History Main / ForcedIntoEvil

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'' has [[spoiler:Chitose]] forced to be TheMole by [[spoiler:Eiji and Ebina, who were also responsible for her (as Tatara Hisoka) ruining Ichiban's life and blowing Kiryu's [[FakingTheDead cover]], all of which she confesses to at the end of [[WhamEpisode Chapter 9]].]]

Not so for this character. These characters are villains because they truly don't have another option (that they know of anyway). Either they, someone they know, or even the world itself is in grave danger if they don't do what they've been told, and there isn't enough time or opportunity to find another way. They know that their actions are evil and will mean inevitable victory for the evil side, but their actions, no matter how horrible, mean the difference between evil winning ''now'' or evil winning later. Another example is that they may have PowerBornOfMadness or a SuperPoweredEvilSide, but [[GodzillaThreshold have no choice but to use it to solve a]] [[GodzillaThreshold ''bigger'']] [[GodzillaThreshold problem]]. Either way, all this person generally needs is to be freed from any external coercion or taught a better solution to their problem.

* In [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMutantMayhem]], [[spoiler: no one in Superfly's gang wants to go through with his plan to kill humanity and repopulate the Earth with mutants like them; [[IJustWantToBeLoved they just want to be loved and accepted like the Turtles]]. The only reason they follow Superfly is because he's the closest thing to a father[=/=]big brother figure they have.]]

Contrast with the {{Brainwashed}} and FaceMonsterTurn tropes, where the character is forcefully modified and robbed of free will to be steered into evil, or MindRape where they were wrecked so hard their free will wasn't working straight to steer them into evil. In that case they didn't really make a choice and weren't really even themselves. Not so for this character, this character knows what he/she is doing and had their free will intact and straight, but still couldn't do a thing to resist the forcing... for the moment. They have a choice, it is just a very, very harsh one and possibly a choice to die. Also compare with MoreThanMindControl where the character is coerced mentally into believing that the only way available is something that he/she doesn't like, thus being forced to make a free will choice of steering themselves into evil. ThenLetMeBeEvil is another similar trope, in which a character isn't directly forced into being evil, but is expected to by society. MinionManipulatedIntoVillainy is a more subtle way of converting a person into a villain.

* The Seven Disfigured Swordsmen who serves the evil Jiuxian Witch from ''Film/TheDevilsMirror'' are actually lawful warriors poisoned by the witch's Corpse Worm Pills, who ends up having their faces melted and would die agonizingly within days. They're forced to perform assassinations and theft under the witch's orders, where upon completing their assignment, the witch will give them ''half'' the antidote, prolonging their lives for a few more days, making them return to serve her later on. Near the halfway point of the film, two remaining swordsmen decide to pull a HeelFaceTurn to save the heroes, getting killed by the Witch's underlings in the process.
* In ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', Dom is forced to do Cipher's bidding because [[spoiler:Cipher has Elena & Dom's newborn son held hostage, threatening to kill them if he doesn't obey her]].

* In ''Film/MidwinterNightsDream'', Lazar was conscripted into the Serbian army during UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars and forced to commit atrocities against civilians.
* ''Film/MirrorMirror'': Brighton comes across as this. Similarly for the Queen's guards, who don't even stop Snow White from leaving the castle, and [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain agree with each other not to tell anyone]]. It's indicated he only serves her out of fear, and they might too. Brighton also lets Snow White live rather than murder her on the Queen's orders, saying he much preferred her father.

Where there's a whip, theres a way!"''

Not so for this character. These characters are villains because they truly don't have another option (that they know of anyway). Either they, someone they know, or even the world itself is in grave danger if they don't do what they've been told, and there isn't enough time or opportunity to find another way. They know that their actions are evil and will mean inevitable victory for the evil side, but their actions, no matter how horrible, mean the difference between evil winning ''now'' or evil winning later. Another example is that they may have PowerBornOfMadness or a SuperPoweredEvilSide, but have no choice but to use it to solve a ''bigger'' problem. Either way, all this person generally needs is to be freed from any external coercion or taught a better solution to their problem.

** Bonesaw herself was essentially kidnapped after being forced to tricked into extending her family's suffering and became a serial killer from a combination of Useful notes/StockholmSyndrome and deliberate brainwashing by Jack Slash. [[spoiler:A combination of being separated from Jack's influence and reminded of how her family died ultimately leads to her HeelFaceTurn.]]

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. [[PlanetLooters Mottom]] presents herself as a victim of this trope, forced to continiously strip worlds under her dominion to the bone and [[spoiler:[[ImmortalityImmorality sacrifice blood tithes of her citizens to her husband's corpse to maintain her immortality]]]] because of the EvilPowerVacuum that would arise should her power or control slip but a little, leading to either [[OmnicidalManiac Jagganoth]] or her DecadentCourt killing her. Once Allison realizes the full extent of Mottom's actions ([[spoiler:and that she's trying to pawn off all her responsibilities onto Allison]]) she rejects all of it, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech stating that Mottom is nothing but a frightened old woman deluding herself into thinking she has no choice]] when she is a demi-god and has almost ''every'' kind of choice available to a human being in TheMultiverse. She simply chooses not to try to be better.

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie]] are not carrying out their horrific mission because they ''want'' to do it. Their families volunteered them for it as small children, having been promised better treatment in exchange for their children's loyal service. Even when they later begin to doubt their mission, they know the cost of betrayal is their own deaths and AFateWorseThanDeath for their loved ones. They ''genuinely'' believe they have no other choice, and that it's far too late for them to consider other options.

* The Mamas, Grandmas, and Sisters in ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland''. They are women who showed exceptional abilities and high scores in their farms as children, and were offered two choices: to die and be eaten by the demons, or to live on and train to raise more children as food. These women chose the latter, and became the farmers instead of the cattle. [[spoiler: In the final arc, all of the Mamas and Sisters, led by Grandma Isabella, rebel against their demonic masters and help the children of Grace Field escape to the human world. Isabella ends up sacrificing her life to save Emma, revealing in her dying breath that she did indeed love the children she took care of in her own way.]]

* [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Koops]] in ''Fanfic/FallenKingdom''. He makes it painfully clear when [[spoiler: fighting his fellow partners]] that he doesn't want to fight them and would rather not be a soldier period, but due to Larry putting a [[{{Geas}} Slave Seal]] on him, which will kill him and his family if he disobeys, he is left with no choice [[spoiler: until Vivian burns it off.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MonsterChronicles'' [[{{Jerkass}} While he wasn't the nicest guy to begin with,]] [[spoiler: Duncan is clearly unhappy with being blackmailed into working for Cedric.]]
* ''WebVideo/ResidentEvilAbridged'': Barry has no choice but to [[LuredIntoATrap set up his partner]] [[ActionGirl Jill.]] Otherwise, their captain will show Barry's wife [[spoiler: all the [[{{Hentai}} tentacle porn]] he has hidden in his browser history]].

* In ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', Dom is forced to do Cipher's bidding because [[spoiler: Cipher has Elena & Dom's newborn son held hostage, threatening to kill them if he doesn't obey her]].

* Played with in ''Literature/DragonBones'': Oreg is a slave, who was MadeASlave by magical means, so he has no way out at all. The fact that he's trained as assassin hints at him having been used as a murder weapon - probably to murder innocent people too. Then there's Garranon, who's quite likeable on his own, but would [[KickTheDog torture puppies]] to protect his brother, and antagonizes the protagonist for that reason. The protagonist, Ward, feels forced to make a deal with the villain to protect the lives of those dear to him, at the end. [[spoiler: He doesn't go through with it, as Oreg suggests to TakeAThirdOption, that consists of killing [[GeniusLoci Oreg]], which causes castle Hurog to collapse on the villains. Ward feels guilty about that, too, even though he believes it was the right thing to do.]]
* Draco Malfoy in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series. He willingly enters the ranks of Voldemort's Death Eaters at the age of 16, after years of bragging about his pure-blood status and acting like an utter racist jerk against muggle-born and blood-traitor witches and wizards. He entered partly as a way of revenge against Harry and the non-pure-blooded wizard world in general for seeing his father imprisoned for his criminal activities, but quickly gets disillusioned when he sees the atrocities performed by Voldemort and his followers. He can't change his mind, however; besides the fact resigning from being a Death Eater equals death, Voldemort sets an impossible mission on his shoulders, including smuggling Death Eaters to Hogwarts and killing Dumbledore, as a way to make his family pay for his father's failures in case he fails himself. This makes him much less self-confident and arrogant, becoming extremely anxious and terrified of the consequences if he does not succeed, leaving him no choice. [[spoiler: Although he succeeded with the former, he showed hesitation and finally lowered his wand when he was about to perform the latter]].

** Bonesaw herself was essentially kidnapped after being forced to tricked into extending her family's suffering and became a serial killer from a combination of StockholmSyndrome and deliberate brainwashing by Jack Slash. [[spoiler: A combination of being separated from Jack's influence and reminded of how her family died ultimately leads to her HeelFaceTurn.]]

* In ''Series/{{Diablero}}'', it's clear from the beginning that Wences is a fundamentally nice person who has objections to Mama Chabela kidnapping and imprisoning the kids, but that he has some kind of vaguely defined mental disorder that makes it almost impossible for him to disagree with her. It also can't be helping that [[spoiler: she uses him as a demon host, which Nancy recognizes as not his fault and pities him for]].

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has two examples. ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' has Hades control Auron's mind/soul so Auron can fight and kill Hercules. [[spoiler: KH3D goes on to show that Xehanort's ultimate plan involves making 13 of himself. While a few joined willingly, the series goes on to state that others were forced into it. For example, Isa has the mark carved into his face, and hates the other known Norts.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' this happens to all but three of [[spoiler: the ''entire'' cast of Earthrelm's protectors]] when they are [[spoiler:killed by Sindel, along with Sindel herself and the Outworld warriors who allied themselves with the Earthrealm]] after their souls are stolen by Quan Chi. By the time of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'', a few are freed from Quan Chi's hold, while the rest are forever trapped as revenants following [[spoiler:Quan Chi's demise]] leaving [[spoiler:Liu Kang, Kitana, and Sindel]] as potential enemies in the future.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' features this with a Light Side Sith Inquisitor. The character starts off as a Force-Sensitive slave and is forced to join the Sith because of their policy (i.e. join us or die). After completing training, they take regular jobs from the Empire, including stamping down slave rebellions, preventing the Republic from re-cultivating a devastated planet, crushing resistance groups, attacking Jedi enclaves, and testing superweapons on entire fleets. However, an LS inquisitor can state they have no particular love for the Empire, that they have options to minimize casualties sometimes implies they don't enjoy what they do, and they can also state they would prefer to change the faction from within to make it a more rational and peaceful organization. With later expansions, [[spoiler: they can [[TheDogBitesBack actively sabotage the Empire by ruining critical operations in their war effort.]]]]

* Rudy in ''VideoGame/WildArmsMillionMemories'' falls temporarily into this. [[spoiler: Siegfried has him cornered in the Memory Maze, and given how powerful he is in this game, Rudy doesn't have much choice but to team up with him and reactivate the Yggdrasil System, destroying Filgaia.]] Things turn out to be less bad than they appear because [[spoiler: the two of them have formed an [[EnemyMine Enemy Mine]] against Mother with Siegfried even sacrificing himself to keep Rudy alive.]] The rest of your party still chew him out over the deception though.

* ''Webcomic/OneHundredAndEightyAngel'': [[spoiler: Maizie]] was forced to hurt [[spoiler:Sam]] by a life deal she made, even though she didn't want to and even apologises to her.

** This also happens to [[spoiler: [[DarkMagicalGirl Raven]]]] in Season 4. [[spoiler: Slade forces her to become TheAntiChrist for the BigBad of the season, [[SatanicArchetype her father Trigon]].]]

Contrast with the {{Brainwashed}} and FaceMonsterTurn tropes, where the character is forcefully modified and robbed of free will to be steered into evil, or MindRape where they were wrecked so hard their free will wasn't working straight to steer them into evil. In that case they didn't really make a choice and weren't really even themselves. Not so for this character, this character knows what he/she is doing and had their free will intact and straight, but still couldn't do a thing to resist the forcing... for the moment. They have a choice, it is just a very, very harsh one and possibly a choice to die. Also compare with MoreThanMindControl where the character is coerced mentally into believing that the only way available is something that he/she doesn't like, thus being forced to make a free will choice of steering themselves into evil. MinionManipulatedIntoVillainy is a more subtle way of converting a person into a villain.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'', part of [[AntiVillain King Harold]]'s motivation for acting against Shrek is his fear of retaliation from [[FauxAffablyEvil the]] [[TheFairFolk Fairy]] [[BigBad Godmother]] -- long before the events of the first film, he's made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with her]] [[spoiler:to turn him from a frog to a human]] so he could be with Lillian, on the condition that their daughter would marry the Fairy Godmother's son, [[PrinceCharmless Prince Charming]]. Unfortunately for him, [[WesternAnimation/Shrek1 Shrek had already rescued her]] before Charming could get there, and he and Fiona got married at the end of the film. When the Fairy Godmother finds out, she presses Harold into helping force Fiona to be with Charming, and when he shows doubts, the Fairy Godmother threatens to [[spoiler:turn him back into a frog, which she does at the end of the film after [[HeelFaceTurn Harold]] [[TakingTheBullet takes a spell meant for Shrek]].]]