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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1462031545060515200 |
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| 10 | [[quoteright:316:[[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/used_to_be_a_sweet_child2.png]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:316:What happened to you, Tai Lung?]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"They were kids that I once knew, now they're all dead hearts to you..."'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''Music/{{Stars|CanadianBand}}''', "Dead Hearts" |
| 15 | |
| 16 | %% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | This applies when a villain or other dark and troubled/troubling character was not so as a child: the trope name also tends to appear as a {{Stock Phrase|s}} in these cases. Works, and audiences, may vary considerably as to what point they consider a character to be past the adolescent stage here, but post-adolescents in general need not apply. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Aversions will usually be notable here, given expectations that ChildrenAreInnocent, or that there's at least some AmbiguousInnocence even when KidsAreCruel, so people will tend to assume a StartOfDarkness ''must'' have happened, and that there ''will'' be a FreudianExcuse that will explain (if not excuse) all. By extension, this trope frequently applies through {{subver|tedTrope}}sion, {{inver|tedTrope}}sion, etc. where an EnfantTerrible, CreepyChild, or AxCrazy junior [[DevilInPlainSight initially manages to get past everyone's radar but is actually a little horror from the start]]. ("And he ''seemed'' like such a nice kid"). Often, it is not clear which a character fits under, which in turn often leads to a FlameWar, especially if the character is also a DracoInLeatherPants. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Generally, the trope tends to be reserved for villains near the BigBad end of the villain spectrum, but can also be played for WhatMeasureIsAMook. Also, while this is most commonly a [[{{Villains}} villain trope]], it can apply to characters who are not so much aligned with evil as {{troubled|ButCute}}, bitter and [[BrokenBird twisted]], [[KnightInSourArmor cynical]], {{jerk|ass}}y, {{despair|EventHorizon}}ing, [[TheStoic lacking]] in {{emotion|lessGirl}}s or insane. Or an AntiHero. Or just going through [[TeensAreMonsters puberty]]. (In the latter case, expect the parents to invoke the trope name.) |
| 23 | |
| 24 | When played straight, this trope tends towards RousseauWasRight, though if other villains and darksiders in the same work do not fall under this trope, Rousseau may have only a partial victory, and the trope is sometimes used as the exception that proves the rule in HobbesWasRight or HumansAreTheRealMonsters scenarios. Also frequently used, straight or otherwise, to make more or less {{anvilicious}} points about free will, destiny, individual responsibility, or the moral version of FailureIsTheOnlyOption. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Handled well, this trope can really add depth and complexity: handled badly, especially by combination with a poorly executed FreudianExcuse, it tends to cause BadassDecay and VillainDecay. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Often related to FromNobodyToNightmare, though the character may be of some prominence from an early age, or even from birth. This subset of the trope can be heart-breaking, as when a long-awaited ChosenOne turns bad. Also often the precursor to BreakTheCutie and WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. In these cases, expect it to be PlayedForDrama with extra TearJerker moments. It's also often invoked to make the audience CryForTheDevil. If they weren't just a sweet kid, but a KidHero, they may be a dark version of KidHeroAllGrownUp. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Sometimes, the "used to be nice" stage may be revealed only retrospectively, often by a third party, and the villain himself/herself may treat the "sweet kid" stage as an OldShame that [[SlaveToPR undermines]] their VillainCred. This last one may be PlayedForLaughs, as the villain furiously denies their PetTheDog past, often complete with stomping on cutesy childhood toys and memorabilia. Or it may be PlayedForDrama in an IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with the good guys. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Compare SheIsAllGrownUp, in which the character may have been a sweet kid, but is now a very attractive woman. Compare UsedToBeMoreSocial in which the character used to be a social butterfly, but has become introverted and withdrawn. Contrast ReformedBully, a character who was mean and/or smug while young, but is a much nicer person now, and FormerTeenRebel, a character who was rebellious and immoral while young, but is no longer like that. Compare WasOnceAMan, where a person was a human being (not necessarily a child) becoming a monstrous being, though they may overlap. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | Sadly, this trope is TruthInTelevision, as many people who started out as good ended up becoming malicious later on in their life, but as this trope deals with a person’s morality, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease |
| 35 | |
| 36 | [[noreallife]] |
| 37 | ---- |
| 38 | !!Example Subpages: |
| 39 | [[index]] |
| 40 | * UsedToBeASweetKid/AnimeAndManga |
| 41 | * UsedToBeASweetKid/VideoGames |
| 42 | [[/index]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | !!Other Examples: |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 49 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 50 | ** Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}. [[DarkIsNotEvil He's not evil, but he became dark and bitter]] after [[DeathByOriginStory his parents were murdered]]. |
| 51 | ** [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], DependingOnTheWriter, and to the extent that he gets a childhood backstory at all (and which may or may not be true), and possibly Batman himself, when given a DarkerAndEdgier interpretation. |
| 52 | ** [[Characters/BatmanHuntress Helena Bertinelli]], started out as a sweet, adorable little girl who, granted, had been born into a mafia family, but had not a bad thought for anyone. Then, when she was eight years old, her family was murdered in front of her at dinner. Then the Gotham police sent her a "condolence" card that read "Many Happy Returns!" Then she was taken to Sicily to be raised by her cousins, who turned out to be mafia assassins. They raised her to believe that the mafia were JustLikeRobinHood, and to believe in omerta, and to avenge her family, and, to that end, they trained her as an assassin. Then they were arrested by the Italian government as part of a crackdown on organized crime, and she was sent to boarding school in Switzerland, where she learned the truth about the mob. After an upbringing like that, it's hardly a surprise that she became a ruthless vigilante killer. |
| 53 | ** [[Characters/RobinTimDrake Tim Drake]] was very much a sweet kid when he sought out Batman to try and save him from himself. The TraumaCongaLine that has followed has noticeably changed him to the point that he's willing to use [[Characters/BatmanTheScarecrow The Scarecrow]]'s fear toxin and has a hit list that, while having the expected villains, also includes large swaths of the ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, just as a precaution. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/BlackWidow'': As multiple flashbacks to Black Widow’s past show, she was once a sweet little girl and aspiring ballerina, getting forced to be a {{Child Soldier|s}} through the Red Room TrainingFromHell and being subjected to brainwashing turned her into the DarkActionGirl FemmeFataleSpy we see in early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' issues. Thankfully she pulls a HeelFaceTurn and becomes a heroic Avenger later in life. |
| 55 | * ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Victor von Doom aka [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] in a textbook case of FromNobodyToNightmare once was a kindly gypsy boy from Latveria whose mother was taken by [[Characters/MarvelComicsDemons Mephisto]] and whose father froze to death sheltering his son while fleeing a vengeful baron. Growing up without his parents Victor found love in a beautiful girl known as Valeria, but desiring to make a name for himself and angry about his father's death he studied both science and sorcery and became an infamous swindler, which drove Valeria away from him. When the opportunity to escape from his country and study at State University was offered, Victor took it and found himself the dorm mate of one Reed Richards. Already embittered from his troubled childhood in Latveria, Victor spited his peers, especially Reed, and almost strangled a girl at a party, and failed to heed Reed’s advice while building a device (which Victor hoped would help him communicate with his mother in Hell). The device literally blew up in Victor’s face. Stricken with damaged pride, Victor [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped off the slippery slope]] and became the EvilOverlord AGodAmI supervillain he is today. |
| 56 | * ''ComicBook/{{Freedom Fighters|DCComics}}'': In the 2006 miniseries, Americommando is a sadistic BadBoss and BlackShirt. However, Uncle Sam recalls how when Americommando was ten, he wanted to be an astronaut like UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong (which Sam knows due to how he can sense everyone’s American dream). In the present, Sam makes that wish come true [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor by throwing Americommando into outer space, causing him to slam into the moon at high speed.]] |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn2021'': Hyperion was a "Gosh, darn, shucks" variety of country boy and a NiceGuy who truly respected and liked his peers in the Imperial Guard (including a pair of male members that were a couple). Contrast this with the grim ultranationalist, hard-liner that he is today (though he's still nowhere as vicious as Nighthawk or Doctor Spectrum and does occasionally regret killing). |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner Bruce Banner]] was once an adorably sweet little boy who was a tiny genius by the time he could walk and was adored and coddled by his mother Rebecca. Sadly his father Brian (through PsychologicalProjection) thought Bruce was a monster, and furious that his son had taken all of Rebecca’s love, violently abused poor little Bruce constantly, culminating in Brian murdering Rebecca in front of Bruce after they attempted to escape his abuse. All this emotional turmoil shaped Bruce into a deeply broken introverted man, whose inner fragmented psyche [[HulkingOut took the shape of a green rage monster]] thanks to some gamma rays. |
| 59 | ** The Hulk's EvilCounterpart the Abomination didn't have it much better. As a child living in Soviet Russia, Emil Blonsky loved his grandmother who told him stories, and wanted to be an author someday. Then his grandma was taken away and institutionalized, and Emil grew up to be a jaded, self-loathing man who instead joined the KGB. He fell in love and married an actress named Nadia Dornova, but had to leave her on a fateful mission to a U.S. military base. There he was exposed to Gamma radiation, which combined with his own inner demons transformed him into the Abomination, a bloodthirsty reptilian version of Hulk with nothing in his life but raging hatred of Bruce Banner. |
| 60 | * ''ComicBook/IronMan'': Tony Stark from the few flashbacks we see from his childhood was a sweet little boy who suffered from verbal abuse from his alcoholic father Howard and buried his nose in books about knights and heroes and studied electronics to cope. When his parents died, Tony was left without guidance and love, becoming a womaniser jerkass ArmsDealer who even as Iron Man manages to be quite the BrokenAce on multiple occasions. Thankfully Tony has conversely managed to keep his HiddenHeartOfGold and has become a BigGood in his own right. |
| 61 | * ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'': The title character, amazingly. ''Iznogoud's Childhood'' reveals that he actually once was an adorable, good-tempered, sweet kid who got along pretty well with Haround and Dilat. |
| 62 | * ''ComicBook/KickAss'': Chris Genovese/Red Mist/The Motherfucker. Volume 3 reveals that as a child, [[spoiler:he used to be a fan of ''ComicBook/XMen'' to the point where he would dress up as Wolverine on a daily basis]]. |
| 63 | * ''ComicBook/LongAgoAndFarAway'': Jason used to be the heroic "[[KidHero Child Knight]]" who saved the land of Elvenwood from the evil Witch-Queen Nexis. In the years since then, he's become a 30-year-old JerkAss who can't run his comic book store. |
| 64 | * ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Depending on a whole lot of things ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]]'' might have been one of these, after getting over the abusive blood relatives, and before the adoptive ones and fate itself turned out to be jerks too, and he stepped on his path of darkness. We can't really tell for certain because all stories of his childhood are plagued by {{unreliable narrator}}s. Generally if Thor or Loki himself tell about those times then he was a sweet kid, if anybody else then he was always evil apparently. But the theory got more believable when he was reborn as a child and turned out to be... a nice kid albeit also very rebellious and mischievous [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer with serious problems fitting in]]. |
| 65 | * ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'': According to the comics, King Sombra was one before his mother revealed his true nature to him and he was corrupted by the power she gave him, leading to him conquering the very ponies that he had lived most of his life around. |
| 66 | * ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': Herr Starr, a BigBad [[note]]It's hard to pin down just ''one'' BigBad; candidates for the title include ''{{God}}''[[/note]] from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' was this until a bully-induced trauma that cost him an eye, his hair, and a good chunk of his humanity before he'd even hit puberty. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': The Creator/GarthEnnis penned tale "The Tyger" shows a snippet of the childhood of Frank Castle before the days ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''. He's a quiet, thoughtful young man who does well at school and is quite close to a girl his age. Events of the one-shot however show that Frank was surrounded by the refuse left by mobsters from an early age, and it left its mark. |
| 68 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': |
| 69 | ** [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] aka Green Goblin, much like his ArchEnemy Peter Parker, was once a shy little bookworm; horrific abuse from his father Amberson, such as locking him up in the dark, caused little Norman to embrace the darkness and [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight imagined terrors]] (like say a cackling Goblin) and helped turn Norman into power-crazed, misogynistic, sadistic [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Neo-Nazi]] and CardCarryingVillain he is today. |
| 70 | ** Similarly Harry, Norman’s son, was a sweet kid once upon a time. The death of his mother and emotional abuse from Norman who considered him a disappointing weakling shaped Harry into the troubled and drug-addicted young man [[spoiler: who eventually became a FallenHero despite the best efforts of his best friend Peter]]. |
| 71 | ** Surprisingly enough, the [[Characters/MarvelComicsVenom Venom]] symbiote. The reason it got imprisoned in the first place was that it was [[TokenGoodTeammate too nice for its species]], and when Peter freed it, it was perfectly happy to be a superhero with him as his [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper extra-super costume]]. It only became bloodthirsty and crazed after Peter rejected it and it bonded with [[Characters/MarvelComicsEddieBrock Eddie Brock]], whose pre-existing instability [[TheCorruptible corrupted the symbiote]]. After the symbiote was purified and Eddie experienced SanityStrengthening, Venom decided to return to being a superhero. And even from the start, Venom's sympathetic traits resulted in the creation of [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage]] to be a completely villainous substitute. |
| 72 | ** Zigzagged with [[Characters/MarvelComicsCletusKasady Cletus Kasady]] aka Carnage who like the Joker might DependingOnTheWriter have been a sweet kid once who was abused by his deranged grandmother and turned into a sociopathic dog-killing child by the time he was found by his foster parents. Or according to other comics, Kasady was an EnfantTerrible from the moment he was born. Since Carnage is an UnreliableNarrator concerning his past, we’ll never know for sure. |
| 73 | * ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Blackstarr used to be a cheerful, sweet little girl named Rachel Berkowitz... and then the Third Reich happened. She was forcefully taken from her parents and dumped in a concentration camp. [[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Forty years later she's twisted and full of hatred and bitterness]]. |
| 74 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Subverted in ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy''. [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] used to be a friendly, extremely intelligent kid until he -unfairly- blamed ComicBook/{{Superboy}} for a lab accident and started hating him. Nonetheless, before the accident, Lex was already showing subtle hints of the kind of hubris, jealousy, and hair-trigger temper that led him to become a villain. |
| 75 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': There are a couple of webstrips set between the original and prequel trilogy. They cameo [[ManipulativeBastard Ysanne Isard]], BigBad of the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' comics, as a little girl. She idolized her [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Armand_Isard father]], Director of Imperial Intelligence, back then, although her innocence was in doubt even then, since he brought her to see his work, which involved hunting down and killing Jedi. As she grew up she was groomed to be a field operative and started cultivating connections, which worried her father to the point that he sent her on a suicide mission. She survived, came back, trumped up a treason charge, executed her father, and took his place. |
| 76 | * ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': Before Characters/{{Deathstroke}} [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged her into villainy]], Rose Wilson used to be a fairly normal, sweet girl even serving as Arsenal's daughter's caretaker for some time. |
| 77 | * ''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}'': ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos THANOS]]'', of all beings. In his youth, he had a loving father and many friends despite his strange appearance. He was also a FriendToAllLivingThings and was sickened when he was first made to dissect something. Then he learned that the cave creatures he had befriended killed and ate his Eternal friends, causing him to be blamed for it. There was also that little matter of the crush he had on a vicious friend ([[spoiler: Death]]) who manipulated him into doing things that led him to become evil. |
| 78 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': |
| 79 | ** It's revealed that ''Megatron'' was originally someone who wrote poetry and abhorred violence. That all changed the day he was caught in a bar brawl and got incarcerated, then was badly beaten by Whirl, causing him to embrace violence as a means of changing the system and leading to the entire Cybertonian Civil War. |
| 80 | ** Whirl himself was originally a watchmaker until he was captured by the Senate, who had tried to recruit him based on his combat abilities. They tortured him by subjecting him to Empurata, a form of punishment that ''removed his entire face'' to be replaced with [[CyberCyclops an expressionless single mechanical eye]] and replaced his hands with pincers so he could never perform the delicate task of watchmaking again. This led to him becoming the HeroicComedicSociopath he is in the present time. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/Warlock1967'': [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Gamora]] was once an innocent little alien girl who had her race decimated by the Grand Inquisitors of the Magus. She was then found by GalacticConqueror Thanos, who actually did [[PetTheDog care for her]] despite being '''far''' from ideal father material, but nevertheless was bound and determined [[TykeBomb to make a ruthless killer out of her]]. This, along with other traumatic incidents including almost getting killed by Thanos’s Black Order (jealous of all the attention their boss was giving her), losing all her limbs and getting them replaced with cybernetics, infamously getting raped by a group of alien thugs after running away from Sanctuary all shaped Gamora into “[[RedBaron The Deadliest Woman In The Universe]]”. Her just being a NominalHero among the Guardians is an incredible improvement given what she’s suffered. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'': The entire plot of ''The Killing Dream'', the first arc of her solo series, revolves around [[spoiler:an apparition that ''may'' be the [[ComicBook/CaptainUniverse Enigma Force]]]] showing Laura that she wasn't born an emotionless killing machine, but that the Facility ''consciously destroyed her innocence''. That she is inherently a good person despite the evil she's done is critical in helping her throw off the demon attempting to recruit her to his service. ''ComicBook/X23InnocenceLost'' actually ''shows'' what was done to her, as well as small glimpses of the sweet and innocent child she was before the Facility tried to break her. Much of Laura's life after escaping the facility is spent trying to repair the damage that was done to her. |
| 83 | ** Xander Rice is first introduced in ''Innocence Lost'' as a wide-eyed toddler whom Martin Sutter has to tell his father won't be coming home. He grows up with such deep-seated loathing of [[Characters/MarvelComicsLogan Wolverine]] as a result, that [[RevengeByProxy he takes it all out on Laura just because she's Logan's clone]]. And then he doesn't so much [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jump off the slippery slope]] as he does take it with a rocket-powered toboggan and keep going. |
| 84 | ** In subsequent books, even ''Kimura'', of all people, is revealed to have been the product of an abusive upbringing and didn't use to be the AxCrazy psychopath Laura was introduced to by the Facility. |
| 85 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': |
| 86 | ** [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]], while not a villain, used to be this. Grown in a tank, briefly made an appearance as a small child and was so adorable that he elicited CutenessProximity in none other than ''Mister Sinister''. Even after, when he escaped from the cloning tanks as a teenager, he ended up an idealistic revolutionary - surprisingly idealistic, considering it was the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse. Sinister killing his ParentalSubstitute, Forge and another of his companions, while an assassin killed another of his companions, and finding out that he was LaserGuidedTykeBomb with a self-destruct switch significantly embittered him, and while he remained a KnightInSourArmor, he eventually drifted into a stranger and more ruthless form of AntiHero (developing BlueAndOrangeMorality as part of his [[MessianicArchetype 'Mutant Shaman']] thing didn't help), while his renewed idealism was shattered in ''Dark X-Men'' and he ended up becoming an AntiVillain in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2018'' and ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan'' -- until [[HeelRealization he realized that for all his best efforts, he'd become as bad as Apocalypse, if not worse]]. |
| 87 | ** Graydon Creed, the human son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] was once a genuinely sweet and nice little boy searching for his mommy and daddy. When he learned firsthand how absolutely monstrous both his mutant parents were however Graydon snapped and became a BoomerangBigot and PresidentEvil. It’s especially tragic that his half-brother [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] despite his obvious mutant appearance and discrimination he got from it — actually had a comparatively better and healthier childhood than poor Graydon. |
| 88 | ** [[Characters/MarvelComicsLogan Wolverine]] was once a gentle, sickly little boy named James who wanted only to play with his friends Dog and Rose and his puppy. This ended the day that Dog propositioned Rose, causing James to report him to his father. This set off a chain of events that led to Dog and his father storming James' home and slaughtering his family, which in turn caused his mutant powers to manifest themselves. Everything has been downhill for him ever since. |
| 89 | ** [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] from ''ComicBook/XMen''. Had UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust not happened... |
| 90 | ** Both Characters/ScarletWitch and [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]] were once upon a time happy and sweet Romani children (similar to Victor Von Doom as a boy) who traveled around Europe in a Gypsy clan with their loving adoptive parents Django and Marya. Starvation, several traumatic incidents, Wanda accidentally setting fire to a village and getting hounded by a mob, getting found and brutally raised by [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] who had them ForcedIntoEvil all resulted in Wanda and Pietro becoming the very mentally unstable anti-heroes they are as adults. |
| 91 | ** Characters/{{Magik}} was [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]]' sweet kid sister. Then... [[CorruptTheCutie stuff happened]], and she is now the franchise's main DesignatedHero / VillainProtagonist / NominalHero / AntiHero, DependingOnTheWriter. Regardless of that, she's ''always'' her team's TokenEvilTeammate and a SociopathicHero. |
| 92 | ** Heroic example with [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]]. Anna Marie was the adorable daughter of Mississippi hippies, but the disappearance of her mother Priscilla led to her being raised by her mean and authoritarian aunt which caused Rogue to run away from home. Things got better when she met a boy named Cody and had some PuppyLove with him, but upon her FirstKiss her [[PowerParasite mutant power]] activated and [[TouchOfDeath put Cody in a life-long coma]]. Unable to control her powers, Rogue hid in the wilderness threatening anyone who approached her with a shotgun, at which Rogue was found and adopted by [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] who raised her to be a supervillain. Eventually Rogue would have a HeelFaceTurn and join the X-Men and regain her lost better nature, although she is still a BrokenBird at times. |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 96 | [[AC:{{Crossover}}s]] |
| 97 | * ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'' (''Franchise/BlazBlue'' & ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''): |
| 98 | ** When Noel ends up opening Ragna's music box, she sees a photo of a younger him with his siblings, smiling cheerfully. She questions just what could have happened to him to make him go from a happy-go-lucky kid to the violent, brooding man he is today. |
| 99 | ** Similar to Ragna, Jin was a kindhearted child growing up. Ragna even compares him to Jaune while Tsubaki and Weiss remember him as being shy, friendly, and curious during their childhoods. Flash forward to years later where he's grown up into quite a cold-hearted asshole. |
| 100 | * ''Fanfic/HonokasBizarreAdventure'': Zig-zagged with [[Anime/LoveLive Nozomi Tojo]]. Initially, she a sweet girl with a strained relationship with her parents who always moved them but a close bond with her grandfather, particularly with their interests in fortune telling. After her grandfather's death and her father refusing to let her go to his funeral, Nozomi ran away to the streets of Cairo, using her Stand [Ace of Space] to run a gang of children. She ruled the streets for two years until she was confronted by [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Mohammed Avdol]] who not only defeats her but also saves her from a massive fire at her base and nurses her back to health. This reminded her of her late grandfather, forcing Nozomi to realize [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how far she fallen from his teachings]]. Once she recovered, Avdol trained her in both fortune telling and using her Stand, before she returned to her parents in Japan, eventually becoming the kind-hearted TeamMom for µ's. |
| 101 | * ''Fanfic/ImNobody'': Sora's squad is used to Larxene being an AlphaBitch, so they're completely floored to find out that her Somebody back when she was younger was a polite and rather shy nice girl. |
| 102 | -->'''Axel:''' What the hell happened to her to make her such a bitch? |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria'': In ''Mare of Steel'', Princess Celestia mentions that [[PrinceCharmless Prince Blueblood]] used to be much more respectful when he was younger. [[spoiler: This is a plot point, as it turns out that [[BigBad General Zod]] replaced Blueblood several years prior to the story's beginning.]] |
| 104 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' crossover fic ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'', Miranda is an untrustworthy and jaded shapeshifter teenager who hates both Queen Elyon and Prince Phobos vehemently, and her main concern is her own survival. However, it's revealed that when she was five years old and more innocent, her parents were burned [[ForcedToWatch right in front of her]] by [[KnightTemplar Kur]] after she [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo tried in vain to save them by revealing herself]]. She was afterwards recruited by Phobos, becoming cynical about trust and embittered at those she regards responsible for her parents' death, including Elyon. |
| 105 | * ''FanFic/LovesSacrifices'': |
| 106 | ** Besides Carmilla[=/=]Mircalla's own backstory being about InnocenceLost -- going from an idealistic but sheltered daughter of a noble family, to a vampire with a severely dark and troubled history -- the same applies to her younger brother Elias. The two were close when they were little, with Elias being an innocent and loving boy who just wanted to be with his sister. Soon, Falco dragged Elias with him on an expedition; over the years, Elias became surrounded by supernatural influences -- especially Inanna and Lamashtu -- directly and indirectly steering him down a dark path. Becoming obsessed with the King in Yellow, Elias' previous care for his sister became twisted, and dissolved at her "rejection". [[spoiler:Elias is revealed to have been Mircalla's killer, and is currently implied to the present day Count Karnstein, a monstrous vampire bearing no resemblance to the innocent child Elias was introduced as.]] |
| 107 | ** Even their abusive father, Count Falco, isn't exempt from this. [[spoiler:When Elias meets his mother, Ellie Schröder, she reveals that she was a childhood friend of Falco's and says he wasn't always the hateful abuser his child knew him as. While she doesn't deny his faults, she also recounts how he'd teach about constellations and wildlife as children, and how he saved her when she fell in the ice. But that all changed when he became a teenage parent, and became a more resentful person. Not only is Elias [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse unimpressed]] and Ellie herself admits that Falco grew into a ''very'' different person than the boy she knew.]] |
| 108 | * ''Fanfic/TheSilverRaven'' (''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' & ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''): {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Growing up, Nero was an adorable, exuberant CheerfulChild. As he grew into his teenage years, while he remained a fundamentally good person at his core, he lost his cheerfulness and became an aloof, vulgar-tongued JerkWithAHeartOfGold. |
| 109 | * In ''Fanfic/TheSwarmOfWar'', Alena (the new Queen of Blades) was taken into the Swarm when she was ''five''. |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[AC:''WebAnimation/CampCamp'']] |
| 112 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving, and affectionate toddler with whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship. When they are reunited seven years later, Max has become the [[SourOutsideSadInside foul-mouthed, jaded, bitter]] ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all and is [[AdultHater disdainful and deeply mistrusting of him]] (at least at first). David points out this trope at one point when he expresses how terrifying it is for him to imagine what could have happened to influence such a drastic personality shift in the child, and much of the later chapters involve him attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from said trauma. |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'']] |
| 115 | * ''Fanfic/ResurrectedMemories'': The original Amberline Mclain was implied to have been a very shy, but still decent person, who truly loved her little sister and just wanted friends and a chance to achieve her dream, but severe bullying at school, being raised by neglecting and controlling parents and being stood up by her crush, topped off by dying young had jaded and embittered the girl into becoming the vengeful Ember [=McLain=]. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[AC:''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon'']] |
| 118 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheWrathOfAvelina'', Agustin notes that he often saw the titular Avelina playing with the other kids when Luisa was young and that he's surprised she would ever turn against the Madrigals. |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[AC:''Franchise/DragonAge'']] |
| 121 | * ''Fanfic/ABlackArrowInTheFog'' features a {{Deconstruction}} with Alexiel. While his siblings Maxwell and Evelyn believe that he was a good kid who gradually grew "worse" after Evelyn was taken to the Circle, Alexiel himself grows convinced that he simply didn't have any opportunities to express his true self until after his sister was sent away. Maxwell is only able to start mending their relationship once he acknowledges that his brother wasn't "broken" by his childhood trauma. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | [[AC:''Franchise/DragonBall'']] |
| 124 | * Unsurprisingly, Frieza's [[StartOfDarkness backstory]] in ''Fanfic/SaviorOfDemons'' shows that he was, as a child, not the psychotic killer he is at present. However, [[ZigZaggedTrope there are a few hints]] that he was [[AmbiguousInnocence manipulative and self-interested,]] as when he lied to his father about going with Kooler to see the Saiyans. He was not an EnfanteTerrible from the very start, though. |
| 125 | |
| 126 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'']] |
| 127 | * The alien creature who would one day become [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonKingGhidorah Ichi, the middle head of Ghidorah]], in the backstory of the Franchise/MonsterVerse fic ''[[Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon Abraxas]]''. Originally, Ichi was apparently a compassionate being who would risk his own neck helping others and nurtured his younger brothers (who became Ni and San respectively) as best he could [[PromotionToParent in the absence]] [[ParentalAbandonment of their parent]] -- a far cry from the sadistic, murderous psychopath Ichi is in the present, who only knows how to show his youngest brother-head San abuse. [[spoiler:After the three brothers were captured by [[AbusivePrecursors the Makers]], viciously experimented on, and transformed into Ghidorah, Ichi understandably grew to hate the Makers and anything that reminded him of them with a murderous passion -- and after Ghidorah turned against and eradicated the Makers, Ichi, and his brothers still had [[TerribleTicking the Old Noise]] screaming in their brains, compelling them to kill things endlessly. With the Makers' experiments having granted Ghidorah an immortal lifespan, the horrors of Ichi's and his brothers' continuous deeds under the Old Noise's influence slowly ground away and erased all the good qualities and redeeming traits that Ichi once possessed over millions of years, leaving the utter monster that we now know Ichi as.]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[AC:''Literature/TheHungerGames'']] |
| 130 | * ''Fanfic/{{The End of the World|FernWithy}}'': Katniss is stated to have been a CheerfulChild before becoming the broken cynic that she is in the main trilogy. |
| 131 | -->It's [Prim's] sister, I realize. The older girl. The one who used to ride on Glen's shoulders and sing at the top of her lungs. I can't reconcile that child with the young woman I see now. Her face isn't hard, but it's closed off somehow, as cold as ice. Whatever's happened to her since her father died, it's made her tough. Hard. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'']] |
| 134 | * ''Fanfic/TheSunWillComeUpAndTheSeasonsWillChange'': Dana Summers, Mary’s [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]], used to be a kind woman. However, a combination of her own abusive mother, Irene, forcibly inserting herself back into her life and buying into the lies [[DrJerk Dr. Goldman]] and several other anti-autism groups about what Mary was going to become shortly after she was diagnosed as autistic turned Dana into a miserable, ControlFreak monster. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'']] |
| 137 | * ''Fanfic/InvaderZimABadThingNeverEnds'': According to Skoodge, while Zim's more or less always had the same personality, when he was younger he was more affectionate towards his friends and only expressed his more aggressive attitude [[BullyHunter towards those who messed with them]]. It was only after enduring years of torment from his supposed friends Red and Purple that something finally happened to cause that better part of him to die and leave only the Zim we know now. |
| 138 | * ''Fanfic/TheSmeetSeries'': Cheesecake the Indokuro started as a pampered, playful, and adorable (though disobedient and misbehaving) PetMonstrosity of Tallest Purple's. However, after being left in the wild with a pack of wild indokuros he starts behaving more like his kind, becoming aggressive, standoffish, and predatory to the point of nearly biting Purple when he tries to touch him while feeding. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[AC:''Anime/KillLaKill'']] |
| 141 | * All the Kiryuin children in ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection'' used to be a loving trio of siblings who looked out for each other and were all relatively kindhearted to varying degrees. Over time, Ragyo's abuse, manipulation, favoritism, and all-around cruel parenting broke each of them. |
| 142 | ** Satsuki used to be the loving elder sister to Ryuko and Nui. However, her human nature and lack of Life Fiber biology led to her getting Ragyo's abuse at its worst, either being beaten or flat-out molested if she ever talked back. She eventually fled into exile after Honnouji's founding and would become an overly stoic, cold revolutionary who borders on suicidal in her efforts to defeat her mother, no longer capable of feeling happiness. |
| 143 | ** Ryuko used to be a loving, if bratty, middle child who cherished her older sister. Her being Ragyo's favorite due to being the perfect hybrid of human and Life Fiber, she was subjected to the most manipulation, and Satsuki's later abandonment was the straw that broke the camel's back, causing her to become a genocidal tyrant who thrives on mass-killings and wants to tear her sister apart. |
| 144 | ** Nui, while already a CreepyChild at a young age, did love both of her sisters with all her heart, could be persuaded from her darker impulses with a bowl of ice cream, and just wanted to play with her arts and crafts. She grew up conditioned to be the Grand Courturier of REVOCS and expert torturer by Ragyo. By the time the present-day story starts, she's [[CuteAndPsycho Nui as she was in the main series]]. |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[AC:''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'']] |
| 147 | * ''Fanfic/SixesAndSevens'': Emily, in the eyes of her parents. She went off to war, and when she returned she acted so coldly and off that they couldn't recognize her. |
| 148 | -->'''Mrs. Gower:''' David, dear, our daughter's been acting so queer. I don't think she’s our girl anymore. Whoever she is, she's not our daughter. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[AC:''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'']] |
| 151 | * ''Fanfic/WeightOffYourShoulder'': When [[SpoiledBrat Chloé]]'s KarmaHoudiniWarranty finally runs out, Adrien sanctimoniously scolds his classmates for celebrating her downfall, insisting that they just don't understand what she ''used'' to be like. Marinette and the others are unimpressed by his rising to ''her'' defense after all the years she spent bullying them unimpeded, believing that her FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse. |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[AC:''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia'']] |
| 154 | * ''Fanfic/AllButOne'' reveals that [[spoiler:Stain]] used to be a well-mannered child with a HeroWorshipper streak that eventually blossomed into BlackAndWhiteInsanity. |
| 155 | * In ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndEmerald'', Enji Todoroki as a teenager was actually the CloudcuckoolandersMinder in his group of friends, using his powers to help keep them out of trouble. Then he became the pro hero Endeavor unhealthily obsessed with overcoming All Might, and used his family as stepping stones to do so. |
| 156 | * In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', Touya Todoroki was an aspiring hero student who loved his siblings and wanted to rescue them and their mother from their [[ArchnemesisDad abusive father's]] influence. Somewhere down the line, he fell down the path of villainy, becoming the murderous Dabi who is disillusioned with hero society. A [[FountainOfYouth de-aging]] Quirk brings Touya back to the surface and lets 1-A see who he originally was, but [[FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome the effects are temporary]] and he will [[YouCantFightFate eventually return to being Dabi no matter how badly he wants to remain Touya]]. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | [[AC: ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'']] |
| 159 | * In ''Fanfic/AftermathOfAFallenStar'', Princess Cadence remembers Prince Blueblood as being friendly, cheerful and good-natured before his father Amadeus groomed him into being just as self-centered and vicious a monster as himself. |
| 160 | * ''Fanfic/AnAnonAMissCarol'' shows that Sunset Shimmer was a sweet filly who endured years of emotional abuse by Cinch's pony counterpart, alongside Upper Crust. Being surrounded by {{False Friend}}s who only wanted to use her to get closer to Princess Celestia, coupled with her own jealousy of Celestia being closer to Cadance, caused her to grow bitter with age. |
| 161 | * ''Fanfic/HarmonyTheory'' has Charisma, TheDreaded BloodKnight and TheDragon to one of the story's {{big bad}}s, who is revealed to originally have been a sweet filly who liked to dance around and had a loving family, until her "talent glyph" appeared and basically marked her as a natural born killer and drove her to [[spoiler: murder her own brother]], leading to her being disowned by her family and leading her down the path she chose. |
| 162 | * In ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfTheEquinox'', Brutus Meadows is Scootaloo's alcoholic and [[AbusiveParents abusive foster father]] who ends up [[spoiler:[[TilMurderDoUsPart killing in anger his wife Vibrant Glow]] whose gambling addiction has eaten up most of his savings]], and he tries to kill [[spoiler:Cheerilee]] simply [[HeKnowsTooMuch for discovering that crime]]. However, when Brutus is [[spoiler:dying, [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes the flashbacks]] he has]] show that he was an adorkably shy colt when he first met at school [[ChildhoodFriendRomance his future wife]] with whom he later [[HappilyAdopted adopted Scootaloo when nopony else seemed to be doing so]]. Sadly, his wife's gambling debts led to him becoming an alcoholic and forgetting his love for both her and Scootaloo. |
| 163 | * ''Fanfic/TheTwilightChild'': As flashbacks show, the main character was an almost painfully [[CheerfulChild cheerful foal]], a far cry from the emotionally broken teenager she's become when we first see her. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'']] |
| 166 | * The whole point of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2775417/1/Of-Ramen-and-Wooden-Skates Of Ramen and Wooden Skates]]'' is showing Orochimaru from the perspective of someone outside his team who knew him before his StartOfDarkness. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'']] |
| 169 | * Several characters are this in the fangame ''VideoGame/PokemonRejuvenation'': |
| 170 | ** Team Xen Admin Nastasia is cold, cruel, and completely remorseless in regard to her involvement in terrorist attacks; making even her coworkers question why she is so ruthless. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:she used to be Anastasia Bellarosa, a sweet but shy and introverted girl with an overbearing mother and only one friend, Maria. She then went through extremely traumatic events, such as watching Maria be sacrificed by her cult leader father and almost be killed by a meteor. It is still unknown what exactly caused her transformation. However, she still has some goodness within her, as she ensures you receive your mother’s Sylveon and appears to still care about Ren, who she met as a child]]. |
| 171 | ** Fighting leader Keta[[spoiler:/Kenneth]] is an even more tragic example. [[spoiler:When he first arrived in the Aevium Region, he was an idealistic young man longing to improve the lives of those affected by the calamity Storm-9. After managing to do that by rebuilding Sheridan Village with his wife Taelia, he was given an ultimatum to kill her, whose sender had already killed his mother. He refused and lost both her and their child Nora in the process. He mistakenly believed Taelia blamed him, as his mind was manipulated by the mysterious Freya, who saw him as a mere puppet. Years later, after finally reconciling with his brother Deagan, he too died seconds after. The last straw was him being recruited by Team Xen and being forced to sell his villagers’ lives in exchange for his own, at which point he asked an Oracle to completely separate himself from his emotions, isolating himself from the ones who still loved him.]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[AC:''Franchise/{{RWBY}}'']] |
| 174 | * ''Fanfic/InTheKingdomsService'': Roman Torchwick used to be Oobleck's team leader before Oobleck sacrificed them and thousands of others to seal the tunnel to Mountain Glenn. When Jaune sees a picture of Oobleck's old team, he notes the sheer joy and pride in his team on Roman's face and is awed by how much the man has changed in the last twenty-odd years. |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[AC:''Manga/SgtFrog'']] |
| 177 | * ''Fanfic/YinAndYangSeries'': Nikolai Kezanstav. He met and befriended an alien while young, but as he grew up, he began to desire his best friend's technology more and more. He eventually ends up enslaving the alien with mind control. |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[AC:''Literature/WarriorCats'']] |
| 180 | * ''WebAnimation/ASadnessRunsThroughHimCOMPLETESnowtuftWarriorsAUMap'': Snowkit was a gentle and sweet kitten who became angry and bloodthirsty in adulthood. |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 184 | * The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' is a dog who has been raised since puppyhood to believe the ShowWithinAShow he works on is real life. Unfortunately, the EnforcedMethodActing has caused Bolt to become overly serious and paranoid. He won't even play with his favorite toys anymore because he believes he has to be on guard and protect his owner Penny 24/7. |
| 185 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'': When Merida was younger, she was a very small, cute child and had a close relationship with both her mother and her father. As she has grown up, Merida is still very energetic and free-spirited, but has a more strained relationship with her mother (though she still holds the same good relationship with her father) and is more rebellious. |
| 186 | * ''WesternAnimation/EightCrazyNights'': Davey was a teen basketball star and liked by practically everyone. Upon learning that [[spoiler:his parents died in a car accident on the way to one of his games]], he grew up to be an alcoholic jerk. |
| 187 | * ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'': |
| 188 | ** [[AnIcePerson Elsa]] used to be a happy child, in addition to being a CoolBigSis to [[CheerfulChild Anna]]. Then, after an incident where she accidentally hit Anna in the forehead with her ice magic while trying to save her from falling, she was told to hide her powers from the world, especially from Anna (whose memory was [[LaserGuidedAmnesia altered by the trolls to erase her knowledge of Elsa's powers]]). Afterwards, Elsa avoided any interaction with Anna, becoming more of an [[AloofBigBrother Aloof Big Sister]], remaining mostly in her room while brooding over her powers. By present-day, she had become [[EmotionlessGirl emotionally distant]] from everyone. [[spoiler:However, she refrains from crossing the MoralEventHorizon, and even returns to being a good sister to Anna by the film's end.]] |
| 189 | ** The tie-in novel ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'' revealed [[spoiler:Prince Hans used to be the NiceGuy he pretended to be. However, his father, [[GreaterScopeVillain the king of the Southern Isles]], despised having a son show any soft side, and to counter this he had all of his older and more violent sons bully Hans in numerous ways. His fear of returning home and [[WellDoneSonGuy an obsession with getting his father to finally respect him]] brought out the worst in him]]. |
| 190 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'': As an adolescent, Syndrome aka Buddy Pine was an adoring fan of Mr. Incredible until [[BrokenPedestal he was seemingly brushed away by his idol]]. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] though as even from the start, Buddy displayed troubling obsessive and GlorySeeker traits to an unhealthy degree for a kid. |
| 191 | * Tai Lung of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1'' was such a [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter cute]] cub in the flashback sequences that [[DracoInLeatherPants he got a lot more sympathy from audiences]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse than the filmmakers expected.]] |
| 192 | * ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'': Randall Boggs and Mike were friends in college. Randall himself was a very introverted cute nerd who got encouragement from Mike and frequently helped Mike study, even letting him have first pick of the beds in their dorm. When Mike gets into a conflict with Sulley, then a JerkJock, Randall plays the rational friend and tells him to let it go. As the film goes on, Randall goes to the popular kids, and slowly loses his nice demeanor, blowing off Mike, who needed his help, and later helping to humiliate Mike's fraternity. By the end of the film, Randall lets rivalry, and implicitly ambition, get in his way [[spoiler:and when Sulley accidentally ruined his chance of victory at the Scare games, swears to never be beaten by him again]]. |
| 193 | * Spinel from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'' was a peppy fellow who lived to entertain (though as a gem [[BornAsAnAdult she wasn't ever a child, exactly]]), until [[spoiler:waiting fruitlessly for Pink Diamond for six millennia]] turned her completely demented. |
| 194 | * In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', Chuckles said of a young Lotso (though as a toy [[BornAsAnAdult he wasn't ever a child, exactly]]) "He used to be such a good toy." That is, until their owner Daisy accidentally forgot about them while on a picnic. After a grueling journey, Lotso returns with Chuckles and Big Baby to see Daisy with another Lotso-Hugging Bear and becomes cold and bitter, convincing the others that Daisy never loved them. |
| 195 | * The AntiVillain Touma from ''Anime/YokaiWatchShadowsideTheReturnOfTheOniKing'' was a sweet, if lonely, kid years ago. However, years of being ignored have taken a toll on him and made him bitter. |
| 196 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': |
| 197 | ** Played straight with Nick Wilde, who was an earnest and idealistic kid hoping to fit in no matter what, until [[spoiler: the local Junior Ranger Scout troop he was eager to join [[FantasticRacism attacked and muzzled him simply for being a fox]]]]. The traumatic experience convinced him to [[SafetyInIndifference never show anybody that they get to him]] and to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embrace the stereotype]] of foxes as [[CunningLikeAFox shifty and untrustworthy]]. |
| 198 | ** Inverted with Gideon Grey, a vicious fox childhood bully who had [[WouldHitAGirl no qualms about beating up Judy Hopps and clawing her left cheek]] during the AMinorKidroduction. Later, [[spoiler: during Judy's TenMinuteRetirement in the third act]], she discovers that her parents have formed a partnership with Gideon Grey, who, thanks to fifteen years of CharacterDevelopment, is now [[ReformedBully a much kinder mammal]] and a [[SupremeChef extremely successful pastry chef]]. In fact, the first thing he does upon meeting Judy for the first time in years is apologize for how he treated her in his youth. |
| 199 | [[/folder]] |
| 200 | |
| 201 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 202 | * A non-villainous example, Chaz, from ''Film/{{Airheads}}'', used to be called 'Chester' and play [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]. |
| 203 | * ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'' gives this backstory to the Beast. Belle learns from Mrs. Potts that the Prince was a sweet, innocent little boy until his mother died, leaving him in the hands of his cruel father, who shaped him into the selfish, arrogant {{Prince Charmless}} whom the Enchantress eventually cursed. |
| 204 | * Red Skull from the infamous ''Film/CaptainAmerica1990'' movie. Before the SuperSoldier experiment -- nice kid playing on piano. After the experiment -- [[ThoseWackyNazis crazy nazi]] with SuperStrength who wants to [[TakeOverTheWorld rule the world]]. How much this applies in this case is debatable. The experiment used on him is supposed to magnify the subject's personality, which would indicate that he was already evil, he just had it dialed [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]]. |
| 205 | %%* The titular Kane from ''Film/CitizenKane''. |
| 206 | * ''Film/ClassOfNukeEmHigh'': The Cretins were originally honour students before essentially devolving into thugs and bullies. Whilst not outright stated, it's entirely possible this was because of their school's close proximity to a nuclear power plant. |
| 207 | * The heroine of ''Film/DeadfulMelody'' used to be an innocent, sweet, bubbly child until she witnessed her family being massacred by a rival sect. She survived, took her father's magical lute, and became an assassin who doesn't bat an eye after killing hundreds of people. |
| 208 | * Franchise/{{Godzilla}} Junior is a subversion. On the one hand, he did [[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzillaII start out as a bubbly, friendly]] and docile baby mutated Godzillasaurus. On the other hand, while he's not downright malevolent as a teenager, he is still a Godzilla and will utterly thrash you if you dare harm humanity. ([[spoiler:Too bad that didn't work too well [[Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah against Destoroyah]].]]) ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' even originally was going to show (and the final cut even heavily implies) that incarnation of Godzilla ''is'' Junior. While still not a villain, this incarnation is definitely playing at GoodIsNotSoft at absolute best. |
| 209 | * ''Film/TheHighwaymen'': After tracking the pair for months with no success, Hamer and Gault circle back to Bonnie and Clyde's hometown, where Hamer confronts Clyde's father Henry. The man explains that Clyde wasn't born evil, but he knows that the nature of his son's crimes meant he's marked for death. He just begs Hamer to end it already to spare the rest of the Barrow family any more suffering. |
| 210 | * In ''Film/{{Holes}}'', when Kate Barlow recognizes Trout Walker's accomplice as a former student of hers, she actually seems disappointed that this is what's become of her. |
| 211 | -->'''Kate:''' Oh, Linda, you were such a good student. |
| 212 | * ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' does this to [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation the Grinch]], complete with a FreudianExcuse. |
| 213 | * ''Franchise/JamesBond'': |
| 214 | ** 007 himself was implied to be this as hinted at in the books and a few times in the films. The first time we get any conformation that Bond was not always a violent, cynical, womanizing SociopathicHero is in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' when his family's groundskeeper Kincade shows M a secret priest hole in the manor and recounts a moment from Bond's childhood. |
| 215 | --->'''Kincade''': The night I told him his parents had died, he hid in here for two days. When he did come out he wasn't a boy anymore. |
| 216 | ** Also implied with [[BigBad Lyutsifer Safin]] in ''Film/NoTimeToDie''. Bond and Madeleine see a photo of a young Safin and [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his family]], in which the villain appears as a CheerfulChild. He even mentions his parents were chemists, suggesting he had a peaceful and carefree childhood before [[StartOfDarkness his family was murdered by [=SPECTRE=].]] |
| 217 | * ''Film/KungFuHustle'' has Sing, [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain a low-level thug]] who wants to [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster join the Axe Gang]], but used to be a HeroicWannabe who intervened when a CuteMute girl was being harassed by bullies trying to steal her lollipop. It was only after the bullies beat him to a pulp that he gave up on his heroic aspirations. |
| 218 | * ''Film/LadyWithASword'': The titular lady's childhood friend, whom she was betrothed to, used to be a sweet, pleasant if somewhat mischievous young lad. He grows up to be a power-hungry, cruel, sadistic asshole and pervert who ends up raping the heroine's elder sister before killing her. |
| 219 | * ''Film/{{Leatherface}}'' shows that the titular character was quite reluctant to kill as a child and had a strong sense of right and wrong as a teenager. [[ForegoneConclusion Inevitably]], he grew up to become the brutish [[ChainsawGood chainsaw-swinging]] butcher we all know and love from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''. |
| 220 | * ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' does this for both the title character and King Stefan, [[spoiler: the latter of whom is the BigBad]]. Yes, the self-proclaimed "[[CardCarryingVillain Mistress of All Evil]]" was once a friendly, loving girl, who was in love with a human - but their love was destroyed by political feuds between their kingdoms. [[spoiler: In the end, Maleficent does a HeelFaceTurn.]] |
| 221 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 222 | ** As seen by one film reel in ''Film/IronMan2'' Tony Stark was once a playful little boy who innocently wandered into his father Howard’s film shoot and played with the scale model of the Stark Expo, at which his father growled at him and had a member of the film crew take Tony away to his mother out of frame. With this glimpse of his childhood, coupled with getting shipped off to boarding school, is it any real wonder Tony grew up to be such a jerky egotistical, womanising InsufferableGenius in his adult life? He does take a major level in kindness and heroism though. |
| 223 | ** Judging from [[AMinorKidroduction the flashback]] at the beginning of ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Loki had a good relationship with his brother Thor and their father and had a penchant for mischief before the jealousy settled in. Loki was much the same in original Myth/NorseMythology, sans the jealousy issues. Thor and Loki were frequently involved in mischievous pranks, and nobody thought too much of Loki's shenanigans until one of them got Baldr, the incredibly popular god of beauty, killed. |
| 224 | ** From what we see in [[DistantPrologue the flashback]] in ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', BigBad [[Characters/MCUErikStevens Erik "Killmonger" Stevens]] was a curious boy who loved listening to his father's stories about Wakanda and playing basketball with his friends. But when his father died and he was abandoned in Oakland, he became embittered and grew up to be a vengeful terrorist who wants to unleash a massacre all over the world. |
| 225 | ** [[Characters/MCUGamora Gamora]] as seen in a {{flashback}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' was once an innocent girl. Thanos and his army arrived on her planet and killed half her race along with her mother and abducted Gamora training her as a TykeBomb from an early age. When we first see her as an adult in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', she’s an aloof and violent DarkActionGirl although she does become a DefectorFromDecadence. Teammate [[Characters/MCUPeterQuill Peter Quill]] as seen in his [[AMinorKidroduction minor kidtroduction]] was a sweet kid who loved his mom and music and only got into a fight with some other kids because they squashed a frog. Having watched his mother pass away from brain cancer in front of him and was subsequently raised by SpacePirates, who turned Peter into a thrill-seeking outlaw and GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe womaniser. Peter did manage to retain his love of music and better nature, however, buried underneath his immature jerkass behaviour. |
| 226 | ** As extensively shown in TheTeaser to ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' Natasha and Yelena were once cheerful and happy little girls living comfortably in Ohio in the '80s with loving (non-biological) parents Alexei and Melina. Getting forced back to Russia, taken away from said parents, shoved in cargo containers with many other girls, surgically having their uteruses cut out and rendered infertile, [[TrainingFromHell brutally trained]] and disgustingly abused in the Red Room by Dreykov in order to be Black Widows — all unsurprisingly turned Natasha and Yelena into depressed, brutal, sarcastically jaded adult women. Although Nat like the aforementioned Tony was able to alter the course of her life and become a hero instead, which given the circumstances of her past is a miracle in itself. |
| 227 | ** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'' shows that [[spoiler:Rocket was once this. He started life as an ordinary baby raccoon from Earth but then was painfully genetically and cybernetically modified, but even then was a very innocent and child-like kit who was eager to impress his father figure, wanted to fly on rockets in the blue sky with his friends in the new world and had hope that he would do so. Then said friends die at the hands of said father figure, and moments before that man said he wasn't worth anything other than his unique brain and was definitely not going to the new world. It's no wonder Rocket became a bitterly, even bitingly sarcastic, foul-mouthed, cynical, and generally misanthropic jerkass by the time we see him in the first movie.]] |
| 228 | * Subverted, or possibly entirely inverted, with Eddie from ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'', if we are to believe his dodgy scientist uncle, Dr. [[TheVonTropeFamily von]] [[ThoseWackyNazis Scott]]: "From the day he vas born, he vas trouble/he vas the thorn/in his Mutter's side". |
| 229 | * In ''Literature/{{Room}}'', Ma/Joy Newsome is not a villain or even a bad person, but she is understandably deeply troubled from being held captive and raped by a stranger for years. She lampshades this trope herself, and how impossible it would be for her to be anything but, in an argument with her mother in the film. |
| 230 | -->'''Ma''': Don't ever tell me how to look after my son. I’m sorry if I’m not ‘nice’ enough for you. Maybe if you hadn’t been in my head saying ‘be nice’ that day I wouldn’t have gone to help him. |
| 231 | * In ''Film/{{Shazam|2019}}'', [[BigBad Thaddeus Sivana]] used to be a polite, sensitive boy before his rejection by Shazam and the car accident turned him into a villainous MadScientist. It's worth noting that, at some point, Shazam's magic deemed him [[spoiler:worthy enough to be a ''contender'' as a champion. even though Shazam himself ultimately didn't seem completely pure enough.]] |
| 232 | * Dark Alessa in ''Film/SilentHill'' is [[spoiler:the dark side of a child who she states was "a good little girl" prior to being burned by a cult and turning her psychic vengeance onto the people of the town]]. |
| 233 | * ''Film/{{Sleepers}}'': While mischievous and nonchalant about getting money by doing jobs for mob leader King Benny, the four sleepers were good, cheerful boys. Shakes and John, in particular, were the kindest of them all and wanted to be priests in a neighborhood where the only career option was being a criminal. After their time in the youth detention center, John and Tommy turned into violent, addicted-to-drugs killers, while Michael and Shakes lost their faith in the legal system and police officers. Hence, the foursome's ability to take revenge via illegal means, namely corruption and outright murder. |
| 234 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 235 | ** Anakin Skywalker. Innocent, friendly, bright-eyed mother's boy who builds {{robot budd|y}}ies turned into, well... [[spoiler: [[TheDreaded Darth Vader.]]]] |
| 236 | ** Shown mostly in the novelization, but Boba Fett turned from a sweet kid who idolized his father into a bounty hunter who had to be reminded to curb his penchant for disintegrations. |
| 237 | ** Ben Solo was once a sweet and sheltered boy who adored his parents and idolized his CoolUncle, several troubling events, and the growing belief that he was unloved and had darkness inside him turned Ben into Kylo Ren. |
| 238 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} hard with [[Characters/StarWarsEmperorPalpatine Sheev Palaptine]], as shown in the expanded material he was a RoyalBrat who had a cruel nature since the time he learned to walk and had already killed someone before even finding TheDarkSide. |
| 239 | * ''Film/TotallyKiller'': Chris grows up to be a HateSink psycho who hates his dad and kills people to get famous, but his 1987 scenes all show him as a seemingly polite nerd who is proud of his dad and upset about the murders that he later decides to exploit and continue. |
| 240 | * ''Film/TragedyGirls'' completely averts it with our two {{Villain Protagonist}}s. Despite having loving parents and stable, happy upbringings, they've ''always'' been psychopaths. |
| 241 | * ''Film/VisitingHours:'' Flashback scenes show a giggling young Colt (who grows up to be a misogynistic SerialKiller) mock wrestling on the ground with his father for a bottle of Coke. |
| 242 | * Lance tells his son Kyle from Film/WorldsGreatestDad that he used to be such a nice kid who enjoyed going to the movies and other recreational activities before he became an angry, listless, foul-mouthed, verbally abusive, perverted jerk of a teenager, Kyle claims he was faking. |
| 243 | * Erik in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' until, well, the Holocaust and the death of his mother. And Raven, who is still rather innocent for the majority of the film and is absolutely horrified when she sees [[spoiler:Charles get shot]], yet that doesn't stop her from [[spoiler: going over to the dark side]]. |
| 244 | [[/folder]] |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 247 | * From ''[[Literature/AuntDimity Aunt Dimity Down Under]]'': The expat Americans Angelo and Renee Velesuonno knew BrokenBird Bree Pym since she was ten years old, and Angelo [[LampshadeHanging hangs this lampshade]] when they meet Lori and Cameron for dinner in Ohakune, New Zealand. His description of Bree: "Nice kid, good manners and sharp as a tack." The Velesuonnos go on to say they were shocked at the recent changes in her appearance, particularly the choppy haircut. |
| 248 | * In Jonathan Carroll's novel ''Bones of the Moon'', the main character's husband comments that the boy who lived in the apartment above them, dubbed "The Axe Boy", was always such a good boy before he was arrested for chopping up his mother and sister. |
| 249 | -->"He seemed like a good kid, didn't he Cullen? 'Axe Boy'? Jesus, what a thing to call someone!"\ |
| 250 | "Danny, our young friend 'Axe Boy' Alvin Willians chopped his mother and sister into pieces exactly one floor above our apartment. A good boy he is not." |
| 251 | * ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': In ''The Gatekeeper Trilogy'', genocidal EvilSorcerer Giacomo Fulcanelli was a shy and kind child until his mother was burned as a witch while their whole village applauded. He was taken in by a sorcerer, who was secretly his biological father, and helped him get revenge. However, the sorcerer also physically abused Giacomo, denied him any affection, inspired him to be cruel and satanic, and smugly revealed that he was the one who sold out Giacomo's mother to the inquisition before setting his son on fire to make him unleash his full powers and cruelty. Fulcanelli grows up to gleefully do things far, far worse than what his father did, but there is a definite sense that he had a chance to be something else, only to be cruelly robbed of that chance. |
| 252 | * ''Literature/CagingSkies'': Johannes was once an ordinary boy who loved playing with snails. Then Hitler rose to power and told him that he had a duty to defend Germany and join the Hitlerjugend. |
| 253 | * Carrie White, from ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' is described this way in an [[ScrapbookStory interview]] with a woman who met her during their childhood. She specifically points out the dramatic difference between the girl she knew and the tortured soul who appeared on the cover of a news magazine [[spoiler: after massacring several teenagers and turning a city into a ghost town]] and wonders what Carrie's mother could have done to her to mess her up so badly. |
| 254 | * ''Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos'': In ''Titans of Chaos'', Amelia thinks that the maenad she is working out how to shoot was once a sweet little baby. She braces herself by defying AMillionIsAStatistic. |
| 255 | * ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'': |
| 256 | ** The long-awaited giant children are this, until [[spoiler:they get possessed and AxCrazy]]. |
| 257 | ** Also, from the new chronicles, Roger Covenant. Probably. |
| 258 | * The general response to Sefalet with regards to her left-hand mouth in ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn''. |
| 259 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'''s Sam Vimes might be the setting's [[TheFettered incorruptible]] BigGood, but he's also a [[KnightInSourArmor cynical]], [[JerkWithAHeartofGold grumpy]] self-described 'bastard'. But when we meet his younger self in ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' young Sam is a bright-eyed idealist who believes in heroes and justice and invites his new sergeant around for tea with his mum. In the words of his time-travelling middle-aged self, "You're not me. I don't think I was ever as young as you. If you're ''going'' to be me, it's going to take a lot of work. Thirty damn years of being hammered on the anvil of life, you poor bastard. You've got it all to come." |
| 260 | * ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'': The short story "The People's Temple" by Paul Leonard opens with two Neolithic kids who are good friends. Bear Cub has a careless confidence and is prone to bouts of anger, but he's generally inclined to be helpful, which is why he's friends with Young Deer, who is clever, but also scared of many things, and needs Bear Cub as a source of strength, even as he tries to keep his friend out of trouble by coming up with ideas. One of his ideas is that they could rebuild the wooden Great Temple in stone. Jump many years later, and the Great Bear has become the megalomaniac conqueror of much of Neolithic Britain, as he sacrifices countless slaves to this vision, while the Deer Man is his loyal high priest, but by the time the Doctor arrives has long ago realised that these days, the thing that frightens him most of all is the man who once leant him bravery. |
| 261 | * Lorelei of ''Literature/{{Eludoran}}'' before her StartOfDarkness. Pendarynn and Sheriden also qualify. |
| 262 | * The Indian Prince's boy from Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''Literature/FaerieTale'', who we are told was once a nice boy. |
| 263 | * Nikita of ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'' has several {{Happy Flashback}}s that show her as a cheerful, if... unusually-raised[[note]]Her mother is an assassin who's been training her since Nikita could walk[[/note]] child before her father kidnapped and tortured her, turning her into the aloof, emotionless woman of the present day. |
| 264 | * ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': |
| 265 | ** Subverted in two ways with Sirius Black: [[spoiler: it turns out he never joined the Death Eaters at all and was always a good-hearted young man. At the same time, calling him sweet was a bit of an overstatement since he was also a notorious prankster and a bit of a showoff though not a bad person at all]]. |
| 266 | ** [[spoiler:Snape seemed to have been about as good as a kid raised in an abusive and poor household could be expected. And while he eventually did a HeelFaceTurn to Dumbledore in his twenties, there was a period of time when he served Voldemort and remained bitter enough that many people believed he still was evil into his thirties. His adulthood was more of a case of GoodIsNotNice than anything.]] |
| 267 | ** Also played with Peter Pettigrew. [[spoiler: While there were accusations thrown that he hung around the Marauders mainly because they were popular, he did stick by them for the most part and learned to stick by his werewolf friend, Lupin. Despite this, he would come to betray them for Voldemort.]] |
| 268 | ** Quirinus Quirrell was apparently a very gifted wizard who, like any true Ravenclaw, loved to learn and study. However, years of abject bullying by his peers drove him to try and become a great wizard to show them all and be remembered. [[spoiler:However, before he could do so, he happened to meet Voldemort on a trip to Albania...]] |
| 269 | ** Averted with Voldemort. Tom Riddle was rotten to the core even as a small child. |
| 270 | ** Inverted with Dudley Dursley, who is a brat and a bully as a boy, but begins to grow out of this after he's attacked by Dementors in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''. In [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the final book]], he's the only one of the Dursleys to express concern over what's going to happen to Harry after they part ways, and also gives him a relatively friendly goodbye. |
| 271 | %%* The protagonist of Vernon Scannel's poem [[http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/incendiary/ "Incendiary"]] |
| 272 | * ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'': The ImmortalRuler Nirai Kujen lived in poverty as a child and entered politics in part because he believed nobody else should go hungry. As a ruler, he became a sociopath concerned primarily with [[TheHedonist physical pleasures]], [[ForScience scientific experiments]], and [[ImmortalityImmorality maintaining his immortality]]. He's implied to have surgically removed his own conscience to cope with TheChainsOfCommanding early on. |
| 273 | * ''Literature/MaulLockdown'': Referenced when [[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive Zero reveals in-depth knowledge about the sister of cannibalistic gang leader Vas Nailhead after Vas bullies him.]] |
| 274 | --> '''Zero:''' After everything you've done, she hasn't stopped hoping you'll come back and be the boy that she remembers. The one who could always sing and make her laugh with every verse of "Sweet Fronda Fane." |
| 275 | * In ''Literature/MoreThanThis'', Regine the [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black Girl]] tells Seth she used to be a nice person before her mother married an abusive man. |
| 276 | %%* The racist and sexist NaziProtagonist used to be a little German boy who liked to play with snails |
| 277 | * ''Literature/{{Nevermoor}}'': In the third book, Morrigan is able to peep in on lessons from generations past via a PensieveFlashback, and is stunned when she sees the BigBad, Ezra Squall, in his youth. In stark contrast to the FauxAffablyEvil sociopath she knows, in the past, he's mostly seen trying to learn how to use his powers, enjoying his lessons, and laughing and having fun with his friends. [[spoiler:The same friends he'd later go on to kill.]] All Morrigan can do is wonder, "What ''happened''?" |
| 278 | * ''Literature/TheOutside'': Evianna Talirr was once a SpoiledSweet CheerfulChild, but she was punished harshly throughout her childhood in an attempt to stamp out her heretical tendencies. The treatments succeeded only in turning her into a bitter misanthrope. |
| 279 | * The ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' short story "The Diary of Luke Castellan" shows this off with the titular Luke, a villain-turned-hero who used to be a very sweet kid. Or, as in this chapter of history, a sweet teenager. He's brave, protective, and caring towards his little adopted family, to the point that he [[MirrorCharacter closely resembles the later hero of the series, Percy]]. |
| 280 | * In ''Literature/ThePrecipice'', Grace goes from a gawky, awkward teenager with a fascination with superhumans that is headed to college early (maybe too early) to [[spoiler:murdering two people]]. |
| 281 | * In ''Literature/{{Radiance}}'', Severin didn't grow up to be evil, but she was estranged from her father, tough as nails, and not particularly affectionate towards anyone who isn't her boyfriend. Her father's personal video reels show that when she was a child, she was an adorable DaddysGirl who loved to play and run around her father's sets. |
| 282 | * Francis Dolarhyde, aka the Tooth Fairy, from ''Literature/RedDragon''. Played for one of the more selective instances of CryForTheDevil in the first film version, ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'': |
| 283 | -->'''Jack Crawford''': You feel sorry for him.\ |
| 284 | '''Will Graham:''' As a child, my heart bleeds for him. Someone took a little boy and turned him into a monster. But as an adult... as an adult, he's irredeemable. He butchers whole families to fulfill some sick fantasy. As an adult, I think someone should blow the sick fuck out of his socks. |
| 285 | * Luo Binghe from ''[[Literature/TheScumVillainsSelfSavingSystemRenZhaFanpaiZijiuXitong The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System]]'' started out an idealistic AllLovingHero who remained optimistic and kind-hearted in spite of the [[TheWoobie constant hardships he suffered through]] and had an [[PrecociousCrush adorable crush]] on his beloved teacher Shen Qingqiu, until a sudden and heartbreaking betrayal by Shen Qingqiu and three years of being trapped in the demon-filled Abyss hardened him into an angry, bitter man willing to resort to coercion and kidnapping to [[StalkerWithACrush claim Shen Qingqiu for himself]]. The real kicker is that this is actually an ''improvement'' over Binghe's fate in the original webnovel Shen Yuan read before he got transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu's body; the original Qingqiu never showed a scrap of kindness to Binghe before he betrayed him, causing the original Binghe to become even more cruel and cold-hearted without his love for Qingqiu to ultimately bring him back to sanity. |
| 286 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' contains several examples: |
| 287 | ** The Stark children, before they were all {{br|eakTheCutie}}oken and put on their JadeColoredGlasses. An example that is easily missed are Catelyn Stark's memories of [[MagnificentBastard Petyr Baelish]] as a mischievous, bold, and sweet-natured little boy, who believed in all the songs and started out as idealistic as [[WideEyedIdealist Sansa]]. |
| 288 | ** From the backstory, Aerys Targaryen aka the Mad King believe it or not. It was said that he was a nice young man with a very promising future as king. But then the Defiance in Duskendale happened where he was taken hostage by some rebellious lords refusing to pay taxes and his time in captivity broke him. As soon as he was released, he went on a killing rampage murdering all those responsible and slowly degenerating into TheCaligula. At the end of his life, he was so universally reviled that by the time the series takes place, referring to someone as Aerys is [[GodwinsLaw analogous to comparing others to Hitler in our world]]. |
| 289 | ** Aerys' son Viserys was not always a self-absorbed megalomaniac as he is today. Daenerys has fond memories of her brother as a child and readily credits him for bringing her up and protecting her as best as he could after the fall of House Targaryen. But the pressure of being the teenage heir of a deposed dynasty, who had no prestige beyond their family name, was just too much, causing him to slowly descend into insanity. The final straw was when Viserys had to sell their mother's crown to keep them fed, which, according to Daenerys, [[DespairEventHorizon destroyed any semblance of kindness her brother had]]. |
| 290 | ** Downplayed with Tywin Lannister. He wasn't exactly ''nice'' back then, but according to his brother, he was much better as a person while his wife was around, since she was one of the few people that could make him smile or laugh. After her death, he became an even colder and harder man that [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild blamed his son Tyrion for causing her death]] and hated him so much that [[spoiler:he ordered the gangrape of Tyrion's first wife]]. |
| 291 | * In ''The Split Second'' by Daphne du Maurier, Susan is a sweet, lively, affectionate nine-year-old in 1932. [[spoiler:Come 1952, and she is a bitter, rude woman who constantly snaps at her own little son.]] Justified, since she gets [[spoiler:orphaned very early and her only relative left is her bitter and rude estranged aunt, not to mention that war breaks out when Susan is only sixteen]]. |
| 292 | * The Children of Chrysalis in ''Literature/StarTrekTheEugenicsWars'' started as cute, precocious, intelligent, and good-natured kids. Then in the real world, they grew up as despots, warlords, or just plain insane. |
| 293 | * ''Literature/SteppingOnTheCracks:'' Donald and Gordy Smith have grown up to be trouble-making, mean-spirited bullies (although both have some HiddenDepths). However, Margaret's mother recalls how Donald would play with her son and his friends when they were all younger, and that Gordy would watch from the wagon that Donald and their brother Stuart loved to carry him around town in. |
| 294 | * The Mord-Sith from the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series. Every year, six of the kindest, sweetest girls in the entire country are chosen to be trained as {{Torture Technician}}s. The kinder they are, the better. |
| 295 | * In ''Literature/{{Torn}}'' by Cat Clarke, it's revealed that [[AssholeVictim Tara]] used to be an extremely sweet, kind young girl [[FreudianExcuse until]] [[spoiler:when they were younger, Alice, then Tara's best friend, grew irritated with how she and Tara were the least popular girls in school and purposefully started to avoid her in an attempt to join in more with other kids. Of course, it backfired horribly]]. |
| 296 | * Literature/TortallUniverse: In ''Literature/TheNumairChronicles'' the reader is introduced to Prince Ozorne as a student who, while arrogant and prejudiced, is a genuinely loving, loyal friend, unlike the horrifying murderous tyrant he is as an adult in ''Literature/TheImmortals''. |
| 297 | * ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Tigerstar, big bad of the entire series, is seen in the prequel ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' as a sweet, innocent, adorable kit who loves his mother and grows into a well-meaning but aggressive apprentice thanks to his AxCrazy mentor. Same with [[PsychoForHire Scourge]], who in his backstory was an inquisitive, cute little kitten who had bad things happen to him, turning him into a crazy killer. |
| 298 | ** Same for Brokenstar/kit; "Look! I'm a tree!" |
| 299 | ** Also for Hawkfrost, shown in the Tigerstar and Sasha arc as a cute kit who loves his littermates, [[spoiler: and is broken-hearted when his brother Tadpole drowns]]. |
| 300 | ** [[BloodKnight Thistleclaw]] even qualifies, once promising his nursery denmates "I'll make sure the wind doesn't blow you away." |
| 301 | ** Almost any antagonist who makes an appearance as a kit or apprentice qualifies, because, well, they’re kittens. Other notable examples include [[EntitledToHaveYou Ashfur]] and [[TheDragon Blackstar]]. |
| 302 | * Kevin from ''Literature/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin'' was a full-on aversion of this trope from birth - or so his UnreliableNarrator mother claims. |
| 303 | * ''Film/{{Willow}} the Movie {{Novelization}}'': Sorsha took after her gentle father as a child and cried in fright at Bavmorda's dark deeds before [[TheCorruptor being "bent" by her mother]] into a hardened warrior in an EvilArmy. |
| 304 | * Thomas Cromwell in ''Literature/WolfHall'' is portrayed as being open and friendly in childhood, a stark contrast to the increasingly guarded man who ultimately presides over the KangarooCourt that executes Anne Boleyn and her five supposed lovers. |
| 305 | * ''Literature/YoungRoyals'': "Kid" is somewhat stretching it because Henry also grows into a teenager, but ''Patience, Princess Catherine'' includes the young UsefulNotes/HenryVIII's perspective alongside [[UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon Catherine]]'s and shows him as an exuberant, boisterous, and outgoing youth who befriends Catherine when she first arrives to be his brother's bride and grows up into her handsome PrinceCharming—a far cry from the wife-beheading AdiposeRex tyrant he became in later life. |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 309 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Through Malcolm Merlyn's flashbacks, we see that his son Tommy used to be a relatively innocent child who idolized his father before they began to drift apart, resulting in Tommy becoming a [[ReallyGetsAround notorious womanizer]] [[WellDoneSonGuy who began to resent his father]]. |
| 310 | * ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' character Valerie Malone, revealed during [[spoiler:the civil rape suit she files against Noah]] by Steve. |
| 311 | * Although Homelander from ''Series/TheBoys2019'' is an [[BewareTheSuperman utterly]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil vile]] person as an adult, the little lab rat boy we briefly see in a flashback playing with his blanket while under observation from scientists was genuinely innocent. |
| 312 | * The Salamanca twins from ''Series/BreakingBad'' were seen in a flashback to be normal, energetic kids who cared for each other. They grew up to be emotionless killing machines for the cartel. |
| 313 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': When transformed back into a teenager ("Band Candy"), Principal Snyder was shown to be a relatively friendly dork and seemingly looked up to the Scoobies. He even liked Oz's Cool Hair! |
| 314 | * Notably averted on ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. Dexter is shown to have [[KickTheDog killed his neighbour's dog because it barked too loud]] as a child, and even at that time, Harry seemed aware that Dexter was a psychopath. |
| 315 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': TheMaster was apparently a sweet kid until he looked into the Vortex at age 8, and heard [[TerribleTicking the drums]]. Then he [[GoMadFromTheRevelation slowly went batshit insane]]. |
| 316 | ** Invoked by name in "The Rebel Flesh"/"The Almost People", except with reference to the sweet kid's artificial duplicate. |
| 317 | ** The Twelfth Doctor discovers that this is the case for [[spoiler:Davros; the MadScientist who would go on to create ''[[AbsoluteXenophobe The Daleks]]'' and tried to '''[[OmnicidalManiac blow up all of reality]]''']]. Turns out they started out as an [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent child]] caught up in a [[ForeverWar century-spanning]] [[WarIsHell hellish war]] that ultimately twisted them (The ''Big Finish'' canon version was always [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] however). |
| 318 | * ''Series/FullHouse''. During an argument with his oldest daughter DJ, Danny laments "What happened to my sweet little girl?" DJ angrily tells him that she's ''not'' a little girl anymore and her annoyance with him continuing to treat her like one is the very reason they're fighting. |
| 319 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 320 | ** According to Cersei in "Mhysa", Joffrey ''was'' a very happy baby when he was around her and showed no signs of his later sociopathic behavior until much later... but either she's leaving out the part in the books where he cut open a pregnant cat as a child or the incident was AdaptedOut. |
| 321 | ** All audiences get to see is his worst side, but it's implied that Viserys had been a reasonably nice guy at one point before the hardship of his own and his sister's life broke him. In the books, Daenerys specifically points to the moment that Viserys was forced to part with their dead mother's crown for money to survive as the point where Viserys started to snap. This is in parallel to their father, who is known as the "Mad King" but was also reasonably sane as a younger man, up until an incident where he was betrayed and held hostage by one of his own vassals and locked in a tower for half a year. |
| 322 | * ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': |
| 323 | ** The first few episodes where Alicent Hightower is still a teen explicitly show her this way. Which only serves to make her journey from a devoted and innocent girl to a cold queen who's resentful, vengeful, and envious of her old childhood friend (due to both Otto and Larys Strong's manipulations and her own fear for the safety of her children) even more tragic. |
| 324 | ** When Aegon first appears, he's a two-year-old toddler and appears to be a normal and happy child. It's unknown what he was like as a small child, but when he reappears as a teenager he's grown into a lazy BigBrotherBully who only wants to drink and leer at girls, and finally as an adult, he's a hedonistic, selfish wreck of a man who only wants to sleep with women (whether they agree or not) and drink and does not want to be king because he knows he has neither the skill nor temperament to make a good one. |
| 325 | * ''Series/HarryEnfieldAndChums''[='=]s Kevin was a well-behaved, if hyperactive, boy until he turned thirteen, at which point his hormones kicked in and turned him into the teenage horror we all know and love. |
| 326 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 327 | ** In ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'''s [[TheMovie movie]], [[spoiler:BigBad Katsumi Daido[=/=]Kamen Rider Eternal is described this way by his mother. He's an unusual case since he ''died'' and was brought back to life by Mom's research, which may have had some effect. However, as the ''Eternal Returns'' {{prequel}} movie shows, the complete flip to evil happened when he and his fellow undead mercenaries tried to save Foundation X's psychic test subjects and failed after the HopeSpot]]. |
| 328 | ** In ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'', the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]], Phantoms, start off as "inner demons" that kill their hosts if they cross the DespairEventHorizon and take on their human form as a disguise. They're actually entirely different beings from their hosts, but to those not in on the {{Masquerade}}, this trope seems to be in full effect. In particular, one episode had [[TheHero Haruto]] dealing with a young woman who doesn't understand her college friend's bizarre shift in attitude, and Haruto chooses to tell her that the friend went overseas to study filmmaking rather than crush her with the painful truth. The biggest exception to this is [[spoiler:Gremlin, who was a SerialKiller ''before'' becoming a Phantom, and ends up becoming one of the most monstrous ''Kamen Rider'' enemies in a long time]]. |
| 329 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Taiga Hanaya was introduced as a smug jerk steamrolling everything in his way. ''Kamen Rider Snipe: Episode Zero'' prequel special reveals that he used to be a kindhearted doctor, who failed to save a patient and lost everything (his job, his licence, his faith in the world) as a result. |
| 330 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'': In 2068, Ohma Zi-O is the greatest tyrant of all history, who reduced the world to wasteland and rules it with an iron fist. In 2018, the ordinary high school student Sougo Tokiwa is a sweet kid, even if a [[CloudCuckoolander little odd]] at times and with a bit of an ego. Finding out what happened in between and stopping it is what ''Zi-O''[='s=] main storyline is about. |
| 331 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Swing", Elliot Stabler's interaction with his mother highly suggests that he was a sweet kid with a dream to become an architect. His mother even suggested that he's [[TurnOutLikeHisFather turned out like his father]]. |
| 332 | * [[MagnificentBastard Ben Linus]] from ''Series/{{Lost}}'' gets a story arc showing him as an innocent kid who was abused by his father. Also includes the MoralEventHorizon. Although Ben was sorta {{creepy|Child}} even as a kid. |
| 333 | -->'''Sawyer:''' (''to Sayid'') How are you doing?\ |
| 334 | '''Sayid:''' A twelve-year-old Benjamin Linus just brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?\ |
| 335 | '''Sawyer:''' Sweet kid, huh? |
| 336 | * ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': As a young girl, Galadriel was shown to be a sweet innocent girl, if a bit too assertive. As an adult, she is a KnightTemplar worthy of being [[SatanicArchetype Morgoth's]] next successor. |
| 337 | * ''Series/TheMandalorian'': Mando [[spoiler:Din Darin]] himself. Flashbacks show he was once an innocent little boy, whose parents and an entire village got massacred by Battle Droids during the Clone Wars and was taken in by the Mandalorians. As an adult, he's a stoical, ruthless AntiHero BountyHunter who prior to meeting The Child [[spoiler:Grogu]] was OnlyInItForTheMoney. He gets better over the course of the series though. |
| 338 | * ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' has some notable non-villainous examples. |
| 339 | ** Inverted example with [[spoiler:little Princess Leia Organa who has the stubborn and irritating WellExcuseMePrincess traits seen in ''Film/ANewHope'' on full force as a little girl, to the point of being a serious hassle for [[ActionHeroBabysitter Obi-Wan]]. A far cry from the patient and sensible TeamMom Leia becomes in the rest of her appearances. Played with though, as Leia isn’t a complete RoyalBrat displaying some genuine NiceToTheWaiter behaviour]]. |
| 340 | ** Played straighter with Luke, who in the brief glimpses we see of him is (very similar to his father) a playful Tatoonie boy who wants to be a pilot, blissfully unaware [[TraumaCongaLine he’s gonna end up as a jaded and grumpy one-handed old man in several decades time]]. |
| 341 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'' Both Rumplestiltskin and Regina. Rumplestiltskin was a coward but loved his son deeply. His efforts to protect his son were what turned him into a monster. |
| 342 | ** It's taken even further with Regina. She was a genuinely good person who loved a stable boy. Her first interaction with Snow White is actually ''saving'' her, and she is later the one to tell her that "true love is the most powerful magic of all''. Then her mother murders that man she loves, an attempt to bring him back fails ([[spoiler:other characters deliberately sabotaged it to drive her over the edge]]), and decides revenge is all she has left. |
| 343 | *** It's turned back on Regina with Greg Mendell/Owen Flynn - being confronted with the fact that it's entirely due to her actions that he turned from a sweet and happy child into a magic-hating torturer drives her to an attempt at RedemptionEqualsDeath to stop his plan. |
| 344 | ** Inverted with Queen Eva, Snow's mother. She used to be a spoiled brat who spitefully tripped Cora. But by the time she married and had Snow, she became a much kinder person and quick to lecture Snow's own bratty behaviour. |
| 345 | ** Killian Jones was a good-hearted man who loved his brother and was a lieutenant of the navy and even criticized a fellow soldier for sneaking alcohol into the ship. It was his ill-fated trip to Neverland, which led to his brother getting killed by poison, and his guilt and anger at the king who sent them there to retrieve the poison to use as a weapon, that drove Killian to become a selfish, hedonistic pirate who would later be known as Captain Hook. |
| 346 | * In ''Series/{{Popular}}'' Emory Dick notes his twin sisters Emily and Emma used to be nice, but after puberty, they became burgeoning {{Alpha Bitch}}es. They show up in the episode wearing [[AgeInappropriateDress tight tops and skirts really short for their age]], and ask Nichole and Mary Cherry to train them on how to be the top girls in junior high. They later even turn on Nicky and Mary, wearing dresses and [[PrettyInMink furs]] at a party [[DressesTheSame the same as what Nichole and Mary are wearing]]. |
| 347 | * Arnold Rimmer from ''Series/RedDwarf''. As seen in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITimeslides Timeslides]]", the beginning of "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIVDimensionJump Dimension Jump]]" and Rimmer's own accounts, was once a sweet, polite little boy who was: extensively [[BigBrotherBully bullied by his three older brothers]] and classmates, [[ParentalNeglect neglected]] by his adulterous mother, [[WellDoneSonGuy domineered]] by his insane father, tied to spit roast by his scout troop [[CapturedByCannibals who planned to eat him]], accidentally molested by his uncle who mistook his bedroom for his mother's and had his shoes thrown in the septic tank "while he was wearing them". All these experiences turned Rimmer into the glorious [[{{Jerkass}} Smeghead]] we know today, although his better qualities are present on occasion. Lampshaded in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonVTerrorform Terrorform]]" where in a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, the boys find metaphysical gravestones of Rimmer's Generosity (died age 9), Honor (died age 12) as well as his Charm which judging by the tiny gravestone died when he was a toddler. |
| 348 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Lex Luthor]] doesn't really count as in his case it's a FaceHeelTurn that happens during the show, but [[LongLostRelative his younger half-sister]] [[TheBaroness Tess Mercer]] does. Just compare the woman from the flashbacks in "Toxic" to the cold BrokenAce in the present-day timeline before making a HeelFaceTurn. |
| 349 | * In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', [[AVillainNamedKhan Khan Noonien Singh]] was one of Earth's most notorious dictators and the reason why TheFederation adopted a NoTranshumanismAllowed policy on genetic engineering. ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'', however, shows that at one time, he was a precocious and lonely boy frightened by an AssassinationAttempt. |
| 350 | * Max's older brother Billy from ''Series/StrangerThings'' started out as a very nice kid who genuinely loved his mother, but his cruel abusive father treated him horribly and eventually turned him into the psychopathic asshole he is in the present. |
| 351 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': |
| 352 | ** ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'': Stinger/Sasori Orange is introduced as a jaded and withdrawn person, who only works with the team [[IneffectualLoner out]] of [[ImNotHereToMakeFriends necessity]]. The feelings are mostly mutual but then they start finding out bits about his past. He was raised by his kind older brother, who protected him from the older tribesmen bullying him. Stinger had to watch as his BloodKnight tendencies slowly eclipsed his good nature and as if that was not enough, Scorpio later joined Jark Matter and led the assault on his former tribe, killing everyone else but Stinger. Needless to say, Stinger is ''very'' messed up person. |
| 353 | ** ''Series/OhsamaSentaiKingOhger'': Rcules is a selfish, cynical despot who cares nothing for his people and only wants more power in the present day, but flashbacks to when he was younger show that he once was an idealist who dreamed of becoming TheGoodKing. What caused him to undergo such a change in personality isn't revealed until near the end of the show. [[spoiler:It turns out that Rcules was GoodAllAlong and had to pretend to be evil in order to get an opportunity kill the true BigBad]]. |
| 354 | * ''Series/{{Ted|2024}}'': |
| 355 | ** While 1993 Ted is still as foul-mouthed and perverted as he is in [[Film/{{Ted}} the films]], he's more full of optimism and joy at what life and the future will bring compared to his jaded attitude in adulthood. |
| 356 | ** The same goes for John, who's far more active and engaged in his family's lives compared to his adult self, who is consistently called out for being a {{Manchild}}. |
| 357 | * Debbie Pelt from ''Series/TrueBlood''. It's almost painful to watch a flashback that includes the sweet, well-intentioned girl you know will become a V-addicted nutcase. |
| 358 | * ''Series/{{The Umbrella Academy|2019}}'': |
| 359 | ** Diego, Klaus, and Vanya out of the siblings were much more innocent and sweet when they were little kids compared when their adult selves. Diego is now a violent vigilante with a chip on his shoulder, Klaus is now a cowardly drug addict and Vanya is now an emotionally repressed BrokenBird who feels she is a useless burden to her family due to seemingly lacking powers. All of this is the result of their cruel adoptive father Reginald Hargreeves putting them through TrainingFromHell from an early age, emotionally abusing them, and neglecting their feelings. |
| 360 | ** Played with regarding Five, as a boy he was an arrogant jerk who wanted to prove to Hargreeves he was capable of pushing the limits of his powers. After using his TimeTravel powers to send himself into the BadFuture and growing old there, Five matures becoming an old, jaded man wanting to set SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Even after going back to the past and becoming a boy again, he's much less pompous and cares greatly for his siblings. |
| 361 | ** [[spoiler: Leonard was once a sweet boy who idolized the Umbrella Academy siblings and wanted to be heroes just like them, only to be cruelly rebuffed. After going home to his abusive father who beat him for his actions and demanded he grab him a beer, Leonard grabbed a hammer and killed his father, becoming a vengeful psychopath.]] |
| 362 | * ''Series/WandaVision'' has an ''extremely'' [[TearJerker tragic]] example [[spoiler: as we see a {{flashback}} of Wanda Maximoff's childhood in Sokovia, Wanda was once a sweet and cheerful girl who loved sitting with her family watching the wholesome American [[{{Sitcom}} sitcoms]] her father managed to find and she dreamed of being like the glamorous women on the TV who didn't live in a war-torn country. One night during their routine family TV time, a mortar shell from Stark Industries bombs their house killing her parents and leaving her and her brother Pietro sitting waiting for it to go off under a table. Afterwards Wanda went from innocent girl to BrokenBird and [[ComicBook/{{Hydra}} Hydra]] volunteer to supervillain turned AntiHero who after losing her brother and later her android husband eventually snapped and created a fake reality based on the idyllic sitcom family life she wanted when she was little]]. |
| 363 | * ''Series/{{Willow}}'': According to Willow, Bavmorda was much like Dove/Elora when she was young: bright, curious, and full of promise. Then she was abducted and indoctrinated by the Crow, twisting her into doing evil. |
| 364 | * In ''Series/{{The Witcher|2019}}'' as seen by the flashbacks to his childhood with his "Ma" Visenna in the finale episode of Season 1, Geralt was once an adorable little MommasBoy full of optimism. Completely unlike TheStoic DeadpanSnarker KnightInSourArmor he is in the present. |
| 365 | [[/folder]] |
| 366 | |
| 367 | [[folder:Manhwa]] |
| 368 | * The main character Jae Hyuk of the manhwa ''Manhwa/ImmortalRegis'' started out as a sweet OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent devoted to caring for his DelicateAndSickly little brother. Then both of them got dragged into another dimension full of swords and sorcery and monsters. Jae Hyuk is forced into the role of TheHero while his little brother [[spoiler:eventually becomes the host of the BigBad]]. Over the course of the series, Jae Hyuk becomes more and more jaded and bitter about having his old life ripped away from him (being turned into an undead abomination didn't help either). In the sequel series ''Cavalier of the Abyss'' which takes place years later, Jae Hyuk has become the new king of the other world. The first thing we see him do is ruthlessly order ThePurge of a village of suspected rebels -- men, women, and children alike are all put to the sword. He also chops off the arm of a soldier who questioned his orders. He's not so sweet anymore. |
| 369 | [[/folder]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 372 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''Joe's Garage'' by Music/FrankZappa. Joe's neighbors viewed him as this ("He used to cut my grass, he was a very nice boy."), until he discovered rock 'n roll. |
| 373 | * The song "Junge" by German band ''Music/DieArzte'': |
| 374 | -->And you were such a sweet child |
| 375 | * Used in Music/{{Lordi}}'s "The Kids Who Want To Play With The Dead", which is a blasting of the [[OldMediaAreEvil the old media's]] hatred of [[NewMediaAreEvil the new media]] and love of blaming them ("The must have been some dangerous toys, and the music sings of murderous ploys...") |
| 376 | * Music/AliceCooper, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE1vGT-hlLI "No More Mr. Nice Guy"]]. First-person, too. |
| 377 | ** "I used to be such a sweet sweet thing till they got a hold of me..." |
| 378 | *** Although he's a pretty nice guy as an adult. The song's arguably about the way the media painted his character based on his stage appearance. |
| 379 | * Averted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js4yGcgO6hk "Only a Lad"]] by Music/OingoBoingo. |
| 380 | * Music/TheDecemberists' song "Shankill Butchers" (which relates the boogeyman version of the real [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Ulster paramilitary gang]] that Belfast mums of the era were so scared of): |
| 381 | -->They used to be just like me and you, |
| 382 | -->They used to be sweet little boys |
| 383 | -->But something went horribly askew |
| 384 | -->Now killing is their only source of joy |
| 385 | * The sweetest Girl by Music/NickiMinaj. "She used to be...(Yeah, she used to be the sweetest girl!) When a good girl gone she gone forever." |
| 386 | * Morrissey, "Used to be a Sweet Boy" and "The World is Full of Crashing Bores." |
| 387 | * "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" by ''Music/GlassAnimals'' is from the perspective of someone finding out their childhood friend grew up to be a school shooter. |
| 388 | * Music/{{Eminem}}, "I'm Back:" |
| 389 | -->I used to be my mommy's little angel at twelve.\ |
| 390 | At thirteen, I was putting shells in a gauge on a shelf. |
| 391 | [[/folder]] |
| 392 | |
| 393 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 394 | * Even fans who watched Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside had to look twice before they realized the obnoxious braggart out to retire Wrestling/BookerT, Luke Hawx, was once the sweet Altar Boy who hung out with Seth Delay, [[Wrestling/EvanBourne Matt Sydal]] and Wrestling/AJStyles. Hawx doesn't like them anymore either. |
| 395 | * The Norfolk Dolls of the FWA/WWA Academies started wrestling in their early teens and were [[KidAppealCharacter instant hits]] with the little girls in attendance. Melody would increasingly pattern herself after her manager, Sam Knee, going by such names as "Melody Knee" and "Sammi Baynze", also becoming quite TheBully in to wrestlers she was once like. |
| 396 | [[/folder]] |
| 397 | |
| 398 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 399 | * ''Radio/BleakExpectations:'' |
| 400 | ** Series BigBad Mr. Benevolent was a good-natured kid. Then there were three abusive stepfathers, the first of whom deported or killed all his friends, the second murdered and ate his pets, and the third had him sent to Antarctica. By the time he gets back, he learns his mother had been doing all this to make sure he became a complete bastard because he's descended from Judas Iscariot[[spoiler:'s accountant]]. However, it's learning that his childhood sweetheart had married another, which he ''just'' missed, and getting taunted about it by an obnoxious kid that pushes him over into full evil. |
| 401 | ** Protagonist Pip Bin. In his early life, starting in his mid-teens, he's generally good-natured (if a little Victorian, and entirely thoughtless). By the point of the framing story, the elderly Sir Phillip Bin is a curmudgeonly, sexist jerkass of the highest order. |
| 402 | [[/folder]] |
| 403 | |
| 404 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 405 | * Jae from ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'' used to be an average young girl with dreams of being a florist, but when her parents got too strict with her she became surly and rebellious, eventually joining up with [[CardCarryingVillain Daigo's]] gang. |
| 406 | * ''Roleplay/TheDoomyAdventuresOfIrkenDoominess'': |
| 407 | ** Melissa as a smeet was a very frail and kind irken, until she was abused by her classmates, lost her sanity, began killing lots of people, got a taste for human blood, and overall became quite messed up. |
| 408 | ** Gar, who was normal as a smeet, got ridiculed by everyone, was singled out to be the tallest's personal [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]], started HearingVoices, and got a major SanitySlippage which resulted in her trying to kill the tallest. |
| 409 | ** Deef might qualify since WordOfGod states his mother cared about him up until the age of six when she decided he was able to take care of himself. He still lives with her but seems neglected by her. That said, Deef isn't insane, he's just strange and has NoSocialSkills. |
| 410 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} with Nel who used to be a [[EnfantTerrible homicidal jerk]] and is now a very nice human. |
| 411 | * Happens frequently in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' if you read [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters pre-game]]. Many characters come off as likable, friendly people, only to be [[BreakTheCutie broken]] once the game starts, in a good portion of cases turning AxCrazy. As a result, you will be seeing this trope a lot, especially if the character shows up in pre-game frequently or there are any flashbacks involving the character. |
| 412 | [[/folder]] |
| 413 | |
| 414 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 415 | * ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'''s monsters tend to have their own stories. In the case of the charmer monsters, Eria is hinted to grow up into Gishiki Ariel. It is unknown whether or not this was of her own free will or if she was brainwashed like other Gishiki monsters. However, she went from a sweet little girl into a ruthless warlord. |
| 416 | ** Her friend Gagagigo started his career as the little and cute Gigobyte and fights along with Eria. As the grown-up Gagagigo he eventually left her and someday he fought Freed the Brave Wanderer, ended up being trapped in another dimension. He met Marauding Captain and fought against Inpachi, who later appeared again as Blazing Inpachi; the Marauding Captain took the bullet, which inspired Gagagigo to do the same for one of the Captain's men during the war against Invader of Darkness. Later, in the hope of defeating Invader of Darkness, he asked the MadScientist Kozaky to make him stronger who rebuilds his body to the corrupted Giga Gagagigo. When he fought against Freed the Brave Wanderer again in his native dimension, he got his own attack reflected and lost. Obsessed with gaining strength to defeat his rivals, he continued his rampage and eventually transformed into Gogiga Gagagigo and truly lost his soul. |
| 417 | *** The following story (which is "written" ''many'' years after his transformation) inverts his dark development as he fought Freed the Brave Wanderer again, finally overpowering him, but Marauding Captain appeared and protected him before Gogiga Gagagigo gave him the finishing blow. Instead of following his corrupted instincts, Gogigo Gagagigo understands Marauding Captain's actions and forsakes his quest for power. Thus, he finally becomes the strong warrior of justice he once sought out to be, Gagagigo the Risen. |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 421 | * ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk19qxlon51qa5tboo1_500.jpg 9-year-old Miles Edgeworth]] was [[ChildrenAreInnocent idealistic]] and ''adorable to the max''. Then, [[spoiler:his father was murdered. Before his eyes. And thinking ''he'' killed his father by accident when trying to stop a security guard fearing oxygen loss by throwing a gun at him]]. Edgeworth was embedded with a severe phobia of elevators and earthquakes, and a hatred for criminals, defense attorneys, and ''himself'' after this. Even after [[spoiler:his eventual HeelFaceTurn]], he still has trouble relearning the social skills he lost due to this trauma and always comes across as [[http://infinityrpg.pbworks.com/f/1228359533/gyakuten-kenji-artwork-01.jpg blunt, insensitive and cold to others]]. |
| 422 | * In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', Ryunosuke is baffled to discover Barok van Zieks, infamous Grim Reaper of the Bailey, used to be known as the "little darling" of his family and was purported to be a rather sweet, unassuming man all the way up to university. While the decade's worth of public infamy and survived assassination attempts explain some of his present persona, the real CynicismCatalyst was [[spoiler:his [[BigBrotherWorship much-revered]] brother's murder at the hands of a trusted family friend, who was later convicted as a SerialKiller]]. |
| 423 | * ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'': According to Marco, Dennis used to be a quiet, unassuming kid who was nice enough to fix his classmates’ computers whenever they asked and without asking for anything in return. Dennis’s dad describes his son as weak and “sentimental,” which he probably uses to describe anyone (especially a male) with a kind heart. Possibly a subversion, however, as the protagonist suspects that Dennis was fixing his classmates’ computers to find and keep nudes of the girls. |
| 424 | * [[spoiler:Archer]] from ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', though in a subversion [[spoiler:he's just as broken inside now as he was when he was younger -- he's just grown more outwardly cynical and self-aware towards his inner failings]]. ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'' shows this to be the case with [[spoiler:Gilgamesh]], and ''Literature/FateZero'' with [[spoiler:Kiritsugu]] as well. |
| 425 | ** ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' shows that likewise, Medea was a cheerful girl with a specialization in healing magecraft. After being {{Mind Rape}}d into loving Jason (and being treated like garbage by him, culminating in an attempt to abandon her and their children), she became the bitter Witch of Betrayal summoned as the Fifth Holy Grail War's Caster. When Atalante, Medea's caretaker in her childhood, finds out about this after she gets summoned, [[LaughingMad Atalante laughs so hard]], [[LaughThemselvesSick she faints from the agony]]. |
| 426 | * [[spoiler:Akane Kurashiki, aka June]] in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors''. [[spoiler:She used to be a sweet girl, but the trauma of the first Nonary Game turned her into a person willing to do anything for the sake of ensuring her survival and later, saving the world - whether that means sacrificing her life (for the latter) or someone else's.]] In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward''[[spoiler: her childhood friend Junpei Tenmyouji remarks at the end that the Akane he knew is gone]]. |
| 427 | * ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'': |
| 428 | ** In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler:Miyo Takano]] used to be a cute, sweet girl who liked to collect flags and go eat outside with her parents. A car crash, which causes the death of said parents, results in her getting sent to a ''horrible'' [[OrphanageOfFear foster home]] where she spends "not so nice" [[BreakTheCutie moments]]. Much later, she's out [[spoiler:[[MoralEventHorizon murdering children]] to release an illness that'll kill hundreds, all while [[EvilLaugh laughing maniacally]] and spouting [[AGodAmI self-glorifying lines]]]]. |
| 429 | ** In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', the main antagonist, the [[spoiler:seemingly]] AxCrazy sadistic Beatrice was once [[spoiler:a timid young servant named Yasu who wanted to learn magic to spice up [[AmbiguousGender his/her]] not really nice life]]. While Beatrice isn't actually as sadistic as she seems, she still has a ''lot'' of issues. |
| 430 | [[/folder]] |
| 431 | |
| 432 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 433 | * A bitter {{Jerkass}} today, Bitey of the ''WebAnimation/{{Brackenwood}}'' series used to be a sweet little thing, but years of loneliness, being the LastOfHisKind, and [[ParentalAbandonment being abandoned]] by an adoptive family of Morrugs has changed that. |
| 434 | * The titular character in WebAnimation/CaillouTheGrownUp started out as a sweet innocent child, but years of his parents spoiling him and never giving him any sort of discipline eventually turned him into a selfish [[PsychopathicManChild psychopathic adult with the mind of a child]]. |
| 435 | * ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Subverted with Strong Bad; he was still a bully to his brother Strong Sad when they were kids, but he sometimes showed him affection like giving him noogies. |
| 436 | * ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'': When we are first introduced to Agent Washington, he is portrayed as being strict, cold, and somewhat ruthless towards those around him while keeping up a professional and stoic demeanor. It is revealed that his behavior was the result of an incident he had with his A.I., Epsilon, who went insane and committed suicide while ''in his head''. The Freelancer Trilogy furthers how much the Epsilon Incident changed Washington by showing how he was practically the youngest, most naive of the freelancers before being implanted with Epsilon. His time with the Reds and Blues has softened him up again, though. |
| 437 | * WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}: [[Characters/RWBYCinderFall Cinder Fall]] was not always the cruel and power-hungry maniac that she's become. As a child, she was bullied by the other orphans and then cruelly abused by her adoptive "family". Meeting Rhodes gave her hope for the future, and she tried to hold on until she was old enough to apply to the Huntsmen Academy. She lasted about five years, before being pushed to breaking point by her family and then by Rhodes for trying to arrest her for murdering her family. That ended her chance for becoming a Huntress and started her down the road of becoming a villainess. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 441 | * Sometimes used in ''ComicBook/ChickTracts''. Examples include Bruce in "Fallen" and Harry in "Fairy Tales". |
| 442 | * ''Webcomic/ClinicOfHorrors'': As a child, Bianca Abercrombie was a plucky and cheerful girl full of life. Years of emotional abuse from her [[AbusiveParents mother]] resulted in her becoming cold toward other people. |
| 443 | * Setz from ''Webcomic/{{Crepuscule}}'' is shown to be a bright-spirited young boy in the prologue chapters but is later shown to be a fairly apathetic, uncaring guy after the TimeSkip. |
| 444 | * "Player Two is red. He's a quiet sort of lunatic. The type everyone always says "was such a nice kid" after they find like, twenty human faces in his freezer." |
| 445 | -->Player Two character bio, ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' |
| 446 | * ''Webcomic/EvasiveAction'' shows an eleven-year-old Ysanne Isard sporting a shy smile and talking about how great her dad is as he brings her to work with him. [[Literature/XWingSeries Twenty-five years later]], she is a hardened sadist who has her father executed. |
| 447 | * ''Webcomic/GuildedAge'': Payet seemed like a pretty nice kid before a whole town convinced him he was TheChosenOne and showered him with gifts and easy women. |
| 448 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': |
| 449 | ** [[{{Munchkin}} Vriska Serket]] may [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor play jump-rope]] with the MoralEventHorizon, but as a kid she was ''[[http://homestuck.com/?s=6&p=005374 positively adorable.]]'' |
| 450 | ** [[LadyOfBlackMagic Rose]] [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Lalonde]] started off as a [[TheSmartGuy mature]] yet sweet 13-year-old who just wanted to play a game with her friends [[ItMakesSenseInContext so she could see her dead cat again]]. Once the game got started, she started communing with [[EldritchAbomination the Horrorterrors]] and wielding [[BlackMagicianGirl dark magic]]. She eventually turned into ''[[http://homestuck.com/?s=6&p=005543 this.]]'' [[spoiler:She gets better, though.]] |
| 451 | ** Aradia can count as an example, being a cheerful AdventureArchaeologist before [[spoiler:dying]]. She becomes the kind of person who enjoys breaking things for amusement and [[YouCantFightFate claiming there is no free will]]. [[spoiler:She gets better during the course of the story]]. |
| 452 | ** Averted with [[spoiler:[[BigBad Lord English]]]]. His younger self [[spoiler:Caliborn]] is almost as bad as he is now, just smaller and constrained. |
| 453 | ** Kurloz Makara seems to have been a pretty nice normal teenager until [[spoiler:he had some kind of EldritchAbomination nightmare, mutilated his own mouth, and started working for the abovementioned BigBad]]. His dancestor Gamzee similarly was fine until he ran out of sopor slime; it's likely he [[spoiler:would still have turned to work for Lord English, but would have done so more subtly and without murdering Equius and Nepeta, had he never been on the drugs]]. |
| 454 | ** Most of Kurloz's group fit this trope thanks to being stuck as "kids" for [[NotGrowingUpSucks several millennia]]. [[TheBully Cronus]] [[EntitledToHaveYou Ampora]] was a wannabe magician who hoped to defeat an evil wizard, [[{{Yandere}} Damara]] [[ClingyJealousGirl Megido]] was a lovestruck schoolgirl that spoke little English, and [[{{Hypocrite}} Kankri]] [[InsufferableGenius Vantas]] planned to reform his discriminatory society. |
| 455 | *** Damara's case is a little more complicated, as she turned significantly darker even before the whole "stuck as immortal teenage ghosts on a plane of shifting dreams" thing came into play. She was originally a positively sweet and highly insecure girl from a far-off corner of their home planet ("Alterniasia", Beforus' FantasyCounterpartCulture of Japan) with a poor command of standard [[AliensSpeakingEnglish Beforan]] language. She has however found love in the form of OccidentalOtaku Rufioh... that is, until he got bored of her and started cheating on her with Horuss, another member of the group, breaking her heart and sense of trust. (It's implied that the only reason he hooked up with her was because of his ForeignCultureFetish.) Then their leader Meenah started relentlessly bullying her about it, up until the point where Damara snapped, [[spoiler: went on a killing spree murdering Meenah and almost killing Rufioh too]], and [[spoiler: selling out her entire session to [[SpacetimeEater Lord English]] as revenge]]. By the time the heroes meet her, she's long past her sweet personality and has regressed into an embittered, vulgar, cynical JerkassWoobie. |
| 456 | * In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Fructose Riboflavin used to be a ''nice'' little larva on planet Butane. But his dad was a highway bandit. And then his dad [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/486 got killed...]] |
| 457 | * Villainous Cyborg Gear from ''Webcomic/KiwiBlitz'' was a cute little girl named Margaret before she received a double dose of DarkAndTroubledPast followed by a heaping helping of CyberneticsEatYourSoul. |
| 458 | * [[spoiler:Richard]] from ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'' may qualify. |
| 459 | * [[spoiler:Shields [=McKloskey=]]] from ''Webcomic/October20th'' was an outgoing, high-spirited boy before he was sucked into the world of horrors and the unknown. |
| 460 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 461 | ** Averted in the case of Xykon -- the whole point of the ''[[Recap/TheOrderOfTheStickStartOfDarkness Start of Darkness]]'' prequel book was to show that he had no redeeming features whatsoever and never did. In the creator's words, not only is he thoroughly evil, he's also sort of a dick. While he may not have been evil when he first discovered his gift for Necromancy at the age of 4, by the age of 12 he's killing a CaptainErsatz of Professor Xavier (granted, one who was being an incredible dick about [[InsufferableGenius how wizards are inherently better than sorcerers]]), zombifying him and siccing him and his zombified grandma on his parents. |
| 462 | ** Played straight with [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Redcloak]] and his close-knit family, though. For goblins, they were quite nice people. |
| 463 | * [[BigBadDuumvirate Brian and Angelo]] are revealed to have shades of this in ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure''. Brian and his [[TheEmpire empire]] originally assisted followers of The Angel of Justice making a large part of the main Manjulias continent safer from [[AlwaysChaoticEvil savage creatures.]] Angelo was originally a member of [[LawfulGood The Angel of Justice's]] clergy but eventually turned away from his goddess due to his [[UngratefulBastard bad experiences]] with many of the people he helped. |
| 464 | * The gangsters of Lackadaisy used to be innocent, streetwise kids before they grew up to be the tough guys they are in the comic. |
| 465 | * ''Webcomic/PixieAndBrutus'': A picture of [[DarkIsNotEvil Brutus]] as a rookie has Pixie excitedly remark how small and cute he was, and Brutus reluctantly agrees after trying to brush it off as him being a puppy back then. When Pixie asks about the other person in the picture, Brutus says that it was his former handler Sgt. Sergio Castillo. Pixie tells him he looks like a nice guy, Brutus says that he was. |
| 466 | * ''Webcomic/{{Rebirth}}'': Neo used to be a cheerful, energetic kid with a close relationship with his father... until Noah [[spoiler: found out Neo was Ian’s child, told him not to call him his father and that he wasn’t his son, and ignored him for most of his life]]. |
| 467 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140209190506/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3050 an appeal on the grounds she wasn't always a devil girl.]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140209190506/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4037 Neither was Lil' Evil always evil]]. |
| 468 | * Trace Legacy from ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'' was an OK guy, until he tried using Necromancy to [[{{Necromantic}} resurrect his recently-slain wife]]. |
| 469 | [[/folder]] |
| 470 | |
| 471 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 472 | * Adam from ''WebVideo/ArbyNTheChief'' is an 8-year-old boy who's a member of Chaos Theosis, a group of [[PsychoForHire cyberterrorists]] who wreak havoc across Xbox's Network. However, he is demonstrated to be the most cruel and volatile of all its members. [[spoiler:He always screams and shouts online, verbally abuses his mother and friends, [[ForTheEvulz gleefully enjoys killing people for fun]], and stealing their account information to do what he feels like doing with it.]] During his final appearance though, when his mom finally breaks down asking what can be done to make him behave, she reminds him (and his friends) that was once a very happy young boy who would play nicely until playing Halo corrupted him into the monstrous child he's become. Adam however coldly dismisses her yet again and continues acting the way he does. [[spoiler:[[TheDogBitesBack Needless to say, this comes back to bite Adam at his demise, HARD]].]] |
| 473 | * WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick used to be an adorable girl who wanted a fairytale wedding when she was six, had quite a few friends, and fell in love with a [[Film/{{Dragonheart}} dragon]] because he was honorable. Then bullying, abuse, becoming a BrattyTeenageDaughter, and turning to alcoholism happened, so now she's a lonely, psychopathic BrokenBird. Again, ouch. |
| 474 | * Done in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's "Commercials Special". When he's on the edge of a DespairEventHorizon, he picks up a photo of himself as a kid and angsts about how he had so much promise and dreams back then. So that sweet, "perfect" child went through a BreakTheCutie (parental abuse, date rape, bullying, and stalkers) and became a cynical, depressed man who has nothing left in his life but reviewing. He recovers, though. |
| 475 | * ''WebVideo/TwelveHundredGhosts'' shows Ebenezer Scrooge used to be nice when he was younger, particularly as a baby when he was delighted to get a rattle as a Christmas present. |
| 476 | * In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', after [[VillainProtagonist Taylor]] [[spoiler:has her secret identity exposed]], news crews go around to talk to the few people who knew her, who are all astonished that the quiet, unassuming, bullied teenager they knew is now the single most powerful and brutal supervillain in the city. |
| 477 | [[/folder]] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 480 | * ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Hayley Smith is a 19-year-old SoapboxSadie who is perpetually angry, depressed and cynical. But when she was a young girl, she was a normal cheerful and loving child whom everyone called "Happy Hayley". The change in her demeanor happened on her seventh birthday when she saw a baby seal being clubbed to death on the news, being her first exposure to life's unpleasantness. |
| 481 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': The whole damn point of the show. The [[MadBomber explosively insane]] Jinx was once the sweet TagAlongKid Powder who just wanted to help. [[spoiler:Sadly, her idea of 'helping' was using her GadgeteerGenius skills towards building a number of bombs in the hopes of eventually building a working one to help her family in a fight. [[GoneHorriblyRight She succeeded in the first part, not so much the second]].]] |
| 482 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': [[Characters/ArcherSterlingArcher The title character]] was a fairly normal kid, but his mother wasn't around at all until he was 5, and messed him up even worse after she returned. |
| 483 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': |
| 484 | ** While hiding out in Zuko's summer home, the group find [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110329213952/avatar/images/4/45/Baby_Ozai.png a picture of a smiling and sweet-looking boy]] and tease Zuko about it. But much to Team Gaang's dismay, Zuko reveals that it's not of him -- it's a picture of his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderFireLordOzai Fire Lord Ozai]]. They're left [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil baffled and horrified at this]], wondering how such an innocent toddler would one day become the genocidal, sociopathic, and warmongering tyrant they're now up against. Even [[InvokedTrope invoked]]: |
| 485 | --->'''Suki:''' But he [Ozai] looks so sweet and innocent...\ |
| 486 | '''Zuko:''' Well, that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster and the worst father in the history of fathers. |
| 487 | ** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZuko Prince Zuko]] himself counts. Even after his [[spoiler:HeelFaceTurn]], Zuko is still a [[PerpetualFrowner perpetually frowning]] [[EmoTeen emo]] [[IneffectualLoner loner]], [[spoiler:though he softens quite a bit as he becomes a good guy]]. But in flashbacks, he's shown to actually have been a genuinely sweet, happy kid... at least until the [[StartOfDarkness shit hit the fan]]. The series illustrates this with [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/1703ef0809b7893d2ed1f3fed0db8de6/tumblr_inline_nko752iLLp1sqmymu.png a still image of him from a flashback before a lightning strike transition to him in the present]]. |
| 488 | ** Fire Lord Sozin, [[PredecessorVillain the man who began the Hundred Year War]] represents a bit of an older example, but as a teenager, he is shown to be a kind and generous youth who thinks the world of his best friend, Roku. Even after learning Roku was the Avatar, rather than reacting with jealousy, he gives him his royal heirloom hairpiece as a keepsake before he goes off to training. Years later, in a desire to spread his nation's prosperity to the rest of the world, [[MurderByInaction he leaves said best friend to die to remove an obstacle to his plans]], sparks a brutal war and commits unspeakable atrocities, including the nearly complete genocide of the Air Nomads. It's hinted that some of the sweet kid he used to be is still buried deep inside, as a number of his lines right before his death hint at [[WasItReallyWorthIt deep regret for his actions]], even if he can't bring himself to outright admit them. |
| 489 | ---> '''Sozin:''' As I feel my own life dimming, I can't help but think of a time when everything was so much brighter... |
| 490 | * ''WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes'': |
| 491 | ** Sylvester and Tweety used to be [[OddFriendship best]] [[{{Irony}} friends]] before becoming arch enemies. In fact, Sylvester was a cute dorky ShrinkingViolet when still a kitten. |
| 492 | ** Taz was shown to be an adorably innocent little child, who was very sensitive and prone to [[TheWoobie crying a lot after his feelings were hurt]]. A far [[{{Pun}} cry]] from the AxCrazy ExtremeOmnivore seen in the classic cartoons. |
| 493 | ** Marvin the Martian was an antisocial ShrinkingViolet who just wanted friends before becoming an OmnicidalManiac trying to blow up the Earth. |
| 494 | * ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': |
| 495 | ** [[Characters/BojackHorsemanBojackHorseman The title character]] is a major JerkAss in present-day, but his upbringing [[AbusiveParents was less]] [[ResentfulGuardian than stellar]]. |
| 496 | --->'''Beatrice''': You know, I was beautiful before I got pregnant with you.\ |
| 497 | '''Young Bojack''': ''(quietly)'' I know.\ |
| 498 | '''Beatrice''': You ruined me, Bojack.\ |
| 499 | '''Young Bojack''': ''(sadder)'' I know.\ |
| 500 | '''Beatrice''': You better grow up to be something great to make up for all the damage you've done.\ |
| 501 | '''Young Bojack''': I will. |
| 502 | ** This was also the case with Beatrice. She was a happy little girl in TheForties who watched her family fall apart following her brother's wartime death, culminating in her mother's breakdown, drunken endangerment of Beatrice in a car crash, and eventual lobotomy where Beatrice was told never to love anybody that much again. What little chance she had of recovering was crushed when her father callously burned her things in a fire and threatened to lobotomize her just like her mother if she ever cried or showed too much emotion again. |
| 503 | ** As a child, Sarah Lynn was as sweet and friendly as the character she played on ''Horsin' Around''. She lost her innocence early, and a life of Hollywood/music industry excess had turned her from a charity-running TeenIdol into a spoiled DramaQueen. |
| 504 | * ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': Inverted. The [[CoolOldLady old, but sweet and kind]] Muriel was shown in the episode "Little Muriel" to have been an [[BrattyHalfPint obnoxious brat]] as a child. Played straight with her husband Eustace, who is implied to have been a good child up until the treatment he received [[TheUnfavourite from his mother and brother]], thus turning him into the GrumpyOldMan he is in the show. |
| 505 | * ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'': Dan. In the episode "[[WholeEpisodeFlashback Summer Camp]]", Dan is bullied and responds by telling the camp director. Contrast that with how nowadays his first response to anything frustrating, no matter what or how small the problem is, is almost always to get revenge. |
| 506 | * ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': This incarnation of Doofus Drake was this, apparently. His [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes beloved grandmother]] left him her vast fortune when he was too young to handle it. In the present day, he's an out-of-control {{Bratty Half Pint}} who can go [[HairTriggerTemper full-blown]] {{Yandere}} at the drop of a hat. The butler and maid who serve him? Those are ''his parents''. |
| 507 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Denzel Crocker was a near-perfect child who was loved by everybody. However, [[spoiler:losing his fairies]] was his StartOfDarkness. |
| 508 | * ''WesternAnimation/GrojBand'': Trina Riffin was once a sweet girl, but she locked her old self (known as "Katrina") away in her mind and turned evil (and at least one of the reasons why was [[LoveMakesYouEvil to impress her crush]]). |
| 509 | * ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': "Helga on the Couch" shows us in a flashback that [[Characters/HeyArnoldHelgaGPataki Helga G. Pataki]] was a normal girl who was so neglected and ignored by her parents that she had to walk to preschool by herself, getting splashed with mud and having her lunch stolen by a dog. She then meets Arnold, probably the first person to ever show her genuine affection, and immediately falls for him. After Harold steals her graham crackers and the other kids start laughing at her, she starts bullying them in order to get respect. |
| 510 | * ''Itsy Bitsy Spider'': Zig-zagged in the 1993 cartoon (based on the animated short subject that played with ''Bebe's Kids'' in theaters). Leslie -- the little girl who befriends Itsy -- was a sweet, introverted kid in the short and first season. Many episodes in Season 2 have her a head-slapping bitch. |
| 511 | * ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': Amazingly, Lucius VII. He's {{Satan}} (albeit a [[HarmlessVillain mostly incompetent one]]), but what {{flashback}}s we get of his childhood paint him as actually cute and rather sympathetic, being abused by his father or the people of Miseryville. Then again, given [[CrapsackWorld the place he lives in]], it's probably no surprise he grew up the way he did. |
| 512 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': |
| 513 | ** Noatak [[spoiler:who eventually adopted the name Amon]] was described as being a kind boy who always strove to help and be fair to everyone. It didn't last... Or rather, it did, but in the [[DarkMessiah darkest]] [[TallPoppySyndrome way]] [[KnightTemplar possible]]. |
| 514 | ** Noatak's younger brother, [[spoiler:Tarrlok]], was a [[ShrinkingViolet very sweet and timid boy]]. his adult version...[[SmugSnake Not]] [[CorruptPolitician so much]]. |
| 515 | ** Season 4 gives us an older example in [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]]. In Season 3, she was a kind and caring person who rescued Korra's father from certain death and was devoted to Suyin. Suyin even claimed she was like a daughter to her. But the fateful fallout with her over how to save the Earth Kingdom and the subsequent 3 years would turn her into a cold, power-hungry tyrant. |
| 516 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': [[CrankyNeighbor Mr. Grouse]] [[https://theloudhouse.fandom.com/wiki/File:S2E01_Young_Mr._Grouse.png is revealed to have been one]] in "[[ChristmasEpisode 11 Louds A Leaping]]". |
| 517 | * ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'': Although he had shades of being a SpoiledBrat especially after his [[spoiler:mother's death and his father's initial refusal to hit him]], Clay Puppington was revealed to be this in "Passing." [[GenerationXerox He was actually somewhat Orel-like]]. |
| 518 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 519 | ** [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Nightmare Moon]] used to be a {{Socially Awkward Hero}}ine [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessLuna Princess Luna]] before [[GreenEyedMonster bitterness and jealousy]] toward her sister twisted her into a monster. Subverted in that not only did she [[HeelFaceTurn get better]], but WordOfGod says that she was [[BrainwashedAndCrazy actually corrupted by outside forces]] and not acting of her own accord. |
| 520 | ** Gilda the griffon was an adorably shy chick when she met and became fast friends with Rainbow Dash at flight camp. Growing up with other griffons at Griffonstone turned her into a {{jerkass}} until Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie showed her the {{the power of|Friendship}} [[ItMakesSenseInContext baking powder]]. |
| 521 | ** The ShowWithinAShow in "A Hearth's Warming Tail" has Snowfall Frost, who was a happy, sociable filly until a SternTeacher turned her into TheScrooge. |
| 522 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': |
| 523 | ** Flashbacks to her teenage years depict Odalia Blight as being a normal (if stuck up) student who is shown just hanging out with her friends. Needless to say, the cold-hearted businesswoman who emotionally abuses her family [[spoiler:and is willing to sell out her entire species for a payday]] bears little resemblance to the person she once was. |
| 524 | ** Memory portraits in [[Characters/TheOwlHouseEmperorBelos Emperor Belos]]' mindscape reveal that he was once a sweet child [[spoiler:named Philip Wittebane]] who loved to play games with his older brother. His descent into a fanatical, cruel tyrant of the Boiling Isles [[spoiler:who seeks to wipe out all witches]] is the result of said-older brother [[spoiler:falling in love with a witch named Evelyn, which Philip saw as a betrayal to their upbringing as witch hunters. He ends up killing his older brother in a fit of rage, leading him into a downward spiral where he becomes a literal monster trying (and failing) to salvage his happy past by [[ReplacementGoldfish cloning his brother]] and fulfilling his dream of being a witch hunter]]. |
| 525 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'': |
| 526 | ** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Professor Utonium, as the episode "Get Back Jojo" reveals that he was [[BrattyHalfPint an obnoxious brat]] with no interest in science until [[KidFromTheFuture his future daughters]] saving him from a time-travelling Mojo [[StableTimeLoop turned him into]] a ReformedBully. |
| 527 | ** Played straight with Mojo himself, whose OriginStory reveals that he was a happy-go-lucky chimp and the Professor's lab assistant. However, the FreakLabAccident that created the Powerpuff Girls also mutated him into the EvilGenius CardCarryingVillain he is today. |
| 528 | * ''{{WesternAnimation/Recess}}'': Both [[DeanBitterman Principal Prickly]] and [[SadistTeacher Miss Finster]] are implied to have been as carefree as TJ and Spinelli (and by extension the rest of TJ's friends) when they were children. [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/recess/images/d/d7/Kid_Prickly_Age_11.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130204175308 Just see]] [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/recess/images/c/cb/Kid_Finster_Age_10.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130204171701 for yourselves]]. |
| 529 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': Ricky Owens went from the Shaggy of the original Mystery Inc. to the devious bastard he's known as in the present: [[spoiler:Mr. E]]. |
| 530 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 531 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E4Rosebud Rosebud]]": [[Characters/TheSimpsonsCharlesMontgomeryBurns Young Monty Burns]] was depicted as one. A flashback showed him happily playing with his teddy bear Bobo, and being referred to by his parents as "Happy." |
| 532 | ---> '''Father''': Happy, would you like to continue living with us, your loving natural parents, or would you rather live with this twisted, loveless billionaire? |
| 533 | ---> [Burns immediately drops his bear and runs into the limousine, donning sunglasses.] |
| 534 | ---> '''Burns''': Let's roll! |
| 535 | ---> '''Father''': Wait! You forgot your bear, a symbol of your lost youth and innocence! |
| 536 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax Lisa's Sax]]" has flashbacks to [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson's]] first day of school, showing how he became a bad kid at school ([[SadistTeacher his kindergarten teacher openly told him he had no future whatsoever]], and he was bullied by Jimbo Jones, all while Homer calling him and his problems as nothing more than a lost cause). |
| 537 | ** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E19PanicOnTheStreetsOfSpringfield Panic on the Streets of Springfield]]": Largely subverted. [[Characters/TheSimpsonsLisaSimpson Lisa Simpson]] becomes enamored with an '80s musician and adopts both his grungy aesthetic and cynical, world-weary philosophy. A dismayed Marge claims that Lisa used to be such a happy little girl, but Lisa, who has always been defined by angst, activism, and moral outrage, dismisses her mother's claims with a single word ("When?"). Marge quickly admits that she was looking through rose-colored glasses, but still doesn't approve of the level of nihilism Lisa is currently operating under ([[StatusQuoIsGod which Lisa herself dispenses with by the episode's end]]). |
| 538 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': Asajj Ventress, through a series of flashbacks, is shown to have first been a cute little girl who later turned to the dark side after her Jedi Master, Ky Narec, was killed. |
| 539 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In the third Season opener, [[Characters/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilMoonButterfly Queen Moon Butterfly]], Star's uptight, stodgy mother, reveals why she's the way she is; her own mother had been killed when Moon was the age Star is, forcing a once-carefree girl into the role of queen. |
| 540 | -->'''Moon:''' I was never a cool warrior queen, Star. I was a happy-go-lucky girl like you. And then... ''(Voice breaks)'' Toffee and his monsters killed my mother. |
| 541 | * ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': In the episode "Insane in the Membrane", it appears like this trope will be subverted when [[spoiler:Baxter]] flashes back to his childhood and is seen about to pour some sort of chemicals on a bug in a jar. [[spoiler:He changes his mind and lets the bug go. Through more flashbacks, it was clear that he was a good kid who was devastated by his mother's death, and the memories of her were enough for him to let the Turtles and April go.]] |
| 542 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThorTalesOfAsgard'' revealed that Loki was like this as a teenager. It's not until the betrayal of a family friend and the use of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Sword of Surtur]] that his former outlook starts souring and he begins to think differently. |
| 543 | [[/folder]] |
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