The Extremist Was Right/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A Well-Intentioned Extremist who was right.

  • Straight: Malvolio kicks an inordinate amount of puppies...but it actually accomplished his end goal.
  • Exaggerated: Malvolio is a Complete Monster who seems to be doing things For the Evulz, but somehow the world is a better place for it.
  • Justified: The land in question had been lawless for some time, the only way to get anyone to listen was to smack some heads.
  • Inverted: Well-Intentioned Extremist
  • Subverted: It looks like Malvolio's plan is going to work, but someone throws a wrench in it at the last second.
    • It looks like his intentions are good, but he eventually goes powermad.
    • It looks like he was doing bad things, but it turns out all those supposed off-screen 'deaths' or 'Cold-Blooded Torture sessions' were faked.
    • Malvolio looks at what he would have to do to accomplish his goals, and, after much deliberation, decides the consequences are too great.
  • Double Subverted: ...But Malvolio can account for that.
    • ...Which was a further ploy to make it even better.
    • ...Except this was just his final ploy to cement his Utopia.
    • ...Benvolio, on the other hand, believes otherwise.
  • Parodied: Malvolio destroys 90% of the Earth's population so that those remaining won't have to worry about resources. But everyone cheers because it worked!
  • Deconstructed: Even though it ended up being a Utopia for a little while, ultimately the methods he used to get there were too much for the public to swallow, and he is overthrown...only just that the utopia falls back into a dystopia again.
    • The means turned out to be too great for Malevolio to swallow. Guilt ridden, he kills himself.
    • The hero had suffered from so much pain and loss due to Malvolio's actions and wants to stop him from harming anymore people, but after seeing what the world had become because of said actions, the hero has a mental breakdown, feeling justice was robbed from him and that Malvolio wasn't properly punished. The broken hero soon becomes a villain and now wants to destroy the "utopia" that Malvolio created, seeing it as the ultimate revenge.
  • Reconstructed: However, the public eventually was persuaded that the methods Malvolio used justified Utopia, and so they either restore Malvolio to power or install a replacement, and they return being to a Utopia.
  • Zig Zagged: Malvolio decides the costs are too great, then changes his mind. But he means well--except he doesn't! Oh, wait, that was the final step in his master plan. And then someone threw a Spanner in the Works. But he got around it. Now the world's a Utopia! Except he was lying, and went through all this trouble to become an Evil Overlord. Then he wants to do good, but the general populace is so fed up with his mood swings that they stop him from doing it.
  • Averted: Nothing particularly evil is required to accomplish a Utopia.
  • Enforced: "We want to emphasize that this character is ultimately good, but had to do some pretty dirty things to get there."
  • Lampshaded: "And now we get your explanation of how all the evil stuff you did changed the world for the better." "I'm right, you know." "...Yeah."
  • Invoked: "If I make everyone hate me like this, they'll have a common hatred, and work together!"
  • Defied: "I don't care what you're trying to do. I just know what you're doing."
  • Discussed: "So...Malvolio. You're about to explain how your plans saved the world?" "Don't have to. Look around."
  • Conversed: "Think Bob's plan is gonna work?" "Hope so. I'd hate for all that puppy-kicking not to mean anything."
  • Played For Laughs: Mally pokes some poodles, and makes the world better.
  • Played For Drama:While Malvolio has genuinely improved the world for the better, for the rest of his life he is constantly tormented with the question of whether or not it was worth it.

I came to this wiki and found a barren wasteland. It was then, I decided: no more second chances. No more forgiveness. I enslaved thousands, murdered millions, and kicked untold billions of puppies...and it worked.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/The_Extremist_Was_Right/Playing_With?oldid=959546"