History Main / BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil

* In ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize'', Van Helsing's route introduced Hidden Strength, a government program which attempted to create soldiers with the abilities to rival vampires by subjecting them to torture and emotional trauma. All the subjects became uncontrollably deranged, attacking ally and enemy indiscriminately and the program was deemed a failure. Cardia would end up encountering [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper]], a product of the program. [[spoiler: Van Helsing himself was also unknowingly subjected to Hidden Strength conditioning by Aleister for years.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize'', Van Helsing's route introduced Hidden Strength, a government program which attempted to create soldiers with the abilities to rival vampires by subjecting them to torture and emotional trauma. All the subjects became uncontrollably deranged, attacking ally and enemy indiscriminately and the program was deemed a failure. Cardia would end up encountering UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, a product of the program. [[spoiler: Van Helsing himself was also unknowingly subjected to Hidden Strength conditioning by Aleister for years.]]

** [[AbusiveParents Years of child abuse by his stepfather]] turned Seto Kaiba into the cold {{Jerkass}} that he is.
** Slightly less extreme example, but after the shift from the horror genre of the initial manga, creator Kazuki Takashi implied that Yami Yugi was aware of the 3,000 years passing in the Puzzle, which was responsible for his single-minded pursuit of punishing anyone who hurt Yugi after being initially released. [[CharacterizationMarchesOn He grows out of it.]]

Though you have to wonder...why does it tend to make them loyal as well? You'd think the newly evil victim [[TheDogBitesBack might turn their newfound lack of morality toward the guy that did this to them, preferably in a manner similar to what the villain did to them]]. UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome might factor in depending on how the torture was inflicted. In some cases, also, the torture was so horrific as to give the torturer a psychological hold on the victim, terrifying them into obedience. Also, sometimes the newly-evil victim ''isn't'' loyal to their torturer, but their ordeal has "opened their eyes" to the wretchedness of existence, birthing a StrawNihilist. However it works, you've now got a baddie with a grudge, lashing out at everyone near (especially if the "good" guys left them to be tortured in the first place).

* Griffith of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' is a marginal example. While his torture did leave him permanently maimed, that by itself wasn't enough. After [[spoiler:his rescue by the Band of the Hawk, his heart broke when it became clear they weren't willing to carry around a mute, immobile lump of a former leader, but he thought he still had Casca on his side. It was learning that Casca not only agreed with the rest of the band on his uselessness but was ''in a relationship with his former protege Guts'', that finally sent him past the DespairEventHorizon.]] The torture just got the ball rolling; it was the aftereffects that sent him over the edge.

* ''Series/SevenDays''; one episode centered around a Presidential candidate whom time-traveler Frank Parker [[SetRightWhatOnceWasWrong rescued from an assassination attempt]]. The candidate offered Frank a position in his campaign team. Later, Frank learned that the candidate had been tortured by Chinese soldiers during the Vietnam War. As President, he planned to destroy a US Navy vessel, implicate China, and declare war, with the ultimate goal of killing the population of China.

* In the {{Hentai}} ''Bible Black'', the BigBad explains that she wants to sacrifice the hero's LoveInterest to the Devil after she herself was the victim of botched human sacrifice years before, and was also gang-raped by the [[{{Mooks}} hired goons]] of the coven's new leader. She's only alive because, after killing the AxCrazy coven leader, [[DealWithTheDevil she agreed to sacrifice a virgin in exchange for not going to hell.]]

Though you have to wonder... why does it tend to make them loyal as well? You'd think the newly evil victim [[TheDogBitesBack might turn their newfound lack of morality toward the guy that did this to them, preferably in a manner similar to what the villain did to them]]. UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome might factor in depending on how the torture was inflicted. In some cases, also, the torture was so horrific as to give the torturer a psychological hold on the victim, terrifying them into obedience. Also, sometimes the newly-evil victim ''isn't'' loyal to their torturer, but their ordeal has "opened their eyes" to the wretchedness of existence, birthing a StrawNihilist. However it works, you've now got a baddie with a grudge, lashing out at everyone near (especially if the "good" guys left them to be tortured in the first place).

Related to TeachHimAnger, BewareTheNiceOnes, BreakTheCutie, IControlMyMinionsThrough, RapeLeadsToInsanity, and possibly WhosLaughingNow. Can often be a StartOfDarkness or FreudianExcuse. It can also result in the creation of a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds if done too seriously. A character with IncorruptiblePurePureness is resistant to this. RapePortrayedAsRedemption is roughly the inverse trope. See also TortureAlwaysWorks and its opposite, TortureIsIneffective. Contrast with ReforgedIntoAMinion, which is similar to this trope, but instead of involving torture, revolves around physically modifying a character (heroic, neutral or otherwise) into a new form so they can serve the antagonist.

** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''[='=]s adaptation of ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'', Frieza ends up sparing Tagoma and instead uses him as his personal punching bag for four months as training. It's enough to break Tagoma's mind, turning him into a ruthless killer [[spoiler:and the perfect candidate for Captain Ginyu to hijack when he comes back into play.]]

* Shiro Onijima of ''Manga/{{Pupa}}'' (not the anime, of course). As a child he was locked on by a MadArtist, claiming that love was his inspiration and pain was the purest form of love. The torture he endured involved a lot of "anger and pain," a room full of creepy worms, and the artist painting a picture immediately after stripping him naked and whipping him. Shiro doesn't exactly turn evil, per se, although he starts believing that pain truly is love. And then he became the abusive father that often mutilated his son Utsutsu because Shiro loved his son and wanted to show him that love.

*** He then tries this on his own little brother, and might have succeeded had Judai not intervened.

* ''[[Fanfic/ANewChanceSeries A New Chance for Adventure]]''. The way Slave Pokemon are created. Since birth, they are conditioned into blindly obeying the one who holds their Pokeball. By their adulthood, they have all emotion stamped out, and will obey their trainers toward any extreme.

* ''Fanfic/TemporalAnomaly'' provides an inverted example in Three: before the event, she was a PsychopathicWomanchild of the highest order who had an ''extremely'' dark obsession with dolls, to the point that she willingly and ''gleefully'' [[spoiler:preformed horrific and painful experiments on her own citizens of the Land of Forests to turn them into all manners of abominations.]] When she was defeated, [[VillainProtagonist Sougo]] specifically had her go through a torture session that [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine had her feel and experience what her victims went through]]. The aftermath had Three go through an HeelRealization and becoming TheAtoner.
* In ''WebAnimation/{{Underverse}}'' [=XTale=] Frisk and Chara used to be a way better people before [=XGaster=] decided to use him and his brother as guinea pigs for his dark story ideas.

* It's all but stated in ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'' that [[StarfishAlien Starro the Conqueror]] was a docile creature content drifting in space until thirty years of torturous expirementation by [[MadScientist The Thinker]] wiped it into a vengeful monster.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Johanna, a survivor of the Hunger Games, wants to see Capitol children get slaughtered in Hunger Games, and more specifically, President Snow's 12 year old granddaughter. [[spoiler:Peeta]] was tortured and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] by the Capital in the novel ''Mockingjay''. While he wasn't exactly [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds evil]], his vision of [[IRejectYourReality reality]] was so screwed that he [[spoiler:tried to kill Katniss.]]

** it's also interesting, in that 1. It's shown that there's more to it than torture, including simulations, drugs, and such. (They start getting rewarded for being evil/doing as the torturer says)...and it's made a point that there are a LARGE number of people it doesn't work on...who are being kept in the prison.

* ''Series/SevenDays''; one episode centered around a Presidential candidate whom time-traveler Frank Parker [[SetRightWhatOnceWasWrong rescued from an assassination attempt]]. The candidate offered Frank a position in his campaign team. Later, Frank learned that the candidate had been tortured by Chinese soldiers during the Vietnam War. As President, he planned to destroy a US Navy vessel, implicate China and declare war, with the ultimate goal of killing the population of China.

** Hell works along this premise. To the extent that once they torture away enough of your previous identity you become a demon, which in this setting are AlwaysChaoticEvil, although while all demons are stated to have been once human it's unclear whether all the damned make it all the way to demon. [[spoiler:Dean takes thirty years of torture in the season break he spends in Hell, before he cracks and starts torturing other souls, and enjoying it because it's not being tortured. He blames himself for this intensely. Also notable, they gave him to Hell's chief torturer for most of it; he's a tough cookie, but he gives himself no credit.]] Part of the transformation may be when you start torturing others. [[spoiler:Dean]] at least claims this is because if you start torturing others, they stop torturing you. And by that point he just desperately wanted the pain to end.

* Myth/NorseMythology: Loki, the shapeshifting god of the hearthfire, starts out as a trickster who causes mischief and chaos, albeit he also occasionally gets the Asgard gods out of a tight corner (which usually he himself got them into). When he manipulates Hodr into killing Baldur out of jealousy, and makes sure that Baldur stays dead, Loki is finally treading on very thin ice with the gods. Loki then crashes into a party and starts angrily taunting the assembled deities, insulting several of them with sarcastic banter and bragging about bedding many of the goddesses while their husbands were away. Realizing he has finally pushed them way past their rage-breaking point, Loki flees. When he is captured, the gods transform one of Loki's sons into a raging wolf who tears the other son apart, then they use the sons' entrails as chains to bind Loki to a boulder in a cave until he couldn't move, and hang a poisonous snake over his exposed face that drools poison into Loki's eyes. He manages to free himself in time for Ragnarök, joining the tribes of giants, his own monstrous children, and the ship of the dead that came sailing from Helheim in their battle against the gods of Asgard.

** In ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' one of the Red Wizards' nastiest weapons are the "Chosen Ones" -- normal people (usually stubborn slaves) who were forced to undergo excruciating transformation, and when ordered to fight they are deluded to see the foe as [[BerserkButton the one who transformed them]]. They aren't used ''en masse'' because they frequently slip out of control, stop mid-strike and run away, to find the ''real'' wizard whom they want to shred.

** The 5th Edition Monster Manual states that the {{Hellish Horse}}s known as "Nightmares" aren't naturally occurring anywhere in the multiverse. Instead they are created by evil beings who capture a live {{Pegasus}} and subject it to a humiliating ritual that involves painfully amputating its wings and twisting its mind to evil with dark magic.

* Corvus from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' was a nice guy... before being betrayed by his lover, captured by TheEmpire and spending 300 years in prison, every limb chained and his energy being drained to maintain TheEmpire's magic. He was a little angry at the world in general after that.

** After a long questchain in Coldarra [[spoiler:Keristrasza is taken captive by Malygos and forced to become his consort as a replacement for Saragosa who Keristrasza and the player character had killed. The players then MercyKill her after she's proven herself too insane to be saved from death and too much of a threat to be allowed to live, because going on a mass murdering rampage was a likely outcome.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheWaterPhoenixKing'': Prince Thrale was thoroughly tortured into insanity, and developed an insatiable urge to cause as much death and gore as humanly possible.

* ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}}''

As a literary device, it has two handy uses: It counts as a severe KickTheDog (or [[MoralEventHorizon worse]]) for the original villain AND creates a tear-jerking [[TragicMonster Tragic Villain]].

* ''Anime/{{Daltanious}}'': [[spoiler:Emperor Dolmen was born a Heliosian clone of Emperor Palmion. Being groomed from a young age to take his place, Dolmen was forbidden from leaving his jail cell, tortured whenever Palmion was injured. and treated like a lowly slave by the retainers of the Helios Empire. One day he snapped, had the Helios Empire massacred, and aimed to rule the galaxy]].

** Not only did [[RivalTurnEvil Sasuke]] have his own beloved brother [[MoralEventHorizon slaughter their entire family]] he also [[ForcedToWatch made Sasuke watch it for what seemed like three days]]. And after [[IneffectualLoner Sasuke]] was actually able to accept his teammates as his friends Itachi did it again to him for apparently no other reason than wanting him to suffer.