History Main / RedemptionDemotion

* ''{{Lunar}} Eternal Blue'' also has this with Leo... but in fact averts it in which he appears to be LevelGrinding at the same rate Hiro and the rest of the crew are, and when he duels him one on one, he only has about 288 HP... around the same as he did when Hiro fought with him. But the Playstation version undoes this by giving him about 750 HP when HIro duels him one on one... of course it was anticlimactic as one can use a technique and oneshot Leo.

* Subverted in the case of {{Thunderbolts}}. Most of the members have been b-grade villains. Once they became heroes (or were forced to join the team), they became much more competent.

* The SpiderMan villain ''Sandman'' is also a subversion. There was a long time in which he was a hero and even a reserve member of the Avengers. During this time, he was just as powerful as he was while a villain. He was the powerhouse in Silver Sable's Wildpack and was shown to be the only member who could hang with Venom in a fight. He was also instrumental in taking down Doctor Octopus who had become extremely powerful.
* The [=USAgent=] first showed up in CaptainAmerica and while he was not a full fledged BigBad, he was still an AntiHero with shades of HeroicSociopath due to mental tampering. In this state, he was a stronger and more evil version of Captain America who had a great deal of trouble bringing him down. Once [=USAgent=] calmed down a little, joined the Avengers, and became more of a standard hero, he was quickly turned into [[BadassDecay Captain America-lite]]. In one recent issue, Captain America was implied to be stronger despite [=USAgent=] having superhuman strength as opposed to Cap.

* Ben 10's EvilCounterpart Kevin 11 seems to be going through both this and TheWorfEffect following his mid-series HeelFaceTurn between ''{{Ben 10}}'' and ''Ben10AlienForce''. Justified since he refuses to absorb energy again, which was what made him a dangerous threat in the original series. In ''Ben10UltimateAlien'' Kevin reveals that absorbing energy like electricity or the Omnitrix's power will drive Omnisians like himself and Aggregor insane.

* Ben 10's EvilCounterpart Kevin 11 seems to be going through both this and TheWorfEffect following his mid-series HeelFaceTurn between ''{{Ben 10}}'' and ''Ben10AlienForce''.

* If he was using BlackMagic and has now decided to leave it behind, this also obviously deprives him of his former power.

* In the BattleTech cartoon, Ciro Ramirez is a passionate, competant, but also arrogant and inexperienced Mech Jockey serving under Adam Steiner in the 1st Somerset Strikers. He experienced a reversed form of the trope after his FaceHeelTurn, {{justified}} in that the Clans have better technology, more experience, and presumably gave him the [[TrainingFromHell sort of training]] that the Clans are known for. [[hottip:*: It is worth mentioning that for the Clans, [[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turns]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turns]] are perfectly acceptable under the right circumstances. Basically, you have to be captured after [[WorthyFoe fighting honorably]]; in Ciro's case, he was defeated because he made a LastStand against a [[CurbStompBattle superior force]] of Clan Mechs to [[YouShallNotPass allow the rest of his squad and a group of civilians to escape]].]]

* In the BattleTech cartoon, Ciro Ramirez is a passionate, competant, but also arrogant and inexperienced Mech Jockey serving under Adam Steiner in the 1st Somerset Strikers. He experienced a reversed form of the trope after his FaceHeelTurn, {{justified}} in that the Clans have better technology, more experience, and presumably gave him the [[TrainingFromHell sort of training]] that the Clans are known for. [[hottip:*: It is worth mentioning that for the Clans, [[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turns]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turns]] are perfectly acceptable under the right circumstances (Basically, you are captured after fighting honorably; in Ciro's case, he was defeated because he made a LastStand against a [[CurbStompBattle superior force]] of Clan Mechs to [[YouShallNotPass allow the rest of his squad and a group of civilians to escape]].]]

* In the BattleTech cartoon, Ciro Ramirez is a passionate, competant, but also arrogant and inexperienced Mech Jockey serving under Adam Steiner in the 1st Somerset Strikers. He experienced a reversed form of the trope after his FaceHeelTurn, {{justified}} in that the Clans have better technology, more experience, and presumably gave him the [[TrainingFromHell sort of training]] that the Clans are known for. [[HotTip:*: It is worth mentioning that for the Clans, [[FaceHeelTurn]]s and [[HeelFaceTurn]]s are perfectly acceptable under the right circumstances (Basically, you are captured after fighting honorably; in Ciro's case, he was defeated because he made a LastStand against a [[CurbStompBattle superior force]] of Clan Mechs to [[YouShallNotPass allow the rest of his squad and a group of civilians to escape]].]]

*** Now just try to tell me that [[Rule34 Ron growing a pair and dominating Shego isn't]] FetishFuel.
* In the BattleTech cartoon, Ciro Ramirez is a passionate, competant, but also arrogant and inexperienced Mech Jockey serving under Adam Steiner in the 1st Somerset Strikers. He experienced a reversed form of the trope after his FaceHeelTurn, {{justified}} in that the Clans have better technology, more experience, and presumably gave him the [[TrainingFromHell sort of training]] that the Clans are known for. It is worth mentioning that for the Clans, FaceHeelTurns and HeelFaceTurns are perfectly acceptable under the right circumstances (Basically, you are captured after fighting honorably; in Ciro's case, he was defeated because he made a LastStand against a [[CurbStompBattle superior force]] of Clan Mechs to [[YouShallNotPass allow the rest of his squad and a group of civilians to escape]].

** That Vegeta is a better villain than hero is further highlighted by the fact that shortly after this he makes a ''second'' HeelFaceTurn, in which he attemps to save the world via a HeroicSacrifice. And fails.

** An exception also comes up in ''{{Super Robot Wars Reversal}}'' (SRWR). After fighting the rival robot of Gear Fighter Dendou, Gear Fighter Ogre, you can get it and it's stats will go down but if during a route split you coose to fight the possessed Subaru who is using Ogre after the battle you get him back and find out that the bad guys put Ogre back to the stats it had before and you get to keep them this time.

*** Played straight in the same game with Johnny and Yuu's sister from Brainpowerd, who's Barons are more powerful then all but Nelly Brain, but are nowhere near the 60k they exhibited as bosses.

** Played depressingly straight in the true final stage ''SuperRobotWarsW''. After Critic deposes Inference and takes control of the Sapientia, Applicant shows up in the Val Arm to give you a hand. Naturally, the machine is many times worse worse in every respect than it was as the final boss of the previous stage, and Applicant himself is demoted as well, with lowered stats, fewer abilities, and missing his Double Move skill as well as his face cut-in. Also, he gains Main Character status and is not allowed to die. Oi.

* Averted in the 10th ''FireEmblem''. The Black Knight (a boss from the 9th game that is arguably harder then the final one but is somewhat optional) briefly joins the party to protect Micaiah. The only thing that stops him from being a GameBreaker is that he's a classic CrutchCharacter: he takes away experience points (in a game where they are limited) from horribly under leveled units that desperately need it.

* In ''{{Persona 4}}'', Personas are created out of [[TheHeartless Shadows]] when the person in question accepts their "true self". While the transformation makes the spiritual entity loyal and controlable, it also decreases their stamina at least a hundredfold, eliminates all their cool attacks, reduces them in physical size, ''and'' decreases their attack power.

* [[AlienAmongUs Mark Chang]] on ''TheFairlyOddparents'' is the prince of the most feared planet in the galaxy, which is very apparent in his early apperances. Then, after his HeelFaceTurn, he seems totally unable to fight Princess Mandie.
* When opposing them, Amazo from JusticeLeague was the most powerful being ever introduced who could [[TheJuggernaut brush off every superhero in existance with minimal effort]]. He fought against Solomon Grundy on the JL's side, lost, and simply left.

* Lu Bu in ''DynastyWarriors 5'' -- In one map he's a virtually unkillable super-armoured warrior in constant Musou Rage who can kill you in one or two hits. Then you unlock him and get the version balanced like everyone else (however, since he's so cool as the NPC version, most people will mac him out ASAP anyway -- but he's STILL not as tough as the NPC version (though if played well with pre-considered access to Musou Rages and the right balance of magic stuff, he can sometimes kill his other self--just barely))

So remember, when you switch from evil to good, odds are good that you will start to suck.

* Phoenix Ikki from ''SaintSeiya'' - up to a point. It took the combined force of the good team to defeat him. After he switches sides, for a while he seems to retain his awesome powers. But in the later sequels, the gap between him and his fellow saints seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
** Not really, he always displays much more power than the other saints, except at the end of the battles where Seiya is always, always, always the strongest Saint.

* {{Justified}} In ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' when [[spoiler:Beat]] decides to joins Neku's side after all other options of Neku's survival was destoryed. As a consequence he was kiccked out of the [[spoiler:Reapers]], simultaneously losing all of the power that made him near impossible to beat.

!!Examples

* One of the worst examples of this is in the JamesBond film ''Diamonds Are Forever''. The main Bond girl is Tiffany Case, a professional diamond smuggler. In the first half of the film, she's shown to be a seasoned pro, good at her criminal work, with enough authority to even have her own henchmen. Late in the film, she successfully (and cleverly) eludes a crowded auditorium loaded with CIA agents ready to arrest her. After she turns good, her brains go south, particularly over a mix-up with cassette tapes. This prompts both Bond ''and'' Blofeld to make snide remarks about [[WhatAnIdiot what an "idiot" she is.]]

* A particularly weird example occurs in {{Heroes}}. Peter and Sylar are both immensely powerful, but it's dealt with by keeping Sylar as a villain and handing Peter the {{Idiot Ball}}. When Sylar was given a {{Heel Face Turn}}, the writers suddenly noticed the trope and turned him back in order to [[{{HijackedByGanon}} hijack the plot]].

* Subverted in ''Star Trek Deep Space Nine'' - Damar is initially nothing more than Dukat's boorish second-banana, then a puppet ruler chafing under the oversight of his Dominion "allies", turned to drink just to get through the day. Once he betrays the Dominion and founds the Cardassian LaResistance, he gradually overcomes these flaws and becomes a genuinely inspiring, patriotic hero who galvanizes the entire Cardassian race into a last-second HeelFaceTurn, just before his HeroicSacrifice.
* Castiel suffered this in {{Supernatural}}'s fifth season. The show justified it by claiming that his powers were diminishing due to being cut off from Heaven. Of course, none of the other fallen angels suffered from this.

* AvatarTheLastAirbender plays this straight and then subverts it. When Zuko joins the Gaang, he briefly loses his Firebending, which he attributes to his lack of inner drive (his inner drive having previously been capturing Aang, and general rage). Katara [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how useful it would have been for him to lose his Bending earlier (although even Zuko at his best was ''just about'' a match for Aang). When Zuko goes to learn from the ruins left behind by the earliest Firebenders [[spoiler: and finds not only their remaining civilisation, but the last remaining dragons]], not only does his Bending return, his style actually visibly improves, to the point where he is a match for Azula (with a slight advantage over her).

* An interesting variant: in {{Kim Possible}}, any time Kim's {{sidekick}} [[ThisLoserIsYou Ron]] is turned evil (through {{Applied Phlebotinum}} each time), he's suddenly just as much a [[EvilLaugh cackling]] {{Mad Scientist}} as [[HarmlessVillain Drakken]], only to go back to his [[BookDumb usual self]] as soon as the process is reversed (which, [[StatusQuoIsGod naturally]], always happens by the end of the episode).

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* ''ChronoCross'' has several examples, due to the incredibly huge number of characters you can recruit. Probably the biggest example is Grobyc. As a boss, he has thousands of hit points and attacks that can annihilate your entire party repeatedly. After he joins your party he plummets straight to the bottom character tier.