History Main / BecameTheirOwnAntithesis

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** RecursiveFanfiction ''Fanfic/WeightOffYourShoulder'': Out of her whole GirlPosse, Alix is the least invested in helping their friends Marinette and Adrien hook up. Her future self Bunnyx, however, has become a ''massive'' ShipperWithAnAgenda [[spoiler:who has been abusing the Rabbit Pocketwatch to try and twist the timestream around to create a reality where the two of them become "the perfect power couple". Horrifyingly enough, her priorities have become so skewed that she [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't care]] how much suffering results from her meddling, so long as she forces them together in the end]]. Alix is [[FutureMeScaresMe utterly disgusted]] when she learns this, calling out her counterpart and declaring that she hopes she ''never'' turns out like her.

** ''[[Fanfic/ApotheosisMHA Apotheosis]]'': Izuku went from a hero fanboy who idolized All Might to a supervillain that despises the current hero society, and All Might in particular.

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* ''Fanfic/CatarinaClaesMustDie'': In her previous life, Henrietta was a heavily bullied girl who deeply identified with the story of ''Fortune Lover'', empathizing with how Maria and Keith suffered and despising the nobles who bullied them. As Henrietta, however, her hatred of Catarina drives her to adopt all of the worst traits of those very same bullies, hellbent on torturing, tormenting, and ''killing'' a girl who has done absolutely nothing to deserve any of the cruelties she's intent on inflicting upon her, while [[IRejectYourReality ignoring every sign]] that this reality isn't ''exactly'' like ''Fortune Lover'' in that Catarina Claes is genuinely kind.
* [[spoiler:Harry Potter]] in ''Fanfic/TheDarknessSeries''.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyTotallyLegitRecap'': After pulling the zombie prank on Rainbow Dash to get back at her/teach her lesson for her earlier actions and the even bigger crime of ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness acting out of character]]'', she calls them out on their hypocrisy, pointing out that not only have they sunk to her level, but were ''acting out of character themselves!'' Cue horrifying realization.
* ''Fanfic/RecommencerMiraculousLadybug'': Thanks to [[ToxicFriendInfluence Lila becoming her new]] [[FalseFriend 'best friend']], Alya has gone from an IntrepidReporter gleefully GoingForTheBigScoop to a mouthpiece for Lila, backing up her [[ConsummateLiar various lies]] without ever questioning or looking into them. Her journalistic integrity is completely shot, and the Ladyblog is now increasingly regarded as a '[[ShallowNewsSiteSatire satire site]]', filled with articles promoting Lila's BlatantLies or rants about how [[ShipperOnDeck LadyNoir 'can still win']] despite Chat's retirement. Alya herself seems to be blissfully unaware of how badly she's regarded, coming off as a SmallNameBigEgo.
* Subverted in ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy''. Oprah refuses to join Odd Squad because she is of the belief that every agent who is employed with the organization is [[SmugSuper haughty, stuck-up, and braggadocious,]] and they don't know about working hard to get what you want in life. Despite her repeated refusals, O'Donahue keeps pushing and keeps asking her, and eventually she agrees after exposing Olga as a thief and realizing that being an agent can be fun. However, once she becomes an agent, she finds that not every agent is egotistical and doesn't grow a giant ego herself.

* In ''Fanfic/WhenReasonFails'', the Celestial demihumans as a species have this as a problem. At their base, they are intelligent, focused, confident, charismatic and with a tendency to be kind and empathetic. However, after suffering any trauma, no matter how small, their virtues flip into Flaws. Kindness flips into cruelty, patience into rage, and so on.

* ''Fanfic/TwoLetters'': After spending two years defending Paris as Ladybug, Marinette [[TheResenter grew to resent]] how everyone took her compassionate nature for granted, [[EntitledBastard expecting her]] to bend over backwards solving all their problems both as their heroine and as their 'everyday Ladybug'. This AllTakeAndNoGive relationship led her to decide she needed to retire, passing the Earrings to a SketchySuccessor that she deemed to be "[[LaserGuidedKarma the hero Paris deserved]]". Six months later, all Marinette cares about is being happy with Luka. Not only has she StoppedCaring about the troubles of others, she's openly ''amused'' by several of their plights, to the point where she laughs and cheers upon seeing that [[spoiler:Chloe has been MadeASlave, forced to 'volunteer' her time waiting on the new Ladybug hand and foot at her private manor]].

* The ''Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse'' novel ''Crossover'' sees Admiral Leonard [=McCoy=] join the ''Enterprise''-D when attempting to negotiate with the Romulan Senate to arrange for a group of captured Unificationists to be released into Federation custody, as the captured Unificationists include Spock (although the Romulans are unaware that they have Spock). After [=McCoy=] becomes frustrated with Picard's apparent hesitation and unwillingness to take decisive action, he officially takes command of the ''Enterprise'' and tries to negotiate directly with the colony governor that captured the Unificationists rather than through the Senate, but this results in the colony governor realising that he has Spock in custody, as the possibility of interrogating Spock offers far more benefits than any deal he could make with the Federation. Faced with this revelation, [=McCoy=] retreats to Ten-Forward, bitterly musing that he has become the kind of admiral he always hated when he was on the ''Enterprise'', the admiral who steps in and takes over thinking he knows everything only to reveal that he actually has no idea and ends up making the situation worse.

** In the Monks Trilogy three-parter of Series 10, a season in which the value he places on ''each and every'' sentient life is a major theme, he fights tooth and nail to stop the RealityWarper Monks from enslaving humanity in "The Pyramid at the End of the World", but YouCantThwartStageOne and the planet falls when [[spoiler: his companion Bill allows them to conquer so he can get his eyesight back and escape a lab rigged to explode]]. Six months later in "The Lie of the Land", he has become the Monks' PropagandaMachine, helping keep humanity {{Brainwashed}} and under a deadly PoliceState...and his companions are desperate to find out what made him change.

** In general, the androids went from oppressed minorities fighting against racist humans to the IndustrializedEvil that uses humans as disposable wetware. They pretend to be a different kind of master that disposes of useless things rather than fearing superiority, but even that is a lie; when they accidentally created a race of super-AI who could exist as both supercomputers and empathic humans, they acted out of fear and imposed laws that sentenced ''children'' to death.

** King Leoric of the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' series went from a righteous, noble king and father, to a bloody-handed madman and eventual undead abomination by the time that Diablo and his EvilChancellor Lazarus got through with him.

** [[Characters/MCULoki Loki]] attempted to murder all Jotunns and take over the Earth, craved the Asgardian throne and power granted by the Tesseract, tried to kill [[Characters/MCUThorOdinson Thor]] twice, [[NeverMyFault refused to admit he did anything wrong]], rejected Odin as his father, and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm gave in to the Avengers when he realized he was losing]]. The same person [[spoiler: helped rescue the citizens of Asgard from [[Characters/MCUHela]], stopped caring about the Asgardian throne, tossed the Tesseract aside as if it was nothing, tried to save Thor thrice, publicly apologized for past misdeeds in a play he wrote, proudly called himself Odinson, and attacked [[Characters/MCUThanos Thanos]] knowing that he hardly stood a chance]].

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]] attempted to murder all Jotunns and take over the Earth, craved the Asgardian throne and power granted by the Tesseract, tried to kill [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] twice, [[NeverMyFault refused to admit he did anything wrong]], rejected Odin as his father, and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm gave in to the Avengers when he realized he was losing]]. The same person [[spoiler: helped rescue the citizens of Asgard from [[Characters/TheMightyThorGiants Hela]], stopped caring about the Asgardian throne, tossed the Tesseract aside as if it was nothing, tried to save Thor thrice, publicly apologized for past misdeeds in a play he wrote, proudly called himself Odinson, and attacked [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]] knowing that he hardly stood a chance]].
** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', the Pro-Regulation team supported government supervision to prevent collateral damage, yet [[spoiler: War Machine]] was accidentally hit by their own fellow Pro-Reg teammate, due to said teammate being distracted by their emotions, the same reason Captain America wasn't able to properly defuse Crossbones in the beginning. Not to mention the Pro-Reg team causing a bit of collateral damage when trying to contain the Anti-Reg team in the airport.
** In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', Bruce Banner wears the Hulkbuster armor, an armor that was specifically designed to take him down in his Hulk form (albeit because he wants to contribute to the current fight and for various reasons the Hulk isn't coming out right now).

* Peter Parker, the awkward but cute and relatively devoted suitor and hero from the [[Film/SpiderMan1 first]] [[Film/SpiderMan2 two]] parts of the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', briefly becomes a confident and manipulative egotist after bonding with an evil symbiote in ''Film/SpiderMan3''.

* ''[[Fanfic/ApotheosisMHA Apotheosis]]'': Midoriya Izuku went from a hero fanboy who idolized All Might to a supervillain that despises the current hero society, and All Might in particular.

* In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', Touya was an aspiring hero student with dreams of making it big and rescuing his siblings and mother from Endeavor's influence. He also hoped to prove that he wasn't a useless weakling and to surpass his father someday. But somewhere along the way, he turned down the path of villainy and became the serial killer Dabi. He's an extremely powerful villain who permanently scarred Izuku, gleefully participates in mass murder, and actively plots to tear down society as part of the League of Villains. Touya's disconnect with his future self's actions is a huge source of angst and confusion for him.
* ''Fanfic/MastermindStrategistForHire'': Once a hero fanboy with dreams of becoming a Pro Hero, Izuku's inability to find a regular job due to [[FantasticRacism prejudice against his Quirklessness]] drives him to become the titular Villain, Mastermind.

* Shaundi from ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' starts off as a fun-loving, hedonistic hippy-esque girl, if still a gangster. A game later, she has turned into the most serious, angriest, and most bloodthirsty member of the Saints. It's mentioned that this happened because the Saints became famous and due to her new job as the star of her own tv show, Shaundi didn't have time to get stoned anymore. ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' highlights this by making companions out of both the original Shaundi and a version of herself circa her debut in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'', helpfully labeled as "Fun Shaundi".

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'': Ken Kaneki starts out as a kind, gentle young man and an ExtremeDoormat who doesn't like to hurt others. The hardships he suffers as a result of becoming half-Ghoul, along with his [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil ordeal]] at [[TortureTechnician Yamori's]] hands, cause him to become a brutal, ruthless AntiHero with a PayEvilUntoEvil mentality.
* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul: Re'', this happens to [[spoiler: Seidou Takizawa]] as a result of a FaceMonsterTurn. He goes from an idealistic young [[HunterOfMonsters Investigator]], to an AxCrazy Ghoul that gleefully slaughters humans without a second thought. He explains to a pair of {{Red Shirt}}s that if you become a monster, you don't have to be afraid of them anymore.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': This is what happens when an angel Falls. It's not enough for an angel to just be an asshole (there are plenty of loyal angels who are right jerks), they have to completely betray the heavenly principles of their Host.

* ''Manga/HoshikuzuTelepath'': Yuu Akeuchi claims to possess the power of "forehead telepathy", which means she can reads minds via HeadbuttOfLove. She uses this alleged power to help Umika Konohoshi -- who is so shy she can't even work up the courage to speak to another person -- out of her shell. However, once Umika ''does'' start coming out of her shell, Yuu angsts about the fact that she subconsciously wants Umika to stay an ElectiveMute so she can continue to rely on Yuu as her LivingEmotionalCrutch.

* ''Fanfic/CatarinaClaesMustDie'': In her previous life, Henrietta was a heavily bullied girl who deeply identified with the story of ''Fortune Lover'', empathizing with how Maria and Keith suffered and despising the nobles who bullied them. As Henrietta, however, her hatred of Catarina drives her to adopt all of the worst traits of those very same bullies, hellbent on torturing, tormenting, and ''killing'' a girl who has done absolutely nothing to deserve any of the cruelties she's intent on inflicting upon her.

### They'll see a Radical Inquisitor, which they consider to be no better than a Heretic.

* ''Fanfic/{{Relic of the Future}}'':
** In the new timeline created by Jaune traveling back in time, Blake's alternate self at first acts as a MoralityPet to Adam during their youth and the White Fang's early days, keeping his worst impulses in check. Then her father Ghira [[DeathByAdaptation is unlawfully murdered in Atlesian custody by a rogue officer]], and it sends Blake spiraling down a darker path than her original self. Combine that with how the ripple effects of adult Jaune's presence have put Adam on a lighter path, and the two Faunus end up swapping roles, with ''Adam'' being the one keeping ''Blake'' in check as she becomes increasingly murderous and radicalized.

* ''Fanfic/{{Amenaza}}'': After dying and becoming a Hollow, Naruto goes from being an AllLovingHero to a cynical, [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] and AxCrazy VillainProtagonist bent upon making everyone ''pay'' for his past suffering.
* ''Fanfic/ApotheosisMHA'': Midoriya Izuku went from a hero fanboy who idolized All Might to a supervillain that despises the current hero society, and All Might in particular.
* In ''Fanfic/AvengersInfiniteWars'', Anakin Skywalker feels that this has happened to him when he learns about the control chips in the clones. Considering the similarities to the transmitter that was used to stop him escaping when he was a slave as a child, Anakin feels as though he is essentially acting as a slaver himself, even though he didn't know about them when he became a general.
* ''Fanfic/CatarinaClaesMustDie'': In her previous life, Henrietta was a heavily bullied girl who deeply identified with the story of ''Fortune Lover'', empathizing with how Maria and Keith suffered and despising the nobles who bullied them. As Henrietta, however, her hatred of Catarina drives her to adopt all of the worst traits of those very same bullies, hellbent on torturing, tormenting, and ''killing'' a girl who has done absolutely nothing to deserve any of the cruelties she's intent on inflicting upon her.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/37458109/ A Country of Wolves]]'' is a Western AU of ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}'' where Elsie Maddox was part of a gang with Hank van der Meer, who always styled himself as rebelling against the upper class by stealing from the rich. However, after Elsie is left for dead during a train robbery, when she tracks Hank down she finds that he has set himself up as mayor of a mining town and acts as though he liberated them from corrupt landowners and is their new benevolent ruler, when in reality he's just as bad as the people he drove out and kills anyone who objects to his policies.
* [[spoiler:Harry Potter]] in ''Fanfic/TheDarknessSeries''.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' in ''[[Fanfic/ChildrenOfTime The Dying Detective]]'' (not to be confused with "''The Adventure of'' the Dying Detective", a canonical story), thanks in part to the machinations of [[TheCorrupter Professor Moriarty]]. It should be noted, however, that Holmes ''wanted'' to [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Jump Off the Slippery Slope]] in order to avoid emotional pain. Thus, the emotional, compassionate, loving Holmes becomes the emotionless, cruel, uncaring Moriarty.
* In ''Fanfic/EchoesKagaseo'', Kazama (an alternate-reality counterpart of Naruto) and Sasuke effectively wind up [[HourglassPlot switching roles]], as Kazama loses his faith in Konohagakure and his friends while Sasuke becomes TheAtoner.
* ''Fanfic/{{Fade}}'':
** L. In his attempts to stop Kira from killing him and ruling the world, he ''becomes'' Kira. His own inability to realize this is one of the main sources of conflict in the story.
** When Ryuzaki tells Light what L's plans are for Kira, Light is disgusted. Light despises the idea of being kept as a pet and being subservient to L sounds like a nightmare to him. His crush/obsession with L and the emotional torture of being L's captive turns Light into exactly that.
* ''Fanfic/FlowingStar'': Assuming Lincoln's story is similar to his canon self from Season 1, he used to be a cheerful, idealistic, generous yet selfish boy who always did plans that backfired on him but always tried to make up for, but he did [[NoodleIncident something]] that resulted in him becoming an apathetic, cynical closed but selfless boy who is despised by other people in the town.
* ''Fanfic/TheHighRoadMiraculousLadybug'': Since Adrien, Alya and the rest of her classmates refuse to believe Marinette's attempts to warn them about [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila's true nature]], Marinette decides to invoke this by pretending to be taken in by her lies herself, going from Lila's most outspoken critic to her staunchest supporter. This is all an act so that she can force the rest of the class to deal with the downsides of having to cater to Lila, motivating them to start ''paying attention'' to the blatant inconsistencies in her tall tales.

* In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', Touya was an aspiring hero student with dreams of making it big and rescuing his siblings and mother from Endeavor's influence. He also hoped to prove that he wasn't a useless weakling and to surpass his father someday. But somewhere along the way, he turned down the path of villainy and became the serial killer Dabi. He's an extremely powerful villain who permanently scarred Izuku, gleefully participates in mass murder, and actively plots to tear down society as part of the League of Villains. Touya's disconnect with his future self's actions is a huge source of angst and confusion for him.

* ''Fanfic/MastermindStrategistForHire'': Once a hero fanboy with dreams of becoming a Pro Hero, Izuku's inability to find a regular job due to [[FantasticRacism prejudice against his Quirklessness]] drives him to become the titular Villain, Mastermind.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WebVideo/MyLittlePonyTotallyLegitRecap'': After pulling the zombie prank on Rainbow Dash to get back at her/teach her lesson for her earlier actions and the even bigger crime of ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness acting out of character]]'', she calls them out on their hypocrisy, pointing out that not only have they sunk to her level, but were ''acting out of character themselves!'' Cue horrifying realization.
* ''Fanfic/PlusFiveToCharisma'' had this happen twice over in the {{backstory}}. In the distant past, an adventuring party took over managing a land that they'd liberated from tyrants; over time, however, power and paranoia twisted them into tyrants themselves. They created a powerful army of Warforged in the name of "keeping everyone safe". Two of their number broke ranks and fled with their children, only for their former allies to pursue, intend on stealing the pair's children away and enslaving them. These two dissenters were [[spoiler:Alma and Pedro]], and when the latter [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed themselves to protect their family]], the grief-stricken [[spoiler:Alma went on to effectively force her children and theirs to serve "the greater good" of Encanto]], becoming just as much of a ControlFreak as both the tyrants they'd once helped overturn and their former party had become.
* ''Fanfic/RecommencerMiraculousLadybug'': Thanks to [[ToxicFriendInfluence Lila becoming her new]] [[FalseFriend 'best friend']], Alya has gone from an IntrepidReporter gleefully GoingForTheBigScoop to a mouthpiece for Lila, backing up her [[ConsummateLiar various lies]] without ever questioning or looking into them. Her journalistic integrity is completely shot, and the Ladyblog is now increasingly regarded as a '[[ShallowNewsSiteSatire satire site]]', filled with articles promoting Lila's BlatantLies or rants about how [[ShipperOnDeck LadyNoir 'can still win']] despite Chat's retirement. Alya herself seems to be blissfully unaware of how badly she's regarded, coming off as a SmallNameBigEgo.
* Subverted in ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy''. Oprah refuses to join Odd Squad because she is of the belief that every agent who is employed with the organization is [[SmugSuper haughty, stuck-up, and braggadocious,]] and they don't know about working hard to get what you want in life. Despite her repeated refusals, O'Donahue keeps pushing and keeps asking her, and eventually she agrees after exposing Olga as a thief and realizing that being an agent can be fun. However, once she becomes an agent, she finds that not every agent is egotistical and doesn't grow a giant ego herself.
* ''Fanfic/ASingleDecision'': The CIS was formed by Separatists in an attempt to escape the concept of a big, centralized government so that systems could rule themselves... only for many Separatist commanders to turn around and agree to consolidate all their powers together and nationalize every asset that can help them win the war.
* ''Fanfic/TMNTSecretsOfTheSewers'': As revealed in chapter 23, Oroku Saki began as an honorable NiceGuy [[spoiler:who defied orders during a mission to rescue Tang Shen from a yakuza group, stating that he can't let innocent people suffer and is disgusted by the yakuza treating human life as "something to be bartered and sold."]] Come the present day, [[spoiler:as the Shredder, Saki's become everything he's hated about the yakuza and more, allowing Stockman to perform inhumane experiments on humans and mutants alike, including children, to amass an army for himself]].

* ''Fanfic/WeightOffYourShoulder'': Out of her whole GirlPosse, Alix is the least invested in helping their friends Marinette and Adrien hook up. Her future self Bunnyx, however, has become a ''massive'' ShipperWithAnAgenda [[spoiler:who has been abusing the Rabbit Pocketwatch to try and twist the timestream around to create a reality where the two of them become "the perfect power couple". Horrifyingly enough, her priorities have become so skewed that she [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't care]] how much suffering results from her meddling, so long as she forces them together in the end]]. Alix is [[FutureMeScaresMe utterly disgusted]] when she learns this, calling out her counterpart and declaring that she hopes she ''never'' turns out like her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'': Megatron of all people comes to a HeelRealization that he became this centuries ago after being tortured by Unicron in the [[Recap/TransformersPrimeTVMBeastHuntersPredaconsRising "Predacons Rising"]] film. He was born a slave, forced to fight for his life in gladiatorial games. He formed the Decepticons to liberate the subjugated masses of Cybertron. Eons later, he's a tyrant ruling with an iron fist, treating his own soldiers as expendable.

* Precia Testarossa of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' is shown in flashbacks to be a DotingParent to her daughter. This is in contrast to the current Precia, who is an AbusiveParent that literally whips her daughter at the slightest provocation. This is one of the reasons why Fate still loves her despite all the suffering she receives, as she remembers a time when she used to be kind. Unfortunately for Fate, the reason for this change is because [[spoiler:[[ReplacementGoldfish Fate is a failed attempt to revive Precia's dead daughter]], and she's unwilling to [[CloningBlues treat a clone like Fate as a second daughter]]]].

** Leoric's granddaughter is forced into this in ''Videogame/DiabloIII''. She tries to help the heroes save the world in the third act of the game, only to get backstabbed by her own mother and devoured by Diablo himself. What is left of her spirit after the ensuing insanity from being force-fed some of Diablo's pure evil, seeks revenge on everyone and tries to break the spine of the universe as to destroy everything.

** Original: Thanks to Lila's ToxicFriendInfluence, she goes from being Marinette's confident, driven and outspoken BestFriend to Lila's UnwittingPawn and BetaBitch, paralleling Sabrina's relationship with [[SpoiledBrat Chloé]]. This is best exmplified when the IntrepidReporter [[spoiler:deletes her Ladyblog]] at Lila's urging, having been manipulated into believing that Ladybug is a BitchInSheepsClothing.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Legendarium]]:
** Morgoth. Initially ''Melkor'', "He Who Arises in Might", the mightiest and most able of the Valar (demi-gods/angels), he descends into madness and becomes "Morgoth", "black enemy of the World". He leeches so much of his original power into Middle Earth in order to assert his dominance over the land (that is what enables him to breed orcs and twist good things into evil) that he also winds up being the physically and magically weakest of the Valar.
** When Sauron was first tempted by Morgoth, the SatanicArchetype archangelic creature who tries to become TheCorrupter, he was a slightly weaker angel-like being whose goal was to repair Middle-Earth in the most efficient way possible. He craved order and efficiency so much that he followed Morgoth's chaotic destructive path because he thought the power would make him wiser, became a ControlFreak less evil than his master only because he tried to serve him, then lost his last bit of sense of duty, and turned into an EvilOverlord whose lands slowly fall into ruin and chaos.
** Tolkien seemed to be fond of antithesism, especially pertaining to power and how it corrupts its wielder into a dark mirror of himself. Case in point: the Nazgûls, once-glorious kings who were swayed by The Rings, now slaves to evil.
*** This is also why both Gandalf and Galadriel adamantly ''refuse'' to take the One Ring for themselves. They both acknowledge that with its power, they could quite possibly defeat Sauron permanently, but in the process would become just as bad as he was, if not ''worse''.

** Probably an unintentional example, but [[spoiler: Erik Night]] went all the way from a confident, open-minded, and self-sacrificing young man who is asked out by his slightly possessive ex-girlfriend to a self-centered, I-mostly-don't-care-about-the-good-versus-evil-thing, self-doubting, and possessive boyfriend who doesn't want to try to understand his newer girlfriend and shows off his newest girlfriend, the EvilTwin of the first girlfriend who TookALevelInKindness and treats the heroine well, understanding the problems his being possessive can cause. This is treated as an example of [[AWolfInSheepsClothing Jerkass All Along]].

* This is downplayed with [[spoiler:the antagonist]] in ''Literature/MansfieldPark''. [[spoiler:Mary Crawford]] starts in Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/MansfieldPark'' as a somewhat vain gold-digger, who is nonetheless a loyal friend and had some kind of elegance about her which prompted much DracoInLeatherPants, while the heroine Fanny Price starts the book as a passive and judgemental extreme doormat who lacks self-confidence, prompting much RonTheDeathEater. In the end, Mary Crawford shows what remains of her initial state, and borders on StupidEvil, having become genuinely interested in Edmund and a FalseFriend to Fanny. This is, as often, mirrored by a HourglassPlot, as the initially defenseless Fanny shows more confident and useful traits, and [[spoiler: gets what Mary Crawford wanted]].
* In the Literature/LauraCaxton series, this fate befalls [[spoiler: Jameson Ackerly, once Caxton's mentor in hunting vampires]], in the novel ''Vampire Zero'' [[spoiler: after Ackerly lets himself be transformed into a vampire to stop a small army of revived vampires; throughout the novel, Ackerly uses his own prior knowledge of vampires to subvert Laura's attempts to hunt him, while his twisted psyche drives him to try and hunt his own family]].
* The Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse novel ''Crossover'' sees Admiral Leonard [=McCoy=] join the ''Enterprise''-D when attempting to negotiate with the Romulan Senate to arrange for a group of captured Unificationists to be released into Federation custody, as the captured Unificationists include Spock (although the Romulans are unaware that they have Spock). After [=McCoy=] becomes frustrated with Picard's apparent hesitation and unwillingness to take decisive action, he officially takes command of the ''Enterprise'' and tries to negotiate directly with the colony governor that captured the Unificationists rather than through the Senate, but this results in the colony governor realising that he has Spock in custody, as the possibility of interrogating Spock offers far more benefits than any deal he could make with the Federation. Faced with this revelation, [=McCoy=] retreats to Ten-Forward, bitterly musing that he has become the kind of admiral he always hated when he was on the ''Enterprise'', the admiral who steps in and takes over thinking he knows everything only to reveal that he actually has no idea and ends up making the situation worse.

* Happens in ''Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking'' with the [[spoiler: BigBad: first Mallow, then Marquess]].
* The later books in ''Literature/CodexAlera'' reveal that [[spoiler: Lord Aquitaine, who had previously been a candidate for BigBad,]] first started his schemes to topple the First Lord out of disgust for the scheming nobles that made Alera a CrapsackWorld and murdered Princeps Septimus, who was a close friend of his. He intended to become First Lord so he could avenge his friend and keep the schemers in line with an iron fist rather than concession and compromise, but he ends up becoming just another schemer, albeit one with some redeeming qualities. In the end, [[spoiler: he gets a case of DeathEqualsRedemption, having held the Alerans and their allies together for long enough for Octavian to return]].
* Dr. Fell, a villain from ''[[Literature/{{Nightside}} The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny]]'', started out as one of the Nightside's rogue vicars: preachers who come to the notorious WretchedHive to save its sinners. Lampshaded by John, whose narrative points out that when religious idealists go bad, they tend to go ''really'' bad.
* Taori, the mother of the main character Satori in ''Literature/MyVampireOlderSisterAndZombieLittleSister''. She used to be an advocate for the rights of Archenemies (supernatural beings) and divorced her husband after she learned that he was part of the Bright Cross (an organisation that persecutes Archenemies). However, her husband later ended up marrying an Archenemy, Lilith. Taori developed an absolute hatred for Lilith, seeing her as the one responsible for destroying her family. She had her body remodeled to become the ultimate hunter of Archenemies, and set out to kill Lilith... which, if she succeeded, would of course destroy her family.
* ''Literature/DateALive'': Origami had an intense hatred for Spirits, seeing them all as evil and destructive monsters. This stemmed from her parents being killed by a Spirit when she was still a child. [[spoiler: She eventually accepts a deal to become a Spirit, to gain enough power to fight them. She then makes a deal with another Spirit to travel into the past and kill the Spirit who murdered her parents. However, she accidentally kills her parents with a stray attack - [[StableTimeLoop she was the Spirit who had originally done this]]. Finally, her shock at realizing the truth causes her to enter her [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse Form]], becoming exactly what she hated all along.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' TieInNovel ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'' plays this straight with [[spoiler:Prince Hans. Growing up with an abusive family headed by an EvilOverlord king, he dreamed of becoming a [[EvenEvilHasStandards more benevolent ruler than his father]]. By the end of the book, though, he's become the villain seen in the film, the kind of person he hated, being willing to manipulate and almost kill innocent people who could have helped him]].
* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', Dalinar Kholin did this before the events of the series. As we see in ''Oathbringer'', Dalinar as the Blackthorn was a downright monster, actively seeking out war, reasons to kill, and reasons to fight and not caring for politics in the least. The Dalinar we see in the series is a far more respectable man, who fights when he needs to but tries to find a peaceful solution, and gets a lot more involved in politics. Though this of course lets people of his BloodKnight country start thinking he's gone soft.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'':
** "Literature/TheMayors": {{Discussed|Trope}} by the Actionist (political) Party; Sermak believes that Mayor Hardin and his [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption firebrand defence of Terminus]] up until the First Seldon Crisis means that he would've wholeheartedly supported their policies during the Second Seldon Crisis, but the intervening thirty years has made him a coward. [[SubvertedTrope However]], Mayor Hardin is actually doing the same sort of [[GuileHero underhanded manipulation]] of his enemies and public opinion that he did during the First Crisis.
** "Literature/SearchByTheMule": The introduction of Lt General Han Pritcher of the [[GenericanEmpire Union of Worlds]] (formerly Captain Pritcher of the Foundation) is a lengthy contrast between the man he is now and the man he had been before his [[{{Brainwashed}} Conversion]]. He used to be a staunch democrat, working for the Foundation as an intelligence operative while also dedicated to removing the authoritarian rulers from power for a more democratic process. After the Mule came and conquered the Foundation, he even volunteered for a SuicideMission to kill the warlord. However, now the Mule is his beloved dictator, but without the conditioning, he'd kill the Mule in hatred. He tries to consider how he might even dislike the Mule, but his loyalty and love are so complete that the mere thought of going against the Mule's wishes sickens him. [[spoiler: He briefly becomes himself again during the MexicanStandOff between Bail Channis and the Mule at the climax of the story when Bail undoes the brainwashing, but it doesn't last and Pritcher is turned into the Mule's servant once again.]]
** ''Literature/PreludeToFoundation'': The Mycogenian society claims to be descendants of Spacers (specifically the Aurorans, from ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn''). Aurorans pictured their planet as one with full social mobility, gender equality, and a FreeLoveFuture. The Mycogenians, however, have a strict FantasticCasteSystem, the women take the place of the LostTechnology robots, and the society is implied to be very restrictive sexually.

* Jeff Higgins, in the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series starts off as a sweet, quiet, nerdy, small-town kid. A few years of trying to keep his loved ones alive in the depths of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar turns him into a tough-as-nails, gun-toting, constantly suspicious enforcer.
-->'''Rebecca:''' I can remember when you were a trusting and innocent sort of person, Jeff.
-->'''Jeff:''' Yeah, sure, so can I. Wasn't all that long ago, either, if you measure it in years and months.