Then Let Me Be Evil / Western Animation

SPOILER WARNING: The nature of this trope means that spoilers abound. Tread carefully.

Then Let Me Be Evil moments in Western Animation.

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• The Ice King from Adventure Time resorts to this at times when his more diplomatic attempts backfire. Then again, considering he is often still trying to kidnap princesses...
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, this is ultimately the trigger for Azula's actions throughout the series. She believed that her mother rejected her as a monster and preferred her brother Zuko. So she dedicated herself to becoming Daddy's Little Villain, proving to both her Mother and Zuko that she doesn't need their love, as being feared is the only thing that matters. It backfires on her tragically, resulting in an epic Villainous Breakdown.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • In the episode "Harley's Holiday", former Joker minion Harley Quinn passes her competency hearing at Arkham Asylum and vows to live an honest life. Unfortunately, on her first day out, a series of mishaps to her still-healing sanity to snap and push her back toward villainy: "I tried to be good. I really did. But if that's not good enough, fine!" What makes it even worse is that the first incident, which led to all of the others, wasn't even Harley's fault (a sales clerk forgot to remove an anti-shoplifting device from a dress she bought, and the sight of a guard approaching her was enough to trigger a panic attack). Though Batman does bring her back to Arkham, he goes out of his way to keep from harming her, explaining that he knows what it's like to rebuild a life after tragedy. He even gives Harley back her new dress as a peace offering, and she's genuinely touched by his kindness.
  • In "Birds of a Feather," The Penguin gets released from jail to little fanfare, leaving him questioning his criminal endeavors. Meanwhile, Rich Bitch Veronica Vreeland and her equally-vapid friend Pierce Chapman decide to use Penguin to boost Veronica's social standing by faking romantic interest, despite Batman warning them that Evil Is Not a Toy. Even the Dark Knight is convinced of Penguin's honesty when he decides to give Veronica some expensive jewelry (which he bought legitimately) as a gift... but then Penguin overhears her and Pierce laughing about their trick. Heartbroken and furious, he angrily turns back to his criminal ways, and he throws the blame squarely at the two of them for treating him like garbage. Batman himself seems to agree.
• Similarly in Batman Beyond, Mr. Freeze after having a new body constructed for him, decides to make amends for his previous misdeeds all those decades ago. Not many were convinced, and he even set up a charity to help the victims of his past crimes after one of them tried to kill him. Likewise, Bruce is convinced that Freeze has not turned over a new leaf, though Terry has faith in Freeze. Then Freeze's body starts failing, and his doctor/girlfriend decides to dissect him to see what went wrong, because her boss was hoping to use the same technology to make a new body for him. Freeze escapes, and goes back to revenge again, killing his traitorous girlfriend, and planning to blow up the Wayne-Powers compound, threatening to kill hundreds more, with him along with it. While in the animated movie Sub Zero, which took place decades earlier, Freeze had finally achieved his goal of saving the life of his wife and seemed to have undergone a Heel–Face Turn as a result of that (he also tells Batman and co. to save some children rather than save him when he is badly injured on an exploding oil rig) in the following series, The New Batman Adventures, his body is falling apart, and he decides that even though his wife is alive and happy, if he can't be happy with her he is going to make the lives of everyone in Gotham as miserable as possible. It's understandable if Freeze isn't wholly trusted.
• And in The Batman, The Riddler's backstory reveals him to be a victim of abuse suffering because his father was jealous of his intellect. Slightly unhinged, the Riddler ends up finding love in college with his science partner. She ultimately ends up sabotaging him, sending him down a path of villainy all so she could take all the profit from the experiment for herself.
• In Blue Eye Samurai, Mizu spent part of her childhood in hiding due to being half-Japanese, half-white and was taunted as being half-breed demonspawn for her blue eyes until she fell in with the Swordfather, who treated her kindly. We don't find out until the fifth episode that Mizu's vengeance quest almost ended in a swift death because she wasn't that ruthless, but it was a chance reunion with her mother and a brief marriage that hardened her into what we see today. When she defeated her ex-samurai husband in a sparring match that he asked for, he rejects her, calls her a demon, and leaves her to the mercy of bounty hunters, and it was definitely either him or her mother who sold her out. Following this tragedy, Mizu embraces the guise of "demon" that so many had tagged her with and rededicates herself to vengeance against her potential fathers for setting her up for a life of that much pain and betrayal.
• Camp Lazlo: In "Squirrel Scout Slinkman", Slinkman becomes a substitute scoutmaster for the Squirrel Scouts. After being tormented by them throughout the episode, he becomes about as nasty as Lumpus. He coldly brushes of their apologies and sends them up the creek with a paddle. He regrets what he did, however, and rescues the Scouts when a storm blows in.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation S.L.U.M.B.E.R."'s Downer Ending is done via Numbuh 12 betraying the others, saying that she’s about to turn 13 and knew that she’d end up allying with the teens sooner or later. So she decided to join a little sooner, stealing the Code Module and making an escape with the other teens.
• In Craig of the Creek, King Xavier was the main antagonist for much of the series run, but was deposed. He then sets out to claim a map to something called the Heart of the Forest hoping to wish to become king again. However, Craig ends up teaming with Xavier to finds the parts of the map, and Xavier starts to turn around. Despite this, when Craig's friends do not immediately forgive him for his past actions and shun him for an afternoon, he reverts to being evil again. Xavier has to learn that forgiveness takes time and the others do have accept him immediately.
• While Viren from The Dragon Prince was probably never a truly good and honorable person, there was no reason to see him as a villain. But Harrow, unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions, berates and humiliates Viren, forcing him to kneel before him. Considering that for years Viren did whatever it took to mitigate the damage of Harrow's actions, and they were both old friends even, this act of Harrow's is particularly repugnant. So you can almost understand Viren's fall to the dark side. And quite a few viewers weren't too upset that Harrow was killed by elven assassins.
• DuckTales (2017): In the episode "The Duck Knight Returns", Jim Starling's last line in the episode, said as he's completing his transformation into Negaduck, heavily implies this trope.
  "They want 'grim and gritty', huh? HAPPY TO PLAY THE PART. Heh heh heh heh heh... HEH HEH HEH HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"
• In "All Heated Up" from Elena of Avalor, Charoca of the monfuego is treated as a monster, but Elena tries to put a stop to it. However, when the royal forces attack anyway, he declares, "If they want a monster, I'll give them a monster." Fortunately, it doesn't stick.
• Family Guy:
  • In the episode "Brian: Portrait of a Dog", a homeless Brian Griffin tries begging a guy for change, but the guy assumes that he is crazy. Brian gets pissed off and shows him just how a crazy dog acts.
  • Similarly, after spending several episodes as a Villain Ball Magnet to Quagmire, and facing gratuitous outbursts and criticisms, Brian has started to snap back, committing genuinely callous acts against him such as stealing his dream girl or scamming him out his life savings, complete with Quagmire having the nerve to exclaim that he did not think he was that low before.
• An episode of Futurama had the crew make a delivery to a giant ugly monster. Bender continuously insults him, but the guy remains calm and composed and takes the barbs in gentle stride. Fry tries to be compassionate, claiming he just inherited ugly genes from his mother. Too bad insulting his mama actually made him angry. Later, the giant comes to Earth to try and apologize for his outburst. Unfortunately, the world's water supply had been turned into alcohol and everyone acts drunkenly agressive towards him. The giant finally snaps and goes on a rampage.
  Giant: I won't stop until your whole planet is as ugly as you perceive me to be!
• Barely averted in the first episode of Gargoyles. After the Gargoyles heroically fought to protect Castle Wyvern and the refugees inside from the barbarian hordes, Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway are treated with disdain and called monsters by the very people they risked their lives to protect. They conclude that if the humans are going to treat them as monsters, "Then perhaps we'd better live up to the name", and they begin to advance menacingly on the refugees. Luckily Goliath stops them before they do...whatever terrible thing they were planning to do.
  • Most likely a good-natured spooking. But you know, slippery slope and all that. A better example would be Demona: Humans not giving the clan respect? Horrific past experience with your very evil future self getting you down? Kill 'em all!!
• Justice League: At the start of "A Better World", we see Justice Lord!Superman confronting President Lex Luthor when he along with Wonder Woman and Batman storm into the White House. Luthor starts taunting Superman over how the Kryptonian could have gotten rid of him any time he wanted, but didn't, and what stopped him wasn't the law or people's will, but his own ego at being adored as a hero, and no matter what he does, Luthor will go back and they'll start all over again.
  Superman: I did love being a hero. But if this is where it leads, I'm done with it. (Eyes glow with Heat Vision)
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness features Fu-xi, a cobra who once defended China from evil doers. However, the others that Fu-xi swore to protect feared him and his kind. Their betrayal led him to be racist towards the two-leggers.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • The poster girl for this trope is undoubtedly Chloé Bourgeois. While it was already spurred on from being The Friend Nobody Likes for so long and having an absolute monster of a mother. After numerous attempts to work with Ladybug and even resisting an akuma, Ladybug never answers the call and this partially caused Chloé to commit a Face-Heel Turn and work with Hawkmoth. It ends up getting her kicked off the team (supposedly) permanently. Many say she's responsible for her own actions, but there's also a fair bunch who blame Ladybug for her glaring ineptitude in handling the situation. So perhaps her actions weren't as unreasonable as one would think.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "The Times They Are a Changeling", a Changeling named Thorax wants to makes friends with others, unlike the rest of his kind. Spike meets him and agrees to help him make friends with the Crystal Ponies, but when Thorax's true identity is discovered before he and Spike are ready to reveal it themselves, Spike doesn't stand up for Thorax, so Thorax runs away. When Spike comes to apologize to Thorax, Thorax calls himself "an evil Changeling" apparently ready to give up on friendship. Luckily, Spike says that he is sorry and the two make amends, revealing their friendship to the empire; successfully convincing them that not all Changelings are evil.
• Phineas and Ferb: In the Grand Finale special "Last Day of Summer", Vanessa discusses this trope to identify why Heinz Doofenshmirtz keeps claiming he's evil. Specifically, she says that he only feels he needs to be evil because of his extensive line of emotionally-scarring backstories making him feel he should, rather than a genuine desire to be. She's right, and Doof makes a Heel–Face Turn.
• South Park:
  • Scott, the Canadian dick, was an overbearing jerk that wanted Terrence and Phillip gone, but did nothing more than that other than being a jerk to people. Everyone else calls Scott a dick because of his jerkass attitude, which eventually got to him in "Royal Pudding" after he becomes a giant:
    General: You're a dick, Scott! You have always been a dick! And then you got radiation poisoning in Ottawa and now you're a GIANT DICK!
    Scott: Well, you kept calling me a dick, so that turned me into a dick! And then I got radiation poisoning in Ottawa and now I'm a giant dick!
  • This may also be the case for the Ginger Kids, after being ostracized and shunned for their appearances. They then formed the Ginger Separatist Movement, after being influenced by Eric Cartman.
  • Heidi Turner also had this case as well. After being mock by her friends for going out with Cartman, she lets him manipulate her and become his Distaff Counterpart. She snaps out of it in "Splatty Tomato".
  • There's some implication that Cartman himself is a case of this. In "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000", the South Park kids start hurling their fat-bashing onto Clyde (since Clyde is apparently the second-fattest kid in town) while Cartman is in prison and Clyde eventually snaps under the abuse to the point where he starts acting like Cartman. Also, Cartman in the first four seasons was no where near as bad as he would be later on, being merely an unpopular (if somewhat spoiled, bratty and bigoted) kid who was often made fun of for his weight. In fact, Cartman's shift into his current psychopathic self culminated in "Scott Tenorman Must Die", where Scott Tenorman's repeated bullying pushed Cartman to resort to murder in order to exact revenge.
• Inverted on Steven Universe with the character Lapis Lazuli. She is a refugee from the Gem race's Homeworld who has befriended Steven on Earth, but is horrified of being associated with Earth's own Gems, the show's heroes, lest she be caught up in another war. Near the end of Season 5, she finally pulls off a Big Damn Heroes moment against Blue and Yellow Diamond, reasoning that if Homeworld will punish her like a Crystal Gem anyway, she may as well embrace The Power of Friendship.
• Superman: The Animated Series: In the two-part episode "Blast From The Past", after being released from the Phantom Zone, Mala was legitimately trying to follow Superman's example. Unfortunately, after some collateral damage occurred while stopping a fairly routine robbery, and then a bad interaction with an especially catty Lois Lane, Superman begins to contemplate sending her back to the Zone. Mala is horrified by this and then releases Jax-Ur out of spite and jealousy to bring the Earth to heel, making her the villain the story needed her to be.
• Tangled: The Series: Fans are divided on how sympathetic Varian really is for his Face–Heel Turn, but it is clear that he at least sees himself this way.
  Believe me, I know,
  I've sunk pretty low,
  But whatever I've done, you've deserved.
  I'm the bad guy — that's fine.
  It's no fault of mine,
  And some justice, at last, will be served!
  • In a Call-Back to the movie, Cassandra says Gothel's line word for word in the penultimate episode. Sadly fitting, as she is Gothel's biological daughter.
• This was Jinx's motivation in Teen Titans (2003). Because she had the power to cause bad luck, she thought evil was the only option for her. Kid Flash eventually pulls her out of that belief.
• Transformers: Animated: Wasp was originally an Autobot-in-training until Bumblebee accidentally had him arrested for being mistaken as a Decepticon spy, while letting the real spy, Longarm Prime(Shockwave's alter-ego) escape. As a result, Wasp vows revenge on Bumblebee and plots to kill him by becoming a Decepticon himself.
• Wakfu gives us a rare inversion: Rubilax comes from an Always Chaotic Evil race of demons called Shushus, but he gets no respect from his peers, who often mock him for being a softie and not being evil enough (despite proving that he can be quite evil), to the point that he gets fed up and pulls a Heel–Face Turn, arguing that at least humans respect him to some degree.

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