Well-Intentioned Extremist/Video Games

Other Examples
"Vergil: Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself."
 * Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure 2. 50 years before the story starts, GUN raided the space station he was on and killed his only friend, turning him into the Anti-Hero that he is now. When Eggman removed him from stasis, he immediately tried to get his revenge against GUN, which eventually turned into
 * Dr. Eggman is an arguable case: the little amount of details revealed about what exactly his Eggman Empire is mentions something about robots and scientists being high-class citizens. In addition, it is heavily implied that his world domination schemes stemmed from the fact that his grandfather was arrested by GUN, something he perceived as an injustice.
 * from Sonic and the Black Knight may qualify. Why unleash hordes of monsters on the kingdom, including ? To keep the from happening, of course. This particular villain is so sympathetic that Sonic appears  after it's over.
 * Pokémon has a few examples.
 * Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire's Team Magma and Aqua both believe that they'll be doing good for the world by flooding it/drying it out. Despite their devotion to the cause, in the end,
 * Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's Team Galactic is a bit lower in the "well-intentioned" department. Their leader, Cyrus, seeks to control the Olympus Mons of the area and He cites human emotion being the catalyst for conflict as the main reason for this, although once you beat him, he turns out to be Not So Stoic. Once you defeat certain grunts, they start to question what the hell Cyrus is even doing. It can be assumed that, before, they just liked having authority enough to not question why.
 * Team Plasma, and especially their leader, N, believes that all relationships between Pokémon and humans are abusive, and they want everyone in Unova to release their 'mons.
 * While on the surface Pokémon X and Y's Team Flare seems to be an organization full of money-obsessed assholes, their leader Lysandre turns out to be this.
 * in Pokepark 2: Wonders Beyond. He just wants Pokemon to have fun forever... which is causing the destruction of the Pokepark.
 * Raphael in the Soul Series. Essentially, the only person he cares about is his foster daughter, Amy, who was orphaned at a young age. However, thanks to being infected by Soul Edge, they're "different" from everyone else (effectively, they're vampires). Thus, he wants to use Soul Calibur to create a brand new world for himself and Amy, where they can live peacefully. But doing so involves infecting the entire world with their 'illness'...Not to mention that, in order to find the sword, he had to leave Amy behind...
 * Knights of the Old Republic has a few of these.
 * Revan and Malak from the first game wanted to . Their method of doing this,, is the part they really should have thought more about.
 * from the sequel fits as well, in that, ultimately, her goal is to stop the 'will' of the Force. Given how the will of the Force essentially results in the world of Star Wars as we know it (and about eighty years of near-constant turmoil and strife four thousand years down the line), you can almost see her point.
 * The Tales (series) lives and breathes this trope. One of the reason the series is so beloved is that the villains usually have sympathetic Freudian Excuses:
 * Tales of Phantasia:
 * Tales of Symphonia:.
 * [Video Game/[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Dawn of the New World]] had two:.
 * Abyss:
 * Vesperia:
 * Another example from the same game would be.
 * Paxton Fettel of F.E.A.R. is ruthless and cold-blooded in his determination to wipe out every single employee of Armacham Technology Corporation...but, as his dialogue indicates, he genuinely believes that, because of the horrible things they did to Alma (a Woobie to most), they deserve everything they get, and then some.
 * Illidan Stormrage from Warcraft 3. Ironically, he went from apparently sliding down the slope to evil, to having his reputation ruin a chance of actually getting some good accomplished (that, and his cold-blooded murder of several of his pursuers), to going for personal power again, to being blackmailed into attempting to do good again (ironically, at the behest of The Dragon of the series' deceased Big Bad), all in the game he was introduced in and its expansion pack.
 * Even Sargeras, the ultimate evil of the setting who created the Burning Legion to destroy all creation, is one of these. Somewhere along the line, he decided that the creation of the Titans was fundamentally flawed, and should be destroyed and remade perfect.
 * In World of Warcraft, during the Opening the Dark Portal Raid, the Infinite Dragonflight tries to convince the players that they're doing good by keeping the Portal from opening by saying such things as "Many lives could be saved." and "The resulting wars could be erased." However, they forget to mention the fact that changing the past drastically will make the time lines collapse in on themselves, destroying all existence, which is coincidentally exactly what they are aiming for. The questgiver also notes that if the Orcs had never come to Azeroth, not only would they have died out, but the native races of Azeroth would have been destroyed by the Burning Legion.
 * Also in World of Warcraft, you. Yes, you, the player. You have to go back in time in several instances to make sure that occurrences, both good and bad, happen. So for every "Battle of Mt. Hyjal" you win, you still have to lead Arthas down the path of becoming one of the most evil beings of all Warcraft lore. Of course, as the above example shows, it's kind of the lesser of two evils. Seeing as how you'll actually wake up tomorrow morning if Arthas is the Lich King.
 * Edwin VanCleef, the leader of the Defias, was a Principles Zealot who had sworn revenge against Stormwind after they greatly wronged him and his fellow craftsmen. In spite of this justified grievance, his actions were completely horrid.
 * In Heroes of Might and Magic IV's Order campaign, the antagonist, Gavin Magnus, is driven by the desire to safeguard the new world from those that might destroy it, like the old one from the previous games was. His method? Rob everyone of their free will.
 * Arantir from the fifth Heroes of Might and Magic game was originally a necromancer that was the poster child of Dark Is Not Evil, dedicated to ending the demonic corruption of Ashan. When he learned of the existence of the Demon Messiah he then dedicated himself to hunting down the Messiah and make sure that he can't . Later, in Dark Messiah, the latest entry in the Might and Magic series, Arantir takes it a step further and puts into motion a plan to seal away  forever, as opposed to relying on . The "extreme" part of this plan is that the ritual required to make a perfect seal.
 * In  Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Phoenix himself starts to go down this path, believing all prosecutors, without exception, are evil men who maliciously try to convict the innocent, with no regard for truth or actual justice (and this certainly isn't helped when the first prosecutor he encounters after his hiatus is Manfred von Karma's like-minded offspring). This is partially due to his feelings over Edgeworth's departure, though,
 * The Master, the villain of Fallout 1, wanted to safeguard humanity...by converting all pure humans into hardier super-mutants more able to survive the wasteland, and destroying those "impure" strains who could not be converted. He believed his atrocities were in the interest of the greater good...and if you prove to him that his plan couldn't work and they were actually for nothing, he commits suicide out of sorrow and remorse.
 * The Enclave in Fallout 3. They operate under the order of President Eden (who is exactly as evil as the Enclave in the old days) and Colonel Autumn, who is far more realistic and far less idealistic. The struggle between Eden and Autumn drive the last part of the game.
 * Psaro the Manslayer in the video game Dragon Quest IV. Later in the game, it's revealed that.
 * in Treasure of the Rudra.
 * Of the Final Fantasy series:
 * Final Fantasy VII's Barret Wallace starts out as one of these, blowing up power plants and mowing down Punch Clock Villains without a second thought. Later on, he realizes that he probably killed or hurt a lot of people he never meant to, and reconsiders his strategies. This doesn't stop him from continuing to slaughter Mooks whenever they get in his way.
 * The real revelation for Barret is when he realizes that, deep down, the reason he was destroying the mako reactors was because of his grudge against Shinra, not because they were sucking the life out of the planet.
 * They're Mooks, though, so it's OK.
 * A much more personal version happens with Genesis in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Although he sends armies of copies to attack various institutions, and seems very eager to fight one-on-one with SOLDIERs, this is all just
 * from Final Fantasy VIII would qualify. The reason for
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy actually lampshades this a little. When Squall defeats Ultimecia, she says  or something like that.
 * of Final Fantasy X could be considered this. He only wanted to end the suffering and cycle of death the people of Spira were trapped in, . However, due to his Smug Snake tendencies, he doesn't quite fit this trope as well as others.
 * Both the Templars and the Assassins in Assassin's Creed. Both are fighting for peace, but the Assassins seek to bring peace through freedom of thought, while the Templars want to control people's minds so that they all have the same viewpoint. Lucy even says in the first game that the Templars are doing the right thing, they're just going about it the wrong way. Many prominent members of both groups have been corrupted over their long histories by their own selfish and greedy desires.
 * An Alternate Character Interpretation of Vergil from Devil May Cry sets him up as one of these, making his quest for power based on a desire to prevent any more personal loss, after his childhood weakness cost him his mother.
 * Both the Templars and the Assassins in Assassin's Creed. Both are fighting for peace, but the Assassins seek to bring peace through freedom of thought, while the Templars want to control people's minds so that they all have the same viewpoint. Lucy even says in the first game that the Templars are doing the right thing, they're just going about it the wrong way. Many prominent members of both groups have been corrupted over their long histories by their own selfish and greedy desires.
 * An Alternate Character Interpretation of Vergil from Devil May Cry sets him up as one of these, making his quest for power based on a desire to prevent any more personal loss, after his childhood weakness cost him his mother.

" : We've been fighting their dirty little wars our entire lives and where do we end up, staring at each other down the barrels of our guns. Nothing has changed Fisher, and it won't change by degrees. We have to tear it down, and start over, it's the only way. Fisher: Your own little chaos theory, throw the world into war and hope that what comes out the other side is better?
 * Inuart turns into this in Drakengard's second ending. You can sympathize with him...all he wants is ...but the method he uses to go about it has been repeatedly mentioned to lead to the end of the world.
 * The Devouring Earth from City of Heroes are ultimately sourced in an environmental advocacy group that gradually descended into eco-terrorism before their fanatical leader got ahold of himself some Super Science. Now, the Devouring want to kill (or "Devour") all humans in the world. Apparently, Mother Nature is one mean broad.
 * City of Villains introduced the Legacy Chain, a 'hero' group that seeks to "watch over magic to prevent its misuse and its corruption by evil, and to make sure it is used only for good". However, the 'purity of magic' is solely on their terms, and they have no hesitation in targetting heroes if they interfere with or violate their agenda.
 * This troper argues that Longbow might be even worse, especially since some NPC mobs in the Going Rogue expansion seem aghast at their frequent technique of burning their enemies alive.
 * The Going Rogue expansion gives us the Alternate Universe of Praetoria, where Statesman (the resident Superman Expy) rules as Emperor Cole, keeping people safe by making sure that no one has enough freedom to commit a crime. One of the resistance factions is no better, and seeks to dethrone him by launching terrorist attacks and racking up such a high body count that the people no longer see Emperor Cole as an effective protector.
 * Alvis from Fire Emblem 4. Sure, he but he has one noble goal: to make a world where there is no suffering. Hell, he even succeeds and creats a peaceful, wonderful reign for 17 years...that is, until it's revealed that he's just a pawn of Manfroy, who eventually uses his son to bring down his peaceful reign.
 * To put that into perspective, he doesn't just
 * From the same game, Trabant. In said game, he really looked like one hell of a bastard. But in the side game, it is revealed that his intention is purely to see his homeland, Thracia, thrive, be oppressed anymore, and can get a better territory to improve their living (the current living as a land of mercenaries is hell for his citizens). The fact that he didn't mind if his actions and atrocities will lead him to Hell, as long as it helps his nation, just cements him as one hell of a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
 * In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, all of her enemies became convinced that Micaiah was this. The truth was less clear-cut and also not her fault.
 * In Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, Prince Lyon is the epitome of this. All he wanted was to stop a devastating earthquake that would have killed hundreds of his country's citizens  He ended up releasing the Big Bad by mistake, then starting a war and trying to end the world because he got possessed by the aforementioned Big Bad.
 * Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda. In Wind Waker, he reveals that his original motive was He just got swept up in the Triforce afterward.
 * Also from what we find out in Skyward Sword, since Ganondorf is  that might have had another influence in his life choices. It says a lot when after knowing that, you might start to feel sorry for Ganondorf (at least this version since he seems to regret most of his life choices).
 * The Big Bad in Wing Commander IV, after humanity barely escaped defeat at the hands of the Kilrathi, is terrified that the next threat could wipe humanity out. So he decides that humanity needs to continue to wage war, to improve weapons technology as far as possible, and to be as prepared as possible. So he starts a civil war. It does kinda make sense...
 * He's also something of an Evilutionary Biologist, as he designs a bio-weapon that kills people whose physical characteristics aren't ideal, and part of his belief is that humanity has become complacent in peacetime.
 * He's also somewhat justified in the sequel Wing Commander Prophecy; humanity encounters yet another alien threat but this one is so alien and hostile that the only way to stop them is to either destroy or capture and blockade the wormholes they use to invade. The ending is subsequently open-ended and not in a good way since you never learn how the aliens showed up in the first place and you never find a long-term solution to ending the conflict.
 * Ace Combat Zero uses this as a plot twist.
 * Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown subverts this with Captain Matias Torres, who initially attempts to present himself as a Trumanesque figure trying to kill many in nuclear fire in order to force an end to the war before even more are killed. As the story arc goes on, though, the façade cracks slowly but surely, eventually revealing that the decorated Hero of Comberth Harbor has Fallen and all that's left is a Laughing Mad Large Ham obsessed with the twisted beauty of a difficult shot that will result in mass murder.
 * In the Kirby Super Star game "Revenge of Meta Knight", the titular Knight attempts to forcefully take over Dream Land to end the slothful ways of the inhabitants. Kirby, who is willing to kill people over a slice of cake, decides to stop him.
 * In the Japanese version, Meta Knight's motivation is to end what he considers Dream Land's corrupt rule. That makes it sound like he wants to overthrow Dedede, in which case, one could argue that Kirby should be helping him.
 * On that note, King Dedede played this role in at least one of the games where he wasn't the main bad guy. Specifically, in Kirby's Adventure, or Nightmare in Dream Land, King Dedede had stolen the star rod from the Fountain of Dreams. It wasn't until Kirby defeated Dedede, and attempted to fix the fountain of dreams, that it was revealed that he did this seemingly villainous action for a very good reason. It turned out that a horrifically evil entity by the name of "Nightmare" had occupied the fountain of dreams, thus tainting the dreams, so King Dedede attempted to prevent Nightmare from affecting everyone by stealing the star rod, since it was at least better in his mind that they be kept safe from nightmare by not dreaming at all than allowing Nightmare to plague everyone.
 * of Lusternia was a leader and diplomat amongst the Elder Gods. But when the Lovecraftian Soulless Gods attacked, he was willing to do whatever it took to defeat them. In the modern era, he's the closest thing to Satan the game possesses.
 * Kerghan, the villain of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, is an example of this, he thinks that life itself is a form of purgatory that souls are unwillingly forced into and made to suffer through until they finally achieve the release of death. The natural solution is to kill everything in the world.
 * Just to be clear, a more-or-less unbiased source indicates that Kerghan is basically right about how the afterlife is, and the fact that spirits are in pain when in the living world is established throughout the game. He can even be talked into surrendering and admitting that he made a serious mistake when he began his plan by successfully arguing that killing everything is not the right solution.
 * Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Sengoku Basara, at first sight, might look like just another cruel warlord a la Nobunaga (or Motonari), ambitious and ruthless. However, what sets him apart was his true goal. While Nobunaga wants to rule Japan to make it his playground, being the born evil S.O.B he is, Hideyoshi has a goal to make Japan a strong nation and make it prosper. However noble the goal is, he became drunk with power (as shown in his Start of Darkness in Heroes in the hands of Matsunaga Hisahide) and is willing to use ruthless tactics and get his hands dirty to fulfill his noble goal. This mindset causes him to view Nobunaga as an obstacle to a 'strong, prospering Japan', thus, he opposes him.
 * The Einst and Inspectors in Super Robot Wars Original Generation are this, they just want to prevent humans from advancing into space and causing disruption throughout the galaxy.
 * Although Windolo is just a psycho who wants an excuse to kill people, his subordinates play it straight,
 * Caleb Goldman in The House of the Dead 2 and 4. He unleashing hordes of zombies throughout the world, because
 * In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Solidus Snake had the noble goal of wanting to free America from the shadowy rule of The Patriots, so that America could be brought back to the principles it was founded on (freedom, liberty, and democracy), but he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to kill several innocent people, take out the electricity in Manhattan with a nuke, and even kill Raiden, the closest thing to a son he ever had, in order to do so. In fact, many of the MGS characters could qualify for this trope.
 * Let's list them out:
 * The Boss
 * Big Boss would go on to preserve her ideals. Liquid would, in turn, follow those ideals.
 * Despite Chronic Backstabbing Disorder coupled with a huge Gambit Roulette....
 * Gene himself technically qualifies,
 * Amanda probably qualifies. She intends to lead the FSLN to over the Somoza regime in an attempt to better the lifestyle of her people, who are constantly suffering under the Somoza's rule, even with aid from the West in regards to the 1972 Earthquake. When Big Boss tries to warn her that, revolution or no revolution, she'll most likely go to hell for this, she states that she is very much prepared for that possibility, as long as it at least grants her nation a better future.
 * In a way, Solid Snake qualifies in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. He and Otacon legitimately believe that they are doing the world a favor by getting rid of Metal Gear. However, it was heavily implied that their organization, Philanthropy, was doing various terrorist actions (or at least actions comparable to terrorism), sometimes even (faking) selling out allies, even with them being framed for the Tanker Incident in 2007.
 * It's important to note that both Zero and Big Boss went to opposite extremes in their attempts to follow the Boss's lead. Zero upheld her ideal of a world where circumstances are adjusted ahead of time to avoid conflicts, but in doing so, gradually lost sight of the value of the people he manipulated, while Big Boss stuck to her principles to the point of starting several rebellions, which debased them since these principles were now the basis for more conflicts and not a way to end them.
 * The human founders of the Patriots (more specifically, Zero's faction) qualify as such, as well. Zero and the others legitimately thought that their course of actions were following through with The Boss's final will. Unfortunately, the methods of enforcing their interpretation of her will also involved some very questionable medical practices and science projects, as well as accepting bribes to develop advanced weapons systems, as well as attempting to frame the Militaires Sans Frontieres with a Nuclear Strike against America if Big Boss didn't rejoin them, and also training the twin Snakes to kill Big Boss if even that fails. Their successors? Not so much.
 * Breath of Fire III's Big Bad,, qualifies as well. She believes that the Brood are far too powerful and could pose a danger to the planet, even though they're a peaceful people with no desire of world conquest or destruction. So what does she do? She orders the destruction of their entire race. Talk about blowing shit out of proportion.
 * This is An Aesop of the game; power corrupts, but not absolutely, and it's the choices of the powerful that make that power good or evil.
 * Volsung of Wild ARMs 5 is eventually revealed to be this. The game frequently drew parallels between him and Dean, in that they both want to tear down the metaphorical "wall" that separates humans and Veruni. Volsung's method is more violent.
 * The World Ends With You: Mr. Kitaniji's goal to turn Shibuya into a peaceful paradise, in order to avoid.
 * qualifies under this trope as well, actually, since  In fact, so does
 * In Silent Hill 3, the pious Claudia wants to invoke Paradise to destroy all the wrongs of the world.
 * Subverted in that Claudia doesn't believe that she'll be a part of this paradise, having caused too much pain in achieving her goals to deserve it.
 * The sad thing is this plan would ultimately succeed if Silent Hill mythology is to be believed. The innocent aren't dragged into the nightmare realm, and seem generally happy.
 * Pretty much every single villain (and often, potentially, the protagonist, as, in the main series, the player can chose their alignment) in the Shin Megami Tensei series is an example of this trope - the Law aligned just want everyone to fall in line so that everyone can be at peace (under their strict rule, of course), while the Chaos aligned rebel against Law's strict rules and support something more along the lines of every man for himself, but either way, it's for the good of us all, really.
 * The except is YHVH, who is a complete monster that desires all to be under his control. He's such an asshole that his minions, who are still very ruthless, turn on him.
 * Both  and   of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory want good things for their countries, but are entirely willing to cause massive death and destruction to achieve it. In the former's case, he wants to trigger a world war between China and the United States, while the latter is
 * Pretty much every single villain (and often, potentially, the protagonist, as, in the main series, the player can chose their alignment) in the Shin Megami Tensei series is an example of this trope - the Law aligned just want everyone to fall in line so that everyone can be at peace (under their strict rule, of course), while the Chaos aligned rebel against Law's strict rules and support something more along the lines of every man for himself, but either way, it's for the good of us all, really.
 * The except is YHVH, who is a complete monster that desires all to be under his control. He's such an asshole that his minions, who are still very ruthless, turn on him.
 * Both  and   of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory want good things for their countries, but are entirely willing to cause massive death and destruction to achieve it. In the former's case, he wants to trigger a world war between China and the United States, while the latter is
 * It will be better, because this war will change things, Sam. Every other war has been about keeping things the same, the status quo doesn't work anymore. America is sick Sam, she's dying. Politicians, the bureaucrats, the whispered backroom deals, its all life support for a sick old lady who was dead a long time ago."


 * In Baten Kaitos Origins, wants to prevent people from relying too much on their powers of hearts so that they will not wage war with said power again. However, he does so by . He is willing to go as far as.
 * Kane and the Brotherhood from Command & Conquer. He wants to ascend humanity.
 * from Lunar: Silver Star Story used to be one of the greatest heroes of all time. However, he is shocked when . Believing that people are doomed to destroy themselves without absolute power governing them, he becomes the Magic Emperor and starts his plan in order to give people the leadership he feels they need.
 * The first two Big Bads of the Mega Man Zero series, Copy-X and Elpizo, are willing to do anything for their cause, the survival of the humans and Reploids, respectively. This involves, of all things, trying to orchestrate the extinction of the opposing race.
 * The X-Guardians also qualify. They are all trying to insure that humanity survives, leading to them becoming allies when Wiel shows up.
 * Every villain (at any point) in Ar Tonelico 2, as well as some of your party. A big part of Cloche's character development revolves around trying to reconcile her idealism with the extreme measures she supports as a government figurehead.
 * from Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled.
 * Several examples from Mega Man X.
 * First is General and, by extension, Repliforce from X4, who sought to create an independent nation for Reploids. Unfortunately, he sought to do this via a bloody coup against the world government.
 * Well, it wasn't so much a bloody coup as a peaceful yet stern declaration of independence. It just so happens that the Maverick Hunters saw this as rebellion against humans, labeled all of Repliforce as mavericks, and proceeded to slaughter everyone who said otherwise. This was such a bad call that the then-leader of the Hunters resigned in shame between X4 and X5.
 * You must have been playing a different game, then. The whole fiasco happens when Colonel refuses to listen to sense and come in for questioning, so an investigation as to why Repliforce droids were present in the destruction of Sky Lagoon could start. The main character even flat out tells him that if he does not come with them, Repliforce will be branded as mavericks. And yet Colonel still refuses (and leaves without even picking his sister up, oddly), and, later, one of the Repliforce has the gall to state that the Hunters branded them mavericks when IT WAS ALL THE COLONEL'S FAULT.
 * Second is Episilon from Command Mission, whose goals were very similar to the General's in that he wanted to create a nation where Reploids could live free of human politics. Again, it's the fact that he launches a violent rebellion against Giga City that makes him a villain. It's also implied that Epsilon did attempt a legitimate negotiation with the government to separate themselves and make a Reploid only nation, but the talks failed, resulting in Epsilon being labelled a maverick instead, thus forcing him to take drastic measures.
 * Maverick Hunter X turned into one of these. After a brief talk with Dr. Cain about X's unlimited potential and how it could change the world, Sigma decides to start the first Maverick War to bring out the potential of all Reploids. Of course, it's the whole "evolution requires sacrifice" part that's the problem.
 * Then again, Mega Man X (the original version) did depict Sigma in a similar light, as his death speech indicated that he felt humanity was keeping Reploids down.
 * In the Xenosaga series, Wilhelm may seem like a shady character, using people as a means to an end, However, it's hard to say whether he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist or simply Necessarily Evil, simply because,
 * Several factions from Golden Sun fit this trope.
 * Saturos and Menardi. Their reason for reactivating the four lighthouses is revealed in the second game to be Although  Saturos and Menardi do it in the wrong way. For example, they
 * in the second game may also count. He's trying to stop the above from happening, since according to him, However, he also goes about it the wrong way. Toward the end of the game, he
 * Even could qualify for this in The Lost Age. They're more than aware, and ready to admit, that saving the world may have the unintended side-effect of . The only reason they're not labeled as villains is because.
 * Aribeth. All of her actions during and after her turn to the Dark Side were motivated by a desire for justice against those who caused her lover's most unjustified execution.
 * In Xenogears, Krellian, who believed that God did not exist or died and thus abandoned humanity when they needed him, wanted to create God with his own hands and return the world back to waves for some utopian existence.
 * Atlas and Thetis from Mega Man ZX. Unlike Aeolus (arrogant and selfish guy who believes that those he perceives as unintelligent should die) or Siarnaq (who just wants revenge on humanity due to a past betrayal), they genuinely seek to better the world. Atlas wants to help humanity evolve and become stronger, while Thetis wants to preserve the world's oceans. The problem? Atlas believes that humanity can only evolve through suffering, and Thetis is overzealous in his desire to protect the environment.
 * The second problem is that they attempt to fulfill these goals via Model W; Atlas explicitly mentions feeding the Raiders to it before Grey/Ashe beat her silly, and Thetis confesses to a similar deed before the same happens to him. If anything, exposure to Model W may have extremely flanderized the once-noble goals of these two and Aeolus as well. I needn't iterate on the implications of that.
 * In Supreme Commander, the galaxy is thrown into a galactic war between the Cybran and UEF factions. The Aeon Illuminate believe that the only way to restore peace to the galaxy and stop the other two factions from fighting each other is to...eliminate them.
 * Pretty much everyone but the Seraphim qualify. The UEF is ruthless and intends to use symbiots as slaves, and constructs a planet destroying weapon called the Black Sun with the intent to use it. However, the usage of Black Sun is really because they are desperate and on the verge on being defeated by the Aeon Illuminate, who purges entire planets for basically not sharing their religion. Considering this, the UEF being desperate enough to use Black Sun is no surprise. The Cybran Nation is trying to make sure that they don't get exterminated by the Aeon or enslaved by the UEF, but their actions against the UEF are part of why they were desperate enough to use Black Sun. The Aeon, well, not all of their members are violent religious lunatics.
 * Eddy Gordo commits all manner of atrocities as Tekken Force Commander in the name of saving Christie Monteiro's grandfather.
 * Another person like this is
 * Despite being one of the main protagonists of either route, Nanjo from Persona has some elements of this. While he wants to stop and save the world as much as the others, whenever the party is given a Sadistic Choice, he always suggests making the less moral of the choices. It's implied that this is due to a sense of urgency to resolve the crisis rather than any actual malice.
 * This is nicely subverted with The Sorceress, the Big Bad of Spyro: Year of the Dragon. In one cutscene, we are led to believe by her Dragon (who actually does fit this trope) that she kidnapped all the dragon eggs to repopulate the dragons in the Forgotten Worlds, which would restore the world's magic. In the very next cutscene, however, we discover her true nature.
 * In Famous has Big Bad Kessler, who He's responsible for all the events of the game, including the Ray Sphere that gave Cole his powers, but ultimately (if the player chooses the good path), he succeeds in preparing Cole for the things to come.
 * Devil Survivor has Keisuke, who, in trying to stop the public from freaking out at the Tamers,
 * To elaborate, His motivations are somewhat understandable, once you know
 * And in Devil Survivor 2, we have Ronaldo Kuriki, a private detective who leads a pack of rioters to attack one of the bases that belongs to the organization (JP's) that you work for. However, it's revealed that he's doing it to steal food to feed the civilians that JP's has more or less abandoned. Later  Ronaldo becomes much more ruthless to stop it,   However, it is possible to talk him of this and have him become a noble human being.
 * Saren from Mass Effect can be seen as one. He believes that However,
 * In the sequel, Mordin Solus is responsible for However, though he considers it necessary, he refuses to ignore the true consequences of his actions and blindly accept that it was for the greater good. In fact, after he retired, he set up a free clinic in the slums of Omega to "do something less morally ambiguous."
 * His student, Maelon, . However, doing this led to him.
 * Cerberus, a human supremacist black ops group, performs all manner of mad science to ensure that humanity survives and prospers throughout the galaxy; sometimes what they do is justifiable, sometimes it's not.
 * Aresh counts as well. He wanted to restart the facility on Pragia, even after experiencing the torture that occurred there, because he felt that the work done there was done for a reason and should not go to waste. However, it's clearly a desperate coping strategy for dealing with his own childhood trauma, actually trying to put it into action would involve kidnapping and abusing even more children, an act that even Jack finds repulsive.
 * Warlord Okeer wanted to create the perfect Krogan to help his species. His reasoning was that Zerg Rush tactics did not work and would eventually bleed the populace dry, and he wanted the perfect Krogan as a Super Prototype for an elite group immune to the genophage, so that the Krogan would be strong again. Unfortunately, this led to him working with the Blue Suns and using any creations that did not fit his standards as cannon fodder
 * Tela Vasir, a Spectre who
 * Her boss,, also qualifies..
 * Warden Kuril, the Head of the Purgatory. Although he also uses it to gain more wealth, he clearly thinks he is doing this for the society.
 * Shepard him/herself can be this as well. Depending on the actions s/he takes, s/he can end up
 * In the Arrival DLC, Shepard is given no choice but to
 * The
 * This motivation was expanded upon in the third game. The final canon motivation for the Reapers is that
 * in Suikoden III. If he succeeded in, the Grasslands would be destroyed, killing a million people. But, hey, if it keeps from happening, then it's good, right?
 * Tracer Tong from Deus Ex is one and you can choose to join him and ultimately destroy all global communication, thus plunging the world into a new Dark Age. He fancies this rather than the modern world with its perfidious and power-hungry secret societies, dehumanising technical innovations, and devastating artificial plagues (apparently, they are worse than the natural plagues that haunted the medieval world).
 * The Templars from the sequel abhor all front-edge technology, with nanoaugmentation being the worst of it all, and strive for a devout, theocratic society. If you help them establish one, they
 * Ohmars - a faction of cyborgs with a Hive Mind regard themselves as the next stage of human evolution, and you can help them inherit the planet by removing all the other factions' leaders. The Ohmar then turn the world into a postapocalyptic, barren wasteland.
 * Actually, it's the remaining factions that ruin the world through 200 years of war. The Ohmar are just the only ones that survived after everyone else killed each other off.
 * Jedah Dohma from Darkstalkers believes that the best way to save civilization from destroying itself is to destroy the world and everything populating it, human, animal, and Darkstalker alike, and combine their souls into the body of an Eldritch Abomination that will rule over the new world as its god.
 * Vayne of Final Fantasy XII subjugated nation after nation, killing their ruling royal families/existing governments, murdered his own father, and leveled an entire city just to prove his weapons were working properly, all to.
 * Alicia Pris of Tail Concerto.
 * Admiral Aken Bosch of Free Space 2. He's the leader of a xenophobic rebellion of Terrans against their allies, the Vasudans, but
 * The Paragon Branka from Dragon Age: Origins wants to recover the Anvil of the Void — an artifact that can be used to create golems — in order to defeat the darkspawn and restore the dwarven empire to its former glory. When she discovered the Anvil lay at the end of a labyrinth full of deadly traps, however, she so that she could have an endless supply of darkspawn to test the traps.
 * Teyrn Loghain's betrayal can be interpreted as resulting from a desire to do what's best for Ferelden. After all, many of the Grey Wardens who died came from Orlais, a country he hates. Additionally, King Cailan refuses to listen to reason and decides to fight on the front lines against the darkspawn. Loghain originally only wanted to eliminate the Wardens, fearing that they've thrown their lot in with Orlais and plan to enslave Ferelden again, and if Cailan insists on fighting with them, then it may be beneficial to remove an ineffectual king. He also feared that Cailan was about to sell Ferelden off, based on the fact that the king was a bit too eager to work with Orlesians and wholly enraptured with the Wardens, who Loghain thought to be Orlesian flunkies.
 * The Architect in The Calling novel wishes to end the constant struggle between the darkspawn and everyone else...by spreading the darkspawn taint to every living thing, turning everyone into half-darkspawn and killing the Old Gods. His methods are brutal. He will try to talk you into helping him, but if you then even consider changing your mind, he will kill you without a second thought.
 * The Grey Wardens themselves. They dedicate their life to fight the Blight, and they make it clear from the moment you join them that they (and therefore, you) will do anything that can further their goal. Examples of things you may have to do: The list goes on.
 * Anders in Dragon Age 2 has been possessed by a spirit of Justice, warped by anger into a force of vengeance, and is not above committing acts of terrorism such as to remove any possibility of compromise and attain freedom for the mages of Thedas.
 * Merrill, as well. She has turned to blood magic and in order to repair a broken elven artifact and reclaim some of her people's history.
 * Dear god, just about EVERYONE in Dragon Age II, with a few exceptions, and once they're gone, well...
 * The Arishok is a prime example. He is convinced that all of Kirkwall is a cesspool that needs to be cleansed by forcing all bas (qunari word for "non-believer"; literally, "thing") to choose (that's right, a forced choice is still a choice, as far as the qunari are concerned) to follow the Qun, which imposes order on all followers. The scariest thing? He may be right, given Hawke's experiences in Kirkwall. However, he and the Qunari of Kirkwall merely keep to themselves and do not take action until the finale of the second act, and only because they've been pushed to their limits by the resident Smug Snake.
 * Purge from Space Channel 5 Part 2 is an 18 year old Psychopathic Manchild who believes that he's been given a holy mission to lead the entire galaxy, which he considers to be "Brutish and Unhappy", to the heavens.
 * It gets worse with his Japanese version. Purge is revealed to be mentally ill after living alone for 9 years, and suffers from delusions. The more dance energy he absorbs, the worse he becomes until he's left screaming and preforming one last attack in an attempt to kill everyone, even himself. The drama events on the CDs reveal that after that breakdown, he's gone into hiding.
 * Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is this.
 * Though he Jumped Off the Slippery Slope. Hard. And speaking of Masters, we might as well mention
 * Are you sure that's what Xehanort's original goals were? It seems to me he just wanted to  Or did I misunderstand?
 * Valkyria Chronicles has
 * Modern Warfare 2:
 * Some of the villains in the Fable series have, or at least had, good intentions. Notably, As the series continues, it may well turn out that  is a well-intentioned extremist, too.
 * The Moniter of Installation 04, 343 Guilty Spark, from Halo is a loyal and devoted servant to the Forerunners, doing what he is programmed to do even with them being extinct since 100,000 years ago. His primary goal is to put down the Flood so that they won't consume the galaxy, and he'll do everything to achieve it...and I mean everything. Even manipulating ignorant humans to activate the Halo rings, which would kill off every sentient being in the galaxy, just so that the Flood won't have any food sources left to feed on. And if any human refuses to activate the rings, then they're as much of an enemy to the galaxy as the Flood, and they must to be put down too...
 * Prince Eonia Transbaal, from the Galaxy Angel gameverse, wants to use the power of the Lost Technology to expand the limits of the Transbaal Empire and increase the wealth and prosperity of its populace as a result. Even Tact Mayers admits that it is a noble goal. On the other hand, he has no qualms against committing genocide in order to achieve said goal.
 * The Etrian Odyssey series regularly deals with these, with at least one showing up in each installment. In the third game, The Drowned City, the player's guild winds up caught between two Well Intentioned Factions: one has, while the other wants to.
 * Lance from Epic Battle Fantasy, though only in the second game. After the destruction of Undead Goku in the first game, Lance gathers an unstoppable army and begins conquering the world, so the world can be united under one rule and world peace can exist.
 * Everyone in NieR. Nier himself wants to save his daughter...by any means necessary. want to restore the dying world to its former splendor...by any means necessary. The Shadowlord
 * Nessiah of Yggdra Union, who has been manipulating a large chunk of the human population in order to.
 * Gulcasa is also explicitly revealed to be one of these in Blaze Union. Life Isn't Fair, poverty is a serious problem, and innocent people are suffering everywhere. His solution to this supposedly unchangeable situation? Screw the system--if the world at large is Doing It Wrong, all he has to do is take the damn place over and run it himself. (And according to Yggdra Unison, the world really would be a better place with Gulcasa ruling it.)
 * Hans Tiedmann of Dead Space 2 . Logs at the end, however, reveal that
 * The Shouty Guy in Mondo Medicals just wants to fight with cancer...""
 * Arguably, from Final Fantasy XI,
 * The Garlean Empire from Final Fantasy XIV is hinted to be this as of now: there were various mentions by those brainwashed by the empire that their attempts at what could be comparable to Genocide, possible Deicide and the subjugation of various people, were done in order to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring on the planet.
 * In Sin and Punishment 2, the Nebulox/G5 want to kill Kachi as a suspected spy from Outer Space so that the humans on the new Earth will have more rights than before.
 * This is one part of Officer Maxwell's motivation in The Colour Tuesday, the other half being
 * from Gods Eater Burst.
 * Redwater from Dead To Rights: Retribution is honestly trying to rid Grant City of crime the best way he knows how. Unfortunately, this involves turning the city into a Police State and killing his longtime friend and partner, Frank, simply for getting too close to the truth.
 * Andrew Ryan in the first two BioShock (series) videogames, in his own mind, probably had the best of intentions when he built Rapture as a sort of capitalist paradise, perceiving the outside world as morally bankrupt and parasite-infested. Unfortunately, his purely capitalist "paradise" had no rules, and everything went down the thunder bucket.
 * In Riddle School 5, this is what amounts to.
 * In Rosenkreuzstilette, Graf Michael Sepperin counts as this. He launched a coup against the Orthodox Chuch for good reasons; Number 1, to build a war for Magi to live in peace in, where they would be free of fear and persecution, and Number 2, to protect his biological daughter, Iris, whom the Church wanted dead.
 * In Fear Is Vigilance, the protagonists want to keep college students safe by distributing alarms, but the students don't feel like they need them -- until a mysterious figure starts beating them up every night in the park...
 * In the third Dark Parables game, an evil artifact has persuaded The Snow Queen that following its directives will, and at this point, that's all that matters to her.
 * In BlazBlue, it is very easy to pin the NOL as some sort of The Empire, with their totalitarian, iron-fisted rule and their law of 'anyone not obeying our rules are to be executed'...until you realize that if NOL didn't put up such an iron-fisted rule, the Crapsack World will plunge into further chaos, with many dangerous Ars Magus free for people to claim, with a high possibility of the claimer being psychomaniacs out to destroy the world. It may be a cruel method, and the NOL look like jerks doing their job, but they do try to make the world a better place to live in. However, the reason why NOL is easy to pin as an unabashed evil empire is the fact that, possibly, the whole organization is being manipulated by not one, but two over-the-top Complete Monster with high Villain Sue caliber.
 * Doctor Proton is portrayed this way in The Doctor Who Cloned Me, the singleplayer DLC campaign for Duke Nukem Forever. While his ultimate goal (defeat the aliens) is good, his means to reach it (kill Duke Nukem, replace him with an army of Terminator-like robots who look like him and put one of them as a puppet president while being the Man Behind the Man, just to prove to himself that robots can be superior to humans) are certainly not.
 * Ra's al Ghul is this in Batman: Arkham City as per usual, since he believes that wiping out most of humanity is the only way for a brighter future and sees  Hugo Strange also claims to be this, but his actions show that he's a different kind of villain.
 * Inquisitor Mendoza in Risen. He wants to sacrifice a whole island in order to control a powerful Titan and thus save the rest of the world.
 * In Asura's Wrath, the Seven Deities assassinate the emperor of Shinkoku, frame Asura for his murder and kidnap his daughter, and nuke various cities and villages full of humans and use their souls to combat the demonic Gohma that are ravaging the land. Deus and Yasha truly believe that this is the only way to save the earth, though the other Deities range from jerkasses to complete monsters, except for Augus who thinks that the cause is a load of crap and would rather spend his time relaxing in his mansion with his hot servant girls while also fighting worthy opponents to the death.
 * While Dead Rising 2 shows us that Phenotrans is a greedy corporation that is starting zombie outbreaks for the purpose of driving up Zombrex sales, seems to genuinely believe that deliberately causing outbreaks is also the only way to keep the temporary cure in circulation because the creation of zombies also means that the wasps that cause the zombification process can be harvested for the purpose of creating more Zombrex.