History Main / FromNobodyToNightmare

*** Arguably, the FromNobodyToNightmare happened in the episode ''Dead Things''. Before this episode, Warren was presented just like Jonathan and Warren, i.e. immature geeks trying to act like comic book [[{{Supervillain}} supervillains]]. However, in ''Dead Things'', Warren [[{{Mind Control}} mind controls]] his ex-girlfriend, then proceeds to try and have sex with her, and then crosses the MoralEventHorizon by [[spoiler: accidentally killing her when she wakes up, then manipulates Jonathan and Andrew into framing Buffy for murder, using magic so even Buffy believes she's the killer]]. Then he just gets worse from there...

Related to BeneathTheMask as power reveals this seemingly harmless people their true evil selves

* ''{{Discworld}}'''s Edward d'Eath.
** He ''was'' an assassin though. Even though... [[DoctorWho Wwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeelllllllllll]] [[spoiler: technically speaking poor old Edward d'Eath died after accidentally killing / witnessing the accident of the Dwarf Smithy who considered replicating the Gonne, after this he confesses his crimes to Cruces, if you reread the book after knowing the plot twist at the end at one point the mental gonneman is saying how Edward got changed and he wasn't here anymore, ... that was quite literal. Cruces offed the poor bastard in his office and took his gonne.. And he spent most of the book monologueing to himself.]]
** The book actually goes into some depth on what would have happened otherwise. d'Eath would have just stayed a nobody, and a bit of a shut in, some people wouldn't have died and the book wouldn't have been very long.
--->In a million worlds this book would be really short. However, in this universe...

* Black Hand was a C-list villain who stole energy from the GreenLantern and based his persona and crimes off of in-jokes and folk sayings. At one point he gave up supervillainy to ''run a porno theater''. He now leads [[ZombieApocalypse the Black Lanterns]], and is a central character in the current DC CrisisCrossover, ''Blackest Night''.

* In ''{{Wanted}}'', Wesley Gibson started out as a weak-willed and pacifistic individual and eventually becoming a CompleteMonster with his father's ImprobableAimingSkills. [[spoiler:This was all masterminded by his father, who hated how Wesley's mother raised him and wanted him to "man up".]]

** Don't give The Company too much credit, Sylar/Gabriel was already pretty mentally unstable to being with. The show bounces between [[InTheBlood his biological lineage]], [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity his ability]], and/or [[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent the insistent prodding of his adoptive mother]] as a cause (most likely a combination of all three along with [=HRG=] and Elle's ill-fated assignment), but what remains clear is that he started off as a talented watchmaker, and later became one of the most powerful and most feared characters in the {{Heroes}} 'verse.

* AvatarTheLastAirbender: [[EvilChancellor Long Feng]] started out as the son of a middle-class merchant. With hard work and careful [[TheChessmaster manipulations,]] he took over the [[SecretPolice Dai Li,]] turned the Earth King into a political figurehead, and became the Big Brother-like ruler of the entire Earth Kingdom. [[spoiler: Unfortunetly for him, this came back to bite him when [[TheDragon Azula]] convinced his minions that a ruler that works for power is inferior to a ruler who's ''born'' with it.]]
* {{Wakfu}}: [[BigBad Noximilien Coxen]] was an unassuming watchmaker and a family man. Then he accidentally got his hands on a little something called the [[ArtifactOfDoom Eliacube]]...

* It's mentioned in the MassEffect lore that The Illusive Man, VisionaryVillain and leader of human extremist group Cerberus was once a normal man with a family.
* Throughout the BaldursGate series, the PlayerCharacter goes from being just some kid [[spoiler: with a tiny fragment of the God of Murder in them]] to a being of incredible power. The bad guys in the third game don't send assassins after you - they send an ''army''. You can also [[spoiler: become a God, if you choose]].
* In DragonAge, two of the available origins really are nobodies - you can't get more 'nobody' than an elf living in an [[FantasticRacism elf ghetto]] or a Casteless dwarf. You then go on to command the armies of an entire country, whose combined power is more or less equal to [[OneManArmy your own]]. You can become [[spoiler: the first person ever to slay an Archdemon without dying]].

* In the last case of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, [[spoiler:The ambassador of Allabhast goes from an old, decrepit man who you only have to talk to every so often to the murderer of two people and the head of the smuggling operation which makes up the entirety of the game's villains.]]

* Arguably, the Boss from SaintsRow. At the beginning of the first game, he was just some guy on the street. By the end of the second, though...hoo, boy. Just ask the Stilwater Police Department.

* BigBad [[MadScientist Demichev]] of {{Singularity}} - ForWantOfANail [[spoiler: YOUR saving him from an inferno that should have killed him]]- rises to power in the USSR and leads it to world conquest. [[spoiler: And in one of the endings, [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure ''Barisov'']].]]

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In the broadest sense of course, almost ''every'' villain starts off this way. Even if they were famous before their FaceHeelTurn, they were'nt born exceptional, and being exceptional would'nt automatically qualify them for this trope either.

* The ultimate ''heroic'' version of this trope would have to be Simon, from ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. It's amazing [[BeyondTheImpossible how far]] you can go with a supportive big bro and a talent for drilling.
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Compare the {{Diabolus Ex Vacuus}}. If the character was a bad guy previously but never a serious one, it's NotSoHarmless. Heroic versions may still find themselves wondering "[=~Dude, Where's My Respect?~=]" Frequently, the details of this process are uncovered in the villain's StartOfDarkness.

Compare the {{Diabolus Ex Vacuus}}. Heroic versions may still find themselves wondering "[=~Dude, Where's My Respect?~=]" Frequently, the details of this process are uncovered in the villain's StartOfDarkness.

[[Series/{{Heroes}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sylarpaintingcq3.jpg]]
[[caption-width:397: I'd ''love'' to see [[YouWillBeAssimilated how that works...]]]]

-->''"Pol Pot was a history teacher and [[GodwinsLaw Hitler]] was a vegetarian painter, so... mass murderers come from the areas you least expect it. I don't know how the flip comes over, but it happens."''
-->-- '''EddieIzzard'''

-->-- ''JusticeLeague'', "Only A Dream": the animated debut of [[CompleteMonster Doctor]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Destiny]].

*** There were actually a few rifles attached to firing ports and he did aim for an occupied kindergarten which barely had time to be evacuated... {{so yeah}}.

Compare the {{Diabolus Ex Vacuus}} and BewareTheSillyOnes. Heroic versions may still find themselves wondering "[=~Dude, Where's My Respect?~=]" Frequently, the details of this process are uncovered in the villain's StartOfDarkness.

Compare the {{Diabolus Ex Vacuus}}. Heroic versions may still find themselves wondering "[=~Dude, Where's My Respect?~=]" Frequently, the details of this process are uncovered in the villain's StartOfDarkness.

[[Series/{{Heroes}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sylarpaintingcq3.jpg]]
[[caption-width:397: I'd ''love'' to see [[YouWillBeAssimilated how that works...]]]]

->'''Green Lantern''': Look, whatever he is he's sure not in the same league as Grundy and the others. He's a nobody.\\
'''Batman''': Ever read ''TheOdyssey''? After Odysseus was caught by the Cyclops, he told it his name was "Nobody." So when he poked its eye out and its friends asked who did it, all the cyclops could say was, "nobody."\\
'''Green Lantern''': Point taken.
-->-- ''JusticeLeague'', "Only A Dream": the animated debut of [[CompleteMonster Doctor]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Destiny]].

** And it's implied as much as the non-corrupt police don't like it, [[VetinariParadox Marcone keeps even worse criminal empires from moving in]].
** Generally happens with warlocks, just smaller scale. Just your normal teenage boy, then he discovers he can control people's minds. 9 deaths and several seriously f'd up people later he's babbeling incoherently on a his knees just before Morgan takes his head.

* [[''TheDarkKnight "Who's stupid enough to steal from us?" "Just a two-bit whackjob. Wears a cheap purple suit an makeup. He's nobody, he's not our problem."'']]

* [[TheDarkKnight ''"Who's stupid enough to steal from us?" "Just a two-bit whackjob. Wears a cheap purple suit an makeup. He's nobody, he's not our problem."'']]

* [[TheDarkKnight Who's stupid enough to steal from us? Just a two-bit whackjob. Wears a cheap purple suit an makeup. He's nobody, he's not our problem.]]
** One man or the entire mob. He can wait.

** There's also Goebbels, who was a struggling writer, Himmler, who was a ''chicken farmer'' of all things, Heydrich, who played the violin and was often bullied for his high-pitched voice, and Hoess, who as a child was almost pushed into Catholicism by his father. Except for Goering (who was an AcePilot in WorldWarI), the Nazi leadership started out as a rather undistinguished bunch. Be very afraid.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_amin Idi Amin]], the assistant cook who went on to rule Uganda with an iron fist, murdering ''thousands''.