History Main / TheDarksiDe

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has Negi learning BlackMagic so that he'll be able to protect his students, and it's implied that there's a real risk of the power taking control.

* This trope -- well, its subtrope ClothesMakeTheManiac, anyway -- was, oddly enough, not actually present in the original Black Costume ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'' story, but [[LostInImitation appears in all adaptations thereof]].

* In ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInThe8thGrade'', Supergirl's school's Principal[[spoiler:--who is Mr. Mxyzptlk in disguise--]]encourages Belinda--who is pretty much an evil or at the very least jerkass counterpart of Supergirl--to succumb to her petty, mad and mean-spirited side.

* In Marvel's ''Comicbook/WorldWarHulk: X-Men'', Cain Marko succumbs to the lure of being an unstoppable force once again, and his own innate desire for destruction, which leads to his return as The Juggernaut of old by fully embracing the power's evil nature.

* While his name would not be enough reason to qualify as this trope, [[ComicBooks/DCComics Darkseid]] was certainly one of many beings to successfully tempt Mary Marvel with powers that were sure to corrupt her.

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* While it can also be TheCorruption, the power of the moon functions this way in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles Ring of Fates]]. As TheDragon puts it.

The EvilCounterpart, corrupted version, or evil side of a morally good SentientCosmicForce... and a considerable number of non-sentient, non-cosmic forces as well. Evil is addictive; the more of its power you rely on, the more evil you become. The Dark Side is when the [[FaceHeelTurn temptation to fall]] has an added ''oomph.'' It's more than just the cumulative result of one's actions; there's [[TheCorruption a corrupting force that speeds things along]]. This is often the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]]-powered justification of JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope, which results in the Fallen [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget forgetting why they fell in the first place]]. The Dark Side often promises [[EvilFeelsGood pleasure]] with [[AmbitionIsEvil power]] and [[EvilIsCool respect.]] Sometimes, the Dark Side even offers itself as the efficacious means to do good, leading to the hero falling to a HeWhoFightsMonsters situation. Once it gets you, there's an odd tendency to [[EvilCostumeSwitch accessorize accordingly.]]

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** ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' has the All-Consuming Darkness, a SentientCosmicForce composed of vice, corruption, and despair. It infects places where acts of evil were committed, impeding good deeds and strengthening evil. Worse, suffer emotional shock in one of these Tainted Places (or just spend too long in one), and it can infect you. As a Darkened, vices become more emotionally rewarding and virtues less, you gain a new superpower (complete with [[PowerAtAPrice nasty drawback]] every time you sin badly enough to lose Integrity, and you can learn a wide assortment of BlackMagic, most of which causes Breaking Points to learn or use.

** In fact, the Dark Powers of ''Ravenloft'' don't reward evil, they actually punishes it horrifically, by dangling the evil person's greatest desire just out of reach. ''For all eternity.''

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'', this is represented by the "power of Darkness", which eventually corrupts all of the main villains and TheRival Riku. Later games establish that DarkIsNotEvil (sort of), allowing Riku to retain his good guy status ''and'' his [[EvilIsCool cool]] Darkness powers.

** Considered by itself, ''Episode VII: Film/TheForceAwakens'' actually [[AvertedTrope averts]] this: [[spoiler: Kylo Ren has spent quite enough time serving the Dark Side of the Force, and he is intellectually convinced that this is the right thing to do -- but it has not corrupted him into total evil and made him forget his human attachments. Instead he is still, in an ironic inversion, tempted by the Light Side.]]

* Somewhat predictably for the setting, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' takes this trope and hurls it screaming over the edge in the form of Chaos. The result? There's no Light Side--only a sort of Gray Side, and the actual Dark Side is ''sentient''. A sentient, extremely intelligent, masterfully manipulative, and very powerful Dark Side that occasionally takes matters into its own hands when mortal pawns aren't getting the job done. However, the greatest defense everybody has against Chaos is itself, since it or its [[GodOfEvil major manifestations]] will always turn on itself(/each other).

** An excellent example of the power of Chaos, is the Literature/HorusHeresy novel {{Fulgrim}}. Fulgrim starts out as a Primarch, the settings' equivalent of a human archangel, and a great lover of art of all kinds. In the end, the least of his depravities is creating art with the blood and screams of his victims. Throughout Fulgrim's descent into madness, he never fully realized what was happening, and every step on the way makes absolute, reasonable, bone-chilling ''sense''.
** Dark Eldar started out as the most hedonistic members of their species, culminating in an orgy so huge it ''squicked a Chaos God into existence''. Because of their inability to contain such urges, they cannot use the same disciplined mindset to keep their souls from said Chaos God (as due to how he was born he instantly takes the soul of any Eldar upon death unless it was protected) nor do they have a god to protect them like the Harlequins. The end result is that each Dark Eldar have to go into further depravity to fuel their agelessness, essentially tossing the suffering of others in place of their own souls. Unlike other examples, some Dark Eldar can actually get the discipline to leave this lifestyle and become either Exodites, join a Craft World, or get accepted into the Harlequins. Conversely, Craftworlders and Exodites (especially those on the Path of the Outcast) are not immune from the temptation, and can lose themselves in the Dark Eldar ways as well.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1350773366036520100

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dark_side.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A very tempting offer.]]

** Interestingly, the "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy is presented slightly differently than what comes after. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential. ''Users'' can be Dark Side, yes, but the Force itself isn't in nature. It's the Prequels that first movie-canonized a Dark Side of the ''Force''.

** Interestingly, the "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy is presented slightly differently than what comes after. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential. ''Users'' can be Dark Side, yes, but the Force itself isn't in nature. It's the Prequels that first movie-canonized a Dark Side of the ''Force''

** Interestingly, the "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy is presented slightly differently than what comes after. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential. ''Users'' can be Dark Side, yes, but the Force itself naturally isn't. It's the Prequels that first movie-canonized a Dark Side of the ''Force''

** Interestingly, there is no mention of a "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential. It's the Prequels that first directly names the Dark Side rather than just having followers of a twisted phiosophy (the Sith).

** Interestingly, there is no mention of a "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential. It's the Prequels that first directly mentions the Dark Side rather than just having followers of a twisted phiosophy (the Sith).

** Interestingly, there is no mention of a "Dark Side" of the Force in the Original Trilogy. The Force is implied to be inherently good rather than balanced between good and bad, and the villains are simply perverting it's potential.

* Parodied and subverted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. After her mother dies and she [[GoMadFromTheRevelation learns something about the]] [[EldritchAbomination Horroraterrors]] Rose goes "grim dark". Although this changes her appearance and prevents her from speaking normally, her personality is seemingly unchanged...though she understandably wants to kill the RealityWarper who killed her mother.

[[AffablyEvil We would be honored]] [[NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine if you would join]] [[DarthWiki us.]]

** Anyone who gets near (much less uses) [[ArtifactOfDoom the One Ring]] in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. [[TheCorruption Gollum is the example]] [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity of how far things can go.]] Many of them start out with good or at least neutral intentions-- Isildur wanted an heirloom to commemorate his hard-won victory over Sauron, Gandalf and Galadriel are tempted to use it to free Middle-Earth from Sauron and Boromir actually tries to steal it to protect his homeland, Sam dreams of creating a great and beautiful garden-- but unless they give the thing up relatively early (an extraordinary feat of willpower only two characters ''ever'' willingly accomplish) it will turn them into another Dark Lord or get them killed.

* Dark Magic in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' works like this. See, magic follows your intent and beliefs. So in order to break the Seven Laws of Magic, you have to truly believe that the things forbidden by the laws (MindControl, murder by magic, EldritchAbomination summoning, and so forth) are the ''right'' thing to do. Because of this, all Warlocks, no matter how good their original intentions, will eventually end up JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. The Council's reaction is classic ShootTheDog- the penalty for breaking the laws is death the instant the Wardens catch you, unless another wizard vouches for you. In that case, you're on a one-strike-you're-out probation, where any screw-up will mean the deaths of both you and the wizard who vouched for you. Basically, the council is answering "yes" to the question 'knowing what was to come, would you kill Hitler as a child?'

*** Harry experiences this personally when he gets the shadow of the fallen angel Lasciel in his head. She offers him help remembering things, blocking out pain, and translating other languages, which saves his rear multiple times. She also has solutions to any problem he faces- all of which, by strange coincidence, involve Harry becoming a full Denarian. Harry is well aware of this and even quotes Gandalf at her when he refuses.

* In ''The Tennis Shoes Adventure Series'', there's a demonic sword, created by an evil king from The Book of Mormon. It would slowly work its way into someone's mind, convincing them they could use it to become powerful. Through the use of TimeTravel, Todd Finlay got a hold of it and turned to The Dark Side. Later on, Joshua Hawkins, son of TheHero gets seduced by it as well.

** The so-called True Power, which is drawn directly from [[SatanExpy the Dark One]], is highly addictive. Only the very upper echelon of the Dark One's flunkies are allowed to use it, and only one of them does so on a more than completely desperate basis, as they're all afraid of the side effect: [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity going utterly around the bend]] (the one who ''does'' use it is already nuts and a major nihilist to boot- he doesn't care about the consequences).

* In ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInThe8thGrade'', Supergirl's school's Principal [[spoiler:-who is Mr. Mxyzptlk in disguise-]] encourages Belinda -who is pretty much an evil or at the very least jerkass counterpart of Supergirl- to succumb to her petty, mad and mean-spirited side.

* The Shun Leep martial arts style from ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'' is so badass it has its own dark side for those who don't have the self control to master the higher techniques. It's not even a magic-related style! It just makes fighting so euphoric, and actively addictive, you stop caring about little things like 'whether your opponent lives'.

** Parallax, the living enbodiment of fear, who corrupted Hal Jordan into a maniac, and tried to do the same to Kyle Rayner.
** Sinestro, who was corrupted- not by Parallax, but by trying to bring order to his home planet by creating a tyrannical rule. He later allied himself with Parallax to try bringing order to ''the entire universe''.

** In the alternate ending of ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'', you can choose to [[spoiler:kill Darth Vader and take his place as the Emperor's right-hand man. However, you then decide to kill the Emperor to elevate yourself further, but he sees it coming and mangles you to the point that you had to be put into a suit like Vader was, and are forced to serve as his apprentice indefinitely.]]

* In ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInTheEightGrade'', Supergirl's school's Principal [[spoiler:-who is Mr. Mxyzptlk in disguise-]] encourages Belinda -who is pretty much an evil or at the very least jerkass counterpart of Supergirl- to succumb to her petty, mad and mean-spirited side.

* From Comicbook/GreenLantern, we have several examples.

** Sinestro, who was corrupted- not by Parallax, but by trying to bring order to his home planet by creating a fascist rule. He later allied himself with Parallax to try bringing order to ''the entire universe''.

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Sin is this in Christianity and all Abrahamic religions in general.
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