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Better the Devil You Know

581 statements
109 feature instances
75 referencing feature instances

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Better the Devil You Know	label	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know	page	BetterTheDevilYouKnow
Better the Devil You Know	comment	...than the devil you don't. Finally, after a long struggle, our heroes have managed to defeat the Big Bad, but wait — they can't just kill them. That would be terrible! Because as soon as you kill the Big Bad, something else will come along to take his place. Maybe The Man Behind the Man shows up, or maybe the Sorting Algorithm of Evil kicks in. Maybe the Balance Between Good and Evil means that someone else will just become the new Big Bad, or maybe it's just Inherent in the System, but the fact you've won doesn't mean it's over. Sure, the Big Bad may be evil, but at least as long as he's around, you know what you're up against. You know his weaknesses, you know how he thinks, and you know how to deal with him. And you know what he won't do. But if someone new takes over, suddenly you're right back to square one and you have to figure out how to beat them all over again. If the Big Bad actually does get dispatched despite this, the heroes may soon find themselves wishing for the return of the old Big Bad, and in extreme cases, may even try to restore him to power. (If possible.) Related to We Want Our Jerk Back! (the scenarios where the resident meanie leaves will often involve an even worse jackass taking their place), Friendly Enemy (where the enemy is actually on good terms with the hero), and Worthy Opponent (where the villain enjoys having an opponent who regularly outmatches them). Bread and Circuses or Villain with Good Publicity may also invoke this trope if removing the Big Bad will cause public backlash, or the heroes may fear an Evil Power Vacuum.
Better the Devil You Know	fetched	2024-02-04T05:01:24Z
Better the Devil You Know	parsed	2024-02-04T05:01:24Z
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Better the Devil You Know / int_10254bd5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_10254bd5	comment	The Thick of It: Invoked word-for-word by Stewart Pearson, when Cal "The Fucker" Richards descends on the Opposition. Implied when Malcolm Tucker is forced out by Steve Fleming.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_10c105b6	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_10c105b6	comment	Done literally in Brimstone Angels. Farideh, the heroine, gets her magic powers through a Deal with the Devil, specifically a devil named Lorcan. Lorcan, by human standards, is manipulative, arrogant, controlling, and shows a distinct Lack of Empathy. However, he's also into Pragmatic Villainy and is unlikely to commit evil acts (or force Farideh to do them) if he's not getting something concrete out of them and isn't unpleasant company if he has no reason to feel malice for you. Farideh may know her arrangement with Lorcan is far from ideal, but if he died and the pact got transferred to another devil, the resulting situation could turn out far worse, and the second book's plot in particular is heavily influenced by her understanding that this trope is very much in play.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_14f2c680	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_14f2c680	comment	The Truce at Bakura, set immediately after Return of the Jedi, features a planet in the Outer Rim under attack from the Ssi-ruuk, a previously unknown race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens. While their war with each other is far from over, the Rebels and Imperials agree to temporarily put their differences aside to fight the new enemy.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_15870207	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_15870207	comment	El ChapulÃn Colorado once helped a woman who invoked this trope to justify accepting his help instead of Supersam's.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_1858fe06	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_1858fe06	comment	In issue #157 of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Dr. Eggman asks Sonic for help when his own life is threatened. When Jules, Sonic's father, asks why Sonic should help Eggman, Eggman states this trope as the reason, saying "At least with me, you know the devil you're getting!"
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Better the Devil You Know / int_1861f45b	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_1861f45b	comment	Lampshaded in Starcraft to explain why the heroes of the story were working with Kerrigan ("Queen Bitch of the Universe," in her own words, and The Leader of an alien locust swarm) of all people to fight the UED. - a dictatorship lead by Space Russians from Earth, who's only contact with the heroes so far have involved bullets.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_1abc4218	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_1abc4218	comment	When the Stunt Dawgs dispatched Fungus away, they didn't expect Airball to take over and make things so worse they'd bring Fungus back.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_1bd4bab6	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_1bd4bab6	comment	Alix, i.e. the more "serious" version of Asterix, similarly tends to value Caesar over his Roman rivals and the Roman Empire over its barbarian rivals. It's fleshed out the most in Les LÃ©gions Perduesnote The Lost Legions, where Alix's cousin (and chief of his tribe) joins a plot with Gothic invaders and Roman traitors to stage an invasion of Gaul and destroy the Roman legions there... so that he can foil the plot from the inside. He explains to Alix that Roman rule has brought staggering benefits to Gaul, and he has no intention of allowing the Goths to destroy them and rule as Wasteland Warlords.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_1e9e2d34	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_1e9e2d34	comment	In The Desert Storm, this trope is basically the reason Ben Nasade (the time-displaced Obi-Wan Kenobi) doesn't do anything about Palpatine/Sidious as soon as he arrives in the past; without knowing more details about Sidious' Sith Master, he's reluctant to move against the known Sith Lord too soon in case it jeopardizes his future knowledge, whereas leaving Palpatine where he is allows Ben to wait for the right moment to act. It's also worth noting that he sees Palpatine as bad enough, and is a little terrified at the thought of someone scary enough that Palpatine would obey them.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2212773a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_2212773a	comment	In the final episode of Angel, Angel recruits former enemy Lindsey for his suicide run on the Black Thorn. On the off-chance that they succeed and any of them survive, he knows someone will have to fill the Evil Power Vacuum, and he'd rather it be Lindsey than anyone else. Lindsey names the trope, then decides it's too good of a fight to miss out on. Then Lorne, of all people, shoots Lindsey on Angel's orders - turns out that Angel didn't trust him after all. Lindsey is less insulted by the betrayal than Angel not bothering to kill him in person.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_227431b6	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_227431b6	comment	The Runaways taking out their parents (The Pride) led to a massive Evil Power Vacuum in Los Angeles, leading to more villains coming in.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_22fa3992	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_22fa3992	comment	The Expanse in the Season 3 episode "Fight or Flight" Amos quotes this while imploring Holden to take the Rocinante back to Tycho.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_261c8d3f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_261c8d3f	comment	At the opening of an episode of The Simpsons, a billboard with an ad for Quimby's campaign describes him as "The Devil You Know" for 18 years. In the episode "American History X Cellent", Mr. Burns goes to jail, leaving Smithers in charge of the plant. At first, he acts as a Benevolent Boss until overhearing his employees discussing how his benevolence is something they can take advantage of. After that, Smithers becomes a Bad Boss to the point that Homer, Lenny, and Carl consider him worse than Mr. Burns, and they try to break Mr. Burns out of jail.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_26674ed5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_26674ed5	comment	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has this as a plot point when the player first learns of the Patriots. The President says that even though their existence is a stranglehold on the true ideas of American freedom, if they cease to exist (according to him), the ensuing political power vacuum can wreak massive, unforeseen danger to current American society if not the world.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_267cbfa	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_267cbfa	comment	The "War in Hell" storyline of Dominic Deegan sees Dominic fighting on behalf of the Demon Lord Karnak. Not because he wanted to, but because his family knew Karnak before his demon days, and as a result knew how to handle him. Any other demon lord securing power would have meant a lot of trouble.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2868799d	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_2868799d	comment	A romantic example in Charly (2002). In this film Charlene "Charly" Riley needs to choose between two men. The first is her long term boyfriend, Mark Randolph, a graphic artist from New York. The other is Sam Roberts, a devout Mormon she befriends and develops feelings for while on an extended trip to Utah. Her parents do not like either suitor. But between the two men they would rather have Mark as a son-in-law. Not because they like, or even respect him, but because he has the same cultural background and worldview that the Riley's have.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2c30c796	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_2c30c796	comment	Unusually, both of these examples apply in a Doylist sense. The writers of Asterix and Alix both draw heavily on their past studying Latin when fleshing out the ancient world... and for this time period, the main Latin text assigned to students was Caesar's own memoirs, Commentaries on the Gallic War. Being French, they still cast Caesar as a villain for patriotic reasons, but this explains why he's always the most well fleshed out and admirable of the Romans (in contrast to people like his rival Pompey or his murderer Brutus). He's literally the devil they know.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2d316ba2	comment	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): After the turtles "killed" the Shredder, New York City is consumed by a citywide war between rival gangs looking to claim his old territory. After barely surviving their attempts to stop stop the war themselves, the turtles reluctantly agree to a temporary alliance with Shredder's adoptive daughter Karai to help the Foot Clan defeat the other gangs and retain its dominance over NYC's underworld. Leonardo, invoking this trope word for word, reasons that as bad as the Foot may be, putting them back on top would put an end to the war and get some order back in the city.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2ea6ae26	comment	Star Trek: Picard: Hugh informs Picard in "The Impossible Box" that any Borg who is liberated at the Romulan Reclamation Site are prisoners of the Romulan Free State. Although neither of them are happy that the former drones have essentially traded one villainous overseer for another, both Hugh and Picard consider assimilation to be a Fate Worse than Death, so letting the xBs regain their individuality, even if it means they have little to no personal freedom under the new Romulan government, is still better than the alternative. Between the Borg and the Romulans, the latter are the Lesser of Two Evils — at least it's possible to negotiate with the Romulans, especially now that they no longer have a homeworld. Hugh even puts aside his terror of being on a Borg Cube to be the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project so that he can offer support to the patients during their recovery.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_2fee008d	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_2fee008d	comment	Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann invokes this to an extent after the seven-year Time Skip: the tyrannical Lordgenome has been deposed, but his cryptic prediction upon his death comes to nightmarish reality as the Anti-Spiral invade and prove to be a far more powerful and terrifying threat than Lordgenome ever was. Lordgenome may have oppressed humankind, but it turns out he did it to protect the world from the Anti-Spiral, who seek to destroy humankind.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_31ca9925	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_31ca9925	comment	The Dukes of Hazzard: This is why the people of Hazzard County keep electing Boss Hogg as county commissioner and Roscoe as sheriff. The first episode itself had the Duke boys get Roscoe good publicity before the next election specifically because of this trope.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_35097ab9	comment	Weight Off Your Shoulder: After Hawk/Shadow Moth is arrested, with Chloe and Lila's respective Karma Houdini Warranties running out as well, Alya brings this up, wondering whether their downfall is actually as good as it seems, or whether they'll be replaced by even worse threats. Her friends largely disagree, with Marinette asking her outright if she thinks superheroes shouldn't ever arrest villains for fear of what might replace them. This also factors into Future!Alix's motivations, or so they claim: Marinette's actions have altered the timeline, and Future!Alix uses the spectre of potential unknown threats to manipulate Alya and the rest of the Girl Posse into trying to help her Make Wrong What Once Went Right. Mainly because Future!Alix wants to ensure that she gets to become Bunnyx, even if that means lots of people suffer due to all the villains' actions.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_3558eaa2	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_3558eaa2	comment	Community: In "Asian Population Studies", Jeff successfully makes this argument for inviting Chang to join the group over Rich, winning the vote, although in the end neither one is invited to join after Pierce reveals that Chang may be the father of Shirley's baby.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_3942bcd6	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_3942bcd6	comment	The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral): In Marinette's Lament, faced with a Hawk Moth who's on the verge of winning, Plagg encourages Marinette to Wish that Hawk Moth never found any of the Miraculouses. She considers it, but ultimately rejects the idea, realizing that the Wish could rewrite reality so that somebody even worse found the Miraculouses instead.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_39b19313	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_39b19313	comment	On Jack of All Trades, Jack and Emilia often wind up helping Governor Croque to keep his job, mostly because his likely replacement would be much more competent.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_3c33a32c	comment	The Day of the Jackal: Invoked. France's Gaullist government, especially the police chiefs, deeply dislike having to ask the Corsican mafia (which controls the French underworld) for help. However, it's the lesser evil compared to so many enemies that they've repeatedly had to do it - during World War II to help prepare the liberation of France, and during the war with the OAS terrorists at the time of the book.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_3e5de40b	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_3e5de40b	comment	Scrubs: This is why Dr. Cox eventually agreed to support the attempt to confront the board to get them to give Dr. Kelso his job back.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_3fe6b4fb	comment	Attempted in the New Jedi Order novel Rebel Dream: Wedge's plan for the Siege of Borleais is to maneuver the fairly lackluster enemy general into a series of indecisive engagements, with the overall goal of buying time for various covert plans to take effect. Unfortunately, after the Republic wins a major military victory they don't want, the Yuuzhan Vong return in force, led by Czulkang Lah, father of the warmaster and undisputed Old Master of war.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_405243c7	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_405243c7	comment	Chancellor Jaha of The 100 willingly condones the execution of all criminals eighteen and over, no matter how minor the crime. However, he is also as much of a Reasonable Authority Figure as one can be in a society where Population Control necessitates laws like that. Even Abby, whose husband was executed under Jaha's rule because he had information that Jaha wanted kept from the public, says she prefers Jaha to his would-be replacement, Councilman Kane. She risks her own execution when she breaks the law to save Jaha's life just to make sure Kane doesn't take power.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_41b0198a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_41b0198a	comment	In The Dresden Files Harry's description of 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone tends be this. Sure he's a powerful crime lord that turns a profit on almost any crime in Chicago, but Marcone has known limits. The gang-wars that would likely replace him aren't as knowable as he is. And in Changes he learned that the ruler of the Red Court is not completely sane, and immediately thinks something to the effect of "I HAVE to keep this guy in charge". It is moot, as he then uses their own Bloodline Course on them, killing every single Red Court vampire in the world. And lo and behold, the destruction of the Red Court has allowed a new faction, the Fomor, to start muscling in on the supernatural world. They're causing so much trouble that even regular, non-magical folks are starting to take notice.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_43576f5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_43576f5	comment	Supernatural has Crowley, the King of Hell. He works with the heroes more than the angels do. The boys only agree to work with him because of this trope. Abaddon was a horrible person, even for a demon, which is why Sam and Dean would rather see her dead than Crowley. Crowley also, at least at first, is a Reasonable Authority Figure. He punishes a demon who kills their customers to steal their souls earlier than the contract says because it will scare off future customers. The heroes also intentionally summon him for help almost as much as they do main angel Castiel.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_4498e599	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_4498e599	comment	Not this time, Fate: While stuck in a series of Mental Time Travel loops, Jaune initially tries everything he can think of, only to find that making any big moves caused the villains' plans to change... and in the process, removed his biggest advantage: knowledge of the original timeline. After realizing this, he alters his methods, restraining himself from making any major altercations and putting himself through Training from Hell in hopes of becoming strong enough to stop the villains' more familiar plans once the time comes.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_468bebb0	comment	Discworld: In Carpe Jugulum the old Count Magpyr was far fairer to his opponents via Contractual Genre Blindness, respected his Igor, and much preferred by the townspeople he terrorized. So, the heroes usurp the upstarts with their older, known adversary. Nobody particularly likes Lord Vetinari, but he's gotten the city to the point where only complete lunatics actually plot against him. This is discussed in Men at Arms, where Edward D'Eath (a complete lunatic) is trying to get other nobles to sign onto his plot and they basically say that the city without Vetinari would probably be much worse. As it turns out, Vetinari is playing a long con to improve the city in ways no one else realizes. As the series continues, it's revealed the true purpose of the thieves' and assassins' guilds (often cited as evidence that Vetinari is corrupt) it to keep them busy so that theft and murder become less and less common, while "illegal" theft and murder are completely stamped out.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_4d3ca631	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_4d3ca631	comment	The International Wrestling Cartel ran an angle where Daizee Haze was a nervous wreck, after learning someone was stalking her and beating up men who got too close to her, not even leaving her alone at Ring of Honor's Dojo. But once she figured out it was Sami Callihan, Haze recorded a message saying she and Delirious were going to beat him up. Turned out she hadn't figured out as much as she thought...
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Better the Devil You Know / int_4f6709cf	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_4f6709cf	comment	Spider-Man (PS4): Discussed early on. Jonah curses Spider-Man for his takedown and arrest of Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin, pointing out that a gang war to fill the void will inevitably happen; he's proven right when Mr. Negative and the Demons move in and cause far more damage to the city than Fisk's men ever did. Fisk himself declares as such as he's being taken away, shouting that he kept order in New York and that Spidey will be wishing he was back within a month. Spidey will later snark to himself that he is beginning to miss Fisk since he's no longer around to keep his goons in line. And then when the Demons start to become completely unhinged in their attacks on the city, Spidey bitterly admits to himself that as bad as Fisk was, he never let his villainy get this out of hand and actually cared about order in the city.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_544fb5a2	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_544fb5a2	comment	In Death: As much as Roarke hated his father, he didn't trust the system to protect him "and had figured better the devil you know".
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Better the Devil You Know / int_5a077317	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_5a077317	comment	In Sons of Anarchy, the whole reason Chief Unser aids the Sons is because they're a lesser threat to Charming than other gangs in the surrounding areas. Even Deputy Chief Hale, who is otherwise incorruptible, is willing to cooperate with them against the League of American Nationalists, specifically referring to Ethan Zobelle as "the greater devil" than Clay Morrow.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_5daab5c9	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_5daab5c9	comment	In Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion this is why Zero orders that they not kill Cornelia (though humbling her is another story) during the Battle of Port Yokosuka. Considering that Luciano Bradley the "Vampire of Britannia" or Schneizel are the likeliest choices for her replacement, Cornelia is definitely the better option, with tactics that they know that they can counter.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_61e400a0	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_61e400a0	comment	In Path of Exile in the Siege of the Atlas expansion the Exile seeks out and aids the Maven, an eldritch being obsessed with conflict who adds powerful beings to her collection of living toys. While this is obviously unpleasant, she's been around for a while and the damage she's caused is relatively limited, but there are two other encroaching entities whose victory would result in an And I Must Scream situation for everyone. The protests of mortals are meaningless to them, but she is of the same order of being as they and so long as she claims Wraeclast's portion of the Atlas they can't overwhelm it.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6535218b	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6535218b	comment	Inverted in Red Storm Rising. The "devil we know" is the Soviet government at the beginning of the novel (loosely based on the early years of Mikhail Gorbachev). By the end of the book, it's been replaced by a junta made of three surviving members of the old Politburo, and the Renegade Russian general who overthrew the old leaders. We have no idea if the new government will be any good at all; even the general candidly admits that he doesn't know if it'll be able to reduce the corruption and abuse in the Soviet system, though "we will try." However, the old government caused World War III out of dumb pride and bureaucratic infighting, and nearly doubled down by resolving the war through Nuclear Option when they started losing it. Compared with that, anything is an improvement.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6723753c	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6723753c	comment	In Superman: Red Son, Pyotr Roslov manages to enlist Batman in Lex Luthor's plot to kill Superman and install the former in his place as leader of the Soviet Union despite not even bothering to deny he'd be an even worse dictator by appealing to this trope: Pyotr is a human and thus will die someday while they have no idea what Superman's lifespan is. Superman could very well be immortal and his reign could potentially last forever. Given that at the end of the series, Superman is shown to still be alive a billion years in the future, Pyotr was completely right.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6762c3ea	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6762c3ea	comment	Potsworth & Company episode "When Bubba Rules" featured the Nightmare Prince's mother demoting him and hiring another villain. Despite knowing they'd have to face a new enemy, the heroes were happy they'd no longer have to worry about the Nightmare Prince. However, once they tried to stop the new villain, the heroes decided to trick The Man Behind the Man into firing the new villain and reinstating the Prince.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6a99170e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6a99170e	comment	Rai Kirah: This is why the Wardens try to vanquish demons non-lethally whenever possible, horrible as they are — the Wardens can feel the universe react to each demon death and fear what might be created in their place if they were driven to extinction.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6c0aaca7	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6c0aaca7	comment	Played rather literally in Old Harry's Game. Scumspawn (a demon) tries to persuade Thomas (a condemned soul) to help get Satan and the Professor out of hot water with the angels, as Satan's replacement could be even worse. "Better the devil you know!" Thomas retorts that people who say that haven't met him. "I have! He's a shovel-happy little git!"
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6c39a620	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6c39a620	comment	Ascendance of a Bookworm: When Myne joins the temple, the attendant sent to her to spy on her for a temple higher-up who doesn't like her much goes full Overt Operative as soon as they meet. Myne's main reason to not fire the attendant in question is that she may end up being replaced by another, much more competent spy working for the same higher-up.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6c8b9d4f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6c8b9d4f	comment	Adventures of the Gummi Bears has a story where Big Bad Duke Igthorn is deposed by Toadie's cousin, Tadpole, who because of an unpleasant earlier encounter with the Gummi Bears, orders their valuable gummiberry bushes destroyed en masse. The Bears help Igthorn reclaim his dukedom because however dangerous he is, at least he values the gummiberry crop himself for his own ends.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_6eb4ca5c	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_6eb4ca5c	comment	Jackie Chan Adventures: Season 1 focused on the demon, Shendu, as the Big Bad. At the very end, Jackie defeats Shendu, putting him in statue form, and Jade blows him to pieces with one of his own talismans. This is apparently a bad thing as Uncle tells him that now Shendu's been destroyed, a new, much worse evil must take his place. The second season then deals with the spirit of Shendu, after taking over Valmont's body, trying to reopen several demon portals so that his demon siblings can escape and wreak havoc on the mortal world.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_70814599	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_70814599	comment	Stargate SG-1: This is philosophy of Tok'ra. It explains their lack of progress over the millennia and also why crises like those in the series rarely happen. They're right. When one Goa'uld starts to get power over the others (like Anubis and Ba'al), things get much, much worse for our heroes...and the galaxy at large. Once they try to sabotage the meeting between Apophis and his nephew Heru'ur, both of whom are powerful System Lords, and accidentally cause Apophis to kill Heru'ur and absorb his armies and fleets. In retrospect, an alliance between the two would've been preferable, as each would constantly try to off the other, due to their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. After the Replicators, led by Repli-Carter start taking over the galaxy, the free Jaffa who had defected from the ranks of the System Lords returned back to them, feeling they at least understand the evil System Lords while the Replicators just want to destroy everything. In the TV movie Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the IOA invokes this trope by attempting to recreate the Replicator threat and harness it against their newer enemies, the Ori. That this is an insanely stupid and suicidal idea is immediately lampshaded by the main characters, who are promptly ignored, just as promptly proven right, and then forced to clean up yet another of the IOA's messes.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_73d7930f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_73d7930f	comment	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Inverted during the Dominion War. While the station is occupied by Cardassian and Dominion troops, Kira and Odo try to play Gul Dukat and Weyoun, commanders of the two factions, against each other. Kira explicitly notes they're better off trusting the devil they don't know — because the one they do know is Gul Dukat.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_75149ccd	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_75149ccd	comment	Used in one of the X-Wing books as the reason not to execute a known spy. In typical Star Wars tradition they messed with the original idiom.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_754e924a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_754e924a	comment	At the finale of Transformers: Energon, Unicron was finally destroyed. However, that only spawned an even worse entity, a black hole called the Grand Black Hole (or the Unicron Singularity in the dub). It was the focus of the next series, Transformers: Cybertron, where it not only threatened to destroy existence, but the scattered pieces of Unicron's original body enabled Megatron to gain dark powers and even more dangerous ambitions than ever before.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_7664bbe7	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_7664bbe7	comment	In Kill Decision this line is adapted to refer to cartel-dug illegal tunnels between Mexico and the US. The US could plug those tunnels it knows about, but that would just lead to the cartels digging more secretly. More effective to just keep the known tunnels open, monitor them for activity and catch the cartel at work.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_76e1ae72	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_76e1ae72	comment	On the CatDog episode "Harasslin' Match", Winslow's niece and nephew, Brat and Runt, come visit so Winslow can teach them how to harass CatDog like he does. Brat and Runt start out nice to CatDog, but after they kick Winslow out, they become even worse than him to the point that they want Winslow back.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_7aaf9e41	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_7aaf9e41	comment	Batman: Depending on the Writer, this is one of the reasons why the Joker Immunity exists. That damned clown brings Gotham to its knees once a day and twice on Sundays, but losing him isn't going to improve things. Without him around as disruptive element, other villains will be able to reliably team up to overwhelm the Bat Family. At worst, Gotham itself is only going manufacture something just as bad or possibly even worse than the Joker to take his place. Either way, the city will to continue being a terrible place to live.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_8658213a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_8658213a	comment	This is why the Marvel Universe keeps Galactus around. They got rid of him once before, only for something much worse to appear, Abraxas. His whole purpose is to act as a living seal to prevent an imprisoned Eldritch Abomination from destroying the universe. That's why he has to feed on planets; he's sort of a living generator that keeps the seal active, and his meals act as fuel for it. Between the two, the universe as a whole would gladly choose to deal with Galactus whose feedings can be mitigated to minimize the loss of life rather than Abraxas who seeks total destruction.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_880cfa15	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_880cfa15	comment	Hogan's Heroes. Several times Hogan and his men had to intervene to save Colonel Klink from his folly, because any other German officer who replaced him would be more effective in stopping their activities. Ditto in keeping Schultz as their regular guard.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_8ad6e76f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_8ad6e76f	comment	In Carpe Jugulum the old Count Magpyr was far fairer to his opponents via Contractual Genre Blindness, respected his Igor, and much preferred by the townspeople he terrorized. So, the heroes usurp the upstarts with their older, known adversary.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_8b116ef5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_8b116ef5	comment	Two very literal examples in the Shadowchasers Series, explained in Shadowchasers: Ascension: The reason the gods locked Tharizdun up instead of killing him, despite the danger he posed, was because he was a pawn of the Great Old Ones, who were worse, and they would have regained the power they invested in him if he died. To this day, Tharizdun acts as a "cosmic lynchpin" to prevent an even more destructive force. The Devil himself qualifies, according to Unity-Of-Rings. As bad as Lucifer is, he is actually the best choice for Overlord of Hell. Despite being the tempter of mortals and a power of Evil, he is still a power of Law, and under his rule, the devils wage the Blood War against the demons of the Abyss. If he was replaced by someone who didn't care to do this, such as Mephistopheles, the demons' population would grow to unearthly numbers, they would slaughter the devils, then destroy the Upper Planes, then the mortal worlds, and once they ran out of places to destroy, would turn on themselves, and that would be the end of everything.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_8d082d0a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_8d082d0a	comment	Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah sees the human cast teaming up with the Futurians, visitors from the future who claim to want to Set Right What Once Went Wrong- and what once went wrong is Godzilla, who they claim will destroy Japan completely in the next decade to the point it will cease to exist. Using the Futurian Time Machine and a firm grip on the Timey-Wimey Ball, they manage to move the dinosaur that would become Godzilla out of range of the atomic explosion that initially mutated him and successfully erase him from history. Unfortunately the Futurians turn out to be more Make Wrong What Once Went Right types, and create their own monster, King Ghidorah, in his place. After a while being stomped on by the big gold dragon, Japan finds themselves cheering for A Lighter Shade of Black when Godzilla inevitably returns.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_8e82c366	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_8e82c366	comment	Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters episode "Out with Grout" featured Mr. Grout, the bossy manager of Hotel Sedgwick, leaving the job to become the manager of the new Uptown Hotel, much to the (temporary) relief of Slimer and Buddy. When wannabe ghostbuster Professor Dweeb became the new manager, they decided to bring Mr. Grout back, since he ignores the ghosts rather than trying to bust them.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_909ca4b1	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_909ca4b1	comment	ReBoot. After Daemon is stopped Megabyte comes back to Mainframe. Dot and Bob refuse help from the Supercomputer because they have dealt with Megabyte before and know how he operates. This bites them in the ASCII when Megabyte doesn't operate like he used to, giving up on conquest and going for personal revenge instead. He takes over the Principal Office in one episode.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_90c73dda	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_90c73dda	comment	Animorphs: The Team did this once when a Yeerk inspector came to Earth to see why the invasion was taking so long, and would have taken the Visser's place once the Andalite bandits had been taken care of. The Animorphs end up killing the inspector so Visser Three stays in charge: "better the evil we know and makes stupid mistakes than the one who doesn't." This is also their logic for not wanting Visser One to take over the Earth invasion again—which she proves by figuring out they're humans. However this one is more complicated. Visser One wants a slow, secret infiltration of the planet while Visser Three wants to declare all-out war and kill millions or more people, so that the Animorphs have to balance Yeerk politics to get Visser One's methods while keeping Visser Three the person in power.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_90e2f673	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_90e2f673	comment	BattleTech: Attempted by the Thomas Marik Impostor on himself. After being outed as a Body Double slipped into place of the original Thomas Marik by ComStar after the bombing which killed Thomas' father Janos and his brother Duggan, Thomas attempted to hold on to power in the Free Worlds League by pointing out that yes, he might've not been the real Thomas Marik, but he was an effective (and more importantly, sane) leader. Unfortunately that didn't take, and the real Thomas Marik reappeared to assert his power... as the Master of Word of Blake, kicking off the events of the apocalpytic Word of Blake Jihad, an event that left billions dead, several worlds utterly ruined, and shattered the Free Worlds League into half a dozen broken sub-states from 3071 through 3139. Maybe they should have taken the Fake Thomas up on his offer.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_924bb56e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_924bb56e	comment	Brought up in the Dollhouse episode "Needs". The song that closes the episode (called "Lonely Ghosts) mentions this trope by name, suggesting that as horrible as the Dollhouse is, the alternatives are even worse.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_92844ddb	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_92844ddb	comment	This is the ending of the Dinosaurs episode "Getting to Know You." Charlene's fourteenth Birthday Party Goes Wrong when her mother Fran gets sick with the flu and father Earl organizes a Shoddy Shindig involving his co-workers, a game of poker, and some dubious birthday presents. Charlene, who can't take anymore of this lack of appreciation from her own family, joins the species exchange program and ends up with a family of prehistoric birds who watch a dinosaur version of Jerry Lewis on TV, feed her worms all the time, and taunt her and her culture mercilessly. In the end, Charlene can't stand living with what boils down to a family of distasteful French stereotypes for even three days, so she returns home to her family. This comes off as an incredibly Broken Aesop about justifying and even embracing stereotypes as an excuse for refusing to try anything new.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_95521c97	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_95521c97	comment	Lampshaded in The Spectacular Spider-Man. After Spider-Man takes down mob boss Tombstone, Captain Stacy tells him that he's just created a power vacuum in the underworld, and that "nature abhors a vacuum". It's filled by the Green Goblin, who set the whole thing up for precisely this purpose.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_981543d2	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_981543d2	comment	Zorro (1990) has an episode where Zorro tells Alcalde Luis Ramone this word for word, after outing the latter's brother as an impersonator.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_9aac0273	comment	Nobody particularly likes Lord Vetinari, but he's gotten the city to the point where only complete lunatics actually plot against him. This is discussed in Men at Arms, where Edward D'Eath (a complete lunatic) is trying to get other nobles to sign onto his plot and they basically say that the city without Vetinari would probably be much worse. As it turns out, Vetinari is playing a long con to improve the city in ways no one else realizes. As the series continues, it's revealed the true purpose of the thieves' and assassins' guilds (often cited as evidence that Vetinari is corrupt) it to keep them busy so that theft and murder become less and less common, while "illegal" theft and murder are completely stamped out.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_9d47a2a2	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_9d47a2a2	comment	A Song of Ice and Fire: King Robert's reason for keeping Janos Slynt in charge of the Gold Cloaks. Better to know what kind of corruption to expect.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_9d48ae2e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_9d48ae2e	comment	Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: In the episode featuring Hannibal MsFist's brother Terri, the Ninjanomicon lampshaded the trope by bringing up the possibility of the unknown ally being more dangerous than the known enemy.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_9e2f90f4	comment	Arguably, this is the World Government's feelings toward Whitebeard from One Piece. Sure he's a badass pirate, one of the strongest in the world, but he actually cares about the wellbeing of civilians and protects the islands under his banner, preventing much worse pirates from getting too powerful. The World Government knows that when he's killed, the general populace is completely screwed. This is confirmed to be true, as many of the islands which were under his protection became instant hellholes in the space of a few days when every two bit pirate crew makes a grab for his old territory, making the New World even more chaotic than before. Just to make things worse, with him gone, the other Emperors get more active now that they know they lost some of their only real competition for the title of Pirate King. In addition, the one who killed him, Blackbeard, has since ceased hiding in the shadows, taken over nearly all of his old territory, and decided to let everyone know he's the real deal by threatening the World Government directly. Just to twist the knife, Whitebeard's last words actually exacerbated the pirate problem by confirming the One Piece's existence, giving them a reason to persevere. New Age of Pirates, indeed.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_9eddb2fb	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_9eddb2fb	comment	Invoked in Irredeemable a few times. First was when Qubit used the bullet made from the wax of the Nahru Visna Candle (the only known object in existence to depower the Plutonian) to kill Orian instead, as Orian had a demonic army ready to invade Earth the moment the Plutonian is defeated. The second was when Qubit fears that The Survivor is becoming Plutonian 2.0, and thus works with Plutotian's Arch-Enemy Modeus to bust him out of The Alcatraz prison he's being held in.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a0500a06	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_a0500a06	comment	The Rugrats episode "New Kid In Town" had the babies befriend an older boy named Josh after they get tired of Angelica's bullying. But after Josh starts manipulating them to do his bidding and threatening them with violence if they don't obey, the babies realize they prefer being bossed around by Angelica and they beg her to rescue them.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a183d57f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_a183d57f	comment	In Futurama, Zoidberg uses this as a reason to support Nixon for reelection, even though he's "the worst president in history...and alternate history!"
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a32b6a64	comment	On a first season episode of The West Wing, this is why President Bartlet says he's won't back a candidate managed by Joey Lucas who's running against a Congressman that represents everything Bartlet hates; that, and the fact he think Joey's candidate is someone who's only running for Congress because they think it's a cool gig.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a6110a30	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_a6110a30	comment	In A Monster's Nature, Caitlyn adopts this philosophy when she receives an e-mail from an individual who identifies themselves as 'K.C.' and offers to help her get away from Brandon; Caitlyn explicitly thinks to herself that she isnâ€™t going to trust someone she's never met when she already knows that Brandon wonâ€™t hurt her.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a8729c90	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_a8729c90	comment	The Fairly OddParents!: The episode "No Substitute for Crazy" featured a substitute teacher named Ms. Sunshine. When she sadly reminded the students that, as a substitute, she'd have to leave as soon as Crocker got back and suggested the only way to stop that would be someone with a magic wand making her the new regular teacher, Timmy wished for that. In the next day, she revealed her true colors: she's a fairy hunter named Ms. Doombringer and so much more competent than Crocker that Timmy ended up wanting Crocker back. When Timmy managed to get rid of Vicky by publicly humiliating her so she's too miserable to work, the new babysitters his parents hired turned out to be three hooded death cultists who clearly wanted to murder him. It didn't help that his parents are horrible judges of character.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_a895e9d3	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_a895e9d3	comment	Portal 2: GLaDOS may have been an unhinged, immoral AI that made life miserable for those that entered her facility, but she still had a genuine purpose behind her "antics", unlike Wheatley who who was MUCH worse than GLaDOS ever was. With Wheatley in charge of the Aperture Science facility, the very semblance of "balance" in running things was practically non-existent.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_ab19a7e5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_ab19a7e5	comment	The Immortal Game: This is the word for word reasoning for unleashing Discord to fight Titan. As bad as Discord is, Titan is far worse.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_af7aead4	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_af7aead4	comment	Deconstructed on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in the episode about Medicare For All, as John discusses the reluctance of many Americans, including many American politicians, to substantially retool the American healthcare system into a universal healthcare system similar to those like the UK's National Health Service, pointing out how this reluctance only exacerbates the problems with the current system.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_b30ae4db	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_b30ae4db	comment	Game of Thrones: Littlefinger lampshades this trope in "The Mountain and the Viper" asking if that's why Sansa decided to stick her neck for him. After being betrayed by Joffrey and Cersei, her Aunt Lysa, and having her entire House be wiped out by betrayal, Sansa has decided that a treacherous and murderous yet politically astute creep who has an obvious crush on her is her best chance to survive. This also seems to be Arya's rationale for not escaping from the Hound.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_b486be12	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_b486be12	comment	Daily Grind: The Devil is an actual character, and everyone hates him with a passion for being petty, self-centered, and sadistic. That said, Daily Grind hasn't tried to usurp Scratch. Not because they couldn't, mind you, but because Hell currently has millions of opportunistic wizards, and without an evil overlord to keep them all depowered and in line, they'd quickly march on the Earth via plane shifting and take over or wage war on each other, whichever pisses the world off more.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_b72c646a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_b72c646a	comment	In On the Run, Clark Kent privately muses that one reason he doesnâ€™t kill Lex Luthor is because he wants to rescue Lexâ€™s meteor freak captives. Any potential successor might just kill the prisoners as a possible threat, but Clark knows that Lex is too obsessed with his own vision of himself as a "savior" to eliminate potential sources of genetic material that might be useful in his future schemes.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_bc758ea9	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_bc758ea9	comment	A Tiny Toon Adventures episode had Buster and company fearing this trope when Acme Looniversity Vice Principal Yosemite Sam applied for a job at another school. Out of fear a more competent person would take the job, the Tiny Toons sabotaged Sam's efforts.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_bf281aa9	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_bf281aa9	comment	In one episode of Jumanji: The Animated Series, Van Pelt explained that he hunts because, in Jumanji you either hunt or are hunted. Peter, Judy and Alan then decided to hunt Van Pelt. When it seemed they got rid of him for good, Jumanji turned Peter into a new Van Pelt. The episode ended with Peter going back to normal and Van Pelt coming back.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_bfef9cdb	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_bfef9cdb	comment	Welcome to Night Vale: Plays with this. Night Vale is ruled by a questionable government which has been both incompetent (with it's terrible bridge building plans and wasting lots of money pointless projects) and corrupt (one can get brainwashed or taken away to be tortured by the Sheriff's secret police, and all the creatures and dangers present do nothing). It's even stated that any old corrupt law can be enforced by a thug with a gun. That said, the attitude to the town seems to be "It's not perfect, but nothing is," and people seem fine, when they're not cowering. Cecil himself happily reports the creepy and macabre happenings. Strex Corp is notably more evil: they've killed people to splatter blood on walls, tried to have people arrested or enslaved to function for the company, and sold orange juice that could teleport people to other possibly fatal dimensions. Part of the reason they're hated is because they're worse than the old administration, but the other part is because they are trying to erase the original evil, corrupt, nature of the town, and that's against town pride.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c34ab4c	comment	Cross's reason for letting Eneru reach the moon in This Bites! after the latter is defeated by Luffy, since he and his Rumble-Rumble Fruit will be far away and not fall into the hands of a dangerous pirate or the marines.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c511c682	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_c511c682	comment	Asterix: Julius Caesar is ostensibly the Big Bad of the story and the Arch-Enemy of the main characters. He's also surrounded by Starscreams who have all of his ambition and none of his competence, sense of honor, or general Worthy Adversary qualities. Because of this, the Gauls have repeatedly saved his throne for him, knowing that any possible successor would be far worse for them and for the entire ancient world. In the same principle on a larger scale, the Gauls will occasionally do the Roman Empire's work for it by driving away barbarian factions like the Goths or Vikings that are trying to encroach on it. Since these factions usually have all the hostility and conquering spirit of the Roman Empire and none of its civilizing influence, one can understand why the Gauls aren't interested in trading occupiers.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c6f7e804	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_c6f7e804	comment	Blake's 7. Blake refuses to kill Travis. "...As long as he's alive, he'll be the one chasing me. And I know I can beat him."
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c75d67d	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_c75d67d	comment	In season four of Person of Interest, Team Machine allies with mafia boss Elias, an Affably Evil Noble Demon, when he's targeted for a takeover by Dominic and his organization, the Brotherhood. In addition to Elias being a not-that-bad option (one of the major episodes of the arc is called "The Devil You Know"), he's figured out enough about the Machine to hide his operations from her, so to the Machine, it looks like Dominic's the sole aggressor. In the end, both Elias and Dominic are taken out by someone even worse than both combined: Samaritan. Elias is very good at eliciting this response. In the first season, his rise to power was similarly embraced by the corrupt power structure of New York City (embodied in the Dirty Cop organization HR), who see him as a return to the old ways; competent, businesslike, and willing to bribe all the right people, in contrast to the more flashy, pointlessly violent, and Stupid Evil criminals that they see as dominating the modern underworld.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c7912cea	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_c7912cea	comment	Jimmy Two-Shoes: This is why you don't defrost the old leaders of Miseryville. Lucius Heinous VII might be the literal devil, but compared to his dad, grandfather and great-grandfathers way back down to Lucius Heinous I, he's the best of a bad situation.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_c9233220	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_c9233220	comment	All-but-explicitly stated in It's All in the Details during Crowley's first confrontation with 'Kaseva' (Castiel's new Pagan God alias), as Crowley is informed that Kaseva and his most trusted followers are aware of Crowley's ambitions to be the King of Hell, Kaseva in turn making it clear that Crowley is being left alive only because they would rather he got the job than any of the alternatives.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_ccf0819f	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_ccf0819f	comment	During the Invasion storyline, Vince McMahon Lampshaded this trope by name in an attempt to coax The Rock into staying with the WWF.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_cfb3439a	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_cfb3439a	comment	The first half of BrÃ¼tal Legend sees Eddie Riggs help out rebel leader Lars Halford, who's trying to free his people from the tyrannical rule of General Lionwhyte. Lionwhyte claims his enslavement of mankind is the only reason why Emperor Doviculus hasn't made them extinct - tribute does not flow from a dead race. They call him out for being a nation-wide sell-out and impale him on his own crumbling palace, but soon after Doviculus turns up, kills Lars effortlessly, and terrorizes the rebel army for the rest of the game with an army of drug addicts and his gameplay-strange army of Squick, both of which fight very differently than Lionwhyte's human-faction.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_d3c800ed	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_d3c800ed	comment	Sonic X: Dark Chaos: This is pretty much the reason why Maledict commands such loyalty from his Demon subjects despite his actions - he's explicitly the lesser evil in a universe full of suffering and death.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_d56cd064	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_d56cd064	comment	Power Rangers Zeo: This happened twice, in succession. In "Mondo's Last Stand", after the Rangers defeated King Mondo, they believed they'd no longer have to face monsters for a long time. Their peace only lasted until another villain took over the Machine Empire. The first guy was Louie Kaboom. He likely wasn't a better villain than Mondo was, but he was far more obnoxious, so much so that even the other members of Mondo's court (with the sole exceptions of Klank and Orbus) hated him. Then Mondo's exiled son Prince Gasket showed up, disposed of Louie, and took over.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_dac6c9a2	comment	A Rabbit Among Wolves: Adam Taurus may have been a murderous psychopath, but that trait made it easy to predict what Vale's White Fang branch would do under his command. Jaune's ascension to Adam's old position resets the board and leaves all other factions waiting to see what he will do. Sun joins the White Fang specifically because he wants to figure out the mystery behind the terrorist group's turn to altruism. As a counterpoint, Coco argues this reason to justify keeping Jaune around; Jaune's White Fang cell becomes known for their peaceful methods, so removing him would likely result in a more dangerous replacement.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_db30cf92	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_db30cf92	comment	Warrior Cats: This seems to be the Clans' collective attitude in regards to hostile outsiders. They will happily join forces temporarily to drive invaders out, so they can go back to squabbling with each other. The Clans share a common origin, religion and laws, after all. Outsiders are unpredictable and potentially extremely dangerous, because who knows what they believe or what laws they follow?
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Better the Devil You Know / int_dbee7cb5	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_dbee7cb5	comment	Shantae and the Pirate's Curse has a villainous variation. When push comes to shove, Risky prefers to allow the titular heroine to regain all her magic powers and keep her as a rival than allow the Pirate Master to have his way.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_ddad77ae	comment	In the Astro City story "Safeguards", Marta Dobrescu realizes that, while Shadow Hill is filled with vampires, dark creatures, and other Eldritch Abominations, at least she knows the wards and rituals to keep them at bay since she's lived there her entire life. Downtown Astro City may be a tempting and exciting place, but her ignorance of their rituals is ultimately a liability.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_e6267766	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_e6267766	comment	Multiple examples in Star Wars Legends: The Truce at Bakura, set immediately after Return of the Jedi, features a planet in the Outer Rim under attack from the Ssi-ruuk, a previously unknown race of Scary Dogmatic Aliens. While their war with each other is far from over, the Rebels and Imperials agree to temporarily put their differences aside to fight the new enemy. Used in one of the X-Wing books as the reason not to execute a known spy. In typical Star Wars tradition they messed with the original idiom. Another character puts it differently. Attempted in the New Jedi Order novel Rebel Dream: Wedge's plan for the Siege of Borleais is to maneuver the fairly lackluster enemy general into a series of indecisive engagements, with the overall goal of buying time for various covert plans to take effect. Unfortunately, after the Republic wins a major military victory they don't want, the Yuuzhan Vong return in force, led by Czulkang Lah, father of the warmaster and undisputed Old Master of war.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_ea29fc84	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_ea29fc84	comment	This is why Doctor Doom has ruled Latveria for so long. He's evil, yes, but every time he's been replaced, the guy taking his place has been an even worse tyrant, as was the guy that he replaced originally. If nothing else, he's good at protecting the place from external threats and can be reasoned with, to an extent. Whenever he returns after a period of absence, the citizens are always glad to have him back.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_eb1883c0	comment	In Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, the inhabitants of the valley keep a huge carnivorous subterranean worm alive, because they'd already learned how to avoid it and its presence should stave off the real evil — the real estate agents!
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Better the Devil You Know / int_ef076a36	comment	Star Trek: Voyager: In the two-part episode "Scorpion" When confronted with Species 8472 in the Delta Quadrant, Capt. Janeway decides to side with the Borg in their own confrontation with 8472.
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Better the Devil You Know / int_f0529579	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_f0529579	comment	This is one of the reasons why Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Punisher are usually hesitant to take out The Kingpin - they know that there'll be chaos without him. In fact, in one story, the Kingpin was legitimately out of the crime business but he was asked back to New York City in order to help calm the chaos of myriad gang wars.
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Spider-Man (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Better the Devil You Know / int_f0529579
Better the Devil You Know / int_f0c816fb	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_f0c816fb	comment	Some time after Gustavo Fring's death on Breaking Bad, Mike proclaims to Walt that dealing with their late foe was leagues better than their current situation.
Better the Devil You Know / int_f0c816fb	featureApplicability	1.0
Better the Devil You Know / int_f0c816fb	featureConfidence	1.0
Breaking Bad	hasFeature	Better the Devil You Know / int_f0c816fb
Better the Devil You Know / int_f50072b	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_f50072b	comment	The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Chapter 26 of the sequel, Picking Up the Pieces, reveals that Memorizing Gaze and his guards know all about "Father" Evergreen Road, the fraud priest from the first story, whom they leave in place (while retrieving everything he's sold off to fund his criminal habits) because they consider him useful — his presence allows them to keep an eye on a portion of Canterlot's criminal underworld — and comparatively harmless, since he's just out to make money and satisfy his hedonistic greed.
Better the Devil You Know / int_f50072b	featureApplicability	1.0
Better the Devil You Know / int_f50072b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Pieces Lie Where They Fell / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Better the Devil You Know / int_f50072b
Better the Devil You Know / int_f5a4d814	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_f5a4d814	comment	In the TV movie Stargate: The Ark of Truth, the IOA invokes this trope by attempting to recreate the Replicator threat and harness it against their newer enemies, the Ori. That this is an insanely stupid and suicidal idea is immediately lampshaded by the main characters, who are promptly ignored, just as promptly proven right, and then forced to clean up yet another of the IOA's messes.
Better the Devil You Know / int_f5a4d814	featureApplicability	1.0
Better the Devil You Know / int_f5a4d814	featureConfidence	1.0
Stargate: The Ark of Truth	hasFeature	Better the Devil You Know / int_f5a4d814
Better the Devil You Know / int_f8d7d3e4	type	Better the Devil You Know
Better the Devil You Know / int_f8d7d3e4	comment	Kimberly T's Gargoyles: In "Deadly Moon", Anne decides that the best option they have available for dealing with Thailog is calling upon the Were-Fox — while the latter is a potential problem, the former is definitely a threat.
Better the Devil You Know / int_f8d7d3e4	featureApplicability	1.0
Better the Devil You Know / int_f8d7d3e4	featureConfidence	1.0
Kimberly T's Gargoyles (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Better the Devil You Know / int_f8d7d3e4

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Better the Devil You Know	processingCategory2	Evil Tropes
Better the Devil You Know	processingCategory2	Villains
Astro City (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Batman Vampire (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Hardware (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Hardware (1993) (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Irredeemable (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Superman: Red Son (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Kingpin (Comic Book) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
A Monster's Nature (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
An Arc for every season (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Forum of Thrones (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Imperator (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Island of Devils (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Kwami Magi Homura Magica (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Mr and Mrs Gold, Season 2 (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Nymeria's War (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Old West (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Shadowchasers: Ascension (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Beast of Beacon (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Dark Lords of Nerima (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Desert Storm (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Devil You Dont (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral) (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Violence in the Library (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Weight Off Your Shoulder (Fanfic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Black Scorpion / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Frank / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Golda / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Prophecy / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
I Became the Villain the Hero Is Obsessed With / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
In Death / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Incarnations of Immortality / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Paraiso Street / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Reds!: A Revolutionary Timeline / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Generalist / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Hundred and One Dalmatians / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
UlyssesSGrant	seeAlso	Better the Devil You Know
Mad Bull 34 (Manga) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Shamo (Manga) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Wolf 359 (Podcast) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Big Brother / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Blake's 7 / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Jack of All Trades / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
John Adams / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Legends of Tomorrow / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Limitless / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Rise and Fall / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Star Trek: Picard / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The 100 / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Inside / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Thick of It / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Victoria / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Blightfall (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Path of Exile (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Spider-Man (PS4) (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Streets of Rage (Video Game) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Shadowrun Returns / Videogame / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Disventure Camp (Web Animation) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Mann Shorts (Web Video) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
The Mark Remark (Web Video) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Love and Capes (Webcomic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Zebra Girl (Webcomic) / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Adventures of the Gummi Bears / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
CatDog / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Dog City / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Potsworth & Company / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
School for Vampires / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Stunt Dawgs / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
Transformers: BotBots / int_76cde6e	type	Better the Devil You Know
betterthedevilyouknow	sameAs	Better the Devil You Know

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