History FromNobodyToNightmare / LiveActionTv

* ''Series/BeforeWeRuledTheEarth: [[StartOfDarkness Humanity's arc through the series]]. ''Homo ergaster'' was just a humble scavenger and forager scrapping by on the African savannah, but its descendants would eventually become rulers of the Earth, and wipe out many species in the process.

%% [[caption-width-right:350:From a concerned father to the all powerful Dark One.]]
Examples of FromNobodyToNightmare in live-action television.

** The show is one long study in this trope for Walter White. In Season 1 he's a mild mannered science teacher living in a near shell shocked state over all the disappointments and missed opportunities in his life, and, unknown even to himself, is secretly enraged by it all. By the end of Season 4, [[spoiler:he's toppled a major drug ring, murdered a LOT of people, and in Season 5, is the BigBad of his own story.]]

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': [[TheDon Carl Elias]] started out as an orphan in the foster care system after the murder of his mother Marlene Elias, then became a flunky for his father Don Moretti. When Moretti attempted to have Elias murdered, Elias escaped and would go on to become one of the biggest crime bosses in NYC.

--> '''May:''' (Laughs) The first time we met him.
--> '''Coulson:''' (Laughs) When he told us about the "peacekeeping force" he was sending to The Hub?
--> '''May:''' I mean, imagine back then if someone had told us that someday we'd be worried about [[spoiler:''Glenn Talbot'']].

* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'': Invoked by Mr. Cram/[[AppropriatedAppellation Crumb]] in the fifth series of the original version of the show.
-->"They ignored me. Patronized me. Now they'll dream about me for the rest of their lives. I'm the world's worst nightmare: the victim who gets super powers!"

* ''Series/BreakingBad''

* On ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'', Nolan Pierce was a low-level numbers runner for a mob family who was convinced by the FBI to flip in exchange for protection. Instead, he got ten years in prison where he was scarred as a snitch. Burning with anger at the cops, feds and other mobsters, Pierce remade himself into "The Chairman," who offers his services to mobsters in eliminating dozens of undercover agents and witnesses with plans to become one of the most powerful criminal masterminds in the country.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':

* ''Series/TheWire'': Young drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield just starts out the third season as a small-time player with a few corners, albeit ones that are considered prime territory for a dealer. His first appearance is about 10 seconds. Due to the arrest of his competition at the end of the season, he has taken over by the end Season 3. In the fourth season, the police see him as just another drug kingpin like the one before. By the end of Season 4, they start finding the bodies of his victims in row houses. A '''''lot''''' of bodies. Turns out Marlo is the most murderous, ruthless, and sociopathic man to ever run a drug empire in Baltimore.

* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': In the Netflix version, Nilfgaard starts out as the butt of the joke for everyone, with a boorish king and little power. Fast-forward about a decade or so and they have a new iron-fisted emperor, fanatical followers, have launched a brutal invasion on the Northern Kingdoms, and nobody is laughing at them anymore.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Namtar was a lab animal given a serum that boosted his intelligence. By the time the crew meets him he's an EvilutionaryBiologist who terrifies everyone around him.

** Richard Harrow starts out as a unemployed, disfigured ShellShockedVeteran whom Jimmy Darmondy meets in Chicago. He quickly becomes one of Atlantic City's deadliest hit men and in Season 3 he pretty much singlehandly ends a MobWar when he pulls a OneManArmy and slaughters more than a dozen armed gangsters within the span of 15-20 minutes.

** ''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. Kaito ends up becoming [[spoiler:a powerful godlike creature]] with SocialDarwinist tendencies who'll gladly destroy humanity in order to create what he thinks is a perfect world.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders Planet of Spiders]]'', the main (human) villain, Lupton, was a former salesman and manager for 25 years who was embittered when his company fired him. So he volunteered to do the bidding of giant spiders, who gave him great powers.

** 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 and were foiled by stairs. 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''.

* ''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 SuperOCD [[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/{{Lost}}'': [[MagnificentBastard Benjamin freakin' Linus]]. Originally a [[TheWoobie pitiful little boy]] who was a [[AbusiveParents victim of a drunken dad]] who always told him that his birthday is essentially the [[DeathByChildbirth anniversary of the day he killed his mom]]. Flashforward 30 years later and he [[spoiler: orchestrated the [[KillEmAll death of his whole town]], including his father, who he killed with his own hands after reciting his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech]].

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': [[MagnificentBastard Crowley]] used to be a 17th century tailor named Fergus [=MacCloud=] who, as Bobby put it, "[[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul]] for a couple of extra inches [[BiggusDickus below the belt]]". Over the centuries, he's managed to work his way up the demonic ranks to head of all deals, and later ''King of Hell'', as well as making his mark as one of the Winchesters' most dangerous and persistent enemies.

** The episode Recap/CommunityS6E03BasicCrisisRoomDecorum has Takashi, a Japanese teenager whose main role in the episode is being part of a prank on Dean Pelton by impersonating Jeff over text. TheStinger shows him getting chastised by his father and attempt to apologize to the Dean for his actions only for the Dean [[CassandraTruth to think his claims that he's 'not Jeffrey' are just Jeff being doubtful in himself]]. A voiceover that follows this from an older Takashi reveals that this incident was his StartOfDarkness that ultimately made him a leader in the Yakuza.

** Negan was a high school gym teacher before the outbreak and [[spoiler:his wife's tragic death]] started him on the path to becoming leader of the Saviors.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': The Governor was a normal man of no distinction or ambition before the ZombieApocalypse.

* Over the course of the first three seasons of ''Series/{{Community}}'', [[spoiler: "Senor" Ben Chang]] went from a lousy teacher, to [[TyrantTakesTheHelm a power-hungry wannabe war lord.]]

** Richard Harrow starts out as a unemployed, disfigured ShellShockedVeteran whom Jimmy Darmondy meets in Chicago. He quickly becomes one of Atlantic City's deadliest hit men and in season 3 he pretty much singlehandly ends a MobWar when he pulls a OneManArmy and slaughters more than a dozen armed gangsters within the span of 15-20 minutes.

** The show is one long study in this trope for Walter White. In season one he's a mild mannered science teacher living in a near shell shocked state over all the disappointments and missed opportunities in his life, and, unknown even to himself, is secretly enraged by it all. By the end of season four, [[spoiler:he's toppled a major drug ring, murdered a LOT of people, and in season five, is the BigBad of his own story.]]

** Unlike most Peacekeepers, the first-season BigBad Captain Crais actually grew up on an agricultural commune and was fully expected to spend his life as a common farmer like his parents... up until a Peacekeeper press-gang arrived in search of new recruits. Ambitious and eager to prove himself, Bialar Crais rose through the ranks on wits and hatred - until, by the start of the season, he's in charge of his own command carrier.

** ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': Viktor Adler / Master Org. Unlike most PR {{Big Bad}}s, he started out as a completely ordinary man - an unassuming ecologist with a crush on one of his two co-workers. Then he found the remains of Master Org and got much, much worse (without ever developing a split personality like [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Anton Mercer and Mesogog]]).

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Before the blackout, [[BigBad General Monroe]] was just your basic Marine Corps sergeant. Now, he's the warlord of roughly a quarter of the [[FallenStatesOfAmerica former United States]]. Likewise, [[TheDragon Captain, no, Major Neville]] used to be an insurance adjustor, which is shown in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E5SoulTrain episode 5]]. Captain Jeremy Baker started as one of many random victims during the blackout, but he survived and went on to be a dangerous militia member, which is shown in [[Recap/RevolutionS1E3NoQuarter episode 3]].

* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': In the Netflix version, Nilfgaard starts out as the butt of the joke for everyone, with a boorish king and little power. Fast-forward about a decade or so and they have a new iron-fisted emperor, fanatical followers, have launched a brutal invasion on the Northern Kingdoms and nobody is laughing at them anymore.

** Daenerys rises from a timid bride to a YoungConqueror. At the start of Season 2, she is the leader of only a few dozen ex-slaves, most of which are women, old men, and children; with one knight under her command. By halfway through Season 3, she has an army, dragons old enough to kill, and is feared by the cities of Essos. By the end of Season 6, she is queen of Meereen and has the largest forces by far, ready to claim the Iron Throne.