History Main / DefectorfromDecadence

* Quite a few works of dystopian fiction make the protagonist into this. In ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', ''Fahrenheit451'', and ''{{Equilibrium}}'', the protagonist starts as an active agent of the dystopian regime, but over the course of the plot turns against his society, whether successfully [[DownerEnding or not]]. You can almost apply this to ''Literature/LogansRun'' and ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', though in the former the protagonist is unwillingly exiled from his society while in the latter the point-of-view character introduced at the beginning is swapped for a fish-out-of-water protagonist about halfway through the book.

* Literature/TheHungerGames trilogy depicts the overthrow of a ridiculously lavish Capitol by the rebellion of the twelve districts it rules and exploits. [[spoiler: Plus one.]] Involved in the rebellion are a handful of former Capitol citizens including one of the titular DeadlyGame's best Gamemakers and a camera crew who use their skills to make rebel propaganda shots.

* In [[LordOfTheRings the world of Middle-Earth]], the realms of Arnor and Gondor were both founded by Elendil and the Númenóreans who fled with him after their kingdom was corrupted by the influence of Sauron.

* [[TheElricSaga Prince Elric of Melnibone]], titular AntiHero and one of the incarnation of the [[ChosenOne Eternal Champion]] in MichaelMoorcock'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.

If you have time, please take time to put examples in alphabetical order. This page Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings should help you with that.

-->'''[[spoiler:Yuri]]:''' I was a soldier of Russian. [[NeverHurtAnInnocent Not a taker of innocent lives]].

* In ''{{Rifts}}'', Free Quebec defects from the [[TheEmpire Coaltion States]] partly because they disagree with the Coalition's policies of enforced illiteracy, no free press, and entrenched bureaucracy (Free Quebec does have the last, they just like to pretend they have free elections). Interestingly, they also felt that the oppressive Coaltion was too ''tolerant'' in other matters, such as mutant humans.

* In ''{{Rifts}}'', Free Quebec defects from the [[TheEmpire Coaltion States]] partly because they disagree with the Coalitions policies of enforced illiteracy, no free press, and entrenched bureaucracy (Free Quebec does have the last, they just like to pretend they have free elections). Interestingly, they also felt that the Coaltion was too ''tolerant'' in other matters, such as mutant humans.

* Not that she was entirely a part of the decadence to begin with, but Elphaba does this in ''{{Wicked}}''; after dreaming of becoming an assistant to the Wizard for most of her life, she turns down the opportunity, along with the future of wealth, power and esteem that comes with it, because she finds out he was the one behind the very anti-Animal policies she had come to protest.

* CyranoDeBergerac: It's clear that De Guiche is considered [[NoTrueScotsman No True Gascon]], because he cannot longer tolerate the opinions and actions of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gascons]]. De Guiche sees the rather obvious truth that their MartyrdomCulture is [[StupidSacrifice self-destructive]] and De Guiche is [[AmbitionIsEvil willing to compromise to get power]], joins the DeadlyDecadentCourt as another courtesan and [[ArsonMurderAndJayWalking wants to show]] [[TheDandy his wealth]]. The point is that the De Guiche still exhibit the [[DisproportionateRetribution 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 DistantFinale) he still feels LonelyAtTheTop.
* Not that she was entirely a part of the decadence to begin with, but Elphaba does this in [[Wicked]]; after dreaming of becoming an assistant to the Wizard for most of her life, she turns down the opportunity, along with the future of wealth, power and esteem that comes with it, because she finds out he was the one behind the very anti-Animal policies she had come to protest.

* DiabloIII enjoys this trope:

* Dominic in ''EurekaSeven'', specially after [[spoiler: learning ''[[PlayingwithSyringes exactly]]'' how [[DarkActionGirl Anemone]] became the CuteAndPsycho we know.]]

* Dominic in ''EurekaSeven''.

** Heath, from ''Fire Emblem'', defects to your side after disobeying orders to slaughter innocent civilians.

** In ''Thracia 776'', Salem, the series' first playble dark magic user, is a defector from the very-evil Lopto Sect.

* Annie from ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is the child of the leaders of the Grey Order -- a group who broke off from Noxus because of its evil and [[BadPowersGoodPeople want to study dark magic]] without being {{Complete Monster}}s.

* In the BelisariusSeries, there's [[spoiler: Kungas and his Kushan squad]], another group of [[spoiler: Kushan troops captured by Belisarius]], and finally [[spoiler: Damodara, Rana Sanga and his entire Rajput and Ye-tai army]].
* Captain Marko Ramius in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'' had become disgusted with the USSR's political system, as his wife died from a botched medical procedure, and the physician was not reprimanded because he was the relative of a ranking party member. He was also disturbed by the destructive potential of the titular ship, "a ship which had but one use", as he puts it.
* In the ''StarTrekMirrorUniverse'' story "The Mirror-Scaled Serpent", mirror!Seska is a member of the Terran Rebellion and feverent in her disaproval of the Alliance. She believes the Cardassians should rule the quadrant, but they shouldn't have have allied with ''Klingons'' to do it.

* The Literature/FirebirdTrilogy

* The Daxamites of the DCUniverse, in addition to gaining powers similar to Superman under a yellow sun but with a fatal weakness to lead instead of Kryptonite, also happen to be viciously xenophobic. Future GreenLantern Sodom Yat was unique in that he wanted to go out into space. One day an alien named Tessog crash-landed on Daxam and the two quickly became friends. When Sodom's parents found out, they killed Tessog and ''brainwashed their own son'' into thinking Tessog was evil. Sodom only remembered what really happened after seeing his friend's ''stuffed and preserved corpse'' in a museum. He was so pissed off that he repaired Tessog's ship and vowed to leave Daxam forever. Then the GreenLantern ring found him. Sodom would only return to Daxam after learning from his mother (who had fled using Tessog's ship) that [[spoiler:the Sinestro Corp invaded it]]. And even then he demanded that she give thanks to Tessog for providing her a means of escape. Because Sodom Yat is a GreenLantern and a hero through and through he still [[spoiler:ended up making an apparent HeroicSacrifice to save the planet]].

* In ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'', Osamu Sugo initially joins Missing Link's F1 team because he thinks he doesn't need Cyber Systems for racing. After finding out that [[spoiler:his boss Smith wants to use the navigation system Asurada as a military weapon,]] he decides to leave the team and joins Union Savior under the alias Knight Schumacher to keep an eye on Hayato (who's driving the car with the system in it) and his team.

* In [[LordOfTheRings 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.

* [[spoiler: Zuko]], from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', finally decides to officially defect [[spoiler:from the Fire Nation]] after witnessing [[spoiler:[[CompleteMonster his father]] plan to burn the entire Earth Kingdom during Sozin's Comet]].