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"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Those who have tasted the light of goodness and justice and turned away make the foulest villains.
- Dungeons and Dragons, The Dungeon Master's Guide, about fallen paladins who become Blackguards.
Not all Villains are born. Some are made, and none are more tragic than the Fallen Hero. As the name implies, the Fallen Hero used to be a hero. They may even have been The Messiah or another equally optimistic archetype, up until the moment when they suffered something bad enough for them to lose all faith in good and idealism, be it the loss of a loved one, too many good deeds coming back to bite them hard, betrayal by someone they trusted the most, too much distrust from those who should have been allies, or some other faith-shattering event. It might even be a drawn out process of seduction to The Dark Side or fall from grace.
What they choose to do about it determines what they become:
They'll use their not-inconsiderable powers and abilities to do it, too. Often they'll twist healing powers into evil ends, or allow pain to fester by simply denying the use of their powers for good. Where once the Barrier Maiden wanted to heal the world, she'll spread misery to speed its destruction. The Messiah who wanted to save the world now wants its damnation. The Gunslinger, once wanting to bring justice to the frontier, now wants nothing but vengeance and blood.
Usually revealed in a Not So Different moment. Almost always gets a Start Of Darkness. Christopher Booker's sixth basic plot, Tragedy, uses this character arc, with the Fallen Hero as main character. Compare Face Heel Turn.
Examples
Anime
- Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Judai's Heroic BSOD causes him to become possessed by and transform into the villainous Supreme King Haou, complete with a literal gaggle of Fallen Heroes (evil versions of his normal Elemental Heroes).
- Nina from Mai-Otome takes this to its literal extreme. At first, she was the top student in her class with a promising life ahead of her, and then went crazy when she thought Arika was trying to steal the man she loved. From there, she accidentally kills one of her best friends when she turns out to be The Mole, and purposefully kills tens of thousands more to prove her devotion, ending with her reputation in tatters, him on his deathbed and the memories of the two of them ever having met lost forever, and a loss in a (somewhat anticlimactic) final battle that ends with her falling from outer space.
- Sensui from Yu Yu Hakusho. Was a Spirit Detective, and a damn effective one, until he saw the Black Black Club torturing demons for their own amusement, got his hands on Chapter Black, and went insane with the desire to get rid of all humanity.
- Pretear. Along with the revelation that the Princess of Disaster is the current form of the last Pretear, the show also plays with the possibility that anyone who becomes the Pretear could become the Princess of Disaster. Which naturally leads Himeno, the current Pretear, straight into a Heroic BSOD while she sorts it out.
- In G Gundam, Gentle Chapman was one of the most admired Fighters ever, but after old age and an illness caught up with him, he resorted to traps and deceit to win. He paid for it by dying... and was revived as a zombie by the Devil Gundam.
Comic Books
- The Justice Lords from Justice League, following the death of their Flash, became Knight Templars and transformed their earth into a metahuman-ruled dystopia where dissidents and supervillains were lobotomized.
- The Long Halloween, the series that inspired Nolan when he was writing the script for The Dark Knight, has a Harvey Dent that worked alongside Batman and Commissioner Gordon. We later find out that Harvey may not have even been responsible for some of the deaths, it may have been his wife trying to end all the terror that was happening and trying to get Harvey to come back. A closer inspection reveals plot holes with this revelation, and it's vague whether she did it or was just crazy. This is only one version of Two-Face's origin, but all the ones worth mentioning show him as working with Batman before turning into Two-Face.
Film
- Anakin Skywalker, who got three whole movies of Start Of Darkness.
- General Grievous as well.
- Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight definitely counts, after he becomes Two-Face. Formerly idealistic, he grows steadily more cynical in the face of the Joker's crimes, and after the Joker's Hannibal Lecture turns into a Nietzsche Wannabe who believes that Chance is the only fair law.
- Tai Lung of Kung Fu Panda fits this. He only wanted to make his master proud, but because his master wasn't able to appreciate his hard work, he became enraged. Prior to betraying Shifu and Oogway, he was very much the loyal, dutiful, trustworthy student, and if he exhibited darkness and seemed a little too focused on power, nowhere is it indicated he didn't intend to use the Dragon Scroll to become a hero (or Anti Hero) and defend the Valley of Peace with it - at least before his masters turned on him.
- Kirsty Cotton in the Hellraiser franchise.
Literature
- Saruman in The Lord Of The Rings.
- Don't forget Boromir, Frodo (who manages to survive his Fall through sheer luck) and, its implied, Denethor (at least in The Movie).
- Two words: Shakespeare's Mac Beth.
- In the Belgariad, Zedar, the Dragon, used to be Belzedar, one of Belgarath's sworn brothers and a servant of the god Aldur. When Torak, the Big Bad of the series, struck Aldur and store the Orb, Zedar headed out to confront him... and found himself overwhelmed by Torak's power. Faced with The Dark Side, he gave into his barely-supressed lust for power and swore fealty to Torak.
- Berserker, dubbed "Black Knight" in Fate Zero, revealed in the final battle (by King Arthur herself, no less) to be Lancelot.
Live Action TV
- Linderman on Heroes is a prime example. His low key evil approach is made all the more monstrous when viewers realize that, having the ability to heal most injuries, he chooses to have people killed, kidnapped, and crippled instead.
- Willow of Buffy The Vampire Slayer became the Card Carrying Villain version of this trope after witnessing the death of her girlfriend. Luckily, the transition was temporary.
- Lex Luthor from Smallville is a great example. He started off as nothing more than a good samaritan friend to Clark Kent. As time went on, he became nastier and more cynical at the world, and became possibly Clark's worst enemy. However—-how long would the show actually last if Luthor was kept a good guy throughout the entire show?
Mythology
- Many depictions of Satan (originally God's torch-bearer "The Morning Star" or Lucifer) as evil show him as a fallen angel. This is Older Than Feudalism, as the popular depiction has roots in the 2000+ year old source material.
Professional Wrestling
- Hulk Hogan's transformation into Hollywood Hogan in WCW was born of the realization that he was "old news", and that the fans he had lived his whole life to please weren't really interested in him anymore. Which just couldn't stand, after all; he's Hulk Freaking Hogan, the biggest icon in wrestling! Maybe the fans didn't deserve to cheer for him! Maybe they deserved to have him and his buddies from up north destroy everything about WCW that they enjoy instead!
- Similarly, Chris Jericho's recent WWE Face Heel Turn was fueled by the fans' continued cheering for Shawn Michaels — who was not only a lying, cheating hypocrite, but was unrepentant for having retired the great Ric Flair. In Jericho's mind, it's not him that turned heel; it's the fans.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40000 has an entire race of these, the Chaos Space Marines. Dark Eldar would qualify, if they'd been remotely heroic before their fall.
- A clarification: The Dark Eldar survived the fall by being so virtuous and pure that they were immune to being eaten by daemons, but anybody who was raised in a pleasure-seeking cult that sacrifices sentient beings just for the thrill is pretty much automatically disqualified from heroism.
Video Games
- A major plot-point in Squaresoft's Live A Live. A classic Knight In Shining Armor is rapidly deconstructed by being tricked into slaying the king, finding out that his best friend has betrayed him, and finally realizing that the princess he's been trying to save is actually in love with said friend. He becomes the "Demon King", Odio, who has been a recurring Big Bad for the heroes of our world to fight, from the Stone Age to the far future. The aesop, which somehow manages to avoid being Anvilicious, is that anyone can be a Big Bad - as long as they hold enough hatred...
- In the Xbox 360 game Overlord, your enemies are seven Fallen Heroes who represent the Seven Deadly Sins: Melvin Underbelly the halfing (gluttony), Oberon the elf (sloth), Goldo the dwarf (greed), Sir William the paladin (lust), Jewel the thief (envy), Kahn the warrior (wrath), and the Wizard (pride).
- A more literal example would be the title character, who was originally a hero who fought alongside the other heroes, but fell from a great distance and left for dead by his companions. As part of a Xanatos Gambit by the old Overlord the main character was eventually revived by the minions and given the standard evil armor as well as command of the minions.
- Sargeras in Warcraft originally fought demons for millenia, but eventually fell into thinking it was no help and actually chaos was the only real solution to everything. Just to signify what this meant, his bronze skin split apart, revealing a new body of fire and brimstone.
- Similiarly, the human prince and Paladin Arthas eventually resorted to the cursed blade Frostmourne to slay the demon that was (apparently) behind the plague that turned people into the undead. As a result, it took his soul and turned him into a Deathknight loyal to the Lich King (who, of course, had all that planned from the start).
- Then there's the Death Knights that followed him, which basically constitute entire Orders of Fallen Heroes.. A force of them in Wrath of the Lich King are sent to wreak havoc in Norther Lordaeron... All of which seems to be little more than a ploy to lure out Tirion Fordring, one the few living beings that could even be consider anything close to a threat to the Lich King. They were just a diversion, and as a result of a climactic battle in which Tirion reveals the truth of their betrayal and ultimate expendability pull a Heel Face Turn. The player plays through this entire sequence, including all the Rape The Dog goodness inherent therein.
- And the night elf Illidan, trying to fight fire with fire (or demons with demon magic) eventually became a semi-demon himself.
- In fact, it would be easier to list the War Craft series villains that didn't start this way.
- The Frozen Throne shows how the arrogant-but-decent high e;eves turn into the evil, demon-following blood elves they are in World Of Warcraft.
- And, of course Sarah Kerrigan in Star Craft. Though she didn't "fall" so much as "was thrown," and once she got her free will back, she decided she liked being evil.
- Ace Hardlight from the fourth Ratchet And Clank game. Ace was once a great hero before being kidnapped and forced to participate in Gleeman Vox's deadly gameshow Dreadzone. Ace eventually became seduced by the thrills and infamy of the tournament, and became the deadliest contestant on the show-and The Dragon to Big Bad Vox.
Clank: I do not understand. What sort of hero would kill other heroes for money?
Hardlight: Not money, tin man. Fun.
- Tons of these in Final Fantasy games.
- Big Boss of Metal Gear Solid was originally a quirky, cheerful, affectionate, paternal sort of man, who ends up going through a major Break The Cutie routine in Snake Eater and Portable Ops. He then ends up creating The Patriots with other "fallen heroes" Major Zero, Sigint (a.k.a. DARPA Chief Donald Anderson), and Para-Medic (aka, Dr Clark, the head of the Les Enfants Terribles project and the one who turned Grey Fox into the Cyborg Ninja), along with Ocelot and EVA and creating Outer Heaven and Zanzibarland to plunge the world into eternal war before meeting his end at the hands of his "son" Solid Snake, which was prophesized by The Sorrow and Elisa.
- Then Metal Gear Solid 4 turns everything on its head with the revelation that Big Boss was always a good guy. In fact, MGS 3 and Portable Ops were created specifically so that the big, final reveal of MGS 4 wouldn't come completely out of left field.
- Mass Effect's Saren Arterius serves as a Fallen Hero Knight Templar, the cause of whose fall is a major plot point for the game.
- Who just happens to be a racist, with "lots of practice" in killing unarmed civilians
- Thorndyke in Soul Nomad And The Soul Eaters goes this route in the Demon Path, initially submitting to The Main Character in order to save his son. As time goes on, he is forced to do worse and worse things until he is tricked into believing he killed his own son, turning him into an Ax Crazy Berserker. Kanan later convinces him that he's always enjoyed slaughter for the sake of it, finally breaking him.
- Of course, if we're talking Demon Path, Revya is possibly the biggest Fallen Hero of them all.
- Mithos (second type), Kratos and Yuan (both first type, one in service of Mithos and the other one opposing him) from Tales Of Symphonia.
- From the Lunar series, Ghaleon qualifies quite well for this trope, having been known as one of the Four Heroes of legend, until the Goddess Althena (whom he was quite possibly in love with) sacrificed herself, along with Dragonmaster Dyne (his best friend) giving up all his power, so that Althena could be reborn as a human being (Luna). Being unable to understand why they had done such a thing, Ghaleon began formulating his plans, culminating in returning Luna to her Goddess state (albeit under his control) and giving him the means to become a God himself. Heck, his entire purpose in Lunar2 turns out to be redemption for this, though the player doesn't learn this until right at the end of the game.
- Jon Irenicus from Baldurs Gate II counts. Prior to his exile from Sulldanesselar he was an upstanding citizen and powerful mage. Pride was his downfall; he was exiled and stripped of his soul for using his power to try and achieve godhood.
Western Animation
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