worlds. If the Avatar chooses to side with Nohr, they not only do it out of objection to Hoshido's [[FantasticRacism xenophobia]] but [[IChooseToStay largely because they couldn't bring themselves to betray the family that loved them for all these years]]. Despite his noble intentions to reform Nohr, [[spoiler:the situation eventually becomes untenable, forcing the Avatar to go along with an invasion of Hoshido in order to get people to see Garon's true, possessed self, whom is a VillainWithGoodPublicity thanks to his massively populist policies. This leads to a ''lot'' of suffering for both factions, and the Avatar's [[CharacterDevelopment character arc]] has him finally gain the strength alongside his foster siblings to stand up to tyranny and change Nohr for the better]]. Change for the better is always good, [[RealityEnsues but it doesn't mean it comes easy]].

* The Demon Queen in ''LightNovel/MaoyuuMaouYuusha'' takes the identity of the Crimson Scholar, a minor human noblewoman, to introduce economical reforms in human society that will put in motion changes that allow her to stop the ongoing war with her people, the Demon Clans, with minimal bloodshed. Circumstances end up having her being raised to ''Saint'' status.

Compare VelvetRevolution, RageWithinTheMachine, OutsideManInsideMan, and ReverseMole. Contrast TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized. A subtrope of MyCountryRightOrWrong, in this case, a loyalist who intends to make things right.

* Reeve Tuesti from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', starts out as the only member of MegaCorp Shinra's board who isn't a complete psychopath, but largely goes along with their wishes. As he pilots the robot Cait Sith, which becomes part of your party, he increasingly gets convinced of the rightness of your cause and become a ReverseMole, helping the party against the threats of both Sephiroth and Shinra.

* In ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'', that's the resolution Gojo has chosen to take, he loathes the way current Jujutsu society is run by the higher ups who are seemly uncaring towards anything and anyone that suffer greatly with their decisions, all is good as long traditions and their hold on positions of power are kept; with that Gojo wants a new generation of people to reform their world along with him. Several characters have remarked that if Gojo wasn’t trying to be a reformist, instead of a murderous revolutionary, he already would have completely overthrown the whole world as they know by now, [[spoiler:and his past failures reveals Gojo is also hoping that he isn’t the sole strongest person in the world, because even with all that power he can’t guarantee the safety of every single person he cares about, he also wants a new generation to close the power gap in the new Jujutsu society he dreams of]].

* Creator/CoeurAlAran's ''Fanfic/DatingWhatDaddyHates'': Weiss' desire to redeem her family name is her driving goal, as in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' canon. It's deconstructed when Yang points out that Weiss' father is ''never'' going to allow that to happen. Unless he dies unexpectedly, he's going to be sitting on the board of directors for the next forty years, meaning he'll be able to leverage his influence and veto any sweeping changes Weiss wants to make. Not to mention that he's proven willing to threaten Weiss with disinheritance for the smallest of offenses, and he's only going to keep using that trick since Weiss capitulated. Yang recommends Weiss give up on the company and find some way to do good in the world on her own, such as setting up a charity or using her singing career.

** Season 1 also has Suzaku, who works for the TheEmpire but refuses to do things like shoot his friend who [[HeKnowsTooMuch saw too much]]. At the beginning, he doesn't really have a workable plan for how he is going to reform TheEmpire from the inside aside from "keep getting promoted until he reaches a position where he can make changes". He eventually stumbles into a relationship with a member of the royal family that shares his ideals, giving him a real chance to make the changes he wants.

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' is a combination of types 1 and 2. Grantville in general maintains its security by the type of {{Realpolitik}} that [[NotSoDifferent any small state of the time]] would have engaged in, and mainly desires breathing room to become an economic and technological powerhouse. The Commitees of Correspondance are a more radical group and have a GoodCopBadCop relation with Grantville.

** First is William Edgers, Garibaldi's new boss and a powerful corporate executive. Edgers feels that Sheridan's rebellion does more harm than good, since it both gives Earth an external threat to focus on and allows Clarke to consolidate his power and use Martial Law to crack down on any dissent and reform. Edgers is part of a group of powerful behind the scenes players, and his plan is to bring down Psi Corps, since it's the main base of Clarke's power, knowing that without it, Clarke will soon fall.

* Ted from ''Series/BetterOffTed'' is a Type 1, often reluctantly. He is a company man, but is often guilted by his daughter into doing the right thing. His main job is to keep his morally dubious boss Veronica in check and protecting the people in his division from any wrong-headed corporate decisions, which are quite frequent. Linda is a more enthusiastic example.
* Ron Swanson from ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is an interesting case. A card-carrying Libertarian, he is opposed to the government butting in on the public's personal affairs, and does his part by ''not'' engaging in any government activity, letting his subordinate Leslie Knope, who genuinely cares about the public (almost to a fault), do all the work. How he expects accepting a government paycheck while not doing the work he's paid to do to ''improve'' a government that he views as wasteful and inefficient [[FridgeLogic is not addressed.]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' gives a ''very'' interesting twist on this trope; the central conflict of the game is between [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]] and [[TheEmpire Nohr]], with the Avatar being a child of both worlds. If the Avatar chooses to side with Nohr, they not only do it out of objection to Hoshido's [[FantasticRacism xenophobia]], but [[IChooseToStay largely because they couldn't bring themselves to betray the family that loved them for all these years]]. Despite his noble intentions to reform Nohr, [[spoiler:the situation eventually becomes untenable, forcing the Avatar to go along with an invasion of Hoshido in order to get people to see Garon's true, possessed self, whom is a VillainWithGoodPublicity thanks to his massively populist policies. This leads to a ''lot'' of suffering for both factions, and the Avatar's [[CharacterDevelopment character arc]] has him finally gain the strength alongside his foster siblings to stand up to tyranny and change Nohr for the better]]. Change for the better is always good, [[RealityEnsues but it doesn't mean it comes easy]].

* In a DeletedScene from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Mother Simpson", Homer's [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie]] mother Mona resurfaces, and Homer mentions he works at the nuclear power plant. When she's disappointed, Homer claims he's working to get the placed shut down. In truth, he's just incompetent at his job, in a way that makes the plant ''much'' more dangerous (he'd later get the plant temporarily shut down as soon as he did it ''right'').

** Martin Luther initially tried to do this peacefully, but eventually took a populist approach. The resulting spark lit by Luther started the Protestant Reformation in full, and the very violent and bloody Wars of Religion. Luther played this straight later on, when his faction got the support of local Lords and nobility, and he turned against the more radical Thomas Muntzer and others, who wanted a more egalitarian basis for organizing society.

* Within the National Rifle Association in the US, executives such as Chris Cox and many discontented rank-and file members have (so far unsuccessfully) sought to remove current CEO Wayne Lapierre, who is seen by many as mismanaging the organization while lining his own pockets.

* The Internal Reformist in effect uses Gandhi-style peaceful protest, refusing to participate in immoral or unlawful activities and continuing to do what's right no matter how much the system throws at them in an attempt to make them give in. In some ways, these types can be the most dangerous, and the most conspicuous, type of reformist, as they tend to attract a great deal of allies who come out of the woodwork once someone demonstrates that it's possible to stand up for what you believe in. Usually, these types start out low on the totem pole, though usually with some advantage others might not have. They tend to gain authority quickly, either because their competence forces the system to give it to them, or those in charge are trying to break or cripple them under the pressure of such authority. Sometimes these types do break under the pressure or simply lose the will to openly oppose the system, and continue to live their ideals with honor but in quiet.

* The Internal Reformist uses the system against those in power, either by guile and subterfuge to hog-tie or trick those in charge into doing what's right, or playing by the system's rules and accumulating the power to put someone with better morals in charge, who can peacefully and lawfully make the changes required. Characters who try this usually have a certain amount of authority already within the hierarchy, and/or have powerful allies and intimate knowledge of how things are done within the system. They rely a great deal on secrecy to accomplish their goals, though invariably their enemies within the system start noticing who the big trouble-makers on the inside are and start putting things in their way even if they can't prove they are up to something with any substantial evidence.

* The Internal Reformist works towards bringing the worst of the [[GovernmentConspiracy conspiracies]] to light in ways that will make it impossible for the status quo to be continued or the corruption to be covered up. Keep in mind that creating reform has to be the intent of the person to qualify for this Type, if it's just a side-effect of solving some crime then it is not this trope. Those with this type are usually in some kind of investigative field, such as a researcher, journalist, internal-affairs investigator, private-detective or law-enforcement, and rely on an illusion of being harmless to zip about and gather evidence under the noses of those in charge. This type tends to require the most secrecy of all: particularly corrupt organizations might not have any problems with arranging an [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident "accident"]] to bump them off, as these types tend to work alone or in small groups which are easy to dispose of.

* The Internal Reformist in effect uses Gandhi-style peaceful protest, refusing to participate in immoral or unlawful activities and continuing to do what's right no matter how much the system throws at them in an attempt to make them give in. In some ways these types can be the most dangerous, and the most conspicuous, type of reformist as they tend to attract a great deal of allies who come out of the woodwork once someone demonstrates that it's possible to stand up for what you believe in. Usually these types start out low on the totem pole, though usually with some advantage others might not have. They tend to gain authority quickly, either because their competence forces the system to give it to them, or those in charge are trying to break or cripple them under the pressure of such authority. Sometimes these types do break under the pressure or simply lose the will to openly oppose the system, and continue to live their ideals with honor but in quiet.

Usually it is possible for an Internal Reformist to think they have a chance at changing the system because the system still has to answer to a higher authority, whether it be the public, who has no clue this is going on, or some other umbrella organization or system that is on the straight and narrow. The governments also tend to more-or-less take care of their people in a satisfactory way, as otherwise the public would suspect all the corruption within and there would be some real rioting-in-the-street type activities, resulting in an actual Revolution.

Compare VelvetRevolution, RageWithinTheMachine, OutsideManInsideMan and ReverseMole. Contrast TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized. A subtrope of MyCountryRightOrWrong, in this case, a loyalist who intends to make things right.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'', Gaelio Bauduin is a type 1 working for Gjallarhorn, while he has a GloryHound tendency, he believes in justice and wants to reform the organization from the inside. [=McGillis=] Fareed on the other hand is a [[LackOfEmpathy ruthless]] Type 2, his method of expose the corruption within Gjallarhorn involves [[spoiler:turning Ein Dalton, Gaelio's maimed friend into a ''[[{{Cyborg}} Mobile Suit]]'' and let him cause havoc in Edmonton, [[KillTheOnesYouLove sending Carta to]] [[UriahGambit duel Mikazuki]], and in the end, he murders his OnlyFriend Gaelio in cold blood in order to overthrow his father and become the only heir of Seven Stars family to take advantage in an ArrangedMarriage with none other than 9-year-old Almiria Bauduin. In the end the absolute best example of this trope is Rustal, a type 1, who achieves enormous reforms at the end of the series.]]

*** Unfortunately following [[spoiler: Euphemia's Geass-induced massacre]] and Zero [[spoiler: being forced to kill Euphemia]] he eventually gives up on his hopes of reforming the general system and simply wants to rise high enough in Britannian ranks to eventually be given control of Japan for most of season 2.
* The Demon Queen in ''LightNovel/MaoyuuMaouYuusha'' takes the identity of the Crimson Scholar, a minor human noblewoman, to introduce economical reforms in human society that will put in motion changes that allow her to stop with minimal bloodshed the ongoing war with her people, the Demon Clans. Circumstances end up having her being raised to ''Saint'' status.

* Professor Juniper in ''Fanfic/DearDiary'' is trying to use her position as an insider in the League to reform its cruel practices towards Pokémon like the starter breeding centers and lack of concern towards Pokémon who die in League-regulated battles.

* Until his fall from grace, Harvey Dent/Two-Face from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is a type 1, using his position as District Attorney to bring criminals to justice. Bruce wanted him to be a Type 3 as well, but yeah, we know how well that turned out. Also, Gordon, who is a type 1 and 3, doing the best he can in the existing system and refusing to participate in the corruption that other dirty cops in Gotham do even if it would mean he was safer.
* In ''Film/TheInformant2009'', Mark Whitaker starts the movie as a type 2. [[spoiler: By the end of the movie his web of lies has become ridiculously tangled and as it turns out he had been embezzling money from the company for years. WHAT??]]

* Creator/MartinScorsese's ''Film/{{Kundun}}'' portrays the 14th Dalai Lama as one. As a young man he is shocked to see prisoners chained at the ankles and by the fact that "Monks have guns". Upon taking power, he announces several reforms and releases all prisoners and throughout the film, he hopes to transform TheTheocracy of UsefulNotes/{{Tibet}}.

** In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', Vimes briefly wonders if he should have been a Type One Internal Reformist to Rust's regime, rather than throwing down his badge and storming out, before thinking "No. That never worked." [[spoiler:Indeed, Vimes manages to get a peak into an AlternateUniverse where he ''did'' decide to play internal reformist and it ''[[KillEmAll really]]'' would have led to absolute disaster.]]
** Ironically, in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', he acts as an odd Type 2/Type 3 variant - [[BotheringByTheBook "Let's have a bit of law around here, shall we?"]] [[spoiler:Though it ''doesn't'' work, at least not for long enough...]]

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' is a combination of types 1 and 2. Grantville in general maintains it's security by the type of {{Realpolitik}} any [[NotSoDifferent small state of the time]] would have engaged in, and mainly desires breathing room to become an economic and technological powerhouse. The Commitees of Correspondance are a more radical group and have a GoodCopBadCop relation with Grantville.

* In ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', Shigara couldn't stop the Miniature Garden project (which involved the kidnapping of thirteen children so they could be scientifically studied) so she joined it to ensure that the children had at least ''one'' ReasonableAuthorityFigure to comfort them. [[spoiler:This is one reason she chose to die covering a child's escape from the Garden; she may be stronger than Kyousuke]], but [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture the world needs his innocence more than her strength]].

* During late stages of the arc revolving around trying to depose [[PresidentEvil President Clarke]] in ''Series/BabylonFive'', we meet one or two of these.
** First is William Edgers, Garibaldi's new boss and a powerful corporate executive. Edgers feels that Sheridan's rebellion does more harm than good, since it both gives Earth an external threat to focus on and allows Clarke to consolidate his power and use Martial Law to crack down on any dissent and reform. Edgers is part of a group of powerful behind the scenes players, and his plan is to bring down Psi Corps, since it's the main base of Clarke's power, knowing that without it Clarke will soon fall.
** A slightly more orthodox example is Susanna Luchenko, the head of the Russian Consortium. Like Edgers, she appears to have been part of a group that wanted to take Clarke down, only consisting of politicians instead of businessmen this time. She grudgingly admits that what Sheridan did was probably the right thing, but he "did it in a way that was inconvenient" because it resulted in a Civil War that damaged much of the Earth Force Navy, and showed instability and vulnerability to alien governments.

* Internal reform is defied with depressing regularity on ''Series/TheWire''. Both the official Baltimore institutions (such as the Police and City Hall) and Baltimore's criminal underworld are in desperate need of change, but anyone on either side of the law who tries to change things is inevitably crushed, co-opted, or forced aside. This is part of a central theme to the show: that institutions and systems inevitably forget their original purpose and are used by the people inside them for mostly selfish purposes. If someone tries to change an institution from the inside, that institution will inevitably "protect itself" from change by lashing out at the person trying to reform it.

* In ''Series/{{Tyrant}}'', Bassam tries to be this to the government of Abuddin, attempting to steer his StupidEvil brother Jamal towards creating a democracy. While his efforts sometime succeed, in the end [[spoiler:Abuddin is even worse off than it was when he started.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', this was Flynn's motivation for joining the Imperial Knights. He's a strange blending of type 3 and type 1 in style [[spoiler: which ultimately settles as type 1 when he gets pushed into the Commandant role due to the previous one turning out to be the BigBad.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' this is the initial view of [[spoiler:(former) General Carter]], who believes "The only way to save the agency is for the good people to stay." Upon finding out [[AncientConspiracy just how deeply]] the corruption in [[spoiler:UNATCO]] really is, however, he eventually [[KnowWHenToFoldEm drops that view and leaves]].

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' gives a ''very'' interesting twist on this trope; the central conflict of the game is between [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]] and [[TheEmpire Nohr]], with the Avatar being a child of both worlds. If the Avatar chooses to side with Nohr, they not only do it out of objection to Hoshido's [[FantasticRacism xenophobia]], but [[IChooseToStay largely because they couldn't bring themselves to betray the family that loved them for all these years.]] Despite his noble intentions to reform Nohr, [[spoiler:the situation eventually becomes untenable, forcing the Avatar to go with an invasion of Hoshido in order to get people to see Garon's true, possessed self, whom is a VillainWithGoodPublicity thanks to his massively populist policies. This leads to a ''lot'' of suffering for both factions, and the Avatar's [[CharacterDevelopment character arc]] has him finally gain the strength alongside his foster siblings to stand up to tyranny and change Nohr for the better.]] Change for the better is always good, [[RealityEnsues but it doesn't mean it comes easy.]]

* This is part of the character arc for both the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor if they follow the lightside in ''Videogame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''. The Warrior acts through their apprentice, Jaesa, who secretly contacts other lightsided Sith and starts building an alliance. The Inquisitor also acts through their apprentice, Ashara, who seeks out Grey Jedi and an understanding between the two sides. How much success they pull off is debatable, but the Empire ''is'' a nicer place to live by the time of ''Fallen Empire''.

** [[TheRival Miles Edgeworth]], meanwhile, following the events of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations 2'', picks this as his reason for remaining a prosecutor; He recognized that the BigBad's actions were born from distrust of the courts, as other antagonists were using [[LoopholeAbuse loopholes]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem personal]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections influence]] to further their agendas. As of ''Dual Destinies'', Edgeworth has become Chief Prosecutor and is working to clean up his department.

* [[TheOjou Weiss Schnee]] of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' intends to reform the [[MegaCorp Schnee Dust Company]], which under her CorruptCorporateExecutive father Jaques has become noted for its use of cheap, unsafe labor and cut-throat business dealings to maximize profit. [[spoiler:Her father suddenly disinheriting her]] throws a wrench in those plans, however.

* Spoofed in the ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' audio dramas; one introduction suggests that Agatha Heterodyne fights evil {{Mad Scientist}}s with giant machines and monsters with... bigger machines and stronger monsters "because sometimes you have to work within the system."

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': As seen in the prequel story "How the Paladin Got His Scar," the Sapphire Guard used to be filled with nothing but stuck-up nobles with a twisted idea of what was "good," to the point of slaughtering entire goblinoid villages and then insisting that when the goblinoids retaliated, it had nothing to do with them--the goblinoids are responsible for their own sins, and the army is responsible for protecting the villages from the goblinoids. When O-Chul manages to stop the unnecessary war the Sapphire Guard almost started, he asks the lord of the city to disband the Guard. When informed that is not possible, he instead asks to join them. By the time of the story, the Sapphire Guard is a shining beacon throughout the world--[[TheParagon all thanks to O-Chul]].

* The Protestant Reformation:

** Martin Luther initially tried to do this peacefully but eventually took a populist approach. The resulting spark lit by Luther started the Protestant Reformation in full, and the very violent, and bloody Wars of Religion. Luther played this straight later on, when his faction got the support of local Lords and nobility, and he turned against the more radical Thomas Muntzer and others, who wanted a more egalitarian basis for organizing society.

* UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev tried to be this to the Soviet Union. Things didn't go as planned and eventually it came down to implementing Stalinist-Communism or letting "Real Existing Communism" reform itself out of existence. He chose the latter, though some people in government didn't like that and tried a coup. It ground to a halt when thousands of people showed up outside the residence of Yeltsin's government as a living roadblock for the coup's tanks. Yeltsin then ended up rescuing Gorbachev from his house arrest... and then dissolving the Union altogether, removing Gorbachev from power.
* UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev's "thaw" fulfilled this trope to a lesser extent, what with his Destalinization reforms, as well as being able to keep his lips zippered until he had enough of a power base to keep his momentum after giving the Secret Speech at the CPSU's Twentieth Party Congress. In practise his reforms were short-sighted and didn't have as much of a constituency as he envisioned, as proven when he was ousted in TheSixties.

* When UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco, the fascist leader of Spain, began considering who would run the place when he died, he selected a member of the exiled royal family. The young prince seemed to be a loyal fascist and Franco groomed him to take over as leader, setting up a revived Spanish Crown that would operate according to fascist ideology. Almost as soon as the old goat was buried, King Juan Carlos I started, supported, and in one foiled coup attempt, personally saved, reforms that more or less peacefully transformed Spain into a democratic constitutional monarchy. It's generally believed that Juan Carlos was planning this the whole time and had some serious ideological commitment to democracy -- he was ''not'' the first-in-line to the Spanish Crown according to usual monarchist rules when he acceded to the throne as his father, the Infante Juan, was still alive, but Franco had skipped over Juan because he had been a vocal critic of Franco and supporter of democracy, and it seems from everything we know about the man that Juan Carlos was/is (he's still alive, although he abdicated in favor of his son Felipe) privately very much in the mold of his father, but just better at holding his tongue. That said, Juan Carlos was not ''entirely'' without a personal stake in this: his actions made the previously very controversial existence of the Spanish monarchy much firmer, and although the institution is still not as popular as the other remaining European monarchies, it has weathered many crises surprisingly well in a country with such a strong republican movement -- possibly because people remember the role of the monarchy in protecting Spanish democracy.

* Likely the reason PETA bought a controlling share of SeaWorld. They've already affected some reforms

** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Vimes briefly wonders if he should have been a Type One Internal Reformist to Rust's regime, rather than throwing down his badge and storming out, before thinking "No. That never worked." [[spoiler:Indeed, Vimes manages to get a peak into an AlternateUniverse where he ''did'' decide to play internal reformist and it ''[[KillEmAll really]]'' would have led to absolute disaster.]]
** Ironically, in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', he acts as an odd Type 2/Type 3 variant - [[BotheringByTheBook "Let's have a bit of law around here, shall we?"]] [[spoiler:Though it ''doesn't'' work, at least not for long enough...]]

* ''VisualNovel/PrincessEvangile'' has the reformation faction of the board of directors, lead by Chairwoman Rousenin, who believe that subverting their OneGenderSchool is the way to survive into the future. To this end, her granddaughter, Rise, makes it a point of spreading this idea by being elected head of the White Lily Society. And it's through here that she manages to get several other open-minded people into joining the Association, namely TheProtagonist and his ChildhoodFriend, who are both shunned by the rest of the school due to their gender and social status.

** In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', Vimes briefly wonders if he should have been a Type One Internal Reformist to Rust's regime, rather than throwing down his badge and storming out, before thinking "No. That never worked."

* In a DeletedScene from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Homer claims to do this when his [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie]] mother Mona resurfaces. In truth, he's just incompetent at his job (though he ''has'' gotten the plant shut down a couple of times, once by being ''competent'' at his job).

* In ''Literature/{{Coda}}'', this is how Anthem is able to successfully rebel.