History Main / KnightOfCerebus

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-->-- '''Hitori''' explaining his life after DEM Industries and Isaac Westcott's appearance, ''Literature/DateALive''

-->-- '''Hitori''' explaining his life after DEM Industries and Isaac Westcott's appearance, ''LightNovel/DateALive''

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* [[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]] has quite a lot of Knights of Cerebus, from the omnicidal Ztar, to the genocidal Francis. But Zero easily takes the cake as this series' main Knight of Cerebus, his one comedic moment can be seen as more gross than funny, and every other time he is on screen, all comedy flies out the window. Not to mention that the former two only attempted their goals and didn't get that close to completing them, meanwhile Zero has succeeded in destroying multiple universes and was the closest anyone has ever gotten to killing Mario '''TWICE'''.

A Knight of Cerebus may be a blatant HeroKiller who poses an actual threat, or even an InvincibleVillain. They also tend to be the trigger of TheWorfEffect against the hero. They may be the ArchEnemy as they might have a strong personal tie to the hero or heroes of the work. They are usually distinguished from the other villains as perhaps being [[VilerNewVillain worse]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil stronger]], or more [[ItsPersonal personally]] tied to the protagonists. Sometimes this type of character can be a CompleteMonster if they have no redeeming traits and do things that are terrible even by previously established standards. Often this character's arrival is a GutPunch. A GrumpyBear or TheKilljoy can be this when he is the one that turns the story towards more serious tone as well, with his pessimistic and nihilistic attitude mandate the shift.

** Then came the [[OutsideContextProblem Tyranids]]. In their first attack, they crippled the most well respected Space Marines in the galaxy. In their second, it took both the Eldar ''and'' Humanity working together just to gain a PyrrhicVictory over them. And their third assault still hasn't been stopped, [[GodzillaThreshold despite the sacrifice of billions upon billions of humans]]. Every time a Hive Fleet has appeared, the races of the galaxy have had to cross the GodzillaThreshold in order to stop it. ''Every'' Hive Fleet is treated as an apocalyptic event for the galaxy and these are just the [[UpToEleven scouting fleets]], the main force isn't even here yet. While every other race has spent millennia fighting over one galaxy, the Tyranids are implied to have consumed more than one. This is just their next meal. The Chaos Gods are [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared]] of the Tyranids, because they have the power to completely block out the Warp. And the Tyranids are implied to be ''running away'' from something [[AlwaysABiggerFish EVEN WORSE]].

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallDC'' starts off as a mostly lighthearted look at [[AdaptationalNameChange Kakorat]]'s origin story in the ''Franchise/DCUniverse''. Then it gets to the origin for the villainous Saiyans. They are introduced as waging their personal war where they killed countless people, before they are kidnapped by ''ComicBook/DARKSEID'' whose cruelty shapes them into obedient soldiers in his army. The Saiyan Saga sees them attack and kill millions, include a number of superheroes. Even after Vegeta's defeat and he ceases to be an antagonist, episodes focused on him are much darker than plots focused on Kakarot due to Vegeta's acts ranging from him being a jerk to being downright evil, while any comedic moments with him are few and far between. [[spoiler: In The Doom Saga when Vegeta makes it clear he intends to kill Kakarot and become the sole Super Saiyan, unlike in canon where Vegeta CantCatchUp and isn't made out to be a threat, him killing Kakarot is presented as a very real possibility due to their being far less of a power gap and Kakarot suffering from a virus.]]

A Knight of Cerebus may be a blatant HeroKiller who poses an actual threat, or even an InvincibleVillain. They also tend to be the trigger of TheWorfEffect against the hero. They may be the ArchEnemy as they might have a strong personal tie to the hero or heroes of the work. They are usually distinguished from the other villains as perhaps being [[VilerNewVillain worse]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil stronger]], or more [[ItsPersonal personally]] tied to the protagonists. Sometimes this type of character can be a CompleteMonster if they have no redeeming traits and do things that are terrible even by previously established standards. Often this character's arrival is a GutPunch. A GrumpyBear can be this when he is the one that turns the story towards more serious tone as well, with his pessimistic and nihilistic attitude mandate the shift.

A Knight of Cerebus may be a blatant HeroKiller who poses an actual threat, or even an InvincibleVillain. They also tend to be the trigger of TheWorfEffect against the hero. They may be the ArchEnemy as they might have a strong personal tie to the hero or heroes of the work. They are usually distinguished from the other villains as perhaps being [[VilerNewVillain worse]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil stronger]], or more [[ItsPersonal personally]] tied to the protagonists. Sometimes this type of character can be a CompleteMonster if they have no redeeming traits and do things that are terrible even by previously established standards. Often this character's arrival is a GutPunch.

[[folder:Mythology & Religion]]
* For Literature/TheBible, more specifically the earliest parts of the ''Literature/BookOfGenesis'', someone does something that irreperably worsens the world ''[[SerialEscalation three times]]''.
** When God created the world, earth was a literal paradise, and the first humans knew no evil. Then came [[SnakesAreSinister the serpent]] (who the Christian tradition (understandably) identifies as {{Satan}}), who deceived the first humans into disobeying God. This effectively opens the door for all future evil deeds.
** First among these evil deeds is committed by Cain, the TropeNamer of CainAndAbel, who commits history's first murder. Cain soon has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, and thus the world
** Then come in the {{Nephilim}}, who rule the earth in the days before Noah. The world is filled with so much violence in this time that humanity is practically an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, which prompts God to send forth TheGreatFlood. And even ''after'' the flood, the human heart is still inclined to evil.
[[/folder]]

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' is largely a realistic show about realistic small-town problems, frequently more comedy than drama. It had a few forays into serious territory early on, whether it was an adaptation of a Bible story or a robbery... but when Dr. Blackgaard showed up, things ''changed''.

* The Cult of Apophis in ''RolePlay/YuGiOhEastAcademy'' presents a very real and significant danger to the heroes; their appearance marks the darkening tone of the RP.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' effectively has [[SerialEscalation two]] in its history. While the galaxy was [[CrapsackWorld never a particularly nice place]], some people just have to make things even worse.

** Then came the [[OutsideContextProblem Tyranids]]. In their very first attack, they crippled the most well respected Space Marines in the galaxy. In their second, it took both the Eldar AND Humanity working together just to gain a PyrrhicVictory over them. And their third assault STILL hasn't been stopped, [[GodzillaThreshold despite the sacrifice of billions upon billions of humans]]. Every time a Hive Fleet has appeared, the races of the galaxy have had to cross the GodzillaThreshold in order to stop it. EVERY Hive Fleet is treated as an apocalyptic event for the galaxy and these are just the ''[[UpToEleven scouting fleets]]'', the main force isn't even here yet. While every other race has spent millennia fighting over one galaxy, the Tyranids are implied to have consumed ''multiple ones''. This is just their next meal. The ''Chaos Gods'' are [[HorrifyingTheHorror scared]] of the Tyranids, because they have the power to completely block out the Warp. And the Tyranids are implied to be ''running away'' from something [[AlwaysABiggerFish EVEN WORSE]].

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' was never anything close to light and soft, being about a severely bullied girl finding an escape in her life as a supervillain. The character who shows just how dark the setting is, though, is Leviathan, a [[{{Kaiju}} gigantic]], [[PersonOfMassDestruction immensely powerful]] ''[[EldritchAbomination thing]]'' that does literally nothing but [[OmnicidalManiac try to sink cities and countries into the ocean every year or so]]. More characters die in the first ''paragraph'' of his rampage than in the entire series up until that point. The sheer devastation his attack causes to Brockton Bay leaves the city a gang-ruled ruin that's vulnerable to various other superpowered threats. Prior to this, the only antagonists in the story were local heroes and street gangs.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1634757867053926400&page=1 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]

In order to [[CerebusSyndrome add more drama to a series which has been, up until that moment, lighthearted and comedic in nature,]] a villain (or antagonist of some sort) is introduced and is portrayed as a genuine threat, in contrast to the [[HarmlessVillain bumbling]] and [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain comedic villains]] the heroes have faced before. The villain's arrival is sudden, and is usually either a totally new character, or a character that has undergone a particularly [[FromNobodyToNightmare dramatic]] FaceHeelTurn.

This villain's arrival is heralded by a sudden downturn in humor (although if the villain is LaughablyEvil, expect it to turn into BlackComedy), showing the audience this one means business. In other words, a catalyst for a drastic change in mood toward the dark and dramatic. Some characters may take the story to darker territory without being villainous in the slightest, but this trope is reserved for evil creatures. GrimDark shows and stories that take place in a CrapsackWorld are much less susceptible to this kind of influence, but even they have exceptions if this villain shifts the story from BlackComedy to being more serious. This isn't only about the character themself, it is also about their relation to the story.

A Knight of Cerebus may be a blatant HeroKiller who poses an actual threat, or even an InvincibleVillain. They also tend to be the trigger of TheWorfEffect against the hero. They may be the ArchEnemy as they might have a strong personal tie to the hero or heroes of the work. They are usually distinguished from the other villains as perhaps being [[VilerNewVillain worse]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil stronger]], or more [[ItsPersonal personally]] tied to the protagonists. Sometimes this type of character can be a CompleteMonster if they have no redeeming traits and do terrible things by the standards of history in an initially more lighthearted series. Often this character's arrival is a GutPunch.

Remember, CerebusSyndrome is a prerequisite for this trope. '''The Knight of Cerebus heralds a long-term tone shift in an episodic work and cannot exist within a single installment.''' An [[TheClimax increase in danger]] as a conflict escalates is [[OmnipresentTropes present]] in almost any story with a villain, and is not automatically notable. Can overlap with VileVillainSaccharineShow when the setting itself contrasts heavily with the character's grimness (and that trope may be what you want for a single work).

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

** When God created the world, earth was a literal paradise, and the first humans knew no evil. Then came [[SnakesAreSinister the serpent]] (who the Christian tradition (understandably) identifies as {{Satan}}), who decieved the first humans into disobeying God. This effectively opens the door for all future evil deeds.
** First among these evil deeds is commited by Cain, the TropeNamer of CainAndAbel, who commits history's first murder. Cain soon has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, and thus the world

* [[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]] has quite a lot of Knights of Cerebus, from the omnicidal Ztar, to the genocidal Francis. But [[GreaterScopeVillain SMG0]] easily takes the cake as this series' main Knight of Cerebus, his one comedic moment can be seen as more gross than funny, and every other time he is on screen, all comedy flies out the window. Not to mention that the former two only attempted their goals and didn't get that close to completing them, meanwhile Zero has succeeded in destroying multiple universes and was the closest anyone has ever gotten to killing Mario '''twice!'''

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' effectively has [[SerialEscalation two]] in its history.

* [[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]] has quite a lot of Knights of Cerebus, from the omnicidal Ztar, to the genocidal Francis. But [[GreaterScopeVillain SMG0]] easily takes the cake as this series’ main Knight of Cerebus, his one comedic moment can be seen as more gross than funny, and every other time he is on screen, all comedy flies out the window. Not to mention that the latter two only attempted their goals and didn’t get that close to completing them, meanwhile Zero has succeeded in destroying multiple universes and was the closest anyone has ever gotten to killing Mario '''twice!'''

* [[Machinima/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]] has quite a lot of Knights of Cerebus, from the omnicidal Ztar, to the genocidal Francis. But [[GreaterScopeVillain SMG0]] easily takes the cake as this series’ main Knight of Cerebus, his one comedic moment can be seen as more gross than funny, and every other time he is on screen, all comedy flies out the window. Not to mention that the latter two only attempted their goals and didn’t get that close to completing them, meanwhile SMG0 has succeeded in destroying multiple universes and was the closest anyone has ever gotten to killing Mario '''twice!'''

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* ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone'' has Kravitz, the Grim Reaper, who informs the party that they have all [[spoiler:died multiple times]]. He's rather annoyed about this, but they're incredibly confused, because they absolutely do not remember the incidents he's talking about. It's the first sign that the party aren't being told something very important about the quest that they're on.

* [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Doc Scratch]] somehow got the players of ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'' interested in actually roleplaying. The more he did, the more people began roleplaying.

%%* The Neanderthals from ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries''.
* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' was never anything close to light and soft, being about a severely bullied girl finding an escape in her life as a supervillain. The character who shows just how dark the setting is, though, is Leviathan, a [[{{Kaiju}} gigantic]], [[PersonOfMassDestruction immensely powerful]] ''[[EldritchAbomination thing]]'' that does literally nothing but [[OmnicidalManiac try to sink cities and countries into the ocean every year or so]]. More characters die in the first ''paragraph'' of his rampage than in the entire series up until that point. The sheer devastation his attack causes to Brockton Bay leaves the city a gang-ruled ruin that's vulnerable to various other superpowered threats. Prior to this, the only antagonists in the story were local heroes and street gangs.
* ''[[Literature/{{Legatum}} The Smirvlak Trilogy]]'': The series, starting from ''Literature/SmirvlaksStone'' normally borders on a CerebusRollercoaster, with the worst villain being the VileVillainSaccharineShow of Lorko Maeliss -- who dies before the climax and never introduces any major lasting effect on the setting. The reveal of [[spoiler:Gnekvizz as the villain, however, completely and permanently swings the moon around, causing a complete DownerEnding with the apparent protagonist killed and the tone for the rest of the series set up with him taking the seat as BigBad.]]

* [[Series/{{Ultraman}} Geronimon]] in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCC859CE898BAFADC Godzilla and His Amazing Friends]]''. While previous enemy monsters weren't exactly lighthearted, he's the first one to be depicted as explicitly out to kill the group and have planned to do so (previous monsters were primarily predators or space monsters the group happened to come in conflict with). WordOfGod has stated that Geronimon's goal is to kill Godzilla's friends one by one, then kill Godzilla himself, and that he's done something in the past that [[ThisIsUnforgivable Godzilla will never forgive]]. He also has the dangerous ability to resurrect other monsters. Not only do he and his monster army nearly beat Gomora and Godzilla to death, [[spoiler:it takes the [[GondorCallsForAid entirety of Monster Island's inhabitants to stop them.]]]] And on top of that, [[spoiler:he manages to [[HeroKiller brutally kill Gomora]], a recurring ally, by stabbing him to death with his feathers and escape before Godzilla can take his revenge.]]
* Similar to ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'', ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' has managed to pull this trope off. The first was with Black Lantern Spoony, who [[HostileShowTakeOver tries to kill the clone Spoony and take the show over]]. Unlike Spoony's other would be murderers who are dealt with in comedic ways, there is nothing humorous about him. His current arc has [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]]. While his exact goals are unknown, he has no comedic traits to him, and the hints we have of his plans are pure NightmareFuel. [[spoiler:The Guardian, the BigBad of the Ultima story arc, in fact states he had no plans of conquering Earth because Sephiroth's (though he doesn't refer to him by name) EvilPlan, he feels has already doomed the planet]].
* ''WebVideo/TheLizzieBennetDiaries'' starts off as mostly a regular rom-com, with short flashes into more serious things such as the Bennet family's finances and the disputes between Lizzie and both Charlotte and Lydia. The story gets exponentially darker when George Wickham enters their lives, ends up dating Lydia, [[DomesticAbuse is psychologically abusive]] and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]], almost publishes a sex tape of himself and Lydia for money without her permission, and denies the entire thing later on when Gigi, Lizzie's friend (and sister of Lizzie's love interest Darcy), confronts him about it. (Keep in mind that Gigi dated Wickham once herself, and it ultimately ended up that he was only interested in her because of her money.) He seems to [[KarmaHoudini completely get away with it]], even though the tape is never released thanks to Darcy's intervention. The worst part about it is that it is heavily implied that Wickham did it just to get back at Lizzie [[DisproportionateRetribution for siding with Darcy instead of him]] over a dispute between the men that was ages ago and ''didn't even involve her''.
* ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' is set in a {{MMORPG}}, so the early villains, while annoying and sometimes genuine threats in-game, were no longer a problem once characters logged off. Then enter Master Zen, who has a deep resentment against the protagonists and is willing to go after them in real life. A plot present in all three incarnations of the franchise included him breaking into one of the protagonist's apartment, while the webseries had him resort to kidnapping and the comic showed outright (but fortunately failed) murder attempts. Even this wasn't enough for StupidGood Sparadrap who still thinks of Master Zen as his former Guild Master, so his own storyline has Roxana: she become the first player he genuinely hates after she [[spoiler:kills his pets]] and he eventually gets her to break out of her ButForMeItWasTuesday attitude towards the incident, which causes her to hate him back.
* ''WebVideo/VinesauceTomodachiLife'' had the Jahns and [[spoiler: Vlinny]]. The streams started out like any other stream from Vinesauce, but then, it goes full on [[spoiler:Alien Invasion]] when these weird guys show up.

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* KnightOfCerebus/ProWrestling

* [[KnightOfCerebus/AnimatedFilms Films — Animation]]