Times where mistreatment is rewarded with betrayal in Western Animation.
- Atomic Puppet: Mookie is implied to have transformed Captain Atomic into a sock puppet because of this, as flashbacks to Captain Atomic show him being extremely dismissive of his sidekick.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Original Series:
- Azula learns the hard way that Machiavelli Was Wrong when her "best friends" betray her. Ty Lee and Mai put up with a lot of her thinly-veiled threats to their own and their loved ones' lives, but when Azula comes seriously close to killing Zuko, her brother and Mai's boyfriend, Mai helps Zuko escape. When Azula turns around and attempts to attack Mai, Ty Lee disables her before she can.
- Zuko doesn't exactly pull this on Ozai; if Ozai had given him even a modicum of positive reinforcement he probably would never have turned, but when he actually does it Ozai is treating him okay (at least, for Ozai) and it's just a matter of principle. (That and knowing that Azula is going to use him as a scapegoat any time now.) In fact, the moment of mistreatment does not occur until AFTER Zuko announces his Heel–Face Turn, when Ozai attempts to put him on the business end of Offing the Offspring near the end of "The Day of Black Sun."
- The Legend of Korra:
- Zhu Li, fed up with Varrick's endless disrespect toward her, abandons any loyalty to him in favor of Kuvira when she captures them both. Notably, this is closer to being a Face–Heel Turn than the opposite because it happened just after Varrick refused to do something amoral for once. And then subverted. Turns out Zhu Li, while genuinely angry about the mistreatment, was still fundamentally loyal to Varrick — and with Kuvira thinking Zhu Li had turned, arranging an escape was easier than it would have been...
- In the same season, Varrick is an unscrupulous businessman and mad scientist and has had no issues at all helping the tyrannical overlord Kuvira with her conquests. When he starts to show just a hint of reluctance about weaponizing Spirit energy though, her immediate response isn't to reason with him but to hurl him off a moving train. He switches sides shortly after.
- Original Series:
- Avengers Assemble: In "House of Zemo", Zemo builds a time machine to summon his father from the 1940s. Heinrich isn't remotely grateful, constantly insulting and demeaning his son, and eventually leaving him trapped under some debris, preferring the Zemo of 2099, who is a monstrous, silent cyborg as his heir. This leads Zemo to turn on his father, and kick his behind back to the 1940s.
- In Central Park, Bitsy constantly mistreats her staff, insulting or overworking them for her own petty reasons while never giving a thought to their needs or feelings. This comes back to bite her in one episode, when the employees at her hotel all begin striking and her assistant Abby quits after one insult too many.
- In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation A.R.C.H.I.V.E.", Uno gives the origin story for the show's universe, in which adults were created by children as a Servant Race to perform menial tasks and entertain them, but after being repeatedly abused and humiliated without getting any respect in exchange, culminating in being forced to work on the ultimate treehouse, they Turned Against Their Masters, sparking off the entire conflict of the series.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Batman: The Animated Series: In "Harlequinade", when Harley realizes that the Joker intends to blow up Gotham City without even trying to rescue her friends or pet hyenas, she tries to shoot him (with what turns out to be a "Bang!" Flag Gun, though neither of them knew that until she pulled the trigger). The upshot is that "Mistah J" is impressed that she actually had it in her to shoot him, and she goes right back to being infatuated with him.
- Subverted with Darkseid in Superman: The Animated Series. Superman kicks the stuffing out of Darkseid and throws him to his abused and enslaved people. In a subversion that almost breaks Superman, Darkseid's people help him up to be healed. Darkseid then tells Superman, "I am many things, Kal-El. But here, I am God."
- Played straight with Mercy Graves. Luthor treating her like crap and leaving her to die in "Ghost in the Machine" comes back to bite him. In the Justice League episode "Tabula Rasa", over LexCorp while Luthor is in prison (doing a far better job, having brought the stock up 38% now that they're legit) and is hesitant to return it to him because of all that has happened. Her true betrayal comes at the end of the episode where he's arrested and uses his One Phone Call to call her for help, and she hangs up on him. (Unfortunately, she would eventually work for him again.)
- Word of God claims that this is why Luthor "accidentally" resurrected Darkseid instead of Brainiac in "Alive". It was a deliberate sabotage by Tala as a final act of revenge, as Luthor had cruelly sacrificed her to power the mystical conduit.
- In Batman Beyond, the heads of the Royal Flush gang keep their children loyal to them through emotional manipulation. When their daughter Melanie has had enough and leaves the gang, they disown her and beat her brother Jack for even mentioning her. Jack also left the gang when Melanie paid his bail, in contrast to their parents who left him in jail.
- DuckTales (2017): Scrooge invokes this to the Board of Directors when he defends the competency of his staff, only for a now-insane Little Bulb to crash through the wall. At this point, Scrooge just flat-out tells the board that his staff is filled with loonies who would probably seek revenge on them if they were fired.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In an episode where Timmy wishes his life was an action movie, Jorgen's Right-Hand Cat, Mr. Tuliptoes, betrays his master and helps Timmy when Jorgen begins neglecting him.
- Final Space:
- It's revealed in Season 2 that Avocato's Heel–Face Turn against the Lord Commander begins when a time-traveling Little Cato tells him that the Lord Commander will kill him in the future.
- In Season 3, the Lord Commander's betrayal of Invictus is implicitly provoked by the latter pushing (or more specifically throwing) him around and threatening him as much as it is by the Lord Commander finding a fast-track to achieving his ambitions.
- Frisky Dingo:
- Killface's constant abuse of his personal assistant Valerie causes her to turn against him, at which point she makes several failed attempts to kill him.
- Played with between Killface and Phil, who start out with a genial relationship. Phil sues Killface after he learns that the Annihilatrix has given him cancer and that Killface doesn't have insurance. Killface responds by trying to poison him.
- Killface also views Val's quest for revenge as a betrayal. Considering the circumstances of her "employment", though...
- Gargoyles' instigating plot involves a group of vikings led by Hakon, sacking the castle. Both Demona and the human Guard Captain are sick of how ungrateful the castle's human inhabitants are for the protection of the Gargoyle clan and thus betrayed the human rulers while bargaining the survival of the gargoyles in exchange. Naturally, Hakon doesn't abide by the agreement.
- Harley Quinn (2019): Parodied. When Psycho claims that the reason for his betrayal is the he never felt respected and appreciated as a member of the crew, Harley is able to get him to admit that it's also for the pretty shitty reason that he didn't like having a female boss.
- In the Hey Arnold! movie, Big Bob Pataki initially goes along with Mr. Scheck's plan to bulldoze Arnold's neighborhood and replace it with a mall because he was promised that one of the stores contained therein would be his largest-ever beeper emporium. Later on, however, he reads the fine print of the contract and discovers that in exchange for said beeper emporium, Scheck gets 51% of the shares in his company. Cue one Heel–Face Turn.
- Tohru on Jackie Chan Adventures. At the end of the first season, Tohru is severely injured after he is forced by his boss, Valmont, to fight the newly-repowered demon Shendu. Later, he identifies Shendu for the Chans, who had previously been unknown to them. When Section 13's Captain Black asks why he wants to help them, he answers that he heard Section 13 served donuts on Tuesdays. Starting in the second season, Tohru also becomes Uncle's apprentice.
- When Jem and Pizzazz lead girls on a treasure hunt, Pizzazz abandons one of her girls, Sandra, when she sprains her ankle. When Jem and her girls help Sandra, she changes teams and helps them win.
- Jonny Quest: In "Dragons of Ashida", Dr. Ashida's abuse of his servant Sumi leads to Sumi turning on him.
- Kaeloo: In Episode 227, Mr. Cat hires Poucave, an aspiring journalist, to write articles for his tabloid site. When Mr. Cat changes the articles to include misinformation and Blatant Lies, Poucave protests, but Mr. Cat shuts her down using a combination of manipulation and threats. Eventually, Poucave gets fed up of his behavior and decides to write an embarrassing article about him instead.
- Kid Cosmic: Once the Great Leader leaves Chuck behind on Earth, Chuck joins the heroes, disillusioned by the Great Leader's cowardice and inspired by Kid's genuine bravery.
- Liberty's Kids makes it a point to show a more realistic perspective of the events leading up to Benedict Arnold's betrayal than most portrayals of him. See the Real Life section for the full details.
- Masters of the Universe:
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Catra has a real knack for inspiring these. During "Princess Scorpia", she lashes out at Scorpia for possibly the millionth time, and Scorpia - fresh off being reminded of her - calls her a bad friend and quits the Horde to go and rescue Entrapta, eventually falling in with the Rebellion (this ultimately sets off a fair chunk of Catra's second Villainous Breakdown). Later, after she runs the entire Horde military ragged with a punishing blitzkrieg offensive, the other three members of her and Adora's old squad - Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio, the "ground-level" Horde named characters - decide that putting up with Catra's increasing instability is absolutely not worth it and leave.
- In season 5 Catra gets on the opposite end of this when she discovers how Horde Prime treats his underlings as nothing but pawns and discards them when no longer needed. She ends up helping rescue Glimmer and later joining the main characters. And in the finale Hordak, who's been mind-wiped twice that season, decides to toss Horde Prime off a cliff.
- Masters of the Universe: Revelation, one reason Evil-Lyn has defected from Skeletor's forces and is now fighting alongside the titular Masters is that Skeletor treated her as a disposable pawn at best and forced her to forego whatever wants and desires she had in favor of giving him what he wanted (the other reason being Evil Versus Oblivion and not wanting to lose her powers). She even seems to genuinely come to like her new allies, particularly Orko who she forms an Odd Friendship with and gives some touching words of encouragement to. Unfortunately, like some sad real-life examples of people in abusive relationships, when Skeletor is resurrected she only hesitates long enough to callously apologize to her newfound friends before crawling back to his side.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- My Little Pony:
- My Little Pony 'n Friends:
- In "The End of Flutter Valley, Part 6", Sting cements his Heel–Face Turn when, on top of all the insults and abuse she gave him beforehand, Queen Bumble leaves him behind in the burning Bumbleland.
- In "The Great Rainbow Caper", the gizmonks' demanding and abusive behavior to their gopher Drudge causes her to turn against them the moment she's given the chance.
- In "The Quest of the Princess Ponies, Part 3", Sludge turns on Lavan partly because his boss is violently abusive and partly because his plans are very likely going to destroy the world with Sludge in it.
- In "Somnambula, Part 2", the magic songbird Kyrie, who had been tormented and enslaved by Somnambula and forced to aid her in committing evil acts she didn't want to, is finally pushed past the line, escapes and helps the ponies defeat her former master.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In "Rarity Takes Manehattan", Coco Pommel ditches her boss Suri Polomare thanks to both the former's mistreatment and seeing how Rarity treats her friends.
- Twilight's Kingdom, Part 2": While it's not exactly undeserved, given his past as a villain, the main cast (save for Fluttershy) treats Discord badly, leaps at every opportunity to take jabs at him or let him know he's been a nuisance to them, and remind him that he's not even close to being forgiven for his actions as a villain, to say nothing of how their only reason to reform him was so they could use his powers for good. It's no wonder Tirek was so easily able to sway him back to the side of villainy by claiming Discord was nothing now but an "imprisoned pony errand boy who is forced to stay in their good graces", and it would have stuck had Tirek not pulled a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and stabbed him in the back while the Mane Six on the other hand were willing to take him back.
- "To Where and Back Again": All of the changelings turn on Chrysalis after finding out that she has been using them and keeping them in constant hunger for her own selfishness.
- My Little Pony 'n Friends:
- In the Oh Yeah! Cartoons Super Santa short "Naughty", Elmer Scrooge's lackeys turn on him because he never treated them well, opting to instead help Santa because he treated them nicer.
- Happens twice on The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
- In "Knock It Off," the Professor's old college roommate, Dick Hardly, manipulates the Girls into giving him a beaker of Chemical X which he uses to create knockoff clones of the girls. He becomes rich and famous by selling the clones all over the world and uses the minimum amount of Chemical X in their creation so they'll break apart very easily, at one point he even kills a perfectly made Buttercup. It's not until he turns into a One-Winged Angel, drains the chemical X from the girls, and orders the deformed clones to take the Professor away that his creations realize that he doesn't love them and rebel against him, rescuing both the Girls and the Professor.
- In "Aspirations," Sedusa makes the Gangreen Gang steal Egyptian artifacts for her. She transforms into a One-Winged Angel (which is a reference to her mythological name Medusa) and then betrays the gang, revealing her true colors. In response, the Gangreen Gang makes an Enemy Mine with the Powerpuff Girls and help them defeat Sedusa by telling them that removing her tiara will nullify the artifacts. After having her powers removed and reverting back to her normal self, Sedusa pathetically begs the Gangreen Gang for help, only to be kicked into a mud puddle by Ace.
- In ReBoot Hack and Slash switch sides after Megabyte's actions become too evil for them and Bob is no longer around to stop them from finishing evil acts. Megabyte doesn't care about this at all, even sending them to the front lines simply to get rid of them. Switching sides was inevitable for them at this point.
- The Simpsons: Sideshow Bob's initial descent into villainy was due to years of abuse and wasted potential working under Krusty.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Handemonium", the Chum Bucket glove betrays Plankton and goes on a rampage after it gets fed up with Plankton whipping it while giving orders.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: Downplayed in "Second Contact". Part of the reason why Boimler refuses to rat out Mariner to Captain Freeman despite being under orders to do that is that she doesn't mention his part in curing the Hate Plague aboard the Cerritos in her Captain's Log, gets his name wrong, and treats him with disdain, all in short order.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Prisoners", after spending two episodes being treated like dirt by Dooku and Tamson, realizing that they have no intention of honoring their previous pledges to the Quarren and realizing that Lee-Char is earnest in his desire to bridge the divides between the Quarren and Mon Cala, Nossor Ri turns on the Separatists and his fellow Quarren free the captive Mon Cala, Gungans and clones to start a counterattack.
- Steven Universe: This combined with Because You Were Nice to Me is the main reason why Rose and Steven are so good at gaining Homeworld Gems as followers and friends: Rose and Steven are unconditionally loving and kind, and Homeworld's Diamond Authority treats their citizens with a mix of We Have Reserves and Individuality Is Illegal, and frequently use physical violence (including the death penalty) to punish behaviors they disapprove of.
- Tangled: The Series: Heroic version with Varian. He travels to Rapunzel's castle to seek her help with saving his father (who is slowly being encased in amber because of one of Varian's experiments), thinking that since she did promise to help him in any way possible before, she won't deny him. Unfortunately, Rapunzel has to deal with a terrible blizzard affecting the kingdom, and Varian gets hauled away and has to go back home through a blizzard empty-handed. Then he stays home for a month without Rapunzel ever checking up on him while the kingdom's citizens mistakenly believe he attacked Rapunzel. Naturally, this leads to Varian pulling a Face–Heel Turn.
- Jinx in Teen Titans (2003) might not have been so quick to hook up with charming speedster Kid Flash had Madame Rouge not treated her like crap on a near-constant basis. It probably helped that her teammates were extremely incompetent. It also helps that the Flash is just that kind of guy. In the comics, he and his Rogues Gallery have a strange respect for each other. However, this is probably the stronger motivator. We see in "Lightspeed" that what Jinx wants is respect. She'll settle for fear, but she straight up says "At least with the Brotherhood of Evil, I can be somebody. I'll get respect." (Which is another strike against her teammates, by the way: unlike Jinx, they had no ambition.) And when she's treated like dirt, she doesn't take it sitting down. Hero, villain, nobody messes with her. And that's where Jinx breaks with her team and considers what Kid Flash had been saying to her.
- Thunder Cats 2011: Mordax, vizier of the warlord Ratar-O, abandons his master to die at Lion-O's hands and even tosses Lion-O his weapon to help in doing so, all as revenge for Ratar-O's constant abuse towards his soldiers and slaves alike (Mordax included).
- Transformers:
- Beast Wars:
- By his own standards, this is why Dinobot betrays the Predacons for the Maximals. In Predacon culture usurping leadership via violence is a time-honored tradition, but when he challenges Megatron for leadership, Megatron mistreats him by cheating to win. Meanwhile, Optimus Primal actually does, albeit reluctantly, accept Dinobot's challenge to an honorable duel. From that point on save for one hiccup, while Dinobot still refuses to truly become a Maximal (even rebuking on a chance to return home with them) and always embraces his Proud Warrior Race Guy roots, he remains loyal to the Maximals because they actually share his beliefs in honor and courage rather than crapping all over them.
- At the very end of the series, as the Dinobot clone remembers who he once was, Megatron's murdering of Tigerhawk and general blowing up the Earth makes it much easier to embrace his past.
- Word of God tells us that there was an episode that focused on Rattrap trying to load a copy of Dinobot's original programming onto the clone, does so successfully, but finds that since Dinobot is under the influence of Rampage's spark, he is still a Predacon. This was scrapped because Executive Meddling found it too dark for a kids' show. However, the Heel–Face Turn comes when Rampage is finally destroyed, thus freeing up the "good" Dinobot.
- Earlier on, Blackarachnia is convinced to switch sides after Megatron decides a good way to deal with the Maximals is to kill Optimus Prime, thereby negating their existence. Blackarachnia originally being a Maximal, this predictably results in her defecting.
- Waspinator abandons the Predacons in the last episode because he's tired of being treated like a joke and getting blasted to scrap all the time. His companions blast him to scrap in response.
- Beast Machines: During the arc where Optimus is out of commission, the rest of the team gets hostile at Rattrap because they think he's useless; Cheetor gives it to him worst of all, possibly because of the notion that Rattrap is The Load is conflicting with his deeply-held personal conviction that no one gets left behind. Rattrap, desperate to be accepted by his team members again, makes a deal with Megatron: Megatron will give him firepower to make him useful to the Maximals again, and in return, Rattrap will use that firepower to keep Megatron safe for the night. Optimus talks him around later. And the Maximals are surprised that this happened. The people who were abusing him to his face and talking about ditching him can't comprehend why he would even give the time of day to their greatest enemy.
- In Transformers: Armada, Starscream is loyal until Megs abandons him on the battlefield after his purpose in the current plot is served. This is the final insult after ages and ages of disrespect from the leader he'd once truly believed in. However, he returns to the 'cons after the Autobots want to do things in a logical manner instead of supporting 'Screamer's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and plots from within, as other Starscreams have before and will again. He still remains more of a Noble Demon than other Starscreams, and eventually Unicron gives everyone more important things to worry about.
- Played with in Transformers: Energon, since Sixshot wasn't exactly loyal to Galvatron in the first place. A good few beatings for disobeying orders in favor of attacking Optimus Prime ensured his primary target changed from Prime to his lingering master. He gets a good start during his coup and blasts Galvatron to pieces with his laser cannon, but then makes the mistake of stopping to gloat his ass off while Scorpinok defends his injured master. Galvatron gets juiced up as the fight occurs, with things ending very badly for Sixshot.
- Taken to extremes in Transformers: Cybertron when all of Galvatron's minions pull a Heel–Face Turn after he labels them disposable pawns.
- Transformers: Prime also plays with this a little on several occasions. It makes an effort to set up a "chicken or the egg" question of if Megatron berates and brutalizes Starscream so often because of Starscream's treacherous nature or if Starscream is so treacherous against Megatron because Prime Megatron is a horrendously abusive and dubiously sane commanding officer. Megatron's callous disregard for the lives of his own men gives Starscream a following among some of the other Decepticons, including Breakdown considering his offer to join him when Starscream's time came or Knockout being perfectly willing to finish Megatron off to become Starscream's Dragon. Ironically, in the 20th episode of season 1, after a Humiliation Conga Line and being forced to beg for Megatron to save him, Starscream renounces his ambition to usurp Megatron and becomes a loyal officer right when Airachnid is trying to worm her way back into Megatron's good graces. Megatron treats Starscream as bad as ever, and when Airachnid betrays him and leaves him to die out of spite on a mission, Starscream declares a Dying Curse and deserts, resolving to be loyal only to himself.
- Near the end of Season 2, Dreadwing, after learning that Starscream was the one who turned his brother Skyquake into a Terrorcon zombie and disgraced his death, and that Megatron was willing to hide that fact from him, betrays the Decepticons by handing over the Forge of Solus Prime to the Autobots, though he stays with the Decepticons.
- Later on, Predaking turns on the Decepticons after discovering that Megatron was the one responsible for him staying the Last of His Kind. To his credit, Megatron at least saw this coming way back during the planning phase several episodes earlier but felt the risk the other Predacons represented was greater than the risks involved in a plan that would at worst anger just Predaking.
- Beast Wars:
- Muttley has always been on the wrong end of an insult or Dope Slap from Dick Dastardly. In the Wacky Races episode "Race To Racine", does he ever get even. Dastardly plants Muttley among the Ant Hill Mob who accept him as their eighth member Smiley O'Toole. Clyde tells him to take Dastardly out, from which Muttley, shocked, said "Who, me??" Then he gets a shit-eating grin on his face, strides atop the Mob's car and hurls a hand grenade at the Mean Machine, leaving it a smouldering wreckage.
- Wakfu: Rubilax cements his Heel–Face Turn after his fellow Shushus, and especially their lord Rushu, insult him one time too many.
- Watership Down: After being saved by Hazel, Campion reluctantly decides he likes the Watership rabbits. This causes him a lot of personal conflict, as he doesn't want to be disloyal to his chief. He becomes something of a Double Agent for the Watership rabbits, but still ends up Taking the Bullet for his Chief, Woundwart in the end. Don't worry, he gets better.
- Xiaolin Showdown: Each of the four main characters performs a temporary Face–Heel Turn at some point in the show, and this trope was what brought about Raimundo's. A little way in, Raimundo is denied a promotion to the Xiaolin Apprentice level due to an incident where he accidentally made things worse by trying to help, and the other Xiaolin dragons (Omi especially) mock him to no end over it. Somehow, they're surprised when Raimundo takes Wuya's offer of We Can Rule Together (which, for a Card-Carrying Villain, she follows through surprisingly well on). Fortunately, Raimundo being the strongest example of Character Development in the series, actually makes this brief betrayal work for him and the good side later on.
- X-Men: Evolution: Rogue was never really that loyal to Mystique anyway, but even so, she does question her allegiance to her after she gets to know Scott. More importantly, Mystique stalks and attacks them just as Rogue is coming to the point where she has to make a decision. If she'd stayed out of it — and consequently prevented Rogue from reading her memories — who knows how much longer her side would have kept Rogue (previous continuity inevitability aside).
- Coop from Yin Yang Yo! is more of an example of Stalker with a Crush and Love Makes You Evil, but what ultimately cements his Face–Heel Turn is years of being a Butt-Monkey at his crush's hand, followed by said crush having the nerve to say she had been nice to him.
