No Place for Me There: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''The Operative:''' I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.<br />

'''Capt. Malcolm Reynolds:''' [[Utopia Justifies the Means|So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?]]<br />

 

Every [[Dark Messiah]] and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] knows that [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]... but a few of them know that their own methods for acquiring such a utopia would make it impossible to sustain. Essentially, this trope occurs when a character building a [[Utopia]] with [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|questionable methodology]] realizes (or is aware from the beginning) that they themselves would be unable to exist in the world that they are trying to create.

** ''[[Justice League]]'' actually went on to show this in the two-parter "A Better World" -- [[Utopia Justifies the Means|the alternate Earth]] of the [[Knight Templar|Justice Lords]] drove their Batman to build a trans-dimensional portal out of boredom, so the Justice Lords could cross over to an Earth that still had crime and help that world too. {{spoiler|Well, that, or he was planning to betray the other Lords because he'd grown tired of their [[Knight Templar]] ways and wanted to see if another Batman could convince him that what he had been doing was wrong -- [[Enigmatic Minion|Lord Batman was sort of mysterious like that]]. In either case, he's the only one of the Justice Lords who gets away in the end.}}

** Similarly, in ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', one of the things that manages to convince Earth-Two Superman not to cooperate with what he believes is Alexander Luthor's plan to restore his "perfect" world is the current Superman's insistence that if he truly ''was'' Superman, then it couldn't have been a perfect world -- "A perfect world doesn't need a Superman".

* Demongoblin, an enemy of [[Spider-Man]], fits this trope. He and the goblins of his dimension had a vision of their wickedness and the wickedness of others. They've all gone to other dimensions to cleanse them of sin (which means killing most-to-everyone). Each of them will return to the home dimension when he's done cleansing his. Then they'll all kill each other and the winner will commit suicide.

 

 

== Films ==

* V in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' says as much to Evey at the film's climax:

{{quote| "...the world that I'm a part of and that I helped shape will end tonight, and tomorrow a different world will begin that different people will shape, and this choice belongs to them."}}

* A common theme in Westerns, where the heroes are often strong, simple, violent men who are fighting in defense of a civilization which has no place for them. Among the more notable examples:

** [[John Wayne|Tom Doniphon]] in ''[[The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance]]''.

** Perhaps most famously of all, Ethan Edwards in ''[[The Searchers]]''. At the end of the film {{spoiler|the rest of his family are reunited while he stands alone in the doorway, unable to even enter their house, until he finally turns away.}}

 

 

== Literature ==

** Similarly, King David was not permitted to build God's temple because he was a man of war, despite the fact that these were wars that God basically ordered and were widely viewed as necessary by the Israelites. The story goes that the man to build the temple needed to be a man of peace.

* Although not a villain, Bahzell's father Bahnak in the [[The War Gods|WarGod]] series is one of these. He's unique among his race, a largely barbaric people, for enforcing order, building infrastructure, educating his people, and generally trying to bring them up to the point where they can live in the civilized world again. Bahzell ruminates that although Bahnak is doing his best to unite his people and restore peace, he himself is such an ambitious warrior at heart that he could never be happy in the very world he seeks to create for his people.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The Guardians of the Veil believe in a [[Messianic Archetype|Messianic figure]] who will close the Abyss and save the world who they need to prepare the way for, and that not only will this figure ''not'' be a Guardian, but when the time comes the figure will need to judge them for their sins (the implication is that, whether they are forgiven or condemned, the Guardians themselves will cease to be).

 

 

== Videogames ==

** "Yes, he would kill for peace. And that was the problem."

* {{spoiler|Kreia}} from [[Knights of the Old Republic]] is well aware that destroying the Force will eliminate her along with the endless Jedi versus Sith conflict that periodically burns the galaxy. She's perfectly happy with it, and actually delighted that Exile {{spoiler|is able to not only prove her theories, but become strong enough to kill her.}}

* In [[Starcraft II]], Jim Raynor believes that it's his duty to take down [[Evil Overlord|Arcturus Mengsk]] and the [[The Empire|Terran Dominion]] and it's up to people like [[The Heart|Matt]] [[The Lancer|Horner]] to make something better of the world.

** This is actually a crucial thematic and characterization point for the series: Tosh [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism|believes that, after they take down Mengsk, another 'Mengsk' will take his place, and the next day another one after that.]] He is still loyal to Raynor, he and his Specters are just out for revenge against Mengsk. Still, Tosh openly challenges Matt's belief that he can actually create "A better tomorrow". Raynor actually reaches Tosh ''and'' Matt with the above declaration, which is the [[Take a Third Option|third option]] to the dilemma, providing a way forward for both the cynical "devils" of the past and the idealistic "free thinkers" of tomorrow.

* At the end of the Resistance campaign in ''[[Brink]]'', Chen, the Resistance leader, opts to stay behind on the Ark and {{spoiler|give up his seat on the plane the Resistance was using to look for land to someone with "less blood on their hands."}}

* Used on a small scale, and with a bit of a twist, in the original ''[[Fallout]]'' game. Your main motivation for everything you've done in the game is to safeguard the Vault you grew up in, first by securing their water-supply, and then by wiping out a major [[Big Bad|threat to the continued existence of unmutated humanity]]. However, at the end of the game, as you return to the Vault, you are blocked at the doorstep by the administrator of the place. He outright tells you that you have no place there anymore - you've become too much of an outsider, too much of a warrior, to fit into the peaceful, bottled piece of civilization that Vault represents. How well you take it [[Karma Meter|depends on your choices so far]], but the end result is always the same - turning your back on the tiny world you helped save, you wander back out into the dangerous wasteland...