History Main / ProtagonistJourneyToVillain

This is a subtrope of FallenHero, in that this is the journey of the Protagonist. Related to TragicHero, HeWhoFightsMonsters, TheParagonAlwaysRebels, FaceHeelTurn, BecameTheirOwnAntithesis, and UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare and contrast StartOfDarkness, where a previously established villain's backstory is revealed. Compare BigBadSlippage, where a character who may or may not be the protagonist becomes the BigBad over the course of the story, or SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome, where the "journey" happened off-screen between installments and at best might be elaborated upon. Contrast RedemptionQuest.

This is a subtrope of FallenHero, in that this is the journey of the Protagonist. Related to TragicHero, HeWhoFightsMonsters, TheParagonAlwaysRebels, FaceHeelTurn, BecameTheirOwnAntithesis. Compare and contrast StartOfDarkness, where a previously established villain's backstory is revealed. Compare BigBadSlippage, where a character who may or may not be the protagonist becomes the BigBad over the course of the story, or SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome, where the "journey" happened off-screen between installments and at best might be elaborated upon. Contrast RedemptionQuest.

* Both protagonists of ''Machinima/ArbyNTheChief'' make this journey in Season 7. After spending most of the season isolated in real life from everyone except each other, having to grapple with their own mortality and crumbling bodies, and being repeatedly subjected to the douchebaggery of other players on ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', [[TheDitz Chief]] and eventually [[OnlySaneMan Arbiter]] both fall under [[TheBully Eugene]]'s sway and join him in his Fragban spree across the network.

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[[folder: Western Animation]]

%% Image and caption selected per thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1443594780012659200
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[[quoteright:349:[[ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scrooge_journey_to_villain350px.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:349: "[-It took me twenty years to strike it rich because I always played it square! I've decided to adopt '''new''' methods now!-]"]]

%% The example list has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in alphabetic order.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' has ''the entire series'' focused on [[spoiler: [[VillainProtagonist Eren Yeager's]] journey to become the BigBad of his own series.]] [[spoiler: Eren]] begins his journey [[UnscrupulousHero mentally unhinged but antiheroic]], then learns to grow up but develops a grudge against all the corruption he finds in society, and [[spoiler:when he learns just how far the corruption reaches and how long it has been going on]] he snaps; he has a well thought out, carefully considered plan that is outright villainous even with its idealistic aims. Though exactly what is going on remains ambiguous. [[spoiler: Over the last several months leading up to his attack on Liberio, he was secretly conspiring with Zeke's group and a rogue element within the military itself. Since being brought home, he has refused to explain himself to his old friends and even threatened them with his powers. As Paradis braces for a potential retaliation from the rest of the world for Eren's attack, his actions have also inspired a xenophobic movement that seeks to unseat the current government and restore the old Eldian Empire. With Commander Zackley's assassination coinciding with Eren breaking himself and his followers out of prison, the nation is a powder keg with Eren being set to oppose his former comrades. Finally, Eren manages to reach the mental world of the Titans, speak with the first human to ever be oppressed by them, and gives her free reign to do whatever she wants. Including the choice to destroy the entire world by stomping on everyone with an army of freshly awakened Titans. Which was Eren's plan all along, to kill all non-Paradisians using the above-mentioned Colossal Titans.]]
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' devotes much of the Golden Age arc to the relationship between [[NinetiesAntiHero Guts]] and [[FallenHero Griffith]], and focuses on the factors which would ultimately lead Griffith to betray Guts and become his number one enemy.
* While ''Manga/BlackButler'' started with [[BreakTheCutie Ciel]] already as a VillainProtagonist, many chapters show him getting progressively ''worse.''
* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': As the series goes on, "outside" character [[WideEyedIdealist Rock]] is [[JadeColoredGlasses quickly turning into]] [[ActionSurvivor something]] [[MagnificentBastard else]]. The opposite is true of [[VillainProtagonist Revy]], who has actually [[DefrostingIceQueen eased up]] thanks to Rock's optimism.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' chronicles Lelouch and Suzaku's descent into villainy, [[WellIntentionedExtremist if only to save the world]].
* ''Manga/DeathNote'' is this for [[KnightTemplar Light Yagami]], though very, very briefly, and is more like a jump than a journey. He starts off just killing dangerous criminals, and initially is seized with fear and guilt over it, but in five day's time he's not only completely gotten over it, but has written more names in the notebook than Ryuk has ever seen one human do. It's only a few episodes before he claims that [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans since his intentions are noble]], and the police are trying to stop him, it's perfectly acceptable to murder them as well; to top that off, at this point he's already dripping with gleeful smugness every time he [[OutGambitted outsmarts]] a bunch of honest cops, or in one case, the widow of an honest cop he murdered. And from there, things go FromBadToWorse.
* This is played with in ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden''. Chikane, being rather attracted to Himeko who already seems interested in someone else, begins to go a tad conflicted. This reaches a head when [[spoiler:one of the Orochi Heads uses her desires for Himeko to try and kill her in a scene that remains one of the most well known...for reasons]]. As a result, [[spoiler:Chikane has her way with Himeko, steals Ogami's Orochi mech, kills the other Orochi Heads and awakens Orochi herself.]] Where the 'played with' part comes up is that [[spoiler:Chikane never became evil, she was doing a BatmanGambit to get Himeko to kill her for the world rebirth ritual to be complete and in order to push her far enough to summon a god by herself since a memory of her old self implanted a hatred for said god in the back of her mind.]] Ultimately, Chikane [[spoiler:saved everyone at the cost of her own happiness, but the ending in both the manga and anime suggest that she was given what she wanted in all of her lives but never got.]]
* Haruko from ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' and [[Anime/FLCLProgressiveAndAlternative its sequels]], particularly if you believe that ''Alternative'' is a StealthPrequel. In that series she's friendly and, aside from some MemeticMolester behavior, doesn't really do anything villainous. ''FLCL'' has her [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguous]] for most of the season before turning her into the BigBad, while ''Progressive'' has her at her most antagonistic.
%%* ''Manga/FutureDiary'', turning TheWoobie into... well, [[WellIntentionedExtremist something]] [[AxCrazy else]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds entirely.]]%% Zero Context Example
* Prequel anime ''Anime/GaReiZero'' is mostly about Yomi's StartOfDarkness and how she became the first BigBad of ''Manga/GaRei''.
* ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject'': Both the ACES and the QUEENS arcs are this for Princess Deluge, leading her into becoming the new BigBad.
%%* This happens to Michi in Creator/OsamuTezuka's original ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' manga. %% Zero Context Example
* Shinn Asuka of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' starts out as a standard JerkWithAHeartOfGold. As the series progresses, his anger issues begin to consume him entirely and he becomes TheBerserker, and eventually an {{antivillain}}ous [[TheBrute Brute]] following TheReveal that his boss has been BigBad all along. He gets over it after his defeat. Arguably it's a good thing he progressed in this way because he unknowingly worked for the BigBad all along and when [[BlindedByRage consumed with anger]] he becomes a much less effective fighter and ended up being defeated relatively easily by his former mentor Athrun despite previously establishing himself as the superior pilot of the two.
* A good half of the plot of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' focuses on the slow decline of [[TheRival Sasuke]] from angsty-but-loyal to full-on villainy and the titular character's (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to stop this.
** The slow descent ended the instant [[spoiler:Tobi]] got his claws into Sasuke. With a bit of egging on by the master manipulator, Sasuke [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope dives headlong off the slope]]; even his teammates who had suffered under Orochimaru were stunned by his sudden swerve into open murder.
** Tobi ''would'' know all about this trope, with his being [[spoiler:Obito]] and all. He knew exactly how to move Sasuke along that path, because [[spoiler:Madara did the same thing to him]].
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': It appears at some point that this may be the fate of poor Negi Springfield, who starts the series as a StepfordSmiler brought on by a DarkAndTroubledPast. [[spoiler:As he and his students become involved in magic and the magical world, he begins to put his students in trouble and he blames himself for everything. In the Magic World arc, things get worse and he learns BlackMagic]]. Now struggling with TheCorruption and the danger of becoming an inhuman demon, it's only [[spoiler:his TrueCompanions]] preventing the [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jump off the slippery slope]] [[spoiler:while his enemies and his master want to push him over the edge. Though whilst his master would rather he was ''evil'', they don't want him mindless. Unlike the enemies.]]
** Subverted. In the end, while Negi has become something [[HumanoidAbomination more than human]], maybe even [[OurDemonsAreDifferent of a demonic nature]], he is still just as heroic and idealistic as he was beforehand. It was merely a test of TheHerosJourney.
** In the StealthSequel ''Manga/UQHolder'', [[spoiler:however, this is [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] as Negi falls under the control of The Lifemaker, fusing with her]] in a similar manner to [[spoiler:Yuuji Sakai]] from ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana''.
* The story of Satoru Suzuki/Ainz Ooal Gown in ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'' is essentially a transformation from a NormalFishInATinyPond accidentally having a NewLifeInAnotherWorldBonus who just wanted to find his other friends in the world he's transported to as well as saving an innocent village from eradication, to an [[spoiler:EvilOverlord who plots to TakeOverTheWorld using his superior power and his loyal subordinates, causing conflicts in various nations and [[EngineeredHeroics then stepping in to solve it himself]], as well as ordering atrocities far worse than he stopped earlier.]]
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' episodes 3-8 count as one for [[spoiler:Sayaka Miki]], [[KnightInShiningArmor of all people]], [[spoiler:as she goes from wannabe hero of justice to [[LoveHurts heartbroken warrior]], then to more extremist warrior, and finally [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becomes a witch]]]].
** As of the movie ''[[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion Rebellion]]'', [[spoiler:[[HappyEndingOverride the entire series retroactively becomes one of these]] for Homura Akemi, who becomes a SatanicArchetype and traps everyone in a LotusEaterMachine to [[LoveMakesYouEvil keep Madoka to herself]]]].
* ''Anime/RingingBell'' has this happen to Chirin. A cute little lamb grows up and turns into a murdering demonic ram.
* ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'': [[spoiler:Yuuji Sakai]] goes down this road because [[spoiler:he's sharing a body with the [[BigBad Snake of the Festival]] inside Reiji Maigo]].
** In the end, [[spoiler:this trope is downplayed in the final light novel. While incredibly ruthless, Snake of the Festival Yuji ultimately turns out to be a WellIntentionedExtremist, [[TheBadGuyWins permanently saving the day]] by ending the ForeverWar and [[TheExtremistWasRight providing a world for Crimson Denizens to exist without devouring humans' Power of Existence, furthermore allowing the Flame Haze to finally lay aside their weapons]]]].
* The infamous martial arts manga ''Manga/{{Shamo}}'' is about a boy who kills his parents, goes to prison, gets raped, and then carries on to become the most psychopathic martial artist ever conceived.
* Initially in ''Manga/SunKenRock'', Ken is okay with having a small gang that can pass up as posers thinking ''way too big'', but as things go Ken's influence actually creates a parallel state. He becomes a big shot, a true criminal in real life standards by owning corrupt casinos, idol agencies and real estate companies. That's where Ken starts doubting himself, being rather careless about rivals trying to destroy or seize his empire, as he thinks it could be for the best.
* The ''Literature/WarriorCats'' ExpandedUniverse manga ''The Rise of Scourge'' is about how a cute little kitten named Tiny became Scourge, ruler of [=BloodClan=] and EvilCounterpart to TheHero Firestar.
* The first half of the third season of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' is this for protagonist Judai. He doesn't remain a villain for long but comes out of the situation [[BrokenAce an almost completely different character]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' is about a ComicBook/{{Superman}} {{Expy}} called the [[Characters/IrredeemablePlutonian Plutonian]] who suffers a complete mental breakdown and [[FaceHeelTurn flips from hero to villain]] in [[GoingPostal a superpower-assisted spree killing]]. Part of the book involves looking at how he got to that point. [[spoiler:And some of his former teammates seem to have started down that same path while trying to stop him...]]
* The entire ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' series captures Scrooge's development through life, how his experiences and hardships shaped him from optimistic youth to the money-hungry villain he was in his debut and his eventual redemption. If you pay particular attention to the portraits of the main albums, he gets progressively meaner with each portrait until he ends up a broken old man.
* ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi: Dark Lords of the Sith'' is about how Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma turn to TheDarkSide. It's a much shorter trip for Kun, who had serious anger issues and a bit of FantasticRacism all along. Qel-Droma, on the other hand, is first subjected to TheCorruption while trying to infiltrate a Sith cult, then ends up killing his own brother and becoming TheDragon to Kun.
* The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy basically looks at Batman's descent from hero to anti-villain as he battles Dracula and his vampire minions while becoming a vampire himself. In ''Red Rain'', his only victims are feral vampires who are no longer human before he confronts and kills Dracula himself, while in ''Bloodstorm'' the vampires he kills are still reasonably human in appearance but Batman nevertheless kills them all once sure that they will go on to kill and feed if he doesn't stop them. He considers himself to have crossed a line when he kills the Joker- his first human victim- and drinks his blood in a moment of blind rage, but after spending time immobilised in his coffin (staking alone just paralyses vampires in this continuity), he suffers a serious SanitySlippage. When Alfred removes the stake in ''Crimson Mist'', Batman has regressed to a feral AntiVillain state, the Dark Knight killing basically all of his traditional rogue's gallery. He is only prevented from being an outright villain because everyone he kills was unquestionably a killer themselves, but he's aware that his appetite will drive him to prey on innocents once all deserving prey in Gotham has been eliminated.
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' has this as a subplot for [[spoiler:Veidt]].
* ''Winter Soldier: The Bitter March'' has [[spoiler:Ran Shen]] already unsure of the morality of Cold War era SHIELD, finally be tipped over the edge by Nick Fury [[ShootTheDog shooting one dog too many]] and ruining the Winter Soldier's attempted HeelFaceTurn.
* The "Barren Earth" backup feature in ''Warlord'' was effectively this for Jinal Ne'Comarr, who started out just wanting to defend earth from the Qlov. By the time "Barren Earth" became an independent miniseries, ''Conqueror of the Barren Earth'', Jinal was determined to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin conquer the world by force]]. Interestingly, [[GreyAndGrayMorality Jinal is the hero of the story.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Arawn}}'': The entire comic is about Arawn relating his life story to explain how he went from an ordinary human to the demonic EvilOverlord of the underworld.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Hal Jordan's descent into madness after the destruction of Coast City, which eventually led to him taking the name Parallax and annihilating the rest of the Green Lantern Corps in order to claim the powers of Oa for himself was one of the largest and best-realized examples of this trope. Then Parallax was retconned into a quasi-demonic spirit of fear...

[[folder:Fan Works]]

* [=SyxxFox's=] ''Fanfic/RogueFoxArmageddonSoul'' series in the old shelves of the depleting ''Franchise/StarFox'' fanfiction archive, has the beloved titular character Fox falls into alarming depths of deep depression that manipulates his broken-heart into bitter resentment at the abandonment of his friends and the refusal of accepting his apology from Krystal after the Anglar Blitz. The result? He fakes his death and commits a crime that sends him to a clandestine government's operation called Slaying Silence aka Project Slayer, a military plan intent on creating supersoldiers out of the hardened-souls of lowlifes and thugs as a countermeasure for Corneria's safety. Ironically, the time he spent there only darkens his heart before he eventually loses it once he is sent on assassination missions, becoming cruel and cold-hearted. It worsens when Krystal crosses his path again as "Kursed" (which happens in one of Command's endings) and the clash results in him becoming more sadistic and vengeful (and hateful towards Krystal) as he eventually becomes an illegalist after defecting with his newfound lover and team. The next story "Spare Your Soul" is even darker because he ''literally'' obliterates Corneria in an act of vengeance soon afterward. And though he is defeated in the sequel, it is heavily implied by both the readers and author himself, that he will return seeking revenge once his forced servitude to repay the souls he took in his path of destruction ends, starting with Krystal and eventually his father.
* In ''Fanfic/CodeGeassMaoOfTheDeliverance'', Mao's frustration, growing insanity, and desperation twist him into a much more manipulative and brutal person. Later chapters, however, appear to hint at a moral recovery.
* In ''Manga/DeathNote'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Fade}}'', L turns [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil progressively worse]] after he gets his hands on a Death Note, containing a part of the story of Kira's rise to power.
* ''Fanfic/TheDarknessSeries'': ''Harry Potter and the Descent Into Darkness''. It's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Harry is embittered by the abandonment of his friends following the fiasco with the Goblet of Fire [[spoiler:and [[SuperPoweredEvilSide allows the horcrux access to his mind]]]]. He finds comfort in his new [[NotSoImaginaryFriend imaginary friend]] who guides him to [[TheDarkArts Salazar Slytherin's Library in the Chamber of Secrets]] for guidance on how to survive the tournament.
* [[http://flummery.livejournal.com/26300.html This]] quite amazing fanvid about the Tenth Doctor of ''Series/DoctorWho''. The scariest part is that the song (which is also an example of this trope) actually does fit his canon personality to a T.
* ''Fanfic/HoldingTheWorldOnTheirShoulders'' follows [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} May Marigold]], a huntress in training who has seen the abusive and oppressive society of Atlas firsthand and wants to do something about it. Unfortunately, this makes her an easy target for [[BigBad Salem]], who isolates her from her friends and manipulates her into a willing agent for her eternal vendetta against [[BigGood Ozpin]]. By the end of the fic, May has denounced all her old friendships, nearly killed her old teamleader, killed someone in cold blood, and is gearing up to kill the Fall Maiden and steal her powers.
* Tristan Winter ([[ThatManIsDead formerly known as Harry Potter]]) in the ''Fanfic/TheJadedEyesSeries'' begins his journey into villainy [[BloodbathVillainOrigin when he's six years old]].
* Happens to Simba in ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures''. Starting with [[spoiler:the deaths of Mufasa and Sarabi in ''The Master Plan'', Simba changes throughout Series Five from a hero into a fearsome killer. It turns out in ''The End'' that the Writer was manipulating everything around him in order to make him evil. However, upon realizing this, Simba changes his ways, eventually killing the Writer and saving the entire universe. He goes back to normal from then on.]]
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' occasionally notes how both Magneto and Loki went down this path and managed to turn away. It also hints that, unless he's careful, Harry could potentially follow the same path and become something far worse than Magneto ever was. It's not a likely possibility, but it's there.
** It becomes significantly more likely after his encounter with the Red Room, transformation into [[spoiler: the Red Son]], and then willing transformation into [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix.]]
* ''Fanfic/TheVow'' has the StartOfDarkness of [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2 Lord Shen]] included for the first part of the story.
* ''Fanfic/TheMakingsOfTeamCRME'': Cinder's character arc in this series is basically the story of how she became the monster she is in [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} the show]]. She goes from pitiable abused little girl to vengeful young woman, from that to manipulative power-seeker, and from that to full-blown megalomaniac. Her fall is not a pretty one.
* ''Creator/TeamFourStar's'' playthrough of ''VideoGame/DragonballXenoverse'', shows the adventures of their character Dumplin before he becomes their universe's version of [[spoiler: Mr. Popo.]]

[[folder:Films - Animation]]
* [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead Sunset]] [[APupilOfMineUntilSheTurnedToEvil Shimmer]] of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' spin-off universe of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' ''inverts'' this. She is the BigBad of the first film, the {{Deuteragonist}} of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks second]], and finally TheHero from the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames third]] film, going forward.
** Though on a smaller level, Sunset's pictures of her as Princess of the Fall Formal show her progressing from "genuine and innocent" to "condescending and entitled" to "outright power-hungry".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' is an Inversion of this trope. The titular character, whom started out as a villain due to past experiences and growing up with not having the best role models or life experiences. Only throughout the events of the film (some of the events being of his own fault) he slowly begins to become a superhero and [[spoiler:takes Metro Man's place as Metro City's main hero.]]

[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]
* Andrew Detmer from ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'', although in his case it'd be more of [[TheDogBitesBack him not willing to be a whipping boy]] [[KickTheDog to those who have constantly abused him]]. He starts the movie with an abusive father and a terminally ill mother, then he gains telekinetic powers through an alien device. Andrew becomes something of a [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] and uses increasingly destructive means to lash out against his bullies and provide for his mother until he finally snaps and becomes an insane OmnicidalManiac who lays waste to Seattle.
* Charles Foster Kane in ''Film/CitizenKane'' goes from being a muckraking journalist to a megalomaniacal narcissist who's only interested in running his newspaper empire.
* Harvey Dent in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. As he says himself, a hero could end up living long enough to see himself becoming a villain, {{foreshadow|ing}}s his own future and he ends up having this as his character theme, with crucial mistakes, tragedy and the Joker's manipulations ultimately leading to him becoming Two-Face.
* Assumed within the plot of ''Film/DraculaUntold'', with Vlad III calling himself Son of the Dragon, and eventually calling himself Son of the Devil by the end. [[spoiler:However, it's also a SubvertedTrope, as he gains a lot of humanity over the course of the film, to the point of seeing his past massacres as the Impaler as disturbing, and killing his entire vampire army so as to protect his son.]]
* ''Film/EmilyTheCriminal'': Emily starts as a law-abiding person suffering the consequences of prior bad decisions. By the end of the movie she is a serious felon and appears much darker morally.
* The SpaghettiWestern ''Film/FacciaAFaccia'' has a mild-mannered Boston professor turn into a ruthless criminal over the course of the film.
* ''Film/FallingDown'': An interesting version where not only does the protagonist Bill Foster aka D-Fens become "the bad guy", but the roles are also reversed with his HeroAntagonist Detective Prendergast, who initially seems like a forgettable side character. Foster starts the film by [[GoingPostal lashing out at the societal annoyances he sees around him]], but his actions become increasingly bolder as he takes an entire restaurant hostage [[RemonstratingWithAGun to complain about the bad food]], blows up a construction site, and causes several deaths. By the time that Foster and Prendergast come face to face and Foster [[HeelRealization realizes that he's the bad guy in all this]] and the DecoyProtagonist, it comes as a shock to the audience who were identifying with Bill up until then.
* Arguably the case for Abigail in ''Film/TheFavourite'', as she starts out a kind-natured FallenPrincess, who was previously a Lady before her father gambled away all the family fortune, including Abigail herself, so she sets out to join her cousin Sarah at Queen Anne's court in hopes of getting it back. However, as she is sucked into the world of politics and is abused consistently by the staff, Sarah and the Duke, Abigail adapts to their cruel, underhanded ways alarmingly quickly, going from playing nice around Queen Anne as an antidote to Sarah's personality, faking tears when people push her too far, drugging Sarah's tea, seducing a Lord, marrying him and then all but dumping him once she gets her title back. Her cruelty finally culminates in [[spoiler: getting Sarah officially banished from Court and intercepting her letters to the Queen, leaving Anne heartbroken, blatantly cheating on her husband in front of him, and finally stomping on one of Queen Anne's beloved pet bunnies (whom she views as surrogate children) until she nearly kills it.]] Queen Anne is ''not amused.''
* Seth Brundle in ''Film/TheFly1986'' starts as a sweet, brilliant scientist... then, in the midst of a drunken bender in the wake of a romantic misunderstanding, he makes a TragicMistake with his teleportation project and ends up unknowingly merged with a housefly on the molecular-genetic level. The resultant mutation is a SlowTransformation from the inside-out that not only turns him into a walking BodyHorror but slowly erodes his human morals and reason. Realizing that he's becoming "an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it", he turns his still-devoted lover Veronica away because he ''knows'' he will hurt her at some point if he doesn't. Alas, it's only ''afterward'' that he learns she's pregnant with his child, and between this and his desperate hopes to retain ''some'' of his humanity he [[spoiler: kidnaps her before she can have an abortion, gruesomely maims the ex-lover who comes to rescue her with ''corrosive vomit'']], and '''then''' [[spoiler: tries to forcibly merge himself with her and their unborn child]], during which his final OneWingedAngel transformation takes place and he becomes a monster in every possible sense. [[spoiler: His plan fails and renders him a Clipped-Wing Angel, and Veronica ends up killing him at his voiceless request.]] (One reason the film was financed by a production company rather than by 20th Century Fox directly was because executives weren't sure this trope would appeal to audiences of TheEighties.)
* ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning'' not only ended with [[spoiler:"Jason Voorhees" revealed to be a [[JackTheRipoff copycat killer]], it also implied that Tommy Jarvis, the protagonist of both this film and [[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter the previous one]], had been left so traumatized by his ordeal that he had snapped and become a killer himself. It culminates in a BolivianArmyEnding where he sneaks up on the FinalGirl Pam with a knife while wearing a familiar hockey mask.]] The negative fan reception to this film, however, caused the filmmakers to [[AbortedArc drop that story]] in the next film, ''[[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives Jason Lives]]'', which revealed the ending of ''A New Beginning'' to be [[AllJustADream a hallucination]].
* The protagonist in ''Film/GateOfHell'' is a noble, brave samurai. He falls in love with a lady-in-waiting at the emperor's court and asks for her hand, only to find out she's already married. He doesn't take "no" for an answer, and by the end, he is a homicidal villain.
* ''Film/TheGodfather'' trilogy is all about Michael Corleone's transformation from WhiteSheep of a crime family to its ruthless leader, and subsequent doomed attempts to [[TheAtoner atone]]. Initially, he's not supposed to be involved in the family business at all, as his father genuinely wants someone in the next generation to leave their criminal past behind, but Michael is drawn in in order to protect him from assassination and ends up being the only real candidate to succeed him. He starts out promising his wife that he too intends to make the family legitimate, and his justification for everything is that he's protecting his family. But it turns out he thinks the best way to do that is by consolidating his power and taking out all his enemies in one fell swoop, [[spoiler:who happen to include his brother-in-law]]. The second movie takes the paradox further -- now the enemies he's wiping out are [[spoiler:a terminally ill man who's no threat to him anyway and, famously, his own brother]], and in the meantime his coldness and the violence that surrounds him have driven his wife and children away. The third film has him as a tragic figure realizing that he can't undo what he's done and that the future of the family is out of his hands, and eventually receiving the ultimate poetic punishment: [[spoiler:seeing his daughter killed by a bullet meant for him]].
** The subplot for ''Part II'' is a flashback detailing how Michael's father Vito started out as a poor immigrant orphan, turning to crime after being fired to feed his family, and rose to become one of the most powerful Dons in the nation.
* ''Film/TheHand'' showcases Jon's dark descent from cartoonist and family man into madness, violence and perhaps murder (depending on whether you believe the EvilHand actually exists or is just a product of Jon's delusion).
* The [[EpicMovie entire scope]] of ''Film/TheHumanCondition'' is this, which sees [[FallenHero Kaji]] go from an [[TheIdealist idealistic]] hero to a [[KnightInSourArmor cynical demoralized drifter.]]
* ''Film/Joker2019'' details a version of ComicBook/TheJoker's, starting from a man who suffers from mental illness and is ostracized by society and going through his path to becoming Franchise/{{Batman}}'s archenemy.
* If you consider her a villain rather than a feminist icon, Valerie Solanas in ''Film/IShotAndyWarhol''.
* ''Film/IShotJesseJames'' features an odd example, as it's [[ZigzaggedTrope a villain becoming good before going bad again]]. Robert Ford starts out as just another [[{{Outlaw}} outlaw]], who then tries to go straight and get married. However, frontier society [[ReformedButRejected repeatedly shuns and shames him]] for killing UsefulNotes/JesseJames, eventually leading to his final bout of madness when his girlfriend decides to leave him.
* ''Film/LetMeIn'' has a very tragic example with the main character Owen, who starts the story off as meek boy being horribly abused by bullies at school, neglected at home, deeply lonely and showing signs of snapping from his situation. And that's before he meets the vampire, Abby. By the end of the film he's run away with her, accepting her vampiric nature completely and regardless of whether she turns him into a vampire as well, or just uses him as her caretaker, he'll be living a violent life until he dies.
* ''Film/MeanGirls'' is a comedic take on this, exploring how a seemingly normal, sweet, and kind teenage girl like Cady Heron can transform into an AlphaBitch without even realizing it. Her quest for revenge against Regina George winds up dragging her down to Regina's level as she employs the same underhanded tactics that Regina did to ruin the lives of countless girls who crossed her, eventually culminating in a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from her friend Janis who realized what Cady had become. The third act is about Cady's HeelRealization driving her to claw her way back from her villainy and become the protagonist again.
* ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'' is a rom-com variation of this, although the film is clever enough to hide it under the usual Julia Roberts tropes for the first half of the film.
* ''Film/PiratesOfSiliconValley'' focuses a lot on Steve Jobs' transformation from a counter-culture child of TheSixties to a hard-driving BadBoss who's consumed by his ambition and drives away his friends. He gets better.
* ''Film/TheQueenOfBlackMagic'': Over the course of the film, Murni goes from innocent woman to lynching victim to vengeful sorceress to [[spoiler:trying to slaughter the entire village before finally sacrificing herself to achieve redemption]].
* ''Film/TheRulingClass'' is a very peculiar case as the main character, Jack Gurney is from start to finish completely insane. He starts however with the harmless delusion of [[AGodAmI being Jesus Christ]] and a loving God who wishes goodwill to everyone. Then they give him a rather nasty [[BreakThemByTalking breaking speech]] that completely shatters his emotional world and the keystones of his world view. He crosses the DespairEventHorizon and almost becomes an empty husk of a man. But then his willpower facilitates another identity from zero, in accordance with his new grim understanding of the world. And thus Jack [[spoiler: aka Jack the Ripper]] was born. [[Literature/AClockworkOrange He was cured alright...]]
* It was originally assumed that this would be the plot of ''Film/TheScorpionKing'', as the prequel to ''Film/TheMummyReturns'', but the film ends with Mathias still the hero. The only indication that he'll eventually become a villain is a single reference at the end that his future won't necessarily be happy. WordOfGod later retconned Scorpion King in ''The Mummy Returns'' into Mathias's IdenticalGrandson.
* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork''. It shows Mark's slide from average nerd to a possible CorruptCorporateExecutive due to one mean streak too many. [[spoiler:Around the end of the film, he realizes his mistakes, but has somewhat realized he's gone too far to fix them and tries to make some amends by friend requesting his ex-girlfriend who he insulted over the course of the film.]]
* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels as well as ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' are pretty much Anakin Skywalker's fall from grace. The original trilogy is [[RedemptionQuest his journey towards redemption.]]
* ''Film/{{Stoker}}'' documents [[spoiler:India Stoker's spiral from a polite and mostly harmless (if a bit creepy) teenage girl, to a murderer. This is largely thanks to her relationship with [[TheCorrupter Uncle Charlie]].]]
* Travis in ''Film/TaxiDriver'' is a more ambiguous case. He starts out alienated, and then by the end [[spoiler:he attempts to assassinate a senator (though, admittedly, he fails) and kills three people, two of whom were complete strangers.]] Interestingly, because he is never tied to the former, no one else in the story actually sees him as such.
* Washizu in ''Film/ThroneOfBlood''. Since the film is based on ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', this is not a surprise.
* Fred C. Dobbs in ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre''. He starts off as our main character, but our allegiance gradually switches to his partners as he comes down with GoldFever and eventually goes bad.
* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' revolves around Magneto seeking revenge for the murder of his mother and his increasing acceptance of mutant supremacy. He also persuades Charles' foster sister Raven (aka ComicBook/{{Mystique}}) to follow along with him so she can be accepted.
* Remus in the Italian movie ''Film/IlPrimoRe''. At the start, he and Romulus are just two shepherds who love each other. Then [[spoiler:a flood of the Tiber kills their flock and leaves them to be captured by the Albani to be sacrificed, and during their escape with other perspective victims he becomes progressively crueler, before snapping and turning to murder and burning down the village he had tried to settle in when the Vestal kidnapped from Alba prophetizes that the one who will found an empire will kill his brother]], and at the end Romulus ''has'' to kill him to protect the villagers, [[spoiler:[[ProphecyTwist fulfilling the prophecy in a way neither brother nor the Vestal had expected]]]].
* In ''Film/TheWitch'', [[spoiler:Thomasin starts the film as a pious Puritan who's trying her best to help her family survive out in the wilderness. Then the plot happens -- the family is terrorized by supernatural activity, resulting in a WitchHunt where the main suspect is [[TheUnfavorite Thomasin herself]]. By the end, Thomasin's been forced to [[SelfMadeOrphan murder her own mother in self-defense]], everyone in her family is dead, and she's alone in the middle of nowhere with no food and no means to provide for herself, and winter is on its way. So she signs the Devil's book and joins the witches' coven, [[TrappedInVillainy because it's her only hope for survival]].]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' puts a spin on this. From the get-go, it's a ForegoneConclusion that Dwayne Hoover will become a lunatic who will savagely assault several people. However, despite providing in-verse reasons for his change from a loving, charismatic man to a violently unhinged brute, [[spoiler:it's ultimately because the author, Kurt Vonnegut made it so]].
* The title character in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' (and its film adaptations) is a [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold kind-hearted, but socially outcast teenage girl]] who spends the first half of the book getting slowly beaten down and pushed to her RageBreakingPoint by [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer her classmates]], [[AdultsAreUseless the school faculty]], and even [[MyBelovedSmother her own mother]]. The second half is about [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the massacre she commits as a result]] when what happens at the Senior Prom makes her ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes snap]]''.
* This is Geder Palliako's arc across ''The Dragon's Path'', the first volume of ''Literature/TheDaggerAndTheCoin''. Initially introduced as a bumbling, nerdy young knight from a minor noble family, the realization that he was set up to take the fall for [[TheEmpire his country's]] failed occupation of a captured city state (when taken in tandem with his {{Fatal Flaw}}s of a LackOfEmpathy when it comes to his big plans and a penchant for DisproportionateRetribution when he feels he's being mocked) drives him to his [[KillItWithFire first atrocity]], and he spends most of the rest of the book vacillating between saying IDidWhatIHadToDo and MyGodWhatHaveIDone. Then he meets a creepy cult of spider-worshippers who have decided Geder is their DarkMessiah who will lead their religion in conquering the world, and who have the [[CompellingVoice powers]] to make him believe it too. By the middle of the second book, Geder is well on his way to full EvilOverlord territory.
* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': Rielle's storyline is about her transition from being the long awaited, beloved Sun Queen to the long feared and widely hated Blood Queen, traitor of her kind.
* ''Literature/ForestOfAThousandLanterns'': Xifeng starts the book as a good person, but gradually resorts to things like eating her court rivals' hearts to gain power, all for the purpose of eventually becoming Empress.
* ''Gingema's Daughter'', the first book in Sergey Sukhinov's ''Emerald City'' series, is about the adventures of Corina, originally an ordinary, if somewhat lazy, girl. She starts her way as an understudy of Gingema, then runs away to travel with her wolf companion. She lives by different families, usually helping them magically in secret. But gradually, she decides that BeingGoodSucks since everybody bothers you with requests, and being feared is as important as being loved. She deceives the Woodsman to do her bidding by pretending to be the daughter of his former sweetheart and ultimately manipulates him into deposing the Scarecrow, thus becoming the ruler of Emerald city. The rulership she establishes is a CrapsaccharineWorld: there is food for free and low taxes, but cross Corina in any way and you are dead or turned into a small animal. By the second book, she kills Ellie's parents and becomes a fully-fledged villain.
* In ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'', the titular castle, a massive rambling city-state, is also an oppressive social structure where people are locked into their social roles and even their occupations from the moment of birth. No social mobility is possible and nobody has ever seriously tried to challenge the system. That is, until the advent of a kitchen scullion called Steerpike, who tires of being bullied and overworked in the dungeon kitchens. Escaping from the kitchens, Steerpike literally and metaphorically makes his way up in the hierarchy - initially by physically scaling the outside of the Castle. At first, he is a romantic hero who arouses the reader's sympathy. But little by little, his ambition to rise to the very top and supplant the ruling Groan family takes over, with deceptions, manipulation, and finally murder in support of his goal. The boy hero becomes a murdering villain, slowly but surely, across the course of two books.
* In ''Hekla's Children'', a fantasy-horror novel by James Brogden, the story starts off as protagonist Nathan Brookes investigation into the discovery of a body in a bog and his quest for redemption in an incident 10 years ago that led to the disappearance of 4 students under his supervision. Much later in the story, he's revealed to be a DecoyProtagonist and through a millennias-old TimeLoop is actually the monster that started the whole mess in the first place and then another character is revealed to be the true ChosenOne.
* Despite the name, it appears that ''Literature/HeroesSaveTheWorld'' will be featuring at least a couple of these.
* In Livy's ''The History of Rome'', which is a record of real events (though entirely based on legend for the earlier parts), embellished where the author felt it necessary, this is a major theme for more than a few of the kings and consuls of early Rome.
* The ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' has done this for Horus, Fulgrim and Lorgar and Alpharius Omegon.
* Michael Swanwick's thematically-paired novels ''The Iron Dragon's Daughter'' and ''Jack Faust'' are {{Deconstructor Fleet}}s that demonstrate how SF/Fantasy genre wish-fulfillment fantasies end up turning the protagonists into {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s. The former has a female protagonist and targets LandOfFaerie and ChangelingFantasy tropes, while the latter has a male protagonist and targets hard-SF "competent man" tropes.
* Creator/JohnAjvideLindqvist's ''Literature/LetTheRightOneIn'' and its DistantSequel ''Let the Old Dreams Die'' seems to be one for 12-year old Oskar when he meets Eli, a vampire who is physically and somewhat mentally also 12: Oskar starts out obsessed with serial killers, thinks about hurting or even killing his bullies, then he meets Eli [[spoiler:and has no problem when she ''does'' kill the bullies]]. By the time of ''Let the Old Dreams Die'', over 20 years later, [[spoiler: it’s strongly implied Oskar has no issue with hunting innocent families as a 12-year old vampire alongside his now-girlfriend Eli]].
* ''Literature/TheLightbringerSeries'' does this with Liv, and also provides a fitting quote for this trope itself: "Idealists mature badly; they either become idiots or hypocrites."
* In the ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy by Creator/BrandonSanderson, this is the supposed backstory. A thousand years ago a champion, the 'Hero of Ages' rose up to defeat an (unspecified) evil known only as 'The Deepness' but upon his victory, he took possession of the world as its Lord Ruler.
-->"For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity", reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible."
** The heroes of this story find an old logbook written by the man who would become the Lord Ruler which shows how he began his quest as a humble, earnest man trying to save the world. In the end, the truth becomes far more complicated as the Lord Ruler's motivations are slowly revealed throughout the trilogy. The short version is that [[spoiler: the hero, Alendi, was duped by prophecies being altered by Ruin, an OmnicidalManiac deity trapped in the Well of Ascension who would be released if the hero reached the Well and "released" the power. When the scholar who originally prophesized the hero learned the truth, he had his allies pose as guides and murder Alendi when he reached the Well. Then one of the guides named Rashek took the power in the Well and kept it, keeping Ruin trapped and becoming the Lord Ruler. He was driven insane over time by Ruin, becoming a WellIntentionedExtremist EvilOverlord]].
* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' combines this with TheBadGuyWins, as [[spoiler:The Party successfully brainwashes Winston into becoming another one of their drones before killing him.]]
* This is the plot of the first three novels of ''Literature/TheReynardCycle''. Reynard begins the series as a LoveableRogue. By the end of the third novel, he has morphed into the BigBad. And he [[LoveMakesYouEvil did it all for love.]]
* Yarvi starts out ''Literature/TheShatteredSea'' as a teen GuileHero who while somewhat more ruthless than your unusual YA protagonist of this type, is still a good guy. After he loses a POV in the second book, he comes off as a more sinister figure and enacts some morally questionable plans, but since they work out for the best, he seems like he still might be the same old Yarvi. However, by the end of the third book, Yarvi is more or less the BigBad and is a ruthless schemer worse than those he opposes, and is willing to sacrifice his loved ones and everyone else to satisfy his obsession with revenge and self-validation.
* ''Literature/TheShining''. It starts off with Jack being a happy family man, albeit with a dark past, until the influence of the hotel drives him to madness and monstrosity.
* Fëanor's whole arc in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is his descent from hero to AntiHero to psychotic, obsessive VillainProtagonist.
* The ''ComicBook/TransformersTransTech'' story "I, Lowtech" is the first-person perspective story of a CorruptCorporateExecutive trying to figure out why he seems to [[GrandTheftMe no longer be in his real body]]. While he was not exactly ''good'' to start off with, he ''was'' (technically) law-abiding and never caused direct harm. Until a combo of his first violent act done in self-defense and nobody taking his claims of a body swap seriously makes him realize EvilFeelsGood[=/=]EvilIsEasy and causes him to start going insane and degenerating into a rampaging serial killer who kills just because it's convenient/for revenge.
* ''Literature/TheWalkingDeadRiseOfTheGovernor'' deals with how Philip Blake/The Governor became what he is. Needless to say, it isn't what you were probably expecting.
* ''Well of Darkness'', first book of ''Literature/TheSovereignStone'' Trilogy, provides the origin story for [[EvilOverlord Dagnarus]], his lover [[DarkActionGirl Lady]] [[LoveMakesYouEvil Valura]], and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] Shakur (though admittedly, Shakur was pretty evil even ''before'' he met Dagnarus). The subsequent two books deal with them as main villains.
* ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is the Wicked Witch of the West's descent into madness and evil.
* The wolf-dog protagonist in ''Literature/TheWolvesOfParis'' began as a tragic puppy who [[InnocenceLost lost his innocent views after a month]], turning into a bloodthirsty, vicious and irredeemable dog who eats livestock and eventually human flesh for food.
* The first nineteen or so arcs of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' describe how Taylor went from a bullied schoolgirl with dreams of being a superhero to [[spoiler:Queen of the Brockton Bay underworld]]. That said, [[spoiler:the trope is subverted after that, when Taylor quits the Undersiders to join the Wards, believing, based on Dinah's predictions, that this is the best way to save the world. DoubleSubverted later, when speaking to another villain who has [[WellIntentionedExtremist committed atrocities in the name of saving the world]], where she says that she would take it all back if she could, as the price was too high.]] Taylor's not the only one, either. [[spoiler:Alexandria's]] Interlude shows her progress from an innocent teenager dying of cancer to one of the most powerful superheroes on Earth to an "ends justify the means" tyrant with good publicity.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' as a whole does this for [[spoiler:Tony Almeida, Allison Taylor, Renee Walker, and Jack Bauer himself; with Tony's arc following through in season 7 and Taylor, Walker and Jack going through this by the final season.]] By the time it's over, none of them are that much better than the terrorists, either by willingly aiding them, endangering innocent people to selfishly enact revenge on them rather than mete out any true justice, or both. [[spoiler: Though in the case of the latter three they do ultimately see the light by the end. Counting sequel series, the former eventually does as well.]]
* The title character of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has this. [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor A couple of times]] (although to be fair to him, one of these was deliberately provoked by his enemies, another was the result of manipulation by their enemy, and [[spoiler:the final time he was trying to trick his opponents to infiltrate them]].
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' [[spoiler:Londo Mollari's]] arc is basically his descent into this trope and then his struggle back out again.
* Mitchell goes through this throughout the seasons in ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' [[spoiler: he starts off as a genuinely good guy, fighting his addiction. Then after Herrick is temporarily killed off by George, he becomes the leader of the Vampires in Bristol and manages to convince most, if not all of them to let go of their blood addiction...then their gathering place is ''bombed'' by a person he trusted. He then crosses the MoralEventHorizon and kills 20 people in a train. Then instead of trying to redeem himself, he sinks further and further into depravity and keeping secrets during Season 3, focusing on trying to save his own life and keep his role in the massacre secret, which concludes with him outright asking his friends to kill him so that he won't become a monster again]].
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' starts out with Nucky Thompson already long established as a CorruptPolitician and mastermind behind a criminal operation which soon turns to bootlegging when Prohibition legislation is passed. However, much of season 5 focuses on a younger version of Nucky growing up in Atlantic City and his turn to criminality to advance himself by making a DealWithTheDevil with the Commodore to contrast with the present day collapse of Nucky's empire.
* Cesare Borgia from ''Series/TheBorgias'' is a perfect example of this (which makes sense, as he, historically, was the inspiration for [[Film/TheGodfather Michael Corleone]]. He starts out as TheDutifulSon, a reluctant [[SinisterMinister priest]] who would do anything to protect his family. Over the course of two seasons, he grows into the MagnificentBastard who would inspire Machiavelli's "The Prince"... and [[spoiler: murders his brother]], thus destroying his relationship with his parents.
** His sister Lucrezia (with whom he shares a good deal of VillainousIncest subtext [[spoiler: before they eventually [[BrotherSisterIncest have sex]])]] does this on a lesser scale. She's ultimately a good person but is still quite the [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative bitch]] with a mean streak.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'' has arguably become the modern-day codifier, with five seasons made entirely of this. Walter White starts out as a decent, law-abiding and substantially sympathetic character, who clearly loves his wife and children and [[JustifiedCriminal is driven into a "victimless" crime in order to pay the bills after he's diagnosed with late-stage cancer]]. However, by the end of the first episode, he has already brought someone near-death, and before the first season is over, he has already turned down legitimate means of business, because his main motivator is his {{Pride}}. The show's creator Vince Gilligan said that his goal was to turn [[Film/GoodbyeMrChips Mr. Chips]] into Film/{{Scarface|1983}}.
** From there, he spends four long seasons falling deeper and deeper into villainy. It's explored from every angle, [[SympatheticPOV always giving Walter some excuse or justification]] until the viewer finally notices that Walter is ''enjoying'' all of this. He willfully dives back into the criminal world at every opportunity even when given [[ShouldntYouStopStealing real chances to get out]], abuses every connection ruthlessly to get what he wants, and leaves a massive trail of bodies in his wake culminating in the destruction of many innocent lives (inevitable given his meth business), and [[spoiler: the ripping apart of his family]]. Worse is how he drags his partner, Jesse, down with him, first giving the messed up kid a real sense of self-worth, and then systematically taking away so many of the things that he loved.
** By the end of the series, Walt is either directly or indirectly responsible for more deaths than everyone else in the series combined, two characters who hate ''each other'' can agree that Walt is figuratively ''the devil'', and [[spoiler: everyone in his family, his partner, and most of his business associates, have wanted him dead at some point]].
** Similarly, the prequel ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' chronicles the journey of an ex-con and aspiring and hopeful lawyer Jimmy [=McGill=] to the ''criminal'' lawyer Saul Goodman, who willingly throws in with criminals like Walt and Mike just to earn some extra money, and is very evident in comparison with Jimmy and Saul in Seasons 1 and 6. In Season 1, Jimmy swore off all connections with the cartel after almost getting killed by Tuco and tried to fight for the elderly being defrauded by their residential company, whereas by Season 6, ''Saul'' has [[spoiler:used the elderly to just to bump off a potential competitor from the bar association, created a scheme to defraud Howard and [=HHM=] just for petty vengeance even when Howard himself was willing to forgive him and bring him to [=HHM=], and tricked the entire jury into releasing the very guilty Lalo Salamanca, enabling him to cause further murders.]]
* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', [[spoiler: Willow gets pushed on the journey to villainy in season 6.]] though she's already well on her way by mid-season 4 [[spoiler: with her continuing attempts to use magic for control over others, the lack of any real consequences for her actions, and the lack of deterrents against her using magic for whatever she wills. Her villainy ''really'' culminates with the mind-rape/rape of Tara mid-season 6 and total refusal to acknowledge that what she did was wrong and why. Everything after that (killing Warren, trying to kill Buffy et al.) is just follow-up.]]
* ''Series/CobraKai'': The series is in many ways defined by this trope.
** Inverted by Johnny Lawrence. After being the bully in ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'', he is the protagonist this time around and is actively trying to better himself by battling alcoholism and teaching bullied kids to stand up for themselves. He is still a drunken, sexist, foul-mouthed JerkAss with his head stuck in the past, but he is definitely working on being a better person.
** Daniel [=LaRusso=], meanwhile, is also stuck in the past, and uses increasingly immoral methods to fight the resurgence of Cobra Kai, since he firmly believes that the modern Cobra Kai is exactly as bad as the one that Terry Silver indoctrinated him into in ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'', and refuses to believe that Johnny has changed and that John Kreese was the reason Cobra Kai was the haven for bullies it was.
** The series ultimately proves that while [[spoiler: Daniel may or may not have been justified, ''he was right.'' Johnny's students take to the least savory parts of the Cobra Kai ethos with the zeal of converts, and by the end of the second season, Johnny drinks himself into a stupor when he finds out first-hand just how brutal and ruthless his students are. Though he fails to realize that unlike Kreese, Johnny is mortified at what he's turned his students into and wants to put a stop to it. His failure to recognize that creates a new set of problems.]]
** In season 1, Johnny's son Robby Keene goes to work for Daniel to spite his father, and despite his original ulterior motive, Robby grows to appreciate Daniel's faith in him and turns against his miscreant friends. Robby becomes Daniel's Miyagi-Do karate student and flourishes under this tutelage, coming in second place to Miguel Diaz in the All-Valley Tournament. In the second season, Robby continues to train under Daniel and begins dating Daniel's daughter Sam. But he's insecure about Miguel's constant efforts to reconnect with Sam, and things come to a head in the season finale when Sam cheats on him with Miguel and Miguel throws this in Robby's face during the school brawl. An enraged Robby kicks Miguel over a railing, leaving him paralyzed while Robby spends season 3 in juvie. Kreese then takes advantage of Robby having fallings out with both Daniel ''and'' Johnny to get under his skin, getting Robby to buy into the Cobra Kai mentality. The final straw is when he catches Sam having an intimate moment with Miguel and she steps in to stop Robby from attacking him, prompting Robby to go to Cobra Kai and throw his lot in with Kreese.
* Played with in ''Series/DoctorWho'', especially with Seven and Ten, the most scheming and manipulative of his incarnations. The threat of the Valeyard has hung over everything the Doctor has done since Six, and the Doctor has done some truly horrible things for the sake of what he thinks is right, up to and including genocide (of his own people, albeit only to stop them doing worse to ''the entire universe''), and Big Finish has done a couple of alternate continuity audio dramas of the Doctor gone bad [[note]]including at least one with Creator/MichaelJayston, the original portrayer of the Valeyard, as the Doctor[[/note]].
** More specifically, the final stretch of Series 9 ("Face the Raven"/"Heaven Sent"/"Hell Bent") covers the Twelfth Doctor taking this journey when NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished for him. A plot to capture him hatched between [[spoiler: Ashildr and the Time Lords]], people who owe their lives to him, inadvertently leads to not only his capture but [[spoiler: the death of his companion Clara]]. Imprisoned in a gigantic torture chamber after this, alone save for the MonsterOfTheWeek and thus without any kind of MoralityChain, he undergoes a SanitySlippage as he lets his anguish overwhelm him and emerges a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who risks the safety of ''the entire space-time continuum'' just to [[spoiler: get Clara back]]. In the end, he repents of his understandable but unacceptable behavior and returns to his best self when he [[spoiler: has his memories of her wiped]] relieving him of the anger and grief that drove him to extremes. In fact his ''overall'' MythArc reverses the journey some Doctors had as he starts out grumpy, secretive, insensitive, and ruthless (it's heavily implied he outright kills his first major opponent, the Half-Face Man, although it's clear he doesn't have other options), but "dies" as one of the kindest, most loving Doctors of all. He even [[spoiler: gets his memories of Clara back]] shortly before regenerating. His last line -- "Doctor, I let you go." -- is even the inverse of Ten's "I don't want to go."
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' includes this as the final PlotTwist. Where [[spoiler: Daenerys Stormborn]] completes her ascension into the BigBad right before the finale.
* This trope is the whole point of ''Series/{{Hannibal}}''. Hyper-empathetic, anti-social FBI profiler Will Graham is manipulated by Hannibal Lecter into becoming a killer.
* In ''The Hollow Crown: The Wars of The Roses'', Richard of Gloucester (later Richard III) starts as honorable young man fighting for his family's claim to the throne, but the murders of his father and younger brother, the brutality of war, his incompetent older brothers, and the fact that he can never lead a normal life because of his deformities lead him to become a ruthless, backstabbing, cold hearted swordsman who kills his way to the crown, cares for no one and dies alone in the battle of Bosworth.
* This trope serves as the premise of ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'', the MilestoneCelebration series for the Heisei era of ''Franchise/KamenRider''. [[TheProtagonist Sougo]] [[TheHero Tokiwa’s]] [[GoalInLife dream]] is to be the greatest king in history and he succeeds [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture fifty years later]]...by becoming [[EvilOverlord Oma]] [[FallenHero Zi-O]], [[GoneHorriblyRight a demon king]] responsible for the BadFuture shown in the ColdOpening. Due to Oma Zi-O's [[PhysicalGod strength at that point and time being far too terrifyingly powerful for anyone to challenge directly]], [[TerminatorTwosome multiple factions go back in time to 2018]] in order to prevent the rise of the tyrant - [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong for better]] or [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight for worse]]. The only question in present time is whether or not Sougo can actually [[DefiedTrope defy his seemingly set path]] and change the future [[ScrewDestiny without giving up his dream]] or [[YouCantFightFate succumbing into villainy]]. [[spoiler: Gets [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in the finale. While he ''does'' end up becoming Oma Zi-O, [[SuperpowersForADay this is just a temporary state]] as Sougo sacrifices this power to repair the timeline and bring all of this friends back to life.]]
* [[spoiler:Morgana Pendragon]] from ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds to [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative]], [[PsychoticSmirk chronic smirker]].
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': [[spoiler: Nimue]] is initially introduced as [[spoiler:Merlin]]'s lover, but her anger at [[spoiler:Vortigan]] sends her on a foolish and self-destructive path to defeat him, which ends in her [[spoiler:becoming the first Dark One.]]
* Lex Luthor's journey from good to evil in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' is the most prominent plot, second only to Clark's journey to Superman, in the first seven seasons (after the seventh season [[spoiler:Lex was left crippled in a disaster that temporarily depowered Clark, leaving him a DarkLordOnLifeSupport until an alternate version of his father made a DealWithTheDevil to restore Lex to full health]]).
* Season 5 of ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' (and possibly the whole series) is very much about this for [[spoiler:Jax Teller.]]
** E.Z. Reyes in ''Series/MayansMC'' goes through an accelerated and far worse version of the same character arc. In Season One he's a former golden boy and new Prospect to the Mayans forced to go undercover and inform on them to earn a pardon for his [[MiscarriageOfJustice wrongful]] murder conviction. Over the course of the first season he makes an increasing slips further into the criminal lifestyle, to the point he choses to remain with the Mayans after his record is expunged. As a full patch he makes a number of moral compromises to protect himself, his older brother and the club, including killing several people for real, but generally remains a sympathetic AntiHero. The [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope turning point]] is mifdway through Season Four where he [[spoiler:murders his innocent ex-girlfriend to prevent her informing on his brother]] and becomes utterly cold and ruthless. [[spoiler:He executes his prison mentor in cold blood, seizes control of the Mayans, aligns himself with his former ArchEnemy Miguel Galindo and leads the Mayans into an all=out war against the SoA]].
* This is one plot line of the fourth season of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Sweet, heroic Sam just wanted to save his brother [[spoiler: from hell]] and fight demons, especially Lilith, who was trying to kickstart the Apocalypse. So he started using his [[spoiler: demonic]] psychic powers to exorcise demons and save possessed people. He even manages to stop Samhain from destroying a town and shattering more of the seals on Lucifer's cage. Despite his brother's dire warnings, the audience has a hard time condemning his intentions right up until it's revealed the powers come from [[spoiler: drinking demon blood.]] By the season finale, he's so addicted to the power that he [[spoiler: abducts a possessed woman, forces her into a trunk while she pleads for her life, murders her, and drains her body of blood]], kills [[spoiler:Lilith]], and inadvertently [[spoiler: lets Lucifer walk free]]. Much of the fifth season involves his painful search for redemption.
* ''Series/Tyrant2014'' is very likely this, given that the harmless-looking Western-educated pediatrician protagonist is based on harmless-looking Western-educated ophthalmologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashir_al-Assad Bashir al-Assad]]. [[spoiler:Ultimately proven correct when the series was unexpectedly cancelled at the end of season 3. By that point, Bassam al-Fayeed rules the country of Abuddin with an iron fist, has lost or driven away many of the people he cared about, and knowingly plunges the country back into war to destroy the Caliphate insurgent army who killed his daughter. He did turn out to be his father's son.]]
* The German UsefulNotes/WorldWarII drama ''Series/UnsereMuetterUnsereVaeter'' has [[spoiler:Friedhelm]], who starts out as a compassionate if somewhat cynical [[NewMeat new Wehrmacht recruit]], and is gradually transformed by the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] into a SociopathicSoldier who willingly carries out brutal reprisals against suspected partisans and civilians.
* Happens to [[spoiler: William]] in ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' during TheReveal [[spoiler: of the show's three concurrent timeframes in "The Well-Tempered Clavier", of which William is involved in two. The 30 years in the past time frame follows him as a milquetoast and heroic young man roped into a company trip with his business partner and brother-in-law Logan. After spending several days being berated by Logan for his heroism when Logan only came there for the debauchery, as well as being forced to do progressively more morally dubious things and culminating in a BreakingSpeech from Logan that shatters his worldview, William ruthlessly slaughters an entire camp of [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Hosts]] and threatens to kill Logan if he doesn't follow his orders. Cut to the present day, and we see William has become a long time patron of the park known only as the Man in Black who ruined his marriage and devolved into a violent, raping sociopath in his quest to find the true meaning of the park.]]
* ''Series/WhyWomenKill'': [[spoiler:Alma increasingly becomes more malevolent as soon as she buries Mrs. Yost in her gardens. Her dream to just be in the garden club motivates her actions the most moving forward, as she is unwilling to let anything ruin that to the point of theft. However, her breaking point is when Rita's DisproportionateRetribution shuts her out of her dream club. Eventually, her opinion is MurderIsTheBestSolution as shown with the murders of Carlo and Isabel just to keep her garden club position, as even Bertram knows her true reason for murdering the latter.]]
* ''Series/WolfHall'' frames the career of Thomas Cromwell this way. He starts off as a man with a rough past who finds a job doing legal work for Cardinal Wolsey. He has many sympathetic qualities, a loving father and husband, a SelfMadeMan who is loyal to Wolsey until the end and NiceToTheWaiter besides. He enables Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn and enacts policy with efficiency and ability. But when Henry turns on Anne, Cromwell is motivated not only by the lesson of Wolsey's fate but because he sees an opportunity to avenge the men who (indirectly) caused Wolsey's death and then jeered it. He orchestrates the KangarooCourt and uses the whim of a tyrant to avenge a long-ago insult--the final scenes of the series indicate that he's well-aware of what he's done and is not particularly happy about it.

[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
* In Myth/NorseMythology, there are quite a few myths starring [[TricksterGod Loki]] as a GuileHero for the Aesir. Then he orchestrates the death of [[TheAce Balder]], his motives for which are open for interpretation, and confesses to the crime while giving every other god TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at a party. After that he gets rather painfully imprisoned, and is destined to lead [[ZombieApocalypse the army of Helheim]] during [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Ragnarok]].
* In TheBible, David goes down this path. Despite being the runt of his father's litter, David becomes God's chosen one and he replaces Saul as Israel's king. For a time David brings prosperity to Israel, and he is renowned as a hero by basically everyone in his country. David eventually lets the power get to his head, and he indulges in every kind of pleasure he can think of. One day David spots a woman named Bathsheba taking a bath, who was the wife of an officer in his military, and he falls madly in love with her beauty. Knowing that he can't steal Uriah's wife, David conspires to put him in a risky battle, hoping that he will be killed so he can take Bathsheba for himself. David goes through a long period of guilt over the remainder of his life, suffering the death of a child with Bathsheba, losing favor with some of his royal court, and finally ending a rebellion hosted by his son Absalom who died in battle. David believes very strongly that these misfortunes were God's punishment for his sin, and he spends his old age seeking forgiveness from God. Even though David fell from grace, the Bible notes that Solomon -- the son of David and Bathsheba -- brings even greater prosperity to Israel than even his father did.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' series discusses the events that ultimately lead to Horus betraying the Emperor, such as his brush with death where the Chaos Gods appealed to his repressed ambitions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* One of the best examples of this would be ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. He starts off as a noble person and a good guy – a hero returning from war in triumph. But ambition which was fueled by his wife and the witches leads him to murder his king and usurp his throne and turns him into a monster.
* ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. A barber framed and transported for life for a crime he did not commit by a corrupt judge who wanted his beautiful wife for himself. He returns to London, finds out what happened to his wife and daughter in the meantime [[spoiler:(though he turns out to have been lied to about the former by Mrs. Lovett, who led him to believe that his wife was dead because she wanted him for herself)]], and seeks revenge against the judge, leaving a trail of blood and death of innocents in his wake that would ultimately lead to him becoming the infamous Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
* ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' starts out as a noble and good, if a bit daft, leader, but Iago takes advantage of his jealousy and manages to get him to murder his own wife in cold blood.
* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' follows Alexander Hamilton as he goes from an idealistic, eager revolutionary to a bitter, pragmatic politician who is forced to play the game and throw others under the bus in order to protect his reputation and gets what he wants. He eventually has a HeelRealization [[spoiler:following the death of his son, who was killed trying to defend his father's honor in a duel]], and is a more sympathetic character for the rest of the show.
* ''Theatre/{{Ebenezer}}'' explores how Scrooge became the cold-hearted miser he is at the start of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'': In the aptly titled ''Descent Into Darkness'' campaign, the protagonist is an apprentice mage who starts to delve into black magic to protect his hometown from raiders. At the start, he's learned to summon basic zombies, the use of which gets him rejected by his hometown. By the end of it, he's wiped out the raiders, but he's also become one of the most powerful liches Wesnoth has ever seen and spends his centuries killing off heroes who had thought to slay an infamous lich lord.
* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'', Gabriel goes from being a holy warrior to [[spoiler:Dracula himself]].
* ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'' does a twist on this trope, where [[spoiler:it's revealed that the Simon you're playing as is a projection of himself in his therapy journal. By the end, the Simon we are playing as is an EnemyWithout of the real one [[HeWhoFightsMonsters no different from the psychos he's killed]].]]
* ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'': The Dark Lord Ending [[spoiler: is treated like this by Kingseeker Frampt (and presumably Gwyndolin). The truth is... [[AmbiguousEnding more]] [[MindScrew complicated]].]]
** Frampt claims this before the fact, [[spoiler:but after the Dark Lord ending he bows to the player and greets them as the new Dark Lord along with the other Primordial Serpents, suggesting that he either changed his mind or was lying the whole time.]]
* ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyHarveysNewEyes'' can be considered this if you have Lilli [[spoiler:stab Dr. Marcel]] in the ending. (The narration phrases it in terms of her becoming TheUnfettered, but notes that she did in fact just [[spoiler:kill a worn-out old man who was completely helpless and at her mercy.]])
* The Lone Wanderer's story in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' can become this.
* Ditto for The Courier in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. You might start out as someone helping communities and stopping raiders. But when you get dragged into the main plot, some paths will require you to take awful actions, like betrayal and mass murder to proceed.
* Basically, the whole point of ''VideoGame/FarCry3''. In the end, [[spoiler: it's up to you to decide whether Jason Brody is redeemable or not; - in almost comical defiance of the page quote above, if he chooses to stay on the island and embraces its warrior-culture, he dies a villain. However, if he chooses to leave with his friends, he lives as an incredibly traumatized yet redeemable hero.]]
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'''s first ''Heroes' Chronicles'' campaign details the rise and fall of Tarnum, a barbarian whose only goal is to free his people from the tyrannical rule of the Bracadan wizards to re-establish the glorious barbarian empire of old. Throughout the campaign, various events cause him to grow more paranoid and ruthless, with the tipping point being his poisoning of all his generals, whom he suspected of treachery. He is eventually ended by King Rion Gryphonheart, the first Erathian king, in a CombatByChampion. The remaining campaigns detail his redemption after he is not admitted to the barbarian afterlife. His final redemption comes in the barbarian campaign of ''Heroes of Might and Magic IV'', where he guides a young barbarian named Waerjak in uniting the scattered tribes in a story mirroring his own, minus this trope.
* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' prequel games - ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Snake Eater]]'', ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Portable Ops]]'', ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]]'', ''[[Videogame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes Ground Zeroes]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Phantom Pain]]'' - are this for Naked Snake/Big Boss. ''Snake Eater'' kicks off his StartOfDarkness when he is forced to kill his old mentor/ParentalSubstitute, the Boss, as part of a GovernmentConspiracy, and ''The Phantom Pain'', taking place ten years before the original ''Metal Gear'', completes his fall by making him a [[RevengeBeforeReason revenge-driven]], [[CardCarryingVillain self-confessed]] "[[HeWhoFightsMonsters demon.]]"
** ''Phantom Pain'' alone is fueled on this trope as a figurative interpretation of one of the more canonical story interpretations. The game has a hidden "point" system where the player is assessed as more evil for doing certain deeds, some of which are crucial to the plot. But if a player goes all in, the shrapnel in Snake's head becomes a devil horn, and he becomes stained in the red blood of allies he has betrayed and enemies he has needlessly killed. By the end of the game, Snake looks in the mirror, and [[spoiler: disgusted by what he sees, shatters it. As he walks away, turning his back on the man he once was, his organization's emblem on his shoulder has changed from the Diamond Dogs one he had throughout the game, to the Outer Heaven one from the game in which he is the villain.]]
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', the entire game can serve as this to [[spoiler:the PlayerCharacter depending on what ending you choose]].
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' this happens to both [[spoiler:Col. John Konrad and Capt. Martin Walker]]. They both came to Dubai hoping to help but [[spoiler:Konrad and his 33rd battalion ended up committing ever greater atrocities on the inhabitants of Dubai under the pretense of maintaining order while they evacuate the city, which eventually led Konrad to commit suicide once he realized what he had done. Walker and his Delta squad came to look for the remnants of the 33rd but ended up killing every single one of them and most of the locals. In one of the endings, the events of the game have driven Walker so deep into insanity that he massacres the US army rescue party that came looking for him. In another, he has a belated HeelRealization and kills himself. Or Walker can have that belated HeelRealization... then defy the trope in another ending and decided to live and go home, facing and attempting to pay for his crimes even at cost of becoming a broken ShellShockedVeteran.]]
* ''VideoGame/StrangerOfParadiseFinalFantasyOrigin'' is this for [[spoiler:Jack Garland, a "Stranger" sent by [[AbusivePrecursors the Lufenians]] to enforce order in the world of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''. Upon realizing the harm the Lufenians inflict on the world for the sake of their experimentations, he, along with his allies and the Dark Elf Astos, concocts a plan wherein he would be ultimately DrivenToVillainy, in so doing becoming an avatar of "Chaos" that would sever the world from the Lufenians, then become the villain whose defeat would ultimately save the world from darkness. In short, this game is the OriginStory for the main villain of ''FFI'', Garland[=/=]Chaos.]]
* An interesting example happens in ''VideoGame/{{Harvester}}''. While Steve has the option of going around and killing the entire town, [[spoiler:the ending reveals that the entire town of Harvester is a literal MurderSimulator trying to turn Steve into a SerialKiller]]. The player has the option of playing this trope straight or defy it.
* Sarah Kerrigan's plot-arc from ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' could basically be described as "heroic moral center" to "BrainwashedAndCrazy [[TheDragon Dragon]]" to "BigBad in her own right". [[spoiler:But by the time of Amon's war, she comes back around to a heroine once more, strong enough to kill the GodOfEvil.]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'': Leon's Side in the remake is Leon's journey from cold-hearted AntiHero into [[DefrostingIceQueen Defrosting Ice King]], into [[ForegoneConclusion forced villainy]] [[spoiler: and death]].
* Jin Kazama in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 6''. Regardless of his [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans reasons]] [[KnightTemplar for]] [[BatmanGambit doing]] [[EvilVersusEvil it]], he plunged the entire world into war and nearly cruelly executed his uncle (it's not like he wasn't enjoying it) based on selfishness and ''a theory.'' Jin himself recognizes what his actions have turned him into, even though he's the only one who could have done what he did.
* Jack Boyd from the ''VideoGame/ThisIsThePolice'' series is one of the most severe cases of this. In the first game, he's governmentally corrupt, but still morally sound in trying to do the right thing and make a solid living by the end of his tenure, even if he's unable to due to his superiors screwing him over at every turn. Between being forced to work with the mafia, to Robespierre leaking out potentially doctored files detailing supposed wrongdoings of Jack, to Mayor Rogers firing Jack despite saying he wouldn't, Jack is left with absolutely nothing by the end of the first game, leading to him abandoning Freeburg and fleeing to Sharpwood in the sequel. After fending off an assailant, he's taken into custody and strikes up a deal with Sheriff Lilly to help her run the department, and because she's an ExtremeDoormat who has a hard time running the department, Jack uses this opportunity to explain that he's free to do whatever he wants because Lilly's helpless without him. After a scuffle for position of co-sheriff with Britt Carter, a plan instigated by Liam Henderson to get Jack killed, and Jack's old colleague Lana telling him to turn himself in, Jack hits the DespairEventHorizon, leading to his soul being fully corrupted by Forest Spirits. Once he's gone from a JerkWithAHeartOfGold to a full-blown CorruptCop, he ends up crossing the MoralEventHorizon by killing everyone who ever knew his real identity; even ones who supported Jack to the end, such as Emma and Moreno.
* The alliance campaign of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'' does this with prince Arthas and the TraumaCongaLine that leads to him becoming The Lich King.
** To a lesser degree, we have Illidan, Sylvanas, Maiev Shadowsong, Kael, and Grom Hellscream, though admittedly several of these became {{Anti Villain}}s while Grom redeemed himself via HeroicSacrifice. Really, it would be easier to list the ''Warcraft'' characters that ''don't'' follow this route.
** In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Grom's son Garrosh began as a seemingly good-natured Orc, tormented by the sins of his father. As his personal story continued he became increasingly brutal and veered further into GeneralRipper territory, culminating with his being the end boss of an entire expansion pack following a pogrom against all non-Orcs and his attempts to steal the power of the Sha.
* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', the penultimate chapter turns out to be a condensed version to fit with the "short story anthology" nature of the game's plot structure. As it turns out, it's actually detailing the BigBad's StartOfDarkness and tying all the previous, heretofore seemingly-unrelated short stories together. The chapter's focal character is Oersted, once a hero to his kingdom. Oersted is tricked into killing the king, which sees him branded a traitor and outcast, and he's even believed by many to be the demon king. To make matters worse, it's revealed that his best friend, Streibough, orchestrated the whole ordeal [[GreenEyedMonster to get revenge for Oersted always delegating him second-fiddle]]. To top things off, after having been [[EtTuBrute betrayed by his former friend and adventuring companion]], Princess Alethea, the woman he was in love with, was DrivenToSuicide by Streibough's death at Oersted's hand, having fallen in love with ''him'' instead. After losing everyone and everything dear to him, [[HeroicMime Oersted]] [[SuddenlySpeaking says]] that, if people already believe him to be the Lord of Dark, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil he might as well be one]], and so he becomes the [[BigBad Lord of Dark, Odio]].
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' details the journey of Colonial Assassin initiate Shay Patrick Cormac from a member of that order to becoming disillusioned with it [[spoiler: after attempting to reclaim a Precursor artifact causes a massive earthquake that devastates the city of Lisbon]] and leaving it rather violently, ending up a member of the [[KnightTemplar Templars]], [[spoiler: becoming responsible for the devastated state of the Assassin Brotherhood at the beginning of ''III'' and killing Adewale from ''Black Flag''.]]
* This is pretty much the context for ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel''. Here, Handsome Jack, previous BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', is shown as a small-time Hyperion manager trying to save millions of lives from [[WellIntentionedExtremist Zarpedon]]. At one point he even laments that innocent people are suffering because of Hyperion's war with Dahl's Lost Legion, stating that having problems with Hyperion is one thing, but the people on the moon don't deserve to suffer. The player gets to watch Jack slowly descend into the amoral, self-centered, enormously unethical and downright villainous behavior that we get to see by the time of ''Borderlands 2''.
** Unlike most cases, though, it's ambiguous if Jack is [[CharacterDevelopment becoming a worse person]], or just [[ManipulativeBastard taking advantage of the situation]] to get enough power that he doesn't need to [[WhatYouAreInTheDark hide who he is anymore]]. There's also the fact that at this stage he has already [[spoiler: enslaved his own daughter, used the remains of a dimensional beast to secretly create a WaveMotionGun and pretty much kickstarted all of this to claim the contents of a Vault for himself alone]].
** ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 3}}'' [[spoiler:confirms that he was always an asshole (because of his grandmother's abuse), but he used to be a high-functioning asshole and a loving father, until his life was ruined when a bandit kidnapped his daughter, and when she used her powers in self defense, she accidentally burned her (mute) mother to death. From there, it kind of snowballed as Jack kept his daughter imprisoned so she couldn't turn siren-psycho, only to eventually turn psycho himself. For extra ambiguity, it turns out that Tyreen's father did the opposite of what Handsome Jack did to Angel, teaching her about all the fun vault-hunting adventures she would have with her powers once she became an adult]]. [[EntitledBitch That didn't turn out well.]]
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Ravenmark}} Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion]]'', [[spoiler:Livia Cassianus]] is a good person trying to serve [[spoiler:her]] country. Over the course of the campaign, [[spoiler:she]] falls in love and grows to accept [[spoiler:her]] new role as the UnexpectedSuccessor. However, [[spoiler:her lover's HeroicSacrifice at the end drives her over the edge, resulting in Livia becoming the ruthless Scarlet Empress]] by the time the sequel rolls around, in large part responsible for the sorry state of the Empire.
* Taking the non-canon path in both ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games will be this for the PC.
* As with the ''Knights of the Old Republic'' example above, taking the Dark Side paths in the VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga games ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'' and ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'' will turn the games' storylines into this for their respective player characters. This is particularly true of ''Jedi Knight'', where Kyle's descent into darkness is determined by the totality of the player's actions throughout the game - slaughtering noncombatants, delving too much into Dark Side powers, etc. - whereas ''Jedi Academy'' presents players with a single, discrete choice to go light or dark.
* This trope applies to both ''VideoGame/{{Nier}}'' and ''VideoGame/NierAutomata''. In the first, Nier only sees the [[TheHeartless shades]] as [[AxCrazy mindless killing machines]], and he's right [[spoiler:at first, about the ones near his village that were exiled for their violent degeneration. Then he invades a shade stronghold to find his daughter/sister, and the peaceful shades, unable to communicate, are forced to defend themselves when he assumes they are a threat. This cycle of assumption and revenge escalates until he has committed genocide against the shades and killed a living CosmicKeystone, dooming both shades and [[TomatoInTheMirror "humans"]] to extinction.]] In ''Automata'' [[spoiler:9S passes the DespairEventHorizon after realizing that the Machine War is not only pointless but that Yorha was created to [[ForeverWar keep the war going]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and then be disposed of]]. Grief-stricken after [[TheHeroDies the death of 2B]], he decides to get revenge on A2 and destroy humanity's remaining data to "solve everything".]]
* ''VideoGame/FallenHero'' has you play as the former hero Sidestep, who's on their inexorable way to a villainous career, but [[WellIntentionedExtremist just]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds how]] [[BloodKnight far]] you fall is entirely up to you.
* ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerIII'' has Prince Yuri Barkov of Kislev, who you play as in the tutorial campaign. At first a heroic and beloved prince of Kislev, he sets out to learn why the bear god Ursun hasn't ended Kislev's winter with his roar. In the course of his campaigns, he learns it's because the Daemons have captured and are slowly killing Ursun, and sets out to free him, in the process however, he starts to take more callous and cruel actions, as well as becoming more vicious and abrasive towards his men in pursuit of his goal. By the end of the final tutorial mission, Yuri has turned into a vicious monster himself who doesn't hesitant to kill his own beloved brother and offer his skull to a Daemon of Khorne to bridge the way to Ursun's prison, and when confronted with the bound Ursun, he's so far gone that [[MagnificentBastard Bela'kor's]] words convince him Ursun is to blame for all of his misfortune and he shoots Ursun with a chaos-tainted bullet, mortally wounding him. After doing that and being blasted away by Ursun in retaliation, the dying Yuri calls out to the chaos gods for more power and they grant it to him, transforming him into the Chaos Undivided champion known by his title of God-Slayer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Pretty much the entire point of ''Webcomic/ErrantStory'', as Ian Samael ... ''changes'' over the ten-year run of the comic.
** The other person on the receiving end of the same power-up actually went the other way, from a fairly antisocial and useless character to an active force for good. So the story is at least heavily implying that it was, in fact, Ian's own inability to deal with his issues that screwed everyone.
* The protagonist of ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'' [[FaceHeelTurn slowly goes insane]] following her transformation into a demon. Her drive to become human again [[StagesOfMonsterGrief slowly fades away]] the longer she remains in that form.
** She finally DOES become human again when she betrays her friends, but it comes at the cost of being banished to an alternate dimension. At the resolution of the plot arc, she's seen to embrace [[ChaoticGood her semi-former humanity AND her demonic essence]], regaining her demonic form and abilities while rekindling her human compassion.
* Schtein's arc in ''Webcomic/StringTheory2009''.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', based on what Pandora [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2017-07-05 tells]] him, Tedd [[https://www.egscomics.com/comic/2017-07-07 thinks]] that without his friends he might have taken the same path as Lord Tedd, one of his AlternateUniverse counterparts who turned evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* PlayedForLaughs in Creator/AllisonPregler's reviews of ''Series/Charmed1998,'' due to the protagonists' {{Designated Hero}}ism and her own {{Alternate Character Interpretation}}s.
-->"I just got it. This show was actually playing us the whole time! The villains were the heroes, and the heroes were the villains! This was all leading to an [[Franchise/StarWars Anakin Skywalker]] moment! We're presented with protagonists with massive power, destined for greatness, and the potential for immense good. However, slowly but surely, we're watching their downfall, leading up to the creation of three Darth Vaders. Out of the most unlikely circumstances, their own protege and her sister, [[RaisedByOrcs raised by evil]], must rise up and save the world. I should have seen it coming. Goodness gracious, ''Charmed,'' you MagnificentBastard! You played me for a fool, but you were pulling the strings all along!\\
"Or maybe this show is just [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] moronic, you choose."
* Both protagonists of ''Machinima/ArbyNTheChief'' make this journey in Season 7. After spending most of the season isolated in real life from everyone except each other, having to grapple with their own mortality and crumbling bodies, and being repeatedly subjected to the douchebaggery of other players on ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', [[TheDitz Chief]] and eventually [[OnlySaneMan Arbiter]] both fall under [[TheBully Eugene]]'s sway and join him in his Fragban spree across the network.
* ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' serves this purpose for the title character. Although it's more of an [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Protagonist's]] Journey To [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Not So Harmless]] TragicVillain.
* [[WebVideo/SovietWomble Soviet Womble's]] ''Random Arma 3 Bullshittery Part 9'' is this, telling the story of a resistance group[[note]]Either called the Badgers or M.I.L.F.[[/note]] fighting against the Russians, and slowly becoming more and more evil. Especially noticeable with Soviet, who acts as the most consistent TokenGoodTeammate throughout the whole thing, believing that they should be fighting for freedom and democracy, and is horrified by the some of the stuff his fellow players do, but by the end he's so worn down that [[spoiler: he joins in using civilians as [[HumanShield human shields]] during an attack on the Russian base]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* The core of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' is the story of how a fairly innocent child named Powder turned into the [[CuteButPsycho psychotic]] [[BombThrowingAnarchist anarchist]] [[MeaningfulRename Jinx]].
* In episode 4 of ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'', it presents an AlternateUniverse where [[Characters/MCUDoctorStrange Doctor Strange]] lost his girlfriend instead of the use of his hands. In his grief, he has spent centuries absorbing mystic beings to gain enough power to reverse Christie's death. In the end, he kills his [[EvilCounterpart Good Counterpart]] and destroys the universe he once vowed to protect.
* The short-lived cartoon ''WesternAnimation/WhateverHappenedToRobotJones'' would have been one of these if it hadn't been canceled so early. It was supposed to end with the titular protagonist leading a robot rebellion to wipe out humanity.
[[/folder]]

* The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy basically looks at Batman's descent from hero to anti-villain as he battles Dracula and his vampire minions while becoming a vampire himself. In ''Red Rain'', his only victims are feral vampires who are no longer human before he confronts and kills Dracula himself, while in ''Bloodstorm'' the vampires he kills are still reasonably human in appearance but Batman nevertheless kills them all once sure that they will go on to kill and feed if he doesn't stop them. He considers himself to have crossed a line when he kills the Joker and drinks his blood in a moment of blind rage, but after spending time immobilised in his coffin (staking alone just paralyses vampires in this continuty), he suffers a serious SanitySlippage. By the start of ''Crimson Mist'', Batman has regressed to a feral AntiVillain state by the time Alfred removes the stake, the Dark Knight killing basically all of his traditional rogue's gallery, only prevented from being an outright villain because everyone he kills was unquestionably a killer themselves.

* ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' is about a ComicBook/{{Superman}} {{Expy}} called the Plutonian who suffers a complete mental breakdown and [[FaceHeelTurn flips from hero to villain]] in [[GoingPostal a superpower-assisted spree killing]]. Part of the book involves looking at how he got to that point. [[spoiler:And some of his former teammates seem to have started down that same path while trying to stop him...]]

* The story of ''Literature/LetTheRightOneIn'' and its DistantSequel ''Let the Old Dreams Die'' seems to be one for 12-year old Oskar when he meets Eli, a vampire who is physically and somewhat mentally also 12: Oskar starts out obsessed with serial killers, thinks about hurting or even killing his bullies, then he meets Eli [[spoiler:and has no problem when she ''does'' kill the bullies]]. By the time of ''Let the Old Dreams Die'', over 20 years later, [[spoiler: it’s strongly implied Oskar has no issue with hunting innocent families as a 12-year old vampire alongside his now-girlfriend Eli]].

* The story of ''Literature/LetTheRightOneIn'' and its distant sequel ''Let the Old Dreams Die'' seem to be one for 12-year old Oskar after he meets Eli, a vampire who is physically and somewhat mentally also 12: Oskar starts out obsessed with serial killers, thinks about hurting or even killing his bullies, [[spoiler:and has no problem when Eli does kill the bullies]]. By the time of ''Let the Old Dreams Die'', over 20 years later, [[spoiler: it’s strongly implied Oskar has no issue with hunting innocent families as a 12-year old vampire alongside his now-girlfriend Eli]].

* The story of ''Literature/Let the Right One In'' and its distant sequel ''Let the Old Dreams Die'' seem to be one for 12-year old Oskar after he meets Eli, a vampire who is physically and somewhat mentally also 12: Oskar starts out obsessed with serial killers, thinks about hurting or even killing his bullies, [[spoiler:and has no problem when Eli does kill the bullies]]. By the time of ''Let the Old Dreams Die'', over 20 years later, [[spoiler: it’s strongly implied Oskar has no issue with hunting innocent families as a 12-year old vampire alongside his now-girlfriend Eli]].

* Both protagonists of ''WebVideo/ArbyAndTheChief'' make this journey in Season 7. After spending most of the season isolated in real life from everyone except each other, having to grapple with their own mortality and crumbling bodies, and being repeatedly subjected to the douchebaggery of other players on ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', [[TheDitz Chief]] and eventually [[OnlySaneMan Arbiter]] both fall under [[TheBully Eugene]]'s sway and join him in his Fragban spree across the network.

* Both protagonists of ''WebVideo/ArbyNTheChief'' make this journey in Season 7. After spending most of the season isolated in real life from everyone except each other, having to grapple with their own mortality and crumbling bodies, and being repeatedly subjected to the douchebaggery of other players on ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', [[TheDitz Chief]] and eventually [[OnlySaneMan Arbiter]] both fall under [[TheBully Eugene]]'s sway and join him in his Fragban spree across the network.

* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', the penultimate chapter turns out to be a condensed version to fit with the "short story anthology" nature of the game's plot structure. As it turns out, it's actually detailing the BigBad's StartOfDarkness and tying all the previous, heretofore seemingly-unrelated short stories together. The chapter's focal character is Oersted, once a hero to his kingdom. Oersted is tricked into killing the king, which sees him branded a traitor and outcast, and he's even believed by many to be the demon king. To make matters worse, it's revealed that his best friend, Straybow, orchestrated the whole ordeal [[GreenEyedMonster to get revenge for Oersted always delegating him second-fiddle]]. To top things off, after having been [[EtTuBrute betrayed by his former friend and adventuring companion]], Princess Alicia, the woman he was in love with, was DrivenToSuicide by Straybow's death at Oersted's hand, having fallen in love with ''him'' instead. After losing everyone and everything dear to him, [[HeroicMime Oersted]] [[SuddenlySpeaking says]] that, if people already believe him to be the Demon King, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil he might as well be one]], and so he becomes the [[BigBad Demon King Odio]].

* The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy basically looks at Batman's descent from hero to anti-villain as he battles Dracula and his vampire minions while becoming a vampire himself. In ''Red Rain'', his only victims are feral vampires who are no longer human before he confronts and kills Dracula himself, while in ''Bloodstorm'' the vampires he kills are still reasonably human in appearance but Batman nevertheless kills them all once sure that they will go on to kill and feed if he doesn't stop them. After suffering a serious SanitySlippage by the start of ''Crimson Mist'', Batman has regressed to a feral AntiVillain state, killing basically all of his traditional rogue's gallery, only prevented from being an outright villain because everyone he kills was unquestionably a killer themselves.

* One of the best examples of this would be ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''. He starts off as a noble person and a good guy – a hero returning from war in triumph. But ambition which was fueled by his wife and the witches turn him into a monster.
* ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. A barber framed and transported for life for a crime he did not commit by a corrupt judge who wanted his beautiful wife for himself. He returns to London, finds out what happened to his wife and daughter in the meantime [[spoiler:(though he turns out to have been lied to about the former by Mrs. Lovett, who led him to believe that his wife was dead)]], and seeks revenge against the judge, leaving a trail of blood and death of innocents in his wake that would ultimately lead to him becoming the infamous Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

* Harvey Dent/Two-Face in ''Film/TheDarkKnight''. As he says himself, a hero could end up live long enough to see himself as a villain, {{foreshadow|ing}}s his own future and he ends up having this as his character theme.

* This is one plot line of the fourth season of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Sweet, heroic Sam just wanted to save his brother [[spoiler: from hell]] and fight demons, especially Lilith, who was trying to kickstart the Apocalypse. So he started using his [[spoiler: demonic]] psychic powers to exorcise demons and save possessed people. He even manages to stop Samhain from destroying a town and shattering more of the seals on Lucifer's cage. Despite his brother's dire warnings, the audience has a hard time condemning his intentions right up until it's revealed the powers come from [[spoiler: drinking demon blood.]] By the season finale, he's so addicted to the power that he [[spoiler: abducts a possessed woman, forces her into a trunk while she pleads for her life, murders her, and drains her body of blood]], kills [[spoiler: Lilith]], and inadvertently [[spoiler: lets Lucifer walk free]]. Much of the fifth season involves his painful search for redemption.
* ''Series/{{Tyrant}}'' is very likely this, given that the harmless-looking Western-educated pediatrician protagonist is based on harmless-looking Western-educated ophthalmologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashir_al-Assad Bashir al-Assad]]. [[spoiler:Ultimately proven correct when the series was unexpectedly cancelled at the end of season 3. By that point, Bassam al-Fayeed rules the country of Abuddin with an iron fist, has lost or driven away many of the people he cared about, and knowingly plunges the country back into war to destroy the Caliphate insurgent army who killed his daughter. He did turn out to be his father's son.]]

* The title character of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has this. [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor A couple of times.]]

* Mitchell goes through this throughout the seasons in ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' [[spoiler: he starts off as a genuinely good guy, fighting his addiction. Then after Herrick is temporarily killed off by George, he becomes the leader of the Vampires in Bristol and manages to convince most, if not all of them to let go of their blood addiction...then their gathering place is ''bombed'' by a person he trusted. He then crosses the MoralEventHorizon and kills 20 people in a train. Then instead of trying to redeem himself, he sinks further and further into depravity and keeping secrets during Season 3, which concludes with him outright asking his friends to kill him so that he won't become a monster again]].

* Played with in ''Series/DoctorWho'', especially with Seven and Ten, the most scheming and manipulative of his incarnations. The threat of the Valeyard has hung over everything the Doctor has done since Six, and the Doctor has done some truly horrible things for the sake of what he thinks is right, up to and including genocide (of his own people, yet), and Big Finish has done a couple of alternate continuity audio dramas of the Doctor gone bad [[note]]including at least one with Creator/MichaelJayston, the original portrayer of the Valeyard, as the Doctor[[/note]].

* Lex Luthor's journey from good to evil in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' is the most prominent plot, second only to Clark's journey to Superman, in the first seven seasons (after the seventh season [[spoiler:Lex was left crippled in a disaster that temporarily depowered Clark, leaving him a DarkLordOnLifeSupport until an alternate version of his father made a DealWithTheDevil to restore Lex to full health]].

* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': Rielle's storyline is about her transition from being the long awaited, beloved Sun Queen to the long feared and widely hated Blood Queen, traitor of her kind.

* ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' puts a spin on this. From the get-go, it's a ForegoneConclusion that Dwayne Hoover will become a lunatic who will savagely assault several people. However, despite providing in-verse reasons for his change from a loving, charismatic man to a violently unhinged brute, [[spoiler:it's ultimately because the author, Kurt Vonnegut made it so]].

* Michael Swanwick's thematically-paired novels ''The Iron Dragon's Daughter'' and ''Jack Faust'' are {{Deconstructor Fleet}}s that demonstrate how SF/Fantasy genre wish-fulfillment fantasies end up turning the protagonists into {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s. The former has a female protagonist and targets LandOfFaerie and ChangelingFantasy tropes, while the latter has a male protagonist and targets hard-SF "competent man" tropes.

* ''Literature/TheShining''. It starts off with Jack being a happy family man, albeit with a dark past, until the influence of the hotel drives him to madness and monstrosity.
* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' combines this with TheBadGuyWins, as [[spoiler:The Party successfully brainwashes Winston into becoming another one of their drones before killing him.]]
* Yarvi starts out ''Literature/TheShatteredSea'' as a teen GuileHero who while somewhat more ruthless than your unusual YA protagonist of this type, is still a good guy. After he loses a POV in the second book, he comes off as a more sinister figure and enacts some morally questionable plans, but since they work out for the best, he seems like he still might be the same old Yarvi. However, by the end of the third book, Yarvi is more or less the BigBad and is a ruthless schemer worse than those he opposes, and is willing to sacrifice his loved ones and everyone else to satisfy his obsession with revenge and self-validation.
* This is Geder Palliako's arc across ''The Dragon's Path'', the first volume of ''Literature/TheDaggerAndTheCoin''. Initially introduced as a bumbling, nerdy young knight from a minor noble family, the realization that he was set up to take the fall for [[TheEmpire his country's]] failed occupation of a captured city state (when taken in tandem with his {{Fatal Flaw}}s of a LackOfEmpathy when it comes to his big plans and a penchant for DisproportionateRetribution when he feels he's being mocked) drives him to his [[KillItWithFire first atrocity]], and he spends most of the rest of the book vacillating between saying IDidWhatIHadToDo and MyGodWhatHaveIDone. Then he meets a creepy cult of spider-worshippers who have decided Geder is their DarkMessiah who will lead their religion in conquering the world, and who have the [[CompellingVoice powers]] to make him believe it too. By the middle of the second book, Geder is well on his way to full EvilOverlord territory.
* ''Literature/TheWalkingDeadRiseOfTheGovernor'' deals with how Philip Blake/The Governor became what he is. Needless to say, it isn't what you were probably expecting.

* Despite the name, it appears that ''Literature/HeroesSaveTheWorld'' will be featuring at least a couple of these.
* The title character in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' (and its film adaptations) is a [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold kind-hearted, but socially outcast teenage girl]] who spends the first half of the book getting slowly beaten down and pushed to her RageBreakingPoint by [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer her classmates]], [[AdultsAreUseless the school faculty]], and even [[MyBelovedSmother her own mother]]. The second half is about [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the massacre she commits as a result]] when what happens at the Senior Prom makes her ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes snap]]''.
* In ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'', the titular castle, a massive rambling city-state, is also an oppressive social structure where people are locked into their social roles and even their occupations from the moment of birth. No social mobility is possible and nobody has ever seriously tried to challenge the system. That is, until the advent of a kitchen scullion called Steerpike, who tires of being bullied and overworked in the dungeon kitchens. Escaping from the kitchens, Steerpike literally and metaphorically makes his way up in the hierarchy - initially by physically scaling the outside of the Castle. At first, he is a romantic hero who arouses the reader's sympathy. But little by little, his ambition to rise to the very top and supplant the ruling Groan family takes over, with deceptions, manipulation, and finally murder in support of his goal. The boy hero becomes a murdering villain, slowly but surely, across the course of two books.