History Main / PureIsNotGood

* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'': Jei-san sees himself as the only person who can eliminate evil. Unfortunately, he is pure evil (with [[MilkyWhiteEyes pure white eyes]] and a [[VoiceOfTheLegion creepy voice]] to boot), and ''everyone'' is evil to him, except for his "innocent niece" Kyoko, who is so innocent (or severely traumatized) she isn't afraid of a pile of corpses, only happy that "Uncle is nearby!" Interestingly, Kyoko seems to be the only one (not counting Jei himself or later [[spoiler:Inazuma]] who can safely touch Jei's soul-sucking black blade. WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:Kyoko was supposed to become Jei's new host, but the author felt uncomfortable about it so Inazuma and Jiro were created]].

* ''Literature/{{Shimoneta}}'' takes this in a disturbing direction via deconstruction. Censorship has banned all mention of sex and lewdness from society, and Anna, head of the school's decency squad, has been raised by even stricter standards to be the model of purity. This means when she develops a crush on Okuma, she is unable to separate lust from love and her ignorance leads to her very nearly raping the guy, to his horror. She becomes even more desperate for sex as the show goes on, despite not knowing what sex ''is'' nor that she is the kind of pervert she should be against. To say nothing of the {{Yandere}} tendencies she develops...

I am the Earth defiled''

-->''I am the cosmic storms\\

I am [[{{Satan}} bringereth of light]]''

-->'''''[[ApocalypseHow/ClassX Earth successfully erased]]'''''

* ''Manga/BlackButler'': Both [[spoiler: Queen Victoria and the angel Ash/Angela]]'s ultimate goal is to purify England of its sins... with [[KillItWithFire fire]] and [[MindControl brainwashing]].
* [[spoiler:Mato Kuroi]] from ''Anime/BlackRockShooter'' is this. [[spoiler: She happens to be a genuinely pure girl that has no sorrow or worry, and wants other people to be just like her. In a similar case like [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] above, she also realizes that people aren't as pure as her and wants to change that. That desire manifests into Black★Rock Shooter and, true to her nature, strives to help others. It's just said Otherself lives in a place where suffering and sorrow are ''the'' society, and her method of saving everyone is to kill everyone and everything as a form of MercyKill. This makes Black★Rock Shooter extremely homicidal (as the Otherselves are an EmotionlessGirl race and only acting on their counterparts' behalf) by going around and killing her own kind in a giant massacre for years without batting an eyelash because Mato is ignorant of such a world and would have never thought that her ideology will result in something like that. When Mato finds out about this, she understandably [[FreakOut freaks]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide out]].]]

* ''Manga/CodeBreaker'' has the pure, innocent killer [[spoiler: child-Sakura. Her pal Ogami shows her that killing is bad and hugging is good, although she kills him anyway (they get better)]].

* Lucy from ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Pure, sweet, kind... psychotic killer, her theme song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QLP4DCcOZA Lilium]] is OminousLatinChanting for "pure as the lily".
** In addition, Number 35 (Mariko) is a five-year-old girl, filled with childish innocence and playfulness. [[AxCrazy And cruelty.]]
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', the BigBad insists that he has purified himself by giving his SevenDeadlySins their own bodies in the form of [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculi]], but he exhibits basically all of those sins anyway, he just isn't as overt about them. When he reabsorbs Greed into himself, he becomes AffablyEvil. When he removes Greed he reverts to being [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumour a humorless prick]].

** Gouda thinks of himself as a pure person and a virgin who has only the best for everyone in mind but is a treacherous bastard who always dresses in black and never had his terribly disfigured face restored, so everyone who meets him will always remember him. He also [[spoiler:deliberately designed the Individual Eleven memetic virus to only affect those who were virgins before they were fully cyberized as a further twisting of this trope since their "purity" is the very thing that makes them vulnerable to becoming his pawns.]]
** Kuze has given up on all kinds of idealism and turned to terrorism, [[spoiler:but is completely devoted to helping the people suffering in the internment camps and sacrifices everything he has to improve their situation]]. He also had his cybernetic body custom build with white skin and hair, and a face so perfectly sculpted that it allows for almost no facial expressions or even mouth movement so as to not distort its unfading beauty. He also dresses completely in white when possible evoking at the same time an image of purity and [[LightIsNotGood death]]. He gets rid of the white getup after quitting Individual Eleven and joining the Asian refugees, switching to more practical jeans and a leather jacket. Characterwise, he is compared to Che Guevara, Malcolm X, and Cassius Clay (the 19th-century abolitionist, not the 20th-century boxer who changed his name to Muhammed Ali) - a person utterly convinced of the rightness of his cause and with ability to steer others to it with his massive charisma.
** In ''Solid State Society'', both Gouda and Kuze are considered to be two of the few people with egotistical, overwhelming rightfulness along with Batou, Togusa, The Laughing Man, Aramaki, and the Major herself.

* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Naraku corrupts Hakushin, a Living Buddha who has become bitter over his HeroicSacrifice, into protecting him by erecting a ''purifying'' barrier that destroys demons (except for Naraku's). Kikyo at times is also aligned against the protagonists and uses her purifying priestess powers to thwart their efforts since she's a DarkMagicalGirl who wants to face Naraku all alone. [[spoiler: Ironically (or meaningfully), Kikyou is the one who actually convinces Hakushin to stop serving Naraku, which finally allows him to stop hating people and pass on.]]
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'': Overlaps with LightIsNotGood with [[TheRival Satsuki]] who dresses in all white and even gains her own {{Stripperiffic}} [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Kamui]] called ''Junketsu'' which translated to English means "Purity".
** For added Irony she can effectively use its powers precisely BECAUSE she is [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl not at all embarrassed to be almost naked when her Kamui powers up]].
** Becomes borderline FridgeHorror with later episodes when we meet Satsuki's mother Ragyo [[spoiler:and find out she sexually molests her daughter and is implied to have been doing so for ''years'', under the pretense of "purifying" her]]. Yikes.
** [[EvilWeapon Kamui Junketsu]] has a very meaningful name. It is composed of 100% pure Life Fibers [[spoiler:and unlike [[EmpathicWeapon Senketsu]], has not been genetically modified in any way. By the standards of his species, Junketsu is indeed the purest can be - a purely hostile extraterrestrial parasite.]]
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'' the spirit of PhlebotinumGirl Lalah appears in Amuro's dream, saying "Char is pure". At that point, Char is widely viewed as selfish (and/or Messianic) and is trying to render Earth uninhabitable for human life. Amuro's response: to wake up shouting "PURE?!"
* ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': Johan Liebert is portrayed as a charismatic, intelligent, and seemingly inhumanly perfect individual. After all, he's a [[PrettyBoy handsome]], [[WickedCultured well-mannered, well-read, and educated]] young man. However, nothing changes the fact that ''he is'' the monster: a [[ManipulativeBastard highly manipulative]] [[{{sociopath}} psychopath]] who has been carrying out a series of crimes and murders since [[EnfanteTerrible his childhood]]. With his qualities, the vast majority of the world's problems would be solved, not helped by the fact that he was raised to be [[ChildSoldier the perfect soldier]]. His unwavering dedication to his twisted goals and his lack of scruples make him an example of how "purity" in terms of determination, physical appearance, intellect, personality, and EvilVirtues does not necessarily denote moral goodness.
* ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'': Itachi notes that Sasuke is "still pure, and can be colored by anything", and as a result, the BigBad had a fairly easy time manipulating him. Further events indicate this purity likely stemmed from [[spoiler:his ignorance of the darker goings-on of his village. The person to first introduce him to the reality could bend his perception of the conflict as they pleased]].

* ''Anime/PsychoPass'': [[spoiler: BigBad Makishima has a pure-white psycho-pass, indicating a perfectly sound mind, which peaks at its purest even as he kills the Akane's friend Yuki with a straight-razor.]]
* [[spoiler: Kyouko Sakura]] from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' describes [[spoiler: her father]] like this. And she does so a while after [[spoiler: he actually [[GoMadFromTheRevelation lost his mind after learning of Kyoko]]'s SelflessWish and went the PaterFamilicide route since his mind simply ''broke'' after that.]] Confirmed when the Drama CD [[spoiler: shows us ''what'' kind of person Minister Sakura was before breaking himself and everyone else but Kyouko: a soft-spoken, kind NiceGuy.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Kyouko''':]] ''"He was too honest. Too kind. Every morning reading the paper, the worries of the world brought him to tears(...)"''

* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'': Jei-san sees himself as the only person who can eliminate evil. Unfortunately, he is pure evil (with [[MilkyWhiteEyes pure white eyes]] and a [[VoiceOfTheLegion creepy voice]] to boot), and ''everyone'' is evil to him, except for his "innocent niece" Kyoko, who is so innocent (or severely traumatized) she isn't afraid of a pile of corpses, only happy that "Uncle is nearby!" Interestingly, Kyoko seems to be the only one (not counting Jei himself or later [[spoiler: Inazuma]] who can safely touch Jei's soul-sucking black blade. WordOfGod is that [[spoiler: Kyoko was supposed to become Jei's new host, but the author felt uncomfortable about it so Inazuma and Jiro were created]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Rorschach has an incorruptible black-and-white world view, that, while admirable in a CrapsackWorld of BlackAndGreyMorality, causes him to do some pretty horrific things to people who fall under the "black" part of it. [[spoiler: When he knows that the only pragmatic thing to do is to compromise his ideals, he chooses to die instead.]]

* In the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'', the [[BigBad Fabrication Machine]] is powered by/contains pure ''intelligence.'' Unlike the nine [[{{Golem}} ragdolls]], it has no human soul, and therefore no conscience, no sense of right and wrong...Toward the end of the movie, [[spoiler:The Scientist]] explains that it's because of this that the Fabrication Machine is so dangerous: containing only pure intelligence and no human soul, it could be all too easily corrupted.

* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' specifically the last installment ''The Amber Spyglass'' a priest is sent after our hapless heroes; this man's special because among his peers he is seen as inexplicably pure - he has spent a long time praying and being absolved so that he could 'make room' for the sin of committing murder.

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'', God is so pure that he cannot comprehend human evil, and so spends all his time contemplating his own greatness. [[spoiler:This turns out to be the whole point of the series. God, contemplating himself, isn't doing his job of promoting goodness (or doing anything else at all, for that matter) and needs to be replaced.]]
* In the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' series, as a being of pure hunger, Shelob cannot be tempted by The One Ring's promises of power.
** Tom Bombadil is equally incorruptible by the Ring, and although he is benevolent to the hobbits (and to pretty much everyone who isn't working for the Dark Lord), his incorruptibility makes him too fickle to be a reliable caretaker for the One Ring.

** In the first book, when the School Master finds out about [[spoiler: the Golden Goose giving up its power]], the result of an act of evil, he thinks:

** It's said that you have to be 100% pure--Good or Evil--to hear the thoughts of animals.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' / ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** In season two, Spike and Drusilla unleash the Judge, a demon sent to destroy everyone that isn't pure evil. It's a pretty demanding requirement - Spike and Drusilla themselves were vulnerable because of their love for each other, and their minion Dalton died because of his love for ''learning.'' The only one confirmed to be immune was the newly released Angelus.
-->'''The Judge:''' This one cannot be burned. He is clean.\\

** In the episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", Xander attempts a love spell on Cordelia so he can dump her, and is told that the intent has to be pure. He replies that he intends pure revenge. The spell works, although not the way he wants it to.

* The Daleks from ''Series/DoctorWho'' are, as a species, obsessed with genetic purity -- and ''exterminating'' everything else. Any member of the species who does or thinks something against this is seen as wrong, impure, and thusly exterminated too.

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea|HourOfDarkness}}'', shortly after Jennifer meets [[RoyalBrat "Prince"]] Laharl for the first time:
-->'''Jennifer:''' I believe you because your eyes are pure. I don't know if it's pure good or pure evil, though. ''(chuckle)''
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/Disgaea5'', where inherently violent demons corrupting themselves with virtue results in a YinYangBomb of heroes of justice.
* Done to interesting effect in DatingSim ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub''. [[spoiler: After Sayori's suicide and the corruption of the game that comes afterwards, the game slowly devolves into madness with your surviving love interests becoming more unstable, their sprites glitching, their text suddenly changing fonts, and their personalities warping to become unappealing and even disgusting and terrifying. The only one who seems unaffected is Monika, who at worst will appear in front of the interface on occasion or experience a minor sprite glitch for a second. Basically, as everything slowly goes insane, Monika begins looking more and more like a pure, untouched beacon of sanity. Naturally, this is because she's the one who's corrupting the game in the first place because she has MediumAwareness, and her frustration with being the only NotLoveInterest in the game turns her into a jealous {{Yandere}} and drives her to start crudely re-writing the game so that she can create a route for herself and drive the player away from the other love interests, even if she has to kill or delete them.]]

* Celes Chere of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', who, in the first translation, is described as having "a spirit as pure as snow." While she does make a HeelFaceTurn, she is a former general who is infamous for torching a city.
* Weiss of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII: VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' was created from a pure lifestream, with no traces of the tainted lifestream.

* [[spoiler:Vanitas]] from ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' is [[spoiler: Ventus]]'s darkness given form. The former is, of course, pure evil...but the latter's pure light makes him frail and easy to manipulate.
* In ''VideoGame/LuminousArc2'' [[spoiler: Elicia, the BigBad is actually a MessianicArchetype who saved many children's lives, but the grief that she cannot save everyone causes her to go to the dark side and tap into forbidden magic.]]
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'': Jedah Dohma is a ruthless demon who unhesitatingly sacrifices millions of human souls to stop the threat of Ultron-Sigma by any means necessary, but his soul is apparently noble enough that he can use the Soul Stone.
* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'', Trousseau was originally the kindest and most dedicated member of Eir's Apothecaries. However, his sensitivity also made him extremely easy to manipulate; [[spoiler:he goes into a downward spiral after failing to cure his sister's disease, which then makes him an easy target for Claude and the Book of Night. Trousseau then becomes convinced that the best way to "save" everyone is by essentially committing a mass MercyKill. Malaya lampshades this in a flashback, saying that Trousseau's innocence made him easy to corrupt]].
* ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'': The Batter, the protagonist, is on his quest to purify the world from creatures called Spectres, which are terrorizing everything inside. What's actually happening in the game becomes unnerving when you revisit the Zones after you beat it. [[spoiler:All trace of life is absent in the "purified" Zone, not just the Spectres but everyone who lived there. This is the first clue that what the Batter is doing might not be not for the best.]] The last chapter reveals that [[spoiler:the Batter is an OmnicidalManiac who wants to destroy the world if that's the way to purify it. When he's about to purify one last place to end the world, you're given a LastSecondEndingChoice to side with or against him, although the results aren't too different because at this point only a few places are left untouched, with the rest having turned to uninhabitable, lifeless lands.]]

** There's a tentative example in [[spoiler: Cerebella]]'s story mode. It's noted that despite working for [[spoiler: the Medici Mafia, Cerebella]] has a pure and innocent heart, which would potentially allow her to wish on the [[ArtifactOfDoom Skull Heart]] without ending up becoming the next Skullgirl. That doesn't stop her from [[spoiler: killing Ms. Fortune by crushing her to death]]. Sadly, [[spoiler: Cerebella seems to realize her folly only ''after'' she presented her mobster father figure Vitale Medici with the Life Gem she retrieved from a mangled catgirl's corpse.]]
** Played ''very'' straight in [[ProfessionalKiller Black Dahlia's]] story mode, however. When she makes her wish on the Skull Heart, it deems her heart pure enough to do so without becoming the next Skullgirl and so vanishes forever upon granting her desire. The problem is that Black Dahlia is an AxCrazy BloodKnight, and her "wish" involves ultimately being whisked to a DeathWorld where she can fight, maim, and kill with her life on the line for the rest of her existence. [[spoiler:This is because the Skull Heart runs on a BlueAndOrangeMorality interpretation of "purity", viewing any benevolent wish as inherently ruining the outcome since such unnatural intervention can't be truly "good", and wishing for your own personal gain is already "impure". Dahlia's single-minded lust for violence and bloodshed, and her desire to be put on a world that knows only bloodshed with no inherent advantage for herself to survive, thus doesn't count for personal gain or benevolent assistance to anyone]]. For its part, the Skull Heart sounds ''overjoyed'' to grant her wish.

* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' implies this is the case with [[OmnicidalManiac Black Mage]] in the Castle of Ordeals arc. The only metaphysical depiction of Black Mage's character flaws that the castle can conjure for him is himself. And then Black Mage starts talking and actually makes it worse.

* In ''Webcomic/AnsemRetort'' Axel manages to achieve "Reverse Nirvana" because his heart is pure chaotic evil.
** It's mentioned that the only other person to achieve Reverse Nirvana is [[Webcomic/EightBitTheater Black Mage]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Kore. He's probably the most determined Evil Paladin in the world - mostly because he's the ''only'' Evil-Aligned Holy Paladin, something that would normally be metaphysically impossible for even the most bloodthirsty, hypocritical KnightTemplar[[note]]A demon overlord found a way to turn him into what he is[[/note]]. The purity of his insanity is quite apparent; he will ignore power, loot, and glory for the sake of murdering anyone ''related'' to the guilty, regardless of official alignment, and then send them to his own personal Hell. In irony, his body has been turned into an impure abomination; anyone he murders is sent to a metaphysical Hell linked to his body, which has turned him into a living mass of screaming, sentient organs. None of this self-inflicted and self-propagated torture has instilled in him any slightest doubt concerning his belief in the goodness of his cause - even as he uses the souls he has devoured to switch his character sheet alignment at will.
* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': Each of the Reapers, arch-demons of Satan meant to murder people to stave off their own sentences, represents purity taken to a sinful extreme. Scarlet represents the purity of [[spoiler:Loyalty]], as she is willing to screw anyone over [[spoiler:to save the one person she's dedicated to; first it was her mother, where she murdered millions (including herself) with a virus just to get the funds she'd need to save her mother from an illness, then she risked humanity's total extinction to save Chase]]. Brook represents the purity of Obedience; while he ''technically'' doesn't have a sinner's mark, [[spoiler:he ''sent himself to hell'' just so he'd have something to do after his sister murdered him for being loved by their father (for, again, blindly following orders better than her). Then Satan updated Brook's Rap sheet with the many crimes he committed [[NeverMyFault under Satan's orders]] and he doesn't object]]. Ashe represents the purity of Acceptance; he wants all of mankind to die because they've already doomed themselves, but he's also inconsistent about his motives and hasn't truly thought about the reason why everyone he has to brutally murder is still clinging to life.

* ''Webcomic/{{Pibgorn}}'': [[http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2007/09/21/ A discharge of focused evil. . . so young, and yet. . . so pure]]
* ''Webcomic/ToPreventWorldPeace'': The series as a whole is a "light" deconstruction of Magical Girl anime. In this setting, magical girls can only receive their powers if they have a "purity of being" (they completely believe in and represent an ideal), thereby gaining magical power that is used to hunt down the magical predators that plague society. Unfortunately, the forces of good [[WeAreStrugglingTogether are not one big happy family]]; [[MagnificentBastard politicians, businessmen, and even some muggles]] [[WouldHurtAChild manipulate their children into doing dangerous / socially unacceptable things]] for profit, and there is little to no oversight over the magical girls due to their apparent OmniscientMoralityLicense, [[ObliviouslyEvil which can backfire greatly if the magical girl in question does not realize the consequences of her 'pure' actions or the morality of her supervisors]]. This is especially dangerous when it comes to killing 'evil' mages, due to FantasticRacism and the magical mafia. The plot happens because most of the magical girls in the world think that the world is screwed up and they received their powers by being pure of heart, and by that [[InsaneTrollLogic logic]] (remember, they're still ''children'') they are the most fit [[DudeWheresMyRespect to protect/rule the world]] - even if it means accidentally destroying it.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' played around with this in the That Which Redeems arcs. The inhabitants of the Dimension of Lame are all incredibly innocent and pure, to the point of being annoying. But as a whole, most of them weren't exactly good. They were perfectly willing to let demons from the Dimension of Pain enslave them, and tried to hand Torg over to them multiple times on the flimsiest promises of lesser suffering from the demons.
** And their Riff ended up being the sole demon in the world after victory, fitting due to his causing all of the problems by kidnapping Torgs from various dimensions after accidentally blowing up his own.

[[folder:Web Original]]

-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Tien:]]''' More like pure unadulterated ego.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Darwin's innocent nature usually makes him fairly kind, but if exposed to certain events that Gumball is up to, Darwin can cause more chaos than Gumball. Even in the first season, it was implied he had a lot of pent-up rage he was too innocent to express properly: Darwin's attempt to yell out his stress in "The Painting" produced a ''nuclear explosion'', during which he continued smiling.
** Then there was the time when Darwin, out of an honest desire to keep his family safe, ''turned Elmore into a Surveillance Police State''.

** In the SequelSeries ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', we learn that [[spoiler:flight]] is a technique that can be learned by airbenders, at the expense of any worldly attachments. [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraZaheer The only person]] we see achieve this triggered it [[spoiler:after the death of his [[UnholyMatrimony girlfriend]]]], leaving him a callous, apathetic void, though still [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned.]]
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Mabel Pines is told by a [[ItMakesSenseInContext unicorn that if she wants her badly needed hair]], she must be pure of heart. Mabel ''is'' already a good person, so being told repeatedly she is not completely good even after doing lots of good deeds sets her over the edge. [[ActionGirl Wendy]] eventually decides to take the hair by force. [[spoiler: As is turns out, the "pure of heart" things was a scam by the unicorn. Mabel, incensed attacks the unicorn by force, and learns that the greater good is more important than being perfect]].