History Main / FaithHeelTurn

* [[Buffy]] has a ''literal'' FaithHeelTurn.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' gets an honorary mention for having a ''[[{{JustForPun}} literal]]'' [[MeaningfulName Faith]]-[[FaceHeelTurn Heel Turn]].

* In ''Bruce Almighty'', the titular Bruce Nolan comes to believe early in the film that human existence is not fair and that God has chosen him to bear the brunt of this unfairness. This results in him becoming increasingly exasperated and sarcastic, finally causing him to snap and scream a vile expletive during one of his news broadcasts. This film is also notable for being the TropeNamer for the above-referenced SmiteMeOhMightySmiter.
* ''Commandments'' is about a man who loses everything and decides to break the 10 Commandments until he got an answer from God.

Now he likes to [[CompleteMonster rape puppies in his spare time]]. Compare to the HollywoodAtheist who experiences a much less drastic shift in his personality. Obviously, RealLife atheists don't believe this is the inevitable result of a loss of faith, and for a lot of people it isn't. On the other hand, it doesn't take a whole lot of thinking to see how someone losing everything they've ever believed in one go could make them crazy, so it's kind of in the middle there.

Possibly related to BewareTheNiceOnes and can lead to FallenAngel.

Not to be confused with [[{{Buffy}} Faith's]] heel turn, [[JustForPun becoming kill happy has little to do with atheism]] unless YouFailRligiousStudiesForever.

*** Winn was an ass ''before'' the Pah Wraiths got involved; she's just being an asshole for a different cause.

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' gets an honorary mention for having a ''literal'' [[{{JustForPun}} Faith-Heel Turn]].

* A relatively minor example, but much of the crux of Frank Capra's ItsAWonderfulLife hinges on George Bailey's increasing disillusionment during the holiday season as one thing after another goes terribly wrong for him. It finally gets to the point where he contemplates committing suicide (which is considered a mortal sin in some churches). After being rescued by an angel, he tells the angel that he wishes he had never been born.
** Suicide is generally treated more sympathetically than other violent crimes in fiction, though. At the worst, it's seen as the final act of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and not really a crossing of the MoralEventHorizon in itself.

* TheSparrow: Emilio Sandoz at the beginning of TheSparrow. Much of the book is a) finding out why it happened and b) trying to get him to turn back.

* ''{{Exalted}} has an unusually sympathetic example in the form of the Blood Queen, who used to be one of the Brides of Ahlat, an AmazonBrigade symbolically and literally MarriedToAGod. The Brides of Ahlat are not permitted to sleep with any other man, on pain of death; a little-known fact is that this extends to rape. When the woman who would become the Blood Queen found this out the hard way, she renounced Ahlat, fled Harborhead, and became an [[YogSothothSays akuma]] in order to take revenge on the entire institution that had ruined her life.

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[[folder:Theatre]]
* This is a big part of the [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade presentation]] of Salieri in the play ''{{Amadeus}}''. Salieri starts out, as he tells the audience, a pious man living a staid life. His beliefs are called into question when he meets Mozart and doesn't understand why a borderline JerkAss like Mozart gets divine musical talent but he doesn't. Thus, Salieri renounces God, and actually experiences improvement in his status from that point onward.

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