Super-Powered Evil Side: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Magical Project S]]'' Misao is normally a shy, physically weak and powerless girl, but when she transforms into her evil side, Pixy Misa, she becomes super confident and super competent. At full power she is able to easily defeat the heroine Sasami.

* Himura Kenshin from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' is a technical pacifist in battle, fights with a reverse-blade sword and vowed years ago to never kill again. But if things seem to be getting out of hand even for him to handle (usually when his friends are in danger), his fighting style and mindset slowly begin changing into the highly pragmatic and ruthless Battousai, the assassin he was ten years ago. He switches the extremely humble ''sessha'' for the brash ''ore'', loses the ''de gozaru'' from his speech, his eyes turn gold and more slanted and he moves for the kill. In the anime, Battousai seems to be considered an actual personality Kenshin has learned to seal off by creating his rurouni persona - he has to literally punch himself in the face to push it back and revert back. In the manga, this gets lampshaded a bit when Kenshin remarks that his face muscles have cramped and he isn't able to end his permanent death glare.

* Double-subverted (at least) in ''Super Taboo'' with [[Nice Guy|Yuu]] turning into [[Good Eyes, Evil Eyes|"Instinct Yuu,"]] which is less [[Omnicidal Maniac]] and more the personification of [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]] that's initially ''desired'' by his [[Incest Is Relative|mother and sister]] since that side awakens whenever he's sexually aroused [[What Did I Do Last Night?|(minus everyone being drunk on Christmas)]] and implied to be [[In the Blood|inherited from his father,]] whose [[Compelling Voice|voice is even mesmerizing enough for Up To Eleven Phone Sex with his wife.]] Other than the confusing blackouts and [[My God, What Have I Done?|reactions to sleeping with various women]] it/he's harmless until [[Took a Level in Jerkass|by being too rough with his sister,]] requiring a [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] where Reason and Instinct (previously just a running gag where Instinct curbstomps Reason in cartoon-form ex. Barney-like dragon eating a knight) are personified as a [[Betty and Veronica]] that he has to choose between despite [[Evil Is Sexy]]. He finally chooses to be with Reason and rewarded with one last shot at his mom as himself (who's somehow a virgin) before being more steady with his [[Brother-Sister Incest|sister as a happily ever after.]]

 

* In the [[Alan Moore]] Retelling of the comic Marvelman, [[Miracleman]], Kid Miracleman is the only survivor of a nuclear blast (He thinks) and stays in his superpowered form for years. In this form, but using his civilian name of Johnny Bates, he grows up. His moral code begins to erode because he is the most powerful man on earth and he has no one to tell him what to do. When Miracleman confronts him years later, he is the CEO of a computer company and a rather nasty piece of work. They fight, and he is forced to change back into a normal human ''child'' (His other self didn't age for ''years'' while in stasis) and left at an orphanage. There he is constantly bullied by other orphans, having to carry the dreadful knowledge that he could become more powerful than any of them, but he dare not because KM would start killing people. Then he is pinned one day, and some of the boys attempt to gang rape him, and this pushes him past the breaking point. The resulting awakening of KM results in the slaughter of the boys and a significant number of the population of London. Miracleman is forced to make him transform back into a human and end his life with a [[Neck Snap]].

** In an [[Story Within a Story|apocryphal story called "The Rascal Prince"]], a book read by followers of Johnny Bates who think he was a tragic victim tells a tale two ways: The revisionist version that depicts KM's meeting with an older woman as a flirty chaste romance, and as the [[Real Life]] version depicting [[Nightmare Fuel|a brutal rape of an unwilling victim]].

* In he [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007|Roommates]]'' Goblin King Jareth has one {{spoiler|and technically that's his original personality... but his love and gratitude for the girl he choose, the camaraderie he feels for his friends and his own desire to change makes him suppress it. Not that it helps much even his good side is an "easily entertained but frequently bored trickster". Visually his "Evil" ("amoral ruthless fae lord") side has solid dark (dark blue) eyes and a penchant for wearing dark fantasy villain getups (spiky armor, dramatic capes etc.)... not that his "good" side wouldn't wear those, so the most telling mark is his eye color. To say with alignments his "good" side is [[Chaotic Neutral]] (with Good intentions) the "evil" one is [[Neutral Evil]] (Chaotic in modus operandi but Lawful in the way that he is [[Fourth Wall Observer]] meets [[The Fatalist]].}}

 

* Nathan Wallace in ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' is a sweet, loving, family man. Until he puts on his helmet, at which point he becomes the merciless Repo Man.

* ''[[Heavy Metal (animation)|Heavy Metal]]'' segment "Captain Sternn". While under the influence of the Loc-Nar, Hanover Fiste grows into a mightily muscled hulk and smashes through all opposition in an attempt to murder Sternn. {{spoiler|Once everyone's gone, he turns back. Sternn then thanks him for getting him out of the trial... before shooting him out of an airlock in lieu of payment.}}

** In the comics, however, it unleashes a more "evil" side to a person, as the eponymous mask takes the driver's seat of their mind.

* [[Unstoppable Rage|How]] [[Relative Button|Luke]] [[Curb Stomp Battle|defeats]] [[The Dragon|Vader]] in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. [[Smug Snake|Palpatine]] even [[Manipulative Bastard|says]] it: "Your hate has made you powerful." Per [[Word of God]], this is how [[Troubled but Cute|Anakin]] [[Off with His Head|defeats]] [[Master Swordsman|Count Dooku]] ... but it has the [[Power At a Price|cost]] of causing him to [[Start of Darkness|edge closer]] to [[The Dark Side]].

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[House of Leaves]]'', Johnny Truant channels his Super-Powered Evil Side against [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Gdansk Man]]. The way in which Truant thrashes him and how the book describes Gdansk Man's wounds afterwards has led to some [[Epileptic Trees]], such as {{spoiler|Johnny Truant '''is''' <s>the Minotaur</s>}}.

* Most [[Our Werewolves Are Different|werewolves]] that aren't villainous in human form get a lot more powerful and don't mind the taste of blood when transformed. Both the ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' and ''[[Mercy Thompson]]'' series have werewolf choosing their animal form for combat, and the ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' series portrays the Wolf as an alternate personality. The Wolf won't go out of its way to [[Kick the Dog]], but [[Heroic Sociopath|it won't really care about]] taboos regarding [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalism]] or [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|murder]].

* Multiple examples in the ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'' books. {{spoiler|Darquesse, Lord Vile and Shudder's gist come to mind}}.

* In [[The First Law]] trilogy, a perfect example of this trope is The Bloody Nine, Logen Ninefingers's powerful, chaotic and blood-thirsty alter-ego.

* In ''[[Wild Cards]]'', The Radical has the combiend powers of all other alter-egos of Captain' Trips, thus making one of the most powerful aces. He's also, depending on where you stand, a [[Well Intention Extremist]] or a full-blown villain. Obviously he won't let Trips take back the control of his body.

 

* Niki in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has her amoral alter ego Jessica ("[[Fan Nickname|ikiN]]"), who has sole control of her super strength {{spoiler|until the finale, when Niki finally gets to use it for herself. She might have used it once on impulse a few episodes prior to stop an attacking policeman--this is debatable.}}

** In the second season, it was explained that {{spoiler|Niki, like some other metahumans, subconsciously manifests another personality imbued with their ability (leaving the original personality powerless) as a result of being metahumans, or because of the original personality's inability to cope with the reality of being a metahuman. When Niki conquered the Jessica persona at the conclusion of the first season finale, she manifested a third personality named Gina several weeks later.}}

* Sam Winchester, ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. When he taps into the demonic "special child" aspect, he is extremely powerful (telekinesis, exorcism, torturing/killing of demons, immunity to attacks by demons) but loses all his humanity and morality and becomes arrogant, violent and cold. His eyes turn yellow or black on a couple of occasions.

* Bo in [[Lost Girl]] has a major Superpowered dark side, draining a whole room of people of their life force when someone is about to kill her lover.

 

== Mythology ==

* [[Older Than Print]]: Cuchulainn in Irish mythology has a prime example of this kind of [[Unstoppable Rage]]. In the epic, ''[[Táin Bó Cúailnge]]'', he enters a "Ríastrad" or "Warp Spasm." In this state he [[Painful Transformation|transforms]] into [[One-Winged Angel|a horribly mutilated monster]] whose very appearance is enough to scare enemies away. The catch is that, while in this form, Cuchulainn may not know friend from foe. (See ''Slainé'' from ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' to see just ''how'' mutilated he looks.)

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* In 1996, Japanese wrestler Jushin Liger, who traditionally played the role of a face, unveiled his "Kishin Liger" heel persona, when he wrestled heel wrestler the Great Muta, who mid-match ripped Liger's mask off, revealing his "oni face". Liger's wrestling style would become notably more aggressive and heel-like in this persona.

* This was also [[Mick Foley]]'s schtick for a while in the WWE: when he needed a "boost" for a match, he'd come out as either his [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|Mankind]] or [[Ax Crazy|Cactus Jack]] persona.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Highly common in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', and one of the reasons Space Marines (Grey Knights in particular) are required to pass such rigorous and often deadly mental trials as a method of prevention. The most obvious are the Blood Angels Chapter and its successor chapters, whose members are known to succumb to a condition called the Black Rage which increases their already [[Super Soldier]] levels of strength and vitality and turns them into frothing berserkers who seek only death, often organised into aptly-named Death Companies led by skull-helmeted [[Badass Preacher]]s. [[Our Elves Are Better|The Eldar]] however create one of these ''intentionally'', inducing a form of split personality disorder so that in battle they can fight with unhindered skill and brutality while retaining absolute control over themselves the rest of the time. Then there's Chaos, which, being [[The Corruption]] and [[Exclusively Evil]] personified, fully embraces the added power this trope provides with no concern for the consequences, because "sanity is for the ''weak''".

** And then there's the Possessed Marines, who have a Superpowered ''Super Evil'' side.

 

== Toys ==

* Takanuva gets one of these in ''[[Bionicle]]'', after having some of his Light drained by a Shadow Leech.

 

== Video Games ==

* {{spoiler|Franken}} from ''[[Noblesse]]'' slips back to his [[Mad Scientist]] persona when he unlocks his power, which allows him to curb stomp ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE. His [[Slasher Smile]] has to be seen to believe it.

* In some of [https://web.archive.org/web/20151103162928/http://zeurel.deviantart.com/art/LoT-Lost-Keys-Part-1-91830186 Zeurel]'s [[Original Character Tournament]] entries such as [[Law of Talos]] and [[Escape From Nevara]], Black Ace is this to Spoiler.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] treats Dr. Insano as this in ''[[Kickassia]]''.

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', Josiah Brimstone is a skilled and powerful sorcerer, but when his spells are not enough, he can unleash his [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|inner demon]] on the bad guys. The inner demon doesn't always stop at beating down the bad guys, though, so Brimstone is really reluctant to do this. Viviane von Klause, the "Witch of San Francisco" tries to avoid overusing her magical abilities because if she goes too far and pushes her magic too far, the ghost of her Satanist grandmother takes over for a little while.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Dragons are prone to greed, and the greedier they get, the bigger and stronger they get, which makes them even greedier. In "Secret of my Excess", a few extra gifts on his birthday awaken Spike's dragon greed, and he becomes a huge rampaging full-grown dragon taking everything he wants from Ponyville. {{spoiler|He snaps out of it when he is reminded of his moment of generosity earlier in the episode.}}

* In the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon, a splashing of chemicals prompts good-natured vegetarian Beast Boy to turn into a surly, meat-chomping bad boy who later turns into an anthropomorphic wolfman that was capable of taking on the entire team (as well as another wolfman). Later it's explained that, instead of turning Beast Boy into an actual lycanthrope, the chemicals only unleashed what was already there (which makes no sense considering that {{spoiler|they also changed Adonis}}), and he's given an antidote so that he won't transform against his will. He once again manifests this hidden wild side in a battle against Slade, slicing through a number of his goons before Slade puts a stop to it with his own supercharged powers.

* In ''[[Winx Club]]'', Lord Darkar uses his dark magic to turn Bloom into her Super-Powered Evil Side in the form of Dark Bloom, who is basically Bloom with a black version of her fairy outfit and demonic yellow eyes. And he does it twice with her in the second season. Once to have her ship off Alfea's Codex piece to him through his [[Team Pet]] Kerbog, and again to have her help him open the portal to Realix with the four Codex pieces where he can acquire the Ultimate Power. Both times had her turned back to normal in the end - for the first time, the impostor Professor Avalon used his wand to lift the spell, and for the second time, it was Prince Sky who changed her back through his words of kindness, especially his "I love you" line, after which she returns the Ultimate Power to its rightful place to Darkar's shock and dismay.

* One episode of ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' was about [[Our Dragons Are Different|Dojo]] transforming into an evil monster and destroying everything in his path after Omi accidentally frees him from his cage.

 

== Real Life ==

 

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