History Main / LesserOfTwoEvils

* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' ''Brood War'', Jim Raynor and his allies side with Kerrigan against the Earth Directorate forces poised to conquer the sector. This is a case where the good guys misjudged which evil was the lesser one. Or did they? No one can know now as the UED simply didn't get the chance to prove themselves to be better or worse rulers than the Koprulu Sector's natives.
** The sequel shows that in the long run it was the better choice, as Kerrigan proves be the SpannerInTheWorks for [[spoiler: Amon's]] plan. That said, The good guys [[spoiler: including Kerrigan herself, [[CharacterDevelopment eventually]]]] have to go through hell [[EarnYourHappyEnding before it pays off]].

* In ''Theater/{{Hamilton}}'', Hamilton ultimately is called upon in the presidential election to endorse either Aaron Burr or his hated enemy Thomas Jefferson, and ultimately picks Jefferson, reasoning that while he disagrees with all of Jefferson's beliefs at least Jefferson has them.

* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Serini Toormuck, burned out and traumatized by everything she experienced as guardian of the last Snarl Gate, decides that the best course of action is letting BigBad Xykon win and take control of the Gate. Given the limited knowledge of the conflict she has, it's an understandable choice: the Order are [[DestructiveSavior Destructive Saviors]] who have been directly or indirectly responsible for the destruction of all but one of the other four Gates, which means that her Gate is now the only thing keeping the world-devouring Snarl at bay. As a consequence she doesn't trust the Order to get anywhere near her Gate, and favors Xykon over them because he's at least not going to destroy it. Because even the despotic rule of an undead evil sorceror is preferable to the destruction of all reality that the Snarl will cause if it gets out.

* ''Literature/TheRuinsOfAnAmericanPartySystem'': According to WordOfGod, this is the view of Robert Taft (and presumably most other liberal/moderate Republicans) regarding the far-right American Party. He disagrees with them on most things, but outright despises (both politically and personally) the similarly conservative but very corrupt Commonwealth Party. So, if it comes to a choice between the two, he'd side with the AP.

* During Wrestling/TheNexus's domination of RAW during the summer of 2010, several of the brand's top heels like Wrestling/{{Edge}}, Wrestling/ChrisJericho, and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}}, although remaining on the bad side, were cast as "lesser evils" compared to the Nexus. The one exception though was Wrestling/TheMiz, who was seen as an equal although separate evil waiting on the sidelines to strike. Edge went face and Jericho took a break shortly afterwards, but Sheamus stayed heel for a while before getting his own "lesser of two evils" HeelFaceTurn by standing up to Wrestling/MarkHenry.

* ''Diseases'': In 1927, Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel prize for finding a form of cure for syphilis - by giving people malaria. The fever from the malaria would go so high that it could kill off an otherwise untreatable syphilis infection. Left untreated syphilis could lead to insanity. By comparison, the treatable malaria was considered a the lesser of the two sicknesses

* Played with in the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series. The Metroids, which are likely to kill about everything they encounter by stealing their life energy but have the potential to be used as a powerful bioweapon or energy resource [[note]]the only thing keeping others from doing so being that they're notoriously difficult to control[[/note]], prey on and keep in check the [[GrayGoo X Parasites]], which are even more likely to kill about everything, are capable of reproducing asexually like bacteria, ''and'' [[ItCanThink absorbing knowledge from their victims]], making them a potential threat to all life in existence. The catch is Samus was apparently not given the way to learn this until [[NiceJobBreakingItHero after she'd already eradicated all but one of the Metroids]].

* In ''Literature/ShardsOfHonor'', Prince Serg is so [[UpToEleven outrageously]] [[TheCaligula psychopathic]] that his father considers it necessary to both start an unprovoked war and then lose it deliberately just so Prince Serg and his supporters can be killed and discredited in the process.

* Queen's Quest are supposed to be bad guys in World Wonder Ring STARDOM, the culmination of Io Shirai's status as TheAce going to her head. The "problems" being that becoming their ace by default also made Shirai a {{face}} by default, to the point straighter baby faces have regularly worked with her. For Queen's Quest as a whole, Oedo~tai had not only been the defacto evil stable of STARDOM for years but were also a more disagreeable group in almost [[KickTheDog every]] possible [[EvilIsPetty way]]. Furthermore, Queen's Quest had HZK and AZM among its members. They looked like little girls, [[UpToEleven more so]] than Mayu Iwatani. Most fans didn't like seeing them get hurt. When Io tagged with them and hogged most of the ring time to herself it looked less like ItsAllAboutMe and more like a good {{mentor|archetype}} protecting them from harm.

* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Serini Toormuck, burned out and traumatized by everything she experienced as guardian of the last Snarl Gate, decides that the best course of action is letting BigBad Xykon win and take control of the Gate. Given the limited knowledge of the conflict she has, it's an understandable choice: the Order are [[DestructiveSavior Destructive Saviors]] with a habit of destroying the Gates rather than allowing Xykon to take control of them, and now there's only ''one'' left. Since the Gate is the only thing keeping the world-devouring Snarl at bay, she's become willing to do ''anything'' to keep it intact. Even if that means handing it over to the evil sorceror who wants to use it to rule the world. Because even ''that'' is preferable to the destruction of all reality that destroying the final Gate will cause.

* In ''Anime/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'', neither Sindhuran prince are a paragon of virtue but Arslan and his group decide to help Rajendra who is far less of a JerkAss compared to his brother Gadhevi. At least Rajendra cares for the men under his command, wishing to bring them glory and victory.

''Diseases'': In 1927, Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel prize for finding a form of cure for syphilis - by giving people malaria. The fever from the malaria would go so high that it could kill off an otherwise untreatable syphilis infection. Left untreated syphilis could lead to insanity. By comparison, the treatable malaria was considered a the lesser of the two sicknesses

* ''Creator/MarcMues'': Invoked in the eponymous video series where two horrible musicians are compared to each other.

Compare BlackAndGrayMorality, when those who are technically the "good guys" are the lesser evil.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': During the Namek Saga, the heroes are presented with such a situation; Krillin agrees to use the Dragon Balls to make Vegeta immortal because he'd rather face that than be killed by Frieza, only for Guru, the creator of the Namekian Dragon Balls, to [[DeathByDespair die of grief]] before Dende can finish making the wish, [[CantLiveWithoutYou taking Porunga and the Dragon Balls with him]]. PlayedWith since the subsequent fight between Vegeta and Frieza, as well as Goku and Frieza, not to mention [[AllThereInTHeManual the datebook]], makes it clear that Frieza was ''way'' more powerful than even Vegeta realised, so it's unlikely that an immortal Vegeta would have been much more than an invincible punching bag anyway.

* ''Film/FreddyVsJason''. With ''two'' nigh-indestructible killing machines on the loose in Springwood, the heroes [[EvilVersusEvil pit them against each other]] and root for the guy who just wants teenagers to keep their booze and premarital sex out of Camp Crystal Lake, rather than the sadistic child murderer who can hunt people anywhere in the world so long as they're asleep. (The big irony here is, Jason's kill count in the movie was higher than Freddy's. Still, it's a valid point.)

* Played with in the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series. The Metroids, which kill everything they encounter but have the potential to be used as a powerful bioweapon or energy resource [[note]]the only thing keeping others from doing so being that they're notoriously difficult to control[[/note]], prey on and keep in check the [[GrayGoo X Parasites]], which kill everything ''and'' are capable of reproducing asexually like bacteria and [[ItCanThink absorbing knowledge from their victims]], making them a potential threat to all life in existence. The catch is Samus doesn't learn this until [[NiceJobBreakingItHero after she'd already eradicated all but one of the Metroids]].

* Played with in the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series. The Metroids, which kill everything they encounter but have the potential to be used as a powerful bioweapon [[note]]the only think keeping others from doing so being that they're notoriously difficult to control[[/note]], prey on and keep in check the [[GrayGoo X-Parasites]], which kill everything ''and'' are capable of reproducing asexually like bacteria, [[ItCanThink absorbing knowledge from their victims]], making them a potential thread to all life in existence. The catch is Samus doesn't learn this until [[NiceJobBreakingItHero after she'd already eradicated all but one of the Metroids]]. The events of ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' come about because, without the Metroids to keep them in check, the X-Parasites are able to flourish and eventually take over a single space station, culminating into them nearly killing Samus and producing a fully-powered [[EvilCounterpart clone]] of her while she tries to get to the bottom of what's going on at the aforementioned space station.

Modern elections, especially for the office of President of the United States, are the TropeCodifier for the modern sense of this trope in popular consciousness, and as such many examples are directly based on or otherwise referential to such politics. That being said, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment specific real-life examples should be kept off this page]].

* ''Series/ChariteAtWar'': Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg discusses this with Doctor Sauerbruch, referring to his planned attempt on UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's life. On the one hand, he has [[IGaveMyWord sworn an oath]] on the man, on the other, without Hitler, the entire rotten system of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] will come to an end.

* In the ''VideoGame/Persona5'' PeggySue fic series ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/914673 Start Again]]'', Ichiryusai Madarame is this. His neglect and plagiarism of Yusuke and his other students is unquestionably cruel and unfair, but compared to the other problems the Phantom Thieves have to deal with, which include a renegade Metaverse assassin, a violent sexual predator, a mob boss, the sociopathic leader of a GovernmentConspiracy, and [[spoiler:Hifumi's mother]], [[AdaptationalVillainy whose toxic behavior is rapidly escalating]] due to [[ForWantOfANail Yusuke's accidental actions causing changes in the timeline]], his cruelty is at least stable and predictable. Therefore, dealing with him is fairly low on the Phantom Thieves' to-do list.