Line #106 Main/FaithHeelTurn


1	So there's this guy who is deeply religious, a FriendToAllLivingThings. Then, one day, he decides there is no {{God}} or tires of his prayers not being answered. [[SmiteMeOhMightySmiter Expect a lot of shouting]]. He [[DespairEventHorizon loses all hope for everything]], including human decency, and now he likes to [[KickTheDog kick puppies]] in his spare time.
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3	Obviously, in RealLife, it takes a hell of a lot more than a loss of faith to just drive most people to evil. Done poorly, this can be an outright StrawCharacter to show that religion is supposed to be the sole moral compass of all people.
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5	Compare CrisisOfFaith (when someone experiences a much less drastic shift in their personality), HollywoodAtheist, BewareTheNiceOnes, FallenAngel.
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7	When a character who gets religion turns ''good'' as a result, that's a HeelFaithTurn. If a character who gets religion turns ''evil'', it's probably a {{Cult}}, CorruptChurch, PathOfInspiration, or outright ReligionOfEvil.
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9	Not to be confused with [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Faith's]] heel turn; becoming kill happy has nothing to do with atheism.
10	----
11	!!Examples
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13	[[foldercontrol]]
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15	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
16	* The PsychoForHire Akabane of ''Manga/GetBackers'' (AKA [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate "Doctor]] Jackal") used to be an actual doctor who saved people but failed to save the son of a good friend. That is the origin of his current personality.
17	* In ''Anime/KnightHunters'', [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]]'s resident PsychoKnifeNut Farfarello started out as a devout Catholic child, but when he learned that he was adopted and that the nun who was his teacher was his biological mother, he had a psychotic episode and murdered his entire adopted family. As an adult, he claims that his desire is to kill God, and spends his spare time torturing priests to death.
18	* In the ''Manga/SoulEater'' manga, [[spoiler:Justin Law]] pulls an ultimate Faith Heel Turn [[spoiler:and kills BJ]] because of imposed insanity from The Clown. [[spoiler: The thing is he doesn't lose his faith. He instead comes to view religion as a form of insanity and therefore converts to the god of insanity.]]
19	* ''Anime/RurouniKenshin'''s Yukyuzan Anji is a particularly heartbreaking example, though he's not an awful person by any means. He turns from an extremely kind, devout, and physically unimposing [[GoodShepherd Buddhist priest]] to the hulking [[WellIntentionedExtremist fallen priest]] that he is in the Kyoto arc when the children under his care are trapped inside his temple and burned alive, due to the village head hoping to curry favor with the new government and its emperor-centered Shinto.
20	** Even worse, this is based on actual history, as the Meiji cut off government sponsorship of temples to promote their new standardized form of the "native religion." (The orphans are kinda a stretch, though.)
21	* Kirei Kotomine of ''Literature/FateZero'' had known for many years that he was [[TheSociopath inclined by his nature to evil]] but chose to adhere to the tenets of the Church. Due to the influence of Gilgamesh during the Fourth War, he began a descent into villainy, [[LateArrivalSpoiler ending with him laughing happily as he witnessed a fire kill five hundred people]].
22	* Revy from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' was quite religious as a child, but stopped believing in God after being [[RapeAsBackstory beaten and sexually assaulted by a corrupt cop]]. This lead to her becoming a BrokenBird and [[HiredGuns gun-for-hire]] as an adult.
23	* ''Manga/SeraphOfTheEnd'': The Vampire Michaela light novel series reveals that Crowley was once a member of Knights Templar who fought in the 13th century Crusades, but the gruesome wars that were hypocritically waged in the name of God and his eventual transformation into a vampire destroyed any faith he had in God and led to him committing increasingly atrocious acts.
24	* The ''Anime/YourName'' side novel ''Another Side: Earthbound'' reveals that Mitsuha's {{Jerkass}} estranged father Toshiki blamed the gods for his wife's death and this started him down to how he is at the start of the film proper.
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27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* This is the premise of the motivation for the Joker CaptainErsatz, Mr. Rictus, in ''Comicbook/{{Wanted}}'', a kindly and religious man who was horribly scarred in a fire and, while on the operating table, died but found no afterlife.
29	* The minor Franchise/MarvelUniverse villain Madcap went there first, save that he also got total immortality and superpowers in the same accident that killed his entire family and church group, making for even greater nihilistic nutsiness (though not nearly as much evil).
30	* The main character from the title story of Creator/WillEisner's ''ComicBook/AContractWithGod'' is like this. Having lived his life as a good Jew only to lose his adopted daughter turns him into a slum lord. Being Will Eisner, though, he makes it both convincing and tragic.
31	* At least one ComicBook/{{Chick Tract\|s}} does this, possibly a few more. Act surprised. The most perplexing (and [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]]) example would have to be the one where a child grows up to become evil...because he found out ''there was no Santa Claus''.
32	* One of the Series/{{Buffy\|TheVampireSlayer}} ''Tales of the Vampires'' has a former priest vampire... who is fairly justified about his Faith Heel Turn, all things considered. Reversed in a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moment Of Awesome]] for a certain {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
33	* The book ''Supervillains and Philosophy'' has an essay speculating about Two-Face's philosophical journey. (Obviously, this is a completely non-canon AlternativeCharacterInterpretation.) According to this essay, Harvey Dent aka Comicbook/TwoFace was a believer in the strongly ordered universe of Calvinism when he was a young man. But when he went to college and learned about atheistic philosophies like Existentialism, he began to believe that his two-faced random destruction was more appropriate to the [[StrawNihilist true nature of this chaotic world]].
34	* In the 1993 Creator/DCComics ''ComicBook/{{Bloodlines\|DCComics}}'' crossover, a priest was attacked by one of the alien parasites. He awoke afterwards with a crisis of faith and decay powers, leading to him embracing evil and calling himself Cardinal Sin. Likewise, the man who held a shotgun on the priest was attacked and discovered he now had healing abilities and actually saved the priest before he died, now calling himself Samaritan. Samaritan ended up dying as he managed to cancel out Cardinal Sin's death touch.
35	* In ''ComicBook/{{The Kingdom\|DCComics}}'', Minister William, a future prophet who upheld Superman as divine and above fault, was greatly disillusioned by his "deity's" confession of truth concerning the Kansas disaster that William was rescued from as a boy, that the disaster itself was not Superman's purpose but rather his fault for letting society be protected by [[NinetiesAntiHero the new generation of "heroes"]]. With his faith in Superman shattered, William is soon transformed into Gog and becomes Superman's oppressor.
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38	[[folder:Fan Works]]
39	* Applejack in ''Fanfic/EquestriaDivided'' became prejudiced against [[DoesNotLikeMagic magic and magic users]] when Celestia and Luna disappeared and the Sun and Moon kept moving, making her think they never were able to control the day/night cycle in the first place. Also Pinkie Pie believed Twilight when she manipulated her into taking part in her experiment saying it was for the good of Equestria. Considering [[CameBackWrong The Laughing Mare]] has units like the Alicorn Mockery at her disposal, it's safe to say Pinkie isn't as naive anymore.
40	* Features in ''Fanfic/{{Drakigo}}''- essentially a version of ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' with the cast of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' in key roles- with Shego in the role of Dracula; however, while she renounces God just as Dracula did in the film, this does not automatically lead to her becoming a vampire, as she has to be turned by another vampire who sought to make her his bride before she rejected and killed him.
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43	[[folder:Films]]
44	* In ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' Dracula is originally a very pious nobleman, until one day while he is busy fighting off the enemies of the Church his wife is tricked into thinking he's been killed in battle, and so kills herself in despair. The priest tells him that suicides are damned for all eternity, nothing to be done about it. Dracula does not take this news at all well, becoming his StartOfDarkness.
45	* Salieri in ''Film/{{Amadeus}}'' does this after continually being upstaged by the boorish, spoiled, conceited, but vastly more talented Mozart, ultimately deciding to steal his work and drive him to his death, because he couldn't stand that God had made Mozart more gifted than he. Inverted in that even beforehand he was really a JerkAss whose faith in God was basically an extension of his [[EgocentricallyReligious personal vanity]].
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48	[[folder:Literature]]
49	* The ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series: Britney in ''Plague''. Also Astrid, after seriously questioning her faith, becomes much more of an AntiHero.
50	* ''Literature/TheSparrow'': Emilio Sandoz seems to have this at the beginning of the novel. Much of the book is finding out what exactly happened.
51	* An inversion, but not a HeelFaithTurn, occurs in ''Literature/{{Elantris}}'' with [[spoiler: Hrathen]], whose growing doubts over his religious faith cause him to turn ''against'' the BigBad. He makes it clear that his issue is not actually with his faith in his god, but with the religious leaders. Still, from the villain's perspective, this would be a straight example.
52	* [[spoiler: Hollyleaf]] from ''Literature/WarriorCats'' [[GoMadFromTheRevelation freaks out]] upon learning [[spoiler: her true parentage, promptly switching sides and going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]
53	* A Creator/GKChesterton mystery story involves the puzzle of why one person would murder another on the grounds of ideological ''agreement''. In the story, a HollywoodAtheist has been trying to convince a WideEyedIdealist that [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions all morality is merely subjective]]. [[spoiler:He succeeds, so the idealist loses his faith and [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope concludes it's not immoral to murder the atheist]], whom he hated. Ergo, their ideological agreement led to murder.]]
54	* Robert Putney Drake, in Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's ''{{Literature/Illuminatus}}'' trilogy. Born a Boston Brahmin and destined for greatness, he serves in the American Army in UsefulNotes/WW1 and is changed forever by being the last man left alive from his platoon. Returning to the USA, he starts small by heckling street preachers. A combination of survivor guilt and a conviction there is nothing turn him into a ruthless monster.
55	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has a justified example--general [[TheHedonist hedonist]] and ManipulativeBitch Graendal was once one of the most faithful and diligent ascetics in the world before her fall...except she was also a complete ControlFreak and egomaniac, who did her turn when she realized she couldn't force the world to be like her. Her new persona is basically a spiteful commentary on her disgust for the world. Justified, of course, in that she fell from grace primarily because of her pride and inability to admit the world had problems she couldn't fix. Losing her faith was just a manifestation of it.
56	* This turns out to be the motivation of the real BigBad in ''Literature/{{Kraken}}'': [[spoiler: Vardy used to be a Creationist but found his faith challenged by the evidence of evolution, so he wants to [[RetGone erase that evidence from existence]] so he can go back to blissful ignorance.]]
57	* In ''Literature/{{Revival}}'' by Creator/StephenKing, the loss of his family causes Jacobs to completely lose his faith, although he later becomes a traveling preacher who [[FakeFaithHealer "heals" people using the "special electricity"]].
58	* In ''Literature/OurWivesUnderTheSea'', the devout Catholic Jelka is on the submarine trip. While being stuck at the bottom of the sea, she begins hearing "voices" in her head that neither Leah nor Matteo can hear. [[spoiler:This drives her so mad that she eventually escapes through the airlock, dying. Considering that Leah hears similar voices when she stares at Jelka's statue of Saint Brendan after her death, it's likely connected to this.]]
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61	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
62	* Brother Justin in ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' starts out as a well-meaning preacher. However, the combination of some bad luck, the ToxicFriendInfluence of his [[BrotherSisterIncest loving sister]] and an unfortunate case of VillainousLineage ensures he ends up [[TheAntiChrist rather different]].
63	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has a bit more gradual version: Kai Winn was always jealous of Sisko for being the one the Prophets chose as their Emissary, and the fact that they didn't communicate with her wore on her more and more. Then the Prophets' {{Evil Counterpart}}s, the Pah Wraiths, ''do'' show her some attention, and by this point, that's enough to drive her over the edge to real villainy as their servant, working alongside Gul Dukat.
64	* An example where the person doesn't turn evil, [[DespairEventHorizon but still gives up on life]], occurs in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Mortal Coil", where Neelix dies and is brought back to life. He has no memory of experiencing the Talaxian idea of the afterlife (where you go to a forest in which you're reunited with dead loved ones). Because he lost his whole family in a war, that belief was the only thing keeping him going, and it takes Chakotay to talk him out of suicide.
65	* Ryan Hunter from ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'' apparently suffered one of these (of the SmiteMeOhMightySmiter variety) prior to his first appearance, leading to his becoming a church vandalizing, puppy-kicking anti-theist. Had the show survived for a third season, Ryan would've been Joan's EvilCounterpart.
66	* An early episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' had a religious guy go crazy and take over another planet with intense UV radiation as its [[AGodAmI god]]. What's particularly ridiculous about this is that no less than two of his teammates joined him. The one that didn't show up in later episodes a few times, while the rest all died. Someone really fucked up the selection process for that team (although in defence of all characters, they were dealing with an unprecedented military effort that was bound to make mistakes in its early stages).
67	* Used along with HeelFaithTurn in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''. A ScaryBlackMan gangster who went by "Hash Brown" and eventually became a priest ends up being on Earl's list at least five times, with each new list item revealed making him angrier and angrier until he snaps and decides to return to his gangster life. Then Earl recognizes his car and reveals that he broke the taillight on it (another list item). The broken taillight caused Hash Brown to get pulled over and be late for a deal which ended up turning into a brutal shootout, meaning that Earl had indirectly saved his life. Since this event was what had caused him to take up religion in the first place (he originally attributed it to divine intervention), he thanks Earl and goes back to being a priest.
68	* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp", [[spoiler:the Reverend's homicidal madness came along with a [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions prideful scorn]] for the faith he'd followed all his life]].
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71	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
72	* Given that [[FaceHeelTurn heel turn]] is a wrestling term, examples aren't terribly hard to come by, though it was subverted in Wrestling/{{WWE}} of all promotions where Wrestling/VinceMcMahon grew tired of nice guy Christian Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and decided he wanted the backstabbing playboy Shawn Michaels that nobody liked back. After booking a tag team match with himself and son Wrestling/{{Shane\| McMahon}} against Shawn Michaels and God (aka a handicap match) he finally "succeeded". He temporarily got the old Shawn Michaels back, he even got Wrestling/DGenerationX, but Shawn remained a baby {{face}}, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor whose chicanery was now all directed at McMahon]].
73	* For a straight example, Matt Tremont felt a void in his life, which he thought was caused by his departure from Wrestling/{{CZW}}. Yet even his return didn't do it all for him. Then he saw a light, and a stairway leading up to heaven, where from he saw there was no God, but there was a devil. And that devil's [[PunnyName name]] was Drew Blood! So he joined Drew Blood and the [[PowerStable Forgotten Ones]].[[/folder]]
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75	[[folder:Religion]]
76	* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob subverts this trope. {{Satan}} posits that Job is only a good, religious man because he is prosperous, and that if he suffered, would curse God. Satan attempts to test this theory; messengers arrive informing him that all of his livestock were stolen or killed, as well as his servants and children. When that isn't enough, Satan afflicts Job with illness. Job refuses to curse God, despite urging to do so by his wife and his friends, though he does finally break down and ask God "why?" God sharply rebukes Job and his friends but rewards him for his faith by doubling his family and possessions.
77	* Played straight in 2nd Chronicles of Literature/TheBible, however, when after Jehoiada the priest's death, King Joash of Judah turned away from following God and had Jehoiada's son killed for prophesying against him, eventually leading to his own death.
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80	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
81	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has an unusually sympathetic example in the form of the Blood Queen, who used to be one of the Brides of Ahlat, an AmazonBrigade symbolically and literally MarriedToAGod. The Brides of Ahlat are not permitted to sleep with any other man, on pain of death; a little-known fact is that this extends to rape. When the woman who would become the Blood Queen found this out the hard way, she renounced Ahlat, fled Harborhead, and became an akuma in order to take revenge on the entire institution that had ruined her life.
82	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''; there once was a man named Diedrick Kastner, a Witch Hunter and devout servant of Sigmar. One day he read of a coming warlord named [[BigBad Archaon]], who would slay a reincarnation of Sigmar and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Diedrick drove himself half-mad trying to figure out who Archaon was and how to stop him, but his questions led to a very disturbing answer: ''[[TomatoInTheMirror he]]'' [[TomatoInTheMirror would become Archaon]]. This drove him insane, caused him to renounce Sigmar, and he headed north to embrace his destiny as the Everchosen of Chaos.
83	** The Chaos Dwarfs were a group of Dwarfs who were cut off from the rest of their kin after cataclysm isolated them in the East. They then renounce worshiping their ancestors, and now worship the chaos god Hashut as their new master.
84	* ''Warhammer'''s sci-fi counterpart, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' gives us Lorgar and the Word Bearers; Lorgar was a deeply religious man who worshiped the Emperor as God made Flesh, going out of his way to spread Emperor worship wherever he and the Word Bearers went. Unfortunately for Lorgar, the Imperium at the time enforced the secular Imperial Truth that banned all religion, a conflict that culminated in the Emperor [[KickTheDog ordering the Ultramarines to firebomb the temple-city of Monarchia, the crown jewel of Lorgar's efforts, and forcing the Word Bearers to kneel before Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines (a move that Guilliman thought went too far).]] His faith in the Emperor roughly shattered, Lorgar went searching for some other truth to believe in, eventually finding it in [[GodOfEvil the Chaos Gods]]. Ironically, in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, Lorgar's former religion of Emperor worship became the official dogma of the Empire.
85	* The Nihilist in Super Unicorn's META-4 setting for ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' was a devoutly religious man whose wife was convicted and executed for a crime she swore she didn't do. When he overhears a criminal boasting that he was behind the job, he thanked God and called upon all that was good, holy, and true in the universe to help him avenge his family’s slaughter. The criminal's gang beat him to death and left him hanging on a lamppost. Cursing a god who didn't answer him, he awoke as an undead killer, seeking to spread the pain he felt.
86	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 edition has a couple of Prestige Classes built around this.
87	** The Blackguard is a BlackKnight class that functions as the evil inverse of ThePaladin base class. A character need not be an example of this trope to become a Blackguard (many classes can meet the requirements), but a unique rule grants special bonuses to ex-Paladins that become blackguards. Low-level ex-Paladins gain evil versions of the Paladin class feature they lost when they broke their oaths, and mid-level Paladins gain the ability to swap out up to ten ex-Paladin levels for Blackguard levels, meaning they can finish the PrestigeClass at level 11 (this can't normally be done until level 16).
88	** The Ur-Priest is a MinmaxersDelight PrestigeClass that is famous for leaning very hard into LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. Thematically, the class represents someone who steals magic from the Gods, rather than being given it for being a loyal servant. The class requires not only Evil alignment but prolonged study of the application of evil, as represented by the Spell Focus - Evil feat required to start taking the class. Taking a level in Ur-Priest permanently locks the character out of ''all'' other divine spellcasting. Alas, the class is most famous for its spell progression starting 5 levels behind but progressing at double the normal speed, eventually unlocking maximum level spells two levels before a normal Cleric would.
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91	[[folder:Theatre]]
92	* This is a big part of the [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade presentation]] of Salieri in the play ''Theatre/{{Amadeus}}''. Salieri starts out, as he tells the audience, a pious man living a staid life. His beliefs are called into question when he meets Mozart and doesn't understand why a borderline JerkAss like Mozart gets divine musical talent but he doesn't. Thus, Salieri renounces God and actually experiences improvement in his status from that point onward.
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95	[[folder:Video Games]]
96	* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' has this happen twice to [[spoiler:Ketheric Thorm, one of the leaders of the Cult of the Absolute. Once a devotee of [[GoddessOfTheMoon Selûne]], he soon lost faith in his goddess and turned to [[GoddessOfDarkness Shar]] after the deaths of his wife Melodia and his daughter Isobel. But even as he became one of Shar's most devoted followers as a Dark Justiciar, [[ExcessiveMourning he still couldn't move on from the loss of his family]]. When [[GodOfTheDead Myrkul]] presented him with an offer to bring Isobel BackFromTheDead in exchange for his faith, Ketheric immediately abandoned Shar and became Myrkul's Chosen.]]
97	* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'': Ciella of the villainous group Agito used to be one of the most well known Paladyns out there. She had a strong faith in the Ilian Church and the goddess. However, all of the dirty actions the church performed in the goddess's name [[spoiler:and made her take part in]] eventually caused her to lose her belief in them all as she fell into despair. Now all she wants is to plunge the whole world into despair with the ever so faithful Elisanne being on the top of her hitlist. [[spoiler: Elisanne eventually leaves the church too, but remains faithful in the goddess and acknowledges that the church itself is corrupt while sympathizing with Ciella's madness. [[DontYouDarePityMe This doesn't win her any mercy from Ciella though]].]]
98	* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' features [[spoiler: paladin Aribeth de Tylmarande]], who turns from [[spoiler: Tyr, God of Justice, after her lover Fenthick Moss is unjustly executed for being an UnwittingPawn]]. She then goes on to become commander of the {{BigBad}}'s army. You can choose to try and redeem her towards the end of the game.
99	* ''VideoGame/GrandiaII'' has [[spoiler: Pope Zera]], who discovers that [[spoiler: God is (literally) dead]] and sets a plan into motion to resurrect the world's equivalent of Satan so he can destroy the world.
100	* ''VideoGame/VandalHearts II'' has [[spoiler:Yuri]], who was intensely religious throughout all of his childhood and most of his adulthood, until [[spoiler:learning about the deception behind the game's major religion]]. It wasn't enough to turn him into a coldly calculating supervillain from then on or anything, but [[spoiler:it did lead to a HeroicBSOD and eventually made him AxCrazy just long enough to attack the party. Whether you kill him or successfully talk him down depends on whether you have HundredPercentCompletion on the game's hidden plot-relevant treasures and such.]]
101	* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series, this is pretty much how the Templars fall after learning that [[spoiler:all miracles and works of God were actually the result of powerful ancient technology]].
102	* [[TheChessmaster Krelian]] and [[BodySurf Grahf]] in ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. Oh so very much. While [[RageAgainstTheHeavens Raging Against The Heavens]], Krelian claims that, if there is no God, he will ''make'' God with his own hands.
103	* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', the goddess [[spoiler:Meyneth]] is a kind and loving deity who just wants to protect life on the two titans [[spoiler:even to the point of pulling a HeroicSacrifice to do so]]. However, because of her desire for peace between the two worlds, her most loyal supporter - Egil - turns on her; believing that his people must take revenge against the Bionis.
104	* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'':
105	** On the original timeline, [[spoiler:Mathias Cronqvis, who becomes Dracula, ]] renounces God after his wife died while he was busy fighting the crusades, as told by ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence''. He [[TheChessmaster manipulated everyone]], including Walter, with the Crimson Stone and use that immortality to curse god by creating chaos and continue to master his powers against him. He gave Leon a chance to join him, but Leon rejects the offer. His hatred towards god still continues until 1999.
106	*** Averted from the reincarnated form of him as [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow Soma Cruz]], who decides to not become the dark lord. It takes an (assumed) KillTheCutie moment in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' to drive him to evil, and even then he can resist]].
107	** The reboot, ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'', displays an incarnation of Dracula that does something similar. A faithful warrior [[spoiler:the protagonist Gabriel Belmont]] devoted to God loses everything and everyone in the course of his very long journey as God's Chosen Champion by [[spoiler:defeating Satan himself and killing the Forgotten One]]. The dark events afterwards dragged him to descend into darkness include [[spoiler:Zobek using him all along and controlled Gabriel's body to kill his wife, Satan using Zobek behind the scenes all along to open the heavens, drinking Laura's wicked blood by force, killing and absorbing the Forgotten One's power as his own, and finally destroying the combat cross to finally transcend into the dark lord itself.]] He decides to embrace his role as a [[GodOfEvil Dracul]]. When he is forced into a duel to the death with his own son [[spoiler:Trevor after revealing that he was his son]], that's when he ''really'' snaps and declares open war upon humanity. The twisted part is that [[spoiler:Gabriel still has God's blessing, being capable of utilizing both light and darkness.]]
108	*** Averted as the sequel reveals that the true dark force within Dracula is an entity called '''Inner Dracula'''. This is parallel to the '''Chaos''' entity from the original.
109	* ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight'' gives us its {{Golden Ending}}'s penultimate boss, [[spoiler:Dominique Baldwin]], who saw the demons invade and attack twice, and both times {{God}} seemingly [[TheGodsMustBeLazy did nothing]], to which that person began to wonder: what if there's a DevilButNoGod, or if the source of [[HolyHandGrenade the faithful's power]] was some other thing?
110	-->"''If so, [[RageAgainstTheHeavens I wash my hands of it]].''"
111	* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has Jondar, a former knight who turned necromancer when he discovered [[spoiler:the corruption within his holy order]]. Kormac, in his quest to figure out what it was Jondar discovered, asks the player character to [[spoiler:kill him if he shows any signs of turning bad like Jondar did]].
112	* In the ''Dawnguard'' DLC of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', [[spoiler:Arch-Curate Vyrthur of the Chantry of Auri-El (and one of the last of the non-corrupted Falmer[=/=]Snow Elves)]] had been stricken with vampirism, and angrily cast away his faith in the god [[ThePowerOfTheSun Auri-El]] for not intervening to save him. From there, he founded the prophecy to blot out the sun and cast the world in darkness, almost solely as a raised middle finger to Auri-El himself. The only reason he hadn't carried it out sooner is that he needed the blood of a pure-blooded vampire (or, to put it another way, [[spoiler:a Daughter of Coldharbour, like Serana]]) to act on it.
113	* Deconstructed with ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination Corypheus the Elder One]] was motivated into [[GodhoodSeeker attempting to become a god]] by merging [[SpiritWorld the Fade]] with Thedas after he realized his own god, Dumat, was killed by mortals and that there was no trace of [[CrystalDragonJesus the Maker]] in the Black City. ''Before'' he visited the Black City and lost his faith, he was an EvilSorcerer likely responsible for corrupting it in the first place (which is said to have been what caused the Maker to abandon it). In effect, his loss of faith didn't actually change his ideology at all, he just thinks he needs to replace Dumat to give meaning to the world.]]
114	* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': Even though he is a PhysicalGod, Raiden starts out with [[BrokenPedestal great faith in the Elder Gods, only to lose it due to their inaction]] in both timelines.
115	** [[VideoGame/MortalKombat4 After being promoted to Elder God]], he could not interfere [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance when Shang Tsung and Quan Chi killed his protege Liu Kang]] many years later in the original timeline. [[WhatTheHellHero Disgusted at his peers for their refusal to intervene]], he renounced his position as an Elder God, gathering his mortal allies to stop [[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance the Deadly Alliance]].]]
116	** In the new timeline, the events of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' [[spoiler:have sapped whatever faith he had for the Elder Gods, seeing them as more burden than help, considering they did nothing to stop Shao Kahn or Shinnok, both of who regarded the Elder Gods as "toothless worms." This is clearly evident in TheStinger for ''MKX'', [[PayEvilUntoEvil where he decides to take matters into his own hands by reducing Shinnok to a mere living head]] and [[WellIntentionedExtremist using a more]] [[KnightTemplar hard-line]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters stance]] on defending Earthrealm from external threats.]]
117	* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'', [[spoiler:Mattias (the FinalBoss of Ophilia's story) was once a high-ranking member of the Order of the Sacred Flame, but after his church got destroyed and many of its members killed with it, [[EvilStoleMyFaith he denounced his faith in the 12 gods]] and turned to the dark 13th god Galdera for answers. He initially used Galdera's power for good, but became [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide drunk on this power]] [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget over time]]]].
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Webcomics]]
121	* Subverted in ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'': The complete and utter deconstruction of his religion was one of the several factors resulting in [[spoiler:Gamzee Makara's insanity-induced killing spree]], but [[spoiler:he goes back to his faith afterwards and remains every bit as evil.]]
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:WebOriginal]]
125	* ''WebVideo/SBIRust'': Wilbur loses his faith in the Dome, but stays in the cult for the influence it gives him.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Western Animation]]
129	* Several examples from ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'':
130	** In the two-part episode "Lost in Parking Space", the devoutly religious Princess Clara is led to believe that the Rapture has come and taken her friends but left her behind on Earth. After she signs her soul away to a man she believes is Satan, she decides that she enjoys being evil and promptly goes on a rampage. When she discovers that the Rapture didn't actually come (her friends just ditched her to go to the mall), she changes back.
131	** Bob the Cucumber in "Clum Babies" goes on a murderous rampage and kills the entire cast when he is told that the Bible is open to interpretation.
132	* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when [[PalsWithJesus Ned Flanders]] loses faith after his wife dies, turning the picture of God away from him and scaring his kids with his decision not to go to church.
133	-->'''Ned''': No, I'm not kidding. I'm going to sit right here and miss church. You just watch. (SmashCut to Ned driving his car and looking Heavenward) Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!
134	** It's more a parody on the Book of Job than Ned fully losing his faith. He recovers completely over the course of the episode.
135	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in "Lemon of Troy" when Bart is handing out roles to the members of his team. He designates Todd Flanders "the quiet religious guy who ends up going crazy".
136	* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', one episode has the rapture happen. Stan is completely bewildered that he had been left behind and tries desperately to get into Heaven, including trying to convince (fake) Jesus Christ that he is more worthy to be sent to Heaven than his wife, Francine. Francine is naturally ticked off by Stan's behavior and she abandons him, but she runs into the real Jesus and she rubs it into Stan before she is whisked away by Jesus. Cut to 7 years later when the war between Heaven and Hell breaks out on Earth where Stan is now a hardened and scarred hunter who has denounced Jesus and God because despite doing what he thinks was being a good Christian, he was still left behind. Stan's faith is slowly restored though once he learns from Jesus that Francine was captured by the Anti-Christ and he vows to save her after Jesus promises Stan entry to Heaven.
137	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FaithHeelTurn