History Main / DefectorfromDecadence

* ''Fanfic/JWITCHSeries'' (''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' & ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''): Has an example from its backstory: the four strongest members of Shendu's dragon army grew weary of their master's oppressive ways, but they continued serving him until Xin Jing begged them to help China's suffering people. They then joined her in fighting against him, eventually sacrificing themselves to create the Heart of Kandrakar, which Lo Pei used to seal Shendu in stone.

* ''Fanfic/ATriangleInTheStars'' has Peridot, whom Stan and Ford meet in Chapter Twenty-Three. Unlike Canon Peridot, she's always had doubts about whether she belonged to and in Homeworld, and disliked what her species did regularly. It's {{Downplayed}}, however, in that she goes along with her new crewmates because she's curious about them and Earth, and is rather happy helping them.
* Tashigi in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11961369/24/Blood-Man-Luffy Blood Man Luffy]]'' joins the Straw Hats after Alabasta out of disgust for how Smoker was acting, including demonizing the Straw Hats despite them being ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything.

* ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'':
** The Asari Diaspora which begins after the Mekon War is partly a result of progressive Asari getting sick of the stagnation brought about by the ruling conservative-minded Matriarchs, and leaving the Republics for more open-minded polities.
** During the Five Galaxies War, the Tymbrimi and Tytlal defect from the Five Galaxies to the [[TheAlliance Terran Treaty Organization]] because they're disgusted by the small-mindedness of the other Galactics.

* In ''Fanfic/NineMinutes'', after facing a military tribunal for showing the Straw Hats mercy for saving Alabasta, Tashigi defects from the Marines, realizing that the higher-ups only cared about making an example of someone for the Marines' failure to stop the Straw Hat pirates. Upon joining the Straw Hats, Tashigi is given a higher bounty than even Sanji.

* Aldir in''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', One of the Asuras, [[spoiler:Aldir]], defects from Kezess's service completely as Kezess's corruption and selfishness lead the Asura astray.

* Aldir in''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'', One of the Asuras, [[spoiler:Aldir defects from Kezess's service completely as Kezess's corruption and selfishness lead the Asura astray. After being ordered by Kezess to use the world eater technique to prevent Agrona from summoning the Legacy though the attempt failed but destroyed Elenoir completely driving the elves to near extinction. Aldir was forced to use the technique to prevent his clan from being purged from the great eight but he was extremely hesitant to use the technique in the first place. After seeing millions of lives that should have been saved by the Asuras yet were sacrificed coldly by Kezess Indrath, he suffers from MyGodWhatHaveIDone then Seris Vritra confronts him and calls him out for the genocide he committed under Kezess's orders but emphasize how Agrona Vritra and Kezess Indrath are two beings no better than each other also informs him of Arthur Leywin's survival in Alacrya. He decides to rebel completely against by sparing the lances he was ordered to kill then sending them to the Djinn sanctuary to intercept another asura Taci was send to purge the resistance. Later he departs Epheotus completely to Dicathen after being banished from his clan under his request but killed soilders he trained send by Kezess to discredit Aldir in front of the Asuras but he was not alone in departing. There is also another Asura Wren who share the same opinion about Kezess Indrath and was never loyal to him.]]

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Downplayed with Adar and the Orcs who follow him. At some point before the show, Adar got tired to watch Sauron sacrificing his "children" for his experiments, and forms a new faction. The Orcs are still an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, but their only goal is to create a home for themselves rather then take over the world or mindless destruction like their former masters. They do fight the heroic faction in order to fulfill their goals.

* ''VideoGame/RuneFactoryFrontier'' has [[spoiler:Kross]], a former soldier of the [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Sechs/Zzyxx]] [[TheEmpire Empire]] (the antagonists in the original ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'') who [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulRename discarded his original name of Weber]] and deserted, settling in [[{{Arcadia}} Trampoli Village]] as a farmer and carpenter]].

** The Daxamites, in addition to gaining powers similar to Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} under a yellow sun but with a fatal weakness to lead instead of Kryptonite, also happen to be viciously xenophobic. Future Franchise/GreenLantern Sodam 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 Sodam's parents found out, they killed Tessog and ''brainwashed their own son'' into thinking Tessog was evil. Sodam 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 Green Lantern ring found him. Sodam would only return to Daxam after learning from his mother (who had fled using Tessog's ship) that [[spoiler:the Sinestro Corps invaded it]]. And even then he demanded that she give thanks to Tessog for providing her a means of escape. Because Sodam Yat is a Green Lantern and a hero through and through he still [[spoiler:ended up making an apparent HeroicSacrifice to save the planet]].

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': In 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.

* ''Franchise/MegaManX'':
** Volt Kraken from ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' resigned from the Maverick Hunters because he was starting to disagree with what they were doing, especially after the death of his friend Launch Octopus from ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', devoting himself to energy research as a more "peaceful" lifestyle. [[spoiler:By the time X and Zero meet him again in the game, they witness Volt Kraken turn Maverick due to the effects of the Sigma Virus and are forced to kill him.]]

* Axl from ''VideoGame/MegaManX7'' was this as well. He was originally a member of the Red Alert vigilante faction, but left the group, anticipating fully that they'll attempt to force him to return, and eventually defected to the Maverick Hunters, because they had changed for the worse. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that the reason why they changed for the worse was because of Sigma, AKA The Professor ([[HijackedByGanon but you probably saw that one coming]]).]]

* ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': Prince Elric of Melniboné, the titular AntiHero and one of the incarnations of the [[ChosenOne Eternal Champion]] in Creator/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 fiancée 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 human warships to destroy it, razing the last remnant of a once proud and ancient civilization.

%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=ju8ngqwd

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

->''"In all my travellings throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed ''here!'' The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and ''rotten to the core!''"''

* ''LetsPlay/RatsSMP'': In spite of being from rat nobility, El left her life as an "aristo-rat" behind because she thought it wasn't right for her family to treat commoner rats poorly and leave them to go hungry.

* ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'': This, and maybe a touch of DefeatMeansFriendship, is why Baron Soontir Fel left the Empire and joined Rogue Squadron. The page image is of him standing aloof in a celebration for a victory that he does not believe merited the name. Of course, the fact that he married Wedge Antilles' sister probably helped the switch along, too.

** The Draenei, a faction of the Eredar who weren't corrupted by [[{{Satan}} Sargeras]], and fled after being branded as traitors, eventually joining TheAlliance.

* In the MagicalGirl CrisisCrossover ''Fanfic/ShatteredSkiesTheMorningLights'', [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Iron Mouse]] surrenders and begs the heroes for asylum when they infiltrate [[LegionOfDoom Dead End's]] palace. She explains that [[BigBad Joker]] is [[OmnicidalManiac omnicidal]] enough that it triggers a fit of EvenEvilHasStandards in her, and she's sick of being Dead End's ButtMonkey. She gets her asylum, all right, but she in no way stops being a ButtMonkey.

* ''Fanfic/ThisBites'':
** In the face of the World Government's undeniable corruption, over the course of the story, Cross convinces [[spoiler: Smoker, Tashigi, Hina, T-Bone, Jonathan, and Tsuru]], as well as the Marines directly loyal to each of them, to form an organization known eventually as the New World Masons, an alliance with several pirate crews aimed at bringing down the government and creating something better in its place. During the Marineford Misery arc, this hits a breaking point as [[spoiler: Hina and T-Bone]] and their men openly revolt against the forces trying to enforce Ace's execution. [[spoiler: And in the aftermath, Smoker and Tashigi are able to convince the Impel Down staff to join the Masons, on the grounds that trying to execute Ace just for being Roger's son (instead of his actual crimes) spits in the face of what they believe in, while T-Bone recruits Momonga and Tsuru recruits Koby and Helemppo, who then recruit Garp, all of whom had their faith in the Marines shattered by the war.]]
** After Gecko Moria is defeated and the shadows he stole returned to their rightful owners, a group of afflicted Marines -- disgusted by the revelation that the World Government knew about Moria's crimes and did nothing to stop him -- abandon the Navy and pledge loyalty to the new pirate sanctuary of Skelter Bite that Lola sets up after taking over and repurposing Thriller Bark.
** A large number of News Coos eventually get so tired of being used to spread the World Government's propaganda that they begin secretly organizing to quit in mass and help Apoo (one of the aforementioned Masons) set up an independent and more truthful news agency.
** Also during Marineford, X. Drake proves to be so disgusted by the World Government's handling of Ace's execution (on top of all the other crimes previously exposed) that when the Supernovas arrive to act as TheCavalry, he willingly exposes himself as a Marine spy and then quits the Corps for real, declaring that no one else will ever dictate justice to him ever again.
* In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' Wei Cao is the daughter of the recently ascendant Governor Cao of Wuhan, who is as corrupt as a human can be without falling to Chaos. Wei's siblings promptly turn on each other with flagrant assassination attempts in order to become sole heir of the Governorship and their father all but endorses the bloodbath. Wei decides that joining the Guard under Taylor and going to fight xenos horrors is ''safer'' than staying on Wuhan, even if it means losing her luxuries. While she later ascends to a position of authority, her taste for decadence is notably tempered thanks to Taylor.

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' fanfic ''Fanfic/WorldsApart'', when Buffy tells Wesley that the Council can consider themselves closed if the Scoobies can’t ask them for help in curing Angel of a fatal poison, Wesley decides to quit from the Council himself, refusing to associate himself with men like his father and Quentin Travers who would basically torture a teenage girl in the name of an abstract test and would let his closest friend die just because Angel isn’t human.

* ''Fanfic/{{A New World|IcedFairy}}'' portrays Kaguya, Eirin, and Reisen as this, all having tired of Lunarian pretensions to being some sort of superior beings. Having forsaken Lunarian authority, Eientei, their palace, is marked as an important target for the invading Lunarian forces, who want them back to increase the invasion's legitimacy.
* ''Fanfic/ATriangleInTheStars'' has Peridot, whom Stan and Ford meet in Chapter Twenty-Three. Unlike Canon Peridot, she's always had doubts about whether she belonged to and in Homeworld, and disliked what her species did regularly. It's {{Downplayed}}, however, in that she goes along with her new crewmates because she's curious about them and Earth, and is rather happy helping them.
* Tashigi in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11961369/24/Blood-Man-Luffy Blood Man Luffy]]'' joins the Straw Hats after Alabasta out of disgust for how Smoker was acting, including demonizing the Straw Hats despite them being ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything.
* ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/48341/changelings-changelings-everywhere Changelings, Changelings, Everywhere]]'': Almost the entire Changeling race fled to [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Ponyville]] and pretended to be a Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn because they were tired of their race's wicked ways. When it's realized everypony in town is secretly a Changeling, one of them wonders if ponies even exist.
* ''Fanfic/ChasingDragons'':
** Septon Jonothor eventually breaks with the Great Sept, unwilling to keep enforcing dogma over what he views as basic morality. Other septons in Essos soon follow his lead, creating a schism in the Faith.
** The group of Ironborn under Harras Harlaw grow disgusted with Balon's leadership (especially the restoration of thralldom), so they not only leave the Iron Islands but side with the Iron Throne against his rebellion.
* ''Fanfic/CodeGeassCorneliaOfTheDefection'' has the titular character herself join Lelouch's side as per the premise of the fic both because of his relations to [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee her idol]] Marianne, and because her ideology conflicts with Britannia.
* This happens a bit in the climax of ''R1'' in ''Fanfic/CodePrime'':

* ''Fanfic/{{crawlersout}}'': Unaware of her past with the Dursleys (and her past in general), Tom Riddle comes to the conclusion that (Fem!)Harry is this. Harry comes from OldMoney and a rather influential pureblood family in Britain (the Potters). However, while rich, she has a job and has absolutely no contact with her blood family, and when interacting with those of similar backgrounds such as the Washingtons, he sees that she is every bit as disgusted with the decadence -- she just hides it better and puts up with it for his sake. In reality, it's averted, as Harry was never a part of this class of society to begin with, having grown up in an abusive, middle-class household, and then spending her school years with working-class, yet loving Weasleys.
* In the ''Fanfic/DoubleAgentVader'' universe, [[spoiler: Lorth Needa]] became TheMole for the Rebellion after the Empire destroyed Alderaan because it was his wife's homeworld and she lost her whole family. [[spoiler: When his cover's blown, Vader [[FakingTheDead pretends to kill him]] so that he and his family can flee to a Rebellion base.]]
* ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'':
** The Asari Diaspora which begins after the Mekon War is partly a result of progressive Asari getting sick of the stagnation brought about by the ruling conservative-minded Matriarchs, and leaving the Republics for more open-minded polities.
** During the Five Galaxies War, the Tymbrimi and Tytlal defect from the Five Galaxies to the [[TheAlliance Terran Treaty Organization]] because they're disgusted by the small-mindedness of the other Galactics.

* The ''Fanfic/JWITCHSeries'' has an example from its backstory: the four strongest members of Shendu's dragon army grew weary of their master's oppressive ways, but they continued serving him until Xin Jing begged them to help China's suffering people. They then joined her in fighting against him, eventually sacrificing themselves to create the Heart of Kandrakar, which Lo Pei used to seal Shendu in stone.
* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': The remastered version of this fanfic introduces Black Dog members that cannot tolerate with [[BigBad Vault]] and his ambitions to build a Sex Empire, in contrast with the original version depicting the Black Dogs as AlwaysChaoticEvil. They include [[ChekhovsGunman Boris]], Fredrick, [[WeHardlyKnewYe Oliver]], and [[AdaptationalBackstoryChange Soren]], who is not a Black Dog member in the original, and is not an apprentice of Kyril yet as of now.
* In ''Fanfic/NineMinutes'', after facing a military tribunal for showing the Straw Hats mercy for saving Alabasta, Tashigi defects from the Marines, realizing that the higher-ups only cared about making an example of someone for the Marines' failure to stop the Straw Hat pirates. Upon joining the Straw Hats, Tashigi is given a higher bounty than even Sanji.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10917821/13/The-questionable-burdens-of-leadership-of-a-troll-Emperor The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor]]'' has the Ascended [[Franchise/StargateVerse Oma]] who has come to support Naruto and Xanna over her fellow Ascended/Ancients as the latter are more concerned with punishing anyone who violates their law of non-interference than with solving the problems they created. This becomes even more apparent when the other Ancients try to forcibly descend her for revealing to the Tok'ra that the Ascended could have crushed the Goa'uld at any time but would rather stick to their policy of non-interference.
* ''Fanfic/ReMyHostageNotYours'': At the end of the story, [[spoiler:Skoodge, having come to realize that the Tallest have been trying to have him killed, goes rogue from the Empire and leaves with the freed Resisty fighters after the Valkians are defeated.]]

* Creator/ShawBrothers have numerous examples in their list of {{Wuxia}} films, to display EvenEvilHasStandards for a former villain to pull a HeelFaceTurn. For instance, the NumberTwo to the main villain of ''Film/MaskedAvengers'' quits the Masked Gang, after realizing his former boss is cruel enough to have an innocent woman gang-raped ForTheEvulz. ''Film/TheYoungVagabond'' has a similar example with the Drunken Tiger, an ex-assassin who betrays his former partner, Centipede, after Centipede himself rapes an innocent woman while his underlings have the woman restrained. ''Film/AbbotOfShaolin'' on the other hand had Master Pai Mei's female acolyte ditching him after witnessing Pai Mei pulling a KlingonPromotion on the former Wu Tang leader.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass''

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
** The Daxamites, in addition to gaining powers similar to Franchise/{{Superman}} and ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} under a yellow sun but with a fatal weakness to lead instead of Kryptonite, also happen to be viciously xenophobic. Future Franchise/GreenLantern Sodam 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 Sodam's parents found out, they killed Tessog and ''brainwashed their own son'' into thinking Tessog was evil. Sodam 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 Green Lantern ring found him. Sodam would only return to Daxam after learning from his mother (who had fled using Tessog's ship) that [[spoiler:the Sinestro Corps invaded it]]. And even then he demanded that she give thanks to Tessog for providing her a means of escape. Because Sodam Yat is a Green Lantern and a hero through and through he still [[spoiler:ended up making an apparent HeroicSacrifice to save the planet]].
** Lar Gand/ComicBook/{{Valor}} (also known as Mon-El) is yet another Daxamite and member of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''. Although his backstory on Daxam wasn't nearly as traumatic, he pretty much became a fugitive for wanting to -- and escaping -- Daxam to travel the stars.
** Laurel Gand, Mon-El's cousin and Legionnaire. She was indoctrinated into the Daxamites' xenophobic teachings since birth and sent to be a SixthRangerTraitor for her people's planned genocide against humans, but saw the light and fought back against them.
** The Daxamite ComicBook/WonderWoman gave the name Julia in [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Volume 2]] refuses to even use a Daxamite language, instead using English when she finally breaks her silence following her torture by the Sangtee Empire. She was captured trying to free Sangtee slaves, helps Diana's revolutionaries complete the job, then travels the universe helping innocents, never returning to Daxam.

* M'gann, Miss Martian, from ''Franchise/TeenTitans''. She's a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil White Martian]] who began disguising herself as a Green Martian and became a hero. Her "White Martian" side is more of a SuperpoweredEvilSide nowadays.

*** Dinobot thought Megatron stranded him on an abandoned planet and defected in the first episode. In the second season, after realizing everything was going according to Megatron's plan, Dinobot returned to Megatron's side... Only to defect ''again'' once he realized what the full scope of Megatron's ambitions really was. alos because DInobot didn't want to kill Rattrap.

*** The Sons of Ether/Technocracy split: Sons Of Ether are basically people who think that science should stay ''awesome'', and the Technocracy wanted the Etherites to follow the instruction manual.

*** Dinobot thought Megatron stranded him on an abandoned planet and defected in the first episode. In the second season, after realizing everything was going according to Megatron's plan, Dinobot returned to Megatron's side... Only to defect ''again'' once he realized what the full scope of Megatron's ambitions really was.

* In one version of the ''ComicBook/FreedomFightersDC'', the [[Franchise/{{Superman}} last survivor of Krypton]] landed in Nazi Germany and became Overman. Overman steamrolled the Allies and defeated Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, leading to the Nazis ruling the United States. However, Overman grew increasingly horrified and became disenchanted with the Nazis, leaving for space. His absence gave the Freedom Fighters a chance to return.

* ''LetsPlay/RatsSMP'': In spite of being from rat nobility, El left "aristoracy" behind because she thought it wasn't right for her family to treat commoner rats poorly and leave them to go hungry.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Downplayed with Adar and the Orcs who follow him. At some point before the show, Adar got tired to watch Sauron sacrificing his "children" for his experiments, and forms a new faction. The Orcs are still an AlwaysChaoticEvil, but their only goal is to create a home for themselves rather then take over the world or mindless destruction like their former masters. They do fight the heroic faction in order to fulfill their goals.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* President UsefulNotes/JohnTyler switched from the Democratic party to the Whig party because he didn't like UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson's dictatorial methods. The switch wasn't successful because he remained just Democratic enough that most Whigs couldn't stand him.
* Flavius Vegetius Renatus: [[http://www.military-quotes.com/vegetius-renatus.htm "To seduce the enemies soldiers from their allegiance and encourage them to surrender is of special service, for an adversary is more hurt by desertion than by slaughter."]]
* Missing records and contradictory stories make it hard to tell how much this applied to history, but legendary samurai UsefulNotes/YagyuJubei is often portrayed as a {{Proud Warrior|RaceGuy}} who spent years WalkingTheEarth after being banished due to his disdain for court politics and blunt ways.
* Democratic senator [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_A._Douglas Stephen Douglas]] was, for a time, considered as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1860 when he defied his party and fellow Democrat President James Buchanan over their attempts to pass a slave code that would have made Kansas a slave state regardless of whether the people wished it to be a slave or free state. For all intents and purposes, Douglas' near defection split the Democratic party's northern and southern wings as Douglas would become one of two Democratic candidates for President in 1860, (the other being John Breckenridge) with Douglas getting nearly all of his support from the Northern Democrats. For their part, the Republicans wound up picking Abraham Lincoln instead, who, due to the split among Democrats, was able to win with just 40% of the popular vote. (Although, since it was a four-way race, 40% was quite a bit more than Lincoln's nearest rival). After Lincoln's election, Douglas urged the South to accept Lincoln and attempted to work to avoid UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. When the South did secede, he condemned the action and rallied support for the North, but died not long after the war's onset.
* Another American Civil War-related example: Tennessee senator UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, despite being a slaveowner who disagreed with most Northern politicians' views, vigorously campaigned for his state to stay in the Union. When his state still chose to secede, he became the only senator from a seceded state to stay loyal to the Union.
* Some Never Trump Republicans, like Justin Amash, Bill Kristol and Joe Walsh, have left the Republican Party due to their opposition to Creator/DonaldTrump and Trumpism. Some have even joined the Democratic Party and endorsed UsefulNotes/JoeBiden despite having little in common with them.
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Siddharta Gautama Buddha the Sage of the Shakyas]], founder of Buddhism. Quite famous for leaving his princely life and becoming an ascetic. Though interestingly he defected from strict asceticism as well and went on to find his own, famous path.
* Creator/MarkTwain was originally a die-hard American nationalist, but later [[HeelFaceTurn switched sides]] to become an anti-imperialist, citing disillusionment with the expansionist US foreign policy of the early 1900s.
* Many real-life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defectors defectors]] from communist nation-states were the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25 elite]] of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko society.]] Of these, one of the highest profile was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetlana_Alliluyeva Svetlana Alliluyeva]] - the daughter of none other than Stalin himself.
* The industrialist Fritz Thyssen was originally an ardent supporter of Hitler and [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazi Party]], up until he was thoroughly disgusted by Kristallnacht. He literally defected from Germany, causing Hitler to personally declare him an UnPerson, and holed up in France... until France was overrun in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. He was thrown into a concentration camp but still managed to survive the war.
* This seemed to happen a lot with the Nazis, maybe why there were 27 or so [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_attempts_on_Adolf_Hitler attempts on Hitler's life]] between '34 and '44, not including 10 or so in '33, and another 4 before that.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999th_Light_Afrika_Division_(Wehrmacht) The 999th Light African Division]] was so full of dissidents that it was effectively a front for the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Fascist_Committee_for_a_Free_Germany Anti-Fascist Committee for a Free Germany.]]
* Saint Patrick's Battalion in the Mexican-American war, a majority-Catholic group of soldiers who defected from the US Army to side with Mexico. Reasons for the defection vary, but most of them fall under this trope: many were Catholics/immigrants embittered by mistreatment and cultural alienation from the largely Protestant/nativist American forces, many were Irish soldiers who saw America as doing the same thing to Mexico that England had done to Ireland, and some were escaped black slaves who were understandably disenchanted with the United States.
* Similarly, many of the Irish rebellions against British rule saw Irish Catholic soldiers defecting to join the rebels. By the Irish War of Independence, this had come to include English and Scottish Catholics of Irish descent. The Connaught Rangers, an all-Irish regiment of soldiers serving the British Empire in India, defected almost immediately upon hearing news of the Irish War of Independence.
* [[GangBangers Street gangs]] see a lot of abandonment from their founding '[=OGs=]' due to the shift in values (many gangs are started for neighborhood protection but are often corrupted by the drug trade and the potential to profit from it, leading the gangs to become more like criminal enterprises). Many founding members feel like the newer generations don't have the respect and focus they have and can no longer tolerate it.
* Japanese Trip-Hop artist DJ Krush was a {{Yakuza}} member before beginning his musical career. One day [[{{Yubitsume}} he discovered a severed finger wrapped in paper on his desk]]; after discovering that it had belonged to his best friend, he decided to leave.
* Two Libyan fighter pilots, when ordered to bomb protesting civilians, [[TakeAThirdOption flew out of Libya and defected.]] All in all, ''forty thousand'' Libyan troops defected to the rebel/UN side.
** RebelLeader [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Abdul_Jalil Mustafa Abdul Jalil]] was Minister of Justice under Gaddafi until Gaddafi started slaughtering protesters.
* Legendary anarchist theorist Pyotr Kropotkin was a Russian prince and Mikhail Bakunin belonged to a noble family (albeit one of "modest means"), and both rejected their privileged positions. Both ended up imprisoned for some time and later fled/were expelled into exile.
* Leo Tolstoy (who was a count), as well, although he didn't end up going to prison. The Russians seem to have a long and pronounced tradition of Russian nobles becoming anarchists and giving up their titles and possessions. Similarly, the sons and grandchildren of Russian Orthodox Priests (who could be married men) were also responsible for so many revolutionary ideas that "Son of a Priest" became an insult.
* In the 19th and 20th centuries it was the Russian nobility and upper classes, and not the Russian middle-classes or industrial workers, that made up most of the country's political radicals and dissidents. The Russian middle class was both weak and tiny, due to the power of the (state-run) [[MegaCorp companies]] they worked for, and big-factory workers weren't much more numerous or better organised by comparison (cottage industry, and small-factory-based-light-industry, employed most of the workers in even the 1913 manufacturing sector). That said, most of said radicals and dissidents came from the less well-off or impoverished echelons of the nobility and priesthood.
* Another Tolstoy example might be Count Aleksey Nikolaevich Tolstoy, a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy. He fled Russia after the Revolution, but embraced communism and returned to the Soviet Union where he became one of Stalin's favorite authors and made major contributions to early science fiction.
* Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans. He became a major supporter of the revolutionary causes during the French Revolution and changed his name to Citizen Equality (Citoyen Egalite), abandoning his aristocratic status. Unfortunately for him, things did not go well for him during the Terror.
* In 2011 and 2012, the Free Syrian Army received several high ranking (colonel & up) defectors from the Syrian military such as Riad al-Asaad, Mustafa al-Sheikh, Salim Idris, and Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir. But by late 2014, the FSA has taken heavy losses in the Syrian civil war and is now a fraction of its former strength, with [[TheFundamentalist Islamic State]] becoming the prime opposition group to the Syrian government.
* UsefulNotes/{{Skanderbeg}} was once a Janissary guard for the UsefulNotes/OttomanEmpire that actually rose to the position of the local governor. However, being forcibly conscripted into the position in the first place, the deaths of his siblings in the [[DecadentCourt Turkish court]], seeing his homeland of UsefulNotes/{{Albania}} being exploited and inspired by the struggle of other Christian states led to him switch sides and lead his quarter-century campaign against the Ottomans.
* UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}}'s Mahathir exploited this trope a few times during his political career by temporarily quitting his party UMNO. He relied on his massive political clout in hopes of alienating his target and forcing UMNO to oust his target. Mahathir accused Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of incompetence, quit the party, and succeeded in getting UMNO to oust Abdullah as Prime Minister, after which Mahathir rejoined UMNO. Later on, Mahathir accused Najib of corruption and tried the same trick, but this time without much success since Najib held a stronger grip on UMNO. Mahathir eventually formed another political party and officially declared that UMNO no longer represents what it stands for, which makes exploiting this trope all the more obvious.
* There are numerous members of the Phelps family who left TheFundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church because they grew disgusted at their own family's arrogant self-righteousness expressed by their notorious ActivistFundamentalistAntics. Even Fred Phelps himself grew disillusioned with the path Westboro was taking near the end of his life, trying to calm and redirect the church to more benevolent causes before he was excommunicated.
* The Indian National Army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo was an entire army made up of defectors. Many of its constituent soldiers had been enlisted into the [[UsefulNotes/KiplingsFinest British Indian Army]], but were captured by the Germans or Japanese. Indian freedom fighter Subhash Bose met with Hitler and Tojo and convinced them to let him conscript their Indian prisoners into an army which would try to liberate India from British rule. Bose disappeared under mysterious circumstances in ‘44 and without his leadership, the INA attempted an invasion through Burma, Kohima and Imphal, but were defeated. Most of them died or were recaptured, now by the British. Although India achieved independence shortly after the war’s end, these men were never accepted into the newly formed [[UsefulNotes/IndiansWithIglas Indian Army]].
* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, being one of the most totalitarian countries in the world, has had many [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_defectors defectors]], including several high-ranking ones. Examples are:
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Jang-yop Hwang Jang-yop]], who served as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly for eleven years and was largely responsible for crafting Juche, the official state ideology of North Korea. He defected in 1997.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Han-yong Yi Han-yong]], nephew of Kim Jong-il. He defected in 1982 and was assassinated in 1997 by two unknown assailants. His assassination is thought to have been in retaliation for the defection of Hwang Jang-yop.
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thae_Yong-ho Thae Yong-ho]], who was North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom prior to defecting in 2016 together with his family. Thae defected because he didn't want his children to live a life of oppression in North Korea.
** [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58838834 Kim Kuk-song]], a former senior intelligence officer who fled North Korea with his family to avoid being purged.
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