History PragmaticVillainy / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The Code of Harry that Dexter follows through most of the series is designed this way. In order to channel his killing urges in a productive manner, his adoptive father trained him to target only killers who've escaped the system. Despite the intentions of justice that Harry had, ultimately the goal is for Dexter to channel his urges without getting caught. Killing serial killers is simply more convenient and "justifiable" than wanton murder.

** [[BigBad Gul Dukat]], in particular, plays this trope to the hilt in both directions, claiming to have cut back on Cardassian cruelty and oppression and improved the Bajorans' working conditions wherever possible during the Occupation of Bajor pre-series. In the series itself, he regularly allies with the "good guys" every time it serves his personal best interest, including particularly siding with the leaders of a popular uprising on Cardassia whom he considers to be a legitimate new government, and helping smuggle the Detapa Council (their ruling body) to safety on Deep Space Nine during a Klingon invasion. Even in his more insane and villainous moments toward the end, one can see he always continues to do whatever he believes will serve his own practical best interest, right or wrong.

* In ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'', [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Gai Amatsu]] wants desperately to win the competition against Hiden Intelligence to wipe it off the map and is responsible for corrupting the Ark and unleashing Metsubojinrai and almost causing a robo apocalypse. However even in the competition he is firmly against anyone cheating, wanting to win fair and square. Unfortunately subverted when he goes ahead and... cheats in the competition anyways, even when he's winning by a mile.

** [[BigBad Gul Dukat]], in particular, plays this trope to the hilt in both directions, claiming to have cut back on Cardassian cruelty and oppression and improved the Bajorans' working conditions wherever possible during the Occupation of Bajor pre-series. In the series itself, he regularly allies with the "good guys" every time it serves his personal best interest, including particularly siding with the leaders of a popular uprising on Cardassia whom he considers to be a legitimate new government, and helping smuggle their Detapa (ruling council) to safety on Deep Space Nine during a Klingon invasion. Even in his more insane and villainous moments toward the end, one can see he always continues to do whatever he believes will serve his own practical best interest, right or wrong.

* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Shades always has his eyes set on the bottom line, in contrast to the more emotional and distracted crime bosses he advises. Most notable when Stryker takes a big gamble by taking a bunch of hostages, which Shades criticizes. When Stryker calls on his men to execute any hostage who gives them lip, Shades turns and scowls at him.

* In ''Series/{{The Punisher|2017}}'', Billy Russo refuses to let Lewis Wilson join his private military unit. He's concerned that Wilson will be a liability, but it could also be a case of EvenEvilHasStandards, as Russo has been shown to have empathy for fellow Marines and may not have wanted to subject Wilson to further trauma.

** The BigBad of Season 6 [[spoiler:Ricardo Diaz doesn't want to destroy Star City, like so many others. No, his goal is to take it over instead]]. This gets subverted when he ends up so obsessed with destroying Oliver that he loses his massive advantage just to get revenge on Oliver for giving him a few setbacks. Of course, this is the same guy who [[BestServedCold waited twenty years to get a chance to kill his childhood bully]].

** In "Sense and Sensitivity", [[OccultLawFirm Wolfram & Hart]] refuses to help mobster Little Tony any further after he attempts to shoot up a police station following the escape they engineered for him. They consider him TooDumbToLive and it would be next to impossible to acquit a CopKiller.
** In "Why We Fight", during World War II, Angel convinced Spike and the other vampires to spare the crew of the submarine they were on because none of them knew how to operate it. If they hadn't worked with the crew, they would have been trapped on the bottom of the ocean.

** Mayor Wilkins was equal parts AffablyEvil and this trope.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In the beginning, Narn ambassador G'Kar had the appearance of a pantomime villain, so it came as something of a surprise when he saved Commander Sinclair's on-again off-again girlfriend Catherine Sakai's life from the Walkers of Sigma 957. This is the first clue that, under all the nationalistic bravado, he was actually a decent guy. (In the end, G'Kar would actually [[CharacterDevelopment become]] [[HeelFaceTurn one of the series's secondary heroes]].)

** The System Lord Yu agrees to add Earth to the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty, votes against Anubis's re-admission into the ranks of the Goa'uld System Lords, spares Teal'c's life after a failed assassination attempt, and eventually cooperates with the SGC against Anubis. However, he does all this because [[NotWorthKilling he has no interest in our region of the galaxy]], [[EvilerThanThou he knows Anubis is not going to peacefully integrate into the System Lords]], [[RevengeByProxy he expects Teal'c to go back and kill the man who planned the assassination attempt after revealing that man wasn't who Teal'c thought he was]] and [[EnemyMine Anubis eventually grows into a threat too large to be faced alone]]. Daniel Jackson explicitly points out that, despite their past relationship, Yu is not to be trusted or liked, only counted on to make a practical decision not hampered by the normal Goa'uld StupidEvil mindset. In the later seasons, though, he begins to descend into senility (wrecking the aforementioned EnemyMine with Earth because he mistakenly sends his fleet to the wrong system), [[spoiler:before being unceremoniously offed by the Replicators in "Reckoning"]].

** The System Lord Yu agrees to add Earth to the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty, votes against Anubis's readmission into the ranks of the Goa'uld System Lords, spares Teal'c's life after a failed assassination attempt, and eventually cooperates with the SGC against Anubis. However, he does all this because [[NotWorthKilling he has no interest in our region of the galaxy]], [[EvilerThanThou he knows Anubis is not going to peacefully integrate into the System Lords]], [[RevengeByProxy he expects Teal'c to go back and kill the man who planned the assassination attempt]] and [[EnemyMine Anubis eventually grows into a threat too large to be faced alone]]. Daniel Jackson explicitly points out that, despite their past relationship, Yu is not to be trusted or liked, only counted on to make a practical decision not hampered by [[StupidEvil the normal Goa'uld mindset]]. In the later seasons, though, he begins to descend into senility (wrecking the aforementioned EnemyMine with Earth because he mistakenly sent his fleet to the wrong system), [[spoiler:before being unceremoniously offed by the Replicators in "Reckoning"]].

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' keeps the trend going with the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Wraith]], who never annihilates a human culture completely since they still need a source of nourishment.
** Most of Todd the Wraith's interaction with the Atlantis Expedition is flavored by this. He doesn't betray them because he knows they're more valuable as a long-term ally (the few exceptions being when he desperately needed to, such as with the Attero device, which would exterminate Wraith completely unless it was destroyed immediately). He was also willing to work with the expedition to develop the gene therapy that could annihilate the Wraith need for feeding on humans since it would grant his hive an enormous advantage over every other hive.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In the beginning, G'Kar had the appearance of a pantomime villain, so it came as something of a surprise when he saved Catherine Sakai's life. This is the first clue that, under all the nationalistic bravado, he was actually a decent guy. (In the end, G'Kar would actually [[CharacterDevelopment become]] [[HeelFaceTurn one of the series's secondary heroes]].)

** Despite generally being StupidEvil, there are a few moments when even Cersei realizes that petty revenge is a bad idea.
*** She is clearly appalled by [[spoiler:Joffrey's decision to have Eddard executed, knowing full well that a tame wolf is better than a dead one and that Ned's survival was the only way to prevent war with the North]], and indeed she had preferred [[spoiler:simply stripping Eddard Stark of his lands and titles and having him exiled to the Night's Watch]]. There is an element of EvenEvilHasStandards here, albeit expressed in a cruel IronicEcho: since Ned planned to exile her and her children rather than allowing them to be murdered for Cersei's crime of adultery, it is sort of fair to "only" plan to exile Ned rather than killing him.
*** In the second season, even she seems taken aback by Joffrey's order to kill all of Robert's bastard children in King's Landing, not necessarily because of personal standards, but because something like murdering children and babies draws the wrong type of attention. She even seems offended that Tyrion initially thinks she was the one who ordered it, though this is AdaptationalHeroism, as in the books the purge of Robert's bastards was all her idea and Joffrey was unaware/uncaring of it, making for another point where Tyrion had to rein her in. However, she's also too prideful to admit Joffrey was wrong to do so.

*** Roose was genuinely shocked and upset when Locke arrived with Jaime missing his sword hand. He's fine with torture but pointless brutality is obviously distasteful to him. Not because of morality but because it risked damaging his attempt to curry favor with Tywin Lannister, and that's a man even Roose doesn't want to cross by maiming his eldest son.
*** Roose is furious at his son Ramsay's torture and mutilation of Theon Greyjoy into madness -- because it has destroyed Theon's usefulness to him as a valuable hostage. Roose originally wanted to exchange Theon for Ironborn-occupied Moat Cailin, but King Balon would never consider giving up this strategic stronghold for a useless heir since Theon can no longer sustain their line. Ramsay notes that he already made the offer before, but Balon didn't even consider it. He makes this point rather firmly to Ramsay, who flays people for not paying their taxes.

*** Roose's entire motivation for legitimizing Ramsay. While he does not think highly of him, Roose knows that he is in need of an heir, especially if he is not able to sire an heir from Walda.
*** He later points out that by [[spoiler:repeatedly raping and abusing Sansa, thus driving her to escape]], Ramsay made the same mistake that he did with Theon, [[spoiler:thereby costing the Boltons the chance at having a marriage and heir that would allow them to control the North]].

** In Season 5, it's established that some vampires run "brothels" where humans pay to be bitten non-fatally as they get a rush from it. The vampires are just as soulless as any others, but because they don't kill, they don't attract the wrong sort of attention from monster hunters.

** Tony doesn't want his son A.J. to get into any sort of criminal activities, especially not anything related to the mob, [[EvilParentsWantGoodKids and keeps him as far from it as possible]]. A large part of the reason why this is simply because he knows that a spoiled, sheltered, and intellectually unremarkable kid like A.J. would not survive being a crook (Tony doesn't want his son to join the US Army for the same reason). As a result, he grooms his nephew Christopher to be his heir instead.

* In ''Series/TheSopranos'', Tony rips into Richie Aprile for selling cocaine along his garbage routes. Not because, like a typical pop culture mobster he has a moral objection to drugs, but because he doesn't want to draw the DEA's attention to the sanitation unions, which are the backbone of his criminal empire.

* In ''Series/ThePunisher'', Billy Russo refuses to let Lewis Wilson join his private military unit. He's concerned that Wilson will be a liability, but it could also be a case of EvenEvilHasStandards, as Russo has been shown to have empathy for fellow Marines and may not have wanted to subject Wilson to further trauma.

* In ''Series/{{Shooter}}'', this is Atlas as described by its leader. "We may not have a moral code in the traditional sense, but there are rules. We don't kill indiscriminately."

-->'''Crowley:''' There's a reason we don't call our chits in early: consumer confidence. This isn’t [[AcceptableTargets Wall Street]], this is Hell! [[TakeThat We have a little something called integrity]]. If this gets out, who'll deal with us? Nobody! Then, where are we?

-->'''Boba Fett:''' How many times have you been hired to do a job that was avoidable — if they only took the time to think, how much money could've been made? How many lives could've been saved? [...] I'm tired of [[HiredGuns our kind]] dying because of the idiocy of others. We're smarter than them. It's time we took our shot."
* ''[[Series/TheBoys2019 The Boys]]'':

* [[MagnificentBastard Scorpius]] from ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' is incredibly goal-oriented, and rarely lets petty things like "emotions" get in the way of his mission. Thus, even when John Crichton [[spoiler: has utterly demolished his base, ruining his plans for revenge against the Scarrans]], he states the following when John asks if he is considering following through on his earlier threat to [[RevengeByProxy glass Earth]].

*** She is clearly appalled by [[spoiler: Joffrey's decision to have Eddard executed, knowing full well that a tame wolf is better than a dead one and that Ned's survival was the only way to prevent war with the North]], and indeed she had preferred [[spoiler:simply stripping Eddard Stark of his lands and titles and having him exiled to the Night's Watch]]. There is an element of EvenEvilHasStandards here, albeit expressed in a cruel IronicEcho: since Ned planned to exile her and her children rather than allowing them to be murdered for Cersei's crime of adultery, it is sort of fair to "only" plan to exile Ned rather than killing him.

*** His mindset is best exemplified after the WhamEpisode in Season 3, in which he [[spoiler: arranged for SacredHospitality to be broken, and he muses "Explain to me why it is more noble to kill ten thousand men in battle than a dozen at dinner."]]

** The [[Recap/WednesdayS1E8AMurderOfWoes season 1 finale]] has the villains do this. [[spoiler: When Ms. Thornhill, aka Laurel Gates, resurrects her long-dead ancestor Joseph Crackstone to destroy Nevermore Academy, the first thing he does is stab Wednesday in the chest, twisting the knife to make sure she stays down. After her ancestor Goody Addams heals her, Wednesday fights him and finishes him off. Thornhill's plans are ruined, but she still plans to shoot Wednesday with a gun while [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight the latter only has a shattered sword for a weapon]]. Wednesday calls it "the first smart decision you've made all night."]]

** Played straight in Season 2 when The Greek and Vondas contemplate [[spoiler: killing Frank Sobotka]], not out of genuine malice but rather because police are using damning evidence of his corruption in order to [[HeelFaceTurn turn him for the prosecution]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch against them]]. Vondas convinces The Greek it would be more pragmatic just to buy [[spoiler: Frank]]'s loyalty (and silence) by manipulating [[spoiler: Frank's son Ziggy]]'s murder trial and preventing a conviction. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Frank had already made a deal with the FBI by then, and both The Greek and Vondas find out from a "friend" in the FBI while Frank is on his way to meet with them. Frank is shown with his throat sliced open at the beginning of the next episode.]]

*** She is clearly appalled by [[spoiler: Joffrey's decision to have Eddard executed, knowing full well that a tame wolf is better than a dead one and that Ned's survival was the only way to prevent war with the North]], and indeed she had preferred [[spoiler:simply stripping Eddard Stark of his lands and titles and having him exiled to the Night's Watch]]. There is an element of EvenEvilHasStandards here, albeit expressed in a cruel IronicEcho: since Ned planned to exile her rather than allowing her and her children to be murdered, it is sort of "fair" to "only" plan to exile the Starks rather than killing them.

*** In the second season, even she seems taken aback by Joffrey's order to kill Robert's bastard children, not necessarily because of personal standards, but because something like murdering children and babies draws the wrong type of attention. She even seems offended that Tyrion initially thinks she was the one who ordered it, though in the books, the purge of Robert's bastards was all her idea and Joffrey was unaware/uncaring of it, making for another point where Tyrion had to rein her in. However, she's also too prideful to admit Joffrey was wrong to do so.

** In the Season 2 finale, Spike helped Buffy foil Angelus and Drusilla's plan to destroy the world not because it was right, but [[EvilVersusOblivion because destroying the world would deprive him of the various entertainments he liked such as sports teams, rock bands, and alcohol]]. Earlier, he also calls out Angelus for his constant BondVillainStupidity, particularly when he kills Giles' LoveInterest Jenny Calendar and hides her corpse in the former's bed; he freely admits that he loves a good slaughter, but Angelus' mind games ''are'' going to backfire and leave them with a ''very'' pissed off Buffy.