Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Difference between revisions

* Tao En / Yuan in ''[[Shaman King]]'', who refuses to believe that you can trust anyone due to the way his ancestors were persecuted for their shaman powers. This is crucial to his defeat - he's more powerful than any of the main characters at that point, but watching [[The Power of Friendship]] trump self-preservation destroys his focus.

* Katejina Loos from ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam]]'' ''literally'' got sick since she couldn't comprehend Shakti's thoughts of ending the battle and preserving life.

* In the Diamond and Pearl arc of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', this is the reason why [[Jerkass|Paul]] could not raise Chimchar to his full potential; as he thought making friends with his Pokémon was a waste of time. This came back to bite him in the ass when Ash raised said Chimchar into an Infernape and beat him in the Pokémon league.

** An earlier example was with Damien in the early Kanto saga. Even though he treated his Charmander like crap and [[Moral Event Horizon|left it to die in the rain]], he still expected it to wait for him to come get it and welcome him back with open arms. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Cue Charmander defecting to Ash]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|and roasting Damien.]]

** The scary subversion comes later when after surviving his defeat he never fails to try to understand the motivations and capacities of others.

* [[Madeleine L'Engle]] uses the quote above in ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'', and it helps Meg Murry save Charles Wallace. {{spoiler|She realizes that the only thing she has which IT does not have is love. She [[Power of Love|focuses on loving her little brother so much]] that IT is driven out in a [[Care Bear Stare]] of --}} hold on, [[Sand in My Eyes|got something in my eye...]]

* In ''[[Xanth|A Spell for Chameleon]]'', Trent hands over his sword to Bink so he will be armed while he keeps watch and [[Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand|goes to sleep]]. Bink and Chameleon reason that Trent, despite the title "Evil Magician Trent", must be trustworthy because he is willing to trust them; an untrustworthy man would not have believed someone else to be trustworthy.

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novel ''Duty Calls'', a renegade Inquisitor is quite [[Knight Templar|certain]] that Cain will appreciate why he acted as he did. Given that this included staging a massacre, abandoning innocents (including children) to an alien attack, summoning an alien attack to hide his tracks, and no less than three attempts to assassinate Cain, this does not work as expected; even a self-professed [[Dirty Coward]] like Cain is horrified.

** To rub further salt into the Doctrine's wounds, Tarkin's main attempt to employ it -- [[Kick the Dog|the tactically unnecessary]] [[Moral Event Horizon|destruction of Alderaan]]—ended up neatly shooting itself (and by extension, [[The Empire]]) in the foot by causing Palpatine's approval rating [[0% Approval Rating|to slip ever closer to zero]] and providing massive sympathy for the Rebellion.

** Almost all of the weapons created following the Tarkin Doctrine meet the same fate, to the point where its [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Han Solo during the Yuuzan Vong war.

{{quote|''Was my tiny mind snuffed? I must have missed that part.''}}

** And then Luke was a white hole.

** {{spoiler|And just to prove how much [[Darker and Edgier]] ''Torchwood'' is, the 456 are largely ''right''. Most humans really ''are'' pragmatic enough that they're willing to sacrifice millions of children for their own safety (at least as long as it's not ''their'' children on the line). Even Jack ends up explicitly breaking his own "an injury to one is an injury to all" ideal when he manages to defeat the 456 - [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|by the sacrifice of a single child]].}}

** {{spoiler|In a parallel plotline, the PM seems to think that Frobisher will be able to sacrifice his own daughters. Frobisher isn't and does indeed commit his own private genocide.}}

* In one episode of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Barney details the aftermath of his hooking up with Wendy, the waitress at [[Local Hangout|McLaren's]] (the main cast's favorite bar). It ends badly when notorious-womanizer Barney can't pick up women in McLaren's without Wendy's disapproval. Wendy eventually recognizes that their hookup and quasi-attachment was a bad idea and lets Barney have his bimbos back, but Barney continues to throw out every drink she serves him because he can't comprehend that she isn't plotting some kind of revenge.

* ''[[Lost]]'', "Everybody Loves Hugo":

* ''[[Fear Effect]]'': Yim Lau Wong (The King of Hell) turns out to have no concept of human decency. If you make the choice to not have Hana and Glas shoot each other, The King of Hell will fly into a rage and say "Mei Yun, you have come too far to ''disappoint'' me!"

* In a recorded interview you can find in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'', Riddler insists that Batman has to be a supercriminal who robs other criminals and bribes the police to not stop him, categorically refusing to believe that anyone could put their life on the line against Gotham's criminal underworld every night for no reward.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Persona 4]]'', {{spoiler|Izanami}}, expresses her disbelief that {{spoiler|"the will of so few could surpass the will of so many" in regards to the protagonist's [[The Power of Friendship|Social Links]]. She also can't understand why humans wouldn't want to live in ignorance.}}

* Evil in general doesn't seem to have any real problems with understanding good in ''[[Star Control]]''. The {{spoiler|Neo-Dnyarri}} gets bitten in the ass by self-serving pointlessly cruel evil not being able to get honourable evil, though: {{spoiler|it}} sends you against the most powerful race in the region to get killed. That would be fine... except that race happens to have been enslaved by {{spoiler|the Dnyarri}} and with the sort of sense of honor that would let you just leave the area unmolested (once) for warning them about the {{spoiler|Dnyarri returning}}.

** On the other hand, it shows to the viewer that yes, coming clean sooner is good for you; it's just that this time the wrong person came clean for the wrong reasons.

** The ''Coon and Friends'' trilogy showed that Cartman is so incapable of comprehending goodness, that he actually thinks being a selfish egomaniac is good (and the debate with the [[Ayn Rand]] Foundation begins...).

'''Mysterion:''' For ''you''! You're making it a better place ''for you''!

'''The Coon:''' Yeah, so? What's the difference? }}

* Often, people with the real-life [[Lack of Empathy]] have immense trouble understanding the people around them. They can be very good at [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulating them regardless]], but they can never truly comprehend it which sometimes comes back to bite them. It's sometimes described as knowledge without understanding.

* Civic Duty. Some citizens will assist the police in capturing criminals by telling what they saw, identifying suspects, and making themselves available as witnesses. This behavior baffles the "don't snitch" types.

* [[Imperial Germany]] was very surprised their invasion of Belgium (to reach France) caused the United Kingdom to enter [[World War I]]. As early as 1839 the treaty regarding Belgium neutrality had been referred to by the German Chancellor as being: 'a scrap of paper.' While it is [[Selfish Good, Selfish Evil|FAR]] too generous to the British to portray them as standing up entirely for the right of small nations ([[Realpolitik|as opposed to keeping the channel ports out of the hands of a hostile power]]), and many have correctly placed emphasis on the less-than-pure motives. However, while certainly dodgy to modern sensitivities (and to those of many at the time), it was a major shock to a generation of German leadership that had grown up under the tutelage of [[Otto von Bismarck]] that the British considered them [[Fair for Its Day|at all.]]

* Shines through in [[Adolf Hitler]]'s assessments of some other countries' motivations in [[World War II]]. He kept insisting that the Americans would annex Canada if Britain were to become weak, that the British would annex French Africa if France became weak, that the British and Americans would try to destroy each other to attain world hegemony, etc. He basically believed that every other country besides his was also operating as a backstabbing, expansionist empire, not seeing that Britain absorbing French colonies for instance would have been inconceivable to them on moral grounds alone.