Defector From Decadence: Difference between revisions
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[[File:different.jpg|link=X Wing Series|thumb|350px|He was offered a [[Medal of Dishonor|medal]], praised highly, and invited to [[Screw the War, We're Partying|the orgy]]. He let his pilots indulge because it would be inhuman to deny them pleasure just before they're sent to die. But he's not happy.]]
{{quote|''"In all my travelling throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core!"''
|'''The Sixth Doctor''', ''[[Doctor Who]]'', ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S23/E04 The Ultimate Foe|The Ultimate Foe]]''}}
A character who joins either the protagonists or antagonists not so much because he agrees with all their ideas as he can no longer tolerate the opinions or actions of his old group. This is usually because their methods are [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|too extreme]], [[Stupid Evil|ineffectual]] or [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|illogical.]]
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* [[The Elric Saga|Prince Elric of Melnibone]], titular [[Anti-Hero]] and one of the incarnation of the [[Chosen One|Eternal Champion]] in [[Michael Moorcock]]'s fantasy universe. In his case, his whole ''race'' was infamous for being callous, sadistic and decadent slaveholders (although we get to meet a few Melniboneans who are not malicious and underhanded, most notably Elric's fiancee and the pragmatic dragonriders). Elric, himself a powerful sorcerer, had grown so weary with his people's banal wickedness, that he left Imrryr The Dreaming City, but later returned with a fleet of humans warships to destroy it, razing the last remnant of a once proud and ancient civilization.
** [[Dorian Hawkmoon]], the Duke of Köln, another incarnation of the Eternal Champion, finds an unlikely ally in his fight for freedom in the [[Evil Brit|Granbretanic]] [[Aristocrats Are Evil|aristocrat]] d'Averc. d'Averc is fond of affecting the appearance of a decadent effete courtier and hypochondriac to the point of cliche. However, there is every indication that it's just for show, and that d'Averc is quite tough, strong and shrewd, not to mention a superb swordsman and duelist and a [[Deadpan Snarker]] (and secret romantic). Although cheerfully untroubled by moral considerations, d'Averc is not as utterly amoral (nor borderline insane) as most of his fellow Granbretans. In fact, he seems disgusted at the decadence and violence of the tyrannical Granbretan [[The Empire|DarkEmpire]], and defects to help Hawkmoon and Count Brass.
* In [[The Lord of the Rings|the world of Middle Earth]], the realms of Arnor and Gondor were both founded by Elendil and the Numenoreans who fled with him after their kingdom was corrupted by the influence of Sauron.
* Strawberry in ''[[Watership Down]]'' joins the protagonists, abandoning his own warren, when the death of his mate makes him realize that his [[Town with a Dark Secret|outwardly pleasant but mysterious warren]] is NOT worth [[Utopia Justifies the Means|the price that is paid for it.]] In an unusually three-dimensional version of the trope, Strawberry retains some of his old habits throughout the story, even when they get him into trouble.
* Captain Alberich of Karse presents an arguable subversion. Although he was deeply troubled by the [[Corrupt Church|corruption of his homeland's ruling theocracy]], the practice of letting bandits run free in the borderlands to provide cover for raids against the [[Heralds of Valdemar|demon-riders]] to the north, and the not-so-occasional burning of those with [[Psychic Powers|'witch-powers]]; he did not defect to Valdemar so much as get [[Call to Adventure|shanghaied by]] one of the [[Cool Horse|"White Demons"]] the place was known for.
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* Gaheris Rhade in ''[[Andromeda]]'''s "The Unconquerable Man" begins the episode by betraying the All Systems Commonwealth to help his people attempt a conquest, but then spends the next several years trying to restore the Commonwealth once he sees that his people are too self-centered and obsessed with in-fighting to really make a go of a galactic empire.
** Rhade is a double example; the reason he originally betrayed the Commonwealth to the Nietzscheans is because he believed the Commonwealth's treaty with the Magog showed that the Commonwealth was too weak and decadent to defend its people.
* Worf in ''[[Star Trek: The
** Then again, the ''Next Generation'' episode "Face of the Enemy" features a character who plays this trope straight-up twice (the second time, he realized the grass wasn't so green on the other side after all and defected back).
** In the ''Next Generation'' episode "The Defector", a Romulan admiral defects to the Federation because he has become disgusted with his fellow Romulans' warlike ways.
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** Garak is an inversion. He loves Cardassia (his home planet) despite (and possibly because of) their sometimes disturbing social and political philosophies, even despite having been banished for life, and helps the Federation solely because he doesn't believe The Dominion has the best interests of Cardassia at heart. {{spoiler|And they certainly don't as in the finale they attempt to exterminate every Cardassian on-planet. At the end Garak laments that even when they rebuild, it won't be ''his'' Cardassia, which he spent seven years of dreaming to return to.}} That ''his'' Cardassia was deliberately portrayed as [[Space Nazi|SpaceNazis]] is a large part of his character.
** Odo, despite not knowing his people until the third season manages to pull this off well. His attitudes about law and order are shared by his people, but they built an empire based off this and keep trying to get him to defect in earlier stories.
** The [[Mirror Universe]] Spock in ''[[Star Trek: The
** [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Weyoun's]] clone #6 attempts to defect to the Federation from the Dominion
* Teal'c, resident [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', went to far as to kill his own squad of elite troops while performing his [[Heel Face Turn]] in the first episode of the series.
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* Played with in ''[[Farscape]]'', in which Chiana is a Defector '''To''' Decadence. Most of her culture, the Nebari, are repressive, puritanical authoritarians, while she is [[Really Gets Around|a]] [[The Ladette|bit different]].
* Joe from ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' was originally an elite within the Space Empire Zangyack before he left to become GokaiBlue after his superior order him kill innocent ''children''. Joe's senior officer and close friend, Sid Barmick also does this after the incident above and was the one who encourage him to get away from Zangyack. Too bad for him {{spoiler|He was captured and turn into [[Hollywood Cyborg|Barizorg]], his memories were erased and programmed to serve only the emperor and his son.}}
* The Mole Beastman from ''[[Kamen Rider Amazon]]'' decided to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]] because his old bosses are firm supporters of [[You Have Failed Me...]] and pretty much his only options with them were A) be brutally torn to shreds by Amazon or B) return to base and die horribly at the hands of the [[Big Bad]]. What clinched it was that Amazon actually took pity on him and saved him from execution, convincing him being a good guy was the better choice.
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** The most famous of these defectors was arguably [[Batista]]. For more than two years, he was [[The Brute]] in Evolution, a faction on ''Monday Night Raw'' that also consisted of Hunter Hearst Helmsley (a.k.a. [[Triple H]]), [[Ric Flair]], and [[Randy Orton]]. After Orton was expelled from the group in the summer of 2004, however, Batista began to have second thoughts about being a member of Evolution. He kept a low profile at first, though, ostensibly remaining an ally of Helmsley and Flair while privately expressing disgust at their methods. It wasn't until he won the Royal Rumble Match in January 2005 and was presented with an opportunity to challenge Helmsley for his World Heavyweight Championship that Batista realized that the moment for defection had come. After pretending to sign a contract that would have moved him to ''SmackDown!'' to challenge John "Bradshaw" Layfield for the WWE Championship, Batista revealed that he would stay on ''Raw'' by powerbombing Triple H and challenging him for his championship at ''WrestleMania''. This marked Batista's official exit from Evolution - [[Breakup Breakout|and the beginning of his highly successful singles career]].
** And, in a reverse example in [[TNA]], Flair himself turned his back on his group Fortune in early 2011 after the other members turned face and declared war on [[Hulk Hogan]]'s faction, Immortal, with which Fortune had been closely affiliated up to that time; Flair officially declared his allegiance to Immortal, becoming a mentor to Matt Hardy.
** [[Kelly Kelly]] (who wasn't really a heel, but was essentially acting as one at the time) experienced a similar change of heart in the summer of 2007 on ''ECW On SciFi''. She had gained notoriety on the program over the past year with her "Extreme Expose," a combination dance/burlesque routine that definitely put the "Extreme" in ECW. Early in 2007, the act became a three-woman show when Layla El and Brooke Adams joined Kelly in her performances. The girls at first simply entertained the crowds in between matches, but soon they found themselves unofficial cheerleaders for [[The Miz]], who had recently been drafted to the promotion from ''SmackDown!'' One night Miz's opponent was Balls Mahoney, and Kelly realized that she had become smitten with him. She began to show sympathy for Mahoney, as well as resentment toward The Miz and Layla and Brooke for bullying him. She tried to quit Extreme Expose (her own creation!) but quickly found out that she ''couldn't'', because Miz owned all three girls' contracts. In the end, The Miz cut his ties with Extreme Expose to become John Morrison's tag-team partner, Brooke left [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] only to be reborn as [[Shout-Out|"Miss Tessmacher"]] (Eric Bischoff's [[Sexy Secretary]] in [[TNA]]), and Kelly and Layla became bitter enemies for the rest of their stay in ECW and later on Smackdown.
** Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater did this twice—leaving [[The Nexus]] for The Corre, then ''disbanding The Corre''—and STILL managed to stay heels in the process.
*** Well, they split up shortly afterwards, with Gabriel turning face, and Slater staying heel.
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' has some cases, both successful and failed - unsurprising with corruption being one of the constant themes.
** The Craftworld Eldar and Exodites of
** In the [[Literature|novels]], the Soul Drinkers [[Space Marine]] chapter are Defectors from the ''[[Designated Hero|Imperium]]''. They still worship the Emperor, but believe that the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]s, [[Corrupt Church]] [[Church Militant]], and [[Dying Like Animals|cowed people]] make a mockery of His intentions. They rebel, but [[Heroic Willpower|just barely]] [[Take a Third Option|avoid falling to Chaos]].
* There's buckets of this in World of Darkness games, both [[Old World of Darkness|Old]] and [[New World of Darkness|New]]—largely due to the tendency for supernatural creatures/people to squabble amongst themselves like crazy. Prime examples include:
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== [[Theater]] ==
* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: It's clear that De Guiche is considered [[No True Scotsman|No True Gascon]], because he cannot longer tolerate the opinions and actions of the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Gascons]]. De Guiche sees the rather obvious truth that their [[Martyrdom Culture]] is [[Stupid Sacrifice|self-destructive]] and De Guiche is [[Ambition Is Evil|willing to compromise to get power]], joins the [[Deadly Decadent Court]] as another courtesan and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|wants to show]] [[The Dandy|his wealth]]. The point is that the De Guiche still exhibit the [[Disproportionate Retribution|jerkass traits]] of being a Gascon and even when he will make something of his life (he shall be appointed Marshal of Grammont in the [[Distant Finale]]) he still feels [[Lonely
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* The backstory of the ''[[Myst]]'' games, particularly the tie-in novel ''The Book of D'ni'', reveals that the entire D'ni race is one of these. When their original homeworld was dying, most of the population moved to the Age of Tehranee, a decadent world of perfect climate and boundless space. A small part of them, however, went to another world, D'ni (or Earth), where they would live underground and be forced to eke out a living through advanced engineering abilities. The purpose of this was, similar to the Amish movement, to prevent decadence from rotting society, and it failed: the exact same kind of sedentarity and elitism that plagued Tehranee also crept into D'ni society, and ultimately caused the downfall of both civilizations. At some time in the series of the games, Atrus builds a new Age, Releeshahn, for the D'ni survivors, and founds a new society meant to address these issues by introducing such policies as social equality.
* Whether Abysswalker Artorias is this or a [[Fallen Hero]] is the subject of much debate in ''[[Dark Souls]]''. Artorias was one of Lord Gwyn's four great knights, making him one of his top lieutenants, and one of the most important character in his court that isn't an outright god. An unknown number of years ago, the Darkwraiths (Humanity devouring dark knights of the Abyss) appeared. They were so [[Godzilla Threshold|dangerous]] that it eventually resulted in outright sacrificing an entire city. Artorias was charged with hunting the Darkwraiths, but instead joined them for reasons that are not known. He died sometime after, also for unknown reasons.
* The man from the beginning of ''[[Battle Golfer Yui]]'' turns out to be {{spoiler|Dr. T, Prof. G's brother}}. He helped Yui out {{spoiler|because he felt his brother had gone too far in the field of robotics}}. For some reason, {{spoiler|he hid the triggers for a nuke underneath the Ghyll Country Club in Yui and Ran's hands. Once their hands touch, it activates and kills many people, ending Dark Hazard once and for all.}}
* Ryuzo in ''Ghost of Tsushima'' betrays Jin and defects to the Khan, deciding the title of samurai isn't worth pursuing, and the Japanese tradition as a whole no longer worth fighting for. It's hard to argue since he and all his men are outcast and left to starve because of the stigma around [[Ronin|ronins]] when their contribution could make a difference in the conflict, and the samurai way's [[Honor Before Reason|obsession with honor]] was the leading cause of nearly all of them getting slaughtered in the catastrophic battle at the very beginning of the game (a weakness the Khan had studied in advance and used against them).
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* President [[John Tyler]] switched from the Democratic party to the Whig party because he didn't like [[Andrew Jackson]]'s dictatorial methods.
* Flavius Vegetius Renatus: "To seduce the enemies soldiers from their allegiance and encourage them to surrender is of special service, for an adversary is more hurt by desertion than by slaughter." [https://web.archive.org/web/20180224074915/http://www.military-quotes.com/vegetius-renatus.htm
* Missing records and contradictory stories make it hard to tell how much this applied to history, but legendary samurai [[Yagyu Jubei]] is often portrayed as a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] who spent years [[Walking the Earth]] after being banished due to his disdain for court politics and blunt ways.
* Democratic senator [[wikipedia:Stephen A. Douglas|Stephen Douglas]] was, for a time, considered as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1860 when he defied his party and fellow Democrat President James Buchanan over their attempts to pass a slave code that would have made Kansas a slave state regardless of whether the people wished it to be a slave or free state. For all intents and purposes Douglas' near defection split the Democratic party's northern and southern wings as Douglas would become one of two Democratic candidates for President in 1860, (the other being John Breckenridge) with Douglas getting nearly all of his support from the Northern Democrats. For their part, the Republicans wound up picking some obscure former Congressman named Abraham Lincoln instead, who, due to the split among Democrats, was able to win with just 40% of the popular vote. (Although, since it was a four way race, 40% was quite a bit more than Lincoln's nearest rival). After Lincoln's election, Douglas urged the South to accept Lincoln and attempted to work to avoid [[The American Civil War]]. When the South did secede, he condemned the action and rallied support for the North, but died not long after the war's onset.
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** Though interestingly he defected from strict asceticism as well, and went on to find his own, famous path.
* [[Mark Twain]] was originally a supporter of American Imperialism. However, when he realized that the nation's actions did not follow its rhetoric, he switched sides.
* Many real-life defectors from communist nation-states were the elite of society. [
* The industrialist Fritz Thyssen was originally an ardent supporter of Hitler and [[Nazi Germany|the Nazi Party]], up until he was thoroughly disgusted by Kristallnacht. He literally defected from Germany, causing Hitler to personally declare him an [[Unperson]], and holed up in France... until France was overrun in [[World War Two]]. He was thrown into a concentration camp, but still managed to survive the war.
** This seemed to happen a lot with the Nazis, maybe why there were 27 or so [[wikipedia:Assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler|attempts on Hitler's life]] between '34 and '44, not including 10 or so in '33, and another 4 before that.
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** [[Rebel Leader]] [[wikipedia:Mustafa Abdul Jalil|Mustafa Abdul Jalil]] was Minister of Justice under Gaddafi, until Gaddafi started slaughtering protesters.
* Two of the most prominent anarchist theorists Mikhail Bakunin and Pyotr Kropotkin were Russian princes, but rejected their privileged positions. Both ended up in prison at some time and later fled/were expelled into exile.
* Patrick Moore, PhD, a co-founder of Greenpeace, who served for 9 years as President of Greenpeace Canada and 7 years as a Director of Greenpeace International. Later he came to disagreement with them, left to found his own movement, and after the last Global Warming campaign started, began to actively oppose what he calls "pop-environmentalism", published a book named ''Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout'' and later even started [http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11187056.htm a demonstration] against one of Greenpeace's own agendas. He's still an environmentalist, and gets enthusiastic about things, but more of the talking sort than shouting - or as his Twitter tagline says, "Science & logic, not sensation & fear".
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[[Category:Stock Characters]]
[[Category:Redemption Tropes]]
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