History Main / ThenLetMeBeEvil

[[quoteright:338:[[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/action362_30.png]]]]

[[quoteright:341:[[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/action362_30_1.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:341: [[ADickInName Dick Grayson is a dick]].]]

The villain normally gets to this point by being rejected by the resident morality enforcers and treated to {{demonization}} and assumptive behavior. Whether it is due to being of a different nationality, hailing from a ([[FantasticRacism stereotypically]]) AlwaysChaoticEvil species in somewhat more justified cases, [[VillainBallMagnet having bad things happen wherever they go]], or [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten having had a few evil moments in the past]], they just ''cannot'' get a break; even if they try to do good deeds, it will only lead to being [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished horrifically punished]] for them at worst and having them be disregarded or treated as insincere attempts at fostering good will at best. As they see it, their reputation is so tarnished that there is absolutely no way of changing anyone's mind that they are not a monster. So what is the use of [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster trying to be anything other than the monster which they are already seen as]]?

** Inverted in the third film; Audrey, Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, has strived her whole life to be the same standard of good as her mother and all the other [[PrincessClassic fairytale princesses]] in Auradon. But after the villain kids [[HeelFaceTurn choose to be good and save Auradon]], everyone praises and adores them, especially Audrey’s boyfriend Ben, who ends dumping her for Mal, the daughter of her family’s worst enemy. Audrey is bitter that she has been the perfect example of good her whole life, only to be overlooked in favor of Mal and the [=VKs=], who only recently became good and got everything she grew up expecting to be hers. When Ben proposes to Mal, meaning that Audrey has lost him for good, it’s the breaking point for the princess, and she decides that if Auradon wants a villain, [[FaceHeelTurn she’ll be twice the villain Mal ever was]].

I’m gonna be one like they’ve never seen!

** [[RivalTurnedEvil Faith]] is subject to this fate [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor for a while]]. One night when she and Buffy are staking vampires, a human gets caught in the mix and Faith accidentally stakes him. Faith feels bad about it, but also really wants to move on and not dwell on it. Buffy and her friends however treat this behavior as sociopathy and [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten continuously push the issue]] because she’s not expressing obvious grief over it. Eventually, because she’s continuously being treated as an uncaring monster over this incident, she eventually gives in and just becomes the evil she’s being treated as. A HeelFaceTurn eventually happens, but for a while she apparently took the criticisms to heart and truly believes that she’s incapable of being good, best seen when she [[JerkassWoobie breaks down crying and screaming “I’m bad! I’m evil!”]] after fighting Angel on his spinoff show.

** Well before that, this was the explanation given for the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters White Fang]] wearing Grimm masks; “Humanity chose to make monsters of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters.”

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] on ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' with the character [[spoiler:Lapis Lazuli]]. She is a refugee from the Gem race’s Homeworld who has befriended Steven on Earth, but is horrified of being associated with Earth’s own Gems, the show’s heroes, [[NeverBeHurtAgain lest she be caught up in another war]]. Near the end of Season 5, she finally [[spoiler:pulls off a BigDamnHeroes moment against [[BigBadDuumvirate Blue and Yellow Diamond]]]], reasoning that if Homeworld will punish her like a Crystal Gem anyway, she may as well embrace ThePowerOfFriendship.

* ''Anime/MyHime'':Subtle, and brief. Shizuru [[{{Gayngst}} believes being a lesbian makes her "wicked."]] When she's forcibly outed to Natsuki, and witnesses Natsuki recoil in horror (Natsuki ''had'' just overheard Yukino accuse Shizuru of [[AmbiguousSituation doing something]] to her in her sleep, and Shizuru hadn't denied it), Shizuru determines to defeat the other [=HiME=], slaughter District One, and make Natsuki her own. Four episodes and a BigDamnKiss (which Natsuki initiated) later, a speech from Natsuki about how she ''does'' love her, in her own way, a brief bout with death, and she's a weeping, repentant mess begging for {{Forgiveness}} (which she immediately recieves

* ''[[{{Motifs}} And]]'' in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', ComicBook/TheRiddler's backstory reveals him to be a victim of ParentalAbuse suffering because his father was jealous of his intellect. Slightly unhinged, the Riddler ends up finding love in college with his science partner. She ultimately ends up sabotaging him, sending him down a path of villainy all so she could take all the profit from the experiment for herself.

* As a child, Lucy from ''Manga/ElfenLied'' is [[HumansAreBastards bullied / persecuted mercilessly]] for being a [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Diclonius]], a [[BullyingADragon horned]], [[MuggingTheMonster superpowered]] girl who may one day destroy the human race... [[SelfFulfillingProphecy Yeah. Nice going there.]]

* [[http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1412 This scenario]] from ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' follows up from the [[http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1406 previous one,]] in an attempt to answer why [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] has such a problem with DK.

* Can be invoked by the player in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}''. Once the AI starts denouncing you, it is very hard to get back in their good books, even if all you did was refuse to roll over and die when they shoot first. This can lead a player to decide to show the enemy civilisations what a ''real'' bloodthirsty warmonger actually looks like.

* The most commonly-accepted interpretation of Sorceress Ultimecia's motivations in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' is that she was [[BullyingADragon discriminated against and persecuted]] by a society conditioned to assume that any sorceress runs the risk of snapping and trying to take over the world, until -- shockingly enough -- [[SelfFulfillingProphecy she snapped and decided to become the evil sorceress that history reviled]]. Her speech in Deling very heavily alludes to this.
* Invoked by Snow and Lightning in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' in order to scare civilians out of harms way. Lightning toys with the idea after her sister is TakenForGranite and she herself is branded a l'Cie, which means everyone in the world will be hunting her down. She suggests making herself an enemy that they should ''really'' fear by destroying the chief god in the fal'Cie pantheon. Ultimately she doesn't go through with it, the reaction being mainly one of grief and rage rather than reason. Snow later announces that he is a Pulse l'Cie "here to kill you all" and shoots a machine gun skyward in Palumpolum so that a crowd of citizens will clear the area, saving them from getting shot down or Purged by [=PSICOM=].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV [[DownloadableContent Episode Ardyn]]'' reveals that [[BigBad Ardyn Izunia]] [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ardyn Lucis Caelum was fated to fill the BigBad role to Noctis' TheHero in Bahamut's plans to bring balance to Eos. When Bahamut reveals this to Ardyn, he ''snaps'' and decides he might as well embrace the role of an evil bringer of darkness. The ''Dawn of the Future'' novel (an adaptation of the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cancelled DLC episodes]] ''Aranea'', ''Lunafreya'' and ''Noctis'') reveal an AlternateContinuity wherein he does his role '''[[GoneHorriblyRight too well]]''', and Bahamut decides to resort to an [[KillEmAll alternate plan]] that eventually leads to Ardyn performing a HeelFaceTurn; basically, in accepting his role as a villain, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain he would have directly caused his redemption as a hero]].]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', this is ultimately the trigger for Azula's actions throughout the series. [[spoiler:She believed that her mother rejected her as a monster and preferred her brother Zuko. So she dedicated herself to becoming DaddysLittleVillain, proving to both her Mother and Zuko that she doesn't need their love, as being feared is the only thing that matters. It backfires on her tragically, resulting in an epic VillainousBreakdown.]]

Sometimes the supposed [[NiceJobBreakingItHero "forces of good"]] in a story treat an "evil" character [[TheChewToy badly enough, for long enough]], that the "evil" character just gives up trying to show the heroes that they are not evil and becomes a villain for real. Prolonged exposure to the cynical side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism has conditioned this character to accept the fact that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, and if they want to get anywhere in life, they have to [[FaceHeelTurn be every bit as dirty and cruel as they are.]]

Sometimes the supposed [[NiceJobBreakingItHero "forces of good"]] in a story treat an "evil" character [[TheChewtoy badly enough, for long enough]], that the "evil" character just gives up trying to show the heroes that they are not evil and becomes a villain for real. Prolonged exposure to the cynical side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism has conditioned this character to accept the fact that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, and if they want to get anywhere in life, they have to [[FaceHeelTurn be every bit as dirty and cruel as they are.]]

Sometimes the supposed [[NiceJobBreakingItHero "forces of good"]] in a story treat an "evil" character badly enough, for long enough, that the "evil" character just gives up trying to show the heroes that they are not evil and becomes a villain for real. Prolonged exposure to the cynical side of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism has conditioned this character to accept the fact that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, and if they want to get anywhere in life, they have to [[FaceHeelTurn be every bit as dirty and cruel as they are.]]

* {{WebAnimation/RWBY}} has Ironwood, who spent a considerable amount of screentime trying his best to protect the world from [[BigBad Salem]]. However, during Volume 7, his plans of how to go about dealing with her are met with skepticism from multiple fronts, including RWBY themselves. The straw breaking the camel's back was when he finds that he is left with little to no options when he finds Cinder was on Atlas and Salem was on their way to Atlas, as his [[TheElitesJumpShip decision]] causes ''everyone'' not under [[MyMasterRightOrWrong his direct employ]] to instantly turn against him. However, he tried to keep it together until Oscar tells him that [[NotSoDifferentRemark he is exactly like Salem]] for going through with this. After this moment, he drops [[TheUnfettered any hesitation he had]] and, starting with Oscar, shot anyone who got in his way and resorted to ColdBloodedTorture to get others to work with him.

* ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'': The reason why the main character becomes an outlaw hacker is because he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and was only arrested and punished because he "fit the profile", one that could have fit dozens of other people in the city. Because of this wrongful arrest, he is permanently tagged as a criminal, and whatever hopes he had for a bright future are ruined. He decides that if the system is going to treat him like a criminal, he will be a criminal who works to destroy the system that wronged him.

[[caption-width-right:341: [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Dick Grayson]] [[{{Superdickery}} is a]] [[ADickInName dick]].]]

[[caption-width-right:341: [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} DickGrayson]] [[{{Superdickery}} is a]] [[ADickInName dick]].]]]]

[[caption-width-right:341:Maybe try to wash your forehead?]]

[[caption-width-right:341:Maybe try to clean your forehead?]]

[[caption-width-right:341:Not even a [[TheCape Cape]] like ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} will put up with abuse and insults forever.]]

* This is one of the motivations behind the Plutonian's FaceHeelTurn in ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}''. In his mind, [[BewareTheSuperman if the world is just going to fear him like a giant ticking bomb]] after all that he has done for them, then why not give them what they expect?
* After a rather lengthy turn as a genuine AntiHero, ComicBook/LexLuthor finally got so fed up with Superman's suspicions and slights (especially what he perceived to be Superman abandoning him on Apokalips) that he rips the S emblem off his super suit and all but declares himself a villain again.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* The original version of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' Blackfire. As the first princess born from Tamaran's royal family in centuries, her birth was supposed to be a joyous day. Then the day she was born was marred by the Citadel destroying a city and slaughtering its three thousand inhabitants ''in her name'', and a childhood illness robbed her of the ability to fly. Because of this, ''everyone'' hated her, treating her like a villain and passing her birthright to her little sister Starfire, who became the focus of Blackfire's rage. Then one day she snapped during training and tried to kill her sister, and was exiled... And when she returned on Tamaran, she was ''leading the Citadel's armies to conquer the planet'', relenting only when Starfire too was stripped of her birthright and made her sister's slave. To add salt in the wound, it is eventually found out that [[spoiler:Blackfire is a born queen, as shown when she takes over Tamaran and quickly becomes a much better ruler than her father ever was]].

* The protagonist of ''Anime/GreatPretender'', Makoto, was constantly [[SinsOfOurFathers dragged down by his father's reputation as a]] [[HumanTraffickers human trafficker]] and tried to live an honest life as a salesman. Unfortunately, the company he worked for committed fraud, and nowhere else would hire him due to the criminal charges put on him for his role in it. Eventually, he got so sick of everyone assuming he was a swindler and not giving him a chance that he decided he might as well become a real one.

* ''Fanfic/{{Recommencer|MiraculousLadybug}}'': This is what spurs Ringleader's akumatization; sick of [[ManipulativeBitch Lila]] [[KarmaHoudini constantly getting away with her]] BlatantLies due to the apathy of those with the authority to ''do anything'' about her, she decides to take matters into her own hands. If Lila wants to [[PlayingTheVictimCard play the victim]] so badly, then ''fine!'' She'll be her villain.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV [[DownloadableContent Episode Ardyn]]'' reveals that [[BigBad Ardyn Izunia]] [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ardyn Lucis Caelum was fated to fill the BigBad role to Noctis' TheHero in Bahamut's plans to bring balance to Eos. When Bahamut reveals this to Ardyn, he ''snaps'' and decides he might as well embrace the role of an evil bringer of darkness. The ''Dawn of the Future'' novel (an adaptation of the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen cancelled DLC episodes]] ''Aranea'', ''Lunafreya'' and ''Noctis'') reveal an AlternateContinuity wherein he does his role '''[[GoneHorriblyRight too well]]''', and Bahamut decides to resort to an [[KillEmAll alternate]] [[ApocalypseHow plan]] that eventually leads to Ardyn performing a HeelFaceTurn; basically, in accepting his role as a villain, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain he would have directly caused his redemption as a hero]].]]

-->'''Superman''': I did love being a hero. But if this is where it leads, I'm done with it ''([[GlowingEyesOfDoom Eyes glow with]] [[EyeBeams Heat Vision]])''

Once this trope has been declared, unlike a lot of AmbiguouslyEvil characters, the new villains won't be redeemed in spite of their sympathetic traits — this is largely because it took a lot of work to turn them evil in the first place. Interestingly, in spite of all this, they don't look for excuses to [[KickTheDog kick puppies]] — [[NobleDemon they still have morals]], they just exercise a (much) more cynical variant of TheGoldenRule. That is not to say that they won't do terrible things — indeed, a MoralEventHorizon may follow. The difference is that while they may wind up doing something truly heinous or, at the very least, becoming horribly callous and ruthless, they won't go around engaging in wanton acts of needless cruelty ForTheEvulz.