History Main / BreakTheBeliever

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:In "Hollow Mind", Hunter and Luz are both trapped in Belos's mind, and Hunter is forced to see that Belos is no Emperor of Witches in spirit, but a deluded and genocidal Witch Hunter -- literally; he's actually former American colonist Philip Maquard from the era of witch-hunting madness. Hunter asked, "[[ItMakesSenseInContext It wasn't wild magic, was it?]]" Belos responds by trying to ''murder'' him, but the plant glyphs rescue him. After escaping, Hunter has a panic attack, then discards his cape (with House Belos' sigil on it) and runs off.]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/{{Wanted}}'': [[{{Expy}} Jokeresque]] character Mr. Rictus was once a devout Christian. When he had a NearDeathExperience and saw nothing, he decided that [[StrawNihilist life was meaningless]] and [[TheUnfettered abandoned all moral guidelines]].
* ''Comicbook/ChickTracts'': In a tract called "The Visitors," this happens to two Mormons when the Jack Chick-approved evangelicals show them that Mormonism is a [[ScamReligion big fat lie]], but then they get saved. [[SarcasmMode Yay.]]

[[folder: Film]]

* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': During his long exile in Wisconsin, the fallen angel Loki has taken to breaking the faith of members of the clergy as a hobby to pass the time. When we're introduced to him he is using the example of [[http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html the Walrus and the Carpenter]] to make a nun lose her faith.

[[folder: Literature]]

** Also seen in [[spoiler: his mentor and priest, Montanelli, who sentences Arthur to death for attempting to help revolutionaries, despite Arthur being his son - figure and being given the chance to escape the prison by abandoning his hatred of religion. Arthur is ultimately executed, causing Montanelli to suffer a mental breakdown and publicly denounce Christianity.]]

* ''Literature/LesMiserables'': InspectorJavert subscribes fully to the idea that [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity all criminals are inherently evil, and that the law is completely good.]] However, when the criminal he has pursued for decades saves his life, he finally realizes his error and resolves the resulting moral dilemma by [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide throwing himself into the Seine.]]]]
* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/TheWayOfCrossAndDragon'' ends with the protagonist, an inquisitor of the 30th century One True Catholic Interstellar Church, losing his faith thanks to the titular heresy making him realize that religion is just a fiction to keep the masses happy. And his superior doesn't care that he no longer believes and refuses to let him retire, he's too effective.
* Invoked and subverted in ''Film/{{Silence}}'' by Shusaku Endo deals with a historical incident where Portuguese priests in 1600s Japan are forced, alongside other UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Christian}}s, to apostatize by stepping on the ''fumie'' to symbolize their loss of faith. The main priest character is haunted by the "Silence of God" in the wake of all this suffering and the ineffectiveness of martyrdom in his contest. [[spoiler:In the end, he apostatizes but when another apostate comes to him asking for sacraments, both of them realize that they still had faith even after the ritual, and the priest has a reverie where he realizes that by apostatizing out of compassion for other persecuted Christians, he was still acting in a manner befitting a Christian. As he reflects]]:
--> ''I, too, stood on the sacred image. For a moment this foot was on his face. It was on the face of the man who has been ever in my thoughts, on the face that was before me on the mountains, in my wanderings, in prison, on the best and most beautiful face that any man can ever know, on the face of him whom I have always longed to love. Even now that face is looking at me with eyes of pity from the plaque rubbed flat by many feet. 'Trample!' said those compassionate eyes. 'Trample! Your foot suffers in pain; it must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here.''
* In ''Literature/TheSupernaturalist'', Stefan, who is trying to avenge his mother by fighting Parasites, who he blames her death on. [[spoiler: The way he was fighting the parasites was actually helping them reproduce, and making more of them.]] But wait! It gets worse! Turns out that [[spoiler: Ellen Faustino, who he had seen as an ally was actually using him, is actually responsible for his mother's death, and the Parasites are actually good and helping people.]] Ouch.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' fifteenth book ''Skin Game'':
** Throughout the book, as Harry must work with the ancient villain Nicodemus Archleone for complicated reasons, he encounters the fanatics Nicodemus has raised since their births to believe him to be a powerful, unbeatable, immortal man and their hero. Harry is friendly with one named Squire Jordan, giving him a hot burger and crossing the line purposefully with a warning about it burning his tongue on it[[note]]Nicodemus has any who reach the level of Squire be initiated by having his or her tongue ripped out of the person's mouth by his daughter Deidre[[/note]], and giving the kid some sage advice about the dangers of Nicodemus and the Coins they have aren't as cracked up as Nicodemus makes them out to be. Harry's goal is just to give these guys a chance to make a better choice. [[spoiler:By the end of the book, in part from Harry's actions and in part when a good man in the right place at the right time, reforges the broken Sword of Faith into a blade of angelic light, complete with a low but resonating humming, that cuts through Nicodemus' sword and sends the man running, the newly minted Knight of the Cross stares down Jordan and other Squires still able to fight and breaks their wills and their faith in Nicodemus]].
** This is averted with [[spoiler:Michael's attempt to turn Nicodemus back to the side of the angels. After making a great sacrifice to reach where Nicodemus is, Michael tries to break Nicodemus' belief in his own greatness and his ability to lead the Fallen Angel that has been his partner for 2000 years. However, the man is so deep into his own lies, he refuses to break and continues his evil ways, starting with trying to kill Harry and Michael]].

* ''Series/CrimeSceneTheVanishingAtTheCecilHotel'' sees many AgentMulder types undergo this process in real life. Many of them insisted that a ghost, demonic possession, or some sort of sinister government conspiracy was responsible for Elisa Lam's death. [[spoiler: The final episode features a montage of web sleuths admitting that her death was likely a tragic accident and their theories were incorrect.]]

* One episode of ''Series/FatherTed'' has Father Dougal accidentally break a bishop's belief in Christ and Christianity just through being such a CloudCuckoolander and suckering him into non-sequitur conversations. By the end of the episode, the bishop is hitting the hippie trail in a VW bus with a bunch of stoners to find an alternative spirituality, although Dougal still has no idea what is going on.

* Music/WithinTemptation has a song called "The Truth Beneath The Rose," about a Christian fanatic seeing the error of their ways, and which strongly implies that this trope happens. Though because the fanatic continues to talk about forgiveness of sin and redeeming their soul, it arguably falls more along the lines of GodBeforeDogma.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''
** Mammon, a backwater, near-dead planet in the [[TableTopGame/BlackCrusade Screaming Vortex]], is populated by people with lunatic faith that the Emperor will one day return and create a golden age. Chaos forces that raid the planet for slaves take sadistic pleasure in informing the natives that the GodEmperor has been on life support for ten millennia, showing them just how little they matter. Another favored tactic is to make them watch one of the endless battles between their faction and the identical "heretic" faction and try to figure out which is which.
** One SpaceMarine Chapter Master with ties to the Inquisition prayed to the Emperor that they might be able to tell truth from lies. Unfortunately, Tzeentch heard his prayer, and now they could hear ''every'' lie across the Imperium, all the time (and since much of Imperial creed is contradictory or outright wrong, and the fact that its very basics were written by the Traitor Primarch Lorgar...). They fell to Chaos in record time.
** The Word Bearers Primarch [[BadassPreacher Lorgar]] suffered this courtesy of the God Emperor himself. He was devoted to the Emperor and considered him a god, writing books arguing his divinity and converting many worlds through the power of his skills at orating his father's "godhood". Unfortunately for him, the Emperor [[StopWorshippingMe didn't want to be considered a god]], saw religion as dangerous and a limiting idea on humanity's mind, and wanted to outlaw religion to starve the Chaos Gods of power, and so the Emperor destroyed Monarchia, the crowning symbol of Lorgar's work, and then forcefully rebuked and humiliated him and his Legion. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately for the Emperor and the rest of the Imperium, that was all the Chaos Gods needed in order to push the broken Lorgar into their hands and begin the Horus Heresy]]...
** The Emperor tried to do this to the last Christian priest on earth in the short story ''The Last Church'' by pointing out all the flaws of religion and explaining His vision of the future. The priest gives the Emperor a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite who wants to be worshipped as a god in everything but name.

* In TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering, on the plane of Amonkhet, the mortals are all devoted to their gods, and even the gods are devoted to the God-Pharaoh. Everyone spends their lives training to be worthy of being by his side in the afterlife when he finally returns. So, this happens to everyone when the prophecies are corrupted, the God-Pharaoh turns out to be [[spoiler: [[BigBad Nicol Bolas]]]], and three new gods show up to kill the five original ones.

* In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba, who, starting from "Defying Gravity," is fighting for what she thinks is right, realizes in [[SanitySlippageSong "No Good Deed"]] that she has actually been wrong and evil, begins to go mad. Just look at this quote: "Let all Oz be agreed: I'm '''wicked''' through and through!" [[spoiler: In "For Good", Elphaba continues to go down this road as she speaks to Glinda, but then she recovers.]]
* In ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman'', Willy Loman, who is thoroughly convinced that "personality always wins the day" discovers that this core belief was wrong. He is so stunned by this realization that he feels he can only give his life meaning by [[DrivenToSuicide ending it.]] And that is not a spoiler, it's right there in the title!

* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has Kormac, an actual member of a [[KnightTemplar Templar Order]] who is wholly devoted to the combat of good against evil, going through a moral crisis when he learns that the order brainwashed him into believing he was a converted criminal when he was in fact innocent. This eventually leads him to confront the order itself in order to uphold its ideals. [[spoiler:But when he learns that the order's corruption runs straight to the top, that the Grand Maester, the First of the Order, is complicit in the horror inflicted upon new initiates, and that he plans to do this to ''everyone in Westmarch and beyond'', he decides that the order needs to end]].

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II'': Captain Apollo Diomedes, captain of the Blood Ravens honor guard gets hit with this trope hard, as the reveal that [[spoiler:Chapter Master Azariah Kyras]] is a heretic causes him to rethink all his orders (which usually involved HeKnowsTooMuch). And since he's served more than four centuries, that's a lot of silencing he's had to do. However, when he is finally given irrefutable proof a decade after he was first told of it, it takes him only a few missions to recover from the HeroicBSOD and go after [[spoiler:Kyras]] for good.

*** Also, Al'arak's master got hit hard with this when he hacked his way into Amon's personal mindspace and accidentally discovered the final purpose of the Hybrids: to ''explode'' right after they finished slaughtering all other races, acting as disposable fireworks celebrating Amon's omnicide of the galaxy itself. He might have convinced Al'arak sooner - if he hadn't ''flayed his own skin off'' to remove his Amon tattoos.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:In "Hollow Mind", Hunter and Luz are both trapped in Belos's mind, and Hunter is forced to see that Belos is no Emperor of Witches in spirit, but a deluded and genocidal Witch Hunter - literally; he's actually former American colonist Philip Maquard from the era of witch-hunting madness. Hunter asked "[[ItMakesSenseInContext It wasn't wild magic, was it?]]" Belos responds by trying to ''murder'' him, but the plant glyphs rescue him. After escaping, Hunter has a panic attack, then discards his cape (with House Belos' sigil on it) and runs off.]]

** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheVoid'': One of Amon's promises to his Tal'darim followers was that they would become hybrid once he ascended. The massively powerful hybrid are lab-grown, not melded from Protoss, and once the [[NumberTwo First Ascendant]] Al'arak discovers this he works with Artanis to bring Amon down by taking away control of the faction (Tal'darim society being heavily based on SocialDarwinism and KlingonPromotion, there wasn't much left to break). Also, Al'arak's master got hit hard with this when he accidentally hacked his way into Amon's personal mindspace and realized Hybrids make for good fireworks to celebrate the end of the galaxy. He might have convinced Al'arak sooner if he hadn't ''flayed his own skin off in madness''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:In "Hollow Mind", Hunter and Luz are both trapped in Belos's mind, Hunter is forced to see Philip's true actions and motives. He asked "It wasn't wild magic, was it?" In response Belos tries to kill Hunter. But thankfully, is saved by the plant glyphs, and he and Luz both escape with their lives. After having a panic attack, he throw his cape on the ground and runs away.]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', Niki was one of the most patriotic of the original L'Manburg citizens; she loved the place Wilbur had made and wanted to defend its honor with her life. However, the night before Doomsday, she realized that she felt like the L'Manburg she loved was gone, and [[WatchingTroyBurn could no longer bring herself to fight for]] what Niki feels to be a country that doesn't care for her and was overall a broken shell of the nation she loved. During the Doomsday War, Niki even went as far as to [[BurningTheFlag burn down]] [[MonumentalDamage the]] [[SymbolicallyBrokenObject L'Mantree]], a remnant of L'Manburg from Wilbur's presidency that had previously survived even when everything else in the country was blown up or torn down, causing the L'Manburgians to [[TheseusShipParadox realize]] that nothing is left of their original nation and that it's no longer worth salvaging its ruins.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:In Hollow Mind: Hunter and Luz are both trapped in Belos's mind, Hunter is forced to see Phillp's true actions and motives. He asked "It wasn't wild magic, was it?" In response Belos tries to kill Hunter. But thankfully, is saved by the plant glyphs, and he and Luz both escape with their lives. After having a panic attack he throw his cape on the ground and runs away.]]

The Owl House: [[In Hollow Mind: Hunter and Luz are both trapped in Belos's mind, Hunter is forced to see Phillp's true actions and motives. He asked "It wasn't wild magic, was it?". In response Belos tries to kill Hunter. But thankfully, is saved by the plant glyphs, and he and Luz both escape with their lives. After having a panic attack he throw his cape on the ground and runs away.]]

* The first arc in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' revolves around Edward and Alphonse exposing the fraud priest of "Leto the Sun God." The person most deeply affected by their actions is Rose, a woman who had hoped Leto would revive her late boyfriend. When she confronts Ed, saying she would have been better off being blissfully ignorant, he responds that her only choice is to pull herself up and move forward. While in the manga and 2009 anime she manages to emotionally recover from the incident shockingly quickly and even joyfully, in the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime]] she spends a significant portion of the series horrifically traumatized from being [[spoiler:gang-raped by Amestris soldiers, leaving her unable to speak for several episodes.]] Unlike the manga, however, she still holds her faith that at least some God is out there watching over her.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': The revelation that magic exists and sociopathic demon-like aliens rule the universe / keep it from dying specifically by torturing innocent people and using their suffering to reverse entropy, tends to drive most religious people insane, like Sakura's father, who pulled a PaterFamilicide just upon learning that his increased church attendance was due to his daughter's magic. Most of the girls get driven to despair upon learning the AwfulTruth as well [[spoiler:which Kyubey deliberately does in order to cause them to turn into witches]].

* In general, {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies are about protagonists finding concrete evidence that their religion is a lie because they're about to be squished by something that their god would never create.

* In general, Cosmic Horror Stories are about protagonists finding concrete evidence that their religion is a lie because they're about to be squished by something that their god would never create.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

!Examples

->And must I, who never doubted, now begin to doubt?

* ''Film/{{Silence}}'': What the Japanese authorities try to do. They want to force priests to apostatize, and succeeded in doing this to Fr. Ferreira. [[spoiler:It's averted with Rodrigues. He apostatizes in the end, but he does so to prevent other Christians from suffering, and he still keeps his belief privately, as does Kichijiro, who repeatedly apostatizes but still believes, and still considers Rodrigues his priest and confessor even after he has apostatized.]]

* ''Series/CrimeSceneTheVanishingAtTheCecilHotel'' sees many AgentMulder types undergo this process in real life. Many of them insisted that a ghost, demonic possession or some sort of sinister government conspiracy was responsible for Elisa Lam's death. [[spoiler: The final episode features a montage of web sleuths admitting that her death was likely a tragic accident and their theories were incorrect.]]

** The Emperor tried to do this to the last Christian priest on earth in the short story ''The Last Church'' by pointing out all the flaws of religion, and explaining His vision of the future. The priest gives the Emperor a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite who wants to be worshipped as a god in everything but name.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]