Then Let Me Be Evil: Difference between revisions
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''I'm gonna be what they say.''
''Hey world, I'll do it your way!''
''You're lookin' for a monster, well it's your lucky day!''
|'''Shrek''', "Gonna Build a Wall," ''[[Shrek|Shrek the Musical]]''}}
{{quote|''Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;''
''But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs.''
|'''Shylock''', [[The Merchant of Venice]]}}
Sometimes the "forces of good" in a story treat an "evil" character badly enough, for long enough, that the "evil" character just says "Screw it. You think I'm evil? [[Title Drop|Then let me be evil.]]" Prolonged exposure to the cynical side of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] has conditioned this character to accept the fact that [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], and if he wants to get anywhere in the world, he has to be every bit as dirty and cruel as they are.
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See also [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Gaara of ''[[Naruto]]'' was originally a sad, lonely boy who simply wanted a friend. But the villagers feared his power, and hated him because of its source. Finally, after [[Despair Event Horizon|Yashimaru tried to kill him]], on orders of Gaara's father no less, Gaara becomes exactly what Yashimaru and the villagers had always said he was: A monster that loved only itself. Fortunately [[Defeat Means Friendship]], and after fighting Naruto and losing Gaara eventually regains his sanity and learns to trust and love other people again. He later even becomes the new Kazekage, and is now revered by the villagers as a hero.
** In recent chapters, {{spoiler|Gaara's father, the 4th Kazekage, has been brought [[Back from the Dead]]...and revealed that Yashamaru never believed a word of his [[Hannibal Lecture]]. He only told Gaara that nobody ever loved him, and that even his own mother hated him, because they thought the shock would make him easier to kill, an order given only because they thought he was too unstable because of the demon placed within him. When the Kazekage sees all that his son has accomplished in spite of all this, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|he tells him that both Yashamaru and his mother always loved him, that he's sorry for ruining his life, and that he's never been prouder of him and should have had the faith in him that his mother did.]]}}
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* During the climax of ''[[Devilman Lady]],'' Asuka has transformed into a godlike being, brainwashing most of the world into loving her. Meanwhile, protagonist Jun has been cast into a giant (possibly metaphorical) pit, but she manages to rally her strength and declares that if Asuka is "God," then Jun will become the Devil to destroy her!
* ''[[One Piece]]
** A child named
** Not played for laughs, Robin was a victim of this. As a child, she was labeled a demon by the World Government, who feared the ponegraphs she was able to read. After being hounded by angry mobs for twenty years on the lam, she joined Crocodile's criminal organization, becoming something of
*** Emphasized in the Wano Country Arc, when Black Maria (owner of the Skull Dome, a Hooker With a Heart of Blackest Stone) calls her Devil Child. Robin's reaction is pretty much, if this heartless bitch calls her a demon, she's going to act like one, and unleashes her most lethal technique to date, the ''Demonio Fleur'' where she... eh, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vcS1iSiBNk maybe it's better seen than described.] Whether Maria even survived this brutal assault is not yet confirmed, but it is clear this is where her [[Karma Houdini Warranty]] expired.
* Lighthearted version in ''[[My Hero Academia]]''; Iida is at first a little miffed at having to play the bad guy in the role playing exercise, but once he devotes himself to it - and his teammate - he manages to act like the typical hammy villain wonderfully.
== Comics ==▼
* This is one of the motivations behind the Plutonian's [[Face Heel Turn]] in ''[[Irredeemable]]''. In his mind, [[Beware the Superman|if the world is just going to fear him like a giant ticking bomb]] after all that he's done for them, then why not give them what they expect?
* Loki from ''[[The Mighty Thor]]'' fits, Depending on the Writer. Of course, it's almost always more that Loki THOUGHT that the Asgardians didn't trust him and that he was [[The Unfavorite]] compared to Thor (combined in some continuities with the reveal that he's a Frost Giant, an [[Exclusively Evil]] race) that caused his [[Start of Darkness]], not that he was actually disliked/hated. Thor, years later after fighting as the hero to his villain, still cares enough about him to get him reincarnated after Loki engineered the near fall of Asgard {{spoiler|and helped save it in a last-ditch [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. [[Enemy Mine]] has been a recurring thing for Loki when the threat gets too great for a long, long time}}.
** Also, there might have been a bit of [[Because Destiny Says So]], since according to some writers the Ragnarok cycle, while it existed, contained the prophecies of the Norns that wrote the fates of the Asgardians and those around them. Loki might have been dealing with the knowledge that it said he'd be evil.
*** The seriousness with which the mythological factors are treated in the Mighty Thor materials varies a lot, but it's always going to be...''off'' when it comes to Thor-and-Loki because it requires them to be a [[Cain and Abel|set of good and evil brothers]], which is categorically wrong in every particular way. Although Thor does seem to have been considered the safest of the Aesir to petition.
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** In [[Earth X]], Uatu the Watcher (who knows a thing or two about human behavior) implies that the opposite is also true: Magneto forces Xavier to be the "good guy," and therefore saddle himself with all [[Villains Act, Heroes React|the limitations]] [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|heroes must operate under]].
* Marv wonders if he is unknowingly following this trope in both the film and comic version of ''[[Sin City]]''. All his life, people told him that he would grow up to be "a psycho killer" and he contemplates whether or not it's happening.
* In the Mexican comic ''[[Memin]]'' (about a poor Black boy) a story had some bullies convince him that Black people never go to Heaven, no matter how good they are (claiming that the fact there are no pictures of Black angels proves it). Memin is so angry that he swears that if he's going to Hell, he'll rule it by being the most evil kid in the world! (of course, being a preteen his idea of evil acts are things like disrespecting his mother.) His friends hatch a plan to reform him by painting one of the angels in a Church (with the clergy's permission) Black and then show it to him. It worked.
* During a visit to Hell, [[Knightfall|Bane]] of the ''[[Secret Six]]'' discovered that despite being a [[Noble Demon]] (at least what he thought was one) he was still damned. He figures that since he's beyond redemption anyway, he might as well stop trying to be a half-assed antihero and embraces villainy. First order of business? Settle the score with [[Batman]] once and for all.
* While it never actually happens, ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comics have repeatedly teased the reader with the
* Of course, the same can't be said of some of Spider-Man's foes; case in point, Lonnie T. Lincoln, aka the [[Evil Albino]] and [[Professional Killer]], Tombstone. Born in Harlem to African-American parents, Lonnie was a black man trapped in a white man's body, ostracized by his parents, teachers, and peers, who all called him a monster. Eventually, he decided that if he was a monster in their eyes, he'd literally become one, going so far as to file his teeth into sharp points simply to make himself look scarier.
== Fanfiction ==▼
* A fair share of [[Naruto]] fanfics had him becoming evil because of this trope.▼
▲* A fair share of ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfics had him becoming evil because of this trope.
== Film ==
* The [[Creature from the Black Lagoon]] is given this treatment in the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' spoofed sequel ''[[Revenge of the Creature]]''. A science team is sent to Black Lagoon to capture the Creature and bring him back for scientific study. Said "scientific study" seems to mainly involve whacking him with underwater cattle prods for reasons which are never explained. After watching the Creature be harassed and brutalized for no apparent reason in the first half of the movie, a modern viewer may have mixed feelings upon the Creature's escape, where he does, in fact, kill people, but at this point "man, [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]" seems to be an appropriate response.▼
▲* The [[Creature from the Black Lagoon]] is given this treatment in the [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] spoofed sequel ''[[Revenge of the Creature]]''. A science team is sent to Black Lagoon to capture the Creature and bring him back for scientific study. Said "scientific study" seems to mainly involve whacking him with underwater cattle prods for reasons which are never explained. After watching the Creature be harassed and brutalized for no apparent reason in the first half of the movie, a modern viewer may have mixed feelings upon the Creature's escape, where he does, in fact, kill people, but at this point "man, [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]" seems to be an appropriate response.
* [[Megamind]]'s reason for being a villain.
{{quote|'''Megamind:''' "No matter how hard I tried, I was always [[All of the Other Reindeer|the last one picked.]] The screw-up. The bad boy. [...] Then it hit me: if I was the "bad boy", then I was going to be ''the baddest boy of them all!"''}}
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''This will still be so:''
''I will never let your people go!''" }}
== Literature ==
* The Outcast of ''[[Redwall]]'' has elements of this. A foundling infant from one of the [[Exclusively Evil]] vermin races is raised in the Abbey and grows to be quite the troublemaker as a child. Even so, he is treated with little more than suspicion and [[Fantastic Racism|prejudice]] by most of the local populace, and rarely, if ever, given the benefit of the doubt, even for his motivations ([[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished|backfired attempts to do good are still punished without consideration]]). Ultimately, the message boils down to him still being responsible for making his own immoral choices; but he at least got more sympathy than any other vermin character when one considers what a slim "chance" the Redwallers ever gave him.
** Not to mention that his surrogate mother, who never gave up on him, ultimately decides he was entirely evil all along after he dies saving her life (his only real successful good action). Depriving him of even [[Redemption Equals Death]].
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{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Orcish general}}''': Priests say we're monsters, so we fight on side of monsters.}}
== Live
* "Michael" from ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' was a Wraith
* Adam Wilson from ''[[The Young and the Restless]]'' has ended up invoking this trope. It's hard to escape the fact that, before he came to Genoa City, Adam was relatively moral and well-adjusted. It was only after prolonged exposure to the chronic backstabbing and underhanded business dealings of the city that he started his horrific revenge plan—and even at the end of that, he lapses into a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and tries to reform. Then even ''this'' is completely undercut when the Newmans and Abbotts confront him in the cabin and treat him like a [[Complete Monster]], even though they don't have any idea what he did—not to mention how hollow their moral superiority sounds, considering all the crimes ''they've'' committed in the past, which Adam and later DA Owen Pomerantz call them out on.▼
▲* "Michael" from ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' was a Wraith who the protagonists forcibly converted into an amnesiac human. His introductory episode has the characters mistreating him for no clear reason, before he realizes that he's a [[Tomato in the Mirror]] and breaks out to return to his people... but they won't accept him either, since he's still partly human. He desperately returns to the protagonists and offers valuable aid, just begging them that they don't brainwash him again. They brainwash him again. When he recovers again, he's fed up of saying [[What the Hell, Hero?]], and he snaps completely and becomes an [[Evilutionary Biologist]].
* When Ashur of ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'' gets berated at for his slimy [[Manipulative Bastard]] behaviour, he pulls this line of defense, pointing out that everybody treated him like pig feed and that nearly every git move he pulled benefited his master, doctore, and the ludus, so screw the gladiators and their honour.▼
▲* Adam Wilson from ''The Young and the Restless'' has ended up invoking this trope. It's hard to escape the fact that, before he came to Genoa City, Adam was relatively moral and well-adjusted. It was only after prolonged exposure to the chronic backstabbing and underhanded business dealings of the city that he started his horrific revenge plan—and even at the end of that, he lapses into a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment and tries to reform. Then even ''this'' is completely undercut when the Newmans and Abbotts confront him in the cabin and treat him like a [[Complete Monster]], even though they don't have any idea what he did—not to mention how hollow their moral superiority sounds, considering all the crimes ''they've'' committed in the past, which Adam and later DA Owen Pomerantz call them out on.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' featured an episode in the second-to-last season where Gul Dukat tries to convince Sisko (and himself) that they really were friends all along and that he has always been misunderstood as merely an [[Anti-Hero]], not a true villain. Eventually, with some subtle goading from Sisko to drop his facade, Dukat realizes that he has always been a villain and decides to embrace his role by destroying Bajor and everything Sisko cares about.▼
▲* When Ashur of [[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]] gets berated at for his slimy [[Manipulative Bastard]] behaviour, he pulls this line of defense, pointing out that everybody treated him like pig feed and that nearly every git move he pulled benefited his master, doctore, and the ludus, so screw the gladiators and their honour.
▲* [[Deep Space Nine]] featured an episode in the second-to-last season where Gul Dukat tries to convince Sisko (and himself) that they really were friends all along and that he has always been misunderstood as merely an [[Anti-Hero]], not a true villain. Eventually, with some subtle goading from Sisko to drop his facade, Dukat realizes that he has always been a villain and decides to embrace his role by destroying Bajor and everything Sisko cares about.
** A variation also occurs in the episode where Sisko goes after the traitor Eddington. He realizes that Eddington sees himself as a hero fighting for a noble cause and decides that he has to embrace his role as the villain in Eddington's mind in order to beat him. He eventually engineers a situation that plays to Eddington's nobler instincts, forcing him to turn himself in to stop Sisko's villainy.
*** To be clear, his villainy consisted of poisoning a Maquis planet in such a way that humans couldn't live there (but Cardassians could), essentially just balancing out the nearby world Eddington had just poisoned to Cardassians but not humans, and then threatening to do so to every Maquis settlement he could find.
* In ''[[Charmed]]'', Cole may have been half-demon, but his love for Phoebe was enough to motivate him not only to wake up his humanity and then to fight the Source for control of his body, but later to [[Mega Manning|amass enough random powers from other vanquished demons]] to [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|escape hell]] and return to her after his death. However, no matter how he tried to convince her that he wasn't evil anymore, she and her sisters drove him away, and attempted to kill him, ([[Nigh Invulnerable|which turned out to be impossible,]] [[I Cannot Self-Terminate|even for him when he tried to commit suicide out of grief]]). All of this eventually drove him insane, and he started committing evil deeds again; sometimes in a misguided bid to reclaim Phoebe, and other times just [[For the Evulz]].
* A major theme in ''[[Smallville]]''. [[Lex Luthor]] makes several efforts to do good and often helps Clark and others save the world, but several characters- especially Clark's parents, no less- treat him with suspicion at best because he is the son of local [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Lionel Luthor, who himself had been trying to mold his son into another ruthless [[Magnificent Bastard]] (whilst simultaneously letting Lex know [["Well Done, Son" Guy|just how much of a
** Several episodes are devoted to Lex's own internal struggle. One such story inverts [[A Christmas Carol]]- Lex, having been shot at Christmas, meets the ghost of his mother who shows him what happens if he changes his ways: he has a loving and happy marriage with Lana and is finally treated like a friend and family member by the Kents; Clark holds no grudge about the two of them marrying either and is happy for them and remains his best friend. Then Lana gets seriously ill and Lex can't afford it, so he goes back to his dad to ask him to help...and is promptly brushed off, meaning Lana (and their baby) both die because Lex gave up his money and his wicked father's fortune. When he wakes up, Lex decides that money and power are the only things that really matter in life, because then you can protect the people you love.
** Lionel himself gets some of this. Early in season 4 he is in prison, and tries to escape by swapping bodies with Clark, naturally discovering his secret in the process. Of course, his plan fails and he ends up back in his own body by the end of the episode, but afterwards professes that he is a changed man (and faking amnesia about finding out Clark has powers and the whole body-swap thing) and after getting out of prison on a technicality anyway, tried to convince the rest of the suspicious cast, meeting the most resistance from Lex himself, who is also trying to earn everybody's trust. Things hit a head in one episode when Black Kryptonite splits Lex into his good and evil halves- the good Lex lets his father know he'll trust him and encourages him in his do-goodiness; the ''bad'' Lex goads Lionel into assaulting him with a poker, then says that proves he hasn't changed at all. Turns out Lionel really had changed, but by the end of that episode, and never finding out about the whole split-in-two thing, he tells the now whole Lex that he was right- "we're Luthors", and they should embrace the [[Card-Carrying Villain]] within, though to his credit Lionel is never ''quite'' as evil again and never exposes Clark's secret, generally deciding he'll help him from now on.
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== Music ==
* This is the ending of [[Tripod]]'s song "Suicide Bomber"—the falsely accused bomber is awaiting release after [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|repeated torture]], and is already planning to blow up a bus.
* Happens in [[Adam Warrock]]'s song, "Sad Ultron"—All the newest incarnation of Hank Pym's Ultron wants is to hang out and be accepted, but because all previous versions of him went all [[Knight Templar]] and evil, everyone assumes he'll do the same- thanks to being shunned and hated, he turns evil on principle.
{{quote|"Sorry y'all, I tried to be a nice dude, fuckin' human intelligence made me wanna fight too/And that's ironic, isn't it? The fact that human indifference made a robot turn evil and villainous/Fuck it, I'm engaging a plan to kill Hank Pym/ Ask me if I'm one of those nice robots, I'm not him."}}
== Table Top Games ==
* It is not uncommon for [[Game Master|Storytellers]] to use this tactic in ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning]]''. Since almost all of the mook monsters you meet actually have a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|measure of humanity]] and are enslaved to their natures or other, worse monsters, there is already a bit of a gray area to killing them in the first place. Since hunters constantly hound the monsters, cutting off their resources and food supplies, they can eventually get fed up or be driven to desperate acts of violence since their beastly side starts taking over. This could cause a normally nice vampire who only drinks just enough blood to survive, and only from animals, to become a raging beast draining the nearest humans dry. If the monster survives, you can bet he won't care much about keeping his humanity anymore. Expect [[What the Hell, Hero?|angry party members]] who have more forgiving views of the monsters.▼
▲* It is not uncommon for [[Game Master|Storytellers]] to use this tactic in [[Hunter: The Reckoning]]. Since almost all of the mook monsters you meet actually have a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|measure of humanity]] and are enslaved to their natures or other, worse monsters, there is already a bit of a gray area to killing them in the first place. Since hunters constantly hound the monsters, cutting off their resources and food supplies, they can eventually get fed up or be driven to desperate acts of violence since their beastly side starts taking over. This could cause a normally nice vampire who only drinks just enough blood to survive, and only from animals, to become a raging beast draining the nearest humans dry. If the monster survives, you can bet he won't care much about keeping his humanity anymore. Expect [[What the Hell, Hero?|angry party members]] who have more forgiving views of the monsters.
** In the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' there's the Refinement of Stannum in ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'', which is centered around wrath and getting revenge on the world that scorns you at every turn. Prometheans eventually draw the wrath of humanity and the suffering of nature everywhere they go, and Stannum is about focusing that wrath where it belongs. Each Refinement is a philosophy the Promethean follows during their [[To Become Human|Pilgrimage]], and the various paths usually require some careful study before you can switch over. Stannum, however, can be entered ''instantly'', and is usually entered when some Promethean goes, "Oh, ''fuck'' this shit."
*** And a step below ''that'' is the path of Centimani, the Refinement of Flux. Flux is a force of dissolution and mutation, and the Centimani themselves are focused on monstrosity rather than rebirth. Prometheans on this path have not only given up on trying to be good, they've given up on trying to be anything resembling a human.
* Tieflings in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' often go through this. While not [[Exclusively Evil]], they are often the victims of [[Fantastic Racism]] by people who assume their fiendish heritage makes them irredeemably damned. Many tieflings eventually accept such a designation and turn against society as a form of revenge.
** Oddly enough, their celestial-blooded counterparts the aasimar often end up the same, so worn down by the assumption that their inborn relation to the Upper Planes makes them paragons of virtue and justice that they wind up [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]]. Such aasimar often become silver-tongued [[Snake Oil Salesman|con artists]], using their reputation to get suckers to trust them.
== Theatre ==
* A former page quote was provided by Shylock from ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', whose bizarrely sympathetic portrayal has been a recurring fixture in literary studies. As a Jew, he has spent his life being mocked, struck, and spat upon, and then the Christian Antonio (a specific habitual beard-spitter) comes and needs his help as a moneylender, a job he gets hated for. He actually helps, since he says that it may improve things for him. Then his daughter runs off with one of Antonio's friends and takes all his money with her, and the guy flips and pursues his chance to extract a pound of flesh. In the end, Portia comes in and provides an impassioned plea for mercy from him, and when that doesn't work, finds the [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]. Shylock then gets forcibly converted, which was [[Fair for Its Day]]. Certainly he says, effectively, Then Let Me Be Evil, but the level of criticism it was meant to be at the time is up for argument, as is what that ending was meant to signify.
** Shakespeare loved this trope, as seen in Don John, the [[Designated Villain]] of ''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]''. He protests his state thusly:
{{quote|"I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and seek not to alter me."}}
** Similarly, the bastard son Edmund in ''[[King Lear]]'' laments that he is categorized as base and lowly since he is "illegitimate." Since he is going to be treated unfairly regardless of how well-behaved he is, he resorts to evil to try and increase his standing.
** ''[[Richard III]]'' has the titular [[Villain Protagonist]] give his motivations in Act 1, Scene 1:
{{quote|"And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
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== Video Games ==
* The most commonly-accepted interpretation of Sorceress Ultimecia's motivations in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' is that she was [[Bullying a Dragon|discriminated against and persecuted]] by a society conditioned to assume that any sorceress runs the risk of snapping and trying to take over the world, until - shockingly enough - she snapped and decided to become the evil sorceress that history reviled.
* {{spoiler|[[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Oersted]]}} from ''[[Live a Live]]''.
* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', [[The Dragon|Ramirez]]'s backstory involves a play on this trope. He came to Arcadia as a naive idealist with some lessons to learn from the school of hard knocks, but found one guy who seemed alright as a role-model/mentor. Sadly, he ended up getting played for a fool and humiliated when the guy turned out to be a dirtbag. So, he went on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] and gave up on his nice ideals. Basically, he was convinced that [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]] was a universal truth and decided he might as well join them.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', Leonard "[http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Frostfire Frostfire]" Calhoun ([[Unfortunate Names|Yes, that is his real name]]) is [[All There in the Manual|explicitly stated]] to have "succumbed to a 'if you're going to treat me like a villain' mentality" after a botched attempt at
* In ''[[Icewind Dale]]'' ''2'', the twin [[Big Bad]]s Isair and Madae were treated as embodiments of evil their entire lives because they were cambions—half devil, half elf. After a lifetime of this treatment, with a cruel prank involving cakes baked with holy water as the final straw, they decided they might as well act like embodiments of evil. Iselore the [[Big Good]] remembers that he warned their foster mother (the only person who ever loved them) that "they are forged in evil and only evil can come from them" and sadly wonders if he helped make it true.
* In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', almost all of Kirkwall distrusts the qunari and their leader, the Arishok, due to the qunari's reputation for being heathen conquerors. While the Arishok is [[Knight Templar|by no means]] a nice guy, he and the rest of the qunari just want to mind their own business and leave Kirkwall as soon as possible. However, after years of unprovoked attacks by those who expect him to act against them, the Arishok finally has enough and tries to conquer Kirkwall.
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*** The game never gives you an opportunity to ask Anders why any 'free' community of mages will average at ''least'' as many blood mages and maleficar per capita as a Chantry Circle will. Cripes, go to the Old Tevinter Imperium and throw a rock, you'll bounce it off of three blood mages before you hit the ground.
* Since the Jedi of [[Knights of the Old Republic]] considered any of their members who went off to defend the Republic against the Mandalorians as fallen (see their shoddy treatment of Exile, who ''did'' return only to get [[Reformed but Rejected]] fron the Council), the fact that Revan went and became Dark Lord of the Sith is a cross of this and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].
* According to [[Token Evil Teammate|Lance]] in ''[[Epic Battle Fantasy]] 5'', the reason he went full [[Evil Overlord]] and embraced every stereotype associated with fascism was because the government ruined his public image by branding him a conspiracy theorist and a fascist when he tried to share his alarming findings on the mysterious monoliths that landed everywhere in the world (they're alien spying devices) and advised them to prepare some military defenses against an upcoming alien invasion. He didn't think of any alternative to assembling all fascist idiots on Earth into a military force to prepare for the invasion because of [[Humans Are Morons|his low opinion of humanity]].
==
* Redcloak of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' has this trait in his more sympathetic moments, most of which are in the prequel book ''Start of Darkness''. As a member of the [[Exclusively Evil]] goblin race, if a "good" character murders him, any other goblins, or even any baby goblins for any reason, this is not treated as an "evil" act, even though the whole reason goblins are evil in the first place is supposedly because they murder without provocation. His example is particularly notable, as at one point he has a [[Heel Realization]]—about the way he mistreats other goblins. He never seriously considers the idea that he's giving humans any less than they deserve.▼
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101229175704/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1412 This scenario] from ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'' follows up from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101229181246/http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1406 previous one,] in [[Fridge Logic|an attempt to answer why]] [[Donkey Kong Country|King K. Rool]] has such a problem with DK.▼
▲* Redcloak of ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' has this trait in his more sympathetic moments, most of which are in the prequel book ''Start of Darkness''. As a member of the [[Exclusively Evil]] goblin race, if a "good" character murders him, any other goblins, or even any baby goblins for any reason, this is not treated as an "evil" act, even though the whole reason goblins are evil in the first place is supposedly because they murder without provocation. His example is particularly notable, as at one point he has a [[Heel Realization]]—about the way he mistreats other goblins. He never seriously considers the idea that he's giving humans any less than they deserve.
▲* [http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1412 This scenario] from ''[[Brawl in the Family]]'' follows up from the [http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1406 previous one,] in [[Fridge Logic|an attempt to answer why]] [[Donkey Kong Country|King K. Rool]] has such a problem with DK.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Molly the Monster briefly [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20061014.html considers this, early on:]
{{quote|"'F-Freak?' He shot at me just for what I look like? Yeah? W-Well, if they want a monster, maybe I'll just give them one! Like Shelley's Frankenstein Monster, if I cannot give love to the world, then i will give it ''wrath!'' I'll... I'll... Aw, who am I kidding? I haven't got any wrath! Oh Dr. Poule, what am I going to do? ''Sob!"''}}
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== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'', the titular [[Villain Protagonist]] was supposedly driven to supervillainy by the smug [[Jerk Jock]] attitude that his heroic archnemesis, Captain Hammer, takes toward anyone "nerdy" or "unpopular". Being both of those things, he was persecuted until he gave up on using his intelligence for good and adopted the Dr. Horrible [[Mad Scientist]] persona. Even then he's an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]] until one too many humiliations from Captain Hammer triggers a [[Not So Harmless]] breakout.
** It doesn't help that he's not exactly getting good publicity because even when he was trying to be explicitly heroic, he was a [[Hero with an F In Good]]. He still wants to do long-term good, even as a villain, but he's not that great at it. His plan seems to be, "1. Take over the world. 2. Everything wrong with the world magically fixes itself because I'm in charge."
** Even then he was something of a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] who thought that he can fix the world by ruling. {{spoiler|However, when his [[Morality Chain]] Penny dies in the end, he had nothing keeping him from becoming a true supervillain.}}
* In
== Western Animation ==
* In the ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' episode, "Harley's Holiday", former [[The Joker|Joker]] minion [[Villainous Harlequin|Harley Quinn]] espouses this after violating her parole barely moments out of being released from the asylum ("I tried to be good. I really did. But if that's not good enough, fine!"). However, after having to be rescued by [[Batman]], she seems to reconsider.
** Subverted in that most of this was Harley assuming people were acting like this to her - a dress she bought still had the tags, so the security guard was trying to take them off for her. She thought he was accusing her of stealing the dress, so she took a generals daughter hostage and ran.
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* This was Jinx's motivation in ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]''. Because she had the power to cause bad luck, [[Bad Powers, Bad People|she thought evil was the only option]]. Someone eventually [[You Are Better Than You Think You Are|snaps her out of it]].
* The Bowler Hat Guy from ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'' tries to use this as his [[Freudian Excuse]]. {{spoiler|In actuality, all of his isolation and misery were ''self-inflicted.''}}
* Mojo Jojo in ''[[The Powerpuff Girls
== Real Life ==
* This trope could handily sum up [[Malcolm X|Malcolm Little's]] transition from model student at age 14 to career criminal at age 18. While there was no [[Reformed but Rejected|villainy to be corrected]] in the first place, society still wasn't giving him much incentive to be a model citizen. By the time he was 13, his father was (very likely) murdered by the Black Legion, a racist group, his mother placed in a mental institution, and
▲* This trope could handily sum up [[Malcolm X|Malcolm Little's]] transition from model student at age 14 to career criminal at age 18. While there was no [[Reformed but Rejected|villainy to be corrected]] in the first place, society still wasn't giving him much incentive to be a model citizen. By the time he was 13, his father was (very likely) murdered by the Black Legion, a racist group, his mother placed in a mental institution, and him and his siblings placed in abusive foster homes. Despite being one of the brightest students in school with aspirations for becoming a lawyer, Malcolm dropped out after ''[[Kick the Dog|his own teacher]]'' told him being a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger."
* Also Butch Cassidy's excuse, who started out as a nice Mormon kid but was often a scapegoat. Left home and fell in with cattle rustlers, before becoming a notorious stage coach, bank, and train robber with some minor [[Just Like Robin Hood]] tendencies that endeared him to various ranchers and brothels, much to the frustration of his pursuit.
* Many of the forms of ritual killing and mutilation practiced by "savages" at various points in history started out as slanders but eventually became real practices for the people in question- the Germanic "blood eagle" is only attested to in Viking sources a few times, well after the idea entered the popular body of myth surrounding the bloodthirsty, pagan northmen.
* Almost the exact words spoken by Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts when he was first press-ganged into joining a pirate crew. "If a pirate I must be, then best to be a commander than a common man." Sure enough, he was elected captain of the same ship that shanghaied him six weeks later.
* The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, Nevada is a restaurant version of this. You say hamburgers and french fries are unhealthy? Well, how about their special Quadruple Bypass Burger? It's got
* To some extent, Benedict Arnold. He started out as a very capable American commander during the American Revolution. However, he had made himself powerful enemies (many of whom were in Congress) due to his arrogant manner during the war, and it all ended when they managed to convince the Congress and the upper brass that he would not deserve or need any of the promotions or additional wages for his military service. He was not acknowledged for his role in any early American successes in the war, including Saratoga, which was the battle that convinced France to enter the war on behalf of the Americans and was won almost entirely by Arnold; at the time this was the highest insult to an officer. It came to a head when he was military governor of Philadelphia, he was forced out on trumped-up charges of corruptions and officially reprimanded for it. What he didn't know and was not informed of is that if General Washington had not done so Pennsylvania would have withdrawn their support from the Continental Army. To evade dishonorable consequences, he even attempted to resign, which Washington did not allow. This caused him to feel unappreciated and offered to betray the Americans in return for a hefty sum of money and a generalship in the British army. The rest is history.
* Just about any small time offender convicted of a crime and incarcerated can exhibit this. Psychologists think it's because they get branded with the "criminal" label, causing them to begin seeing themselves as a criminal, and because criminals commit crimes... You can see where this is going.
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