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"You're not wrong, Walter, you're just an asshole."He's not good. He's not nice. He's a jerkass. What he just said is not what the main characters wanted to hear but he's right. The jerkass in question can be anything from your ISO Standard Jerkass or Anti-Hero all the way up to any flavor of Villain (though the chance is inversely proportional to the distance they go down the "slippery slope"). Whoever he or she is, they're seriously deficient in the morals department, at least from the point of view of the perspective characters. Then they have a moment where they say something undeniably true - the good guys don't have to like what he's saying, but they can't deny he's right without deluding themselves. Cases typically involve the listener conceding the point or a trustworthy source agreeing with the jerkass. Perhaps even the protagonist is caught on a moral stumbling block, and the antagonist is all too glad to point out their hypocrisy. After all, at least the antagonist is honest about it. Or maybe its the antagonist who is a hypocrite and sees the moral failings of the others but not his own. It is all too often that the character is Right for the Wrong Reasons, making some legit points, albeit for entirely selfish reasons. The other main reason a character is likely to say "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with him." It's worth noting that the Alpha Bitch and the Jerk Jock, two of the main distributors of this trope, have a tendency toward bluntness. While our hero's friends may be hesitant to insult him, these characters don't really care what he thinks and are willing to say exactly what he's doing wrong, without sugarcoating their "What the Hell, Hero?". A rare outcome of the claim that "We are Not So Different". A response of "Shut Up, Hannibal!" would be out of place, and is likely to get shot down if it appears but a Kirk Summation could work. See also Not Himself and What the Hell, Hero? for situations likely to inspire this. Compare The Horseshoe Effect, wherein two people claim to be ideologically opposed and yet have beliefs in common. See Don't Shoot the Message for what happens when this occurs in Real Life. Sister Trope to Dumbass Has a Point, The Extremist Was Right, Hypocrite Has a Point, Villain Has a Point and Wisdom from the Gutter. This is an In-Universe Only Trope. For it to be Jerkass Has a Point, the work or characters within the work must acknowledge that the jerkass is right. If a character who is often unpleasant makes a point that readers are meant to see as wrong, but still comes across as more sensible than the counterargument, that's Strawman Has a Point. Also, No Real Life Examples, Please!
— The Dude, The Big Lebowski
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Anime and Manga
- Sora from .hack//SIGN, after repeatedly being scolded for not taking anything seriously and just being an ass, replies along the lines that they're in a game and the point is to have fun. Even though there's a lot more going on than it just being a game, and while he is a dick, he does have a very valid point.
- In Accel World, during the climax of the first volume, Haru learns that his childhood friend, Taku, is actually Cyan Pile, the Burst Linker who's hunting his mentor Kuroyukihime for the point bounty on her, and that he also put a backdoor program in their mutual friend (as well as his girlfriend) Chiyu's Neurolinker to spy on her. Taku reveals that he's dating Chiyu so that she doesn't spend her life looking after Haru, and Haru, despite finding his point difficult to accept, admits that it's not entirely without basis.
- Angel Sanctuary: Setsuna and Sara's mother. She's ignorant and distant to her son, overprotective of her daughter, and goes to extreme lengths to keep the two separated. Rightfully so, as the two of them have incestuous feelings for each other. No matter how cruel she may appear in keeping her children apart, she has good reason to do so.
- In Area 88, Kanzaki of all people warns Ryoko that her fixation on Shin is pathological. He tells Ryoko that her obsession with an absentee Shin is reminiscent of his mother's obsession with his estranged father, which ended with his mother's suicide. Kanzaki's observation was validated in later manga issues that did not make it stateside. Ryoko unsuccessfully attempted suicide after Shin broke her heart over the phone.
Ryoko: I feel bad about saying this, but I think your mother must have been a very weak person. To end up like that, I mean. Even if I were in her situation and lost my man. As long as I had the memory of the love I shared, I'm sure I would be able to handle it. And I would never involve a small child in my problems.Kanzaki: It's easy to have such an idealistic attitude. But, would your attitude hold up if you were really faced with the same kind of situation? ... Shin has been missing a long time. And you don't know whether he's alive or dead. Yet, you still love him. In retrospect, is your situation any different?
- Some also say that Ryoko speaking so harshly about the dead is in and of itself a Jerkass move. But can any parent who commits suicide and leaves a child behind truly be considered a responsible individual?
- In Attack on Titan, Levi's Brutal Honesty, despite often making him appear like a jerk, is usually proven right. During Eren's trial, he openly criticizes the merchants for being greedy pigs, but he is absolutely correct since they care more about their safety and business than caring about starving refugees, especially since one merchant deliberately blocked off an escape route with his goods and flat-out told Mikasa to her face that she and the rest of the Survey Corps solely exist to die so people like him can live. He also harshly ordered Eren to figure out a way to transform into a Titan because if he didn't, then any chance of reclaiming Wall Maria was gone, and there would be a high possibility that Eren would be handed over to the Military Police Brigade who would then execute him.
- In Bakuman。, Nanamine, who has a morally dubious plan to rise to the top of Jump, had once sent the main characters as fan mail, but stopped when they started writing Tanto, saying they weren't suited to gag manga. This is a bit of an odd case, in that it takes a while for Nanamine to be revealed as a Jerk Ass, and this opinion was shared by the majority of the characters. He also says that like him, the main characters took risks and defied their editors at times to get what they wanted.
- Bleach:
- In the concept pilot, Orihime's father tells her she shouldn't confess her feelings to Ichigo after her death, because it'll leave him in even more pain. It's a valid point, even if it soon turns out that his time as a Hollow turned him insane and possessive of Orihime to the point where he killed her himself.
- At the beginning of the Arrancar Arc, Grimmjow points out it's a mistake to let Ichigo live. He's right.
- Zommari tells Byakuya that the Shinigami weren't meant to be Hollow hunters and he should be questioning why Shinigami descended into that state from their original duty. He's right. Shinigami were originally Balancers, not Hollow hunters.
- When Yamamoto claims Mayuri only had to kill 28,000 Rukongai souls to correct the world soul-balance because his division was too incompetent to identify the Quincy threat fast enough to prevent things getting that bad, Mayuri bluntly tells him it's entirely Yamamoto's fault because Mayuri foresaw the Quincy threat as a result of Uryuu's actions during the Ryoka Invasion. However, Yamamoto dismissed Mayuri's concerns as paranoid, which left the Gotei 13 unprepared for future Quincy attacks.
- When questioned about his decision to reject the Quincy arts by a young Uryuu, Ryuuken states that he did so because there is no money in it. Uryuu finds this incredibly callous, but his grandfather points out that Ryuuken has a son to feed and raise and so needs an occupation that can provide for him.
- In the finale of Death Note, Near, who, like L, largely only takes on cases that interest him rather than out of a sense of justice, but hates Kira responds to Light Yagami's Motive Rant by telling him that he's nothing more than a "crazy serial killer." No one in the room besides Light, even those who don't like Near, contest that assertion, and Ide says that while he doesn't like Near, if Near hadn't won, Ide and the rest of the task force would be dead.
- Dragon Ball Z:
- In the Saiyan Saga, Yajirobe invokes this after the fight against Vegeta, calling out Chi-Chi for focusing entirely on Gohan, who was merely unconscious, while ignoring Goku, who didn't have a single unbroken bone in his body.
- Vegeta killing Burter and Recoome in cold blood after Goku defeated them. Goku states that Vegeta was being cruel, but Vegeta then retorts that their deaths were deserved, especially since Gohan and Krillin were on the verge of death, and that they had killed countless people under Frieza's orders. While Goku states that having a little compassion isn't a disadvantage, sparing the Ginyu Force would have caused far more harm than good. This is further emphasized later on when Goku spares their even more sadistic leader Frieza's life at least twice - which only prompts Frieza to try to stab Goku in the back both times; though, to be fair, Goku only spared Frieza the first time out of Cruel Mercy instead, not compassion.
- After saving the heart virus-stricken Goku from being killed by Android 19, Vegeta proceeds to chew him out for it, reminding Goku that he was warned about the heart virus and should have known that fighting in his condition, let alone going Super Saiyan, would have only made it worse.
- Vegeta gets another one after beating Android 19 so thoroughly that 19 flips out and tries to make a break for it, to which Dr. Gero/Android 20 shouts at Vegeta that it's enough. As Vegeta rightfully points out in response, Gero and 19 had clearly come all this way to destroy him and the other Z Fighters, and it's only "enough" because they're losing.
- Although Vegeta was too harsh with Gohan about him getting weaker in the Buu saga and how his fight with Dabura was a "disgrace," he made a good point: Gohan was struggling against a foe that, seven years ago, he wouldn't have had such a problem with, and it was in their best interest to beat these foes as quickly and efficiently as possible. In fact, Vegeta's arrogance notwithstanding, it's highly probable that he could have defeated Dabura with relative ease had he been the one to fight instead.
- Vegeta gets another one in the climax of the Buu Saga when he calls out Goku for leaving his children to die while Kid Buu blows up the Earth, and choosing to rescue Mr. Satan and Dende instead. While he's doing so, Goku just sits there and has absolutely nothing to say in his own defense.
- During the Saiyan Saga, when Gohan wants to learn martial arts from his father instead of Piccolo, Piccolo states that Goku is too soft-hearted to be an effective teacher. These concerns prove to be justified in the Cell saga when they go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Goku initially holds back for fear of hurting Gohan accidentally.
- Dragon Ball Super:
- While Zamasu is a Knight Templar with Nazi-esque ambitions, his overall view on mortals is not entirely unfounded. Mortals do misuse the knowledge of the gods and have committed several atrocities: Frieza and the Saiyans were cold-hearted planet brokers who regularly committed genocide for profit; Dr. Gero used his great mind to create mass-murdering androids, one of whom (Cell) literally ate people, all to settle a petty grudge with Goku; and Bibidi and Babidi unleashed Majin Buu on Universe 7, causing the deaths of nearly all of the Supreme Kais and billions of innocents. Zamasu's Fatal Flaw, however, is his inability to see that not all mortals are evil by nature.
- His assessment of the Babarians proves sound; his master Gowasu brought him there to demonstrate that mortals weren't inherently evil and capable of maturation, yet even after a thousand years, there was no moral growth to observe in the species.
- He also has a point about the gods' inaction against mortals who abuse the knowledge of the gods. The suffering caused by Frieza, Bibidi, and Babidi could have been avoided if the gods were more active. Beerus specifically let Frieza do whatever he wanted and even approved of him destroying the Saiyans for petty reasons. In the Super manga, it's outright stated that Beerus should have been the one to handle Majin Buu, but he was asleep.
- Beerus, God of Destruction of Universe 7, really against Goku's idea of All-Universe Tournament, because it involves Zen'O; he even threatens to vaporise him. However, knowing that Zen'O is even more casual and apathetic to life than Beerus, destroyed 6 universes in the past just because something annoyed him, and the losers of upcoming tournament will have their entire universes destroyed, it's hard to disagree.
- He also berates Goku for his naive nature, stating that it's dangerous to the universe. Remember that Goku spared Frieza, who tried to destroy Earth twice (and succeeds in the latter case; only Whis' Time Master abilities averted it), his fighty-happy nature led to Zamasu's Start of Darkness and destruction of Future multiverse, etc.
- At the end of the Future Trunks Saga, he coldly tells Gowasu to choose his apprentices more carefully in the future. Considering the fact that Gowasu proved to be a Horrible Judge of Character in regards to Zamasu and failed to notice his growing darkness until it was almost too late, and also told him about the Time Rings and Super Dragon Balls, both of which proved crucial to Zamasu's plans, he's not wrong.
- When Goku fight Bergamo during the preliminary tournament, the latter manipulates the gods into making Goku the bad guy and tries to get under Zen'O's favor by having the universe be spared if he beats the former. Right after being defeated, Bergamo calls out Goku on whether or not he cares for the state of the universe considering they are going to be erased when they lose. While Bergamo is underhanded, manipulative and he said it in the middle of his Sore Loser speech, he's got a good point about Goku especially considering that the latter is completely nonchalant about it, even challenging the other gods to come at him.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Solf J. Kimblee. Jerkass has many points. Played especially straight in Chapter 60 where he lectures Mustang and Hawkeye about the nature of killing, free will, and military duty in the midst of war. Kimblee's words affect them so much, they decide to lose the self-pity, accept responsibility for their acts, and atone by putting into motion a long-term plan to change the leadership of the country from below.
- When the Elric brothers confront Scar with his killing of the Nina-Alexander chimera, he says that she would have never returned to normal, and would have lived out her days as a lab rat. The brothers find this difficult to accept, but have to admit that even then, they knew on some level that it would have happened and did nothing.
- In Gate, Yao further aggravates Tuka's PTSD by coldly insisting that her father was killed by a fire dragon, causing her to retreat further into her delusions and become convinced that Itami is actually her father. When confronted with this, Yao points out that their initial plan to just avoid the issue and allow her to believe her father was still alive was just as bad, and that Itami's later attempts to enforce her delusions by actually pretending to be her father are doomed to fail and likely drive her even further into insanity. Itami eventually concedes to her point, and sets out to destory the flame dragon with Tuka and the rest of the group to force her to overcome her father's death.
- In the Girls und Panzer prequel manga "Little Army", Miho's friend Emi acts very hostile toward Miho's older sister Maho from their first meeting, causing friction between Miho and Emi. Eventually, Emi reveals the cause of her antipathy toward Maho; Emi's older sister's team went up against Maho's team. While Maho's team was winning, one of its tanks fell into the water, and Emi's sister's team's flag tank went after it, but Maho's tank took the opportunity to shoot at the flag tank and win. Miho is hesitant to believe this, but she asks Maho whether it's true, and is quite upset to hear that it is.
- In the main series manga, after the match with Anzio (which was passed over in the anime), Anchovy, the commander, acts like a Sore Loser, angrily saying she doesn't accept Miho's way of tankery and saying that there is no meaning to tankery unless you strive for victory. Miho fires back with an Armor-Piercing Question that asks if Anchovy believes that her and her team's efforts are meaningless because they lost and says her comrades are most important, but Anchovy replies that the commander's responsibility is to lead the team to victory. Ultimately, it turns out that the only way for Oarai to avert being shut down is to place first in the tournament, something none of Miho's team wants, so it is necessary for Miho to win, although Miho doesn't know that at the time and it's unclear whether Anchovy does.
- In Happiness Charge Pretty Cure, Iona has major trust issues towards Hime, snubbing her and essentially being mean to her, even telling Hime's partner Megumi to not trust her. After so long, Iona reveals why: Hime opened the Axia Box and released the Phantom Empire that is currently ravaging the planet. While Hime claims she didn't mean to harm anyone by her actions, Iona's trust issues are justified as Hime's actions caused many lives to be taken away, including Iona and Hime's families. However, this is eventually softened by the fact that while it's Hime's fault that the Earth is being attacked, it's Iona's fault that her sister was taken, as said sister sacrificed herself to protect Iona, who ventured too close to a battle.
- He's Dedicated to Roses: The leader of the Girl Posse give I-Da one of these after breaking her glasses. Subverted in that that wasn't what she had intended.
- One of the main reasons why InuYasha always gets a sit command...
Inuyasha: [Nonchalantly.] She means you better take care of any unfinished business before you go to the other world.Kagome: Inuyasha!Inuyasha: Ah, what?Kagome: Sit boy!
- Naraku even gets a moment of this; while Kikyo's death and Inuyasha's 50-year sealing are entirely his fault, he nonetheless makes a valid point when he tells them that they were quick to distrust each other and how easy it was to drive a wedge between them. Their world is one where demons are able to shapeshift into other people's forms and/or possess other people, and despite full knowledge that such things are entirely possible, Inuyasha and Kikyo were fully prepared to believe the worst in one another despite being lovers.
- Done with Tomoe frequently from Kamisama Kiss. The guy's default personality is sarcastic asshole and the people he likes are not exempt from that sarcasm or his general dickish behavior. That being said, he regularly gives the heroine Nanami sound advice. Too bad she never really listens.
- In Koe no Katachi, after the Drama Bomb and suffering a breakdown, Ishida harshly calls out his friends. While he delivered it to a brutal fashion, he was correct. Ueno doesn't believe she did anything wrong in regards to bullying Shouko. Sahara doesn't stand up for herself or others when put in a difficult situation. Kawai is the worst as she refuses to acknowledge she had any part in bullying Shouko. Nagatsuka clings to Ishida because he was nice to him.
- In Kotoura-san, Hiyori points out that Haruka's telepathy is an incredible invasion of privacy. Does this excuse in any way, shape, or form, the way she and others treat her for most of the story? Not really... but it's still a valid point. On the other hand, Haruka is unable to turn off her mind reading power, and so has no choice but to read others' minds- her main problem is being unable to keep that ability, and some of her findings, secret.
- Oberstein of Legend of Galactic Heroes is a magnificent example of this trope. There is practically no one in the show who likes the guy, and yet he always makes arguments that, although devoid of concepts such as honor and often morals, are simply correct and most effective when looked at logically. Even Reinhard states that he has not once liked Oberstein as a person, but followed his advice the most because "that man makes arguments that are so right, they leave no room for debate".
- In Letter Bee, when Zazie's parents come to pick him up from the orphanage, having paid off their debt and not having to worry about him, being taken as collateral, Zazie refuses to recognize them as his parents, having developed trust issues. The cruel, two-faced orphan matron tells him that "If they're not your parents, why would they want a brat like you?" (Ironically, she is the main cause of Zazie's trust issues). Zazie realizes as his parents are leaving that they "made no excuses and told no lies" when challenged, but a Gaichuu eats their hearts before Zazie can talk with them again.
- Little Witch Academia has an In-Universe example in which Akko considers Diana to be a massive jerk because of her constant criticism. Thing is, almost all of said criticism (that Akko is nowhere as skilled as she thinks she is, believes that she can be a great witch simply by virtue of wanting it really bad without putting forth much effort, and has little respect for the traditions or rules of the institution she wants so badly to be a part of) are all completely accurate. Part of Akko's Character Development is recognizing that maybe Diana wasn't just being mean and actually had a valid point.
- Maken-ki!: Tenbi lost possession of the remaining 3 original Maken to Kamigari, in a contest during the Himekagura Festival, but figured it wouldn't matter since they had contingency plan. They intended to have Yuuka shadow Otohime back to Kamigari's new lair in order to recover their Maken and learn where they were hiding Takeru Yamato. Except the plan failed because Otohime had been expecting it. The following day at the festival, she notified Tenbi that Yuuka was now their prisoner. When Minori tried threatening her, Otohime threw Minori's own plan back in her face:
Otohime: (at Minori) "It's your own fault for trying to get the jump on us. Besides... seeing how you laid a trap for us, I bet you thought it was alright for you to lose at Himekagura. I can't stand a lukewarm atmosphere like that."
- Medaka Box: Right after being defeated, Kumagawa makes an point about Medaka's decision to make Kumagawa her Vice-President remarking that she's ignoring Zenkichi's feelings. Personal feelings aside, Kumagawa was nonetheless a dangerous minus who blinded Zenkichi, so distrust of Kumagawa was still partially justified.
- Naze calls out the rest of the student council for their bystander attitude after Medaka beats Zenkichi into a bloody pulp.
- Kumagawa does it again in Chapter 174. While erasing Zenkichi from existence was quite extreme, it manages to force Shiranui to admit her true feelings rather than continuing her Jerkass Façade.
- Tohru's father from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid may have been arrogant and overbearing, but he had a point in warning Tohru and Kobayashi that the former's presence risked causing the war ravaging the Other World to spill over into Earth — as happened when Elma, Iruru, and Cremene crossed over looking to pick fights.
- In Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam the only character to consistently call Kamille out on his Moral Myopia is archenemy Jerid Messa. While Jerid is an arrogant Jerk Jock with a history of war crimes under his belt, he's not wrong when he laughs in Kamille's face over his insistence that all the enemy soldiers are murderers, given that at this point Kamille has killed as many of their comrades as they've killed his.
- In Muhyo and Roji, while Roji has been given leave from his position as Muhyo's assistant to learn an important lesson about what it is he needs to do. The one who convinces him that rather than worry about his own capabilities, which would leave him useless to Muhyo, he should support Muhyo, is Ebisu, Goryo's unpleasant and amoral (but also at times sympathetic) sidekick, who does so after telling him his criminal past and loyalty to the Goryo group for taking him in, which allowed him to ultimately accept being fired for his mistake.
- Goryo himself later reveals that Ivy's parents were not innocent victims, but rejected an offer of lenience and killed magical law officers while resisting arrest. Surprisingly enough, though, at the end of his fight with Ivy, he has a few chances to Pet the Dog.
- While he's typically the hero, Muhyo sends the spirit of Fujiwara to the equivalent of purgatory, saying that his loss against a rain dog was proof of "ineptitude or negligence, neither of which earns (Muhyo's) sympathy". Roji, despite being typically idealistic and kind-hearted, doesn't question this but does question why Muhyo is performing so many sentencings and using up his tempering even before facing Sophie.
- Naruto
- Orochimaru was the one who gave Tsunade the idea of starting a unit of medical ninjas to minimize battlefield casualties, though that was way before he turned to full-blown villainy. He was a recognized hero of Konoha, pegged to be the next Hokage and genuinely her friend at the time. Though he never was nice, even then, so the trope still applies.
- Sasuke gets this from time to time in Part I. When Sakura complains about Naruto and says that he is a Bratty Half-Pint because he has no parents (which definitely strikes a nerve for Sasuke), Sasuke tells Sakura that she has no idea what Naruto went through, and after he leaves, she decides to start being nicer to Naruto. Shortly before the Chunin Exams, he tells her that she's as annoying as Naruto is and in terms of skill, even weaker than he is. During the Forest of Death, when Naruto and Sasuke are incapacitated, Sakura realizes that despite thinking herself superior to Naruto, she can't do anything when it counts, and goes through Character Development as a result.
- Sakura got to be this in the Forest of Death as well, calling Sasuke out for always having such a superior attitude while talking to Naruto, and yet now was frozen in fear while Naruto fought for their lives.
- The Fourth Raikage is often depicted as arrogant, stubborn and somewhat hypocritical. When Naruto's pleas for him not to kill Sasuke are dismissed as weakness, Naruto agrees to the extent that he has to either save or kill Sasuke himself.
- Played With in the case of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, when Naruto heads out into the Fourth Ninja World War. In a conversation in his subconscious, Naruto declares that he will end the war himself, and won't let anyone down, The Nine-Tails points out that hatred and grudges have shaped the way of the world for as long as there has been shinobi, and the war is just another example of that hatred being brought to the surface, asking him how he expects to overcome it, if he's expected to use it. He then gets specific and mentions Naruto's failure to turn Sasuke, and noted that he has carried that hatred even as far back as their first meeting as children. While Naruto makes it clear what he will deal with Sasuke, and end the war, he has met a number of foes have largely been Zetsu copies, and zombies of legendary ninja who want to rest in peace, before another example of this trope, Itachi, points out that taking it all on yourself can make you arrogant and no better than Tobi. So, in one sense, Nine-Tails was onto something...
- Another example with the Nine-Tails. When the resurrected Minato blames himself for all of the damage Tobi/Obito has caused because he never realized Tobi's true identity, Kurama is quick to point out that Minato had no way of knowing that Obito was still alive, and even if he had, it wouldn't have changed a thing; Kurama still had to be stopped, and the Obito Minato knew was long dead by then, so it would have been pointless to try to reason with him.
- Also, the Second Hokage, Tobirama, comes off as a bit of an asshole with his opinion on the Uchiha. However, given their actions (Uchiha being responsible for a past attack on Konoha, the current war, and most of Akatsuki's actions), he had reasons to be wary. And while definitely an ass about it and obviously acting under the premise of Keeping the Enemy Close, he never actually caused them any harm. Nor did he have a problem trusting individual members of the clan who he felt had proved their loyalty.
- Sasuke points out that the five ninja villages only united because of a greater threat, to justify his far more extreme plan for world peace—killing the Five Kages and using the Sage's powers to unite the world against him.
- Sasuke pointing out that the only reason Sakura loves him is because they were on the same team for a little while over three years ago and she had a crush and that she's willing to overlook multiple counts of willing atrocities and attempted murders for a guy she knows pretty much nothing about. We even see early in the story through a flashback that it was basically Love at First Sight and she was so insensitive that she didn't realize insulting Naruto for not having parents just might also offend Sasuke "Entire clan murdered down to two" Uchiha. It's blatantly clear to see the distinction in comparison to Naruto, whom Sasuke does acknowledges as his best friend because they mutually understand each other's lonely pasts.
- Bishamon in Noragami angrily calls out Yato on his case of Poor Communication Kills regarding Yato's father that has led to so much grief when it could have been avoided. She herself experienced all the problems poor communication can cause. She was also brutal in telling Yato that he has some nerve showing his face to Ebisu if he is secretly contacting his father, after what had happened between Ebisu and his father.
- In One Piece, after Kaku is revealed as a Cipher Pol 9 spy, Zoro asks him if the fact that he is not a real shipwright means that his assessment that the Going Merry was unable to reach the next island was incorrect, but Kaku says that he was telling the truth back then. Later on, when he goes to the place where Franky and Usopp are going to the ship, he chides Usopp for keeping Merry around, before dumping it into the stormy ocean. Kaku is correct, and the Merry falls apart after saving the Straw Hats from Enies Lobby.
- Hody Jones states the painful and obvious truth when giving Princess Shirahoshi "The Reason You Suck" Speech. While yes, it was admirable that she kept quiet about who her mother's killer was and wanted to "prevent the cycle of hatred" from continuing, but by not telling anyone said person grew only worse in their murderous, racist ways before they would eventually initiate a bloody coup d'etat on the kingdom.
- In a similar way to Hody, Crocodile tells Luffy that he finds Vivi's idealism impractical, suggesting that the idea of saving everyone is naive. Luffy agrees, but points out that as she's willing to risk her own life to stop his Evil Plan, he'll fight so she doesn't have to.
- Zoro, while not a complete Jerkass, tends to be one of the more abrasive members of the crew when giving advice. However, his advice tends to be right.
- During the Davy Back Fight, when Foxy takes Chopper after winning the first round as a result of cheating, he tells Chopper to own up to his decision to join the Straw Hats and that he shouldn't be blaming others for it. Notably, Zoro and Sanji are facing a 3-on-3 match next round, and Chopper was one of the people who was set to participate, so he's facing an uphill battle and doesn't complain about it.
- When Usopp wanted to rejoin the crew, he tells Luffy that unless Usopp apologizes, he'd simply be allowing a crew member to disrespect him. Even Sanji, who frequently butts heads with Zoro, tells Nami that Zoro's completely right when she objects.
- He is apathetic about Sanji leaving the crew for an Arranged Marriage with one of Big Mom's daughters because the Straw Hats cannot be involved with an Emperor's business when they are at the moment focused with dealing with another Emperor.
- Pokémon:
- In the very first season Giselle acts as a bully and a jerk during her whole episode, but all her bullying consists in supplying very useful advice in a very harsh and backhanded way.
- In Best Wishes 2, in the eliminatories of the Junior World Cup, Fiery Redhead Georgia and her Beartic suffer a Curb-Stomp Battle at the hands of Iris and her exceptionally powerful Dragonite, which had decided to join Iris' team on his own accord just in the previous episode. The former tells her that she didn't win by her own merits, but because of her Pokemon's strength (especially since Dragonite wasn't obeying her at all). While she's often a Sore Loser, her argument makes perfect sense - that instead of relying on Pokémon that she trained and fought alongside, she's just using a last-minute super-weapon she just found. It comes to a head when she battles Ash; she and Dragonite seem to finally be working together until Ash's Krokorok evolves into Krookodile and gains the upper-hand. Dragonite starts disobeying again and goes on a bit of a rampage which leads into an embarrassing loss for Iris, which makes Georgia extremely pleased to have been proven right. Iris acknowledges this at the end of the tournament and promises Georgia that she'll have Dragonite under control by the next time they meet, so that Georgia can have the battle she wants.
- In Puella Magi Oriko Magica, Homura's deciding to only focus on protecting Madoka when Oriko and witch-Kirika attack their middle school for the express purpose of killing Madoka, earns Homura a What the Hell, Hero? from Madoka herself that tells her that if she feels that way, she shouldn't try to save anyone. Homura responds that she can't save everyone in this case, and should be at least able to protect Madoka; Mami makes a similar point about not being able to save everyone in the school in an internal monologue. Unfortunately, one of the people they're unable to save is Madoka herself.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: The resident Jerkass Butt Monkeys Saionji and Nanami start making good points and recognising how they all are being manipulated towards the end of the series, but by then, each are teetering on the brink of insanity, so no-one listens to them.
- In The Rising Of The Shield Hero Motoyasu calls out Naofumi for owning a slave, despite treating Raphtalia well and having to rely on her due to his own weakness. Months later Naofumi admits to himself that for a modern Japanese citizen Motoyasu's reaction was entirely justified, Naofumi was just too bitter to see it.
- Rurouni Kenshin:
- Anti-Hero Saitou is generally placed in this role. Though Kenshin's non-killing philosophy prevails in most instances, Saitou points out that Kenshin's philosophy often gives him more challenges and grief against opponents who do not share it. He also coldly points out that Sano's skills would be of little use in a match in Kyoto, and proves it in a fistfight. Sano actually heeded the lesson and Took a Level in Badass en route to Kyoto.
- Similarly, Magdaria and Shouzo were doing a great job of not provoking the police, who had stopped them for no reason other than they were Christians... when Sanosuke jumped out from behind a bush and beat the crap out of them and probably got mistaken for a Christian (after all, who else would have bothered?). This is the kind of thing that Real Life activists from oppressed minority groups avoid unless they want to deepen the impression that they're a bunch of dangerous lunatics, so even if Magdaria could have been a little less harsh, she had a very good reason to not be happy.
- In Sailor Moon, Rei/Sailor Mars may be a bitch and an unsympathetic bully towards Usagi, but sometimes, she is angry out of frustration for having to deal with somebody as irresponsible and lazy as Usagi, as Usagi at first does not take her Sailor Scout duties seriously. This is pointed out when Makoto once gets angry at Rei and accuses her of wanting Usagi to be hurt, but Rei tells her that she's just as worried as Makoto and the other girls are.
- At the end of Sailor Moon S, Haruka and Michiru angrily call out Usagi on her handling of Pharoah 90. They say that while it is true the world was saved, Usagi acted rashly due to her idealism of wanting to save everyone, pointing out that it's selfish. Because of it, Usagi nearly doomed the whole world. Haruka and Michiru also point out that it was only dumb luck that things worked out in the end since Usagi had no idea how things would've went. They drive it further home saying someone with such flawed idealism has no right to be named a future ruler as they view that kind of person as irresponsible.
- Silver Spoon: Hachiken's father has several. For example, expecting someone, even your parents, to fund your start up when your business plan consists solely of cheerful optimism isn't going to happen, and piling on more and more activities when you've already overworked yourself into the hospital once (the circumstances were extreme, but still) is not a good idea.
- Knuckles of Sonic X is rather aloof and arrogant, and makes severe tactical mistakes like falling for Eggman's fake Heel Face Turns. However some of his resentment towards Sonic's reckless behaviour does make sense (he did get everyone stuck on Earth by acting showy in a fight with Eggman's machinery) and he often points out the stupidity of some of the team's plans. It doesn't help the team tend to just make him their punching bag as a response.
- In Sword Art Online, during the Mother's Rosario arc, Asuna's mother, Kyouko Yuuki, is trying to make her transfer out of the Sword Art Online Survivors' School, as well as accept an Arranged Marriage (or failing that, marry someone who isn't from her current school- i.e. Kirito). Kyouko describes the SAO Survivors' School as little more than a correctional facility, since its lenient terms for admission seem too good to be true, and serve to let the government monitor the survivors for potentially antisocial behavior. Her point echoes one that Kirito made while talking to Suguha back in the Alfheim arc, and Asuna can't articulate a rebuttal to it, although she likes the school well enough to not want to leave.
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its adaptation Robotech have a tendency to feature unlikeable characters whose arguments make sense:
- Lynn Kaifun (Kyle in Robotech) is the series' Scrappy for his near-irrational hatred of military, extreme pacifism even when it does more harm then good, and Soapbox Sadie tendencies, and is often seen accusing the military of trying to extend the war and not understanding the situation they're in. While the soldiers on the SDF-1 hate the war just as he does, when it comes to the pre-Zentraedi Holocaust high command he's perfectly right, to the point that the first officer privately agrees with him and levies one of his points to the Spacy's commander, her father.
- Kamjin (Khyron in Robotech) is a violent Blood Knight, often seeking battle with the humans even when it doesn't benefit the Zentraedi, and tries to sabotage the peace talks under the justification that the main fleet will come and kill them all, both Earthlings and Zentraedi, if they catch wind of that. Not only Breetai agrees with the latter point, but Kamjin is quickly proven right.
- In the "The Masters" saga of Robotech, Colonel Fredericks of the Global Military Police, whose job is both of military intelligence and to enforce military discipline, often offers harsh criticism of Dana's actions as an officer. Thing is, Dana's squadron is more a biker gang than a military unit, in her first on-screen encounter with the GMP Dana toppled a security robot just because, and Fredericks has shown some respect for Dana's battlefield prowess;
- Being effectively Fredericks' disciple, Nova Satori has her moments, especially when trying to bust Musica and Bowie when the first one comes to Earth. Thing is, Musica may be on Earth's side, but she's still a triumviroid (clone subject of the Robotech Masters), and the last time a subject of the Masters apparently joined the Earth defenders he was actually a brainwashed spy, and as a member of the GMP her job description includes hunting down spies and those who help them.
- Again in "The Masters", supreme commander Anatole Leonard of the Army of the Southern Cross often acts as a Blood Knight, advocating offensives against the technologically superior Robotech Masters in spite of the enemy's superior firepower and defences, rudely ordering the commander of the first counterattack wave to send in the new fighters against the Masters' motherships in spite of the failure of the better-armed large warships, and not caring that the Masters' troops could be actual human beings and not brainwashed micronized Zentraedi (and in fact he apparently refuses to even consider the idea, kicking Dana out of a meeting when she proposes it): aside for being less bloodthirsty than his superiors in the government (even facepalming at some of their demands), the Masters are unwilling to talk, and the only way to defeat them is through the desperate counterattacks he demands; the new fighters are apparently the only reason the first wave survives, as they are launched at the same time as the Masters' launch their corvettes for the final blow and prove a match for them; an with the Masters unwilling to talk the actual identity of their soldiers doesn't matter (and in fact believing them being basically biological robots is useful for the troops), and Dana in that meeting was being insubordinate to the point of calling him a fool (Dana is a lieutenant. She was lucky to not get demoted to private);
- Robotech II: The Sentinels has another instance at the press conference before the launch of the Pioneer Mission and the Robotech Expeditionary Force with the heavily armed SDF-3 to try and reach a compromise with the Robotech Masters before they attack Earth. When Exedore explains that the Pioneer Mission includes so many heavily armed warships in spite of being a diplomatic reason is because they don't know how the Masters will react and there are no apparent threats to Earth anyway, Leonard jumps up and starts screaming apocalyptic predictions that come to pass exactly: he's not so optimistic about the lack of an enemy threat, and as the watchers already know the Masters are already coming to Earth (also making the Pioneer mission useless), and that's without Tesla, The Dragon to the Invid Regent, suggesting to track down Zor's ship (the Regent refuses because he hates the Masters too much to abandon the attack on Tirol, but that could have been another threat to Earth), or the Regess deploying the Sensor Nebula to track down the Flower of Life (and that is another threat to Earth); he declares that "the departure of the SDF-3 and its weapon systems will make Earth hopelessly vulnerable to attack!", and the Masters' motherships have Deflector Shields that make them heavily resistant to anything less than the Reflex Cannons mounted exclusively on the SDF-3 and some of her escorts, and it's only the return of two waves of REF ships that give the Southern Cross the firepower to score a Pyrrhic Victory; he shouts that in case of attack the Robotech Expeditionary Force will be at the other side of the galaxy , and when the Masters arrive the REF is in fact going in that direction. He's so right, and being a jerk about it, it's almost painful to watch...
- Sergeant Angelo Dante. Generally acting sarcastic, dismissing his commanding officer in the 15th Squadron for being a woman and scatterbrained, and when Zor Prime, a bioroid pilot of the Robotech Masters, is shot down and captured and, having lost his memory, is reassigned to the 15th Squadron in the hope he'll recover it and help the Earth armies, treats him as a spy. He's right on two points: his superior officer is the above-mentioned Dana Sterling, a tactical genius with few peers, an incredible ditz outside battle, and rather childish and spoiled; Zor Prime is a (unwitting and brainwashed) spy, who got his memory wiped and his bioroid shot down by friendly fire precisely to insert him as a spy, the Masters hoping he'd give the the location of Earth's reserve of Protoculture with the device that transmits everything he sees and hears to them (he succeeds, and as a bonus he accidentally gave forewarning about Earth's counteroffensives against the Masters);
- The twice-mentioned Dana Sterling. She's childish, spoiled and thoughtless, treats Zor Prime as her own personal property, and gets mad when Dante continues keeping an eye on him in spite of mounting evidence he's a spy. But when it comes to tactical decisions she's usually right (she's been even described as a tactical genius, and has proven it by taking on the suicide missions of downing a Masters' mothership and then perform a recon in arms and completing the first successfully with minimal losses and aborting the latter when it became effectively impossible and still bringing home some useful data plus a completely intact bioroid that had tried to cut her escape), and can be counted on providing useful advice when her subordinates have emotional issues;
- Octavia's rant when the Masters imprison her and Allegra for their sister Musica's defection may sound jerkish... Except at this point she's still loyal, even if her clone, raised to think as one with both Octavia and Allegra, has defected (even if this opens a whole other can of worms, what with the Masters' society rejecting individuality...);
- After overcoming the Masters' brainwashing and joining the Southern Cross for real, Zor Prime becomes this out of cynicism. Musica feels bad for having effectively betrayed her people and sisters? he points out she's beyond forgiveness for betraying those who trusted her, just as he himself is (the fact he ignores how he had been brainwashed into doing it doesn't matter to him: he betrayed first his companions in the 15th Squadron and then the Masters). He declaring he should have stayed on the Masters' mothership that he blew up, never mind how disrespectful to the soldiers who fell in combat until then? He can't trust himself to not fall again to the Masters' conditioning, he's a security risk. Calling Nova and confirming her suspicions about Musica being a Tirolian triumviroid? Read again why he feels he should be dead, and add to it that his phone call is the only reason why Nova (who had almost worked out what was happening on her own) didn't arrest the whole squadron;
- As "The Masters" is full of such guys, it's only appropriate that the eponymous Robotech Masters join the group. In the latter part of the saga the Masters interrupt offensive operations against Earth to try and deal with the Invid Sensor Nebula before it can detect the presence of the Flower of Life and thus summon the Invid... And then often wonder why the Southern Cross starts launching continuous offensives against their fleet in spite of the Masters' technological superiority translating in superior firepower and robust Deflector Shields that always cause heavy losses to the Southern Cross. They also imprison Allegra and Octavia for Musica's defection... But as they are triumviroids, that is a trio of clones based on the same genetic matrix and raised to think and act as one, it's only natural they expect the other two to try and defect at the first chance (as they in fact later tried to do) or otherwise do something dangerous now that their sister has started thinking on her own and isn't there to balance them anymore, and strangely generous on their part to not just execute them on the spot;
- During the Battle of Reflex Point, the Invid Regess points at the Robotech Expeditionary Force's all-out offensive trying to reconquer Earth, even having weapons of mass destruction ready in case they lose, as proof that Humans Are Bastards. Sure, she may not know just what the Invid Regent did on Tirol, but considering that the Invid occupation of Earth translated in the conquerors not only letting the Humans do as they wished as long as they didn't try to oppose them not tried to break the tigh regulations on Protoculture (that, incidentally, is the fuel for the mechas and guns that can actually pose a danger to the Invid) but also repairing Earth's ecosystem after the Zentraedi's bombardment brought it on the brink of collapse it's easy to see why she had such a low opinion of the REF. That and she had recognized the REF new equipment as coming from the Haydonites, meaning their ancient enemy was manipulating the Humans into trying to do the dirty work for them...
- In The Sentinels, every scene involving the Regess, be it her recorded voice or her in person, has her insulting the Regent and his crusade against the Tirolian race, detailing why she's insulting him. Every single insult and their justification is spot-on.
- To complete the list, we have the Invid Regent. Who, in the one Sentinels scene in which he appears with his wife he quickly counters her later tirade of insults by pointing out that her is responsible for their situation in the first place, having got seduced by Zor into giving him the secrets of Protoculture, and that the supposed evolution she's gone through since then looks suspiciously like an imitation of the humanlike Tirolians. Notable because not only the Regess doesn't counter either of his points, but on Earth (long after she got fed up with him enough to dump him) she tacitly acknowledged the second by researching a better form into which transmutate herself and the Invid (the fact the research ultimately indicated the Human form as the best one may or may not be a coincidence).
- In Wanna Be The Strongest In The World, local Jerkass Rio Kazama, who is quite infamous for injuring an Idol and putting the main character on a "Shame Hold" just for kicks, has a point when she berates the former for saying Pro Wrestling is easy, which is further proven when the main character, who is inexperienced in Pro Wrestling, gets utterly defeated for 3 episodes in a row.
- Weiß Kreuz: Reiji Takatori is the Big Bad of the TV series, and antagonizes Weiss and their boss Persia aka his brother Shuiichi. However, in a certain confrontation, he brings up a pretty valid point in regards to their subordinates (which in Reiji's case, are his own sons Hirofumi and Masafumi), summed up as this: "You tell ME I use my sons to my advantage?! Look at the way you treat your four subordinates, you hypocrite! Specially the little guy whom you thought he was my kid... and who happens to be YOUR illegitimate son!" And then he kills Persia.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Joey Wheeler's deck gets stolen by a kid, but he quickly gets it back. Later, he faces Weevil Underwood in a duel, but finds that his deck has been sabotaged, putting him at a disadvantage. Joey and his friends realize that Weevil hired the kid to sabotage the deck and angrily condemn Weevil for cheating. Weevil confirms this, but retorts that it is Joey's fault for being so stupid and naive that he did not inspect his deck after getting it back.
- Later on in the arc, when Yugi is going to confront Joey/Jounouchi, Kaiba, in the original Japanese, tells Yugi that while he showed him the power of cooperation in the tag duel with the Masks of Light and Darkness, he wonders how much that idea will hold up now that his friend is possessed. In the dub, this is changed to him telling Yugi he won't help him unless he stands to benefit.
- During the Virtual World Arc, Lector of The Big Five calls out Kaiba on the way he used and abused both The Big Five, and his own brother, Mokuba, during his coup against his father Gozaburo. While Lector's a bastard, and in no position to criticize, he's not wrong when he points out how unacceptable Kaiba's behaviour was.
- In Joey's duel against Rex Raptor in the Doma Arc the latter gets a good starting hand and manages to summon 3 monsters in his first turn, prompting him to boast about how much stronger he has become since last time he duelled Joey. Joey retorts that he merely got lucky, but Rex immediately points out that's rich coming from someone who only beat him before due to winning a roulette game with Time Wizard. Even Tristan agrees that Rex kind of has a point.
- Weevil gets a bigger one later, in the Doma Arc. When Yami tells him he's horrible, Weevil points out that Yami had used the Seal of Orichalcos in order to win despite knowing that he'd be putting his friend in danger, and that Yugi paid the price. Weevil acknowledges that he is indeed an asshole, but points out that at least he didn't use the seal knowing that he could endanger his friends. Even though he tries not to show it, Yami is visibly affected.
- In Zatch Bell! Brago has just burned the book of a mamodo Zatch befriended. Zatch, angry asks what right Brago had to do that. Brago then proceeds to remind Zatch that the very battle Zatch too is part of requires the destruction of mamodo books to decide a victor. Brago may be a jackass at this point of the series rather than short tempered and violent, but he was definitely within his rights as a contestant.
Comic Books
- After The Dark Phoenix Saga, a time-displaced teenage Jean Grey is put on trial by Gladiator for the actions of Dark Phoenix. Effectively, she's being put on trial for crimes she hadn't actually done yet. J'son of Spartax, of all people, is the one to call out Gladiator for his unfair treatment of Jean Grey, saying that putting her on trial for things she only might do makes no sense. It doesn't help that Gladiator was really Bullying a Dragon, going after Jean's family and friends in an effort to get to her on the off chance she'd become a Phoenix host. While J'son only called out Gladiator to make the Shi'ar look bad rather than any concern for Jean personally, the point still stands.
- Basically any time Batman opens his mouth. What he lacks for in tact he makes up for in usually having the right idea. As an example, the "Tower Of Babel" arc has him pointing out that there needs to be failsafes in place in case something happens and the Justice League goes rogue (and considering brainwashing schemes happen pretty often, he's right and the League grudgingly agrees with this)... only problem is, the arc has the League being nearly killed when the League of Assassins uses some of Batman's failsafe plans against them, and the moment Batman points this out is on the aftermath, when he's completely unapologetic about the plans (and the fact that there were no plans to handle him if the League had to take him down) and the League votes to kick him out. The film Justice League: Doom adds a scene where Batman agrees that there's no factual plan to take him down if he goes rogue... because he believes that the Justice League is all the "plan" he needs.
- In volume 4 of Empowered, the protagonist is overjoyed to be running for the Caped Justice Awards, until Sistah Spooky informs her that the award is a setup used to publicly humiliate the receiver and that she should watch out. Given that Sistah Spooky has been nothing but antagonistic from day one (not to mention breaking her own pedestal, since Empowered was a big fan of hers until they met), she assumes Sistah is just raining on her parade. She's not.
- And after Sistah Spooky starts acting nice to Emp, Major Havoc takes over the role of "asshole who belittles Emp" on the team and does so with an utterly fanatical streak. Every single little victory Emp has throughout the series, he's able to demolish and then put her in an even worse position. The worst part is that (even if he's only doing so out of an Irrational Hatred for Emp) every single thing he brings up about why she's unreliable is true (such as the entire Superdead community vouching for her... considering the fact that they are superpowered zombies that could go back to be controlled by Deathmonger at any second and there is no way of telling if they are until they go on a rampage, having a very lightweight super that cannot fight any of them off as a liaison is just asking for trouble).
- Watchmen:
- In both the graphic novel and film adaptation of the selfsame, Ozymandias is moved to set his plan into action after The Comedian mocks (Captain Metropolis in the novel, Ozymandias himself in the film) for trying to form a Super Team and points out that with the Cold War inching mankind closer to nuclear annihilation with each passing moment, running around beating up petty criminals was pretty much irrelevant. The Comedian's insight makes him one of the best (and nastiest) examples of this ever.
- The Comedian also condemns Dr. Manhattan for his noninterference. The Comedian shoots a pregnant Vietnamese woman over Manhattan's objections, and is then chastised for it. While this is obviously a heinous crime, he correctly points out that Manhattan could have prevented it with his godlike powers, by teleporting either party away or changing the gun into something harmless, but chose not to. As it turns out, this passive observation eventually leads to the deaths of thousands, if not millions.
- In Sin City: The Big Fat Kill, while Dwight's driving a car loaded with dead bodies including a dead cop who wouldn't fit in the trunk in the passenger seat with a pistol slide lodged in his forehead he gets pulled over. His passenger immediately starts talking about how screwed he is.
Dwight: This time I can't bring myself to tell him to shut up. Sure he's an asshole. Sure he's dead. Sure I'm just imagining that he's talking to me. None of that stops the bastard from being absolutely right about everything he's saying.
- The Beast in Transmetropolitan, who has been heralded as the Ultimate Evil by Spider, manages to make a few surprisingly salient points when doing a pre-election interview. Even Spider grudgingly concedes he may be onto something.
- In Chick Tracts, there's typically unambiguous depictions of who is right and who is wrong, as well as opposing characters who don't make valid points (or at least, aren't supposed to). However, in "Humbug", their take on A Christmas Carol, Scrooge accidentally references a Bible verse while arguing with Cratchit.
Scrooge: Why in HEAVEN'S name would God bother with insignificant Man? Man is rotten to the corenote ! MAN is a BLIGHT on the earth!
Cratchit: What a coincidence, Mr. Scrooge. The Word of God says the same thing.
Scrooge: It does?
- In X-Men (and the Marvel Universe in general) Senator Robert Kelly constantly encourages anti-mutant laws and registration. However rather than just being a jerkass he actually has a reason for his rhetoric; namely that mutants can be massive threats to public safety and national security if they choose so or can't control their powers well. The first film has a sequence where he mentions Shadowcat (whose power is to phase through solid matter) and correctly points out how much of a huge security risk such a person could be if they decided to commit crime. It's often pointed out that Kelly does have valid points, but his rhetoric and fiery personality means that he often takes it too far. (At which point this Trope might be combined with Strawman Has a Point.) Later on Character Development causes him to realize this and tone down his anti-mutant stance, keeping his old talking points while also making sure to encourage human/mutant equality. In these regards he's often contrasted with Grayson Creed, who's just an insane bigot.
- Another good example of this appears in volume #1 of X-Men Gold, where a nameless interviewee points out that as mutants develop their powers at random, and those powers can be any combination of extremely dangerous and extremely hard to control, this means any mutant could be not only a Person of Mass Destruction, but also an extremely volatile time-bomb. In essence, she compares being around mutants to being around unstable nitroglycerine... and she's not wrong to do so; even in the Original 5 X-Men, Cyclops' inability to control his eyebeams makes him one missing pair of glasses away from suddenly vaporizing a building full of people. Especially when you factor in that Secondary Mutations are an In-Universe factor, so even a mutant established as harmless might suddenly turn into a destructive monster. It's not a very probable occurrence, but it is a legitimate concern.
- In Venerdì 12 (from the crazy author of Rat-Man) we're presented with Bedelia, former girlfriend of the protagonist who Really Gets Around and dumped him very rudely (stealing his car in the process) before the start of the series, with her having planned to dump him that day since the start (she even had him tattooed with an expiration date)... Except she also pointed out his many personality defects, and she had multiple points to act so rudely: during the series he admits his incredible shyness drove him to a few rather disgusting actions before her (like kissing her dog at least twice, and eat the pieces of skin she had to peel off after getting a sunburn), and near the end we see what happened the day before she dumped him: annoyed she had not picked up the many mountain-sized hints she wanted to have sex with him, she came at his home and told him flat-out she was there for that, and he, after agreeing (he wanted too, but was incredibly shy), was overcome by his shyness and locked himself in the bathroom until she left. Seriously, you try being polite after that...
Comic Strips
- In Peanuts, Lucy is a mean and "crabby" person who insults the rest of the cast, but sometimes she's very accurate in doing so:
- For instance, in one series of strips where Snoopy becomes a Beagle Scout and goes on a hike, Charlie Brown wonders if he got lost; Lucy is pretty certain he did, saying, "That stupid beagle couldn't find his way across the kitchen floor!" Not only did Snoopy get lost (and as Lucy is saying that, is waiting for the moon to rise, thinking that he can use it to find his way home because he thinks the moon is always over Hollywood, he's eventually rescued by a Girl Scout selling cookies.
- There was also the time Snoopy was promoted to Head Beagle. Lucy was comically terrified during the whole arc, calling him incompetent and saying he'd "probably get impeached". Unfortunately, she was right here too. Snoopy was a pretty incompetent Head Beagle (not helped by having Woodstock as a secretary or his predecessor, who left things an awful mess) and by his own admission, every one of the 120 decision he made in a day were wrong. Eventually, true to Lucy's prediction, he was replaced.
- In the October 26, 2013 Dilbert strip, the Pointy-Haired Boss asks a rather simple question that kind of debunks Alice's rather boastful and idealistic one very quickly. To an extent, it also overlaps with Dumbass Has a Point, given the PHB's typical intelligence.
Alice: Futurists say that someday, humans will have the know-how to create an entire universe.
PHB: Where would they put it?
- Danae from Non Sequitur is a Straw Feminist, a Windmill Crusader, has created a Scam Religion, and endless tries to use Loophole Abuse and/or Insane Troll Logic to gain money, influence, or both. However, unlike her brainy friend Jeffery (who usually points out the flaws in her hair-brained schemes) she's smart enough to know that zombies don't exist, something she tells Jeffery whenever he's preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Stuart in Retail is a condescending and somewhat misogynistic district manager who always undermines his employees, but he was in the right when he chewed Marla out for letting her emotions get to her and firing her assistant on the spot for admitting that he lied to her about having a job offer in order to get a raise, rather than letting him work out the two weeks notice he originally gave her. As Stuart coldly tells Marla that covering the assistant's workload for the next few weeks is now her problem since it's her fault for firing him, she expresses her dismay that he's actually right.
- In Lupo Alberto, Moses uses his power as the farm's leader in rather tyrannical ways, and, being also the farm's guardian, beats up Alberto every time he shows up to meet his girlfriend Martha. Most of the farm's inhabitants are lazy and/or stupid (as shown when Enrico won the election to replace him with such promises as creating a river of milk and honey and getting to Mars before 2020) and need a firm hand (Moses often goes overboard, but it's clear most of it is out of frustration at their shenanigans), and as for his treatment of Alberto... Moses' a Bobtail sheepdog, Martha is a hen and Alberto is a wolf who at times has eaten other chicken, what else should he do?
- Mafalda: one strip has Susanita say that she want to have plenty of dresses when she grows up, and Mafalda reply that she wants to have plenty of culture instead. Susanita replies as follows:
Susanita: Can you get arrested in the street for being uncultured?Mafalda: No.Susanita: Try and get in the street undressed.The last panel has Susanita crying, and Mafalda walking away with a sad expressionMafalda: It's so sad when you have to beat up someone who's right!...
Fan Works
- Children of an Elder God: Gendo is a Bad Boss, a bastard and an asshole, and at least a modicum of his anger stemed from annoyance at having been ignored, but he had a point when he told Asuka that charging the enemy blindly and not following orders will get her and everyone killed.
- In the Steven Universe fanfic The Wrath Of Topaz, Topaz, who manages to wreak his vengeance on the Crystal Gems after twelve years, actually has every right to be angry at them for throwing him out after he accidentally killed Rose Quartz and not letting him explain himself, even if he is getting a bit carried away with his methods.
- In the Jackie Chan Adventures fanfiction Queen of All Oni, part of the reason for Jade's hatred for her family after her (magically induced by Daolon Wong) FaceHeel Turn is the resentment she feels for Jackie not giving her the respect she feels she deserves after saving both his life and the world from dark forces on multiple occasions (Uncle taking Tohru, a near stranger and former enemy, over her, his own flesh and blood, as his apprentice is also a factor).
- When Valmont's coup attempt fails, Jade calls him out for betraying her even after she gave him a second chance at glory, he points out that she really shouldn't have expected kindness or gratitude from a master criminal.
- In the Jackie Chan Adventures and W.I.T.C.H. crossover fanfic Kage (part of Project Dark Jade, like Queen of All Oni above), The Queen gives a good argument that Jade is a murderer, based off Jade blasting Shendu's statue form to bits with the Dragon Talisman (even if he did come back later, they had technically killed him) after Jade expresses conflict over the thought of killing Vathek and Tynar. Try as she might, Jade has trouble finding a hole in the Queen's logic.
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure Blue Moon: Though she's just a member of the Girl Posse, not the actual Alpha Bitch herself (that's Emiru), Mia makes a full HeelFace Turn by breaking Asa out of her Heroic B.S.O.D.. At the same time, Hoshi, who, while good from the start, never much liked Yoko, is the one to lecture her for causing it.
- In the Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic How I Became Yours, Mai's supposed Moral Event Horizon is causing Katara to have a Convenient Miscarriage, but she makes a pretty good case◊ for why she did it, even if it's not a nice one, but since she plays the Designated Villain we're supposed to take Zuko's side. This would arguably be a case of Strawman Has a Point, but Toph also pointed out a similar reason for Katara not telling Zuko about the baby◊.
- In Perfection Is Overrated, Nao, despite her antipathy toward Natsuki and largely amoral nature, reminds Natsuki that killing is not something to be done lightly, noting that she has not tried to kill any of the perverts she robbed. Natsuki agrees, but notes that they have little other choice in dealing with Shizune.
- The Ariana Black Series has the designated Jerkass in Maria. She repeatedly tells Ariana how she comes across and puts mention on quite a good number of things that Ariana did and caused problems. Especially during the 4th Year onward, when Maria rightfully points out how Ariana seems to only get good grades in Herbology, because her boyfriend, Neville Longbottom, is the teacher. None of them are ever taken seriously, though.
- Sasuke in Naruto Ramen Days rips Tsunade a new one after hearing why she left the village.
Sasuke: "This is the person we went through all this trouble to ask to be our Hokage? Someone who just runs away from all their problems and spends all their time drinking and gambling? Don't think I missed the fact that Jiraiya was looking at casinos and bars when he was trying to find you."Tsunade: "Now see here, what does a brat like you know about-"Sasuke: "What do I know about loss? Was your entire family killed in a single night? Did you come home to find your parents lying on the floor, covered in blood? Did you find a single relative still alive, only to find out that he was the one who was responsible? ...I didn't think so. This whole time you've been treating us like we weren't worthy of your time, like we should be thankful you bothered to speak with us at all, when really you're just a coward who abandoned her village and her duties as soon as something went wrong. I guess you were right about one thing; if someone like you is going to be our Hokage, the title really is worthless."
- The Tokyo Mew Mew fanfic Girl With a Porpoise is a rewriting of the story, but with Lettuce as the leader character. During a confrontation with Pie, he delivers a speech about his hate for humans. Even Lettuce ends agreeing that people haven't been good to the planet, but that there are still good people trying to help the environment.
Lettuce: How can you turn something so beautiful as a cherry blossom into something so deadly?Pie: You accuse me of defacing something beautiful? It is you humans who know nothing about beauty. I was horrified when I first arrived on this once beautiful planet. The ugly scars left by humans were obvious everywhere I looked: Machines emitting fumes and dripping crude oils; litter everywhere, even in the oceans; entire species of plants and animals destroyed through overhunting and carelessness; the ozone layer weakening; the night skies once dark and full of stars dimmed. Irreparable damage caused by generations of humans. This planet once belonged to my people. And we will make it ours again, after we have destroyed the entire human race and reshaped the world, restoring it to its former glory, to how it was before the plague known as humans came.
- After this he offers her a chance to be saved mentioning that she isn't like the other humans and he solemnly believes it to be due a genetic anomaly.
- In the Farscape multicross fanfic "What the Frell Did You Do This Time Erpman?" there is a scene where John Chricton meets with Gaius Baltar, and they can all see the various personalities in each other's head. John, while not a jerkass per se, immediately starts ranting at how unfair it is that despite all his good deeds, all the times he's saved the day, all the sacrifices he's made... and he gets Harvey◊ in his head, while a traitorous, weasel of a man like Gaius gets the super-hot Six◊ living in his head. Harvey starts to protest that a) this is not why they set this conference up, and b) that's not fair to Harvey... but then he takes one long look at Six and admits that, yes, John has a point.
- In Stardust, Vahlen might come across to those with outside knowledge as being unnecessarily nasty. The thing is, Twilight is, despite her cute exterior, essentially an Eldritch Abomination to XCOM, with powers that are blatantly physics-breaking and would be very hard to beat if turned against mankind. Some paranoia and suspicion is genuinely justified.
- Harry is a jerk in The Darkness Series when Ron comes crying to him when he's banned from Quidditch but Harry does have a point - it's not like Ron was there for him when Harry thought he was going to die in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
- In the opening of Twilight Sparkle's "The Reason You Suck" Speech against Prince Blueblood in Getting Back on Your Hooves, she admits he is right to blame the Gala's destruction on Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Though that still doesn't excuse the rest of his Jerkass behavior.
- In Sapphire Eleanor Rose Suzette De Mont Vs Canon, Missy, The Anonymous, Jenny, and Tara freaking Gilesbie all bring up a few good points in the Kangaroo Court they set up for the MSEA and Harry Potter characters. This visibly shakes our heroes, leading to a Bittersweet Ending.
- Families: Aside from the Fantastic Racism fueling their vendetta against Spike, Olive Branch's anti-Celestia movement actually has some good points, such as the fact that she really does always rely on others to fight the more dangerous threats to Equestria, and the fact that the Royal Guard failed against the changeling invasion despite supposedly being on high alert. Though when it ultimately turns out that Olive Branch was only using the movement as a (poorly thought out) scheme to force Celestia to make him immortal and didn't actually give a damn about her politics, the movement falls apart.
- In the Girls und Panzer fanfic Steel Carnage Asuka gives Momo a tongue-lashing for her poor aiming skills, and says keeping her around in spite of that and not helping her improve reflects badly on the rest of the team. Her teammates come to her defense, but Asuka asks if Momo was on the gun in the tournament finals (when Anzu had taken over, with much better results), leaving them unable to answer, and Asuka threatens to get a transfer unless they make improvements. Miho ultimately concludes they didn't do enough to help Momo and apologizes to Momo for that, and they end up working on their performance and convincing Asuka that they have improved.
- Yuugao can be quite harsh in the Naruto story NBH, such as criticizing Kurenai for not doing more to help Hinata's confidence issues or dealing with Naruto's moping (attacking him with a sword until he's too busy trying to survive to mope). However, when Kurenai says she has "no place being around children", Yuugao is absolutely right when she points out that she isn't; she's around soldiers.
Kurenai: "It's not her fault, her family..."Yuugao: "And now you're her teacher. Now, she's your soldier. Now she's your responsibility. She has a problem, it's your job to fix it."Kurenai: "You can't just magically wave a wand and make someone's problems and insecurities go away."Yuugao: "And you can't sit there and blame it all on her family when what you try fails."
- Earlier, Kin's hatred of Ino is shown to stem less from her Faux Action Girl status (though Kin hates that as well), but because Ino possessed Kin with her clan techniques, something Kin finds incredibly violating on a very intimate level.
- In Bleach Fan Works, many of the people who flame the fanfic writers have points about the many problems with their fics, even if they write their reviews to be so scathing that they would be difficult to accept even if the writers had the ability to take criticism.
- Mass Effect Clash Of Civilizations: Saren, repeatedly. He's still an arrogant, racist bastard, but he takes his assignment as head of security seriously, makes valid points of observation, was correct in that Tali was sending illegal messages and even manages to prevent a potentially lethal situation from escalating by drawing his gun on Captain Miles, giving the ODST a reason not to fire. Couple that with a willingness to sacrifice himself for the team makes it clear that this is not the same Saren confronted in Mass Effect, whether or not he will grow into the same form remains to be seen...
- In Frozen Hearts, as the brothers of Prince Hans debate whether to ask the king for a pardon for him, they debate the various ramifications of the issue, and hold a poll amongst themselves. The group that votes "no" is composed of the Jerkass brothers, who treated Hans poorly even before he became a political liability as a result of what he did in the movie. However, even the brothers that vote "yes", concede the opposing side has a point that the kingdom's livelihood has suffered, or at least don't contest the point.
- Mean Time To Breakdown: Iwanako's teacher Mutou can tell that she's bottling things up rather than dealing with her issues, and calls her out on this. Unfortunately, his timing sucks. Probably not a good idea to give one of your students a "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she's currently hospitalized due to somebody else crashing into her.
- In The Fairly OddParents! fanfic Never Had A Friend Like Me Norm's new master is a young girl named Amanda, who learns from Norm about other magical creatures. When she inquires about fairies, Norm rants about how fairies think of themselves as better than genies, even though they are just as capable of causing pain as genies. Norm is a proud jerk genie, but he's right: fairies always end their relationships with godchildren not to mention their memories of them, and if they were found out through no fault of their own, they could still lose their fairies and be left miserable. Amanda, an extremely selfless girl, is pretty horrified by that idea, and it's what motivates her to wish for her to be an exception to that rule.
- As it turns out Jorgen has a reason for doing this: Fairy Godparents outlive their godchildren, and separating them at an early age prevents the grief that would ensue if fairies saw their godchildren grow up and die.
- While Fai has ostracized, ignored and hated R!Syaoran for the most of the first half of Shatterheart and is being a massive hypocrite about it, he is right that Kurogane and Syaoran have an extremely codependent relationship and hiding the truth would only hurt them in the long run. He also points out that, regardless of Syaoran initiating the relationship, Kurogane is taking advantage of someone emotionally vulnerable and who is in love with someone else.
- In one Rosario + Vampire story, Moka gets upset with Tsukune for telling off Yukari. Tsukune is quick to counter that even if Yukari is only 11, she's still in high school and is expected to act with more maturity than she has been, which even Moka can't deny.
- In And The Story Continues, this is one major reason Erin finds people like L and Near so frustrating.
- Marvel and DC: Season 2 of After Hours: As the Green Goblin rightfully points out to The Joker concerning the plan to make every hero as dark as Batman, even though he's a villain himself. Not only will comics get boring since all the heroes are the same without Lighter and Softer heroes for contrast, the audience will get so bored to death that they might as well kill themselves.
- History's Strongest Shinobi: While out getting information on his target Naruto, Neji goes to a meeting between Ragnarok members. During their conversation, Odin offers him a spot in Ragnarok. Neji responds that he's got better things to do than join a "cute little gang" treating their fights for high school territory like Serious Business. Considering Neji is there to assassinate Naruto, it's made clear this isn't his first assignment and he comes close to killing Naruto, the previous conflict between Naruto and Kenichi fighting Ragnarok seems childish in comparison.
- In Xendra, after hearing why Cordelia blows off school work (she already knows everything she needs to for the life she's planned), Willow has to admit that Cordelia is right that school is useless for her. Willow's not happy about it, but she does agree.
- After Angel comes back from hell, Xander tries to stake him only for Buffy to stop him and punch Xander in the face. Angel however, agrees that Xander is right for wanting to stake him after what Angelus nearly did to Xendra (Xander's name when turned into Xena) and makes Buffy apologize.
- Said nearly verbatim in What Am I Signing? when Harry Potter notes that Zacharias Smith might be a douchebag but he has a point about not signing something without knowing exactly what it is.
- Willow's insistence that she's gay in A Long Walk causes Cordelia to say that either Willow is bisexual or she's a manipulative psychopath who deliberately sabotaged Cordelia's relationship with Xander for the hell of it.
- In Ever After High fanfic Poisoning Apple Rotbart does have a point that Apple does seem pretty ungrateful that he's replacing Raven as the villain for Snow White since now she gets a eager replacement villain and her best friend isn't forced to do something that she doesn't want. He also points out that since Apple is so used to the non-threatening and benign Raven being her villain, she is not used to the idea that she would actually have to work for her happy ending like everyone else.
- The Greatest Generation: The way Admiral Shimada delivered his assertion left much to be desired, but the fact was that he had already sortied his full, optimal condition fleet the first time around and was beaten down to five effectives to little effect! No reasonable person can deny that sending five already fatigued and damaged kanmusu against six Abyssal carrier strike groups is the definition of Suicide Mission and Too Dumb to Live, a Senseless Sacrifice that would barely inconvenience the attacker, much less distract them from the refugees. After all, the general track record of surface combatants without air cover against air power is less than stellar. Just ask Repulse and Prince of Wales about how they sunk. Or Yamato about a little thing called Ten-Go.
"I have five ships! I will not send my girls to fight a battle they cannot win! They are tired, they are outnumbered and they cannot fight like this!"
- There's also the fact that compared to US Navy ships, IJN ships had ineffective and inferior antiaircraft guns, mounts, and outfits; for example, Enterprise in her final configuration carried more effective AA guns than all of Fubuki, Akatsuki and Shiratsuyu-class destroyers. Combined. note American ships could regularly fight off and weather air attacks that would have overwhelmed British and Japanese ships, and Yvonne's not realising the difference may have coloured her expectations and perceptions.
- Alan Barnes in the Worm fanfic, Intrepid admits he screwed over Taylor and her father in order to protect his daughter, but the PRT would throw her under the bus to protect Sophia (because reputation is everything to them), Danny would likely take them to Civil Court for it out of revenge, which not only effect her, but their entire family.
- In The Vow, Lord Chang's explanation to his obsession in building a dynasty even at the cost of his daughter's happiness has a merit of truth in it.
"I have seen good men build themselves up from nothing, create for themselves a name and a place in the world. And I have seen how many noble families have been born to thrones yet die in the dirt. I knew that I never wanted that to happen to my family, I don't want us to be cast away, to lose everything we have and to end up cold and alone and miserable in squalor. [...] One can never be too careful. Emperors are fickle things, one moment wise, another benevolent, or cruel, or simply trying to escape the tediousness of their lives. It is all too easy to fall from grace."
- A member of the Japanese Liberation Front in Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion is an asshole to the Britannian hostages but still correct when he remarks on how idiotic it is for parents to bring their xenophobic daughter to a country filled with non-Britannians.
- The entire premise of Since When is Danzo the Voice of Reason? is Danzo rightfully pointing out that motivations and feelings aside, Sasuke is a traitor to the village and must be treated as such, especially since his recent attack on Killer Bee would otherwise be an act of war by Konoha against Kumo.
- Akane Tendo tries to rip Nabiki a new one in Becoming A Man Among Men for treating her like a spoiled brat and disrespecting their father. But Nabiki fires back with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how while their father was drinking his life away and Akane practiced martial arts, Nabiki and Kasumi were the two who kept things running. Kasumi cooked and cleaned for the entire family while Nabiki's scams were literally their family's sole source of income for years.
- In Harry Potter: Junior Inquisitor Remus learns that bringing up Dumbledore's willingness to allow him to enroll at Hogwarts is a bad idea after several feral werewolves point out that there hasn't been a single werewolf enrolled there before or since.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness:
Inner Moka: I hate it when he makes a point like that.
- In Act III chapter 7, Dark actually does make a valid point when he expresses his doubts that Tsukune can't hold the ghoul off forever even with the Holy Lock, especially considering that the ghoul had previously influenced Tsukune's actions before without Tsukune knowing it; since he had already trusted Tsukune before to keep the ghoul contained only for Tsukune to fail, why should he trust him to do so again?
- When Yukari is in denial over her feelings for Ahakon in Act III and insists she belongs to Moka and Tsukune, Kokoa points out to her in a tactless way that no one ever objected to her dream to have a threesome with them because they knew she never stood a chance at doing so. Despite the way she says it, Yukari acknowledges she has a point.
- In Act IV chapters 2 and 3, while everyone else is spending their time lambasting the Reformed, but Rejected Akua and Kahlua and outright asking why they should forgive them for their crimes under Fairy Tale, Dark is quick to remind them that he was a member of Fairy Tale once as well, and if they can forgive and accept him for his actions back then, then they should at least give Akua and Kahlua a fair chance; when Kurumu points out that Dark never went as far as to try to destroy the world like Kahlua and Akua did, Dark then reminds them that he was forced to kill an innocent child, which is just as bad.
- In Act IV, both the original Falla and Hokuto, both of whom are extremely manipulative Jerkasses and, in Hokuto's case, a Straw Nihilist/Omnicidal Maniac, make a valid point when they tell the heroes that Yokai Academy's teachings are more about hiding amongst the humans rather than actually co-existing with them.
- Child of the Storm has Doctor Strange's eventual explanation of his actions across the story in chapter 80, why he didn't intervene earlier and use his vast knowledge to end the crisis before it got out of hand. As he points out, the Avengers were getting complacent, and if the threat had been neutralised early, HYDRA, Malfoy and Gravemoss would all likely have scuttled off into the shadows to foment trouble, the HYDRA within SHIELD would have gone undiscovered, MI 13 wouldn't have been transformed into the sleek and efficient machine it now is, the superhuman community would have remained disparate instead of being the Fire-Forged Friends they needed to be, and Harry wouldn't have been tested in battle the way he was. Moreover, it was required as a hardening experience for Earth as a whole because Thanos is coming. Despite their anger at his tactics, the Avengers don't exactly deny any of these points.
- Christmas With A Corduroy: Lynda Pines spends much of the story treating Wendy, a house guest, like a deviant. She may have been overtly hostile, but the stunts Wendy and the twins were pulling, one which nearly dislocated Dipper's shoulder, were something any sane parent would be frightened by. They also had no problem lying to her either.
- In For Love of Magic, Snape's dislike of Hermione stems from the fact that "any idiot can regurgitate facts from a book" and her turning in essays twice as long as required makes more work for him.
- My Mirror, Sword and Shield:
- While Suzakus first doctor is racist and was a Resistance plant hoping to get the Emperors best knight dismissed, he was right about the severity of Suzakus injuries would put him out of commission, leave Suzaku in pain for the rest of his life and it would have been better for Suzaku to be retired. A year after Suzakus injuries heal, hes still dealing with pain.
- While the Knights of Round despise Suzaku out of ingrained racism, they do have a point that Suzaku's rise to power is really suspicious and they only have Suzaku and Lelouch's word to what happened to Euphemia and Sir Raleigh.
- Rainbow has this sort of point reaction when, in MLDC Firestorm Crisis, the others make assumptions of why Sunset Shimmer is an Alpha Bitch.
Rainbow Dash: Poor Sunset, really? The others looked to Rainbow Dash. So what if she did come from a crappy home, is an orphan, or was abused. There other people who have gone through that and arent total assholes. Taking out your problems on other people is a cowards way of dealing with them, instead of facing them!
- Code Geass Colorless Memories Lelouch in Chapter Two, while he may still be treating Rai with Aloofness and Cynical paranoia over someone with Amnesia. He brings up a valid point considering that Rai could be an Unwitting Pawn for those who would harm his sister.
Lelouch "Hmph I'm being a little too paranoid huh? And you think someone as mysterious as him suddenly appearing to me after everything that has happened that last few weeks isn't a coincidence at all? Hah, I believe I have every right to be suspicious of him. For all I know, he could be a spy or agent sent from the Britannian Military or even possibly the Imperial Family...maybe even possibly from one of the other two superpower countries."
- This is more potent when you consider E.E and the shadow figure that chased Rai in Chapter 11 with their currently Hidden Agenda in regards to the plot and characters. E.E especially die to hints that her view of Britannians sink into Fantastic Racism along with her words of making C.C pay for something.
- Ranma gets fed up with everyone bending over backwards to accommodate Akane in The Demon's Contract just because her mother died. Nabiki and Kasumi can't find it in themselves to refute his arguments after he points out that 1) Akane's had ten years to deal with it and move on. 2) The real world doesn't care about her problems so she has to learn she won't always get her way. 3) Akane's not the only one to lose her mother and, to his knowledge, his own has been dead just as long but he doesn't even know where she's buried or what she looks like to properly mourn.
- Robb Returns: During his trial for his corruptive practices, embezzling, outright robbery and his attempt to have Robert Arryn kidnapped, Littlefinger points out the nobles' hypocrisy in relation to the smallfolk, Stannis' inability to get past any slight (imagined or otherwise) even though he controls Dragonstone and is the Master of Ships, and Jon Arryn's inability to control the King's excesses and to discover that Cersei's children are not the King's.
- Tywin, although unable to accept that magic is returning in spite of all proof, has a good point in being wary about the possibility: given its ties to dragons, he knows someone will attempt to wake dragons from their eggs. Indeed, Viserys Targaryen is planning to do this.
- In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, Spectrem angrily confronts Paul's Actual Pacifism, which he sees as a foolish stance in the middle of a war. He points out that at some point Paul is gonna hit something... where you have to hit something. Paul recognizes all too well that this is true, though he won't give Spectrem the satisfaction of agreeing with him. Later, during the parade battle on Tipaan, watching the Senator and his Animal cohorts injuring and killing people, Paul reluctantly decides he has to intervene. Spectrem's words haunt him at this point. He does manage to take the Senator down without hitting him, though.
- When Catelyn begs her sister Lysa to not marry her only daughter with Jon Snow in chapter 18 from the one-shot collection What If, Lysa points how Jon Snow - as Ned Stark's offspring and a lower-birth suitor - is the perfect consort for Sansa. Moreover, Jon taking the name Arryn would mean his children and grandchildren would never try to steal Winterfell as they are already in line to inherit the Vale. Catelyn realizes her sister is right and gives her blessing to the marriage.
- Ned Stark has a rather cold relationship with his cousin Tony from A Man Of Iron whom he considers a wasteful twit, but he's forced to concede that Tony was right to stand up to Catelyn when she tried to hurt Jon only because he was a bastard, something that Ned himself should have done if he cared for Jon.
- After Ichigo and Orihime join forces with Aizen in The Defeated, several of the captains of Soul Society are outraged, but Kenpachi points out that it's their fault. They killed Ichigo's friends, refused to admit their fault, then tortured and raped him before stripping him of his powers.
Unohana: Don't you get it? He wants to kill us all now.
Kenpachi: Then maybe you shouldn't have raped him.
- In the fic "Batteries", Nonon is the only one (out of the other characters) who's openly hostile and slut shames Ryuuko but she is right with how much the latter's absence really hurt Satsuki, so much so, that her health suffered and she was, once, hospitalized .
Nonon: "Yeah, well, if something happens to you, it will kill her! So, if you fucked around and we had to give her bad news, she'd probably die right on the fucking spot."
Films — Animation
- Frozen:
- While Elsa isn't being particularly understanding, she's 100% right in telling Anna it's ridiculous to want to marry a man you just met. Kristoff, who's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, later agrees.
- Elsa's eventually proven right, when Prince Hans reveals he doesn't love Anna and was only taking advantage of her naivety. He planned to marry her and kill Elsa so he'd ascend to the throne, as he has too many older brothers to ever have a shot of ruling his own kingdom.
- A strange example, but one that nevertheless counts, comes up when Prince Hans tells Elsa not to kill two soldiers who had just tried to kill her, saying that it will make her the monster people feared her as. This is most likely done to manipulate her, since he's able to take advantage of her hesitation to redirect one of their crossbows to knock down the ice chandelier and knock her out, but she accepts his point. He also points out how stupid Anna was for falling for him at first sight- all the more of a Jerkass move because he's gloating over his betrayal of her, and all the more of a good point after he's shown his true colors.
- While Elsa isn't being particularly understanding, she's 100% right in telling Anna it's ridiculous to want to marry a man you just met. Kristoff, who's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, later agrees.
- During a pseudo-drunken rant in The Boxtrolls, Snatcher gripes about how all Lord Portley-Rind and his fellow White Hats do is sit around and waste taxpayer's time and money on eating fancy cheeses, which is a startlingly accurate description.
- In the Lucky Luke film Daisy Town, Joe Dalton, out for revenge against Lucky Luke and the titular town, tries to provoke a local Native tribe into attacking them... by warning them of a future in which the railways have brought civilization across the plains, the buffaloes have been driven off, and the natives are reduced to selling souvenirs.
- 1 from 9, for as big of a sniveling coward as he is, spends a good portion of the film raising very good points about how the titular 9's actions do nothing but put them at risk, and especially when he points out that 9's rescue mission ended in failure (as he predicted) and only served to awaken The Machine. When 9 tries to give him a dose of Shut Up, Hannibal! by calling him a coward, 1 again raises a good point:
1: Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.
- Barbie In Rockn Royals: Even Erika's friends at Camp Royalty acknowledge Princess Olivia's point when she accuses Erika of hogging the spotlight.
- Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story isn't quite fond of Woody for whatever reason, and loves mocking him at every angle he can find. However, he is justifiably ticked off at Woody throwing Buzz off the window (even though that was an accident), and asks him if he would do the same to Potato Head (and on that note, pretty much every other toy in the room) if Andy started playing with him more often.
- Wreck-It Ralph:
- The Nicelanders are fairly justified in not wanting Ralph to join the party, considering he is a Walking Disaster Area who wrecks things as he walks and, true to form, has completely ruined the party within minutes of attendingnote . It doesn't come close to justifying how shabbily they (or any of the other characters for that matter) treat him overall, however, considering he is a genuinely good person who's just a bit rough around the edges.
- Ralph, for his part, may be destructive and have a bad temper, which resulted in him inadvertently ruining the party, but he also has plenty reason to be upset. He's been shunned and has lived in the dump for thirty years, and the Nicelanders and Felix never even bothered to ask him how he feels or help out. The destruction isn't nearly as bad as it seems either, since dead characters regenerate instantly and damage can be fixed with a magic hammer in seconds. Admittedly, the Nicelanders may have had a point in banning him from this specific party, since characters from other games don't regenerate, but the fact that Ralph has never even eaten cake at all indicates that they've done nothing but ostracize him, which leaves them with no excuse.
- Zootopia
- Chief Bogo is a curt, tough, demanding boss known for his brutal honesty and has issues with Judy being assigned to his precinct feeling she is a political appointee for PR purposes. But when he chews her out for abandoning her post to chase after a thief, and even worse, continuing the chase through the highly fragile Little Rodentia district, he's certainly right about her actions being unacceptably reckless.
- Mayor Lionheart secretly incarcerates several predator mammals who have gone savage without informing the police or the public. While he does this partly because he's worried about his reputation (given that he's also predator), he's also worried that telling the public about the savage predators before he finds out why will cause mass panic. Once it does become public, a mass panic followed by inflamed predator/prey tension and civil unrest really happens.
- Maui often snarks to Moana about her sheltered upbringing; namely, why The Chosen One is a naive girl who's never been past the reef of her island, and when Kakamora attack, he tells her to stop asking the ocean for help and that you need to help yourself when there's trouble. Given how very close Moana nearly came to dying after sailing away, it's something our girl takes to heart.
- For all his snark, Maui really makes a lot of good points, from the glaringly obvious (the ocean choosing a sheltered, naive teenager) to essential life lessons (she has to rely on herself). However, the most important one is arguably the most poignant. Near the movie's climax, he finally gets fed up with Moana and abandons her, but not before chiding her for being unnecessarily reckless and nearly getting both of them killed (which she's done multiple times at this point). The whole scene is sad, but Maui is still right about Moana being too headstrong and failing to the consider the consequences.
- Judith from the bank in Sing is very unfeeling and humorless about Buster's dreams about theater but she is correct that the theater's business has gone so bad that Buster had to steal electricity and water so she is well within her rights to repossess it due to unpaid bills. Also, she is legally correct that the comeback performance is technically trespassing on bank property without permission.
- As arrogant and abrasive Mike is, he made two accurate points, even if it was done rudely. That Meena, who was stammering and unable to sing, was holding up the line for the rest of the contestants and that Buster was wrong to lie about the real prize money amount.
- Nana refuses to lend money to Buster because his previous productions have failed and she feels that Buster's management was the cause of her beloved theater's fall from grace.
Films — Live-Action
- In Alien³, Mr. Andrews (the nominal Warden of the prison) is a pretty big Jerkass, but he has very legitimate grounds for not wanting Ripley to walk around the prison freely. He has to keep a population of convicted murderers and rapists in check, who are still very dangerous even if they have found religion. Ripley almost gets raped and perhaps even killed when she wanders off alone. Also, her story about the Alien (which has never been seen on any other planet than LV-426) is admittedly a little hard to believe, when from his perspective the more likely scenario is that Murphy's death was just an accident, and that Golic (who was already an insane multiple-murderer) simply killed the other two inmates.
- Animal House: Dean Wormer and the Mayor are, respectively, a jerk and a crook... and their dislike of and desire to be rid of Delta Tau Chi Fraternity are perfectly understandable and reasonable.
- The Avengers: Captain America, tired of Stark's egomania, tries to insult his manliness by accusing him of being nothing without his Iron Man armor. Stark effortlessly swats the insult down:
Stark: A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.
- What really makes it this trope, however, is that it's followed by Natasha - not the biggest Tony Stark fan given their interaction in Iron Man 2 - nodding in acknowledgement of the point.
- There's also Cap's question to Tony where he asks if he would lie on barbed wire to let others get across safely. Tony's response? Cut the wire.
- Batman & Robin has Robin complaining about Batman constantly interfering when the two have a close grip on Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy during confrontations. Even though most of Robin's actions are out of selfishness and carelessness, he reminds Batman at one point that counting on each other and trusting each other is what being partners is all about. In an ironic twist of this trope, Bruce reminds Robin of this when he tries to get Robin to snap out of Poison Ivy's influence.
- Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski. He turns out to be completely right that Bunny Lebowski's kidnapping was faked, despite causing so many problems for the Dude throughout the film.
The Dude: No, Walter, you're not wrong, you're just an asshole!
- In Billy Madison, Eric is a Corrupt Corporate Executive and sleazy Jerkass conspiring to put himself in charge of Madison Hotels. However, he is right when he points out that the company's fifty-thousand employees are not likely to have jobs for very long if the president turns the position over to his drunkard son (who only graduated because his father bribed his teachers). By the end, after some Character Development, Billy himself concludes that he's not cut out to run the business and turns it over to Carl, who is both competent and not a Jerkass.
- Brooklyn. Miss Kelly is a self-righteous busybody and a thoroughly unlikeable person. But she's right when she calls out the heroine for seeing a young man from her village, given that she's married to a young man back in New York.
- In Calvary, the Dr. Jerk Dr. Harte relishes in telling Father James about a horrible medical incident that happened to a young girl and likens it to the misery felt by victims of sexual abuse who were brushed under the carpet by the Catholic Church. While Harte is clearly just trying to cause Father James pain, he does have a point about the need for justice.
- Though not a jerk, Eva Rodriguez is vaguely arrogant (and a rebel, to boot!), particularly early on in Center Stage. At one point, when she calls Sergei on looking at the mirror and uses a certain four-letter word to highlight her irritation at his alleged vanity, the ballet instructor has this to say to both of them:
Instructor: If people want to hear profanity, Miss Rodriguez, they can take a subway. They don't have to spend $60 on a ballet ticket... although she has a point.
- Clerks: At the peak of Dante's moaning over how badly his day's gone ("I'm not even supposed to be here today!") and how Randal's the one to blame for it, Randal snaps, noting that (a) he came to work that day of his own volition and (b) most of the bad things that happened were his own fault, such as closing the store multiple times to pursue his own interests, and trying to vainly re-ignite his relationship with an ex by cheating on his current girlfriend. He then criticizes Dante's attitude, noting that he constantly talks down to and belittles others while working a low-wage menial job at a convenience store, and pointing out that although Jay and Silent Bob are stupid, at least they don't try to overcompensate for having what's essentially a monkey's job.
Randal: ...we like to make ourselves seem so much more important than the people that come in here to buy a paper, or, God forbid... cigarettes. We look down on them as if we're so advanced. Well, if we're so fucking advanced, what are we doing working here?
- In The Colony, Mason opposes the mission to Colony 5 on the grounds that they're unlikely to be able to help and that the resources would be better spent preserving themselves. He's proven right on both counts. Mason also criticizes Sam for leaving a trail that brings the cannibals back to Colony 7. Sam knew the cannibals were following his footprints and that there was another way across the river, so he knew coming home would directly endanger the colony.
- In Draft Day, Coach Penn often acts like a jerk ass, but he's right when he points out the Browns made a draft analysis and created a playbook with the current quarterback in mind. Months or maybe even years of work has become worthless because of a rash decision by the general manager.
- Fatal Attraction With all of Alex's crazed behavior, it's easy to overlook that she's 100% right in that Dan has a legal and moral obligation to the child she's carrying.
- Fury (2014): After Norman has had sex with Emma and promised to write her, the apartment she and her aunt are in is caught in the crossfire of a German artillery strike. Norman attempts to reach her body but is roughly dragged away by Grady, who hits him several times and mocks him for a) believing that he would have a fairy tale-style romance with that girl and b) acting like he could still save her. The thing is that Grady, while shockingly heartless, was also absolutely right. Their relationship consisted of an hour or two together, in the middle of a war zone and under very ambiguous conditions. They were unlikely to end up together anyway, and she was now dead. Grady likely saved Norman's life by not letting him try to dig her out.
- Ghostbusters (1984):
- Walter Peck is entirely justified in his concerns, many of which were shared by Ray and Egon. Weird supernatural occurrences starting exactly at the same time three disgraced scientists start up a supernatural elimination business, using equipment they refuse to talk about, including, by their own admission to each other, unlicensed nuclear accelerators. And when he does originally show up, he's reasonably polite and professional. Only after Venkman takes issue with being questioned by some government stooge and responds with mockery does Peck become unreasonable.
- Doctor Yeager, Dean of the Psychology Department sneers down his nose at Venkman, Spengler, and Stanz, make some snarky comments about them, and toss them off of the university's campus, saying, "The thing is Doctor... Venkman. We believe that the purpose of science is to serve mankind. You, however, seem to regard science as some kind of dodge... or hustle. Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable! You are a poor scientist, Dr. Venkman!" His criticism is 100% true of Venkman, whose Establishing Character Moment is using an experiment as a means to get laid, causing him to miss an actual breakthrough. Ray and Egon are far more professional, but that just makes their obsession with the paranormal - and their association with Venkman in particular - seem especially questionable. Not the dean's fault that these three weirdos finally found evidence to support their theories less than an hour earlier.
- Used in-universe in Gremlins 2: The New Batch with this exchange:
Clamp: That thing that was in here a minute ago, that's dangerous! This guy's from the art department.Forster: Well, ask him how he knows so much about these "green things".Clamp: That's a good question Bill how do you know so much about them?
- In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket very cruelly and openly mocks at Drax's grief for the death of Drax's family at Ronan's hands. However, Rocket was entirely correct that Drax's loss is nowhere near sufficient justification for almost getting everyone else on Knowhere killed in Drax's attempt to get vengeance on Ronan.
Rocket [mocking Drax]: Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, my wife and child are dead! I don't care if it's mean! Everybody's got dead people! That's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way!
- To his credit, Drax gets the message. Also, while it's not really an excuse Drax was drunk off his ass at the time he did this - he probably would not have thought it an ethical course of action if he were sober.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
- Ayesha may be arrogant and condescending but her anger towards the Guardians (or specifically Rocket) for stealing her precious batteries, the same things that they were called to guard, is understandable.
- Even the loyal Kraglin had to agree with Taserface that Yondu is soft when it comes to Peter.
- 1960's Home From The Hill focuses on a dysfunctional southern family, the Hunnicutts, in which the mother, Hannah (Eleanor Parker), has hated her husband, Wade (Robert Mitchum) for his womanizing (resulting in one known illegitimate son, played by the A-Team's George Peppard) and has spent the last 18 years making their son, Theron (George Hamilton), dependent upon her. When Wade decides it's time to help Theron "man up" and stop being such a borderline Man Child, Hannah reveals the truth of Wade's infidelities to Theron - which causes him to hate both his parents (Wade for being a jerk and Hannah for not having the strength to do anything about it and both for lying to him). Following some very epic angst for all involved Wade finally seems to realize what a jerk he is and calls Hannah out on playing the victim card for so long and refusing to acknowledging her own Jerkass behavior. After the big reveal he taunts Hannah by saying: "You finally got the revenge you've been waiting for all these years, but what good is it gonna do ya now? He hates me alright, but he hates you too for telling him." He sums it up again rather nicely later on: "We're rotten parents Hannah. This is a rotten home."
- Used in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, when the Grinch calls the Whos out on their constant worrying about gifts.
Grinch: That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's always been about! Gifts, gifts, giftsgiftsgiftsgiftsgiftsgifts! You wanna know what happens to your gifts? They all come to me. In your garbage. You see what I'm saying? In your GARBAGE! I could hang myself with all the bad Christmas neckties I found at the dump. And the avarice. THE AVARICE NEVER ENDS! "I want golf clubs!" "I want diamonds!" "I want a pony so I can ride it twice, get bored with it and sell it to make glue!" Look, I don't wanna make waves, but this whole Christmas season is stupid! Stupid! STUPID! There is, however, one teeny-tiny Christmas tradition that I find quite... meaningful. Mistletoe. Now pucker up and KISS IT, Whoville!
- In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Mrs. Marcus is the one who suggests simply splitting the $350,000 that's been buried under the big "W", but if anyone had listened to her, we wouldn't have a movie.
- In It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter, a Morally Bankrupt Banker, derides George Bailey's late father, saying that he was not a real businessman. It's a point that George concedes, although he then goes on to say that while it wasn't a success by Potter's standards, it helped people move into their own homes.
- Jurassic World
- Claire, before taking a level in kindness, repeatedly talks about the animals as if they are nothing but assets and how important it is to beef up their profit margin and keep the investors happy. Thing is, even if she is a little cold about it, she's 100% right: a park of that size and magnitude would cost tons of money that isn't going to come from nowhere.
- Upon being accused of giving Indominus rex unnecessary adaptations to make her a perfect killer, Dr. Wu condescendingly points out that if they ever did use completely accurate DNA, the resulting dinosaurs would look completely different than what the public expects and his explicit instructions were to make dinosaurs people recognized and to make them bigger and scarier to draw crowds. By mixing in genes from so many different animals to produce desired traits, some unintended additions were inevitable. Later subverted when it's revealed that Wu had colluded with Hoskins to turn the I. rex into a living weapon.
- Wu also calls out Masrani on the attitude that "We should keep these dinosaurs in their natural environments and not interfere" on the grounds that these aren't their natural habitats- they had to make changes to the DNA to allow these creatures to survive where they are, and virtually nothing on the islands are natural.
- Hoskins later points out to Owen, after the Indominus rex has escaped, that calling in what are essentially hired guns to shoot the dinosaurs is the most practical option. Sure, the dinosaurs are only following their instincts, and Owen's raptors have been trained. But not every dinosaur has been trained, the Indominus rex has started killing for sport, and there are more than twenty thousand people trapped on the island until rescue arrives the next morning. Hoskins ends up hitting so many good points that Owen even temporarily works with the hired guns to stop the Indominus rex.
- K-9: When Dooley's girlfriend Tracey is kidnapped, the captain points out that it was Dooley's "seat of the pants bullshit" that got Tracey involved in the first place. At the very least, the stunts Dooley pulled to antagonize Lyman at every turn, such as holding him and his guests at gunpoint during a dinner party, didn't help.
- In La La Land, Keith tells Sebastian that he's got himself stuck in the past when it comes to traditional jazz, and that it won't do Sebastian any good to achieve his dream of opening a jazz club if no one comes to it. Considering Sebastian's already had to go through quite a Humiliation Conga by that time, Sebastian has no comeback for that. In fact, the next we see of Sebastian, he's joined Keith's group to create a more modern version of jazz.
- The Last King of Scotland: Stone, the arrogant Smug Snake British official whom the protagonist hates, turns out to be completely right about Amin's brutality. When Garrigan tries to get help from him, he only decides to if he does his bidding.
- If Ben and the rest of the group in Night of the Living Dead (1968) had listened to Harry and hunkered down in the basement, they would have had a much better chance of surviving.
- Nixon: Maybe some people would not think of a 19 year old college kid who protests against The Vietnam War as a Jerk Ass, but Nixon certainly does:
Richard M. Nixon: She got it, Bob. 19-year-old college kid.H. R. Haldeman: What? Who?Richard M. Nixon: She understood something it's taken me 25 years in politics to understand. The CIA, the Mafia, those Wall Street bastards...H. R. Haldeman: Sir?Richard M. Nixon: The Beast. 19-year-old kid. She called it a wild animal.
- Larry the Liquidator in Other People's Money. He seems to revel in the fact that he's hated for getting rich by destroying companies. But when people actually talk to him, he's quick to point out that he's just salvaging the value from companies that were essentially dead already.
Kate: You know, you're not very nice.Larry: Since when do you gotta be nice to be right?
- In Pacific Rim, despite his egotism, Chuck Hansen criticized Raleigh and Mako after they inadvertently activated Gipsy Danger's plasma caster and nearly destroyed half of the Shatterdome, not out of malice, but because he was concerned with their ability to do their job and not end up hurting the other pilots.
- Raleigh lost his brother and got nearly Gipsy Danger destroyed by refusing orders and engaging Knifehead 10 miles at sea rather than within the golden mile of the coast as ordered - it's easy to see how Chuck can hold Raleigh's rockstar-esque, above the rules attitude in contempt. Then Raleigh starts a physical fight with Chuck and comes close to seriously injuring one of the two surviving Jaeger pilots, which would've left Striker Eureka without a co-pilot and ruined any chance they had of closing the Breach.
- By the time Raleigh rejoined the PPDC, almost every other Jaeger and their pilots, except the promoted Stacker Pentecost, has died in combat or from radiation poisoning. From Chuck's point of view, Raleigh never learned from his mistakes, and on top of that, abandoned humanity's only effective line of defense to work on a Wall project that was just proven to be useless. After Raleigh's last Screw This, I'm Outta Here! several years prior, Chuck has no reason to trust that the older pilot will stick around and fight to the very end like all the other pilots have done.
- Pitch Black:
Johns: "You feel that? Riddick did that. He went for the sweet spot and missed."
- Carolyn is outraged to find out that Johns is a morphine addict when her copilot died in pain without relief. Johns states that the entire reason he's an addict in the first place is because of a piece of a shiv Riddick left right next to his spine that causes him nearly constant pain. He can still feel it rubbing against his spine and shows the wound to Carolyn.
- Johns also repeatedly stresses to Carolyn that Riddick is someone to be genuinely wary of. Johns is a junkie coward and a prick who still operates within the bounds of the law, while Riddick is a dangerous killer who would sacrifice all of them in an instant if he could. Johns's point is proven when Riddick leaves Carolyn, Jack and Imam behind to die when they have outlived their usefulness.
- Shaun of the Dead
- Everything Pete says is absolutely true, since it's all about Ed being The Load and Shaun refusing to grow up. It's telling that Shaun really decides to turn his life around after Pete yells at him to do so.
- David is right about Shaun's inept leadership, but he's only saying it because he's jealous that Liz hooked up with Shaun instead of him.
- Deconstructed in Star Trek Into Darkness with Admiral Marcus. He's completely correct in his belief that a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is coming, and that it's too late to defuse it so the Federation needs to prepare. However his arrogance causes him to think he can rein in the dangerous and uncontrollable Khan, while his desperation to give the Federation a head-start leads to him committing increasingly amoral acts like trying to kill the Enterprise crew to cover up his crimes. So while the Jerkass has a point, his Jerkassery causes him to both go overboard and botch the job.
- Thor: Loki has two very good points. Putting Thor on the throne of Asgard at the beginning of the film would have been a very bad idea. Also, when he accuses Odin of adopting him for political reasons only, it is apparent that it strikes very close to home. The movie does make it clear Thor was a bit of a jerk and acted badly early on and the film is largely about him going through Character Development.
- Whiplash: Fletcher's abuse and horrible insults that he spews at his students are all in his effort to push people far beyond their normal capacity and became the best they can be. His methods may be extreme, but as he points out, merely telling someone that they did a good job and then do nothing else can easily squelch the true raw talent hiding inside someone.
- This happens a lot in the X-Men movies.
- In the first film, Senator Kelly defends the need for a Mutant Registration Act by pointing out that there are documented cases of mutants with the ability to walk right through any solid surface, or psychics that can Mind Control people, and ordinary people have no protection against a mutant who would decide to abuse such abilities. In the third film, the President defends his decision to weaponize the "Cure" by saying "I wonder how democracy can survive, when one man can move cities with his mind!" And in the second film, a single mutant nearly assassinates the President despite all the security in the White House. It's telling that despite the movies' villains often being the ones pointing this out, the heroes never have a response to these concerns. Even while there actually are some answers that could possibly be made to these concerns, the heroes never bring them up.
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Trask justifies the need for his Sentinels to Nixon by pointing out Mystique can shapeshift into any person; she could impersonate Nixon himself, walk into the White House, and order a nuclear attack. Considering all the other things we've seen her do with her powers over the franchise, including the infiltration of the government in such a manner as he warns, his concerns are perfectly valid.
- The villains in Logan are unrepentant, amoral, murderous bigots, but they do ultimately have a point regarding Xavier and how dangerous he is. Given that he needs to be constantly drugged to ensure he doesn't turn in to a seizure-induced psychic nuke (one of which nearly kills hundreds of people), an earlier episode of which is heavily implied to have killed off most of the X-Men, and that he actively resists and avoids taking this medication, it's hard to argue against this.
- The film Zero Charisma is full of them. The first is after Scott is ousted as Game Master; he angrily states to the others that Miles is not their friend and will abandon them once he's done with his "experiment" i.e. gets bored. Granted Scott is only saying this because of his insecurities, and his inability to cope with not being in charge, but he is right. Miles does eventually abandon them, and returns to his hipper friends excluding the others. Scott even calls him out on this during the party scene.
- Miles delivers one to Scott pointing out that, he took nothing from him and it is his own fault no-one likes him.
- Nana also delvers one to Scott after he yells at her for welching on her promise to give the house to him. She points out that was in return for him taking care of her, but he doesn't instead she takes care of him. Furthermore, it is her house so he has no claim to it period.
- Miles delivers one to Scott pointing out that, he took nothing from him and it is his own fault no-one likes him.
- Leia in Star Wars A New Hope was Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like but she was critiquing more about Luke and Han's lack of planning and foresight to their plan. After all, it's not much of a rescue if everyone either gets recaptured or killed in the attempt.
- In Darkest Powers, Tori Enright, while not necessarily evil, is a self-proclaimed bitch who once made it her priority to make Chloe's life hell. While her first time attempting to give Chloe advice ends up in the two of them almost getting carved up by a trio of street thugs, when it seems that Chloe is having trouble with Simon and Derek and gets subsequently very depressed about it, Tori's pep talk ends up helping Chloe to realize just what's wrong with herself. Which in turn leads to her accepting the fact that the one she's liked all along is actually Derek and allows her to return to a mostly normal state.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
Tyrion: Lord Baelish, buy our brave Ser Alliser a hundred spades to take back to the Wall with him.Alliser: Spades?Tyrion: If you bury your dead, they won't come walking.
- Alliser Thorne, an abrasive and arrogant bully of the Night's Watch, comes to King's Landing to present evidence that the dead are walking and warn everyone that an invasion by the Others is imminent. And he's telling the truth: The dead are walking, the Others are coming, and the lords of Westeros are too busy fighting each other to do anything about it. Unfortunately, Tyrion, a much more sympathetic character who developed a dislike of Thorne's poor behavior, utterly ignores his warnings and makes fun of him.
Mirri Maz Duur: "The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust."
- Sandor 'The Hound' Clegane also counts, as he is a pretty big jerk but the majority of what he says about how the lords and knights of the kingdoms take advantage of the weak is pretty accurate. His assessment of his brother is both incredibly blunt and distressingly on the mark.
- In A Dance with Dragons, Dany gets a visit from an old "friend", Xaro, the merchant prince of Qarth. His behaviour becomes increasingly obnoxious throughout his visit, until he reaches the point where he declares war on her, but he makes several good points about Dany's rule. The truth is, Dany's reign hasn't done a lot of good for the people of Meereen, as her sacking of it and the subsequent crises have shattered the city's economy and started a guerilla civil war, and many people who were once happy and well-off are now starving. Moreover, despite her claims to be the breaker of chains, there are many people in her city who are slaves in all but name - slaves to her. Not to mention the fact that her dragons have gone completely out of control and have begun eating the farmers' livestock and children.
- In the first book, A Game of Thrones, maegi Mirri Maz Duur does some rather awful things to Dany without true cause (although some are later exaggerated by Dany - she did not kill Khal Drogo) but one act stands out as being pragmatic in a Kingslayer-fashion: the killing of Dany's unborn child, Rhaego.
- Harry Potter
Malfoy: Oh, how silly we've all been. We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!Hagrid: I-I thought they were funny.Malfoy: Oh, tremendously funny! Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!
- In Harry Potter And The Prisonerof Azkaban, while Snape does consider Harry to be far more arrogant than he actually is, he rightly calls Harry out for sneaking out of Hogwarts while everybody — including the Minister for Magic and Snape himself — are trying to keep Harry safe from a killer who broke out of Azkaban. Lupin tells Harry the same thing after he saves Harry from being bullied by Snape about it.
- Also in the third book, the third years are required to buy a textbook that bites them for Hagrid's course. The students must bind or use other methods to restrain the books. Hagrid assumes that the students would figure out they need to stroke the spine of their monster textbooks books on their own. Malfoy remarks that stroking is not the first thing you think of when your book aggressively tries to bite you. He has a point.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Malfoy believes Hagrid's Blast-ended Skrewts are abominations of nature. The Skrewts are jet-propelled scorpion-leeches that eventually grow to be 10-feet long and are apparently illegal hybrids of Manticores and fire-crabs meaning they shouldn't even exist in the first place. While Hermione defends the Skrewts in Hagrid's class out of loyalty to Hagrid, she privately agrees with Malfoy that the Skrewts are horrible monsters.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Phineas Nigellus points out to Harry that while Slytherins can be brave, they aren't stupid and won't run head first into danger. Both are absolutely right, as Harry falls prey to Voldemort's trap and believes Sirius has been captured by Voldemort. This inadvertently results in the lives of his friends being in danger and also, in Sirius's death.
- Umbridge's actions are despicable and her dismissal of Trelawney was done in as much a Kick the Dog manner as possible, but she's right about Trelawney not really measuring up as a teacher.
- Pensieve memories in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince show that Tom Riddle Sr. was a snobbish young man who looked down on Morfin Gaunt, laughed at a wizard wearing silly clothes in an attempt to fit in with muggles, and abandoned his own newborn son. But the thing is Morfin really was an insane pariah with criminal tendencies who regularly harassed Muggles and tortured animals. If anything, Tom Riddle was being polite by referring to him as a tramp, especially when his girlfriend was saying worse about the Gaunt's. Laughing at the wizard had a point as well, as even Harry noted his clothes which included a one piece bathing suit over a coat made him look clownish. And on the last one, he was rightfully furious at Merope for brainwashing him and keeping him as a husband, while also using him for sex, effectively rape. He never chose to have the boy in the first place, was terrified of seeing someone use magic, and understandably just wanted to escape the whole nightmare. This is acknowledged by Dumbledore.
- In The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, Harry is often portrayed as abusive asshole with few redeeming qualities. Nevertheless, his defence for the titular Slap - that Hugo was in the process of attacking his and his cousin's children with a cricket bat while his own parents were doing little to stop it - is difficult to argue with, as Anouk points out early on - "We all wanted to slap Hugo that day!" - and even Aisha comes to agree with as the court case approaches.
- Les Misérables: While Inspector Javert's belief that criminals can never change is extreme, he was fully justified in not trusting Valjean to keep his word and allow himself to be arrested after being given a few days to put his affairs in order. After all, the reason Valjean was a wanted criminal at the time was because he had already broken his parole once, so why would a policeman who knew this trust him to honor a parole now that he's finally been caught?
- In the Inheritance Cycle, Big Bad Galbatorix reveals that one of his plans is to enforce equality by controlling the use of magic, accomplished by hijacking the magical language itself so that he is the only one who can use it. While Galby is notoriously treacherous and it's heavily implied that this is done only so that he can retain power, it's hard to argue against some level of control in a universe where magic has turned the elves into nearly invincible Game Breakers who could decimate the humans, dwarves, and urgals combined if they felt like it. Even Nasuada, leader of the Varden and one of the biggest enemies of Galbatorix, admits that he might have been right on this one.
- At one point in Eragon, Eragon and Murtagh are accosted by a band of slavers who try to forcibly claim a bounty on an unconscious Arya's head. Eragon uses his magic to frighten away most of the slavers, but Murtagh takes the leader of the slaver band and beheads him. Murtagh justifies his act by arguing that the slavers could spread information about Eragon, Saphira, and Arya to the Empire, particularly after they had just attacked an Imperial prison to free Arya. Eragon views this as pointlessly cruel and petty, but Murtagh's argument can come across as more pragmatic given their situation.
- Vanir, Eragon's elf rival in Ellesmera, is a haughty jerk who insults an injured Eragon while repeatedly beating him in sparring and, at one point, outright tells him that Saphira must have been somehow mistaken to choose Eragon as a Rider. While Vanir is a tremendous douchebag, his implicit messages to Eragon — that respect has to be earned the hard way, particularly if you're someone who an entire species' survival is thought to hinge on — is right.
- In The Hunger Games trilogy, even President Snow has standards. To him, his acts of terror and oppression are all in the name of order. He may threaten, intimidate, insinuate, kill children etc...but he is not wasteful. Every death he dealt served a purpose. A reminder of this becomes a key plot point towards the end of Mockingjay. He was honest about the incident that killed Katniss' sister but essentially ended the war not being his idea, because as he points out, at that point he had already lost, and had the aircraft been his, he'd have used it to escape, not commit an act of pointless violence, which means it had to have been the work of President Coin of Sector 13, confirming Katniss' suspicion that the war was turning Evil Versus Evil.
- A major story beat in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. While Luke's attempts to fix things are...extreme at best, nobody can say his core motivation isn't right. Even Percy, who hates and resents Luke possibly more than anyone, admits several times that he sympathizes with Luke's anger. In the end, Percy promises a mortally-wounded Luke he won't let the injustice get this bad again and uses a formal boon to force the gods to acknowledge their children and, by extent, understand that their selfish actions nearly caused their downfall and killed thousands of young, innocent people.
- In The Dresden Files the White Council has a zero tolerance policy on any violation of the Laws of Magic and the only punishment for a violation is beheading. After killing his teacher in self-defense, Harry spends a good part of the early books being viewed as the suspect any time a magical crime is suspected. While this seems unreasonable at first, it's eventually explained that over centuries the Council has seen that dark magic is inherently harmful to the psyche; even one use is enough to start twisting a good person into a warlock.
- Harry himself does not disprove this evidence. He works hard to keep on the straight and narrow because he understands how quickly he would lose himself if he slipped.
- In Prince Caspian, the grumpy and bitter dwarf Nikibrik points out the flaw in the thinking that the Magic Horn is Too Awesome to Use. The other characters agree with his criticism and decide that he's right and that they should use the horn sooner rather than later - which is what turns out to have set in motion the events of the entire book.
- Lord Wyldon, the sexist training master in Protector of the Small, makes it clear that he doesn't think Keladry should be training for a knight. He also continually forces her to climb trees and look over high walls when she's cripplingly afraid of heights and it often causes her to Stress Vomit. Kel's friend Neal attributes this to Wyldon's continual efforts to make her leave, but Kel says that she does have to overcome her fear and Wyldon is really trying to help her.
- Wyldon also does give Kel practical help when her fear of heights overwhelms her. During the scene in First Test where Kel freezes on the wall, Wyldon steers her away from the edge and tells her to focus on his face. At the pages' summer camp, he realizes halfway through Kel's report that she's going to be sick from climbing and excuses her to throw up.
- Darkstripe from Warrior Cats has been caught feeding Sorrelkit deathberries when Graystripe catches him and reports him to Firestar. On being questioned, Darkstripe growls that of course Firestar will always take Graystripe's word. Even Firestar himself admits to himself that it's true. He believes Darkstripe has a point and has to find solid proof to make sure Graystripe wasn't lying.
- World War Z: The French soldier interviewed is dismissive of American efforts during the Zombie War, claiming that the conditions they had to endure was nothing. After he describes the battle of Paris, which involved clearing a quarter million Zacks from the catacombs and braving not only Zack but complete darkness, explosions, navigation errors, choking gas pockets, cave-ins and drowning in sewer water and doing it all with blades, trench spikes and the occasional air rifle (the smallest spark could set off a methane explosion), you're likely to agree with him.
- In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy delivers a haughty and condescending marriage proposal to Elizabeth Bennet which spends more time detailing why he shouldn't propose to her than why he should. After it goes very badly wrong for obvious reasons, Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter that explains his perspective on events in more detail, in particular that her family generally does act in a very embarrassing and socially improper fashion. While still very peeved, Elizabeth is forced to concede that he has a point and that his concerns about being related to them through marriage were not entirely invalid or based on pure snobbery.
- Mrs Bennet is right to be concerned about her daughters getting married soon because if Mr Bennet died, their entire estate would go to his closest male relative, Mr Collins, and if the girls didn't marry well, they would live in the streets. It was the way she went about it that was the issue.
- In The Emigrants, it is hard to see Vicar Brusander as anything but a pompous Well-Intentioned Extremist for his prosecution of Danjel's religious movement. Nevertheless though, he still makes a few good points in his speech to Karl Oskar against emigration. Many people back then did leave Europe for America to escape the laws of their native countries, or only because they heard fanciful stories about how much better everything was over there. And how exactly would Europe survive, if all young people would go to America and leave their old parents at home?
- The Wandering Inn:One of Erin's regular customers, Pisces, is quite pretentious, leading to many characters disliking him. Although he has many faults, he tends to be correct, whenever he suggests something, much to Erin's regret, as following his advise is the last thing she wants to do.
Pro Wrestling
- At the time of his heel run in 2012, CM Punk went postal when John Cena won the "Superstar of the Year" award of the Slammy Awards, demanding why someone who got destroyed by Brock Lesnar, lost to The Rock, lost to Punk, failed to win with MITB, and couldn't win Dolph Ziggler's title shot won an award over someone who held the WWE Championship every day of 2012. While these Slammys were determined entirely by popular vote, Punk brought up some credible points. To his credit, Cena obviously agreed as the look on his face when he came out to receive it was a combination of Oh, Crap! and This Is Gonna Suck, not aided by the fact that the award show was in Philadelphia. Cm punk was rightfully upset about not getting any respect when he was champion all year long yet most of the time was still playing second fiddle to Cena.
- At the 2014 CZW Down With The Sickness, Rory Mondo gave Danny Havoc internal injuries, attempted to cut him and several members of the CZW staff with a weed whacker, a "weapon" that had been nationally banned from use in all sporting events, likely resulting in a fine or worse for CZW had he been successful, broke the stretcher Havoc was being carried out on and falsely claimed that Havoc had quit when it was referee stoppage that ended their match. Thing was, the match ended with one man unable to continue and another who could, yet the referee called it a "no contest". That might have even been reasonable in most fed but in Garbage Wrestling CZW the logical decision should have been to declare Mondo the winner.
- Randy Orton's whole motive for going after Triple H during the road to their WrestleMania 25 match was because Triple H screwed him out of his first title run-which was exactly what happen. It was not help by the fact that during the feud he was going after Triple H's family the Mcmahon's who all were at best Asshole Victim's
- Funny enough Cm Punk's fed with Ortion at Wrestlemania 27 feud was over a similar issue where Punk was after Orton because Orton cost him his first title run by attacking him out before his title match and taking him out of the match as a result, thus Punk never properly lost his belt.
- Ryback's reason for turning heel against John Cena back in 2013 was because he was sick of Cena never having his back after he was constantly being attack by the shield despite the fact Ryback had always been there to help Cena. It was very telling that the fans were intentionally unsure if Ryback was a heel since that was a understandable reason to turn on Cena. Further it wasn't help by the fact Cena's rebuttal was simply just accusing Ryback of being a crybaby.
- Triple H and Stephanie Mcmahon calling out John Cena for attacking skinny middle aged Jon Stewart. Granted Stewart had cost Cena his title match aganist Rollins, but still Cena did come off as a sore loser.
- Legally Blonde: The Musical: Alpha Bitch Vivienne tells Elle to return to the trial after vowing not to practice law all around.
- Subverted in Thirteen when Lucy tells Kendra she should thank Evan for getting Kendra and Brett back together But really. Lucy set the whole thing up so that she could be with Brett. It's a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- The Witch of Into the Woods has this effect on the characters; regardless of whether they say so aloud, they are visibly humbled by the breaking speech that is "Last Midnight", in which she calls them out on the fact that their wishes and carelessness got them in the trouble they're in now.
I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right! I'm the witch. You're the world!
- Freddie Trumper of Chess is correct in his assertions that his reputation as the bad boy of chess have help to renew public interest in the game. He later helps Anatoly realize that winning the championship is his only chance to redeem himself.
- Edward Rutledge is a great example in 1776, especially with the number "Molasses to Rum." Sure, he's arguing for slavery, but when he exposes Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams' respective hypocrisies, he not only has a point, but it's a historically accurate one.
- King Lear:
- Lear gives up his throne and kingdom, granting half to each of his daughters, and then announces that he plans to stay with both of them in monthly shifts for the rest of his life. Goneril and Regan eventually get fed up with this arrangement - especially because Lear insists on travelling with an entourage of one hundred knights - and tell him that if he's going to live with them, he has to be more accommodating and send the knights away. Lear launches into a tirade when they do this, claiming that they're "thankless," but while Goneril and Regan do go too far, they're completely right. Lear spends his days partying and hunting with his knights, then storming into his daughters' castles and demanding that they wait on him and his entourage hand and foot. The princesses may be too extreme in their treatment of their father, but they're justified in trying to devise an arrangement that works for everyone, not just Lear. Of course, as Lear says he is a man more sinned against then sinning. To Jacobean audiences, him attempting to abdicate and divide the kingdom would not be approved of.
- Edmund is clearly a despicable person, but he is right to criticize the way that society treats bastard children. He also points out the foolishness of Gloucester's astrological beliefs and how they provide a convenient excuse for people to pretend that their mistakes and misdeeds are somehow not their fault. Then again, Gloucester's predictions do turn out to be quite accurate.
Video Games
- Dante from Devil May Cry gives Trish "The Reason You Suck" Speech when she betrays him to Mundus which includes calling her a devil and lacks a soul. Harsh, but she realized he's right about this.
- An interesting example in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: large parts of the fandom view Marche as a Villain Protagonist who is trying to forcibly destroy Ivalice, a world where his friends and his brother are happy because they can escape some of their problems in the home world. Whichever side the player might personally side with (whether they view Marche as right or wrong), both "wrong" sides make some very good points. If Marche is in the right, the royal forces, Ritz, and others are still very much correct when they claim that it's easy for Marche to want to go home - he doesn't have to deal with the same problems and bullying, or inability to walk (in his brother Doned's case) that his friends do, although as Marche admits to himself before the battle with Mateus, he too has problems that he faces in the real world. Further driving their point home is the argument that if Marche really cared for them, he wouldn't actively try to destroy a world that makes them happy without letting them take part in the decision too. Babus also makes the point that even if the world was an illusion created recently, he still has full and complete memories of his entire life in Ivalice that are as real as if he actually lived them, so what right does Marche have in destroying his current life in favor of the old one without even trying to get his consent? On the other hand, even if Marche is the real bad guy, he is absolutely correct when he claims that his friends, especially Mewt, are just using Ivalice as a way to avoid handling their real-world problems in any constructive way. Likewise it's clear that Mewt is far too irresponsible for his position as prince as he creates more and more obstructive and paranoid laws to start a witch hunt against Marche no matter how many citizens get caught in the crossfire which shows that more than anyone, Mewt is getting WORSE by staying in Ivalice. In the long run as shown in the Epilogue, Marche turns out to be correct.
- In-universe, Ritz concedes that the game must eventually end, but says she will fight Marche to stop him from reaching Ambervale because she isn't quite ready yet.
- Also, out of dialogue, you can also take into account the "cutscenes" when Ivalice is created. The argument of Marche having it easy since he doesn't have major problems in the real world can be reversed: in Ivalice, Mewt is the prince, Marche, Ritz and arguably Doned are adventurers and clan captains, which means losing Ivalice equals losing awesomeness; but the random citizens whe see at the start, getting turned into wild animals/creatures you'll eagerly ''slaughter''? Yeah, maybe they'll find Marche has a point.
- Severa, one of the children from the Bad Future in Fire Emblem Awakening, loves to be spoiled and harsh towards others. It rubs many of the children, as well as whoever her father is, the wrong way, but in the end, some of her criticisms are true in form. One thing she addresses with Yarne is how his cowardice harms others.
- In Jade Empire, Gravedigger Shen is an unpleasant person who seems to have no morals to speak of, selling the possessions of those buried in his graveyard. You may be inclined to believe Miss Chen's claim that he killed her baby after she died in childbirth. But you hear from him that the baby also died, and if you show her to his grave, Miss Chen realizes the truth and is calmed enough to pass on.
- Kid Icarus: Uprising: In chapter 22, Dark Pit gets sick of Viridi and Palutena accusing Hades and humanity of throwing the world off balance and tells them point-blank that they and their "stupid wars" are just as responsible for disrupting the balance as Hades himself. While Viridi is just pissed that a "little nothing" like Dark Pit would talk to her like that, Palutena openly admits that he's not wrong.
- This mixed with Good Is Not Nice is pretty much Jedi Master Vrook's entire characterization. He opposes the training of the Player Character from the first because re-training and trusting a mindwiped Sith Lord really is a bad idea. And in the second game, he's even less thrilled with the Exile, seeing her (or him) as a "mediocre Jedi" whose presence only brings disaster...and turns out right.
- Unintentional example at the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Mido refuses to let Link see the Great Deku Tree until Link gets a sword and shield. While Mido was doing it just to be a pest to Link and bar his way like a schoolyard bully, the sword and shield do turn out to be necessary both to kill the Deku Babas on the way to the Great Deku Tree and to kill the enemies inside of the Great Deku Tree. This "point" is so good that even Saria agrees with it.
- In Mass Effect, the turian councilor is the only council member who thinks it plausible that Matriarch Benezia would be willing to murder her own daughter. He's right - because of indoctrination, she is. The turian councilor also is the most staunchly opposed to Shepard's insistence that the Reapers are coming. Interestingly, the turian councilor ends up being the first member of the council to actually go to Shepard when the Reapers finally arrive.
- The sequel also has an instance with Quarian Admiral Zaal'Koris, who is entirely distrustful of both Tali and her father trying to get the family exiled. However he's also the only member of the Admiralty board who opposes going to war with the geth and sees them as another sentient species, with the quarians also largely to blame for what has happened. If you speak to him during the trial, he will explain his position in detail and tell Tali that he has no personal vendetta against her or her father: he is just doing what he thinks needs to be done for the good of the quarian people. Tali responds with "I do not agree, but I understand." He takes a level in kindness in the third game, and is even integral in bringing a peaceful solution to the quarian/geth conflict.
- Also in the second game, while Kaidan/Ashley was harsh in chewing Shepard out for working with Cerberus, their warning that the Illusive Man is using the Reaper threat and Shepard's gratitude to manipulate him/her turns out to be very accurate. Among other things, Miranda had to be explicitly forbidden from putting a control chip in Shepard's brain, the post-mission summary for Archangel's recruitment explicitly notes that Archangel's unexpected identity as Garrus Vakarian could be very useful for making Shepard comfortable, the post-mission summary for Tali's loyalty mission cites how much intel Cerberus was able to gain on quarian internal politics from it, and the summary of the mission to gain the Reaper IFF mentions how much Cerberus was able to learn about the husk creation process because of the data Shepard recovered. When trying to convince Shepard to preserve the Collector Base, the Illusive Man resorts to directly reminding Shepard of everything Cerberus has done for him/her. In the third game, the player finds a video of the Illusive Man explicitly laying out his plan to make Shepard invested in Cerberus's goals the old fashioned way (something Kaidan/Ashley is the only squad member not to be surprised by), and the data on the husk creation process resurfaces in one of the most horrifying sequences in the trilogy.
- If you sacrificed the Council in the first game, in the third, the new council reminds you of this while refusing to divert resources from protecting their own homeworlds to help Earth. It's fairly presumptuous to expect them to help you after you betrayed their predecessors, possibly in order to allow humanity to take control of the Council.
- Of course, this happens even if the old Council survived, and in spite of your kindness they argue the pragmatic fact that with the Reapers focusing on Earth, they can use the time they have to start defending their own borders. Which is, to a degree, another case of this trope. Many fans have been annoyed with Shepard's obsession with Earth and pointed out that Earth isn't the only important planet in the galaxy and that it makes sense trying to save what can be saved and pile resources instead of wasting them trying to regain lost causes. The main problem in their plans was that the Council didn't sufficiently support the Crucible.
- The salarian Dalatrass is so much against curing the genophage in the third game that she will withdraw support for the war against the Reapers if you do. She is clearly in the wrong if you have Wrex in charge of the krogans. However, if Wreav is in charge, it's revealed that after the war ends, he's building up an army to wage war on the galaxy, essentially restarting the Krogan Rebellion.
- Zig-Zagged in Mega Man X: Command Mission. Halfway through the game when X meets up with Zero, he introduces Zero to the rest of the party members, and Zero, having recently almost been killed by a former teammate's FaceHeel Turn, reacts angrily and immediately leaves X again, claiming that said party members could go rogue and betray them at any moment note . Later when Zero meets X again, in a battle with the aforementioned Face-Heeler, Spider, one of the party members and a former mercenary, takes a shot to the arm for Zero to block a Last Ditch Move, and later sacrifices himself by self-destructing to open a locked door so that the party could escape an underground mine set to blow-up. Zero then sees the error of his ways and realizes that he should be more trusting of others. Except that Spider turned out to have faked his death and was actually The Man Behind the Man in disguise, with said man being the Colonel who had commissioned X and Zero in the first place and had manufactured the entire conflict of the game, thus rendering the Friendship lesson meaningless and actually proving Zero right.
- Dishonourable nobles in Mount & Blade aren't particularly nice. They're backstabbing, warmongering, and quarrelsome. However, "honourable" characters are still perfectly willing to raid caravans and torch enemy villages. If you take the honourable option and allow defeated enemies to walk away, your dishonourable allies rightly ask whether your honour will be much comfort to the orphans and widows caused because you let a general out to rebuild his army and keep going.
- In Pokémon Black and White, Ghetsis says, "A Pokemon, even if it's revered as a deity, is still just a Pokemon!" He is correct that legendary Pokemon, for all their strength, are not invincible; merely having one does not equate to automatic victory.
- One of the movies in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 has a scientist angry at the hero for making a Ridiculously Human Robot and spending all day playing with it instead of working on other projects and refusing to let anyone build another. While his actions are terrible, he was right that the lab had sunk a lot of money into that robot that was earning them nothing and their head scientist was costing them funding by refusing to work on anything else.
- In Saints Row 2 there is your former leader Julius. Before he is killed in the epilogue, he states that the reason he left the Gang and had you set up to die on the boat is because of how far the gang derailed off his vision of solving the ongoing gang wars in Stillwater, contributing to the problem in the process. Even going on to say they were now just "Vice Kings who wore purple". Considering how downhill it went for the gang after the second game when the Playa takes over you, can't really blame him for trying to put an end to his gang.
- Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden has long strings of this trope by Tetsuya Tsurugi from Great Mazinger. Throughout the course of the game, he basically trash talk both the heroes and the villains, and pointed out the flaws on their structures and performances in an increasingly Jerk-ish way. The problem is, he is completely spot on with every single one of his statements, which includes the fact that the Heroes has a rather ineffective ways to handle the situations, some of the teams has a leadership problems, the fact that Koji relied way too much on his Grandfather's Mazinger, and on top of it, a Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration comment of a big mistake made by Duo and Quatre that nearly resulted in the death of the whole team.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: While Master Xehanort is hardly a reliable source of information, his statements that Master Eraqus only thinks in absolutes regarding light and darkness aren't entirely wrong, considering the fact that Eraqus failed Terra in the Mark of Mastery Exam for showing a mere spark of darkness in his fighting style, accidental or otherwise.
- Tales of the Abyss
Luke: I didn't have time for any of that! I had other things to learn. Like my parents' faces!
- Luke might be an entitled jerk to everyone, inviting plenty of teasing and mockery, but he makes a very good point as to why picking on his lack of general world knowledge is over the line. For what it's worth, the rest of the party stops picking on him over that, and only criticizes him or insults him over things that have greater consequences, or can't be excused on his circumstances (for example, his arrogant behavior as Ambassador).
- Shortly before entering Akzeriuth, the party is at Deo Pass after a detour to the Zao Ruins to rescue Fon Master Ion. Luke, naturally, complains that they wasted time rescuing Ion from the ruins when he wasn't in any danger. The party immediately reprimands him for saying that, but Luke was right! The God Generals had taken him, certainly, but they had no motive, incentive or any desire to harm him. In fact, they would have still needed him to open more doors with a Daath seal on them. Ion was in no danger. Luke was right, the party and player could've been saved this entire ordeal and gotten to Akzeriuth sooner.
- Tales of Xillia has Gilland state that his actions were merely things he had to do, in order to save Elympios and doing everything to survive, which included using spyrix, something that kills spirits. When Milla tells him that it's their own fault for using the dangerous technique of spyrix, Gilland backfires that he, and the others, shouldn't be blamed for something that was started 2.000 years ago and that "it wasn't us!" who decided to use spyrix to begin with. Milla is left speechless after that last outburst.
- Until Dawn
- Emily is pretty harsh with her words, even after Chris and Ashley come out from a death trap that led to Josh's death. While the two head back to the lodge, Emily and Matt leave to check on the cable car as an escape route, but Emily says that they shouldn't have taken their word for things. That they should go back to where the death trap was and actually look if Josh is really dead. Given that Josh's death was faked and all part of his elaborate revenge-prank-plan, it certainly would have put the rest of them on their guard and maybe avoid future incidents.
- Emily almost got shot by Mike because Ashley panicked upon seeing Emily's bite-wound from a Wendigo and thought she was going to turn into one and attack them, but the situation got defused. Ashley tries to apologize to Emily, but only earns an Armor-Piercing Slap from the latter. It's understandable that Ashley panicked and jumped to conclussions, but Emily being unforgiving makes sense: Ashley's panic almost got Emily killed.
- In World of Warcraft, while some players dislike Taran Zhu for his hostility toward the Alliance and the Horde, he turns out to be right that their continuing their war in Pandaria is a bad thing, for a few reasons. 1)It empowers the Sha, which feed on various negative emotions and as such, both encourage and grow stronger through conflict. 2)It weakens their efforts against those who are enemies to both factions and all of Pandaria, such as the resurrected Thunder King. 3)Garrosh's unearthing the Heart of Y'Shaarj devastates the sacred Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
- Garrosh has another moment of this in their final Mak'gora confrontation of the Warlords of Draenor game, as he points out that everything he's done is directly related to Thrall. Thrall made him Warchief of the Horde, despite Garrosh himself feeling as if he wasn't ready, then Thrall up and abandoned the Horde during the Cataclysm, leaving Garrosh in charge of a city with limited resourcesnote , a neighboring ally who only recently reclaimed their home from a powerful witch doctor (Darkspear trolls), another whose land was being invaded by centaurs and quilboars (tauren), and two however-nominal allies which was too far away to even matter to the bulk of the Horde of Kalimdor (blood elves), one of which most don't trust anyway (the Forsaken). While Garrosh is no saintnote , he does point out that he was given a failure from the start.
- The Last of Us
- Despite treating Ellie as nothing but a nuisance and butts heads with her, Bill does point out that Ellie's earlier statement of needing a gun to protect herself and back up Joel and him is a pretty good idea. Joel ignores him at first, but eventually comes around after a Hunter almost drowned him and Ellie put a bullet into that guy's head, saving Joel's life.
- Bill comes across as incredibly unfriendly and blunt, to the point that nobody wants to be with him - not even his partner, Frank, who decided to leave when he had enough of Bill's rough attitude. But Bill says that, in this world, being with another person and caring for them is guaranteed to backfire eventually. Given what happens to Sam and Henry, as well as Joel's decision to save Ellie over a potential cure for mankind, Bill's mindset is correct.
- The Talos Principle: Milton constantly challenges you to give your opinion on a philosophical matter, then tears it to shreds. But he's never exactly wrong. This is his role in the simulation. His job is to instill doubt into the AIs, and get them to question what they think they know.
- Dragon Age II: Given the existence of demons and blood magic, Fenris is right that mages are dangerous when left unchecked. Given that it's often the threat of the pursuing Templars that causes mages to resort to blood magic in the first place, Anders is right that the official response to this outside Tevinter is a massive overreaction that causes as many problems as it solves. Unfortunately for Hawke, both of them tend to express their perspectives in the most obnoxious way possible, verbally tearing into other party members on the slightest hint of disagreement and generally acting like assholes.
Visual Novels
- There's many occasions in the Ace Attorney series when Phoenix, Apollo or Athena will admit the prosecutor (be they whip happy, arrogant, a homicidal maniac or just a plain jerkass) is making a valid point.
- During the first game, Phoenix lays into Edgeworth about how he became a prosecutor, the opposite of being the defense attorney he wanted to be as a child, and asks him how he can be so ruthless and use any method available to get a guilty verdict for the defendants. Edgeworth immediately counters this by pointing out that the guilty will always lie to avoid the consequences of their actions, so even if a defendant denies having done anything, they couldn't take their word for it, so the best he can do is make sure they get their just desserts and he is basically doing his job. Phoenix is rather stunned after that.
- He also points out that as long as the prosecutor and defender argue properly for their own sides, the one who wins the argument will be the one who is actually right, thus uncovering the truth of the case. This is nothing less than the core principle of adversarial trial.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All's second case, it's strongly implied that Dr. Grey is right and that Mimi Miney was, in fact, at fault for the malpractice incident that killed fourteen patients, as Phoenix says near the end of the trial. While Dr. Grey ultimately isn't the one on trial, it does shed light on his killer's motive.
- Also in Justice for All, Phoenix spends most of the game seeing prosecutors as arrogant individuals who do nothing but obstruct his efforts to defend the innocent even when they should know that the defendants aren't guilty (although his feelings over Edgeworth's disappearance and return are partially influence this), but after he's blackmailed into defending a guilty client while Maya's life is threatened, and his ability to Take a Third Option is in no small part due to Edgeworth and Franziska's help, he becomes somewhat more open-minded regarding the prosecution.
- In Dual Destinies, prosecutor Simon Blackquill displays animosity towards Apollo's Perceiving, using his bird Taka to attack Apollo every time Apollo tries it. Except until the last case. Though Blackquill's reasoning, a secret ability where no one else understands how it works or can replicate it shouldn't hold up in court. Apollo and Athena both admit that Blackquill may have a point with that.
- During the first game, Phoenix lays into Edgeworth about how he became a prosecutor, the opposite of being the defense attorney he wanted to be as a child, and asks him how he can be so ruthless and use any method available to get a guilty verdict for the defendants. Edgeworth immediately counters this by pointing out that the guilty will always lie to avoid the consequences of their actions, so even if a defendant denies having done anything, they couldn't take their word for it, so the best he can do is make sure they get their just desserts and he is basically doing his job. Phoenix is rather stunned after that.
- Byakuya Togami often plays this role in Danganronpa. He spends most of his time distancing himself from the group, believing himself to be one of the smartest and most capable people alive, and, therefore, above everyone else present. And while he doesn't have to be such a jerk about it... he's got a point, given how many incredible things he's accomplished without even being out of high school. Also, whenever something sad or horrible happens, you can count on him to coldly lay out the facts or state the status quo.
- Katawa Shoujo:
- When Hisao suggests that Jigoro Hakamichi could visit his daughter Shizune, Jigoro counters by, among other things, asking when the last time Hisao has called his parents was. Hisao concedes that he has not made much of an effort to keep in touch with them, although he hates Jigoro enough to be tempted to punch him in the face. Interestingly enough, Jigoro does appear to take Hisao's comment to heart, since he appears at Yamaku later in the route... To ask Shizune if she wants to go fishing with him. He's still a huge ass while asking it, but it does show that the above comment was just an attempt to change the subject and avoid thinking about it. It obviously didn't work.
- In Rin's route, Nomiya, while not originally a Jerk Ass, asks Hisao at one point while arguing over whether it was right to let Rin walk away from the exhibition whether he has anything comparable to Rin's passion for art. Hisao is forced to concede that he does not.
- While Nomiya gets incredibly nasty after losing his cool with Rin and Hisao later on, he has a lot of valid points. On a practical level, Rin's future is very much in doubt when she chooses to walk away from her exhibition. While he went overboard, it's not hard to see him as someone who wants Rin to succeed as an artist but simply got fed up with dealing with a seemingly ungrateful pupil.
- Lotus from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors brings up the fact that - for anyone to survive the game at all- people will have to be left behind, thus sparking conversation on who it will be. It was brutally pragmatic, but also necessary - nobody knew at the time that everyone could escape the game. She was just trying to solve a bad situation the only way she knew how. And given the tense situation they were in, it's perfectly reasonable that Lotus would want them to decide on who they'd sacrifice as soon as possible. Letting time pass would only make it worse. Of course, when the time comes for her to be left behind in one ending she is fully accepting of her fate.
- In Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, if you choose to have Thresher reject Jane after she begs him for a job, he will launch into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech against her that shows that he's a rude, misogynistic pervert with a low opinion of job seekers. That said, the main point of his argument- that with over 200 qualified applicants for each position, Jane shouldn't think that she's the only "desperate" one out there- is fairly sound.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Weiss, despite being an Academic Alpha Bitch who goes out of her way to insult others, frequently makes good points.
- When Ruby jumps directly in front of Weiss' magic attack to take out the enemy they were both focused on, Weiss makes the point that Ruby's recklessness and lack of communication nearly got herself killed.
- While she's rather harsh with Ruby in episode 10, it's because she's angry at the supposed team leader for cheerfully slacking off in class.
- Her argument with Blake regarding the White Fang in the penultimate episode of volume 1. While Weiss is clearly bigoted towards the Faunus in general, her hatred of the White Fang is not unjustified, since they are a terrorist group trying to Kill All Humans and her family has personally suffered at their hands.
- Adding to that, she's supposed to be seen as being bigoted against Sun by calling him a degenerate and thief. Problem is, Sun freely admits to being a stowaway and steals without a second thought, so it's hard to say that Weiss is wrong in this case either.
- Weiss' father Jacques, though a thoroughly horrible human being, does have a point when he makes her brother Whitley the heir to the SDC over her. Weiss has repeatedly resisted his attempts to groom her for the position and only values the role because she feels the company already belongs to her. Why should he give the business he's spent years developing to someone thoroughly unsuited to heading it?
Web Comics
- Drowtales: As part of the Grey and Gray Morality, this pops up quite a bit. The Kyorl'solenurn, for instance, are surprisingly justified in their extremism against the tainted, especially after recent revelations like the fact that most tainted have been given intentionally faulty demonic seeds that will kill them within 50 years. Quain'tana also has some of this, since while a terribly abusive parent and all around not very nice person she does make good points, especially when it comes to the Sharen, who the readers know are not what they seem at all. This also applies to her interactions with her daughter Mel, who has twice tried to claim submission to her mother, but Quain doesn't buy it, and we the audience know that she's actually right to not trust Mel since she was put up to it by the character who's effectively the Big Bad of the series.
- In El Goonish Shive, when Susan confronts Tom about being a Manipulative Bastard to score a date with her, he claims everyone manipulates people by responding in ways to get certain reactions. He sees himself different because "At Least I Admit It". Susan acknowledges the point, but shuts down his justification by pointing out the majority of people do that sort of thing for good or otherwise benign reasons, such as protecting a friend's feelings or keeping something private. Tom was just being selfish because he did everything he did knowing Susan wasn't looking to date anyone.
- In Freefall, when Max Post argues for freeing the intelligent robots, the mayor points out that this will take billions of credits from the corporation that owns the planet and all the military equipment - which will obviously calm everything down.
- Sam also pulls this on Florence - she might not like to be called a slave, but as Sam points out, she is one, as would be her children (which would belong to Ecosystems Unlimited as "derivative products"). Florence sees his point, which helps prompt her to become more proactive in helping other artificial intelligences receive full rights.
- During a public debate about whether robots should be allowed full intelligence if it poses a risk to humans, Blunt tries to use the vicious and narcissistic Edge as an example of the risks in intelligent, disobedient robots. Edge argues that obedient, unintelligent robots would pose a similar risk through simple user error by their human masters.
Edge: You guys give some stupid orders!
- Girl Genius got pretty unpleasant Zulenna who habitually advocated Baron's dubious actions including imprisonment of "Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer". Agatha and other students ignored this. The guy turned to be more or less as much heroic as he pretended to be... and a dangerous nutcase as a bonus. Zulenna generally has a point any time she is not posturing.
- On the other hand, it's also been pointed out in-strip that Othar's "Kill all the insane world-wrecking Sparks" master-plan is not entirely without its merits.
- Homestuck:
- Karkat has a problem: he is constantly bickering with past and future versions of himself. He's berated for this by nearly everyone, including Jade. But when Jade has to deal with a incessantly whiny version of herself for reasons that would take hours to explain, Karkat pulls this one on her.
GG: oh come on...
GG: this is NOTHING like that!
GG: because she's...
GG: well
GG: she's ACTUALLY INSANE
- When undyingUmbrage tells Dirk that Lil' Cal is a juju who will only bring misery to everyone around him, Dirk just waves it off as more of uu's aggressive trolling. Unfortunately, he was telling the truth that time.
- When Meenah sees Cronus verbally abusing Mituna, she rightfully calls him out on it. He counters that she's a hypocrite since, in an alternate timeline, she grafted him to her spaceship and artificially extended his life to use him as her ship's motor, which is much worse. She can't manage to come up with a good response to that.
- Karkat has a problem: he is constantly bickering with past and future versions of himself. He's berated for this by nearly everyone, including Jade. But when Jade has to deal with a incessantly whiny version of herself for reasons that would take hours to explain, Karkat pulls this one on her.
- In Ménage à 3, Sonya is a drama-addicted Stalker with a Crush towards Zii, but pursues Gary for his sexual skills and to put one over on her rival Yuki, actively setting out to seduce him while he and Yuki are a couple; then, when Yuki drops Gary, Sonya gloats over her, and shortly afterwards dumps Gary (in mid-sex, even). "Jerkass" may be an understatement with her. But - she is completely correct in saying that the phallophobic Yuki is a lousy girlfriend for Gary or any other man, she is very happy to show Gary just how much better off he is dating someone who doesn't regularly kick him in the crotch, and she even tries to offer him good advice (which he, as ever, ignores) when dumping him. Even her attempts to seduce Zii away from Erik involve her shrewdly pointing out that Zii doesn't seem to find that relationship totally satisfying - which, given her usual level of smarts, could also qualify as a case of Dumbass Has a Point.
- In Misfile, Emily ends up calling Molly for relationship advice.
Molly: Now let's sit back, just us bitches and figure out how to fix this, 'cause being a bitch is kind of my thing, and two bitches is one bitch too many.
- The Order of the Stick
- Xykon delivers some foreshadowing to Miko in "The Road to Heck", by way of paraphrasing Yoda: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the Dark Side." Minus the fear, that's just what happens to Miko later on.
- Several instances where Belkar says something useful. In "Temporary Weakness", Belkar gives a scathing and insulting speech to Roy, who is in a Heroic B.S.O.D. and strongly considering giving up after Durkon gets turned into a vampire. Roy is initially too angry to form a proper sentence, but reluctantly accepts Belkar's point and presses on.
- Later on, after Vampire!Durkon rejoins the Order, Belkar insists that they should stake him as soon as possible so they can resurrect him as a living dwarf later, because the vampire is not the dwarf they know. Roy refuses to do so until they have a way to resurrect him prepared, saying that the vampire dwarf is "Durkon enough for their purposes". Then it turns out that the vampire is not Durkon, but a dark spirit controlling his body for evil purposes, making Belkar right on both counts. However, in that case, the non-jerkass also has a point, in that staking Vamp!Durkon will deprive them of crucial capabilities that they need to complete their mission. The fact that he says "Durkon enough for our purposes" implies that he isn't completely unaware of the risks.
- Belkar earlier called out Hinjo on his Honor Before Reason, claiming that his late uncle Shojo was a braver man since he was willing to sacrifice his own personal honor for the good of his city. Subverted a bit since Hinjo had already been convinced to retreat, so Belkar didn't really need to make that point. He was just being a Jerkass. Though in that case, Belkar was already psyched up to rant at Hinjo before being interrupted by the Mauve Shirt who convinced Hinjo to retreat.
- Vaarsuvius' killing of Kubota is portrayed as a major Kick the Dog moment, as well as a sign that V's Sanity Slippage is leading the elf down a darker path, but he/she correctly points out that they are trying to save the world here, and don't have the weeks to waste that a trial would take up, as well as the fact that his/her failure to get involved until that point is because finding a way to reunite the Order was a far greater priority than dealing with minor villains.
- Elan's father Tarquin is full of this, as he acknowledges that it's in his best interest to help the heroes save the world, so he can keep running his empire, and in the best interest of the heroes to let him because they have bigger fish to fry at the moment. He even admits that eventually Elan or someone else will take him out, but that could take years and in the meantime he'll be living it up; for every plucky hero that eventually defeats The Empire, the Empire has to win first or there's nothing to defeat.
- Pintsize, resident extreme jerkass in Questionable Content, speaks and acts for many readers here.
- Schlock Mercenary: It's a comic about space mercenaries. Black and Gray Morality is a given, and the Toughs shade of grey tends to shift abruptly. However, it usually slants in favor of individual rather than collective action; Individuals can be kicked in the head when they screw up. The Government can't.
- Such a moment when Thurl actually said "The pesky little virus has a point, sir."
- The United Nations of Sol in actually has humanity's best interests in mind most of the time. Unfortunately, they tend to be Well Intentioned Extremists who refuse to admit they could be wrong - especially when it becomes increasingly obvious that the assessments they started with are just plain wrong. They're basically first-responders at disasters who refuse to change their tactics when the disaster isn't what they expected it to be.
- Laws aren't unreasonable, the military is a completely necessary defense against internal and external threats, the intelligence community has plenty good reason to get involved where it does, and the transhuman immortality project is kept secret for perfectly valid reasons; in its early phases, it does make sophonts functionally immortal while also making them so powerful it takes heavy artillery to kill one; all it takes is one psychopathic immortal to commit a mass murder. Later iterations provide the immortality minus the city-wrecking superpowers. The problem is that everyone employed by and running the government has used this as an excuse for indulging in unilateral solutions and generally sociopathic behavior. Admiral Xinchub claims to do what he does for the good of humanity, but it's clear that he actually enjoys all the horrible things he's ordered to do. The military and spies don't care the least bit about what collateral damage they cause, and frequently end up causing even more problems trying to keep their constant screw-ups secret.
- In Random Access Memorabilia, the strategy of the UNS specifically required the death of thousands, if not millions, of neutral human civilian scientists. And they couldn't even do that right, the nanotech weapon they use wasn't ready and its malfunctions compromised the mission (not that the abysmal response by management helped). Even the justification for all that turned out to be wrong, the alien artifact they were after turned out to be nothing like what they expected (or rather speculated, since the dig had only just started) and their interference ended up rendering the artifact useless to them. They literally decided that a device they knew almost nothing about was worth committing a massacre over. Then again, earlier in The Teraport Wars they also betrayed the entire galaxy in the middle of the largest war in history against the most powerful and advanced species in the galaxy, all because they wanted to take the Gatekeeper's knowledge and technology for themselves even though they had no idea what it was. They didn't even betray anyone to the enemy, they simply declared war on all their allies in the middle of a military operation. Oh, and they failed, for obvious reasons. It could be considered An Aesop; Once The Government starts crossing the Godzilla Threshold repeatedly, how long before it starts looking for reasons to cross it?
- The main cast by all means should be arrested and/or executed for some of their actions, but their more heroic acts, constant attempts to limit collateral damage, fairly high standards and general lack of malice(along with some amazingly good luck) has earned them powerful and talented allies who repeatedly shield them from the consequences - though even Petey sometimes thinks they're not worth the trouble they cause. Also, their enemies are much, much worse than them and they've repeatedly demonstrated their skill at handling them. When short-sighted bureaucrats drop the ball and cause completely avoidable disasters, the Toughs can be trusted to get the job done.
- Something*Positive: When Kharisma leaves the medicaid company at which she works with Davan, she advises him to get out, telling him that he can do better and that she wouldn't wish the job on her worst enemy.
- Davan himself is the living embodiment of this trope; for that matter, his father Fred is, too.
- In Sticky Dilly Buns, jealous rival Angel tries to undermine Dillon's relationship with Jerzy ... mostly by telling Jerzy the truth about Dillon.
- This is a trait of Mike from the Walkyverse. He seemingly exists solely to make others miserable, but on a few occasions he has done so by pointing out when they are being hypocrites or making bad decisions. Who cares if it causes Character Development in the long term, as long as it makes them suffer in the short term he seems fine with it.
Web Original
- YouTube user Cinema Sins often receives negative reception for mixing genuine goofs with opinion. Keep in mind, though, that some of the things he lists are really goofs (Captain America not having an ear radio, Bane entering a tunnel in daytime and coming out at night, etc.)
- The Angry Video Game Nerd: In character he may be a rude, vulgar and overly hostile negative nancy who takes video games way too seriously, but that doesn't make his much-needed commentary on the constant wrongs of game and hardware developers throughout the history of the medium any less valid.
- Global Guardians PBEM Universe: Achilles, leader of the titular superhero team, goes to his father for advice on his personal life all the time. His father, by the way, is Lord Doom, one of the setting's world-conquering master villains. This is a slightly inverted example, though, because usually Achilles is the blunt antagonistic one (for a hero), and Lord Doom is generally urbane and polite (for a villain).
- In The Onion's articles by Jean Teasdale, "Hubby Rick" is an interesting intersection of Jerkass and Closer to Earth. He spends most of his time at the bar, mainly because Jean's arrogant Cloud Cuckoolander behavior frustrates him; however, one article has her squirreling away money to "invest" (read: buy Betty Boop collectibles), and when Rick finds out he chews her out because they could use that money to pay their bills.
- In Season 3 of Marble Hornets, Tim finally calls out Jay for his actions, constantly interfering in the lives of others and getting them ''involved,'' while Jay does little besides filming it all. As out-of-it as Tim is, and as crazy as he may be, he has a very good point.
- Cracked's list of The 5 Biggest Assholes Who Turned Out to be Right gives us a number of Truth in Television examples.
- Worm: Armsmaster's delivery could really have been better, but he was utterly correct to predict that Taylor would end up getting in too deep with the Undersiders and losing sight of her attempt to go undercover.
- In the Downfall parodies, Hitler is a mean and hot-tempered villain who throws rages at a tip of a hat over anything and everything, but that doesn't make his rants on the fatal flaws of popular culture any less credible.
- A text exchange which has appeared online;
Texter 1: Your father just diedTexter 1: You're a rude ass, all you had to say was wrong numberTexter 2: No, YOU are the rude ass, if someone's dad dies they deserve an actual phone call, not an F'n text
- On Not Always Learning, the teacher in one medicine class explains that the exam will be pass/fail: either you get everything 100% correct, or you fail.
Student: Really? What if I make just one teeny tiny mistake?!
Teacher: You kill your patient. End of discussion.
Western Animation
- Archer's cast consists of jerks. Smart jerks who will point out the flaws of something. For example, when Cheryl explains to Pam that her brother is planning on having her thrown into a mental hospital to get her half of their inheritance, Pam says that this might not be such a bad idea, as Cheryl is mentally unstable and endangers everyone around her constantly.
- Bojack Horseman: Sebastian St. Claire is a raging narcissist that works in war-torn Cordovia doing charity work. While his efforts and works in the country are clearly for his glory and honor, he makes some solid points that a book written about him will encourage people to donate money to his foundation, which helps the country. His emotional detachment from the situation ensures that despite the horrors that come his way, he is always functional. This is in stark contrast to Diane, who bonds with a small child that is killed in a hospital bombing. She isn't able to emotionally handle it, and goes home shortly afterwards. When Diane calls him out for his attitude, he counters that grieving over the dead won't help them or the living, and only building new facilities for them will.
- In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Super Sirloin", Meatwad sends all the food in the house off to a rapper named Sir Loin to feed starving children. This includes a duck à l'orange that Shake was going to eat, and he is not thrilled about that discovery, since that duck cost "higher than Meatwad can count". And for once, Frylock agrees with Shake.
- The Simpsons
- Played to the hilt in the episode "Homer's Enemy". Frank Grimes, a one-time character, gets introduced as a new worker at the nuclear plant. He's had an extremely rough life, and works very hard for everything that he has (to include a second night job to make ends meet). He becomes increasingly agitated, eventually enraged, at Homer's buffoonery, incompetence, and laziness. At one point he point-blank told Homer "If you lived in any other country in the world, you'd have starved to death long ago." At which, Bart even responds "He's got you there, dad." Grimes goes to increasingly hostile lengths to prove Homer's ineptitude throughout the episode, rounding him out as a bit of a jerkass. Albeit one with a strong point that everyone watching can relate to.
- In a similar vein, Marge's sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier are openly hostile toward Homer, largely because they feel that Marge can do better. While Homer is a loving father and husband, he's also (as mentioned above) lazy, buffoonish, and prone to doing incredibly stupid things with the family's finances and well-being, which prove that Patty and Selma's argument does hold water. Marge herself comes to agree with them in the movie.
- In "White Christmas Blues", Lisa buys the family gifts with a purpose such as radish seeds for Homer so he can lose weight and a book for Bart so he can learn something. Later, when she finds Bart burning the book she got him she is outraged at him destroying her gift. Bart counters by saying she knew he wouldn't like the book and rather than getting the family gifts they'd actually like, she just got them stuff that would boost her ego and make her feel good about herself for buying them. Lisa realizes he's right and buys him an ebook with apps he can enjoy.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man:
- In one episode, Peter, under the influence of the symbiote, acts uncharacteristically abrasive to his friends. A speech from Flash Thompson causes Peter to realize what a jerk he's been and cast off the symbiote.
Peter: OK, if Flash Thompson is making sense, something must be seriously wrong.
- Of course, symbiote-influenced Peter makes a good point during an angry rant directed at his friends; he does have a big hospital bill to pay.
- Overlaps a bit with Jerkass Woobie, but Eddie Brock's increasing antagonism towards Peter stem from a combination of his own issues as well as legitimate gripes towards Peter. In a few cases, he actually points out a few cases of Peter's recklessness (taking photos of the Lizard).
- Harry Osborn and Mark Allan are both more Jerkass Woobies than full out jerks, but they give Peter rather reasonable points (granted, they weren't acting like jerks at the time.)
- Mark calls out Peter in regards to how he has been with his sister Liz. Mark and Liz acknowledge Peter's necessary devotion to his job, but Mark senses Peter hasn't been the best boyfriend (Pete still having feelings for Gwen) and says she deserves better than that.
- In the following episode, where Peter strives to be a better boyfriend to Liz, he learns of Mark's gambling addiction. Turns out Harry overheard it and uses his prior experience with the Super Serum to say that Mark won't be ready for anyone to help him until he is read to help himself.
- In one episode, Peter, under the influence of the symbiote, acts uncharacteristically abrasive to his friends. A speech from Flash Thompson causes Peter to realize what a jerk he's been and cast off the symbiote.
- Eric in Dungeons & Dragons was set up as The Complainer Is Always Wrong, but if you're listening carefully, he's the only one in the party perfectly willing to call out Dungeonmaster over those dirty tricks and half-truths that get the party in trouble, and the only one to tell Hank that Honor Before Reason may be a bad idea. Certain members of the writing staff have pointed out this was intentional; they didn't agree with this trope at all, and later episodes were more explicit about his pessimism being the right call (even if the moral guardians meant they still had to ignore him).
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- In "Born Again Krabs," after the Flying Dutchman (the Bikini Bottom version of Satan) is ready to drag Mr. Krabs to Davy Jones' Locker for being greedy, SpongeBob, sticks up for his boss, wagering his own soul that Krabs is really generous. The Dutchman then offers Krabs a handful of pocket change in exchange for SpongeBob's, soul, which Krabs accepts without hesitation. Krabs gloats over the money, while the Dutchman departs with the sponge. Squidward, who hates SpongeBob, with a passion, is absolutely disgusted with Krabs and angrily chews him out for selling SpongeBob out after he stuck up for him, flat-out telling Krabs that he should be ashamed of himself. Krabs realizes Squidward is right and immediately repents.
- In "Walking Small," when Plankton's attempts to use SpongeBob as an Unwitting Pawn to clear Goo Lagoon of beachgoers for his new "Mega Bucket" backfire due to SpongeBob's passiveness, Plankton angrily chews SpongeBob out, remarking that he's just like stairs and always lets people "step all over him." Despite the fact that he was just manipulating SpongeBob, he's right in that Sponge is an Extreme Doormat.
- In the post-movie seasons, Squidward's hatred of SpongeBob and Patrick has become far more justified, considering the fact that the two often barge into his home uninvited, and their antics often cause him physical injury.
- On another level, Squidward's attitude towards the Krusty Krab and its management is far more realistic than SpongeBob's, especially since, among other things, Mr. Krabs is very much a Bad Boss who regularly mistreats and underpays his employees.
- Justice League
- The entire Cadmus story arc centered on Cadmus' attempts to thwart the worst-case scenario of the league taking over the world like their Justice Lord counterparts. Amanda Waller points out that the League has a Kill Sat, they have made some questionable decisions in the past, and there has been at least one reality they know of where the League overthrew the government (albeit to keep Luthor from wiping out all life on Earth out of sheer spite). Normal people don't have a way to defend themselves against a group of super powerful beings if it ever came down to it. In "Question Authority", Green Arrow lampshades the whole thing by saying that if the League ever decided to cross the line and become the Lords, there's nothing that the rest of the world could do to stop it. Green Arrow and the league's more grounded heroes were meant in part to keep the heavy hitters honest but they only served as the overall conscience against them Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, not an actual Restraining Bolt if they were to truly abandon their principles and attack the government. Of course, Cadmus does shoot itself in the foot a lot by engaging in far more blatantly immoral actions and ultimately being more dangerous to the world than the Justice League. Indeed, from several of their actions in the series (like creating the Supergirl-clone Galatea and using her as an assassin), it seems like Cadmus' higher ups really only play up the dangers of the superheroic community because they hate the idea of anyone who has that kind of power not being under their thumb, and manipulating the public through fear lets them present themselves as being "the good guys".
- In the "Knight of Shadows" Two-Parter, Etrigan is relentlessly unpleasant and critical of the Justice League's actions. He's also suspicious of the Martian Manhunter due to the illusion he was promised by Morgaine. Nevertheless, he's proven right when J'onn is manipulated into giving up the stone to Morgaine. Only near the end does he snap out of it.
- South Park:
- Eric Cartman gets this quite a few times throughout the series, when his twisted worldview is occasionally proven true. Usually Played for Laughs like most everything else in the series. One particular example comes from when Cartman accidentally stumbled onto a real terrorist plot while accusing the new Middle-Eastern kid (who had nothing to do with it) of being a terrorist.
Cartman: Me being a bigot helped saved America. Yes or no, Kyle?
Kyle: I... Ye... No! Not the way you're saying it!
- Stephen Stotch acts as the Only Sane Man during the Muhammad fiasco.
- Craig lampshades in excess how the boys actually often bring a lot of their problems on themselves (and others around them due to their lack of consideration) throughout the entire "Pandemic" two-parter.
- Eric Cartman gets this quite a few times throughout the series, when his twisted worldview is occasionally proven true. Usually Played for Laughs like most everything else in the series. One particular example comes from when Cartman accidentally stumbled onto a real terrorist plot while accusing the new Middle-Eastern kid (who had nothing to do with it) of being a terrorist.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- "Boast Busters": Having heard that Trixie defeated an Ursa Major on her own, Snips and Snails venture out into the Everfree Forest and bring one to Ponyville. When they show Trixie, she rightly chides them for doing so.
Trixie: Are you out of your little pony minds!?
- When Trixie comes back for some Amplifier Artifact Brainwashed and Crazy revenge, she points out that she wants payback because her entire career was destroyed, she's a laughing stock, and she's effectively homeless now due to the events of Boast Busters. She goes way too far, and targets Twilight Sparkle for all the wrong reasons, but she's absolutely right about the repercussions of that episode being needlessly and unfairly harsh given all she really did wrong was tell some lies and act like a jerk on stage, which Twilight's friends actually agree with.
- In "The Cutie Pox", Diamond Tiara probably only calls Apple Bloom out on her cutie marks which were caused by Cutie Pox being fake in order to take her down a peg when a second one appears, since she hates anypony taking the spotlight away from her. Still, she's 100% right, and even the teacher Cheerilee shares her skepticism.
- Fluttershy gets one herself in "Putting Your Hoof Down" when she talks about how Pinkie Pie and Rarity want "Pushover Fluttershy" back. Yeah, she was being mean about it, but it's been shown plenty of times before and since in which her friends will take advantage of her kindness. But really, Pinkie and Rarity were HAPPY that Fluttershy was finally standing up for herself. They only tried to put a stop to it when they saw Fluttershy had become needlessly vindictive and aggressive.
- Queen Chrysalis also gets one when she brags to the cast that she managed to carry out her plan to take over Equestria even when Twilight Sparkle thinks something is wrong with Princess Cadance who was actually Chrysalis herself in disguise, thanks to all of Twilight's friends not believing her and coldly walking out on her when she tried to explain herself. It was at that point when the others have a Jerkass Realization and apologize to Twilight. She also points out how infantile and unbefitting Pinkie Pie's planned party activities are for a royal wedding. One can't help but agree with her.
- In "Inspiration Manifestation", while the puppeteer could have been nicer about his criticism towards the puppet theater Rarity built, ample stage space and mobility are far more important for a traveling puppeteer than how shiny it looks.
- This is Discord's "thing" since he did a very vague HeelFace Turn. He's still a jerk, but his insults tend to ring true, and he's the first to lavish sarcastic "approval" on less than noble actions.
Spike: Come on, Twilight! Discord may be reformed but he's not that reformed! He's just trying to get under your skin!
Twilight: Well, it's working!!!
- In "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies", Seabreeze constantly acts abrasively, putting the other breezies down... but he is entirely correct in that their shortsighted behavior is at risk of getting them all stranded away from their home, in an environment that's practically a deathtrap for their kind.
- "Boast Busters": Having heard that Trixie defeated an Ursa Major on her own, Snips and Snails venture out into the Everfree Forest and bring one to Ponyville. When they show Trixie, she rightly chides them for doing so.
- Red Arrow is a suspicious jerk towards Artemis in Young Justice. Although Artemis probably isn't The Mole, Roy's lack of trust in her unfortunately does have some merit, since she is keeping secrets about her past from the team. Reaches a head in "Insecurity" when Roy's mistrust pushes Artemis to endanger the mission by trying to lead the rest of the team away from the targets just to have a chance to prove herself. This backfires immensely when the mission goes south and her deception is exposed. The same went for his suspicions of Superboy and Miss Martian. While not The Mole like he suspected, they, along with Artemis had information they were hiding from the rest of the team.
- Benson from Regular Show seems to embody this trope. While he is hard on Mordecai and Rigby, his anger often comes from their slacker attitudes and desire to be cool, which tend to screw things up or prolong the time it takes to complete menial tasks.
- Teen Titans: Beast Boy, while being affected with the Jerkass Ball in "The Beast Within", also brings up the point that he's often disrespected, especially by Raven.
- When Starfire and Raven switch bodies, Starfire, fed up with Raven's snarking at her for her inability to fly with Raven's powers, calls her out on her constant negativity. Raven then fires back by saying that unlike Starfire, she doesn't have the luxury of being emotionally open, and that Starfire knows nothing about her. Starfire concedes Raven's point, asking Raven to help her understand, and the two emerge from the incident as closer friends.
- Raven also takes the longest to fully trust Terra, but her point- that Terra must learn to control her highly dangerous powers- is fairly sound. Raven's distrust is also well-founded, as Terra is The Mole for Slade.
- King of the Hill:
- When Bill Dauterive has a spike in blood sugar and is warned by his doctor that he's at risk of developing diabetes, he goes to another doctor who, despite being a smug, verbally-abusive prick, is pretty spot-on in identifying the problem and guessing both what will happen if Bill doesn't curb his unhealthy lifestyle and that he most likely won't.
Dr. Weissman: Did you talk to any other doctors before coming to me?
Bill: Well, yes.
Dr. Weissman: Did they tell you to diet and exercise?
Bill: Uh-huh.
Dr. Weissman: Did you do it?
Bill: Uh...
- The plot of Cottons Plot focuses on this entirely. Peggy, whose muscles have atrophied from being in a full body cast, ultimately ends up getting drilled by Cotton in order to recover her muscles. He takes every advantage of this to treat her as miserably as possible for his own amusement all the while hollering at her like a Drill Sergeant. The kicker? It works: He knows exactly how to push her buttons and, quite literally, drives her forward via her hatred of him. He ultimately makes her climb a steep hill by offering to let her dance on his grave if she makes it (which she does by crawling).
- In one episode, Hank butts heads with a man who has a less-than-flattering interpretation of the Alamo (namely, that the Texans involved were a bunch of drunken cowards). The other man points out the logic behind his views, such as citing Sam Houston's troubled life and documented alcoholism and pointing out that the only people who know exactly what happened at the Alamo are long dead so all they have to go off of is historical records. In the end, Hank is dissuaded from smashing up the stage when he realizes that it's wrong to censor someone else just because you don't like their message, but he insists on giving a speech to relate the bare facts of the battle before the play begins.
- When Bill Dauterive has a spike in blood sugar and is warned by his doctor that he's at risk of developing diabetes, he goes to another doctor who, despite being a smug, verbally-abusive prick, is pretty spot-on in identifying the problem and guessing both what will happen if Bill doesn't curb his unhealthy lifestyle and that he most likely won't.
- In the "Bend-Her" episode of Futurama, after Bender has a sex change, the female crewmates accuse of him of being a bad representation of their gender and dating a celebrity robot just for the sake of indulgence. When "she" questions whether they've really never done the same thing, they can barely muster up a denial.
Leela: That is so unbelievably manipulative.
Coilette: Come on! You never went on a date with a guy just 'cause you were hungry?
Leela: Well I, uh, I thought I might like him on a full stomach.
- Goof Troop:
- In "Big City Blues", Pete worriedly asks Goofy where the boys are, and Goofy wonders why he's asking him. The response: "Because your kid's always getting my kid in trouble!" While Pete typically holds grudges against the Goof family for little reason, this statement is completely true - the Zany Schemes are invariably Max's ideas and PJ is usually (including in this episode) The Drag-Along.
- In "Gymnauseum", one-shot antagonist Tan Roadster tells Peg she can easily do better than Pete. While his reasoning was fairly shallow, and he is portrayed as less sympathetic than Pete was, Pete still has numerous personality flaws that make him less than an ideal catch.
- An interesting two-way interaction occurs in Beast Wars between Dinobot and Rattrap in season 2. When Dinobot's loyalty was challenged due to some of his questionable actions, Rattrap, up to that point, had been of the opinion that. "Oh sure, he's a slag-spoutin' saurian, but at least you know where he stands." After he walks away, Dinobot admits that snarky Rattrap has a point, too, that he had crossed the line. He then resolves to correct his mistake, no matter what it takes.
- While he may have only been bitter at not being immediately followed as leader in Optimus's absence in Chain of Command, Dinobot is absolutely right that the Maximals relying on a vote, with no tie-breaking mechanism, rather than having a contingency plan— or, y'know, an established chain of command— already in place is ridiculous.
- 'Codename: Kids Next Door'':
- The much hated Teenagers get to call out the KND when they simply assume that their reunion at "The Point" has ulterior motives, without having actual proof... and it turns out that they just wanted to go to a rollerskating ring and have fun. Their night out is ruined, and they're pissed at the kids for a good reason.
- Numbuh 363 is always a self-centered and cocky tyke, and takes it Up to Eleven in the series finale Operation Interviews when his somewhat strict and no-nonsense sister Numbuh 362 reassigns the Cake Missions to him and his Sector, mockingly pointing out that they have never once gotten the cake back in one piece and it's time that a real Sector started handling the big missions. Rude as he was to Sector V, his criticisms are legit. Sector V hasn't ever once gotten the cake, and it makes perfect sense for he, as the operative who currently as the highest mission success rate in the KND, be put in charge of all future cake missions instead of the inept Sector V. He even lives up to his title, obtaining the most amount of items in the Scavenger Hunt for the cake, outsmarting Sector V on multiple occasions.
- Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy:
- There's an episode where Rolf needs Ed to babysit his farm animals. Ed ends up leading them into his (Ed's) house, tracking dirt all the while. Sarah yells at him that he can't keep the animals there. As obnoxious as she was about it, she was right. Ed should've kept them outside. Double D also agrees that Ed should take care of them elsewhere, and even says Sarah has a point.note
- Sarah also has a point in the episode "Brother, Can You Spare An Ed." She's saved up her allowance to buy fudge, and asks Ed to go to the candy store for her to get it; Eddy convinces Ed to buy jawbreakers instead. While it wasn't an entirely smart thing to give Ed spending money, it was still hers, and she genuinely wasn't looking for the Eds' trouble in this particular episode, which means that her Hair-Trigger Temper is justified in this case.
- The kids in general are more and more cruel in their response to the Eds as the show goes on, but by that time, they're not entirely wrong about the damage that the Eds cause with their shenanigans.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): Near the beginning of the first episode, Vernon yells at April about the recklessness of her plan to expose the thieves. She soon gets chased and cornered by armed thugs, and she would have been killed if she hadn't happened upon the lair of the Ninja Turtles.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): In "Karai's Vendetta," when Donnie is fully prepared to abandon their mission to blow up the Kraang's water-poisoning underwater laboratory to save April from Karai, Raph quickly points out that if they do so, the Kraang will poison everyone in New York, including April.
- An early episode of Total Drama Action has Heather point out how inefficient her team is and give an alternate plan. Gwen responds with simply, "If you say it, then we're not doing it." even though it's a good idea.
- Dermott of all people gives Dean some actually very good advice about meeting women in an episode of The Venture Bros. Needless to say, it's immediately lampshaded:
Dermott: Well, talk to her then. You don't have to nail her; just see what happens. Man, way to be uptight!
Hank: Wait... did you just give good advice?
Dean: I gotta go check the temperature in Hell.
Dermott: You can both blow me.
Orpheus: It is awful that you would do this to your boys!Venture: Please, you do this kind of crap every day.Orpheus: That's different.Venture: Why, because you call it by a different name? Church? Lab. Soul? Synapses. Purgatory? Computer. Get over yourself.
- Doctor Venture usually plays the Morally Ambiguous Doctorate, but even he gets his rare moments to shine.
- Dexter's Laboratory: Yohnny the Janitor hates Dexter so much for making a mess every day in school that he traps him in the school and terrorizes him in a Die Hard parody... but then you realize that he has a point. Dexter is experimenting with all kinds of dangerous chemicals in the classroom and leave them lying around when he goes home for the day, which Yohnny has to clean himself, adding unneeded hours of overtime. Also remember that Dexter is an elementary school student. He's leaving all kinds of poisonous and highly volatile substances in a mess that a janitor like Yohnny wouldn't have any formal training to remove. Yohnny has no idea what these chemicals are so he may accidentally mix the wrong substances. He went too far, but when it comes to Dexter... can you really blame him?
On the flip side, Dexter makes it clear from his perspective that he was unaware about doing any of the things above, so when he accuses Yohnny of being crazy with what he's been putting him through, he actually has a point of his own because he doesn't even know why Yohnny's doing it. At the very least, Yohnny would be more justified in his actions (than he already is) if he had bothered to tell Dexter what this was all about. He briefly does, but after Dexter replies with a genuinely confused "What?", he simply taunts him by opening the exit door instead of explaining himself further. Missing an opportunity to make Dexter actually learn his lesson.
- In the Steven Universe episode "We Need To Talk", Pearl lashes out at Greg, claiming Rose's love for him is 'just a phase.' While an incredibly cruel and racist note remark, it is true that Rose at the time didn't consider him her equal- something Greg eventually realizes.
- In "It Could've Been Great" Peridot reveals what Homeworld's original plans for Earth were: the Earth would have been used as a Gem breeding ground until all the life was sucked out of it, and then it would've been hollowed out and set up as a Gem colony. Peridot is flabbergasted that the Crystal Gems would fight to stop it, and insensitively but correctly points out that Rose's efforts to save the Earth ultimately doomed it anyway on a longer time scale, since the current threat, the planet-sized Cluster gem incubating underground, wouldn't have happened if the colony had proceeded as planned. The Crystal Gems are violently angry with her for insulting Rose's mission, but unfortunately, she's absolutely right. The planet would've been killed during colonization, but the Cluster is only there because Rose invalidated the colonization.
- Gravity Falls:
- In "A Tale of Two Stans", The Author, the real Stanford Pines, chews our Grunkle, Stanley Pines out for using the Universe Portal to bring him back to Earth. While it seems like Ford is being an Ungrateful Bastard, he was right; The Universe Portal was incredibly unstable, the gravitational anomalies caused all sorts of damage to the town, and ultimately Stan was gambling the Earth on a dangerous device he didn't understand to bring back someone who he didn't know was alive or dead. In the next episode we learn that the Portal created a rift in space-time that is the first step in the Big Bad's plan to bring about The End of the World as We Know It.
- In "The Stan-churian Candidate", Gideon makes a Not So Different speech to Dipper and Mabel while putting them in a Death Trap. Given that the two used a mind-control necktie on Stan and Soos several times in the episode (despite witnessing Soos' terrified reactions to being controlled by it), he's not entirely wrong.
- In The Boondocks, it's not unheard of for Uncle Ruckus (a decent man at heart but a real asshole) or A Pimp Named Slickback (just an asshole) to dispense genuinely good advice. To specify, the former is correct that Riley is a rude, troublemaker and the latter turns out to be right where his "ho" Cristal, is only using Robert for selfish purposes.
- Iago is the Token Evil Teammate among the protagonists of Aladdin, not to mention rude and annoying. However, in one episode he opposed vehemently helping or trusting Caliph Kapok, simply because he was known to be a wizard. (Agrabah's experiences with wizards were unpleasant to say the least.) While such a suspicion at first seemed like unfair stereotyping, Iago had a valid point here, because Kapok was as evil as any other wizard they'd known.
- While Mertle Edmonds from Lilo & Stitch, acts like an unsympathetic, Alpha Bitch of a Jerkass brat. Her dislike for Lilo for her odd behavior, however, does serve good points. However petty they can be, Lilo's strangeness is looked down upon by the majority of the public, and often times Lilo invades her personal space, as Mertle simply wants nothing to do with her.