History Main / GoodCannotComprehendEvil

** Wrath and Scorn show that "KnightTemplar Cannot Comprehend Evil". They honestly believe that Batman's villains are just put-upon thugs trying to make a living. This comes back to bite them when they think the Joker, an unrepentant psychopath who commits crimes for fun, has come to free them from custody and he instead gasses them [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou because they know Batman's identity and only he is allowed to destroy Batman]].

* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', this is one of Harry's defining characteristics. He knows better than most that there are people who are cruel to others for petty reasons, or no reason at all. But he simply can't understand ''why'' people are like that.
** By the sequel, however, thanks to encounters with HYDRA and the Red Room [[spoiler:and one brief period as the Dark Phoenix]], he's entirely capable of understanding why people are evil. He doesn't like it very much.
** It's mentioned that Steve Rogers, interestingly enough, averts this trope-he may be TheCape and a KnightInShiningArmor, but he grew up in the Depression and fought in World War Two. He's definitely not naïve.

-->'''Van Driessen:''' What is wrong with you two?! Don't you care about anyone? Look what you've done! Stop laughing! ''(goes into a similar breakdown as McVicker as the two continue their laughing)''

* For ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'''s Billy Batson, this flaw seems to exist across multiple continuities: he's willing to work with, or at least support, evil people because he's an [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent child]] whose powers are a direct result of being [[IncorruptiblePurePureness one of the purest souls on Earth]]. In ''ComicBook/PublicEnemies'', this happened when ComicBook/LexLuthor became [[PresidentEvil president]]; in ''ComicBook/KingdomCome,'' Luthor basically brainwashes him into an evil [[TheAtoner Atoner]]; in ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs,'' he's willing to follow an increasingly KnightTemplar version of Franchise/{{Superman}} [[spoiler:and gets killed for finally saying he's gone too far]], etc.

* In the Elseworlds comic ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'', Colin Clark (Superman raised in Britain rather than America) is so nice that it takes him a while to recognise that his colleagues at the newspaper where he works are more interested in tabloid journalism and uncovering scandal than actual news.

* ''Fanfic/WeAreNothing'': When Freddy Krueger explains his motives for killing children to Harry Potter, Harry is utterly baffled and has difficulty fully grasping the idea of someone who kills solely because they derive pleasure from it, with the narration noting that every villain Harry had faced up to this point committed evil deeds because it furthered their goals as opposed to simply being ForTheEvulz like Freddy.

* [[GrayAndGrayMorality While it's hard to tell the good guys and bad guys apart]] in ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau: A Beacon of Hope'', the main reason why the political situation between Equestria and New Athens is so complicated and tends to work in the latter's favor is that both the Princesses and the leader of the New Athens [[DarkMessiah Socrates]] take for granted that the Equestrians all think alike, think whatever Celestia tells them to and couldn't possibly [[RootingForTheEmpire like Socrates and his nation or want to work for him]] because Socrates [[FantasticRacism openly hates ponykind]]. Fortunately for Socrates, his advisors are savvier and when immigrants from Equestria start showing up, they tell him sending them away is a bad idea.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' has one episode where Franchise/{{Batman}} actually tries to make sense of ComicBook/TheJoker. By the end, it is safe to say that Batman figures out that doing this is an exercise of futility and madness.

* For a given value of "[[WellIntentionedExtremist good]]", it’s revealed late in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' that [[spoiler: Princess Hilda set up a plan to steal Hyrule’s Triforce to rejuvenate her own land of Lorule. She found herself relying on the sorcerer Yuga, believing that even someone as cruel and selfish as him would at least be pragmatic enough to save the world he came from. She’s completely blindsided by his declaring that he’ll just use the Triforce to [[InTheirOwnImage wipe out both Hyrule and Lorule to make a world of his own]].]]

* For a given value of "[[WellIntentionedExtremist good]]", it’s revealed late in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' that [[spoiler: Princess Hilda set up a plan to steal Hyrule’s Triforce to rejuvenate her own land of Lorule. She found herself relying on the sorcerer Yuga, believing that even someone as cruel and selfish as him would at least be pragmatic enough to save the world he came from. She’s completely blindsided by his declaring that he’ll just use the Triforce to wipe out both Hyrule and Lorule to make a world of his own.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The Dungeon Master of ''WebOriginal/ElfslayerChronicles'' attempts to thwart [[VillainProtagonist the OP's]] attempts at derailing her campaign at the last minute by presenting his Human Wizard character with the [[ArtifactOfDoom Eye Of Blight]], which was quite explicitly meant to corrupt him while promising limitless power, hoping his villainy would cause him to take the bait. The OP's character gets rid of the artifact instead, because [[MyCountryRightOrWrong he only wants to serve his Human nation]], which, [[DidntThinkThisThrough thanks to the DM's shortsightedness]], [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters was already established to be full of hidebound, homophobic, greedy, elf-hating warmongers]].
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* In the ''Film/Titanic1997'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11953189/1/Onward-and-Upwards Onwards and Upwards]]", depicting an AU where Jack survived the sinking and reunited with Rose, he and Rose return to Chippewa Falls to make a life for themselves. When Cal and Ruth track them down, one of Rose's new friends attempts to help Ruth reunite with Rose in the belief that Rose will be pleased to see her mother, only to be taken aback when the subsequent confrontation sees Rose reveal exactly why she never contacted her mother herself, including her admission that she nearly killed herself.

** Hank was swindled by [[HonestJohnsDealership a used car salesman]] for 25 years, ever since the salesman told the teenage Hank buying his very first car that paying sticker price was a huge discount available only to a privileged few. Present-day Hank is of course an extremely honest salesman ([[CatchPhrase of propane and propane accessories]]), and it seemingly never crossed his mind that a salesman could be dishonest.