Knight Templar / Other Media

Music

• The leader of revolutionaries in Genesis' "The Knife", the overall message being that any revolution led by a Knight Templar will end in a dictatorship.
• The title character of "Exciter" by Judas Priest, where he employs a purge by fire version of the trope.
  • The mechanical camera from "Electric Eye", who takes a righteous enjoyment out of imposing morality on the populace via a Big Brother-like watch.
  "I'm made of metal, my circuits gleam
  I am perpetual, I keep the country clean!"
• Within Temptation's "The Truth Beneath the Rose" describes the point of view of a former Christian extremist seeing the error in his/her ways.

"I believed it would justify the means"

• Hammerfall are the incarnation of this trope. If a song isn't about literal Templars, it's about heroes deeply believing in Honour Before Reason.
• The song "Joan" by Heather Dale portrays Joan of Arc like this.
• In Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick, a Knight Templar-esque character is one of the many Establishment figures critiqued and mocked.
  "Your bread and water's going cold, your hair's too short and neat.
  I'll judge you all and make damn sure that no-one judges me!"

Podcasts

• Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium has The Logos Foundation, who want to help humans and Pokemon become strong enough to face powerful threats. Their plan to do this is to destroy all "weak" humans and Pokemon, as well as anything "distracting" them from growing stronger. Like culture. And emotion.

Professional Wrestling

• Jimmy Jacobs and most of the other Age Of The Fall members by extension. They had a message about the USA's healthcare system and come hell or Ring of Honor they were going to make you listen.

Toys

• The Order of Mata Nui from BIONICLE is a secret organization, and as such, they do not need to show morals (as nobody would judge their actions) and have no problems doing unethical things, like imprisoning many without giving them a chance at parole and experimenting on and modifying a species to use as soldiers against the Brotherhood of Makuta (although the race as a whole doesn't have a problem with the changes and continues to aid their mysterious benefactors). To be fair to them, they're Mata Nui's immune system and were specifically created with the intention of doing the deeds the Toa could not without being regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the universe.
  • Amongst Toa, Tuyet ended up becoming one of these over time. She eventually got to thinking that Toa could do much more good if they were willing to make "acceptable" sacrifices at times... which led to her murdering several Matoran to keep a special Amulet of Concentrated Awesome of hers a secret. This led to both Lhikan and Nidhiki (back when he still had morals) teaming up to defeat her and led to her imprisonment by the aforementioned Order.
  "That's your problem, Lhikan, always following the rules. Always worrying about others. Did you ever think we could do more good if we stopped worrying so much about who might get hurt in the process?"
  • Also, Tuyet's definition of "acceptable" involves hundreds of innocent people being slaughtered, the Toa being brainwashed into more Knights Templar, and the Matoran living in fear in a Big Brother Is Watching version of Metru Nui, as seen in an alternate universe.

Web Animation

• The main villains of Broken Saints, Lear and Gabriel, fall pretty firmly into this territory.
• General Ironwood becomes this in RWBY, as Volume 7 progresses, he becomes willing to commit increasingly dubious actions in order to oppose Salem. He starts off by imposing a military embargo on Mantle despite the economic hardships said embargo is causing for the civilians on the ground and diverting resources that Mantle needs to rebuild its infrastructure to build a comm tower at Amity Colosseum. By the end of the volume, he's degenerated into declaring full martial law, abandoning Mantle to die, and either killing or arresting anyone who opposes him.