Good characters showing bad guys that Good is Not Nice in Fan Works.
- Ancienverse: Neither Lionel nor Aidan has any compunctions about being nasty to his enemies, despite being a good guy.
- The Blue Blur of Termina: Tatl Beryllia. She generally means well, but she can be quite a jerk at times.
- Child of the Storm has a number.
- Loki is a doting uncle, a patient teacher and bitterly remorseful for what he's done. He's also Reformed, but Not Tamed and more than willing to do the dirty work, with the explicit purpose of being Thor's shadow, to do the things Thor never could. Such as methodically murder his way up the Red Room's chain of command, then down again, to make sure that he didn't miss anyone.
- And Loki learnt it from Odin.
- Nick Fury has dedicated his life to protecting humanity from the monsters, human and inhuman, who think that they cannot be held to account. He believes in heroes, he cares for Harry, the son of his surrogate sister Lily and he is, ultimately, a good and decent man. He's also a Manipulative Bastard and Magnificent Bastard who is more than comfortable exercising Cruel Mercy and chucking people like the Dursleys in an Oubliette. His ruthlessness leads to dismay from old friends and Villain Respect from his Arch-Enemy Lucius Malfoy who grudgingly admires him. He'll manipulate Albus Dumbledore, an old friend, and press his buttons just to see if the old man still has what it takes (he does). In the sequel, Ghosts of the Past, he also calmly presses the buttons of the Avengers and a recently tortured Harry, just to make sure that he'd judged their reasoning right.
- Peter Wisdom a.k.a. Regulus Black, epitomises this trope, even more than his mentor, Nick Fury. Fury wants heroes for people to believe in; Wisdom wants soldiers to fight the war that he sees coming, a war he is singlemindedly dedicated to winning. Accordingly, he has no qualms whatsoever about manipulating genuinely good characters into doing his dirty work. Sometimes this manipulation can be as mild as a speech. Sometimes it takes the form of blackmail when he secures Wanda as his ringer by threatening to tell her daughter, Hermione, the truth about her parentage. And sometimes it takes the form of placing Warren, a relatively innocent young man at a possible target, in order to get him properly blooded in combat by making his first human kill (something Warren had been desperately avoiding for most of his life, being absolutely terrified of hurting someone else with his Razor Wings) and then mould him into a soldier. This, as Sean (Warren's mentor) observes with utter contempt and no little bitterness, is completely successful following chapter 70. He also runs the Oubliette that Fury had the Dursleys dropped into.
- By Ghosts of the Past, his response to Ministry corruption and ineptitude, and the decapitating strike they suffered at the hands of HYDRA near the end of the previous book is not to help them rebuild and reform. It is take advantage of and encourage their weakness and disarray so that MI13 become primary handlers of the supernatural in Britain, with the intention of taking over the Ministry lock, stock, and barrel. He also makes it very clear to Thor and Sirius that after Harry, now an incipient Apocalypse Maiden, had his Dark Phoenix themed freak out, the only reason he's taking the nice option of allowing him back into Britain - and, indeed, not lobbying governments worldwide to keep him off-planet - is because it is, in the long run, the most practical course... and because a bullet through the skull wouldn't work.
- As noted on the quotes page, in the words of Warren Worthington III, "No one ever said that being a hero came with the requirement to be nice." He's thoroughly grumpy, tetchy, and generally not very good company at all. However, he's a hero, a textbook Knight in Sour Armor (as Harry accurately notes), and he'll be one if it kills him.
- Doctor Strange is, subtly, the king of this trope, being the Sorcerer Supreme and thus the magical Big Good for Earth, taking in Wanda as a child, helping her control her powers and saving her from the White Council, playing a key role in defeating Grindelwald (softening the 'god-like' Dark Lord up for Dumbledore) and is generally fairly affable and polite, always having a smile on his face. He is also an arch Manipulative Bastard and Magnificent Bastard with a reputation as an infallible Seer, using everyone as puppets and ruthlessly exploiting the Butterfly Effect. Directly, this means he specifically ordered Wanda (Harry's godmother) not to take him in on the grounds that it would be too dangerous (since Wanda gave up her own daughter for exactly the same reason, he was probably right). His mere involvement is Paranoia Fuel, where Lucius Malfoy, generally a couple of steps ahead of almost everyone else, starts fearing when he's pretty much at the zenith of his power that everything so far is part of Strange's plan, including things as minor as arranging for Nick Fury to be posted as liaison to the Order of the Phoenix years before Harry was born in order to bring about the rise of Director Fury and thereby Director Wisdom. He is, in fact, entirely correct and Strange reveals in chapter 80 that he's working towards the Greater Good which is implied to be readying Earth to take on Thanos. Indirectly, this means that he knew all about Pettigrew's betrayal of the Potters, Sinister's involvement in Harry's being kept at Privet Drive and HYDRA's attack on Hogwarts which killed Luna Lovegood, to name but a few, as well as pretty much every other bad thing that has happened, even Krypton exploding, and he did nothing because he deemed it necessary to shape the scenario and the heroes to his satisfaction. Anyway you slice it, that's cold - though as Remus points out in Ghosts of the Past, he isn't actually obligated to lift a finger to help anyone beyond fulfilling his duties as Sorcerer Supreme.
- Furthermore, his reputation is sufficient that in Ghosts of the Past, Tony's theory that he let Sinister kidnap Maddie/Rachel, let him teach her and shape her into a Living Weapon for a decade and a half, so she knows all the things that Xavier would never teach either Harry or Jean, then dangle Harry under his nose and let Harry's natural charm do its work, and hey presto, the forces of good have an extremely powerful and deadly new weapon, and Harry has someone to teach him the psychic dark arts is considered disturbingly plausible. In fact, it's disproved not by the fact that Strange wouldn't do it, but the fact that he was visibly caught off-guard when scrambling to prevent Maddie's kidnapping, something he normally never is.
- The Conversion Bureau: Conquer the Stars:
- Major Firebird de Coverley zigzags through this trope. On one hand, she's quite nice most of the time. On the other hand, its implied that she loves her job a bit too much, and a longtime friend of hers is terrified when she sees her in action.
- The Anti Alicorn Alliance plays this straighter.
- A Cure for Love: As Light points out, L's plan to blow him up in the middle of the night isn't very polite.
- A Dead World: Cain. Don't let the cheerful attitude fool you; She is more than capable of killing those who make an enemy of her.
- Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns:
- The dwarven noble protagonist does usually maintain an affable manner, but he doesn't bother being overly amiable to people who press his buttons like Lady Isolde, King Cailan and the Orzammar Assembly, to name a few.
- Gwenith "Gwen" Cousland is the straighter example. She has a tendency of getting into bar fights and is overall quite Hot-Blooded, getting angry easily and yelling often. She also seems to take people for granted. Nonetheless, she does mean well, proven particularly accurately by how she, though not without help from some of the other Wardens, spent some time holding off the darkspawn attacking Redcliffe in order to help the remaining refugees flee.
- In Faded Blue, the Crystal Gems are this even more so than in canon, likely because of the absence of Steven's influence.
- A Force of Four has Power Girl, who is an unstoppable, selfless force of good with a huge chip on her shoulder.
- In Fractured (SovereignGFC) and its sequel Origins, any "good" person who isn't Good Is Not Soft tends to end up here:
- The Republic Intelligence Service is introduced here in stark opposition to other Obstructive Bureaucrats in the rest of the Trans-Galactic Republic. They lend aid to the heroes in the form of banned (but very powerful) disruptor weapons, invisibility devices, and information which given the stakes seem justified in rule-bending. Subverted later since they're drifting into State Sec territory.
- Garrus Vakarian is unafraid to use the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique when lives are at stake (like dealing with a plot to build a cloaked superlaser platform).
- For a given value of "good", Aria T'Loak falls here (being a Noble Demon in canon anyway). She will use whatever means necessary to combat the Alien Invasion that's threatening to kick her off her station though she ultimately fails as the Flood is harder to contain than she thought. If that means burning civilians alive in their homes, she will do it. This also means she fits in Anti-Villain as well.
- Jack fits easily into this category—she's rude, cuss-prone, encourages students to break each other's bones (thanks to bacta this isn't as crippling as it would be otherwise), and threatens to kill anyone who might mess with her students. Nevertheless, such anger is generally driven by actually caring about them and thus not wanting them to get into trouble.
- Most of the Borderlands cast ends up here, being a bunch of Heroic Comedic Sociopaths in their own canon.
- Maya in both forms doesn't hesitate to use excessive force.
- Patricia Tannis has a huge intellectual superiority complex, but her case is more "Good is Not Sociable" though she ends up on the receiving end of "smarter than you" from Cortana.
- Jackie Jakobs, post-reform allows an innocent soldier to be vaporized since his presence would otherwise trip a system trapping everyone inside her family's vaults. Information in those vaults is more valuable than one life, considering the stakes.
- After some unfortunate circumstances, Sarah becomes this after a Heel–Face Turn. Immensely powerful, and willing to now use those powers to fight the Flood while (mostly) following the notions of morality held out by Shepard & Co.
- In The Official Fanfiction University Of Middle-earth, Elrond. Assigns a crap-load of homework, and prone to temper-tantrums when someone gets their facts wrong.
- In The Games We Play (The Gamer/RWBY), Jaune learns to his displeasure that the Wisest decisions aren't always the most morally palatable.
- In The Great Disney Adventure Saga, all of the main heroes have this to a degree, with Kelsey and Jack being the standouts for being cynical, mean and pragmatic.
- Harbinger (Finmonster) (Danny Phantom, ParaNorman): The Reapers are on the side of good, but they still forced Norman into a situation where he would have been seriously hurt if not outright killed in order to get/see if Danny to push him out of the way and die long enough for Death to speak to him and see if he would accept and stop the coming threat, and got him to agree by implying that he would try the same thing with Danny's relatives until one said yes. The heroes even openly wonder about their morality.
- In Harry Potter and the Ice Princess - Book 2, Elsa, while only a second-year student at Hogwarts, kills Aragog's entire Acromantula colony to stop them being a future threat.
- In Hellsister Trilogy, Dev-Em has risked his life time and again to protect thousands of people. It doesn't stop him from being a smug, obnoxious jerkass of an ex-delinquent, though.
- In A Hollow in Equestria, Ulquiorra will protect Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony, protecting all of Equestria in the process. However his interpretation of "protecting" is more along the lines of "kill any possible threats that might be encountered along the road."
- The Lone Traveler: The titular Traveler has an alternate name "Marek Ilumian", which was given by goblins in his home universe. It translates as "Fury of the Light".
- My Little Castlevania: Even though Roaring Yawn and Shatterstorm are on the good guys’ side, they are hardly the nicest ponies you’d ever meet.
- My Miraculous Academia: Plagg openly identifies as "the embodiment of
Chaotic Good" and is not above poking and prodding Shiguraki's many Berserk Buttons and just straight-up lying to him. In the case of his wielders, those who wield the cat miraculous are usually seen as Protectors through attrition: inducing misfortune onto evil, breaking down barriers and destroying corruption. - In Point of Succession Team L cares more about solving the case than for the victims/casualties of it-that is unless it is someone they know. Beyond calls them on it.
- In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Warhawk is a member of the Legends of Tomorrow, a group of time-travelling superheroes who want to thwart Brainiac's plot to assassinate a young and vulnerable Superman. The first thing he does on-screen is to tell a crying child who had nearly been squeezed to death a few minutes ago to shut the hell up. Naturally, the kid only cries even more.
- A New Chance Series:
- Latios is extremely loyal to Ash and ready to fight against evil. He is also cold and withdrawn, especially around other humans, his need to protect his younger sister Latias can grate on her, and in battle he can be vicious toward the antagonists, to the point of scaring Ash. Highlights include putting a bunch of poachers in a permanent coma, nearly killing a defeated band of Team Magma agents and and crushing to death the poacher Rico for selling Larvitar's mother.
- Bianca herself is far less nice. She smashed Brock into the ground for trying to flirt with her. Her concern for Latios and Latias means she can give Ash a lot of crap for using them in battle, and she had zero sympathy for Team Rocket when they begged Ash to save their Pokemon from Rico.
- Downplayed for Kyril Sutherland from The Night Unfurls. Kyril saves people from the reprehensible, but he isn't the friendliest person around due to his polite, yet detached attitude. Aside from being content with his frightening reputation, he often prioritises his objectives over his relations with others, even using force if necessary. On the bright side, Kyril is neither obnoxious nor sociopathic, and he is less cold to people who prove to be genuinely affable or trustworthy.
- While Nedzu gives Izuku in Null and Void (NevaraRaven) every chance to develop a hero career regardless of his record or lack of a quirk, he doesn't exactly know how to accept "no" for an answer. He threatens to out his vigilantism to the cops and is even willing to drag his friends (who are innocent), as well as putting him on what everyone views as the "losing side" of the "Heroes Vs. Villains" Exam.
- Pony POV Series: The Draconequi may be far more aggressive and cruel than their Alicorn counterparts, but this is only because their roles involve being the Anthropomorphic Personifications of things like Revolution and Natural Selection, things that, while ultimately beneficial to mortal life, are rarely what one would call kind. They genuinely love mortal life and work incredibly hard to ensure that it prospers, but by their nature they're far harsher than the Alicorns. Havoc and Entropy embody this more so, as the former is the embodiment of Fear and Hell while the later is the embodiment of the End and Oblivion. Despite this and some well-meaning but flawed inuniverse interpretations of them, they're ultimately just as interested in mortal life thriving as anyone else, and are two of the four Big Goods for the entire POV multiverse.
- Project Dark Jade:
- Kage: This applies to the Guardians, Elyon and Caleb, at least in their interactions with Jade.
- In Queen of All Oni, this applies to Agent Wisker (who views Jade as just another criminal) and one Ramirez.
- In Remorse L only cares about solving the Kira case. He does not care about Light at all.
- In Rorschach In Equestria, when Twilight Sparkle confronts Rorschach for the first time after he saves Applejack and the Cutie-Mark Crusaders from some Timber Wolves, his rather blunt answers to her questions frustrate her, when he points out he's "not a nice person" and Twilight points out the above incident as a counter-example, Rorschach replies “Doing the right thing, and being nice, is two different things. I do the right thing, doesn’t mean I’m nice.” Given the setting, Twilight probably hadn't even considered the possibility beforehand.
- RWBY: Epic of Remnant: Angra Mainyu, EMIYA Alter, Lancelot, and Hassan of the Cursed Arm are devoted to protecting Gudako and humanity, but they are anti-heroes and not very nice people. Lancelot and Hassan are more polite, but they are willing to kill any threat.
- In The Sage's Disciple, Crow has done a lot of morally questionable things in the name of surviving the 4th Holy Grail War. Kidnapping, arson, manslaughter, theft, etc. While he has some qualms about manipulating/forcing Kariya into allying with him, he justifies it as being better than letting him run wild. His alignment is Chaotic Neutral for good reason.
- Seeing the Pattern: Pinkamina is grouchy, sarcastic and anti-social. She’s also waging a secret one-mare war against Death.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton has Asuka Langley Sohryu in the role of the world's greatest heroine, but although she has done a great deal of good and is trying to become a better person, she still has to outgrow her brattiness.
- The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: Even if he genuinely regretted his bad actions towards Luca and works to become a better person and to be more respectful towards the young sea monster, Vincenzo is still quite stubborn and abrasive.
- Stupor Heroics: All of the Loud siblings have this to a certain extent.
- Lincoln not getting superpowers and being ignored by his older siblings has left him with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Nevertheless, he still is a decent guy who tries to be patient and understanding towards Lynn.
- Lynn is a popular superhero and definitely cares about her brother as well as saving the world, but she's an abrasive jerk who has a poor working relationship with her fellow metas. She also damages public property, mooches off her younger brother, and causes him a ton of property damage.
- Lori is a competent superhero who wants to protect her younger brother, but she does some pretty harsh things to keep him safe, to the point of using force to keep her sisters from interacting with him.
- Swing123 and garfieldodie's Calvinverse: The Five-Man Band may not be evil, but they are definitely not nice.
- Tamers Forever Series: Takeru, especially when he criticizes the other Digidestined.
- Tech 10 Rebooted: None of the three main protagonists be considered nice people, although their unpleasantness tends to vary.
- In Traveler, Lt. Surge, Blaine, and Agatha all have shades of this. A more direct example is Mew, who compels Ash to provoke Mewtwo, then kills him while Mewtwo is in Ash's head torturing him, all to (successfully) teach Mewtwo empathy. Even though Mew revived Ash, and only took this course after being unable to defeat Mewtwo directly, it's still quite cold.
- Top Dog: Harry Johnson (ne Potter) is this so much so that you have to look rather hard to find the Good (though it is there). He openly expresses contempt for conventional morality, and in fact is a highly-priced mercenary who will kill anyone he's paid to kill — but he's also working on a long scale to make the universe more fair, and it's noted that he's "the kind of person who would get Jews out of Nazi Germany just because he can". This is also a trait of the Kenti empire; they're Good, but very paranoid, and very militaristic, and they've several times espoused a policy of preemptively killing things that might in the future become a threat.
- In An Unsung Song, Marco's motivation for volunteering may be securing a better life for his Annoying Younger Sibling, Fade, but that doesn't mean he can't be a jerk to everyone else (and occasionally even her).
- Uplifted: All of the protagonists have a brutal streak a mile long, even Erwin Rommel, who coldly guns down Adolf Eichmann at Malta. The Allies are no better, as Joachim and Hanala discover when captured by the SAS.
- In What About Witch Queen?, baron/general/Royal Spymaster Hakan Madsen is certainly on Arendelle side, but it's implied that he's not above assassination or Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique (if not outright torture) if he believes it to be for the good of his realm. His fellows on the Royal Council are somewhat unsettled when they hear about the latter, but none actually protests.
- In What Tomorrow Brings, one of the Chee expresses full agreement when asked to create a miniature Yeerk pool to contain any potential time-travelling Yeerks, observing that just because she's programmed for pacifism doesn't mean that she has to be nice to slavers.
- Mr.Evil's
Original Character Fredi "Frediano" Heat is described as a borderline sociopath, isn't afraid of practically crippling or killing anyone in his path, and ultimately hates being referred to as a "good guy". Despite all of this, he is extremely loyal and gets the job done. The police are just happy that he is on their side.Fredi: "Whoever said I had to be a ‘good guy’ to do my job?"
