History FromNobodyToNightmare / LiveActionTv

* Both ''Series/HouseOfCardsUK'' and its [[Series/HouseOfCardsUS U.S. remake]] ''revolves'' around this trope. Francis Urquhart/Underwood was perfectly happy helping the Prime Minster/President's agenda, so long as he was promoted to the main cabinet/Secretary of State. Then the Prime Minister/President broke their deal, deciding Francis was better use to him as chief whip, a job Francis has held for twenty years. Cue the entire plot of the show, which is essentially Francis casually destroying ''everything'' his former "friends" have worked so hard for. All the while carrying a [[SmugSnake proud smile on his face]]. Being based on Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, the show gives us the interesting twist of having said nobody to nightmare explain his plots, schemes, and motivations to the viewer, accompanied by a frequent AsideGlance.

** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': Both Ryoma Sengoku and Kaito Kumon start out as orphans. Ryoma grew up to become an amoral scientist who enables a massive apocalypse to happen and one of the show's more powerful antagonists. Over the course of the show's events, Kaito ends up becoming a powerful godlike creature aiming to fix what he sees as humanity's unavoidable SocialDarwinist tendencies by destroying humanity and replacing them with a new, more compassionate successor species. The trope is brought up on Kaito's part around halfway through the show, where DJ Sagara warns that someone like Kaito might never amount to anything if life never gives them a chance, but if they ever get their hands on some real power then they'll amount to ''everything''.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' has [[spoiler: Vanya]], who goes from shy, mousy, [[spoiler: "ordinary", and TheUnFavourite of Reginald Hargreeves]] to the terrifyingly [[spoiler: detached and ruthless White Violin, who brings about the Apocalypse and nearly kills several of her siblings after her immense powers are awakened]].
* ''Series/TeenWolf'': [[spoiler:Matt Daehler]] was an ordinary kid who ended up traumatized by his near-drowning at the hands of a high school swim team and their coach. Fast forward six years and he's a TeenGenius who has a crush on one of the prettiest girls at school. [[spoiler:Then the girl rejects him and he [[TheKidWithTheRemoteControl gains control of a reptilian shapeshifter with razor claws and paralyzing venom.]] Cue killing spree...]]

* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' might as well be called FromNobodyToNightmare: TheSeries. We see several members of Batman's RoguesGallery before they became supervillians, and we get to watch their StartOfDarkness: young and rather incompetent wannabe gangster Oswald Cobblepot, who will claw his way to the top of Gotham's criminal underword as the Penguin. A nitpicky [[TheCoroner coroner]] Edward Nygma with NoSocialSkills who [[AlloftheOtherReindeer is never respected]] will become [[SanitySlippage the insane]] [[ComicBook/TheRiddler Prince of Puzzles]]. A shy and introverted little girl who will become a dreaded MadScientist PoisonousPerson. A young female ArtfulDodger who will become the ultimate ClassyCatBurglar. A idealistic crusading District Attorney's mind will surrender to his latent dichotomous madness when he receives horrific injuries to half of his face. According to WordOfGod, ''someone'' will have One Bad Day and become [[ComicBook/TheJoker The Clown Prince Of Crime]]. And, of course, a traumatized little boy will grow up to be [[Franchise/{{Batman}} a very different kind of nightmare]].

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Sylar/Gabriel Gray goes from a nebbish clockmaker to SocialDarwinist SerialKiller supervillain in a pretty short period of time. Even among other superpowered people, he's one of the most powerful and feared.
* ''Series/{{House of Cards|UK}}'': Both the original and the [[Series/HouseOfCardsUS U.S. remake]] ''revolves'' around this trope. Francis Urquhart/Underwood was perfectly happy helping the Prime Minster/President's agenda, so long as he was promoted to the main cabinet/Secretary of State. Then the Prime Minister/President broke their deal, deciding Francis was better use to him as chief whip, a job Francis has held for twenty years. Cue the entire plot of the show, which is essentially Francis casually destroying ''everything'' his former "friends" have worked so hard for. All the while carrying a [[SmugSnake proud smile on his face]]. Being based on Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, the show gives us the interesting twist of having said nobody to nightmare explain his plots, schemes, and motivations to the viewer, accompanied by a frequent AsideGlance.
* ''Series/{{iZombie}}'': Before the Boat Party Massacre, Blaine [=McDonough=] was little more than a shiftless drug-dealing ne'er-do-well, unlikely to pop up on anyone's radar. One Zombie Outbreak later, after finding himself turned into a nigh-unkillable monster, he starts working his way up the organized crime ladder, eventually becoming the undead king of the Seattle underworld.

** The Doctor, who is a demonstration of what happens when a member of the most powerful race in the Universe, decides to ignore their non-interference policy, steal a time machine and ''[[BigGood interfere!]]''

** For a heroic example, the Doctor might have, unbeknownst even to themself, secretly been [[spoiler:the Timeless Child]], but as far as anyone was concerned during the Creator/WilliamHartnell years, they were just a cantankerous old coot in a [[TheAllegedCar clapped-out time machine]], acting as a sort of intergalactic tourist who would just show up and maybe poke things a bit. Then came the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s given a seeing-to, the Dalek and Cybermen armies reduced to spare parts, the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol fascist regimes hunted for sport]], [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor the Time War]]...and at the other end you ''still'' have an intergalactic tourist, but one that's known as [[RedBaron the Oncoming Storm]] (among countless other very dramatic titles) and routinely makes the MonsterOfTheWeek ''shit themselves in fear''.

** The Daleks themselves started out as nobodies. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks their first appearance]], they were just pathetic mutants in metal shells who were limited to a single city thanks to their reliance on static electricity. Then in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth their second]], they've subjugated humanity. By the Revival, we find out not only can they fly now, they fought a war with the Time Lords, a species with technology capable to bending spacetime like a pretzel, and not only did the Daleks manage to fight for 400 years in linear time and much longer thanks to TimeyWimeyBall, if the scenes of the Last Day of the Time War are any indication, ''they were winning''.