History Main / ItIsBeyondSaving

* ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': By the time Hari Seldon created the science of psychohistory, it was too late to save the Galactic Empire -- at that point, it was so decadent that its fall was inevitable. All he could do was to try to arrange conditions so a new galaxy-wide Empire would reign in 1,000 years instead of taking 30,000 years.

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'': If one agrees with the rather backwards politics of the book, this is the general opinion of the author on the United States.

'''[[spoiler:Talia]]:''' '"Innocent" is a strong word to throw around Gotham, Bruce.

[[/folder]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'': The events of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' (in particular, [[spoiler:Kamille getting {{Mind Rape}}d]] in the finale), have led Char Azenable to adopt his father, Zeon Deikun's belief that humanity would remain corrupt so long as it remained attached to Earth. So he plans on using {{Colony Drop}}s to encourage people to emigrate to space and give a depopulated Earth a chance to heal.
[[/folder]]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'': The events of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' (in particular, [[spoiler:Kamille getting {{Mind Rape}}d]] in the finale), have led Char Azenable to believe in his father, Zeon Deikun's belief that humanity would remain corrupt so long as it remained attached to Earth. So he plans on using {{Colony Drop}}s to encourage people to emigrate to space and give a depopulated Earth a chance to heal.

* This is how [[spoiler:Eren feels about the rest of the world]] in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. [[spoiler:Since the entire world sees the Eldians living on Paradis Island as nothing but devils and will stop at nothing to destroy them all, he feels that there is no other option but to unleash the Rumbling on it. That said, he's also [[BeingEvilSucks deeply conflicted]] over going that far, and waits until the last moment before putting that plan into motion, in hopes that ''maybe'' he won't have to, although he's also clearly not that convinced of such an optimistic outcome. In the end, he decides to go through with his genocidal plan, but deliberately holds back just enough to allow his friends a fighting chance to stop him if they so choose.]]
* Near the end of ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', [[spoiler:the death of Miki at the hands of an angry mob pushes Akira[=/=]Devilman over the edge. He believes there is nothing left in the world worth fighting for and instead dedicates himself to the task of killing his former best friend Ryo[=/=]Satan, even as the world around him burns and humanity goes extinct.]]
* ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'' reveals that [[spoiler:Kongou Sensei's creator, Ayumu, believes this about humanity and its remaining culture. She has firsthand experienced the cruelty of the last humans that supposedly led to an awful future, and created Sensei not to give humanity peace but to help lead the next dominant species into a more logical, peaceful era devoid of humanity's failings.]]

* ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'''s ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'': After two biological terrorist attacks and an earthquake hit Gotham City, the US government decides to wall it off and declare it no longer part of the US, instead of trying to save those in Gotham who couldn't get out in time.

* ''Comicbook/XMen'': The Sentinels were designed to hunt down and destroy mutants. [[AIIsACrapshoot They frequently develop self-awareness]] and decide that the best way to destroy mutants is to eliminate anything that may potentially become a mutant. [[OmnicidalManiac In other words, anything with a genetic structure.]]

** ''Film/BatmanBegins'': ComicBook/RasAlGhul, leader of the League of Shadows, believes that Gotham has become too corrupt to save, and therefore the League must destroy it before it spreads its cancer. Batman's disagreement with their perspective drives much of the movie's story.

** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'': Ra's' daughter, ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul, agrees with her father's assessment of Gotham and proceeds to enact his plans to destroy it to [[AvengingTheVillain avenge his death]].

'''Talia:''' '"Innocent" is a strong word to throw around Gotham, Bruce.
* In ''Film/TheBatman2022'', both Selina and the Riddler believe that Gotham is too corrupt to be saved, and anyone who says different is a liar or a fool destined to fail. Bruce himself worries early in the film that he may not be able to help the city, but he has to try anyway.

--->'''Dooku''': We don't recognize the Republic here, senator, but if Naboo were to join our alliance, I could easily hear your plea.\\
'''Padme''': And if I don't join your rebellion?\\
'''Dooku''': The Republic cannot be fixed, m'lady. It is time to start over.

--->'''Luke''': I know only one truth: it is time for the Jedi [[WhamLine ...to end]].
* ''Film/Ghostbusters1984''. Egon Spengler is explaining the BackStory.
-->'''Egon:''' Something terrible is about to enter our world and this building is obviously the door. The architect's name was Ivo Shandor. In 1920, he started a secret society (of Gozer worshippers)... After the UsefulNotes/FirstWorldWar, Shandor decided society was too sick to survive. And he wasn't alone; he had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals on the roof. Bizarre rituals intended to bring about the end of the world, and now it looks like it may actually happen.
* By the end of ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', [[spoiler:Snake Plissken decides the DayOfTheJackboot CrapsackWorld that society has become deserves to be sent back to the iron age via the [[CutTheJuice global EMP]] satellite control which he helped to retrieve.]]
* In ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'', Totenkopf's [[WellIntentionedExtremist motive]] in creating his World of Tomorrow (and destroying the old one in the process).
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Steve declares [[spoiler:SHIELD]] as this, when he assesses that [[spoiler:HYDRA]] infiltrated the organization at its very ''inception'', so it ends up destroyed and is eventually rebuilt by loyal members.
** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' [[spoiler:an alternate Thanos]] realizes his plan would never work. [[spoiler:The spared people would always remember those lost, preventing them from enjoying Thanos's balance]]. Seeing that the Avengers have undone all of his work, [[spoiler:Thanos declares the only solution is to ''erase the universe'' and rebuild it according to his own ideals]].
* In ''Film/{{Melancholia}}'', this is [[TheEeyore Justine]]'s take on [[spoiler:Earth getting obliterated by the titular rogue planet]].
-->'''Justine''': The Earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it.
* In ''Film/SodomAndGomorrah'', Jehovah sends two angelic messengers to Lot to tell him that the title cities have become so evil and corrupt that He can see no alternative to wiping them from the face of the Earth. Lot pleads for the innocent to be spared, and the angels tell him Jehovah agrees to his plea that if he can find ten righteous men to lead out of Sodom, the cities will be saved. But Lot cannot find even ''one'' righteous Sodomite, and the cities' doom is sealed.

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/DominicFlandry'' series, set in the 31st century, during the waning days of the Terran Empire, Dominic Flandry of the Imperial Naval Intelligence Corps has noted that he's just doing his best to stave off the inevitable collapse of the Empire.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': By the time Hari Seldon created the science of psychohistory, it was too late to save the Galactic Empire - at that point it was so decadent that its fall was inevitable. All he could do was to try to arrange conditions so a new galaxy-wide Empire would reign in 1,000 years instead of taking 30,000 years.

* Literature/TheBible:
** [[TheGreatFlood Noah's flood]] occurs because God wants to eliminate the sinful humans, and selected only a few to survive the destruction.
** God wants to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because "their sin is very grievous", but Abraham tries to talk Him down, bartering down to sparing the city if at least ten righteous people lived within. The criterion is not met.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''' ''Literature/SummerKnight'': [[spoiler:The Summer Lady]] plans to use powerful magic to end the cycle of life and death, thus ending the pain that comes with death. Of course, in the short term, this plan will kill off most everything currently living. From what little we've seen of his motivations, Cowl seems to feel this way about the White Council. He might have a point there.
* Creator/JulienGracq's ''Literature/LeRivageDesSyrtes'': The highest-ranked government officials, depressed by the decadent and apathetic country of Orsenna they live in, decide not to prevent the on-going war with the military highly superior country of Farghestan (a war that would certainly lead to utter defeat and destruction), just so they can put an end to Orsenna as they know it.
* Creator/HBeamPiper's ''Literature/TheCosmicComputer'': The existence of the [[MasterComputer titular supercomputer]] was covered up because it had predicted that [[spoiler:the Terran Federation was inexorably declining, and that the decline would accelerate into a rapid collapse if the prediction became generally known]].
* ''{{Literature/Victoria}}'': If one agrees with the rather backwards politics of the book, this is the general opinion of the author on the United States.
* ''Franchise/Warhammer40000ExpandedUniverse'''s ''Literature/ThousandSons'': In ''Ahriman: Exile'', Amon feels this way about his own Legion, the Thousand Sons. He believes that the Legion is hopelessly corrupted and that there is no way to reverse the Rubric of Ahriman which condemned most of the Thousand Sons to a state of living death, and so he believes that the only way to save the Legion is to destroy it utterly. Ahriman, whose dark deeds were motivated by a desire to save and preserve the Legion, is horrified when he learns this.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E10OurManBashir Our Man Bashir]]", Dr. Julian Bashir plays a Film/JamesBond expy in a holo-deck program, which becomes [[HolodeckMalfunction unpleasantly real]] when the [=DS9=] crew are caught in a TeleporterAccident and become characters in his program. Captain Sisko takes on the role of the main villain, Hippocrates Noah, who plans to wipe out most of humanity except for a small enclave in his secret base on the summit of Mount Everest, claiming that humanity has grown too corrupt to continue existing. Bashir goes OffTheRails when he ''carries out'' the villain's plan rather than foil it, which surprises even the DiabolicalMastermind.
** By the seventh season, the Klingon Empire has had more than its share of corrupt and insane leaders, in spite of the stated Klingon beliefs regarding honor and courage. In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E22TackingIntoTheWind Tacking into the Wind]]", Ezri Dax's solution is to let the Klingon Empire, as it is then, die off instead of trying to fix things from within, reasoning that the Empire's governing system would just create more corruption in time anyway. This is a strong contrast to the previous Dax, Jadzia, who had a very romantic view of Klingon culture.
* ''Series/Warehouse13'': This is H.G. Wells's opinion on humanity and her motive for trying to bring about a new ice age using an artifact known as "the world's first weapon of mass destruction." H.G. was brought out of a hundred-year stasis encased in bronze, which she had asked to be placed in due to her becoming mad with grief and hate following her daughter's murder. H.G. had hoped to wake up in a better world, but soon comes to the conclusion that things have only gotten worse and declares the only way to save the world is by "destroying the parasites eating it alive."

* In ''Series/RestaurantStakeout'', The Red Room's workplace environment was one of total freedom due to an owner who assumed a restaurant would run itself. What resulted was everybody treating the place like a second home, serving patrons only if they felt like it, and a chef who openly told his customers he wanted to quit. The staff got so comfortable at work that, unlike all other staffs Willie Degel intervened with before, they verbally attacked Willie every time he tried to propose something or call attention to something -- the more Willie yelled at them, the harder they yelled back. Willie eventually walked out, for the first (and so far only) time in the series, when he realized the crew would never accept any workplace changes and that they displayed not an ounce of fear of him or anybody else. The owner soon felt the same way too and fired the entire staff.
* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', especially at the end of season 4 and throughout most of the final season when the writers were essentially adapting ''No Man's Land'' (referenced above).

* In ''Music/TheProtomen'', after killing Protoman, and realizing that humanity will not stand for itself, Megaman decides to just give up and leave the City to Wily's robots, with a parting shot of "[[BookEnds you are the dead]]" at humanity. In some performances, he even says to the robots, "[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck it]]! Kill 'Em All!"

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** The Imperium has had this attitude towards many, many cultures. The typical response involves killing them. To the last man, if possible. With orbital strikes. When the Imperium thinks a culture is too corrupt to save, it does ''not'' mess around. There are also plenty of humans who abandoned the Imperium to the Tau or Chaos (or at least the ones who haven't been reduced to gibbering insanity or megalomaniacal evil) that bear this view of the Imperium, seeing it as a broken, decaying empire that's gonna take all of humanity into a hellhole with it when it finally collapses on itself. [[TheExtremistWasRight And honestly]], [[CrapsackWorld they're not wrong]].

-->'''Guilliman''': Why do I still live? What more do you want from me? I gave everything I had to you, to them. Look what they have made of our dream. This bloated, rotten carcass of an empire is driven not by reason and hope, but by fear, hate and ignorance. Better that we had all burned in the fire of Horus' ambition than lived to see this.
* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful:'' Some among the Court of Storms take this position, arguing that the Darkness has so thoroughly corrupted the world that the only course is to burn it all down and hope that the Light can create something better in its place. Considering [[TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness the world in which they live]], they've arguably got a point.

* When RealLife sections get especially problematic (like the one on this page had), unless ''someone'' feels like cleaning it up, they are often cut, with the page being tagged Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'': The CentralTheme of the series is that any attempts to create a utopia will inevitably have their "perfect" societies end up this way.
** In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 1}}'', Andrew Ryan (and a lot of other disillusioned rich sociopaths) grew increasingly disgusted with the United States' [[ValuesDissonance corruption]] of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, from social security to nationalizing private property. It was Ryan's belief that the idealistic dream of "one man born with nothing but a body to work with, rising as high as he desired, and killing anyone who stood in his way" had died in America, so [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Ryan decided to leave]] [[StartMyOwn and build his own city-state called Rapture]] in a place that couldn't be found or targeted by anyone, and wait out the inevitable nuclear apocalypse. Ironically, he doesn't realize "It Is Beyond Saving" now applies to his own city. By the time the PlayerCharacter arrives in Rapture, the whole place is close to falling apart, everyone inside has gone insane, and they're fighting a civil war over the precious few resources that are left.
** By ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'', the city is ruined yet still alive, but any trace of capitalism has been replaced with a suicidal cult that worships the birth of a new HiveMind, and little girls are kidnapped by the cartload from outside the city to create a Messiah out of the very resource that drove everyone insane. Tenenbaum rails at a Big Daddy who is busy repairing hull fractures, asking why they can't just let the city ''die''.
** In ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'', Columbia is depicted as the 1900's ideal of a heavenly utopia, with all the racism and robber barons that the era had dialed up to eleven. Rebel leader Daisy Fitzroy has this opinion of Columbia, deciding a horrifying massacre is worth ending the dystopian nightmare she and her fellow non-whites find themselves in. Booker and Elizabeth deal so much damage to Columbia that the whole city literally veers into a maelstrom, and then they decide to use multiverse-based time-travel to ''ret-gone the city''.
** America at large in the mind of the self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Comstock is also beyond saving, referring to it as "the Sodom Below." Comstock is also grooming his daughter Elizabeth to carry out his "prophecy" that "the seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the mountains of man", since he's SecretlyDying of cancer. In a future timeline that Booker [=DeWitt=] enters into to save Elizabeth when she is taken to Comstock House, he sees an elderly version of Elizabeth already fulfilling this "prophecy" in 1984 with an attack upon New York City.
* Lucian, the villain of ''VideoGame/FableII'', plans to use The Spire to wipe most of the world out and start fresh, creating a world where death and despair won't exist.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'': After 2 days of fighting, the [[TheCavalry US Military]], after heavy losses, decide to pull back and [[DeathFromAbove commence air strikes]]. Before they've even finished retreating, they send special forces to detonate a [[NukeEm thermonuclear warhead]] at the center of the base.

* This is Lysandre's motivation in ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' -- he's convinced that the world will only become more and more corrupt due to terrible people and soon there will be not enough resources to go around, so the only way to save at least some people is to torch the earth and most of the population with it.

* This is the mantra of the primary antagonists, [[spoiler:Munna and her gang]], in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity''. [[spoiler:To them, having the Bittercold completely destroy the world is a better alternative than trying to fight for a better future.]]
* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', Hope explains that the chaos has devoured too much for there to be any possibility of saving the world. The only thing Lightning can do is try to save as many souls as she can to be brought to the next world.
* This is the Flame Emperor's view of Fódlan and the Church of Seiros in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''; they believe the only solution to the corruptions of the Crest system and the nobility is to completely destroy the current order through war and rebuild the continent from the ashes. The other factions during the war phase disagree, aiming to either remove the corrupt elements of the system and [[InternalReformist reform it from the inside]] or to make the land's hidden history public and open its borders to the outside world. As there is no true GoldenEnding but all paths lead to a brighter future, it's left up to the player to determine who's right.
* This is mentioned early and often in ''VideoGame/OneShot'', with several characters believing even [[TheChosenOne Niko]] restoring the sun wouldn't save the world, merely prolong the inevitable. It turns out that is because [[spoiler:the world is produced by a ThreeLawsCompliant AI, who is forced to violate the first law as part of its core programming. It wants to die so it can stop putting a real person in danger to produce a fake world.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''
** [[spoiler:The Institute, a clandestine organization of scientists living in an isolated subterranean city beneath Boston, believe that the surface world is beyond redemption, crawling with super mutants and raiders and being an overall violent hellhole. Their goal is not to wipe out the surface world, however, but instead to create a nuclear reactor that would allow them to exist autonomously without ever having to procure resources from the surface world.]]
** Deconstructed in most endings.
*** [[spoiler:in any ending where you don't side with The Institute, every other faction deems that the Institute is beyond redemption and must be destroyed, but that doesn't stop them from seizing its most precious resource - their science department[[note]]that is to say, pretty much 90% of The Institute[[/note]] - and using it the same way the Institute has been misusing it, but for their own politically charged ideologies[[note]]learning how to better scan for signs of technology so they can seize hoard it even more effectively, creating even more Synths and assigning them jobs and identities with no concern of the consequences to humans, or using their technology to guard the Commonwealth but screw the safety standards[[/note]].]]
*** If you decide the scientists themselves are beyond redemption and let them die in the raid, the Railroad will immediately turn hostile; you just ensured the total genocide of the Synths because their only source of reproduction died with the Institute scientists]]. Even in the ending where you side with the 'bad guys', [[spoiler:you were put in charge specifically to reform the Institute. You're not expected to do a good job, but your efforts did slightly change the mindset of at least one person - your son, who decides in his last will and testament, that his latest synth experiment deserves the chance to become a real boy.]]

* ''Website/TheOnion'' has a video where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0AEarudEdI an FDA commissioner gives up on Americans as a whole.]] His final conference is ranting at all present to just stuff as much trash as they want into their gullets and even throws junk food at them before departing, telling them to "go get cancer".
->"America is on its own. I'm not going to hold its hand like a goddamn child anymore" -- FDA Commissioner Steve Hoyer
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Season 6, Episode 3 reveals that the reason why the world suffered an apocalypse is because the gods [[spoiler:saw the leaders of the world unite as one under a bickering, backstabbing, warmongering witch against their own gods as the pinnacle of sin. Then they turned the entire world into a wasteland and killed everyone but said witch and the Grimm. Humanity came back slowly and mysteriously, but forever changed in the hopes that their natures would also change]]. The gods have given humanity one final chance: if they are still bickering, backstabbing, warmongering bastards after thousands of years of fighting a common evil together, they will be destroyed completely. [[spoiler:Said Witch's EvilPlan by the present is to summon the gods early after having set up multiple plans in different regions to destabilise humanity and keep them from uniting, in hopes that them fulfilling their intent to [[OmmicidalManiac destroy the world]] would also enable her [[WhoWantsToLiveForever eternal life to come to an end]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'': [[OmnicidalManiac Cyrus]] concluded this about The Grid under Clu's rule and set out to detonate an electromagnetic bomb that would wipe the hard drive and everyone on it. This is why Tron [[spoiler:had to lock his crazy former apprentice away]]. The horrible part? [[TruthInTelevision Real-world computer troubleshooting]] actually ''would'' consider that an option for a hard drive or computer system too corrupt to save. [[note]] It's even used in the AlternateContinuity of ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' to try and slow down a virus causing a ZombieApocalypse across Encom's servers. [[/note]] And depending on your opinion of ''Film/TronLegacy'', [[StrawmanHasAPoint Cyrus might have been right.]]
* By the time of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Superman seems to have this idea about Apokolips. Darkseid kidnapping him and brainwashing him into a leader of Darkseid's armies at the end of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has a lot to do with it, but seeing Darkseid's subjects rally to help their GodEmperor after Superman defeated him and declared the Apokoliptians free probably didn't help.

** In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 1}}'', Andrew Ryan (and a lot of other disillusioned rich sociopaths) grew increasingly disgusted with the United States' [[ValuesDissonance corruption]] of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream, from social security to nationalizing private property. It was Ryan's belief that the idealistic dream of "one man born with nothing but the sweat on his brow, rising as high as he desired, and killing anyone who stood in his way" had died in America, so [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Ryan decided to leave]] [[StartMyOwn and build his own city-state called Rapture]] in a place that couldn't be found or targeted by anyone. Ironically, he doesn't realize "It Is Beyond Saving" now applies to his own city. By the time the PlayerCharacter arrives in Rapture, the whole place is close to falling apart, everyone inside has gone insane, and they're fighting a civil war over the precious few resources that are left.
** By ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'', the city is ruined but still alive, but any trace of capitalism has been replaced with a suicidal cult that worships the birth of a new HiveMind, and little girls are kidnapped by the cartload from outside the city (which opposes isolationism) to create a Messiah out of the very resource that Ryan wanted controlled.
** In ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'', Columbia appears to be a perfect early-1900s utopia, with all the same racism, sexism, and classism that the era had. Rebel leader Daisy Fitzroy has this opinion of Columbia, recruiting Booker [=DeWitt=] and Elizabeth Comstock to help her take it down. Booker and Elizabeth deal so much damage to Columbia that the whole city literally throws itself into a maelstrom, and it's all but stated that none of its citizens survive the storm.

In any case, the EXPRESSED idea is that the society is beyond saving, whatever the REAL idea may be.

This may extend to RestartTheWorld if they think that the beyond-saving world can only - and has to - be remade from scratch.

** In the episode "Our Man Bashir", Dr. Julian Bashir was playing a Film/JamesBond expy in a holo-deck program, which became unpleasantly real when the [=DS9=] crew were caught in a freak transporter accident and became characters in his program. Captain Sisko took on the role of the main villain, Hippocrates Noah, who planned to wipe out most of humanity except for a small enclave in his secret base on the summit of Mount Everest, claiming that humanity had grown too corrupt to continue existing. Bashir goes OffTheRails when he ''carries out'' the villain's plan rather than foil it, which surprises even the DiabolicalMastermind.
** By the seventh season, the Klingon Empire has had more than its share of corrupt and insane leaders, in spite of the stated Klingon beliefs regarding honor and courage. In "Tacking into the Wind", Ezri Dax's solution is to let the Klingon Empire, as it is then, die off instead of trying to fix things from within, reasoning that the Empire's governing system would just create more corruption in time anyway. This is a strong contrast to the previous Dax, Jadzia, who had a very romantic view of Klingon culture.
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': This is H.G. Wells's opinion on humanity and her motive for trying to bring about a new ice age using an artifact known as “the world’s first weapon of mass destruction.” H.G. was brought out of a hundred-year stasis encased in bronze, which she had asked to be placed in due to her becoming mad with grief and hate following her daughter’s murder. H.G. had hoped to wake up in a better world, but soon comes to the conclusion that things have only gotten worse and declares the only way to save the world is by “destroying the parasites eating it alive.”
* In ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', part of the reason why Malcolm Merlyn wants to level the Glades and kill everyone in it was that his organization, Tempest, had tried and failed many times to gentrify the area, which came to a head when Merlyn's wife was murdered in the Glades. As a result, Merlyn is opposed to every current effort to improve the Glades in favor of just destroying the place with earthquake machines.

* ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'''s ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'': After two biological terrorist attacks and an earthquake hit Gotham City the US government decides to wall it off and make it no longer part of the US instead of trying to save those in Gotham who couldn't get out in time.

* In ''Film/{{Melancholia}}'', this is [[TheEeyore Justine]]'s take on [[spoiler: Earth getting obliterated by the titular rogue planet]].

* ''Website/TheOnion'' has a video where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0AEarudEdI an FDA commissioner gives up on Americans as a whole]]. His final conference is ranting at all present to just stuff as much trash as they want into their gullets and even throws junk food at them before departing, telling them to "go get cancer".

* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'': [[OmnicidalManiac Cyrus]] concluded this about The Grid under Clu's rule and set out to detonate an electromagnetic bomb that would wipe the hard drive and everyone on it. This is why Tron [[spoiler: had to lock his crazy former apprentice away]]. The horrible part? [[TruthInTelevision Real-world computer troubleshooting]] actually ''would'' consider that an option for a hard drive or computer system too corrupt to save. [[note]] It's even used in the AlternateContinuity of ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' to try and slow down a virus causing a ZombieApocalypse across Encom's servers. [[/note]] And depending on your opinion of ''Film/TronLegacy'', [[StrawmanHasAPoint Cyrus might have been right.]]

* This is how [[spoiler:Eren feels about the rest of the world]] in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. [[spoiler:Since the entire world sees the Eldians living on Paradis Island as nothing but devils and will stop at nothing to destroy them all, he feels that there is no other option but to unleash the Rumbling on it. That said, he's also [[BeingEvilSucks deeply conflicted]] over going that far, and waits until the last moment before putting that plan into motion, in hopes hopes that ''maybe'' he won't have to, although he's also clearly not that convinced of such an optimistic outcome]].

* At the beginning of ''Anime/CrossAnge'', Ange [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome marvels at the World of Mana, calling it peaceful and perfect]]. By episode 10, having been turned on by everyone in her nation and exiled as CannonFodder against dragons on a PenalColony for being a Norma, she, after almost being executed, decides that the Mana world, which oppressed her and the other Normas, needs to be destroyed. It does not help that mana is actually a drug / mind control and the puppet master has a few screws loose. By episode 23, when [[TheMagicGoesAway Embryo severs the Mana network]] and starts [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the fusion of the two worlds]], a few of the people who turned on her encounter her and [[EntitledBastard demand her help]]. She tells them she could care less, and scares them off with a gunshot. In the end, she and the other Normas (and a few formerly-Mana-using sympathizers) go to the DRAGON world, while everyone else deals with the collapse of civilization and the loss of Mana; surprisingly, a world of trigger-happy barbaric raiders survive without mana fairly well.

** The Imperium has had this attitude towards many, many cultures. The typical response involves killing them. To the last man, if possible. With orbital strikes. When the Imperium thinks a culture is too corrupt to save, it does ''not'' mess around.
*** There are also plenty of humans who abandoned the Imperium to the Tau or Chaos (or at least the ones who haven't been reduced to gibbering insanity or megalomaniacal evil) that bear this view of the Imperium, seeing it as a broken, decaying empire that's gonna take all of humanity into a hellhole with it when it finally collapses on itself. [[TheExtremistWasRight And honestly]], [[CrapsackWorld they're not wrong]].

*** America at large in the mind of the self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Comstock is also beyond saving, referring to it as "the Sodom Below." Comstock is also grooming his daughter Elizabeth to carry out his "prophecy" that "the seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne and drown in flame the mountains of man", since he's SecretlyDying of cancer. In a future timeline that Booker [=DeWitt=] enters into to save Elizabeth when she is taken to Comstock House, he sees an elderly version of Elizabeth already fulfilling this "prophecy" in 1984 with an attack upon New York City.

* There's a definite possibility to write off all of Creation, the entire Multiverse, as this, in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series. Lucifer attempts to convince you to destroy the entire process of creation and reconstruction in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', and the White in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' try to invoke this to convince you to reduce all that exists to Nothing. Most often, though, any faction will invoke this against their enemies to convince you the world as-is is broken, and that by joining up with them, you can get it back on its feet again. Think about the price of doing so for any given allegiance, though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'': [[spoiler:The Institute, a clandestine organization of scientists living in an isolated subterranean city beneath Boston, believe that the surface world is beyond redemption, crawling with super mutants and raiders and being an overall violent hellhole. Their goal is not to wipe out the surface world, however, but instead to create a nuclear reactor that would allow them to exist autonomously without ever having to procure resources from the surface world.]]
** Deconstructed in most endings: [[spoiler:in any ending where you don't side with The Institute, every other faction deems that the Institute is beyond redemption and must be destroyed, but that doesn't stop them from seizing its most precious resource - their science department[[note]]that is to say, pretty much 90% of The Institute[[/note]] - and using it the same way the Institute has been misusing it, but for their own politically charged ideologies[[note]]learning how to better scan for signs of technology so they can seize hoard it even more effectively, creating even more Synths and assigning them jobs and identities with no concern of the consequences to humans, or using their technology to guard the Commonwealth but screw the safety standards[[/note]]. If you decide the scientists themselves are beyond redemption and let them die in the raid, the Railroad will immediately turn hostile; you just ensured the total genocide of the Synths because their only source of reproduction died with the Institute scientists]]. Even in the ending where you side with the 'bad guys', [[spoiler:you were put in charge specifically to reform the Institute. You're not expected to do a good job, but your efforts did slightly change the mindset of at least one person - your son, who decides in his last will and testament, that his latest synth experiment deserves the chance to become a real boy.]]

* From ''Series/KitchenNightmares'', there's Amy's Baking Company. Amy and her husband prove themselves to be truly ''horrible'' both as restaurant managers and as people. Not only do they make several absurd decisions that cost them customers (their servers are people who went too culinary school, and Amy only cooks one item at a time, leading to a massive backup in orders), they also perform actions that range from cruel (firing a worker [[DisproportionateRetribution for asking a single question that is not intended as an insult]]) to outright ''illegal'' (attempting to ''poison'' a customer for being rude, and in Samy's case pocketing a server's tips). Ramsay also learns that the store has gone through over ''fifty'' employees ''in a single year''. He finally hits the breaking point, though, when he brings this up to Amy and Samy. Not only does Samy reveal that they've actually gone through over ''100 employees'' '''''in a single year''''', but their mannerisms cause Ramsay to realize that they didn't hire him to help save their restaurant, but because they wanted him to be a YesMan to silence their critics. Finally realizing that these two [[BeyondRedemption cannot be helped]], he delivers an [[TranquilFury unusually calm]] TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the couple, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm and for the first and only time in the show, leaves a restaurant without trying to save it]].

-->'''Bruce:''' Gotham isn't beyond saving. Give me more time; there are good people here.\\

-->'''Bruce:''' [Ra's] was trying to kill millions of innocent people!\\

* By the time of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Superman seems to have this idea about Apokolips. Darkseid kidnapping him and brainwashing him into a leader of Darkseid's armies has a lot to do with it, but seeing Darkseid's subjects rally to help their GodEmperor after Superman defeated him and declared the Apokoliptians free probably didn't help.

** God wants to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because "their sin is very grievous", but Abraham tries to talk him down, bartering down to sparing the city if at least ten righteous people lived within. The criterion is not met.

* This is how [[spoiler:Eren feels about the rest of the world]] in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. [[spoiler:Since the entire world sees the Eldians living on Paradis Island as nothing but devils and will stop at nothing to destroy them all, he feels that there is no other option but to unleash the Rumbling on it.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' Season 6, Episode 3 reveals that the reason why the world suffered an apocalypse is because the gods [[spoiler:saw the leaders of the world unite as one under a bickering, backstabbing, warmongering witch against their own gods as the pinnacle of sin. Then they turned the entire world into a wasteland and killed everyone but said witch and the Grimm. Humanity came back slowly and mysteriously, but forever changed in the hopes that their natures would also change]]. The gods have given humanity one final chance: if they are still bickering, backstabbing, warmongering bastards after thousands of years of fighting a common evil together, they will be destroyed completely.

* In ''Music/TheProtomen'', after killing Protoman, and realizing that humanity will not stand for itself, Megaman decides to just give up and leave the City to Wily's robots, with a parting shot of "[[BookEnds you are the dead]]" at humanity. In some performances, he even says to the robots, "[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck it]]! KillEmAll!"