History Main / OrderIsNotGood

* This is one of the main themes of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders''. In this crossover anthology, a supposedly BenevolentAI called Zein seeks to study human benevolence and also [[spoiler:seeking to usher humanity into a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans utopia without human malice]]]]. This gives the (former and current) villains a good reason to oppose it; [[spoiler:knowing that sacrificing freedom over security will upset the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil in the ''Kamen Rider'' universe means mankind would be on the verge of stagnancy]], to the point [[NebulousEvilOrganization Foundation X]] quickly took action by assembling [[LegionOfDoom the namesake team of Kamen Rider villains]] by reviving dead villains [[spoiler:or even recruit active ones]] from previous seasons to oppose Zein.

* This is one of the main themes of ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders''. In this crossover anthology, a supposedly BenevolentAI called Zein seeks to study human benevolence and also [[spoiler:seeking to usher humanity into a utopia without human malice]]. This gives the (former and current) villains a good reason to oppose it; [[spoiler:knowing that sacrificing freedom over security will upset the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil in the ''Kamen Rider'' universe means mankind would be on the verge of stagnancy]], to the point [[NebulousEvilOrganization Foundation X]] quickly took action by assembling [[LegionOfDoom the namesake team of Kamen Rider villains]] by reviving dead villains [[spoiler:or even recruit active ones]] from previous seasons to oppose Zein.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has the Dominion, an interstellar [[TheEmpire empire]] whose [[GodEmperor Founders]] explicitly describe their mission as "imposing order on a chaotic universe". This is at least partly a principled-sounding gloss on the Founders' deep-seated paranoia and xenophobia, which drives them to seek absolute power to ensure their own safety.

* Corey Messer's FurryWebcomic ''Webcomic/PlushAndBlood'' focuses on Fox and Grey, two of the last resistance fighters against President Brown and his Broken Circle party. Brown maintains a StepfordSuburbia by brainwashing a percentage of citizens into HiveMind social agents. The peace that results, in Brown's mind, justifies his ironclad rule.

* Engerraund Serac of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' is one of [[BigBrotherIsWatching Rehoboam]]'s creators who believe that order must absolutely be instilled on humanity to guide them into a better future after having seen his home being destroyed by a nuke and that Rehoboam predicted humanity's demise. To do that, Rehoboam gathers all of humanity's personal data and uses them to dictate what should they do in their lives. The cost of this is that humans are living in an illusion of choice, growing too dependent on Rehoboam's dictation, with their daily lives perpetually stuck in routines and loops. If the system considers you a lost cause, then you don't have better opportunities to improve yourself, forcing you to be stuck into menial jobs until it drives you into an early grave. Meanwhile, those who don't equate to Rehoboam's dictation are considered to be outliers where they are reconditioned via AR therapy to become better members of society. But those who failed the therapy are sent into a cryogenic state and declared dead. Serac and Rehoboam's obsession with control and order on humanity confirmed [[MisanthropeSupreme Robert Ford]]'s statement that the humans are very similar to the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Hosts]], where they're stuck in loops and any aberrant are sent into cold storage. And yet by the end of Season 3, [[spoiler:Serac turns out to be Rehoboam's puppet who depends on its instruction from an earpiece]]. The irony of this? Everything that Serac had done is delaying the inevitable where humanity would soon be wiped out and the Hosts would take their place.

Compare LightIsNotGood, GodIsEvil, SatanIsGood, LibertyOverProsperity, YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters. Contrast PassionIsEvil, usually considered as what the bringers of Order feared would happen if they don't spread their order to everyone.

** ''VideoGame/Persona5'': The BigBad of the game is [[spoiler:the resident God of Order, Yaldabaoth (same being from the Gnostic bible), who takes advantage of the people of Tokyo's subconscious desire of wanting to be guided with an order without making their own decisions, being content with their orderly lives.]] It takes a group of Phantom Thieves led by the Protagonist, a group of people that takes their fates to their own hands and not wanting to be bogged down by the rigid order to break through his game and defeat him. Furthering this, most of the Phantom Thieves' Personas are modeled after rogue figures that rebel against the authority, with the Protagonist's ultimate persona being the ultimate rebel: [[spoiler:[[SatanIsGood Satanael, the angel that rebelled against God and ended up being known as the Devil.]]]]

-->'''Edward Kenway:''' You would see all of mankind corralled into a neatly furnished prison, safe and sober, yet dulled beyond reason and sapped of all spirit.

-->'''Richter''': You steal men's souls and make them your slaves!
-->'''Dracula''': Perhaps the same could said of all religions.
-->'''Richter''': Your words are as empty as your soul!

* ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'': While evil examples of both order and chaos are abound in the rotting Multiverse, the comic comes down more on this side than the alternative. The current order of the Multiverse, created by the non-aggression pact between the [[BigBadEnsemble Seven]] and the rules set down by TheCreator, are really bad for most of its inhabitants, and the role of TheChosenOne is implied to be to break the current order. The best example of the trope directly is Solomon David, the Demiurge of {{Pride}}, who is both this and LightIsNotGood by being a brutal KnightTemplar GodEmperor who imposes his order on his seventh of the universe, usually by brutally killing anyone who does not fit into his system.

* While nothing is shown on screen, Adar tells Galadriel what Sauron did after the defeat of Morgoth. He went in the farthest northern parts of Middle-earth followed by his Orcs, where he began a series of EvilutionaryBiologist level of experiments on the Orcs because he wanted to create something with which he could order and rule Middle-earth. His bad treatment of the Orcs got him "[[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal split open]]".

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' introduced the Borg Collective: a society whose citizens have their brains wired together, creating a hardwired HiveMind. The Borg live in their cube-shaped spacecraft, and cherry-pick other civilizations back to the Bronze Age. Until their second encounter with Captain Picard, the Borg had seemed an irresistible force. "Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Interestingly for this trope, their main opponent is a far more benevolent form of Order in the LawfulGood [[TheFederation Federation]].

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW:''

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* Creator/JackKirby's [[ComicBook/NewGods Fourth World]] comics were initially very clear in-universe, and he was very open in interviews, that Darkseid was specifically Lawful Evil (fascist) and the good guys were Chaotic Good.

* Libra, a lesser-known villain of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica who's best known for his role in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', models himself on bringing balance. He's also a CardCarryingVillain in league with Darkseid and helping him TakeOverTheWorld.
* ''ComicBook/TransformersIDW:''

** ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' and to an extension ''VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm'' has this dynamic, with Jim Raynor being the heroic dashing RebelLeader of Raynor's Raiders helping people that were put under the tyranny of Dominion's Arcturus Mengsk's iron-fisted governmental order where he curbs freedom and truth that doesn't convenience him while claiming that he's doing it for his people's own good, though Raynor also [[ItsPersonal has a major personal beef against Mengsk]] for this. Sarah Kerrigan (The Queen of Blades who controls the Zerg swarm that ravages the galaxy) finishes the job in the latter by personally killing Mengsk, allowing his son Valerian take over and subvert the trope come ''VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'', turning the Dominion into a force of good while keeping order.

* ''Videogame/MegaManZero:'' It's the story of Zero fighting the local government Neo Arcadia. It is a post-apocalyptic oppressive government,. While they strive on making a utopia, they're facing an energy crisis, and by the orders of its (generally incompetent) leader, Reploids (robots) are to be cut down in numbers systematically; they are also made into second class citizens despite their full conscience. The Resistance is made by Ciel as a shelter for protecting Reploids that are endangered by Neo Arcadia and those who choose to leave the city, which is where our hero Zero belongs to. It gets worse in the third game, where [[BigBad Dr. Weil]] usurped Neo Arcadia's leader and then makes the empire a living hell where humans now get the "Maverick" treatment that is usually used for Reploids, to the point that a few humans tried to flee the place for the LastFertileRegion Area Zero and Weil then tries to destroy said region.

* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', this trope is used with Mechanikles, the Grecian MadScientist. His "Orderly" nature manifests itself through the combination of his NeatFreak and SuperOCD traits, and many of his schemes are aimed at making the world "neater". This leads to him attempting to, among other things, burn Arabia to the ground in order to melt the deserts into an enormous expanse of glass, destroy the Rainforest of Thundra from which originates all the rain in the world, and ''boil the oceans to steam-clean the world'', which would have resulted in the destruction of all life on the planet.

* Stories featuring GodIsEvil, mostly due to religious dogma -- particularly those of Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity -- being closely associated with authoritarianism and conservatism. The Guy Upstairs and his followers will be depicted as tyrannical and inflexible {{Knight Templar}}s who are obsessed with "[[PureIsNotGood purity]]," labelling [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill disobedience]], {{passion|IsEvil}}, and {{individuality|IsIllegal}} as sins that can only be wiped out through the establishment of a WorldOfSilence at best, or a [[RestartTheWorld factory reset]] of the universe at worst. The heroes may thus RageAgainstTheHeavens in order to make sure this doesn't happen, with [[{{Satan}} The Guy Downstairs]] often being the setting's [[SatanIsGood ultimate force]] of ChaoticGood. Goes hand in hand if said God is also a DemiurgeArchetype.

* ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'': The BigBad [[spoiler:is an EldritchAbomination known as "The End" which is a [[PlanetEater consumer of worlds]] and boasts of its past actions during the TrueFinalBoss fight as having brought "all the teeming chaos of creation" to order, neutrality, and [[OmnicidalManiac nothing]]]].

However, there are a lot of stories here to tell that freedom and the moral hero are the true measures of goodness. So what if they're on the opposite side to those creating order? What if the lawmakers are restricting freedom and being [[PowerCorrupts corrupted by power]]? Or what if, simply, those in charge aren't really doing any bad, but their subordinates want a new kind of order? Order is not going to be presented as a bit of a hurdle, but to retain the simplicity of BlackAndWhiteMorality by making the concept of Order not good, usually by making it not align with morals. What started as a normal desire to temper one's own passion with restraint and discipline (which when left unrestrained and combined with [[HumansAreFlawed human's tendencies to pick the bad choices while having potential to pick the good ones]], would result a bad kind of free but chaotic world) ended up spiraling out of control into trying to restrain everyone's passion and indoctrinating one's brand of discipline to others, whether they like it or not.

This may deteriorate to Order being presented as a fascist state that either believes in TheEvilsOfFreeWill, or a WellIntentionedExtremist ruler (or a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist ruler, as the case may be) that believes the people are endangering themselves and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a bit of genocide can work for the greater good]] (and they tend to promote it with [[TheNeedsOfTheMany an emphasis on the greater good]] for [[VillainWithGoodPublicity an attempt on good publicity]]). Man's creativity is curbed down to impunity since it's an aspect of Chaos that Order considered dangerous, even if it's harmless creativity (for instance: Artistic creativity), with the most common reasoning of trying to curb down notions of rebellion or something else that may disrupt the set order. In these cases, the people may either [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil suffer and know it]] but be generally unable to rebel, or [[BreadAndCircuses be blind to the true state of affairs]]. The hero will be able to break free of either situation, by enlightenment and/or strength, and rescue their world. They may also sympathise with the order-bringers, because even though they are rule-breakers, they're the good ones. However, they will think that all the claims [[TheNeedsOfTheMany For The Greater Good]] spewed by the Order is [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical and inexcusable, no amount of merits can excuse that.]]

* Stories involving a MegaCorp, a commercial entity so massive that it's likely to be the sole corporation of the setting (without needing to be an EvilInc), crushing down any competitions with impunity[[note]]While it's said that competition begets improvement, for this MegaCorp, it's all hogwash. They don't need competition and will stamp it out before 'they become a threat', not caring if their products stagnate due to lack of desire of improvement from competitions: As long as it's orderly and everything is within their control, they should be the only corporate for everyone.[[/note]] and eliminating the more 'chaotic' variety, creating a monopoly of profit, which is read as being utterly {{greed}}y, but also doing it with various unfair lawful maneuvers. Their profits are then used to further create [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good publicity]] that they look like this caring, benevolent company while in truth, they still needlessly drain the money of the normal people, crushing the poor while others who are gullible see this mostly as a manner of 'convenience' (mostly the rich). Their insides are full of CorruptCorporateExecutive, while the HonestCorporateExecutive are helplessly stomped down into being unable to do anything (or eventually corrupted). In a sense, it's a financial version of TheEmpire above, bringing a bad, monotony order in the world of commerce and finance (they also either go hand-in-hand with the Empire or worse: the Empire can be under their thumbs instead). And thus our heroes would be those who value variety and 'small businesses' and naturally 'proper business ethics', trying to oppose these cheaters who abuse order in the name of self-profit.

The opposite of this would be HobbesWasRight, where the authoritarian bringers of Order, no matter how bad, [[TheExtremistWasRight was necessary]] to prevent even greater damage that unchecked freedom or TheEvilsOfFreeWill would've (and actually had) caused and thus the order-bringers truly believe that it has been proven that 'free will', 'freedom' or 'human rights' could be used as just sweet words an shield to force one (or many)'s opinions which ended up being proven 'usually ending with disasters' and thus they're not going to fall for those moral-based lies or convincing again, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo the authoritive order has to be implemented even if they'll look like soul-crushing evil bastards in the end.]]

* A major theme in ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'', as the author himself fully equates mechanisation in progress and warfare with evil. Sauron fell because he wanted to impose order on the world, and the orcs are talented technicians.

* Stories featuring GodIsEvil, mostly due to religious dogma -- particularly those of Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity -- being closely associated with authoritarianism and conservatism. The Guy Upstairs and his followers will be depicted as tyrannical and inflexible {{Knight Templar}}s who are obsessed with "[[PureIsNotGood purity]]," labelling [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill disobedience]], {{passion|IsEvil}}, and {{individuality|IsIllegal}} as sins that can only be wiped out through the establishment of a WorldOfSilence at best, or a [[RestartTheWorld factory reset]] of the universe at worst. The heroes may thus RageAgainstTheHeavens in order to make sure this doesn't happen, with [[{{Satan}} The Guy Downstairs]] often being the setting's [[SatanIsGood ultimate force]] of ChaoticGood.

-->-- ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}''[='=]s [[https://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/186316836064/telephone-cq-cumber-team-order-these-failed Squid Research Lab]] on '''Telephone''' & '''C.Q. Cumber'''

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'': As it turns out, [[spoiler:the Goddess of Order Ashera is the BigBad and wants to create a perfectly orderly world of her design, which requires every living being in the world to [[TakenForGranite be turned to stone]]. On the other hand, the resident Goddess of Chaos, Yune, is more personable]].

* Engerraund Serac of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' is one of [[BigBrotherIsWatching Rehoboam]]'s creators who believe that order must absolutely be instilled on humanity to guide them into a better future after having seen his home being destroyed by a nuke and that Rehoboam predicted humanity's demise. To do that, Rehoboam gathers all of humanity's personal data and uses them to dictate what should they do in their lives. The cost of this is that humans are living in an illusion of choice, growing too dependent on Rehoboam's dictation, with their daily lives perpetually stuck in routines and loops. If the system considers you a lost cause, then you don't have better opportunities to improve yourself, forcing you to be stuck into menial jobs until it drives into an early grave. Meanwhile, those who don't equate to Rehoboam's dictation are considered to be outliers where they are reconditioned via AR therapy to become better members of society. But those who failed the therapy are sent into a cryogenic state and declared dead. Serac and Rehoboam's obsession with control and order on humanity confirmed [[MisanthropeSupreme Robert Ford]]'s statement that the humans are very similar to the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Hosts]], where they're stuck in loops and any aberrant are sent into cold storage. And yet by the end of Season 3, [[spoiler:Serac turns out to be Rehoboam's puppet who depends on its instruction from an earpiece]]. The irony of this? Everything that Serac had done is delaying the inevitable where humanity would soon be wiped and the Hosts would take over their place.

* Engerraund Serac of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' is one of [[BigBrotherIsWatching Rehoboam]]'s creators who believe that order must absolutely be instilled on humanity to guide them into a better future after having seen his home being destroyed by a nuke and that Rehoboam predicted humanity's demise. To do that, Rehoboam gathers all of humanity's personal data and uses them to dictate what should they do in their lives. The cost of this is that humans are living in an illusion of choice, growing too dependent on Rehoboam's dictation, with their daily lives perpetually stuck in routines and loops. If the system considers you a lost cause, then you don't have better opportunities to improve yourself, forcing you to be stuck into menial jobs until it drives into an early grave. Meanwhile, those who don't equate to Rehoboam's dictation are considered to be outliers where they are reconditioned via AR therapy to become better members of society. But those who failed the therapy are sent into a cryogenic state and declared dead. Serac and Rehoboam's obsession with control and order on humanity confirmed [[MisanthropeSupreme Robert Ford]]'s statement that the humans are very similar to the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Hosts]], where they're stuck in loops and any aberrant are sent into cold storage.

* Stories involving a MegaCorp, a commercial entity so massive that it's likely to be the sole corporation of the setting (without needing to be an EvilInc), crushing down any competitions with impunity and eliminating the more 'chaotic' variety, creating a monopoly of profit, which is read as being utterly {{greed}}y, but also doing it with various unfair lawful maneuvers. Their profits are then used to further create [[VillainWithGoodPublicity good publicity]] that they look like this caring, benevolent company while in truth, they still needlessly drain the money of the normal people, crushing the poor while others who are gullible see this mostly as a manner of 'convenience' (mostly the rich). While it's said that competition begets improvement, for this MegaCorp, it's all hogwash. They don't need competition and will stamp it out before 'they become a threat', not caring if their products stagnate due to lack of desire of improvement from competitions: As long as it's orderly and everything is within their control, they should be the only corporate for everyone. Their insides are full of CorruptCorporateExecutive, while the HonestCorporateExecutive are helplessly stomped down into being unable to do anything (or eventually corrupted). In a sense, it's a financial version of TheEmpire above, bringing a bad, monotony order in the world of commerce and finance (they also either go hand-in-hand with the Empire or worse: the Empire can be under their thumbs instead). And thus our heroes would be those who value variety and 'small businesses' and naturally 'proper business ethics', trying to oppose these cheaters who abuse order in the name of self-profit.