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Cquote1
You mean you killed off real heroes so you could... pretend to be one?!
Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible to Syndrome, The Incredibles
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Everyone does things for a reason, so it goes without saying that most villains have a reason for the horrible things they do, like a Dark and Troubled Past. However, there is a very fine line between a reason and a good reason, and sometimes a villain will have a reason that is not good at all.

Enter this trope, where a villain finally reveals the reason behind all their actions and the heroes, upon hearing it, react with absolute horror and disgust. To the bad guy, committing murder, Cold-Blooded Torture, or any other heinous deeds or crimes based on that motive made sense, or at least, they saw it as a legitimate excuse. The heroes and others who find out the truth, however, are utterly disappointed not only that so much evil happened for such nonsensical reasons, but that this loser has had them running around expecting an epic battle of wills.

This isn't the same as For the Evulz or It Amused Me. The character in question had a "reason", but as far as the good guys are concerned, it wasn't a very good one.

Compare and contrast with Motive Decay, where the initial motive was actually a good one (or at least made more sense) than what it ended up devolving into. Also compare Disproportionate Retribution and Evil Is Petty, which are usually the reasons why the heroes react this way.

Note: This is an In-Universe Trope only. Don't add audience reactions.

Anime and Manga[]

  • A Certain Magical Index: Just about any time a villain reveals their motive to Touma Kamijou, this is his reaction. As far as Touma is concerned, there is no excuse for harming innocent people, especially since he sees having a Dark and Troubled Past as a reason to try and make the world a better place instead of lashing out at it in anger. A perfect example occurs in the Academy City Invasion arc; when Vento of the Front reveals that her revolt against Science is nothing more than her throwing a temper tantrum over the fact that doctors saved her over her brother after the two were fatally injured in an accident, Touma says You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! almost word-for-word.
  • In Dragon Ball, Commander Red, leader of the Red Ribbon Army (which has been an entire army made of Knights of Cerebus) initially says he needs the Dragon Balls in order to take over the world. However, he eventually reveals he wants them to wish to be a few inches taller. When his second in command, Adjutant Black, finds out, Black kills him and takes over the army.
  • Fairy Tail: In the final episode of her arc, Daphne reveals her motivation for creating an artificial dragon, for which she uses Natsu as a power source; when she was a child, she once saw a dragon and thought it was majestic, waiting forever for it to come back. When it never did, however, Daphne decided that if she couldn't find a dragon, she'd have to make one. Natsu is not impressed when he hears this, telling Daphne that she's not the only one waiting for a dragon, since he, Wendy and Gajeel all are as well. He does sympathise with her to an extent when she states that she kept telling people she saw a dragon but nobody believed her (especially since that Natsu's Berserk Button) but even after hearing that Lucy and Happy both call the whole thing "crazy."
  • One Piece: In the Fishman Island arc's climax, Hody Jones is a Fantastic Racist who utterly hates humans. However, it's revealed in an exchange that occurs between himself and Prince Fukaboshi that he was just raised to be a bigot. He's never had a bad experience with humans personally, but when in Rome.... Fukaboshi immediately sends out a mass-communication admitting that Hody's grief is "one without substance".
    • One year before the story's beginning, the "Pirate Noble" Cavendish took the world by storm. One year later, Cavendish's fame was eclipsed by Luffy and several other rookie pirates now known as the "Worst Generation." Being the Attention Whore that he is, Cavendish has sworn vengeance on those pirates. Even Luffy is smart enough to realize this is a rather petty grudge. Cavendish eventually gets over it (kind of..) and even becomes the first commander of the Straw Hat fleet. Though he still wants to be the most famous of them....
  • In Sword Art Online, Kirito and Asuna, trapped in a game where losing all your HP means death in the real world, investigate a series of murders (two staged and one actual) that supposedly happened because of Loot Drama. While Kirito has enough experience with MMOs to be disgusted by that, the culprit's real motive is even worse. The guild leader's husband was disturbed by how much more confident and assertive his previously meek and submissive wife was becoming, and wanted to kill her while she was still his wife so that she didn't divorce him in the real world. Kirito and Asuna are appalled, and tell Grimlock that if he feels this way, he never truly loved his wife.

Comic Books[]

  • In the last annual for Transformers Robots in Disguise, Optimus Prime is left stuttering that Pyra Magna embraced The Fundamentalist mindset and became a Holier Than Thou Jerkass because a chance encounter with Onyx Prime in her youth led her to conclude that the Primes were fallible. As Optimus himself says, she never spoke to Onyx and has no idea if he actually was scared of her. When Onyx returns to Cybertron, he has no idea who Pyra is or what she's talking about.
  • In issue 12 of Valerian, the eponymous hero and his friends come face to face with the Holy Trinity who have Ret-Goned Galaxity. Much to their shock, while there are other issues, they mainly did it because God was pouting that the secular humanity no longer worshipped him.
  • In issue 22 of the Invader Zim comic, Securicheeze Specialist Benchee takes security so seriously because when he was a lad, he had a bag of Cheezos that someone stole from him. Cue an unimpressed "THAT'S IT!?" from Zim.

Fan Works[]

Film- Animation[]

  • The Incredibles: Once he has the whole titular family hostage, Syndrome reveals his ultimate goal; his reason for luring many Supers out of retirement, Mr. Incredible being the final example, was to test his Omnidroid on them in order to create a weapon that, in his eyes, only he can defeat, so he can unleash it on the public and defeat it himself and be revered as a hero. Bob's reaction is so much this trope it provides the page quote.
  • In Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, Doofenshmirtz is shocked that his alternate self turned to villainy, and successfully conquered the Tri-State Area, all because he lost a toy train, compared to Doof's own Hilariously Abusive Childhood.

Film- Live-Action[]

  • In Avengers: Endgame, Thanos expresses disgust that everything Ronan does is geared towards destroying Xandar. It's why he kept Ronan Locked Out of the Loop about the Orb's true nature (it held the Power Stone). Likewise, he was pretty disgusted, and somewhat embarrassed, by Loki's "Well Done, Son" Guy motive in The Avengers.
  • Twice in the Grand Finale of Batman Beyond:
    • After discovering that Bruce Wayne is Batman, Joker is rather let down to learn that his Arch Enemy is "just a little boy in a playsuit, crying for Mommy and Daddy." He'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetic.
    • When Terry confronts the resurrected Joker, he, as a form of I Shall Taunt You, expresses disbelief that the Joker's first instinct upon getting his skin bleached was to become a super-villain. After all, people need rodeo clowns.
  • In the first Die Hard, Holly Generro is dismayed to learn that Hans Gruber is Only in It For the Money and that the whole film is an elaborate distraction to crack open a safe, stating that after everything, he's nothing but a common thief. Gruber corrects her by saying he's an "exceptional thief".
  • Played with in the Scream series with the various Ghostfaces, with several variations. Eventually after hearing one twisted motive too many, Sidney decides she's really not interested anymore in people's excuses to kill others.
  • Why does Judge Doom want to demolish Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? So he can build a highway. Eddie is not impressed considering how many people Doom killed to get to Toontown's deed.

Live-Action TV[]

  • Doctor Who:
    • In "The Daleks", the First Doctor isn't hugely impressed by the fact that everything the Daleks are doing is to become the rulers of a dead planet.
    • In "Rosa", the Villain of the Week Krasko wants to prevent Rosa Parks' famous protest. Not because he's an alien from the future who wants to divide Earth so he can have an easier time conquering it, but simply because he's a white supremacist (from sometime in the 52nd century) who wants to put black people "in [their] place." The Doctor is actually forced into Stunned Silence at the sheer pettiness on display.
    • In "The Timeless Children", the Master could not be less impressed by Ashad's goal of turning the Cybermen into Mechanical Lifeforms noting that there are already "loads of robots" in the galaxy.
  • The Flash:
    • In "The Reverse Flash Return", Barry is rather unimpressed by Reverse Flash's motivation for hating him, being openly contemptuous that Because Destiny Says So was all the motive that Reverse Flash needed to kill so many people.
    • In the series' Crisis on Infinite Earths episode, Kara has a rather disgusted tone when Norvu reveals that the Anti-Monitor's Omnicidal Maniac attitude is motivated by sheer megalomania.
  • Jessica Jones: During the episode "AKA 99 Friends", Jessica is hired by Audrey Eastman to investigate her husband, whom she suspects is cheating on her. However, it later turns out this is part of an elaborate scheme to assassinate her. Audrey then states that her mother was killed by a building destroyed in the Battle of New York, and she's now going on a crusade to kill gifted people, which she describes as a "preventative measure for next time." Jessica is absolutely livid that someone would attempt to murder her over an incident she had nothing to do with, and ends up tearing apart the Eastman's apartment in a fit of Unstoppable Rage.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine", Picard is trapped on the Enterprise with a group of scavengers. When backed into a corner, he offers himself as a hostage if they return the technology they stole and don't harm anyone. He's turned down because, to Picard's palpable disgust, the scavengers are Only in It For the Money and not interested in any political statements.
  • In Season 4 finale of Supergirl, Eve Teschmacher is appalled that Lex Luthor's motive for dividing and taking over the United States was just so he could get enough energy to charge a Kill Sat to kill Superman and the rest of the Kryptonian race. Why exactly she's surprised by this, given that is Lex Luthor, is not very clear.

Video Games[]

  • In Need for Speed: Heat, Ana is contemptuous of the Dirty Cops being motivated by the promise of money and prestige. As the Player Character points out, what drove Ana to street racing?
  • Persona 3: During Strega's first meeting with S.E.E.S., they reveal that they are going to put an end to the heroes' mission to eliminate the Dark Hour. When asked why they would want to do that, they explain that as some of the few people who can wield the power of Persona and explore Tartarus and the Dark Hour, they feel special and unique. Yukari is shocked that they would want to keep the Dark Hour active for such a reason, especially since she sees being exposed to it as a curse rather than a blessing, and flat-out asks Strega if they're crazy.
  • Persona 4: When the Killer reveals himself to the Investigation Team, he tells them that the reason he committed the first murder was because he found out a celebrity he was crushing on had a sexual affair with a married man, and he threw a temper tantrum. And the second one had a similar reason, when he spotted a high school girl talking to an older man, he accused her of being unchaste and murdered her for being "a whore". From then on, he fell headfirst into "some men just want to watch the world burn" territory and committed the rest of the attempted murders because he could and because it was fun. The entire team is aghast that their adventure started as the result of one man's childish and perverted insecurities, and openly call the Killer a worthless, immature brat.
    • Earlier on, when Mitsuo Kubo claims to be the culprit, the rest of the Investigation Team, particularly Chie and Yosuke, is disgusted, as well as a bit depressed, to hear that he only did it to get attention. Chie, however, notes that it wouldn't have been okay even if he had a better reason.
  • Persona 5: While the Phantom Thieves in general believe that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse, Kaneshiro especially stands out, as the group are flabbergasted that his entire reason for becoming a Yakuza boss who blackmails high school students with drug money was because he wanted "a place to belong." After his defeat, Makoto, who was in danger of being sold into sex slavery, venomously tells him that he'll have a place to belong for the rest of his life: prison.
  • Ratchet & Clank: Clank spends most of the first game believing Chairman Drek is the Well-Intentioned Extremist-type, out to help the Blarg find a new homeworld after their old one became too polluted for them. When he learns that Drek is actually a Corrupt Corporate Executive who deliberately polluted the Blarg homeworld in order to force the Blarg to pay him a fortune for the new one and is planning to do the same thing all over again to make even more money, Clank (understandably) reacts with dumb-founded disgust. Even Ratchet, who had spent the game as the Good Is Not Nice type of hero, is horrified by what he just heard.
  • In Transformers: War for Cybertron, Optimus is appalled to learn that Megatron is still nursing a grudge over not being chosen as the next Prime despite how much damage the war has wrought to Cybertron.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: When Mumkhar explains why he did all he's done throughout the game thus far, Dunban has this kind of reaction:
Cquote1

Mumkhar: You're as blind as you were then! I've wanted you dead for years! I wanted to get the Monado so I could be the new hero!
Dunban: Is that it!? That's the puerile reason you've killed all those innocent people? Ravaged our home?!

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Western Animation[]

  • In the American Dad! episode "Exquisite Corpses", the RB Burger killer (a serial killer who stuffs his victim's heads into RB Burger bags) killed dozens of people... so RB Burger would bring back a discontinued sandwich. As Jeff points out, couldn't he have just started a Facebook campagin?
  • In Ben 10: Omniverse, Kevin is fleeing from Princess Looma, his betrothed. The reason he agreed to marry her is so that the Tetramands would give him one of their Nigh Invulnerable engine blocks. Ben, Gwen, and Rook are outraged to learn of this. And while Kevin couldn't have gotten the engine block any other way at the time he made the deal, if he gave it back now, he's rich and famous to legally buy one.
  • In the Kim Possible episode "Bad Boy", Ron's Super-Powered Evil Side makes its first appearance and he constructs a Mega Weather Generator to hold the planet hostage and make them turn over their supply of Nacos. Shego groans about this while Kim is surprised that she didn't see it coming.
  • In the The Powerpuff Girls episode, "Just Desserts", a follow-up to the episode, "Supper Villain", Mrs. Smith and her children join her husband in helping him eliminate the Powerpuff Girls, following his release from prison. After the girls defeat them in a showdown, Mrs. Smith explains that her motive for wanting to destroy the girls was not really because they drove her husband insane or sent him to prison, but because they ruined her dinner. As the girls point out, that's not a good reason for wanting revenge on them at all.
  • Steven Universe: Future:
    • In the first episode, Steven is openly disgusted that Jasper's self-exile is motivated by her Still Fighting the Civil War and tells her so right to her face. Doubly so given that Jasper was corrupted thanks to her own arrogance, while all the other once corrupted Homeworld Gems; whom, as Steven points out, are all but begging for someone like Jasper to guide them in this new era; were innocent victims who still managed to move past their trauma.
    • In "Mr. Universe", in a rare non-villain example, Steven is incredulous that Greg's, and by extension his, whole life can be traced back to Greg being inspired to run away from home by one song.
  • In Season 8 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, the Paladins, while sympathetic to her reasoning, are shocked that Honerva/Haggar would risk destroying the Multiverse to find a perfect Alternate Universe where she can live with her family.
  • In Season 6 premiere of Rick and Morty, "Solaricks", Rick is contemptuous of Evil Morty's goal despite all the damage he caused to the Citadel and Portal Guns. He outright compares Evil Morty's plan to "[throwing] a tantrum to announce he was quitting Twitter."
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