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[[File:NecromancerBadPowers_7323.jpg|frame| Unlikely to be one of the good guys. [[Bad Powers, Good People|But you never know.]]]]
{{quote|''"I'm bad luck. Good was never an option for me."''|'''Jinx''', ''[[Teen Titans (
Hooray, you've got super powers! Your dreams of becoming a hero and making the world a better place are one step closer to coming true! Only, wait a minute...why do your powers revolve around raising the dead as [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombies]], or causing another person's muscles to atrophy, or overriding someone's nervous system so that they feel nothing but pain?
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# Embrace your newfound powers and descend into full-on [[Evil Laugh|cackling]] villainy, or
# Accept the fact that you're living a life [[Blessed
Surprisingly, more often than not, people with "bad" powers end up turning bad (and even those that stay good end up being pretty dodgy). And don't even think of using your bad power: when it starts [[Evil Feels Good|feeling good]], you've already fallen off the slippery slope. Even if you use it for good, odds are that you'll become an angst-ridden [[Anti-Hero]].
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== [[Anime]] ==
* While all of the Contractors in ''[[
** There are a few odd examples, too. One girl, for example, has the power to liquefy the internal organs of one person at a time. Her payment is that all her human emotions come back for a few minutes--at which point the guilt hits her so hard that she can't even ''stand''.
* Blackbeard of ''[[
** A more straight example would be Gecko Moria. The power to steal peoples' shadows (without which they will vaporize in sunlight) and then put them inside ''corpses'' to make a slave army of [[Zombie Mooks]]? What possible use for good could that possess?
*** Note also that ''that'' is just one of the powers of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit. In the ''One Piece'' universe, it's generally more like Neutral Powers Good/Bad People.
* [[Double Subverted]] in ''[[
** Suzaku goes so far as to outright classify Geass as a sin. Of course, he is understandably biased, since he's suffered at the hands of something he doesn't have himself.
** The novels state that Lelouch actually hates his power, because as someone who highly values personal freedom, the ability to rob someone of their free will is abhorrent. Therefore, he usually reserves his use of it to short-term orders and, occasionally, self defense. Only late in the series, when he fully immerses himself in his [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] ways, does he start doing the "obey me" command that everyone was asking why he never used before.
* In ''[[
** He was a photographer, [[Blessed
* A ''[[
** Especially applies when used by the Shinigami, though they mostly take lives simply because they must to extend their own. Whereas a human with a Death Note could at least ''theoretically'' use it to indirectly save lives (not that any of the ones given the chance takes it, being more concerned with punishing the guilty than protecting the innocent), Shinigami are explicitly ''forbidden'' from extending a human's lifespan by any means. If they do so, they instantly die.
** According to [[Word of God]], a good person will never use a Death Note the way Light did - which is why, in the prototype version of the manga, Taro (the original protagonist) got rid of it after only using it once.
* Played with and arguably deconstructed in ''[[
* Inverted in ''[[
* In ''[[
** Kakashi subverts this with his Mangekyo Sharingan. It's unknown how he obtained it, but in the databook, it was old-fashioned hard work. Thus, despite the massive chakra drain (which kills him at one point), he has none of the blindness that other Mangekyo users have.
*** One possible explanation is that his Sharingan is already an implanted one, a gift from his friend, so it may possibly function like a sibling's Sharingan mentioned above.
* Zeref, of ''[[
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
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** Jean Grey's experiences with the Phoenix Force kinda dance around this line. She has the power to manipulate entire timelines for the better, can go toe-to-toe with Galactus, can make matter with her mind, survive being inside of and eating stars, beat Xavier and Emma Frost in a telepathic battle, make star-gates, breathe in space, generate all kinds of awesome fire, oh, and burn up the life force reserved for beings who have not yet been born. Good thing she's on our side most of the time.
* [[The DCU]] had The Brotherhood of Evil, and the name alone told you which side of this trope they came down on. The second incarnation of the Brotherhood backed it up with members like Plasmus, a being made of living radioactive protoplasm, and Phobia, a woman with the ability to make others live out their worst fears.
* Poison Ivy, from ''[[
** Ivy is also a case of [[Good Powers, Bad People]]. She could regrow the rain forest, feed the hungry, fix global warming, etc. Shame she's insane, really.
*** In ''[[Justice]]'', Ivy, along with a number of 'former' villains, started a series of good will moves across the globe. She was shown in an impoverished desert, either north Africa or middle east, growing entire orchards and crop fields. The main reason she doesn't do this more often is that she is essentially an eco-terrorist with superpowers who believes she can help the environment more by destroying factories and businesses.
* The character Red Mask from ''[[
** The only reason Red Mask became a villain was because his powers didn't have an "off" switch. He couldn't even be near his wife, lest he accidentally killed her. One of the main points he was trying to say by giving his origins was that with the continuous power to kill with a touch, there was little he '''could''' do otherwise. The other was that if he had almost any other power (flying being his most wanted), he would have been a hero instead.
* Mr. Bones, a villain in the original 1980s ''[[Infinity Inc]]'', had cyanide skin which gave him a death touch. He [[Heel Face Turn|changed sides, though]].
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{{quote| '''Coat of Arms''': You've got a villain's power...You've got a power that naturally inclines you towards becoming a villain. But maybe even because of that, you're the one who most wants to be a hero.}}
* [[Mind Control]] is a pretty nasty power; many mind controllers from comics, like Purple Man, The Controller, and Scarecrow, from [[Daredevil]], [[Iron Man]], and Batman, respectively, are in the [[Complete Monster]] category or damn close to it. Xavier, who has [[Psychic Powers]], is often mentioned to have [[Mind Over Manners|a code against controlling someone else's mind.]] There are some exceptions, like the Pied Piper from [[The Flash]], who reformed.
** Maxwell Lord, former member of [[Justice League of America|Justice League International]], fits this. He was originally a good guy who headed the League and had some psionic powers, then we found out his powers had increased a great deal and he had been manipulating the League for a long time. He went speeding past the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by murdering Ted Kord, the second [[Blue Beetle]], then used mind control to give [[
* Besides the [[Meaningful Name]], [[Superman
* Miss Misery of [[Sleeper (Comic Book)|Sleeper]] will waste away and die if she doesn't kill, steal, and/or betray on a regular basis. If she ''does'' do those things, she gains superhuman strength, speed, durability, and healing directly proportional to how bad she's being. To put it mildly, [[Being Good Sucks]] for her.
* If your shriek has the potential to kill other people like the Silver Banshee, you might be a villain too.
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== Literature ==
* Justified in ''[[
* In ''[[
** Also subverted (and discussed) with the necromancer in ''Dead Beat'', who uses her power to keep dying people alive long enough to get to a hospital. Though she's not so much ''good'' as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]].
* The ''[[
* Doro in the [[Octavia Butler]] novel ''[[Patternist|Wild Seed]]'' survives for centuries by passing his consciousness from one mind to another. When he takes someone over, he essentially consumes and destroys their soul; when he leaves the body for another one, the body dies. It would be pretty hard not to be a villain if that was your superpower.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Sylar in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has the superpower of instinctively understanding how things work. Not exactly the most spectacular talent, except that it includes the ability to take the powers of others by killing them. If his power had been more like Peter's, i.e., the ability to duplicate the powers of others just by being exposed to them, then he might never have become evil.
** He actually can copy powers without killing people, though he doesn't find out until the third season. [[For the Evulz|It doesn't matter for long]].
** Even his normal copying power isn't necessarily lethal; it just includes direct study of the brain, so [[Healing Factor|Claire]] is the only one to survive it.
* In ''[[
** It's also somewhat of an aversion with Cole, though, as he spends a chunk of time fighting on the side of good despite still using his demonic powers, only losing them after being unable to control his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]].
* Michael in ''[[Roswell]]'' was convinced he was this because his strongest powers killed while Max's healed. Of course, you could argue that, that made him a born soldier, not a bad person.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* While ''[[Vampire: The
** In one ''[[
* In [[
* In the ''[[
** D&D also has lots of magic spells that are considered to be inherently evil. Anything to do with creating undead, for instance. It doesn't matter if you order your army of skeletons to build orphanages and help old ladies cross the street, creating them was still evil. This makes it almost impossible to play classes like Dread Necromancer and have a good alignment; neutral with antihero tendencies is pretty much the best you can do.
*** At least one 3rd Edition sourcebook explained that this is because even animating unintelligent undead like skeletons and zombies binds the soul of the dead in a rather excruciating manner, as well as perverting the natural order of things.
* The Warp operates this way in ''[[
* The Marvel Super Heroes game (in which ''[[Random Number God|absofrickinglutely everything]]'' was [[Scrappy Mechanic|randomly determined]]) had [[Mind Control]] as a power (in the expansion listing an obscene number of superpowers, there are about 87 different versions of this). Using this on ''anyone'' would drain your Karma, which was basically your XP plus a power meter for badass stunts. '''Anyone'''. Not only is it unethical to use it to [[Knights of the Old Republic|avoid paying landing fees]], but you'd lose Karma by causing [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|Doctor]][[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Malevolent]]'s [[The Igor|henchman Igor]] to ''[[Honor Before Reason|not pull the big red lever releasing a]] [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Horde of Genetically Engineered Monster Locusts]]''. It was entirely possible, considering the insane levels of dependence upon dice rolls, for you to end up with a hero whose ''sole ability'' is mind control, and all his stats are appalling. Recommended tactic: roll up a new character.
** The implications for Professor X and other canon characters with this power are...interesting, to say the least.
*** Xavier has always been strongly against manipulating peoples' minds, so the game's ideology is certainly consistent with the comics.
* In the RPG books for ''[[The Dresden Files (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Inverted in ''[[
* An unsurprising number of the bad guys in ''[[City of Heroes]]'', and a few of the signature villains in ''City of Villains''. Probably the most visible is Dr. Vahzilok, a scientist intent on conquering death, who's had some actual success. Of course, since the visible results of the process tend to be zombies more often than sentient undead, he's got to be a bad guy looting morgues and kidnapping people off the street for raw materials. (Never mind that the city he's in has undergone at least three major disasters within as many years and must have been all but overflowing with dead bodies.) For players, it used to be impossible to have a necromantic Hero, or one with a focus on assassination strikes.
** One of the main features of the ''Going Rogue'' expansion is that characters can now switch sides - heroes can fall, and villains can be redeemed. So [[Bad Powers, Good People]] is now equally possible.
* Illidan in the ''[[
* Morrigan from ''[[
** Potential subversion: however, nothing prevents you from spending all of her remaining spell talents on buffing, healing, and support.
** This can also be subverted if the Warden is a mage; nothing is preventing you from being an overwhelmingly good character who just happens to be a master of Entropy and [[Blood Magic]] should you so desire to be one.
*** The method for unlocking the Blood Mage class generally requires the Warden to sacrifice a child's soul to a demon, but you can earn the ability with no harmful consequences whatsoever [[Take a Third Option|if you pass a difficult Intimidate check against the demon.]]
*** ...Unless you have the expansion, in which case, one of your characters can just ''learn it from a book'' and hold this immensely "bad" power with no moral quandary whatsoever.
* While using the [[Dark Side]] powers in the [[Star Wars]] universe almost inevitably leads you down an all too familiar path (due to the addictive nature of the negative emotions used to power them), Kyle Katarn from the ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Xykon, the sorcerer/necromancer from ''[[
* Wanda comes closest to being clearly evil in the [[Grey and Gray Morality]] of ''[[
* Drake from [[Gold Coin Comics]] can create a [http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=124 teleportation portal]. Too bad the good guys can't do that!
* Richard in ''[[
** While he doubtlessly seems to enjoy what he does, he's less [[Stupid Evil|evil for the lulz]] and more of an [[Anti-Villain]], since {{spoiler|Richard reverts back to a normal, BLEEDING human unless he does something pointlessly vile like murdering the innocent, while being shown to actually have noble goals, and needs his powers and invulnerability to achieve them and help his companions}}.
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* Sekhmet from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' has the power to infect other people with fast-acting plagues. What else is he supposed to become ''but'' a supervillain?
* {{spoiler|Randall the detective}} does this in ''[[The Lazer Collection]]''.
* [[
* Maggot and Killstench of the [[Whateley Universe]]. Maggot's skin gives off something that burns like acid. Killstench gives off toxic gas. They're still in high school and using their powers to be jerkass bullies, but it sure doesn't look like they'll graduate and decide to become superheroes. On a lower scale, Peeper has the power to see through women's clothing (he doesn't look at guys), and he uses it to be an annoying perv.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Jinx from ''[[Teen Titans (
* Because of the type of nanites that he has in his body, Rex from ''[[
=== Examples of Type Two ===
== [[Anime]] ==
* Another ''[[
* Ixpellia from ''[[All There in the Manual|StrikerS Sound Stage X]]'' of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', an immortal king who has the power to turn fields of corpses into armies of Mariages, which are [[Super Soldier]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Cyborg Zombies]] filled with battle lust. [[Shrouded in Myth|History remembered her as a barbaric Dark King that neatly fits Type 1]], though, in reality, she's a jaded [[Mysterious Waif]] sick of all the fighting and tried to [[King in
* In ''[[
** Similarly, Shikamaru has the ability to manipulate shadows and control other people's motions (eventually gaining the ability to ''strangle people''), and Ino has the ability to fire her soul into others and possess them (with other techniques including mind reading and making your opponents attack each other). Neither of them are even remotely evil.
** For that matter, the Jinchuuriki (such as the titular character) gain powerful abilities by being permanently bonded with Tailed Beasts, gigantic supernatural creatures that are largely viewed as incarnations of evil. Some go screaming off the deep end, either due to isolation or the Beasts being dicks, but others use the power this grants them for benevolent purposes.
* ''[[
** Maybe the weakest fighter, but he was a superb healer and one of only 3 characters who could do that soul resurrection technique.
** And he chose not to get more powerful because circumstances relevant to the plot gave him ''everything he ever wanted'' if he didn't.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Rogue from ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' started life as a villain and used her powers to absorb other people's life (and their powers, if they had any) on skin contact to her full advantage. That is, until she got [[
** Another possible example from Xavier's is Danielle Moonstar, whose poorly controlled ability to conjure [[Nightmare Fuel]] illusions from the fears of those around her did not make adolescence for the Angry Young Woman any easier. She rapidly diversified and mastered her abilities, but the parallel with Phobia above is hard to miss.
** Xian of ''X-Men 2099'' could destroy things by touching them. He was the team's mentor...before eventually going completely crazy (despite having developed healing powers) and turning against the team. The team's leader could turn into a radioactive nightmare and vaporize things, too.
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** The (second) Scorpion, Carmilla Black, has a [[Touch of Death]], but later learns that {{spoiler|this power is both the only thing stopping her from being mind controlled by terrorist group A.I.M. and the only thing able to defeat their biological weapon.}}
* Trauma from Avengers: the Initiative has the ability to shapeshift into a person's worst fear, which has, on at least one occasion, driven someone to insanity. As such, he has found the perfect application for this power...as Camp Hammond's resident counselor, with a specialty in helping people confront and cope with their fears.
* ''[[
{{quote| '''Mettle:''' ''"Look at us. Big monster guy, the human electric chair, poison gas girl, assassin chick, t-rex boy, and Chernobyl in Abercrombie and Fitch. One wrong move and any one of us could be a murderer."''}}
* [[Alpha Flight]]'s Purple Girl/Persuasion had a rough start, but has consistently been one of the good guys since, despite the mind control powers she inherited from her evil father...Until recently, that is, where she pulled a [[Face Heel Turn]] and now is a bad guy and calls herself Purple Woman.
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== Fan Works ==
* newChaos from ''[[
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Michael Moorcock]] created [[The Elric Saga|Elric]] specifically to subvert the standard powers and looks in sword and sorcery. He's an Albino sorcerer and last king of the Bright Empire which for 10,000 years ruled the world in the name of Chaos. As such, he knows quite a lot of chaotic magic and has a demon sword, Stormbringer (which [[
** Subverted in many ways here. Chaos and Law are not quite good and evil, as either winning completely makes life impossible. Also, {{spoiler|Stormbringer betrays Elric after he recreates the world. In bringing the sword into the newly created universe, he assures that chaos will exist in the new universe}}.
* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''Children of the Night'' had a band member become a [[Our Vampires Are Different|psivamp]], someone who feeds off of the emotional energies of others and can affect emotional states to get the right intensity. This generally leads to either burning the victim out or giving him or her a fatal heart attack. As a psivamp weaned off of positive emotions and adjusted to fear and rage, he can't survive on food anymore. He eventually decides ''not'' to go along with his other psivamp bandmates and the [[I Hate You, Vampire Dad|vampire dad]] and has a fantasy of feeding only on the deserving, so he goes out and kills first a crackhead trying to kill him, then a pair of almost-rapists, before he realizes that the hunger doesn't distinguish between the bad guys and the victims, and he knows he'll slip. In the end, {{spoiler|he helps take out the other psivamps, then commits suicide.}}
* Averted with the Delphae in [[David Eddings]]' ''[[The Elenium|The Tamuli]]''. They can read the minds of anyone they see (not their thoughts, the entire contents of the person's skull) and, with a touch, cause people to decay into puddles of organic goo. They are also quite pleasant people who stay secluded from the world because they can see how that sort of thing makes people nervous. {{spoiler|They also hold as negative a view of their flesh-rotting power as others do, and one is left extremely distraught after being forced to use it to defend a friend's life.}}
* The Zombie Master in the ''[[
** Well, that's because the zombies were generally nice people, if a little icky. Wait, not generally. ALL of them were nice people, that's it.
* Dumbledore specifically tells [[Harry Potter (
** Double subverted when you think about it. Parseltongue is an ability usually found in evil wizards and protagonist Harry is good but runs into trouble because people assume he's bad because of his ability. {{spoiler|The last book reveals that the reason why Harry had the ability was because it belonged to Voldemort when the latter accidentally turned Harry into the seventh Horcrux. When Harry loses the fragment of Voldemort's soul in him, he loses the ability with it.}}
* In [[Garth Nix]]'s ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' series, the Abhorsen wields bells with the power to raise and otherwise control dead bodies and spirits, which is exactly the power possessed by the Abhorsen's enemies. The difference? The Abhorsen works to preserve life, while necromancers tend to be out purely for power. Of course, this hasn't stopped some Abhorsens from crossing to the dark side...
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** The Necromancers are a particularly unpleasant bunch - especially the ones that [[Creepy Child|learned to use their powers at an early age]]: this is because their abilities involve stealing the knowledge and strengths a dead body has gained during life, via dissection, dismemberment, cannibalism, and occasional necrophilia. Ouch. However, this is clearly meant to set up the Necromancer Boris Dragosani as a dark counterpart to Harry.
* Averted in the ''[[Fingerprints]]'' series, where the psychics' powers have no relation to their alignment and some heroes have traditionally villainous powers like [[People Puppets]]. Note that this does not stop some characters from ''assuming'' [[Bad Powers, Bad People]] is true, {{spoiler|which is why Steve Mercer kills Amanda Reesce.}}
* Averted in [[Perry Moore]]'s ''[[Hero (
* Borderline averted in ''[[The Lord of the Isles]]'' series by [[David Drake]]. Ilna's various abilities are demonic in origin, but rather loosely defined, and after a [[Faustian Rebellion]], she begins to think of non-evil uses for them.
* Graendal, in ''[[
* [[Subverted]] in ''[[
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Todd the Wraith from ''[[
** To a lesser extent, Replicators. They may be universally evil, but when Weir became one herself, she didn't go wacko; instead, she attempted to make an organic body for her peers so that they can ascend. When that didn't work, she worked with her old team to set up a trap for the remaining Replicators, sacrificing herself in the process.
*** Niam. Despite being a Replicator, all he wanted was to learn ascension. Too bad he got reset by Oberoth into his default violent nature.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Averted in the tabletop game ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* Averted in ''[[
** Also averted with the Green Sun Princes. Their abilities are based around the fact that, as copies of the [[Abusive Precursors|Yozis]], they are slowly becoming [[Transhuman Aliens|enlightened god-monsters]]. First chapter of their book aside (which even the writers admit came from a bit of a misunderstanding of what the Yozis were), it's pretty much outright stated that their thematic purpose is to ''[[Faustian Rebellion|replace]]'' their masters as the new rulers of Creation, probably more benevolent then the Yozis have the capacity to be.
*** Ebon Dragon charms come closest to being type 1, since, by their very nature, they shift you towards being like the Ebon Dragon (who is, how you say, kind of a dick), but you can still use them in a [[Noble Demon]] way by turning the spite and antagonism towards [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|people who are nastier than you]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* This trope is thoroughly explored in the ''[[
* During her first appearance in [[Battle Moon Wars]], [[Beware the Nice Ones|Matou Sakura]] relies exclusively on her own shadow magic to defend herself and really doesn't do a very good job of it. After she's kidnapped, nearly turned back into [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Dark Sakura]] by [[Complete Monster|Zouken Matou]], and subsequently rescued with [[The Power of Love]], Sakura [[Took a Level In Badass|Takes a Level in Badass]] and starts using her connection to [[The Devil|Angra]] [[Sealed Evil in
* ''[[Suikoden]]'' seems to enjoy averting this trope. As its name suggests, the Soul Eater Rune consumes the souls of friends and foes alike, but both of its known wielders are good guys through and through. The Night Rune allows the existence of night creatures like zombies, but it's also only been used by good guys to slay vampires and such. Finally, while the Moon Rune, with its ability to bestow vampirism, has been used for evil purposes, its original bearer used it to save people who traveled into her forest and allowed the vampires she created to thrive without the need of blood.
** The Soul Eater can even be considered a subversion, as at the end of the [[Suikoden I|first game]], {{spoiler|Windy attempts to take the Soul Eater from Tir by force, but it refuses to accept her as it's master, even though, as she said herself, she was it's ideal host, reveling in death and destruction, just like the Soul Eater}}.
** [[Suikoden IV|The Rune of Punishment]] burns through a ''lot'' of bearers and ''does'' have a few 'bad guys' for bearers...but it isn't picky, and overall, its bearers tend toward unfortunate bystanders with varying degrees of innocence before an [[Artifact of Doom]] fused itself to their hand.
* ''[[
** It should be noted that as dark powers go, Heroes are generally better with the defense/support aspects while Villains are better with blasting the ever-loving crap out of whoever is unfortunate enough to get in their way, which is pretty much par for the course.
*** Part of this is that ''[[City of Heroes]]'' retained much of the old-school [[An Adventurer Is You|Tanker/Healer/Damage Dealer]] balance from most [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]], while ''City Of Villains'' (which came out over a year later) tried to move away from that by making all of the villains damage dealers. Therefore, Heroes are more specialized and rely on each other for greater survivability while Villains are more generalized and combine their damage output in order to kill their enemies faster than they can be killed back.
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* In ''[[Odin Sphere]]'', one of the main protagonists, Oswald, had his soul sold to the Queen of the Underworld in order to increase the power of his already-cursed sword, giving him the ability to turn into a creature of darkness. While he is a boss in one character's story, he mainly uses his stereotypically evil powers for good. Though he does have a few [[Anti-Hero]] moments...
** To be fair, he didn't sell his soul, {{spoiler|his foster father did. Meaning, he sold Oswald's soul so he could use Oswald as a near-unstoppable [[The Dragon|dragon]] at his own leisure. And he was planning to ''mass produce'' the technique...}}
* Completely subverted by the Necromancer in both ''[[Diablo (
** In the case of ''Hexen 2'', that was just a case of eliminating the competition so HE could take over. According to the expansion manual, he went straight back to running his own reign of terror after the first game.
** ''Diablo II'' justifies this by explaining that the necromancy class is a quasi-religious order devoted to cosmic balance between life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, etc. Maybe True Neutral, in D&D terms, but in a world where literal demons are trying to take over, True Neutral is right there, standing side by side with Lawful Good. It doesn't hurt, of course, that the only bodies he raises as his minions are those of slain demons and such. It actually points out that there's nothing inherently evil about necromancy (unless you consider desecrating graves to be evil), especially if used to fight a REALLY evil army, unless the necromancer doesn't have enough bodies and goes out of his way to make more.
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{{quote| ''I know my history, Mardor, and every time a necromancer becomes a threat, the entire world mobilizes against them. No one, not even orcs or trolls, wants to be ruled by someone who consorts with the dead!''...''Then I survive. Long after Great Arcan and Palaedra fall, even after whatever kingdoms come after them have faded into obscurity, Nekross will be right here where it has always been. And I will be sitting on its throne! That, Mardor, is my kind of victory!''}}
** In fact, that should be called [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]].
* Shuu Shirakawa from ''[[
* [[Averted Trope]] and/or [[Subverted Trope]], depending on the character in ''[[
** Characters like Yuyuko have the ability to kill humans with nothing but a thought. What did she do with it? [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the world from a monster tree, turning her into a [[Cute Ghost Girl]] incapable of ever reincarnating (it's a gameworld based on Buddhism).
** Orin is a [[Catgirl|nekomata]] who collects corpses and lives with evil spirits that seek revenge. Don't let that fool you, she might play rough, but she's completely friendly and implied to have started living with Reimu as a pet cat.
** Komachi, a [[Don't Fear the Reaper|not-so-grim reaper]], ferries the dead across the Sanzu no Kawa (basically, the River Styx). [[The Slacker|Completely lazy]], wants to do everything "at her pace", and makes for a great drinking buddy.
** Yamame, monstrous spider with the power to spread diseases. Also a [[Cute Monster Girl]] whose only "spidery" appearance is in the clothing she wears. [[Word of God]] description: "Her power makes everyone she meets hate her. However, she herself wouldn't inflict disease on someone without reason. She's a bright, fun-loving youkai if you get to know her, so she's popular among the youkai that live underground."
* Subverted by Ashley in ''[[
* Averted in ''[[
* Averted with Blue Mages (and various equivalents) in several ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games: these characters can learn attacks & magics that are unique to enemies (pretty much Bad Powers by definition), but are the good guys.
* Blatantly subverted with [[Olympus Mons|the lake trio]] in ''[[
** ''[[
* This is discussed in ''[[
* Alex Mercer of ''[[Prototype (
* In [[Dungeons and Dragons Online]], a player can build a mage character as a necromancer and slowly become a [[Our Liches Are Different|lich]] over time as they reach max level... and be [[Lawful Good]] all the way. In fact, it's impossible to be any moral alignment but good or neutral, though lawful and chaotic are still open.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
** It's worth noting that the sword can talk after coming in contact with innocent blood, and when Torg accuses it of being evil, it replies that [[Dark Is Not Evil|it's only a sword, has no alignment, and will be used for good or evil depending only on the master who wields it]].
* Capricorn from [[Zodiac (
* Tsukiko from ''[[
* In ''[[
* [[Super Stupor]]'s [http://www.superstupor.com/sust11262007.shtml first strip] subverts this one with a bad power, good person.
* In the webcomic "Zom Ben", the titular character is a superhero whose power of turning into a zombie is gained from an amulet that Set gave him.
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* While there are examples of the first in the webfiction [[Whateley Universe]] (like Maggot and Killstench), there are also examples of the second type. Gotterdammerung can disintegrate matter by touching it, sometimes by accident, and his upper limit is somewhere around 700 kilograms. Carmilla is a multiple murderer who absorbs the life force of things by contact. She's trying to be a hero.
** Sara is partially a subversion, as she pretty much gets over her angst after Insanity III. Now, she has to find that fine line between 'hero' and 'anti-hero'...
* [[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Raven from ''[[Teen Titans (
** {{spoiler|Jinx is a more straightforward example up to her [[Heel Face Turn]] thanks to Kid Flash: as the page quote notes, she believed she had to be a bad guy because of her powers.}}
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
=== Other ===
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[
{{quote| '''Huey:''' [[Mind Over Matter|I'd crush the throats of the insolent]] like [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]].<br />
'''Caesar:''' [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|You know how I say you go too far sometimes?]] <br />
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[
** The show's actual stance on the matter is that Firebending isn't any better or worse, morally, than any other form of Bending; it's what you do with it that matters. Firebending is considered evil by most people in-universe for largely the same reason "Nazi" has become synonymous with "evil" (jokes about the inherent morality of political parties notwithstanding); most of the people who use it are bad people. Anyone who doesn't fit in this category is such a minority that the people making the assessment probably don't even know they exist.
** It ultimately turns out it's a matter of training. The three Fire Lords waging the hundred-year war abandoned firebending techniques {{spoiler|they learned from dragons}} in favor of [[Psychoactive Powers]] that drew directly from rage and hatred - this enabled them to field entire armies of firebenders. It also resulted in this trope: Jeong Jeong was the only firebender with the [[Heroic Willpower]] not to be psychotic despite using the techniques, and Iroh {{spoiler|relearned the basic technique from dragons.}}
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