History Main / TotalitarianUtilitarian

* [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels Kuvira]], the "Great Uniter", from Book 4 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. Initially, she just wanted to wrangle the anarchy in the wake of Earth Queen [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Hou-Teng]]'s assassination by [[BombThrowingAnarchists Zaheer]] and his Red Lotus cohorts, defying her patron, Suyin Beifong, who abstained from doing it. Su's abstention struck a nerve with Kuvira, who conflated it with her own ParentalAbandonment issues before Suyin took her in. Things snowballed out of hand because PowerCorrupts, and she became a despot worse than Queen Hou-Teng was.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': {{Played with}} in surprising nuance and subtlety as [[TheHighQueen Princess Bubblegum's]] FatalFlaw. On the one hand, the Land of Ooo is a CrapsaccharineWorld and the [[MadeOfPlasticine Candy People]] are [[TooDumbToLive not very savvy to its many dangers]]. Caring for her people is a [[{{Workaholic}} full-time job]], as they are [[InherentInTheSystem quick to panic and doubt]], to say nothing of the many dangers that find their way to the kingdom's borders. As such, [[VetinariJobSecurity the Candy Kingdom's all but guaranteed to collapse if/when PB permanently leaves power]] but - to top it all off - she is ''not'' immortal and (being more-or-less the LastOfHerKind) ''[[YourDaysAreNumbered has no idea how long her life may truly last]]''. On the other hand, her [[IDidWhatIHadToDo methods of peacekeeping]] are... [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans extreme]]. SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands, PlayingWithSyringes, {{Realpolitik}} and other forms of DirtyBusiness are all on the table. Roughly half the hardships that befall the kingdom are her experiments GoneHorriblyWrong, she [[ManipulativeBastard keeps the local]] KidHero [[ManipulativeBastard in her pocket]] and she's caused two [[ZombieApocalypse Zombie outbreaks]] to date.

* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'' the Sybil System and the people who work to keep it in control of society are this, with the anime starting AFTER they succeed in realizing their goal. Near the midpoint of the show, the idea of maximum happiness is highlighted as why the system is so great. All it asks is that you submit to it deciding your entire lifepath, [[BigBrotherISWatching constant drone overwatch]], permanent rehabilitation and constant mind-altering drug applications if you have a chronically negative mood, and the further threat of euthanasia if the prediction system decides your negative mood might cause you to commit a crime. This is soon deconstructed by an individual completely alien to its morals: [[{{Ubermensch}} Makishima]].
** And then it's further deconstructed midway through the series when it turns out [[spoiler: Makishima isn't an exception at all, it's the ''foundation'' of the system. Turns out that there isn't an algorithm behind the Sybil System, instead it works through a series of [[BrainInAJar brains in jars]] kept alive to make the calculations with their collective knowledge and experience, and even so it's fallible, and occasionally pops out a brain they can't analyze properly, and they proceed to assimilate the brain in the system to correct the mistake. Until the next one appears...]]
* [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Seele]] from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', justifying its AssimilationPlot with ForHappiness even though it means causing the Apocalypse to awaken an EldritchAbomination while [[ChildSoldiers using traumatized 14-year-olds for combat]] and later [[PoweredByAForsakenChild another apocalypse]].
* Light Yagami of ''Manga/DeathNote'' begins here with his plan to make the world a better place by systematically killing all its criminals, starting with the world's worst offenders and working his way down to purse-snatchers and similar, ending with the idea of becoming [[AGodAmI "the god of a new world."]]
** Teru Mikami takes Light's ideals a step further. Mikami not only kills all the criminals whose names he can get his hands on but also kills people who used to bully others, those who had killed in self-defense or felt honest remorse for their actions ([[EvenEvilHasStandards something that Light credited to them and let them live]]) and then proceeds to kill people who are ''lazy and don't live up to their actual potential''.
* ''Anime/GunXSword'': The Claw and his minions are this all the way, being mostly the nicest people you can meet, and who want to bring about a better world through an AssimilationPlot, and will kill when necessary to achieve this goal. Notably, the heroes are generally very individualistic and less personally pleasant, and it's suggested that the Claw's plan probably would bring about a better world if successful.

** Charles di Britannia [[spoiler: and his wife Marianne have a plan to Kill "God" and prevent anyone from lying. Shame it has the "small" side effect of removing individuality to the point no one would be considered human anymore]].

* [[spoiler: Chairman Gilbert Durandel]] from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'' turns out to be one of these.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

** [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen, Madoka's witch form,]] is a negative utilitarian. [[spoiler: Whereas Madoka cares deeply about making everyone happy through positive means, Gretchen wants to erase suffering by assimilating each and every sentient being into herself, which is a LotusEaterMachine.]]
* An example of |Erase Humans → Erase Suffering| logic is in ''Literature/BookOfBantorra''. The girlfriend of the evil priest has developed this philosophy, due to being imprisoned within the priest's soul for ages along with the souls of thousands, if not millions or billions, who have been stuck in the purgatory of existing in an allegorical plantless desert. This turns her into the big bad, WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds type, and forces EVERYONE ELSE (who isn't a monster or too tired to exist) to participate in the fight for Book-Earth.
* ''Literature/FateZero'' has an ''AntiHero'' example with Kiritsugu Emiya. He believes that sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve greater good or to bring peace and justice. He is willing to sacrifice the few for the sake of many, commit acts of evil to defeat a greater evil, and use unorthodox tactics to achieve his goals. He thinks a loss of innocent life is tragic, but as long as ''more'' innocent lives are saved, he is willing to sacrifice his beloved ones to protect the many. [[spoiler:The [[JackassGenie Grail]] brutally [[{{Deconstruction}} tears this world-view apart]] when it shows him the logical conclusion of where that philosophy would get him when applied on a worldwide scale, and when he's ultimately forced to realize that it was AllForNothing, he's nearly DrivenToSuicide...only to find meaning again when he saves one life from the Fuyuki Fire resulting from the Grail's destruction: [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Shirou Emiya]]]].
* ''Literature/FateApocrypha'''s Amakusa Shirou Tokisada believes whole-heartedly that humanity deserves to be saved and that evil should not be allowed to prosper. Consequently, his ultimate goal is to use the Holy Grail to save all of mankind. Only problem is, he considers humanity to be hopelessly corrupt, so in order to remedy this, he wants to strip away all emotion and logic and any semblance of mortality and create a WorldOfSilence and refuses to listen to any arguments that his plan is anything other than completely perfect.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] apply this to any world they conquer, reducing the diversity of living things to those that are needed for the survival of their sentient hosts. The closest preservation of any "unneeded" species is Visser 3's collecting DNA with his Andalite body's morphing powers, and that only applies to powerful animals he can use to kill his victims.
* ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' takes place in a society where ForHappiness has become such a great cultural obsession that it has become oppressive.
* Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' contains a very grim {{satire|ParodyPastiche}} of this concept: The ruling party are trying to make sure that the party members are the happiest people in the world - by making their own lives hell but making everyone else's lives far worse! And of course it [[SarcasmMode works great]]. Even the protagonist [[MoreThanMindControl agrees with the party about everything]]... [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil eventually]].
* In George Orwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', the pigs start out like this. As the story progresses, some pigs are lost, while others are corrupted by their power unless they were really [[StrawHypocrite Straw Hypocrites]] all along. By the end of the story, the remaining pigs have [[FullCircleRevolution become no better than]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the humans they once rebelled against]].
* In ''Literature/WildSwans'' many of the revolutionary communists are portrayed like this, while others are portrayed as {{Straw Hypocrite}}s or simple cases of PeerPressureMakesYouEvil. The latter includes the main protagonist herself.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Genua is run like this. People failing to be happy enough (and stereotypical enough, as the ruler's goal is to make Genua a fairytale-esque city) are dealt with harshly.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' EU treats [[BigBad Jacen Solo]] like this [[RetCon after his demise]].

** Totalitarian Utilitarian is actually a common theme in Lem's stories. ''Experimenta Felicitologica'' would be another example.

* [[GodEmperor The Lord Ruler]] of ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' tried his hardest to be this. [[spoiler: Pity [[OmnicidalManiac Ruin]] was in telepathic contact with him for his whole thousand-year reign, twisting his utopian vision into a post-apocalyptic nightmare]].
* The society in ''The World Inside'' by Robert Silverberg is one in which people have decided that the best world is the one with the most people in it; the vast majority of the world's current population of 80 billion all live in giant, city-sized apartment buildings with no privacy, while all the rest of Earth's habitable land is devoted to agriculture. It is theorized that the maximum population that can be supported this way is 200 billion.
* ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' has Ledroptha Curtain. He just wants to control everyone so that they can be happy, at least he believes this to be so.
* ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'' takes this to terrifying level. In order to create a stable society of psychic and avoid repeating [[AfterTheEnd the destruction of the world]], the society has been thoroughly indoctrinated, and anyone who display even a ''potential'' to stray from the doctrine is silently and quickly terminated-- even (''especially'') if that someone is a kid. Said society has been genetically modified to resolve dissension through hot bisexual sex, modeled after bonobos. [[spoiler:Anyone who doesn't have psychic power is downlifted into mole-rat-men.]] You have a society where everyone is sexually satisfied and possesses psychic power, but at what cost?
* The system in ''Literature/NeverLetMeGo'', [[PoweredByAForsakenChild saving so many lives]]. Also the protagonists themselves, conditioned to disregard [[spoiler:their own]] life and dignity for the greater good.
* The Method in the German novel ''Literature/CorpusDelicti'' is a philosophical and political system that aims to grant everyone a life free of pain and suffering - and gives the citizens even more of them.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-752 SCP-752 ("Altruistic Utopia")]] is a human subspecies that [[HiveMind behaves like hive insects]], created by a group of philosophical [[EvilutionaryBiologist mad scientists]]. They established a meritocratic caste system while [[TheSocialDarwinist the disabled or physically weak either committed suicide or allowed themselves to be murdered]], and happily worked themselves to death for the good of their society while [[ImAHumanitarian offering up their own corpses for sustenance]].
** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3003 SCP-3003]] ("The End of History"), a distant planet inhabited by 30 billion TransplantedHumans whose [[HiveMind minds have been overtaken]] by [[PuppeteerParasite parasitic beetles]] called "marce". These beetles have forced their hosts to make every single aspect of their lives themed around beetles. The marce parasites turned the entire SCP-3003 planet into a singular totalitarian state devoid of personal freedom due to everyone valuing the goodness of the state over themselves (a result of gaining hyper-rational behavior through the parasites). However, the result is so extremely effective the race is more advanced than whatever humanity can even hope to achieve on Earth, its members kept perpetually happy due to marce stimuli, and [[WorldOfSilence internal dissent is completely non-existent]]. As SCP-3003-2 states, this totalitarian efficiency it created is "[[TitleDrop The End of History]]", because no other forms of society could come after it.
* WebVideo/ZinniaJones: Debated in [[https://www.youtube.com/user/ZJemptv#p/u/0/Km0Au3Mmvtg Why Not Immortality?]].
* ''WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries'':
-->'''Mattie''': Five people every twenty years to keep that monster asleep? More people die from dog bites every year. Hell, more people die from me every year!

--> -- '''Locutus of Borg''', ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''

What makes the Totalitarian Utilitarian a frightening character is that while their ForHappiness motive is tragically flawed, they are ''ruthlessly efficient'' to those ends and have [[TheUnfettered no hobbies, no pastimes, and no friends]] - nothing [[AttackItsWeakPoint that could be]] [[FlawExploitation used against them]], in other words.

A Totalitarian Utilitarian character is often a [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]], but is just as likely to simply be a regular villain whom the authors tried to make a bit less senseless by adding a grain of StrawManHasAPoint. If RomanticismVersusEnlightenment is a theme, he will almost always side with the Enlightenment. Compare HappinessIsMandatory. Contrast PrinciplesZealot. Compare ''and'' contrast DarkMessiah. See also TragicDream.

* An example of |Erase Humans → Erase Suffering| logic is in LightNovel/BookOfBantorra. The girlfriend of the evil priest has developed this philosophy, due to being imprisoned within the priest's soul for ages along with the souls of thousands, if not millions or billions, who have been stuck in the purgatory of existing in an allegorical plantless desert. This turns her into the big bad, WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds type, and forces EVERYONE ELSE (who isn't a monster or too tired to exist) to participate in the fight for Book-Earth.
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has an ''AntiHero'' example with Kiritsugu Emiya. He believes that sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve greater good or to bring peace and justice. He is willing to sacrifice the few for the sake of many, commit acts of evil to defeat a greater evil, and use unorthodox tactics to achieve his goals. He thinks a loss of innocent life is tragic, but as long as ''more'' innocent lives are saved, he is willing to sacrifice his beloved ones to protect the many. [[spoiler:The [[JackassGenie Grail]] brutally [[{{Deconstruction}} tears this world-view apart]] when it shows him the logical conclusion of where that philosophy would get him when applied on a worldwide scale, and when he's ultimately forced to realize that it was AllForNothing, he's nearly DrivenToSuicide...only to find meaning again when he saves one life from the Fuyuki Fire resulting from the Grail's destruction: [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Shirou Emiya]]]].
* ''LightNovel/FateApocrypha'''s Amakusa Shirou Tokisada believes whole-heartedly that humanity deserves to be saved and that evil should not be allowed to prosper. Consequently, his ultimate goal is to use the Holy Grail to save all of mankind. Only problem is, he considers humanity to be hopelessly corrupt, so in order to remedy this, he wants to strip away all emotion and logic and any semblance of mortality and create a WorldOfSilence and refuses to listen to any arguments that his plan is anything other than completely perfect.

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the HiveMind called The Borg seem to honestly believe that getting assimilated into their collective is the best for everyone.
** The Federation itself is sometimes portrayed as this. Lampshaded in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' when Eddington notes that the Federation is constantly seeking out new cultures to [[BenevolentAlienInvasion bring into the fold]] in the belief that ''everyone'' should want to be in the Federation, wondering how that makes them [[NotSoDifferentRemark any different]] than the Borg?
*** The difference is explained in the MMO. Turns out that [[spoiler:individuals forced to work together means that different viewpoints and resistances act as safeguards and vaccines. The ENTIRE Borg Collective were hacked by psychopaths a LONG time ago.]]
* The classic series ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode, "The Happiness Patrol", tells of a society in which the tyrannical leader Helen A has all the "killjoys" - basically, anyone who shows any sort of unhappiness ever - killed, occasionally in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath bizarre ways]]. For bonus points, Helen A is also an obvious parody of then-Prime Minister UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher.

* The ''Main/BigBad'' of ''Series/TheFirm'' (the series) was one. He had patients, requiring expensive special care, killed in favour of the majority of patients.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3003 SCP-3003]] ("The End of History"), a distant planet inhabited by 30 billion TransplantedHumans whose minds have been overtaken by parastic beetles called "marce". These beetles have forced their hosts to make every single aspect of their lives themed around beetles. The marce parasites turned the entire SCP-3003 planet into a singular totalitarian state devoid of personal freedom due to everyone valuing the goodness of the state over themselves (a result of gaining hyper-rational behavior through the parasites). However, the result is so extremely effective the race is more advanced than whatever humanity can even hope to achieve on Earth, its members kept perpetually happy due to marce stimuli, and [[WorldOfSilence internal dissent is completely non-existent]]. As SCP-3003-2 states, this totalitarian efficiency it created is "[[TitleDrop The End of History]]", because no other forms of society could come after it.

* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3003 SCP-3003]] ("The End of History"), a distant planet inhabited by 30 billion TransplantedHumans whose minds have been overtaken by parastic beetles called "marce". These beetles have forced their hosts to make every single aspect of their lives themed around beetles. The marce parasites turned the entire SCP-3003 planet into a singular totalitarian state devoid of personal freedom due to everyone valuing the goodness of the state over themselves (a result of gaining hyper-rational behavior through the parasites). However, the result is so extremely effective the race is more advanced than whatever humanity can even hope to achieve on Earth, its members kept perpetually happy due to marce stimuli, and internal dissent is completely non-existent. As SCP-3003-2 states, this totalitarian efficiency it created is "[[TitleDrop The End of History]]", because no other forms of society could come after it.

* The Pro-registration side in ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' turned out to be this. The goal? Insert some accountability into superheroics. The means? Creating an insane clone of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], imprisonment without trial in a hellish extradimensional prison for anyone who didn't go along with it, granting functional pardons and extra powers to supervillains, notably putting ''ComicBook/NormanOsborn'' in charge of a government agency, and the conscription at gunpoint of teenagers with superpowers. Osborn himself qualifies, at least in his own mind. He thinks that the superhero community is likely to usher in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and wants to save the earth -- too bad he's a psychotic superhuman himself and ''far'' more dangerous than any of the people he's opposing.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3003 SCP-3003]] ("The End of History"), a distant planet inhabited by 30 billion TransplantedHumans whose minds have been overtaken by parastic beetles called "marce". These beetles have forced their hosts to make every single aspect of their lives themed around beetles. The marce parasites turned the entire SCP-3003 planet into a singular totalitarian state devoid of personal freedom due to everyone valuing the goodness of the state over themselves (a result of gaining hyper-rational behavior through the parasites). However, the result is so extremely effective the race is more advanced than whatever humanity can even hope to achieve on Earth, its members kept perpetually happy due to marce stimuli, and internal dissent is completely non-existent. As SCP-3003-2 states, this totalitarian efficiency it created is "[[TitleDrop The End of History]]", because no other forms of society could come after it.

* ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'' takes this to terrifying level. In order to create a stable society of psychic and avoid repeating [[AfterTheEnd the destruction of the world]], the society has been thoroughly indoctrinated, and anyone who display even a ''potential'' to stray from the doctrine is silently and quickly terminated-- even (''especially'') if that someone is a kid. Said society has been genetically modified to resolve dissension through hot bisexual sex, modeled after bonobos. [[spoiler:Anyone who doesn't have psychic power is downlifted into mole-rat-men.]] [[MarySuetopia You have a society where everyone is sexually satisfied and possesses psychic power, but at what cost?]]

* ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics'': PlayedForLaughs in the "[[http://existentialcomics.com/comic/325 Utilitarian Dictator]]" which depicts Jeremy Bentham (who's the founder of Utilitarianism) as in charge of society discussing how to create the greatest happiness with John Stuart Mill. They decide to simply ban things that make people unhappy, leading to a comically LongList with very little left. At the end though it's {{subverted}} as they decide banning this all would be too difficult, so they go with Mill's idea of maximizing personal liberty instead. [[TakeThat Except for the Browns, which they still ban.]]

* ''WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries''

* The system in ''Film/NeverLetMeGo'', [[PoweredByAForsakenChild saving so many lives]]. Also the protagonists themselves, conditioned to disregard [[spoiler:their own]] life and dignity for the greater good.

A Totalitarian Utilitarian character is often a [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]], but is just as likely to simply be a regular villain whom the authors tried to make a bit less senseless by adding a grain of StrawManHasAPoint. If RomanticismVersusEnlightenment is a theme, he will almost always side with the Enlightenment. Compare HappinessIsMandatory. Contrast PrinciplesZealot. See also TragicDream.

* As Anime/GunXSword is one of the prominent series included in [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsT Super Robot Wars T]], the Claw's AssimilationPlot plan features. As can be expected, the heroes aren't having any of it. While some of them do acknowledge that letting go of pain ''sounds'' great on paper, they agree that stripping everyone of their individuality isn't worth it. And that's '''before''' getting into how the fact he and his followers are so casual about murder and destruction so long as his endgame succeeds that it drives the more justice-driven heroes into a righteous rage. [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Master Asia]], an acquaintance of his from youth, refers to his plan as "the sad delusions of an old man", despite helping him at several points. His only reason for doing so is because he's fully confident that the heroes [[StealthMentor will ultimately stop the Claw's plans]].

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': In an alternate universe, Superman and most of the Justice League establishes an Earth-wide dictatorship called the One Earth Regime [[PayEvilUntoEvil with the goal of eliminating crime at all costs]]. Their rise in power is grounded in the belief that traditional superheroics is too outdated. They firmly believe that [[MurderIsTheBestSolution by taking out criminals for good]], they can save more innocent people, and do so by breaking [[ThouShaltNotKill the no-kill rule]], something opposed by Batman, the only member of the Justice League who didn't go rogue.

* ''Film/TronLegacy'': Clu, building his "perfect world".

* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'' the Sybil System and the people who work to keep it in control of society are this, with the anime starting AFTER they succeed in realizing their goal. Near the midpoint of the show, the idea of maximum happiness is highlighted as why the system is so great. All it asks is that you submit to it deciding your entire lifepath, [[BigBrotherISWatching constant drone overwatch]], permanent rehabilitation and constant mind-altering drug applications if you have a chronically negative mood, and the further threat of euthanasia if the prediction system decides your negative mood might cause you to commit a crime. This is soon deconstructed by an individual completely alien to its morals: [[TheUbermensch Makishima]].

* ''VideoGame/SomaSpirits'': Dissonance is a rare example who actually rejects ForHappiness- he believes everyone should throw away their personal happiness in favor of focusing solely on pure rationality and TheNeedsOfTheMany, and to that end is trying to steal all the happiness in the world. [[spoiler:He wants to destroy the World of Joy and rule over the World of Sorrow to create a perfectly orderly utopia.]]

* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'''s BigBad, [[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitchBoss Kerghan]]]], believes [[TheExtremistWasRight (rightly so)]] that death equals eternal peace as opposed to the constant struggle of life. [[OmnicidalManiac He draws the logical conclusion]]. The most disturbing thing is that he makes his case so well, and has such compelling evidence for his premises, you may well find yourself agreeing with him.

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' -- When Galatea [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20101002.html outlines her plans for conquest]] along these lines, Bob [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath punctures her scheme]] with one [[ArmorPiercingQuestion question:]] "And ''that'll'' make things ''better?"''

** Chaos is the stuff of daemons and dark gods, embodiments of all rage, desire, hope, and despair (and/or love) felt by sentient beings in the universe. There is no real way to defeat it... except for the Necron master plan of killing off all ''life'' in the universe, starving the Chaos gods.

** The Federation itself is sometimes portrayed as this. Lampshaded in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' when Eddington notes that the Federation is constantly seeking out new cultures to [[BenevolentAlienInvasion bring into the fold]] in the belief that ''everyone'' should want to be in the Federation, wondering how that makes them [[NotSoDifferent any different]] than the Borg?

** By ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' however, The Illusive Man and Cerberus have [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Jumped Off the Slippery Slope]] and are actively waging war with the galaxy. TIM continually tries to justify to himself that his actions are for the good of humanity until the end, [[spoiler:where Shepard can convince him that he's become indoctrinated in a scene [[NotSoDifferent much like the confrontation with Saren in the first game]].]]

* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/TransformersIDW'', Shockwave reveals this was supposed to be the endgame of his massive, eon-spanning plan. Using the various Ores that had been a recurring [{{MacGuffin}}] throughout the series, he created [[PlanetEater IDW's version of Unicron]], planning to then kill Unicron using an artifact called the Talisman in order to bring about a new era of enlightenment without relying on long gone demigods or the like. When he's imprisoned at the end of the final story, he wonders if it was AllForNothing, since even Cybertron itself was torn to shreds by Unicron before Optimus Prime and a lot of other heroes (including Starscream!) died stopping it.

* As GunXSword is one of the prominent series included in [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsT]], the Claw's AssimilationPlot plan features. As can be expected, the heroes aren't having any of it. While some of them do acknowledge that letting go of pain ''sounds'' great on paper, they agree that stripping everyone of their individuality isn't worth it. And that's '''before''' getting into how the fact he and his followers are so casual about murder and destruction so long as his endgame succeeds that it drives the more justice-driven heroes into a righteous rage. [[MobileFighterGGundam Master Asia]], an acquaintance of his from youth, refers to his plan as "the sad delusions of an old man", despite helping him at several points. His only reason for doing so is because he's fully confident that the heroes [[StealthMentor will ultimately stop the Claw's plans]].

* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'' the Sybil System and the people who work to keep it in control of society are this, with the anime starting AFTER they succeed in realizing their goal. Near the midpoint of the show the idea of maximum happiness is highlighted as why the system is so great. All it asks is that you submit to it deciding your entire lifepath, [[BigBrotherISWatching constant drone overwatch]], permanent rehabilitation and constant mind-altering drug applications if you have a chronically negative mood, and the further threat of euthanasia if the prediction system decides your negative mood might cause you to commit a crime. This is soon deconstructed by an individual completely alien to its morals: [[TheUbermensch Makishima]].
** And then it's further deconstructed midway through the series when it turns out [[spoiler: Makishima isn't an exception at all, it's the ''foundation'' of the system. Turns out that there isn't an algorythm behind the Sybil System, instead it works through a series of [[BrainInAJar brains in jars]] kept alive to make the calculations with their collective knowledge and experience, and even so it's fallible, and occasionally pops out a brain they can't analyze properly, and they proceed to assimilate the brain in the system to correct the mistake. Until the next one appears...]]

** Teru Mikami takes Light's ideals a step further. Mikami not only kills all the criminals whose names he can get his hands on, but also kills people who used to bully others, those who had killed in self-defense or felt honest remorse for their actions ([[EvenEvilHasStandards something that Light creditted to them and let them live]]) and then proceeds to kill people who are ''lazy and don't live up to their actual potential''.

** Charles di Britannia [[spoiler: and his wife Marianne have a plan to Kill "God" and prevent anyone from lying. Shame it has the "small" side effect of removing indivituality to the point no one would be considered human anymore]].

* An example of |Erase Humans → Erase Suffering| logic is in LightNovel/BookOfBantorra. The girlfriend of the evil priest has developed this philosophy, due to being imprisoned within the priest's soul for ages along with the souls of thousands, if not millions or billions, who have been stuck in the purgatory of existing in a allegoral plantless desert. This turns her into the big bad, WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds type, and forces EVERYONE ELSE (who isn't a monster or too tired to exist) to participate in the fight for Book-Earth.
* ''LightNovel/FateZero'' has an ''AntiHero'' example with Kiritsugu Emiya. He believes that sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve greater good or to bring peace and justice. He is willing to sacrifice the few for the sake of many, commit acts of evil to defeat a greater evil, and use unorthodox tactics to achieve his goals. He thinks a loss of innocent life is tragic, but as long as ''more'' innocent lives are saved, he is willing to sacrifice his beloved ones to protect the many. [[spoiler:The [[JackassGenie Grail]] brutally [[{{Deconstruction}} tears this world-view apart]] when it shows him the logical conclusion of where that philosophy would get him when applied on a world-wide scale, and when he's ultimately forced to realize that it was AllForNothing, he's nearly DrivenToSuicide...only to find meaning again when he saves one life from the Fuyuki Fire resulting from the Grail's destruction: [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Shirou Emiya]]]].

* The BigBad of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', whose goal is [[spoiler:to end the Cold War]] and then use his abilities to control the Earth and make it a paradise on Earth. His problem is mainly one of methods, [[spoiler:killing half of New York in a GenghisGambit]], but the ending implies it may also be one of goals, [[spoiler: as Dr. Manhattan tells him, "nothing ever ends."]]

* The artificial superhuman Krishna from ''ComicBook/{{Supergod}}'' employs this strategy to turn India into a first world nation, by instituting a massive extermination campaign to bring the nation's population down to sustainable levels, then building a technological utopia for the survivors to live in. However, his efforts are nullified when the precognitient Dajjal kills him and destroys most of Eurasia because the resulting utopia would apparently have been so peaceful and good that Dajjal thought it was brainkillingly boring.

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', this is revealed to be Thanos's motive. His comic counterpart was literally in love with Death, and used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life as a "tribute" to her. Here, he wants to do the same thing... because he believes the universe is headed for the same OverpopulationCrisis that destroyed his home.

** There's one story about a society which builds an ArtificialIntelligence that has to create the perfect world. The AI does this by building a factory, taking people one by one there, with the promise of a happy place, and no one ever returns from there. Truth is, in the factory people are turned into shiny metal discs, which the AI later arranges in a geometrical pattern. Apparently it's a bit of a LiteralGenie and didn't understand that this wasn't what people had in mind with "the perfect world".

* Tywin Lannister in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. He wants Westeros to be strong, stable and peaceful, and believes that the best way to do that is for him to rule it behind the scenes, regardless of what he has to do. He doesn't want everyone to be ''happy'' exactly, but he doesn't want people [[PragmaticVillainy dying pointlessly]].

* ''Series/BraveNewWorld'': The government of New London believes in all citizens being happy, by quite drastic means. Genetic engineering, psychological conditioning, drug use and sex without attachment are mandated for this.

* In Myth/ClassicalMythology, there's the Golden Age which is identified (at least in some versions) with the reign of Kronos. Now there was a prophecy that one of his children would topple him, like he had toppled his father Uranos. So Kronos ate all his children to avoid this. It's ambiguous if he did that for concern that the Golden Age should continue or just because he himself didn't want to lose power, but if it was the former, this would be a case.

** There are also the Jammers, who want to free the world and humanity from the "tyranny" of Chi by destroying all Feng Shui sites. Sites that often take the form of schools, hospitals and other places important to a community or where innocents tend to gather. And to make things worse, they haven't given much thought as to what will happen once all Chi and Feng Shui are destroyed, and what the consequences will be to the world -- and given that Chi is said to be tied to life itself, the consequences could be very bad indeed. In Feng Shui 2, they actually do succeed-the end result is turning what had been a dystopian setting into a post apocalyptic one, killing 97% of the world's population, and destroying the environment.

** One could also interpret the actions of the God-Emperor of man as manifestations of this philosophy. His own philosophy appeared to be a form of "radical secular humanism". His goal was to ensure survival and security the human species, and it's mastery over the galaxy, and eventually the entire cosmos. He believed that this goal was best realized by causing humanity to accept science, logic, reason, and secular humanism, and reject superstition, mysticism, and any religion (or competing philosophy) of any kind. Therefore, in his mind, the best way to do this was to launch a "Great Crusade" to conquer the galaxy led by fanatically loyal genetically-engineered super-soldiers who would kill or convert any and all humans they encountered, as well as completely exterminate almost every non-human they encountered, which resulted in the deaths of countless sentients and the destruction of whole planets. He also lied about the existence and nature of the VERY real demons and dark gods which do inhabit a sort-of "preternatural" plain of existence, and treated many of his direct offspring, the Primarchs, as mere tools to be used rather than as people. All of this in order to create a unified human civilization under his direct rule. And the ironic part? In the end, the vast majority of humans ended up worshipping him as a god.
** Chaos is the stuff of daemons and dark gods, embodiments of all rage, desire, hope and despair (and/or love) felt by sentient beings in the universe. There is no real way to defeat it... except for the Necron master plan of killing off all ''life'' in the universe, starving the Chaos gods.

* In the earlier ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', the Technocracy wants humans to live in a futurist utopia, safe from things like rogue mages, terrorist werewolves, manipulative vampires and so on, and thus they're trying to make everyone [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve put their faith in science instead of magic and superstition]]. In practice...well, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few magical eggs.

Hell there's a message you can read in the DLC ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'' where a major asks for Admiral Hackett's permission to have Shepard arrested and interrogated for a few months on why they're working with Cerberus. Thankfully, Hackett denied that request.

** Caesar aims to form a warless utopia that corrects the Old World's mistakes, but does so with a ''highly'' bloodthirsty army and a penchant for violence.

* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'': Set in an alternate timeline dystopian 1960s Britain, the Allies were on the brink of total defeat and did... something... so horrifying and devastating that it may as well have been a PyrrhicVictory; everyone needs a lethal designer drug Joy to feel any sort of happiness, and broadcast leader Uncle Jack directs the masses to murder any individual who doesn't take regular doses of drugs. And the island is going to run out of gas and die in a few days due to lack of maintenance from the happy jolly morons. You play as one of the few survivors who realize that everything on Britain is going to hell.

** The SuperHero [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-greatest-possible-superhero Utilitarian]] will not only stop a crime but will go on to harvest the organs of the criminal, because in spite of the killing, the lives that will be saved will result in a net gain in lives.

** Ultimately this [[SanityHasAdvantages works against her]], her inability to accept compromise and tendency to make personal sacrifices 'for the cause' (such as her ''husband'') ultimately leave her with numerous defections, alienate possible allies and leave her with no support network to advise her decisions.

* The ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'' villain Paisley Paver is a megalomaniacal land developer who believes that nature is inherently worthless and is barrier to human progress--which, in her mind, means expanding expanding urban development wherever she can regardless of the environmental cost. She isn't driven by a [[CruellaToAnimals desire to harm wildlife]], like the other major villains; she simply doesn't feel that nature has a place in her vision for humanity.