History AssholeVictim / VisualNovels

*** Nagito Komoaeda from Case 5. After finding out his so called friends were soldiers of Despair working for the mastermind, he snaps and tries to have someone killed in the first case and when that fails, masterminds his own murder to get the Future spy executed.

*** Miu Iruma is TheFriendNobodyLikes where several students admitted to the the fact that they probably wouldn't have been friends with her even if they hadn't met in a killing game. In addition, had she not been the victim of Chapter Four, she would have killed Kokichi and frame Kaito for the murder possibly leading the other students to their deaths, though she did have [[TheNeedsOfTheMany altruistic reasons]] for attempting to murder Kokichi.

*** Tsumugi turned out to be the mastermind of the killing game who framed Kaede, as Kaede's trap missed Rantaro and Tsumugi hit him with an identical shot put ball afterwards, then had Kaede executed on false charges. In addition, she taunted Shuichi and Maki by showing them the audition tapes of Kaede and Kaito, showing them their pre-brainwashed personalities were far from the people they loved. Her death gets no send-off, she's just crushed by a rock by Monokuma and nobody cares or even seems to notice.

*** The victim of the first half of the final case, is another interesting spin on this. While he did love his daughter and quit his profitable job at Ivy U to move to Kurain to protect her from the world, he unknowingly caused her agoraphobia similar to Drew Misham from ''Apollo Justice''. Plus, he even stole ancient relics with no intent on giving them back from museums. So while he was good to his daughter, he was still a crooked thief, and unlike the victim of the first case, was doing it ForScience.

*** The victim of the second half of the fifth case, Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, is the man responsible for the secret police, along with the theft of the Founder's Orb, one of his sprites is him casually stamping execution papers with his PersonalSeal, he's extremely abrasive, doesn't have loyalties to anybody, was planning a coup against his own wife ([[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen not that she doesn't deserve it]]), kidnapped Maya, shot Apollo's foster father dead without remorse, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and uses Je Suis L'Belle hair products]]. His only redeeming quality is that [[DaddysGirl his love for his daughter Rayfa is genuine]].

*** The victim of the third case, Isaac Dover, was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently OnlyInItForTheMoney, who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his partner Dane Gustavia so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him. Gustavia responded to this by killing Dover on the spot. Meanwhile, Gustavia was ''also'' an asshole who only valued his son as a taste-tester and fled the country the first chance he got after the murder, not particularly caring that his son was, as far as he knew, still kidnapped (both his and Dover's sons had been rescued from near-death by [[HitmanWithAHeart Sirhan Dogen]] and taken to an orphanage).

*** The victim of the third case, Isaac Dover, was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently OnlyInItForTheMoney, who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his partner Dane Gustavia so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him. Gustavia opted to kill him instead. Meanwhile, Gustavia was ''also'' an asshole who only valued his son as a taste-tester and fled the country the first chance he got after the murder, not particularly caring that his son was, as far as he knew, still kidnapped (both his and Dover's sons had been rescued from near-death by [[HitmanWithAHeart Sirhan Dogen]] and taken to an orphanage).

*** The victim in the third case, Jack Hammer, turned out to have been intentionally trying to frame the client, Will Powers, one of the nicest characters in the series, out of jealousy, by drugging him and stealing his costume. The real killer, Dee Vasquez, acted in self-defense, though she wouldn't have needed to if she hadn't been blackmailing Hammer in the first place. It's also possible that Hammer deliberately murdered another actor five years ago; we never hear his side of the story, but Vasquez strongly suggests the "accident" might have been deliberate, although it's also implied she and the other actor were lovers (and that her blackmailing of Hammer was primarily to make him suffer out of revenge) so she might be a tad biased in her assesment.

*** The fourth case's victim, Robert Hammond, was a defense attorney who, like damn near every non-playable attorney in the series, was an AmoralAttorney who only cared about winning cases by any means necessary. He was killed by a former client, Yanni Yogi, who he got found innocent of murder by [[InsanityDefense pleading insanity]]. Yogi really ''was'' innocent, but the attorney didn't believe him, nor did he care. Having to [[ObfuscatingInsanity keep up the act of insanity]] ruined Yogi's life and drove his fiancée to commit suicide, so he eventually decided to take revenge.

*** The victim in the third case turned out to have been intentionally trying to frame the client, Will Powers, one of the nicest characters in the series, out of jealousy, by drugging him and stealing his costume. The real killer acted in self-defense, though they wouldn't have needed to if they hadn't been blackmailing him in the first place. It's also possible that the victim himself deliberately murdered another actor five years ago; we never hear his side of the story, but the killer strongly suggests the "accident" might have been deliberate.
*** The fourth case's victim was a defense attorney who, like damn near every non-playable attorney in the series, was an AmoralAttorney who only cared about winning cases by any means necessary. He was killed by a former client who he got found innocent of murder by [[InsanityDefense pleading insanity]]. The client really ''was'' innocent, but the attorney didn't believe him, nor did he care. Having to [[ObfuscatingInsanity keep up the act of insanity]] ruined the client's life and drove his fiancée to commit suicide, so he eventually decided to take revenge.

*** The victim in the second case is actually the ''culprit'' from the first case--and if later revelations make his death sort of tragic in retrospect, he was still a guy that murdered his innocent co-worker out of [[GreenEyedMonster envy]] and ambition (plus he had a terrible personality on top of it all, having no problem casually harping on the faults he saw in his victim even though the person was already dead).
*** In the third case, the victim was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently OnlyInItForTheMoney, who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his former partner so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him. The blackmail victim opted to kill him instead. Meanwhile, the blackmail victim was ''also'' an asshole who only valued his son as a taste-tester and fled the country the first chance he got after the murder, not particularly caring that his son was, as far as he knew, still kidnapped (he had actually been rescued by an assassin [[HitmanWithAHeart who took both him and the blackmailer's son to an orphanage]]).
*** In the final case, the victim (who was first met way back in the first case) turns out to have been ''much'' more of an asshole than had been initially suspected (and he was already a pretty big asshole who staged a fake murder attempt on himself just so he could look cool when he thwarted it) -- he was in fact the former BodyDouble for the President of a foreign country who had arranged the real President's assassination a decade ago in order to take his place, fabricated his own kidnapping to defraud the country of millions and killed or tried to kill anyone who could have exposed his real identity. By comparison, the game's actual BigBad, who arranged his murder, comes off as downright sympathetic, and possibly would have been seen as justified if he hadn't tried to pin the murder on a thirteen-year-old boy.
** ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'' is notable among the games for having ''absolutely no Asshole Victims whatsoever''. Every murder victim in the game, whether a case-focused or in the backstory, was a genuinely decent person (although Bobby Fulbright can only be inferred from the assumption that the [[BigBad Phantom's]] impersonation was accurate).

*** The victim of the fourth case, Taifu Toneido, is an interesting case. While not a egregious JerkAss like other examples and more of a GrumpyOldMan, he still snubbed his beloved senior disciple, who was the child of the previous Uendo Toneido, in favor of his junior disciple and apparently stole the deed to Bucky Whet's noodle shop. Truth is, he had an ulterior motive for both. He stole the deed so he could make sure it was entitled to the right person (Bucky) and snubbed Geiru so he could ask her to find her own calling in life away from rakugo over a bowl of udon noodles which he had the tools to make. Ultimately, it's this that makes Geiru regret what she's done and genuinely feel bad. Pretty sad case in hindsight.
*** The victim of the first half of the final case, is another interesting spin on this. While he did love his daughter and quit his profitable job at Ivy U to move to Kurain to protect her from the world, he unknowingly caused her agoraphobia similar to Drew Misham from Apollo Justice. Plus, he even stole ancient relics with no intent on giving them back from museums. So while he was good to his daughter, he was still a crooked thief. And unlike the victim of the first case, was doing it ForScience.
*** The victim of the second half of the fifth case, Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, is the man responsible for the secret police, along with the theft of the Founder's Orb, one of his sprites is casually signing execution papers, he's extremely abrasive, doesn't have loyalties to anybody, was planning a coup against his own wife ([[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen not that she doesn't deserve it]]), kidnapped Maya, and shot Apollo's foster father dead without remorse. His only redeeming quality is his love for his daughter.

*** As far as killers who get executed, it's hard to feel sorry for Celes/Celestia Ludenburg as she had Hifumi kill Kiyotaka, a fan fanvorite character, and claim he raped her. And her motive for doing all this, was simply pecuniary {{Greed}}. Not only that but she feels zero remorse for both of the murders.

*** [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] the mastermind in Case 6 executes themselves if you beat them and let's just say all the crap they put you through, it's extremely cathartic.

*** Nagito Komaeda from Case 5. After finding out his so called friends were soldiers of Despair working for the mastermind, he snaps and tries to have someone killed in the first case and when that fails, masterminds his own murder to get the Future spy executed.

*** As far as killers who get executed, it's hard to feel sorry for Celes/Celestia Ludenburg as she had Hifumi kill Kiyotaka, a fan fanvorite character, and claim he raped her. And her motive for doing all this, was simply pecuniary {{Greed}}. Not only that but she feels zero remorse in the murders.

*** Nagito from Case 5. After finding out his so called friends were soldiers of Despair working for the mastermind, he snaps and tries to have someone killed in the first case and when that fails, masterminds his own murder to get the Future spy executed.

** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': Sayaka Maizono is this trope, as she invited Leon to her room as an attempt to murder him, which backfired. She had also set up the protagonist to take the fall for her. Leon doesn't come out of this smelling like roses either, as he picked up Sayaka's framejob from there, even though wrongly accusing Makoto of murder meant that everyone but Leon would be killed. At the end, one character points out that he ''did'' have time to stop and think when the victim (who was having second thoughts) retreated, meaning that it wasn't entirely done in self-defense - but pursued and killed them anyway. The manga makes both of them more sympathetic however- Sayaka genuinely cared about Makoto and left her dying clue as penance for what she had tried to do to him, and Leon himself actually murdered her by accident. Even in the game, Makoto forgives both of them for their actions, and rightly points out that the ''real'' asshole is Monokuma, the sadistic bear who's been trying to manipulate everyone into becoming murderers to begin with.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganRonpa'':
** Sayaka Maizono is this trope, as she invited Leon to her room as an attempt to murder him, which backfired. She had also set up the protagonist to take the fall for her. Leon doesn't come out of this smelling like roses either, as he picked up Sayaka's framejob from there, even though wrongly accusing Makoto of murder meant that everyone but Leon would be killed. At the end, one character points out that he ''did'' have time to stop and think when the victim (who was having second thoughts) retreated, meaning that it wasn't entirely done in self-defense - but pursued and killed them anyway. The manga makes both of them more sympathetic however- Sayaka genuinely cared about Makoto and left her dying clue as penance for what she had tried to do to him, and Leon himself actually murdered her by accident. Even in the game, Makoto forgives both of them for their actions, and rightly points out that the ''real'' asshole is Monokuma, the sadistic bear who's been trying to manipulate everyone into becoming murderers to begin with.
** The sequel has Hiyoko Saionji, a ''massive'' brat who treated her classmates like garbage (especially [[ShrinkingViolet Tsumiki]]) and had a habit of abusing small animals. It's hard to feel bad for her, even though she never attempted murder herself and just walked in on a murder already underway, leading her to be killed [[HeKnowsTooMuch to be silenced]].
** From "Twilight Syndrome", a [[ShowWithinAShow game inside the video game]] that was based on actual events in the characters' lives, the victim, Fuyuhiko's sister Natsumi Kuzuryu, had been bullying Girl D (Mahiru), expecting to get away with it [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections because of her powerful parents]]. Girl D's close friend, Girl E (Sato) confronted the victim, and in a fit of rage, strangled her until she fell unconsciousness, then killed her in order to prevent any possible problems that might arise if she came to.

*** Tsumugi turned out to be the mastermind of the killing game who framed Kaede, as Kaede's trap missed Rantaro and Tsumugi hit him with an identical shot put ball afterwards, then had Kaede executed on false charges. In addition, she taunted Shuichi and Maki by showing them the audition tapes of Kaede and Kaito, showing them their pre-brainwashed personalities were far from the people they loved. Her death gets no send-off, she's just crushed by a rock by Monokuma and nobody cares or even seems to notice.

* ''VisualNovel/SayaNoUta'' has Yosuke Suzumi as a Played With example. [[spoiler:Before Saya altered his brain to give him the same condition as Fuminori, he seemed to be a nice and normal family man, showing concern for Fuminori and offering to clean his house, though Fuminori thinks this is only because he fears it will affect his perfect image of his house. Though whatever kindness he had once is completely gone by the time he goes insane, being completely willing to rape what he thinks is a normal girl, thus leaving the viewer unlikely to sympathize with him when Fuminori kills him.]]

*** The fourth case's victim was a defense attorney who, like damn near every non-playable lawyer in the series, was an AmoralAttorney who only cared about winning cases by any means necessary. He was killed by a former client who he got found innocent of murder by [[InsanityDefense pleading insanity]], despite the fact that the client really ''was'' innocent. Having to [[ObfuscatingInsanity keep up the insanity act]] at all times utterly ruined the client's life, but the attorney didn't care. Eventually the client had enough and decided to get revenge.

*** In the third case, the victim was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently OnlyInItForTheMoney, who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his former partner so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him. The blackmail victim opted to kill him instead. Meanwhile, the blackmail victim was ''also'' an asshole who only valued his son as a taste-tester and fled the country the first chance he got after the murder, not particularly caring that his son was still kidnapped.

*** One of Redd White's blackmail victims who were DrivenToSuicide was a corrupt politician who was embezzling money.

*** The fourth case's victim was a defense attorney who sought to get not guilty verdicts even if it meant harm to his clients, and was killed by one of said clients who had been genuinely innocent but had his entire life destroyed as a result of the false insanity plea.

*** The victim of the {{Flashback}} [[ThatOneCase case]] during the fourth case, Magnifi Gramarye, was eventually revealed to have been blackmailing both of his disciples with the information that one of them accidentally killed their partner. In the second case of ''Spirit of Justice'', it was also revealed that he had prohibited Mr. Reus from performing because he injured himself during practice, then kicked him out of the Troupe for performing while injured (Though this is also a case of JerkassHasAPoint).

*** In the third case, the victim was an infamously greedy sculptor apparently OnlyInItForTheMoney, who forced his own son to kidnap the son of his former partner so that he could have an easier time betraying and blackmailing him. The blackmailee opted to kill him instead. In the same case the killer himself ''also'' became a victim, albeit nonfatally, and he was a guy who only valued his son as a taste-tester and left him behind in an OrphanageOfFear when he fled the country after the murder.
*** In the final case, the victim (who had been met way back in the first case) turns out to have been ''much'' more assholish than had been initially suspected--he was in fact a former body double for the head of state who had arranged the man's assassination, taken his place, fabricated his own kidnapping to defraud the country of millions and killed or tried to kill anyone who could have exposed his real identity. By comparison, the game's actual BigBad, who arranged his murder, comes off as downright sympathetic, and possibly would have been seen as justified if he hadn't tried to pin the murder on a thirteen-year-old boy.

*** The victim of the second half of the fifth case, Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, is the man responsible for the secret police, along with the theft of the Founder's Orb, one of his sprites is casually signing execution papers, he's extremely abrasive, doesn't have loyalties to anybody, was planning a coup against Ga'ran, kidnapped Maya, and shot Apollo's foster father dead without remorse. His only redeeming quality is his love for his daughter.

** Sayaka Maizono is this trope, as she invited Leon to her room as an attempt to murder him, which backfired. She had also set up the protagonist to take the fall for her. Leon doesn't come out of this smelling like roses either, as he picked up Sayaka's framejob from there, even though wrongly accusing Naegi of murder meant that everyone but Leon would be killed. At the end, one character points out that he ''did'' have time to stop and think when the victim (who was having second thoughts) retreated, meaning that it wasn't entirely done in self-defense - but pursued and killed them anyway. The manga makes both of them more sympathetic however- Sayaka genuinely cared about Makoto and left her dying clue as penance for what she had tried to do to him, and Leon himself actually murdered her by accident. Even in the game, Makoto forgives both of them for their actions, and rightly points out that the ''real'' asshole is Monokuma, the sadistic bear who's been trying to manipulate everyone into becoming murderers to begin with.

** From "Twilight Syndrome", a [[ShowWithinAShow game inside the video game]] that was based on actual events in the characters' lives, the victim, Fuyuhiko's sister Natsume Kuzuryu, had been bullying Girl D (Koizumi), expecting to get away with it [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections because of her powerful parents]]. Girl D's close friend, Girl E (Sato) confronted the victim, and in a fit of rage, strangled her until she fell unconsciousness, then killed her in order to prevent any possible problems that might arise if she came to.

*** Monokid is the first of the Monokuma Cubs to be destroyed, courtesy of Monodam shoving him into the line of fire during Kaede's execution in Chapter 1. As an unrepentant hellraiser who was loud and obnoxious to everyone, it's safe to say that he won't be missed by anyone.

*** The victim in the third case turned out to have been intentionally trying to frame your client, Will Powers, one of the nicest characters in the series, out of jealousy, by drugging him and stealing his costume. The real killer acted in self-defense, though they wouldn't have needed to if they hadn't been blackmailing him in the first place. It's also possible that the victim himself deliberately murdered another actor five years ago; we never hear his side of the story, but the killer strongly suggests the "accident" might have been deliberate.

*** The second case's victim, Turner Grey, was a real DrJerk killed by a former employee who alleged he had drugged her, causing her to crash her car and kill her little sister. (Whether he actually ''did'' drug her is somewhat unclear, but being one of the few victims met before their demise, his {{jerkass}} persona is well-evident.)

*** Then, in the final case, the victim (who had been met way back in the first case) turns out to have been ''much'' more assholish than had been initially suspected--he was in fact a former body double for the head of state who had arranged the man's assassination, taken his place, fabricated his own kidnapping to defraud the country of millions and killed or tried to kill anyone who could have exposed his real identity. By comparison the game's actual BigBad, who arranged his murder, comes off as downright sympathetic, and possibly would have been seen as justified if he hadn't tried to pin the murder on a thirteen-year-old boy.

*** Subverted with Metis Cykes when the prosecution tries to establish a motive for Athena to want to kill her mother and it shows she was very neglectful and used her as a science guinea pig, when in reality she was doing this because she cared about her daughter, and Simon tells Athena that her mother truly loved her, and never thought of her as a guinea pig for her experiments.

*** The victim of the fourth case, Taifu Toneido, is an interesting case. While not a egregious JerkAss like other examples, he was more a GrumpyOldMan, he still snubbed his beloved senior disciple, who was the child of the previous Uendo Toneido in favor of his junior disciple and apparently stole the deed to Bucky Whet's noodle shop. Truth is, he had an ulterior motive for both. He stole the deed so he could make sure it was entitled to the right person (Bucky) and snubbed Geiru so he could ask her to find her own calling in life away from rakugo over a bowl of udon noodles which he had the tools to make. Ultimately, it's this that makes Geiru regret what she's done and genuinely feels bad about having killed a pretty cool old guy, if a bit grumpy. Pretty sad case in hindsight.
*** The victim of the second half of the fifth case, Inga Karkhuul Khura'in, is the man responsible for the secret police, along with the theft of the Founder's Orb, one of his sprites is casually signing execution papers, he's extremely abrasive, he doesn't have loyalties to anybody, he was planning a coup against Ga'ran, he kidnapped Maya, and he shot Apollo's foster father dead without remorse. He is not a good man. His only redeeming quality is his love for his daughter.

*** Miu Iruma is TheFriendNobodyLikes where even her trial, several students admitted to the the fact that they probably wouldn't have been friends with her, even if they hadn't met in a killing game. In addition, had she not been the victim of Chapter Four, she would have killed Kokichi and frame Kaito for the murder possibly leading the other students to their deaths.
*** A {{Downplayed}} example happens with Kokichi Oma. He is a bit antagonistic to the other students where a lot of people thought he was the mastermind. However, as it turns out, he was an AntiHero who was GoodAllAlong and he wanted to save Maki from being executed once she ended up shooting a poisonous arrow at him.
*** In Shuichi's backstory, the culprit of his first murder case had killed the victim to avenge his family and the victim was a horrible person who had tricked the culprit's family and driven them to suicide. It became deconstructed in that case as Shuichi felt guilty for "siding with" the victim by exposing the truth, and he gained a fear of exposing the truth, considering himself a pathetic detective, and he began to wear a hat because he couldn't look at other people's eyes anymore.

*** The third case's victim, Puhray Zeh'lot/Rheel Neh'mu is a member of the SecretPolice, who is hunting members of the rebel group the Defiant Dragons. He is killed in self-defense while trying to kill the pregnant Behleeb Inmee, who saw him as her surrogate son, merely for being a member of the rebel group.
*** The victim of the fourth case Teigu Toneido is an interesting case. While not a egregious JerkAss like other examples, he was more a GrumpyOldMan, he still snubbed his beloved senior disciple, who was the child of the previous Uendo Toneido in favor of his junior disciple and apparently stole the deed to Bucky Whet's noodle shop. Truth is, he had an ulterior motive for both. He stole the deed so he could make sure it was entitled to the right person (Bucky) and snubbed Geiru so he could ask her to find her own calling in life away from rakugo over a bowl of udon noodles which he had the tools to make. Ultimately, it's this that makes Geiru regret what she's done and genuinely feels bad about having killed a pretty cool old guy, if a bit grumpy. Pretty sad case in hindsight.

*** The victim of the DLC case, Dumas Gloomsbury, tried to kill Ellen in order to get back at Sorin, her fiancé, for making him TheScapegoat of the car crash that killed Sorin's older sister, Selena.

* Shinji Matou in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', Heaven's Feel route. Considering that this is the guy who has been raping his sister Sakura for years, treats his Servant Rider like a dog even when she remains unflinchingly loyal to him, and tried to rape Rin when she was tied up and unable to resist, no one is exactly shedding any tears for him when he's stabbed through the chest by the very sister he was again attempting to rape, even if this proves to be her StartOfDarkness.

** VisualNovel/NewDanganRonpaV3 has a couple of these

*** In Shuichi's backstory, the culprit of his first murder case had killed the victim to avenge his family and the victim was a horrible person who had tricked the culprit's family and driven them to suicide.

*** The third case's victim, Puhray Zeh'lot/Rheel Neh'mu is a member of the SecretPolice, who is hunting members of the rebel group the Defiant Dragons. He is killed in self-defense while trying to kill the pregnant Behleeb Inmee, who saw him as her surrogae son, merely for being a member of the rebel group.

*** Miu Iruma is TheFriendNobodyLikes where even her trial, several students admitted to the the fact that they probably wouldn't have been friends with her, even if they hadn't met in a killing game. In addition, had she not been the victim of Chapter Four, she would of killed Kokichi and frame Kaito for the murder possibly leading the other students to their deaths.

*** A {{Downplayed}} example happens with Kokichi Oma. He is a bit antagonistic to the other students where a lot of people thought he was the mastermind. However, as it turns out, he was an AntiHero who was GoodAllAlong and he wanted to save Maki from being executed once she ended up shooting a poisonous arrow at him.