History Main / BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil

** It works ''in theory'' because she's only trying to provoke the Claymore's into releasing their full yoma power and becoming Awakened Ones; it's an almost completely physical event and what they want doesn't factor into it. Although Claymores fear awakening more than anything else, once they awaken they tend to immediately find [[EvilFeelsGood they enjoy the power and freedom from humanity]], which [[JustifiedTrope justifies this trope]]. Riful just tends to have bad luck; the first Claymore she tried it on died from the torture, the second worked but turned into an Awakened One too weak to be any use so she killed it and the third was rescued before her mind fully awakened.

** [[KidsAreCruel Tomoo]] wasn't alone when he bullied Kaede. He led two boys around, they all took pleasure in absusing Lucy physically, verbally and emotionally. When they restrained Lucy and killed her puppy, this caused Lucy to [[DriventoMadness lose her sanity]] and [[TheDogBitesBack murder]] all of the bullies.

* ''LightNovel/TheHeroLaughsWhileWalkingThePathOfVengeanceASecondTime'' basically has this trope as its entire premise, only cranked up to the extreme. Every single one of the main characters started out as good, sometimes idealistic person, but after all the physical and psychological torture they endured from everybody around them, they all completely snapped and became some of the most sadistic revenge-driven [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] ever seen in fiction, inflicting CruelAndUnusualDeath and AFateWorseThanDeath on everybody who ever wronged them.

* In ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'', Nagisa responded to Akutsu's abuse of her by making a SplitPersonality, Yasha, to protect her from the trauma. Yasha is a SuperpoweredEvilSide and EnemyWithin who loves Akutsu, and tries to kill Ryuji and Eikichi, while Nagisa's normal personality is nice and sweet.

* Konuma Ryuuko of ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest''. She's a nymphomaniac middle-schooler with what appears to be profound psychological damage from repeated rapes in her past, which made her a nihilistic sociopath.

* In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'', Crossbones uses tortures on his brainwashed girlfriend Sin, to bring her back to herself. It worked. Writer has to survive an attack of angry MoralGuardians, pissed off because right after being tortured Sin has sex with her oppressor.

* Cinder from ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'s ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]]'' was sexually abused by a super villain called Nursery Crime when she was a child, some time after her entire family died in an explosion. With her heat powers, she goes after child molesters and rapists, and is also suicidal because her powers prevent her from dying.
* Two-Edge from ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' is the product of an insane female elf and a troll she once seduced. He grew up neglected and tortured by his mother, and his father died when he was young, [[spoiler:murdered in front of him by his mother]]. His mind is broken pretty quickly and he spends most of the series as a villain, until Leetah finally manages to heal him after approximately 15000 years.

* The origin of the ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy villain Talonar. [[spoiler:He's actually Nova's missing brother Robbie who remained unaware of the final outcome of ComicBook/TheThanosImperative, outside of "we won." He traveled to Xandar alone to try to jumpstart the Nova Force but is instead captured and tortured for information by members of the Fraternity of Raptors. They later lock him into a helmet which isolates his senses and severely slows his sense of time making minutes seem like years. This coupled with his lack of knowledge of Richard's supposed death made him feel like his brother and allies abandoned him. When he was given the choice to either die with honor as a member of the Nova Corps or exact revenge as a Raptor, Robbie chose the later.]]

** In the sequel, this happens to [[spoiler: Harry]], also at the hands of the Red Room. Brutal psychic torture and [[spoiler: an escape plan that went wrong]] resulted in the Red Son, the second, upgraded iteration of the Winter Soldier, a LivingWeapon who helped subjugate half a continent. [[spoiler: Harry]] getting control of his body back only made it worse, resulting in his snapping and taking revenge as [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]]. And even after he's talked down, coming back to himself, his horrific PTSD means that he's much sharper, more bitter person than before, with a terrifying HairTriggerTemper.

** ''Film/Deadpool2'': Russell spends the majority of the movie filled with murderous rage towards the OrphanageOfFear he came from and its staff, particularly its headmaster, who tortured him for being a mutant. [[spoiler:Cable reveals that Russell takes his fiery revenge on the headmaster and then becomes addicted to killing, becoming a psychopathic murderer in the future; he's there [[WouldHurtAChild to kill Russell before he can do that]]. Deadpool manages to stop Russell going down this path.]]

* Volkov, Russian chief vampire from Alexander Yang's ''Literature/MidnightWorld'' series, became a victim of extremely unjust court at a very young age. He was cruelly tortured to extract the evidence against his father, and almost died, when his Master showed him the way to survival and revenge.

* Folgrim of ''[[Literature/{{Redwall}} The Legend of Luke]]'' suffered a variation. He was tortured and blinded in one eye by vermin, and this caused him to become insanely violent and unstable, but his violence was directed towards vermin specifically. Since they're AlwaysChaoticEvil the good guys have no problem with him killing them, but when he starts to ''eat'' them...

*** Also averted with Húrin. After watching what Morgoth's curse did to his family, did he set out on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge? No, he killed exactly one dwarf -- Mîm, who betrayed his son to the orcs and was arguably asking for it. Then he bitched out his son's foster-father and left. In the version published in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'', though, he sparks a civil war among the Haladin and orchestrates the death of their chief and his remaining family members out of the belief that they failed to protect his children and thrust his wife out to die. He then ends up killing the Haladin who followed him in a petty fight over treasure, and is only stopped from causing more damage by Melian telling him that he isn't helping anyone. [[DrivenToSuicide Then he kills himself]]. This might actually be a case of being tortured makes you crazy instead, which would certainly be justified after what happened to him.

** It's implied that this happened to [[spoiler:Christy, Billie's sister]] since she was kidnapped by demons when she was 6-years-old.

* ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' doesn't go with ''evil'' in so much as a ''WellIntentionedExtremist who went mad from revelation'' with emphasis on the tragic part. Kento was subjected to visions of countless BadFuture[=s=] while imprisoned inside [[ArtifactofDoom Kurayami]]. Seeing his friends killed and the world destroyed over and over turned the kind team [[TheReliableOne backbone]] person into a whispering EmptyShell hellbent on averting those futures even if it means fighting his friends, ruining their lives and potentially endangering everyone and everything. They tried to reason with him, but nothing worked. It's no wonder considering he can barely look at them without being reminded of all the times he lost them, which in turn reassures him he does what's best for everyone.

* ''[[Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand Spartacus War Of The Damned]]'': Features a fairly realistic version. Naevia spent some time as a SexSlave to various Romans, and spends much of ''Vengeance'' as a BrokenBird. In ''War of the Damned'', she comes off as an AxeCrazy DarkActionGirl wanting to slaughter all Romans, even perfectly innocent civilians and children.

** It also happens to Castiel in the Season 4 episode "The Rapture." When his angel superiors realize he intends to alert Dean [[spoiler: that killing Lilith is the last seal and the the angels actually want the apocalypse,]] he is taken by force from Jimmy Novak's body. Anna heavily implies he's being tortured, and when he returns to Jimmy's body, he coldly tells Dean he serves Heaven and not man. [[spoiler: A few episodes later he undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and [[HoYay tells Dean the truth]], though it is too late to stop Sam from killing Lilith.]]

* Tripod's "Suicide Bomber" is somewhere between this and ThenLetMeBeEvil. The singer is repeatedly tortured in an unsuccessful attempt to make him confess to a bombing he didn't commit. By the end, he's patiently awaiting his release so he can suicide-bomb a bus, knowing full well that another innocent person will probably be tortured and made to confess to the crime. (This is completely PlayedForLaughs.)

** The Japanese ''[[http://yokai.com/inugami/ inugami]]'': In the process of creating it, the summoner (called an ''inugami-mochi'') is said to literally [[KickTheDog torture a dog]] not only to death, but also ''[[FateWorseThanDeath post-mortem]]''. This creates a powerful entity that can be forged into a [[CanineCompanion loyal servant]] willing and able to commit any kind of sin on its creator/master's behalf up to and including murder, curses, or [[DemonicPossession bodily possession]] -- at least, so long as you maintain and retain its mummified head and "don't seriously mistreat it". Would-be inugami-mochi [[EvilIsNotAToy should beware]] though: as [[GoneHorriblyRight powerful, anger-prone spirits]] they have a tendency to pull a sometimes very ''literal'' TheDogBitesBack... and for [[MoralEventHorizon obvious reasons]], the Japanese government as far back as the Heian period outlawed the practice, complete with permanent shunning for anybody even ''suspected'' of having tried to use it against another person, a punishment including ''continued'' shunning of any and all of the suspected inugami-mochi's ''future children''. Little wonder that these sorcerers were said to be "secretive".

** [[http://www.dlogs.net/monsters/new_65.htm Here]] D&D continues the process to it's logical conclusion: '....After almost three years of hideous, painful torture, the creature that crawled into the pit a gelugon crawls out of it a pit fiend....'

** Enemy Mistresses, however, don't join your forces because your torture has broken their spirits. [[TooKinkyToTorture They happily and willing to join you out of gratitude for being tortured]].

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Angra Mainyu became a being filled with absolute hatred for humankind after a lifetime of being tortured by his own village, all because they had chosen him at random to be [[TheScapegoat "The Source of All Evil"]]. [[spoiler:Should the Holy Grail War be seen through to the end, his corrupting influence on the Grail will lead to him being unleashed upon Earth, an act that could very well lead to mankind's extinction. In ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'', however, the influence of both the Holy Grail and Shirou lead to him finding some peace, despite everything.]]

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' gives us Aksum, an angaara who was once a brilliant and curious student of Remnant technology, until the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Kett]] kidnapped him, tortured him, and held him in a labor camp for over a year. This turned him into an AbsoluteXenophobe who hates even friendly aliens like the Milky Way species. He forms a terrorist group called Roekarr which attempts multiple times to inflict a genocide on all non angaara. He crosses the MoralEventHorizon in the eyes of many angaara, including his former best friend Jaal when he starts ranting about even eliminating angaara who aren’t xenophobic -- and then tries to kill Jaal.

* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', Omaroch, Kaizoku, Tanya, and Izael end up captured by their enemies who turn them on their side with a combination of torture and mindrape.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'' in ''Faster, Princess! Kill! Kill!'' when Bean meets the grown up, insane, cannabalistic, and heavily-implied-to-be [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous]] Literature/HanselAndGretel who still live in the Witch's candy house. She urges them to turn themselves in, pointing out that the Witch has been taken into custody and that everyone will forgive them for their crimes since they were turned evil by years of torture. They bluntly tell her they were ''always'' crazy and that they in fact cursed the Witch, who is actually a kindly old lady who adopted them.
--> '''Bean:''' Everyone will understand why you went crazy after the witch imprisoned you for so many years!
--> '''Gretel:''' Oh we were crazy ''long'' before we met the witch.
--> '''Hansel:''' [[SelfMadeOrphan We ate our parents.]]
--> '''Bean:''' And ''then'' the witch kidnapped you?
--> '''Hansel:''' ''Nein'', she adopted us ''und'' gave us candy. But not enough. So we tied her to the sink and started eating people.

** Thanks to some of the beliefs of Shinto and Buddhism, a number of Japanese ghost stories feature elements of this; the difference being that it's [[FateWorseThanDeath not just bodies]] that can be tortured, as a ''soul'', too, can be driven to downright malicious madness that lasts even after death; often this is caused by the horrific circumstances of the death itself.

** VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder confirms that this is still true in the new canon. Many of the Inquisitors were former Jedi knights or padawans who were turned to the Dark Side through torture.

[[folder:Folklore]]
* The Japanese ''[[http://yokai.com/inugami/ inugami]]'' is, in traditional folklore at least, exactly this trope; in the process of creating it, the summoner (called an ''inugami-mochi'') is said to literally [[KickTheDog torture a dog]] not only to death, but also ''[[FateWorseThanDeath post-mortem]]''. This creates a powerful entity that can be forged into a [[CanineCompanion loyal servant]] willing and able to commit any kind of sin on its creator/master's behalf up to and including murder, curses, or [[DemonicPossession bodily possession]] -- at least, so long as you maintain and retain its mummified head and "don't seriously mistreat it". Would-be inugami-mochi [[EvilIsNotAToy should beware]] though: as [[GoneHorriblyRight powerful, anger-prone spirits]] they have a tendency to pull a sometimes very ''literal'' TheDogBitesBack... and for [[MoralEventHorizon obvious reasons]], the Japanese government as far back as the Heian period outlawed the practice, complete with permanent shunning for anybody even ''suspected'' of having tried to use it against another person, a punishment including ''continued'' shunning of any and all of the suspected inugami-mochi's ''future children''. Little wonder that these sorcerers were said to be "secretive".
* Thanks to some of the beliefs of Shinto and Buddhism, a number of Japanese ghost stories feature elements of this; the difference being that it's [[FateWorseThanDeath not just bodies]] that can be tortured, as a ''soul'', too, can be driven to downright malicious madness that lasts even after death; often this is caused by the horrific circumstances of the death itself. Case in point: the folklore that served as inspiration for ''Film/TheGrudge'', which involved a ghost being so unable to rest that they [[spoiler:would start to kill everyone who so much as set foot in the house that they died in, with the only cure for the resulting curse on the house being to burn it to the ground]].
[[/folder]]

* ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' -- you only need fear and pain to break a rebel into an obedient citizen who finds HappinessInSlavery.

* Myth/NorseMythology: The original god Loki in the ''Literature/{{Edda}}''. (Not to be confused with the Loki in Marvel's superhero comics and movies.) His origin is unclear, as he is neither one of the Aesir nor a Vanir, but becomes bloodbrother to Odin and friend of Thor. Loki, the shapeshifting god of the hearthfire, starts out as a trickster who causes mischief but often gets the gods of Asgard out of a tight corner. This changes after he has to flee from the halls of Asgard and hide on Midgard (Middle Earth), although the reasons given vary according to the various tales in the ''Literature/ProseEdda'' and the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'':
** One version claims Loki, the father of the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Snake, and of Hel, the goddess of the Underworld, was feared for his prophesied role in the coming Final Winter, which is why the gods wanted to imprison him (despite the fact it was also prophesied that he would free himself in time for the final battle).
** Another tale paints Loki as indirectly responsible for the (prophesied) death-by-mistletoe of Baldur, god of light, and the subsequent unsuccessful attempt to resurrect Baldur from the Underworld, which set in motion the events of ''Ragnarök'', the Norse apocalypse.
** The ballad "Lokasenna" (Loki's taunting of the gods) from the ''Poetic Edda'' however describes how the sea god Aegir aroused Loki's ire by holding a big feast at his hall and inviting everyone in Asgard except Loki; when Loki crashed the party and started angrily taunting the assembled gods and goddesses, Loki not only insulted several of them with sarcastic banter about their various not-so-brave deeds but also bragged how he bedded many of the goddesses while their husbands were away. Enraged, the gods tried to kill Loki, who had to flee. When the gods finally captured him, they transformed one of Loki's sons into a raging wolf who tore the other son apart in front of Loki and Loki's Aesir wife, then used the sons' entrails as chains to bind Loki to a boulder in a cave until he couldn't move, ''then'' they hung a poisonous snake over his exposed face that drooled acidic poison into Loki's eyes day and night; after the gods had left Loki's loyal wife spent days and nights holding up a bowl over Loki's face to catch the poison, but whenever she went outside to empty the bowl, the agony of pain made Loki tear madly against his chains (which caused earthquakes). He manages to free himself in time for Ragnarök and joined 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. -- Which makes this trope OlderThanPrint, depending on if you believe Loki was always secretly evil or if his mind snapped during the torture.
** Loki could be kind to his followers at times, as told in the very few remaining stories about him. So he's not always depicted as evil.

** Inquisitor Glokta, one of the main protagonists, was a dashing MasterSwordsman and all-around "golden boy" until he was captured in battle and horribly tortured, leaving him a total physical wreck. After the war, he became a TortureTechnician, and while [[DeadpanSnarker amusing to read about]] and known for occasionally petting the dog, he's still cruel and generally devoid of empathy. Somewhat subverted in that he wasn't really a great guy prior to the torture, so in a way, it just brought out the "real him".
*** Glokta's example is deconstructed as the story goes on; he was raised to be a soldier and nothing else, and when he was crippled, he had no other skills to fall back on... but he ''did'' have lengthy experience in knowing how to break a man, making his turn to the Inquisition [[PragmaticVillainy quite sensible.]] He's also unique in that he becomes more compassionate instead of less through the trilogy, making use of ExactWords and BotheringByTheBook to spare the innocent as far as he can. This is most notable when he [[spoiler: marries Ardee and claims her unborn child, Jezal's bastard, is his]]. This effectively saves both their lives; he gets away with it because he had promised to "deal with" the "threat to the state" they posed, and even then knows he is skating on terribly thin ice.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' (a sort of prequel to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Literature/TheHobbit''), it is revealed that the original orcs in Creator/JRRTolkien's Universe were created thousands of years ago by Morgoth, Middle-earth's version of Satan, who tortured the first elves he captured endlessly until they went mad and became monsters.
** Tolkien was rather ambivalent about this detail; his later notes made it clear that he was having second thoughts about the origin of the orcs, and the elf origin raised a number of thorny questions about his mythology. For example, would dead orcs go to the Halls of Mandos, where normal elves are taken after death, or would they share the fate of Men? The deeply Catholic Tolkien was also conflicted over the concept of Illuvatar (God) allowing Morgoth (the Devil) to create an AlwaysChaoticEvil race that doomed all of their children to lives of torment and irredeemable evil. His desire to work out this "orc problem" is one of the reasons why he didn't publish ''The Silmarillion'' before his death.
** Averted with the AntiVillain Maedhros: his being tortured (hung by his right hand from a cliff for a couple of years) only made him more badass. Though he did become something of a villain, it was for different reasons.
** Also averted with Húrin. After watching what Morgoth's curse did to his family, did he set out on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge? No, he killed exactly one dwarf -- Mîm, who betrayed his son to the orcs and was arguably asking for it. Then he bitched out his son's foster-father and left. Things went to hell anyway...
*** At elast in the published ''Silmarillion''. In version in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'', he sparks a civil war among the Haladin and orchestrates the death of their chief and his remaining family members out of the belief that they failed to protect his children and thrust his wife out to die. He then ends up killing the Haladin who followed him in a petty fight over treasure, and is only stopped from causing more damage by Melian telling him that he isn't helping anyone. [[DrivenToSuicide Then he kills himself]]. This might actually be a case of being tortured makes you crazy instead, which would certainly be justified after what happened to him.
** A straight example would be Maeglin -- although he was definitely jealous of Tuor beforehand, it was only being captured and tortured (or the threat of it at least) by Morgoth that caused him to spill the location of Gondolin and try to kill Tuor and his son, Eärendil.

** Somewhat understandable, since he did it to break her brainwashing. Also, her father, The Red Skull, also abused and tortured her growing up, Crossbones at least genuinely loves her and he's actually nice to her compared to how The Red Skull treats her.

* The Leader had to do this to [[ComicBook/BettyRoss Red She-Hulk]] in order to make her into a willing servant.

* In ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', we get glimpses of the induction process Treadstone (and presumably Blackbriar) agents undergo. Specifically, Jason is told to murder a man, sitting in a room with a bag over his head, and every time he refused Jason had a bag put on his head and he was severely punished, vis-à-vis solitary confinement and waterboarding among other methods, until he finally broke and killed him. To twist the knife further it seems that Jason, who volunteered, initially seemed to think the test was to not kill the man, given how soldier-like he took the orders.
* BigBad [[spoiler:Carson Dyle]] in ''Film/{{Charade}}'', who was abandoned by his wartime comrades after being badly wounded, and suffered months in a prison camp without any treatment. After he gets out, he's only living to get his hands on the money they stole together.

* A possible explanation for Ajax and Angel in ''Film/{{Deadpool 2016}}'', choosing to work for the organization that tortured them into mutation.
* Also Russell from ''Film/Deadpool2'', a young mutant boy who spends most of the film filled with rage against the orphanage he came from and its hospital staff, especially its headmaster, who tortured him because he was a mutant. [[spoiler:Cable reveals that Russell takes his fiery revenge on the headmaster and then becomes addicted to killing, becoming a psychopathic murderer in the future; he's there [[WouldHurtAChild to kill Russell before he can do that]]. Deadpool manages to stop Russell going down this path.]]

* In the film ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', Thomas Lawrence becomes an AxCrazy, ruthless BloodKnight after having been tortured by the Turks... ''as a deserter''.
* Somewhat true for Freddy Krueger in [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet the Nightmare on Elm Street films]].
* ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'': Koba, Koba, Koba. [[Film/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes The following decade just makes him worse]] [[spoiler:and he's willing to start a war because he can't let go of the memory of [[AnimalTesting being a test subject]]]].
* The point of ''Film/SaloOrThe120DaysOfSodom''. [[spoiler: Given that refusing to be turned evil means being gruesomely tortured and executed, although none of the victims know this.]]

* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', Silva was captured and tortured for five months, to the point where he tried to commit suicide only for his CyanidePill to end up horribly disfiguring him but leaving him alive. What really drove him over the edge, though, was the realization that [[spoiler:[[ParentalBetrayal M betrayed him]] and left him to this fate. The pain he suffered because of her is the source of his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].
* In ''Film/{{Super 8}}'', it's eventually revealed [[spoiler:that the monster is an alien who's been experimented on and tortured by the military for decades, to the point that it views all humans as threats and is willing to [[KillAllHumans kill them all]].]]

-->'''V''': [[MotiveRant What they did to me was monstrous.]]\\
'''Evey''': [[ShutUpHannibal And so they created a monster?]]

** This sums up Erik Lehnsherr's (who later becomes Magneto) backstory in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''. The torture he endured involved a lot of "anger and pain," a room full of creepy sharp instruments, and there was a flash of something akin to sadistic dentistry, but it's the emotional torment that seems to have broken him.
** Implied in Mystique's backstory told in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. After [[spoiler:assassinating Trask to avenge her fellow mutants, she is taken captive and experimented on, with her DNA being used to create the BadFuture Sentinels. The [[DespairEventHorizon experience likely resulted]] in her transformation into the remorseless killer we see in the original trilogy]].
** ''Film/Deadpool2'': Russell spends the majority of the movie filled with murderous rage towards the orphanage and its staff, particularly its headmaster, who tortured him because he is a mutant. Cable reveals that once Russell kills the headmaster, he quickly gets addicted to killing and becomes a psychopathic murderer. Deadpool manages to stop Russell from going down this path.

* The Japanese ''[[http://yokai.com/inugami/ inugami]]'' is, in traditional folklore at least, exactly this trope; in the process of creating it, the summoner (called an ''inugami-mochi'') is said to literally [[KickTheDog torture a dog]] not only to death, [[UpToEleven but also]] ''[[FateWorseThanDeath post-mortem]]''. This creates a powerful entity that can be forged into a [[CanineCompanion loyal servant]] willing and able to commit any kind of sin on its creator/master's behalf up to and including murder, curses, or [[DemonicPossession bodily possession]] -- at least, so long as you maintain and retain its mummified head and "don't seriously mistreat it". Would-be inugami-mochi [[EvilIsNotAToy should beware]] though: as [[GoneHorriblyRight powerful, anger-prone spirits]] they have a tendency to pull a sometimes very ''literal'' TheDogBitesBack... and for [[MoralEventHorizon obvious reasons]], the Japanese government as far back as the Heian period outlawed the practice, complete with permanent shunning for anybody even ''suspected'' of having tried to use it against another person, a punishment including ''continued'' shunning of any and all of the suspected inugami-mochi's ''future children''. Little wonder that these sorcerers were said to be "secretive".

* ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'': Darth Sidious used this trick to brainwash his so-called friend Anakin Skywalker, which is how Darth Vader REALLY got his start, unlike how Obi-Wan Kenobi [[MetaphoricallyTrue told]] the story in ''[[Film/StarWarsANewHope Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope]]''.

** Because the Sith have practically built their religion around the idea of the apprentice betrays the master thing, the loyalty issue is less relevant for them. Being TheStarscream is downright ''desirable'' among the Sith.
** And the DarkSide of the Force acts as psychological {{phlebotinum}} that explains any remaining bits about Jedi turning evil that don't make sense as such.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' continues the tradition with a Republic quest on Nar Shadaa, where the protagonist is tasked with going into a top security Imperial prison to free a beloved Jedi war hero from the last war. [[spoiler:He turns out to be the one running the prison. A heavily corrupted Jedi-turned-Sith who deals out torturous punishments and executions like candy, he became a StrawNihilist when he saw men in the prison crack under torture and starvation, and loathes the Republic for its "weakness" in failing to let the Empire do such unspeakably monstrous things. So he serves the Empire in doing such monstrous things, as you do.]]

* ''Animation/BoBoiBoy'': Downplayed. Adu Du intended to torture [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning to extract info on his grandfather's recipe, just to find that Probe had turned the torture room into a party room to celebrate the villain's victory. Adu Du popped a balloon in anger and discovered [=BoBoiBoy=]'s globophobia, and opted to exploit his fear as a means of torture instead. [=BoBoiBoy=] Lightning snapped in rage, but due to his [[EquivalentExchange worsening memory]] from his prolonged [[LiteralSplitPersonality Triple Split]], he easily believed the villains were his friends throwing a party for him, and later [[CriminalAmnesiac followed the villains in attacking the good guys]]. His memory and good allegiance eventually returns after Probe [[NiceJobFixingItVillain accidentally exclaimed [=BoBoiBoy's=] catchphrase.]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Subverted by a certain character. [[spoiler:Donquixote Doflamingo went through horrible torture as a child alongside his father and brother, at the hands of an angry mob that [[MisplacedRetribution vented their rightful hatred of the World Nobles onto the wrong family]]. You'd think this was the reason he became evil, but it's later revealed he was ''born evil'', and the torture made it even worse. Case in point, Doflamingo's aforementioned brother, Rocinante, turned out to be a ''much'' kinder man despite going through the same torture]].

* Also Russell from ''Film/{{Deadpool 2}}'', a young mutant boy who spends most of the film filled with rage against the orphanage he came from and its hospital staff, especially its headmaster, who tortured him because he was a mutant. [[spoiler:Cable reveals that Russell takes his fiery revenge on the headmaster and then becomes addicted to killing, becoming a psychopathic murderer in the future; he's there [[WouldHurtAChild to kill Russell before he can do that]]. Deadpool manages to stop Russell going down this path.]]
* In the film ''Film/FleshAndBlood'', the innocent virgin DamselInDistress gets kidnapped by a group of bandits and gang-raped. She then joins their crew and merrily takes part in their excursions.
** ... except she was [[FilleFatale never all that (sexually) innocent]] and participated out of a combination of [[StockholmSyndrome Stockholm Syndrome]] and a desire to avoid further abuse by fitting in -- so, a [[JustifiedTrope relatively realistic application of the trope.]]

* In ''ComicBook/XMen Noir: Mark of Cain'', Thomas Halloway is kept in "Project: Wideawake" by Professor Xavier as long as he withholds information from him. Project: Wideawake employs a mixture of blindingly bright lights and deafening sirens to deprive the subject of sleep. After about a week of the treatment, Tommy snaps. He starts acting like, and insisting he be referred to as, his dead twin brother Robert -- a sadistic lowlife. [[spoiler:He's faking.]]

** [[KidsAreCruel Tomoo]] wasn't alone when he bullied Kaede. He led two boys around. Despite their implied hatred of his guts, the boys constantly did what Tomoo said without question. If that hatred was true, it's possible that Tomoo bound them to him by torturing them as well, as [[Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith Palpatine did to Darth Vader]].

** Tomoo wasn't alone when he bullied Kaede. He led two boys around. Despite their implied hatred of his guts, the boys constantly did what Tomoo said without question. If that hatred was true, it's possible that Tomoo bound them to him by torturing them as well, as [[Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith Palpatine did to Darth Vader]].

* ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIIRevengeOfTheSith'': Darth Sidious used this trick to brainwash his so-called friend Anakin Skywalker, which is how Darth Vader REALLY got his start, unlike how Obi-Wan Kenobi [[MetaphoricallyTrue told]] the story in ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIVANewHope''.

*
** Most of the Diclonius race in (the necessarily shortened anime form of) ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Though at the very least the evil one that was on her tormentors' side had an ExplosiveLeash to keep her in check.

* Most of the Diclonius in (the necessarily shortened anime form of) ''Manga/ElfenLied''. Though at the very least the evil one that was on her tormentors' side had an ExplosiveLeash to keep her in check.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' (a sort of prequel to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Literature/TheHobbit''), it is revealed that the original orcs in Creator/JRRTolkien's Universe were created thousands of years ago by Melkor, an allegorical version of Satan, who tortured elves he captured endlessly until they went mad and became monsters.
** Tolkien was rather ambivalent about this detail; his notes made it clear that he didn't want it to be canon, and it also raises a number of thorny questions about his mythology. For example, why haven't the number of orcs decreased over time as the originals were killed off? Orcs as corrupted elves also didn't mesh with his cosmology; would dead orcs go to the Halls of Mandos, where normal elves are taken after death, or would they share the fate of Men? The deeply Catholic Tolkien was conflicted over these, along with the concept of AlwaysChaoticEvil, which is why he didn't publish ''The Silmarillion'' before his death.

*** Only in the published ''Silmarillion''. In ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'', he sparks a civil war among the Haladin and orchestrates the death of their chief and his remaining family members out of the belief that they failed to protect his children and thrust his wife out to die. He then ends up killing the Haladin who followed him in a petty fight over treasure, and is only stopped from causing more damage by Melian telling him that he isn't helping anyone. [[DrivenToSuicide Then he kills himself]]. This might actually be a case of being tortured makes you crazy instead, which would certainly be justified after what happened to him.

* In ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', Nagisa responded to Akutsu's abuse of her by making a SplitPersonality, Yasha, to protect her from the trauma. Yasha is a SuperpoweredEvilSide and EnemyWithin who loves Akutsu, and tries to kill Ryuji and Eikichi, while Nagisa's normal personality is nice and sweet.

* ''LightNovel/NidomeNoYuusha'' basically has this trope as its entire premise, only cranked up to the extreme. Every single one of the main characters started out as good, sometimes idealistic person, but after all the physical and psychological torture they endured from everybody around them, they all completely snapped and became some of the most sadistic revenge-driven [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] ever seen in fiction, inflicting CruelAndUnusualDeath and AFateWorseThanDeath on everybody who ever wronged them.

* In ''Manga/MekkoRarekko'', we have two examples, although one is much more extreme than the other.
** As an elementary student, Amanuma Shinichi felt that he had everything he ever wanted feeling that he was handsome with rich parents and that he was one of, if not the best student in the school. He was also a {{Jerkass}} towards Yamano Taishou, someone who looked up to him greatly for how cool he thought he was. Amanuma then [[spoiler: proceeded to bully as well as torture Taishou a lot in first grade and it got so bad that Taishou had to transfer to a new school.]] Because of that experience, Taishou became a bit of a bully himself, but unlike Amanuma, he never went truly evil. So it's a subverted case with Taishou.
** Then we have Amanuma himself which is played completely straight. After middle school, his parents got him into a top middle school in the country, but he didn't think very much of it because he was already such a great student in his elementary school. But when he finally got into the top middle school with other top students, he realized that he wasn't as special as he really thought he was and that there he was just an average student. He tried very hard to catch up with the top students but he was unable to and he hated that. After turning in a student to a teacher for doing something bad he felt that it was the right thing for him to do. However [[spoiler: the students got back at him by burning the word ''pig'' onto his stomach. That experience led to him dropping out of the top middle school and becoming a {{Hikikomori}} for a while. As a Hikikomori, he started to believe that everyone had a dark and ugly side they were hiding and that they just never show their true feelings. This lead to him having a much different outlook on life and he does turn evil and when he transfers to Buchi and Taishou's middle school, (in Taishou class, no less)) he pretends to be his friend again only to end up torturing him just like before and even making him into his SexSlave.]]

Still, sometimes, victim goes further than becoming a StrawNihilist: feeling disappointed - [[WhatTheHellHero betrayed even]] - not only by the "good" guys but by the [[GodIsInept very ideals]] they followed earlier, the newly-evil victim may come to respect the views of a torturer. Especially if the torturer points out that he had the same story earlier, and [[WellIntentionedExtremist the sole reason]] for the torture was exactly the "[[IDidWhatIHadToDo opening of their eyes]]" to the "[[WorldHalfEmpty true nature of the world.]]" Especially if [[ManipulativeBastard the torturer]] suddenly starts showing [[{{Gaslighting}} sympathy]] precisely at that moment!

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': In a cross-series example, while [[spoiler:Rika]] eventually gets [[EarnYourHappyEnding a happy ending]], the [[spoiler:Rikas]] of the many [[AlternateUniverse alternate universes]] do not, and they eventually all culminate in [[spoiler:Bernkastel]], the BigBad of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''.

* 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.

* Riful in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' really likes trying to do this, although she isn't especially successful.
** It works ''in theory'' because she's only trying to provoke the Claymore's into releasing their full yoma power and becoming Awakened Ones; it's an almost completely physical event and what they want doesn't factor into it. Although Claymores fear awakening more than anything else, once they awaken they tend to immediately find [[EvilFeelsGood they enjoy the power and freedom from humanity]], which [[JustifiedTrope justifies this trope]]. Riful just tends to have bad luck; the first Claymore she tried it on died from the torture, the second worked but turned into an Awakened One too weak to be any use so she killed it and the third was rescued before her mind fully awakened.
* [[CreepyTwins Hansel and Gretel]] from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' are a somewhat unique case in that they're children, and were ''raised'' under torture and abuse and implied rape as opposed to being decent people who were warped by it. So here it's less "Torture Makes You Evil" and more "Being Surrounded By Pain and Suffering Practicallly Since Birth With No Other State Of Being Known To You Other Than Pain Makes You ''Fucked Up''."
* Genkaku from ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'' was revealed to have been beaten and raped by a group of bullies who hung around the temple when he was younger. It was definitely a contributing factor for making him AxCrazy and evil.
* 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.
* Konuma Ryuuko of ''Manga/WolfGuyWolfenCrest''. She's a nymphomaniac middle-schooler with what appears to be profound psychological damage from repeated rapes in her past, which made her a nihilistic sociopath.
* The supplementary materials to ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'' state that [[spoiler: Basque Ohm]], as a POW after the One Year War, was horrifyingly tortured by the enemy. It's also pretty justified, as he didn't join the side that tortured him--instead, he takes out his rage on Zeon's former civillians.
* [[RivalTurnedEvil Sasuke]] from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' is possibly an example of this. Not only did 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.
** Subverted with Kakashi, [[spoiler: whose resolve to take Akatsuki down was only ''strengthened'' after being tortured for days on end by one of their members.]]
** [[spoiler:Kurama shows signs of this. He lashes out at humans over the fact that they treat him as a beast, and the seal he was in while inside of Kushina involved having his limbs and tails chained down while he was impaled by a stake. It's also a distinct possibility that this is the same seal that was used to keep him inside Mito, which would mean that he was tortured for the better part of a century.]]
* Jellal from ''Manga/FairyTail'' turns into a Zeref worshipper after supposedly meeting his spirit while being tortured. [[spoiler:It's then downplayed when Ultear reveals she just brainwashed him, though the torture certainly helped bring him down to his lowest point to make it easier.]]
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' [[spoiler:all {{Magical Girl}}s are subjected to this by a cruel emotional universal EquivalentExchange counteracting their wishes, and eventually are warped into horrifying, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.]] This also happens to [[spoiler:Homura]] at a wholly different level in ''Rebellion''; even a nigh-unstoppable MagicalGirl like herself can only take so much psychological terror, and she endures a shitload of it [[spoiler:from the moment she first discovers how Witches come to be to the moment where she usurps Madoka and lashes out royally at Kyubey for many millennia's worth of acts of psychological terrorism against young girls the world over]].
* Basically Gatomon's back story in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure''. After years (or decades) of brutal servitude, she's the ruthless [[TheDragon lieutenant]] of a vampiric overlord.
* Torturing children into perfect soldiers was the goal of Kinderheim 511 in Manga/{{Monster}} but they only succeeded in producing monsters. So much so that after Johann turned the compound into the scene of his first real atrocity several of the survivors became his devotees. At least one of the others was a serial killer and Wolfgang Grimmer, while not evil, considered himself a monster.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' presents this as one of many themes on harmful cycles. It all started when a sadistic Investigator went off the rails and brutalized an imprisoned Ghoul until his victim was driven insane. This Ghoul, Yamori, would emerge from his captivity having taken on his tormentor's personality and became infamous for his hobby of capturing and torturing other Ghouls to death. Eventually, he would capture gentle protagonist Kaneki and subject him to over a week of brutal torture. After turning on his captor and escaping, Kaneki had himself taken on some of the brutal tendencies and {{Character Tic}}s of Yamori. This started his path from NiceGuy to an increasingly brutal and ruthless AntiHero.
* In many a {{Hentai}} this is turned into "being raped makes you a slut".
* 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.]]
** In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' it's implied that Vegeta turned into a cruel and vicious person after growing up under Freiza's psychological abuse.
* In ''Anime/CrossAnge'', Ange's little sister Sylvia had shown [[CorruptTheCutie her]] [[BitchInSheepsClothing antagonistic]] colors after torturing the former in public, though she is evidently a little conflicted over the matter the following night, and goes to her brother Julio for comfort. That is, until she accidentally barges in on Riza thralling Julio in secret, which leads to her being bound by the dragon. After Embryo frees Sylvia and captures Riza, the latter becomes Sylvia's next whipping victim as payback, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking on top of a list of lesser crimes]].
* In ''Manga/MekkoRarekko'', we have two examples, although one is much more extreme than the other.
** As an elementary student, Amanuma Shinichi felt that he had everything he ever wanted feeling that he was handsome with rich parents and that he was one of, if not the best student in the school. He was also a {{Jerkass}} towards Yamano Taishou, someone who looked up to him greatly for how cool he thought he was. Amanuma then [[spoiler: proceeded to bully as well as torture Taishou a lot in first grade and it got so bad that Taishou had to transfer to a new school.]] Because of that experience, Taishou became a bit of a bully himself, but unlike Amanuma, he never went truly evil. So it's a subverted case with Taishou.
** Then we have Amanuma himself which is played completely straight. After middle school, his parents got him into a top middle school in the country, but he didn't think very much of it because he was already such a great student in his elementary school. But when he finally got into the top middle school with other top students, he realized that he wasn't as special as he really thought he was and that there he was just an average student. He tried very hard to catch up with the top students but he was unable to and he hated that. After turning in a student to a teacher for doing something bad he felt that it was the right thing for him to do. However [[spoiler: the students got back at him by burning the word ''pig'' onto his stomach. That experience led to him dropping out of the top middle school and becoming a {{Hikikomori}} for a while. As a Hikikomori, he started to believe that everyone had a dark and ugly side they were hiding and that they just never show their true feelings. This lead to him having a much different outlook on life and he does turn evil and when he transfers to Buchi and Taishou's middle school, (in Taishou class, no less)) he pretends to be his friend again only to end up torturing him just like before and even making him into his SexSlave.]]
* 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 covens 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.]]
* Mostly averted by ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'''s Principal Nedzu (a mouse who was experimented on for his high intelligence Quirk), but the Final Exam arc is a chance to get a little revenge on humans. Cue Mina and Denki getting the most sound defeat of the entire arc.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Subverted by a certain character. [[spoiler:Donquixote Doflamingo went through horrible torture as a child alongside his father and brother, at the hands of an angry mob that [[MisplacedRetribution vented their rightful hatred of the World Nobles onto the wrong family]]. You'd think this was the reason he became evil, but it's later revealed he was ''born evil'', and the torture made it even worse. Case in point, Doflamingo's aforementioned brother, Rocinante, turned out to be a ''much'' kinder man despite going through the same torture]].
* ''LightNovel/NidomeNoYuusha'' basically has this trope as its entire premise, only cranked up to the extreme. Every single one of the main characters started out as good, sometimes idealistic person, but after all the physical and psychological torture they endured from everybody around them, they all completely snapped and became some of the most sadistic revenge-driven [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] ever seen in fiction, inflicting CruelAndUnusualDeath and AFateWorseThanDeath on everybody who ever wronged them.
* In ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', Nagisa responded to Akutsu's abuse of her by making a SplitPersonality, Yasha, to protect her from the trauma. Yasha is a SuperpoweredEvilSide and EnemyWithin who loves Akutsu, and tries to kill Ryuji and Eikichi, while Nagisa's normal personality is nice and sweet.

* The Leader had to do this to [[ComicBook/BettyRoss Red She-Hulk]] in order to make her into a willing servant.

* ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'': Michonne doesn't exactly turn ''evil'', per se, after the Governor [[MoralEventHorizon repeatedly beats and rapes her]], although she does turn into a bitter, burned-out husk of a human being in a remarkably short span of time. It's worth noting that, whenever presented with the opportunity to actually kill the douchebag, she instead non-fatally, but painfully, wounds him; whether or not this is out of a simple desire for brutal revenge and making him suffer as he made her, or a subconscious want to keep him alive because of StockholmSyndrome is left up to the reader to decide.
* [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Unicron]] does this in order to acquire the services of Nemesis Prime; he finds a dead Optimus Prime somewhere in the multiverse, clones the corpse, and then horrifically tortures the clone for several thousand years. It works.
** Unicron goes the extra mile. He tortures his thralls to the point where merely ''existing'' is unbearable agony to them. Which makes his [[OmnicidalManiac philosophy]] appealing merely because it'd be an end to such pain.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': Black Mask was already a murderous gangster, but when he was lit on fire and left for dead, the resulting burns and further disfigurements got him interested in the subject of torture.
* Likewise, Black Mask tortured ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'s sister, Maggie, [[ForcedToWatch forcing her to watch]] as he tortured her husband and ''force-fed her pieces of him''. After breaking out of her catatonic state, she's become Sister Zero, a religiously-motivated villain who believes that her sister's soul is in thrall to a "cat demon," and she's going to "exorcise" it even if she has to kill Selina to do so.
* In ''ComicBook/XMen Noir: Mark of Cain'', Thomas Halloway is kept in "Project: Wideawake" by Professor Xavier as long as he withholds information from him. Project: Wideawake employs a mixture of blindingly bright lights and deafening sirens to deprive the subject of sleep. After about a week of the treatment, Tommy snaps. He starts acting like, and insisting he be referred to as, his dead twin brother Robert - a sadistic lowlife. [[spoiler:He's faking.]]
* Cinder from ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'s ''[[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]]'' was sexually abused by a super villain called Nursery Crime when she was a child, some time after her entire family died in an explosion. With her heat powers, she goes after child molesters and rapists, and is also suicidal because her powers prevent her from dying.
* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #600, it's revealed that this apparently happened to [[spoiler:Johnny Storm.]]
* Two-Edge from ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' is the product of an insane female elf and a troll she once seduced. He grew up neglected and tortured by his mother, and his father died when he was young, [[spoiler:murdered in front of him by his mother]]. His mind is broken pretty quickly and he spends most of the series as a villain, until Leetah finally manages to heal him after approximately 15000 years.
* ''ComicBook/DeadNoMoreTheCloneConspiracy'' sees this as part of its backstory as [[spoiler:this time, the Jackal is [[ComicBook/ScarletSpider Ben Reilly]], having been resurrected, then killed and resurrected 27 more times.]]
* The origin of the ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy villain Talonar. [[spoiler:He's actually Nova's missing brother Robbie who remained unaware of the final outcome of ComicBook/TheThanosImperative, outside of "we won." He traveled to Xandar alone to try to jumpstart the Nova Force but is instead captured and tortured for information by members of the Fraternity of Raptors. They later lock him into a helmet which isolates his senses and severely slows his sense of time making minutes seem like years. This coupled with his lack of knowledge of Richard's supposed death made him feel like his brother and allies abandoned him. When he was given the choice to either die with honor as a member of the Nova Corps or exact revenge as a Raptor, Robbie chose the later.]]

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Alan Jonah and later [[spoiler:Ghidorah]] both attempt to inflict this on [[AdaptationalHeroism Monster X]] so they can break down the TwoBeingsOneBody Titan's (particularly [[BackFromTheDead Vivienne]]'s) identity and brainwash her into something more to thir liking. It's later revealed that this trope happened to Ghidorah in its {{Backstory}}.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Stray}}'', part of the {{Antihero}}'s backstory involves an attempt by the setting's AncientConspiracy to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this. The AncientConspiracy didn't want to risk their TykeBomb spy/assassins developing any [[ConflictingLoyalty inconvenient attachments]], so they attempted to instill [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] tendencies in their future operatives by means of an abusive upbringing. It doesn't entirely work - Adamska can be ruthless, and he has [[FutureMeScaresMe the potential to be a lot worse]] - but he is capable of genuine emotional attachment.

* ''Film/VForVendetta'': For given quantities of Evil, we have this back and forth:
-->'''V''': [[MotiveRant What they did to me was monstrous.]]\\
'''Evey''': [[ShutUpHannibal And so they created a monster?]]
* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': This happens to several characters in the sequels. Most prominently, [[spoiler:Amanda and Gordon.]]
* In the film ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', Thomas Lawrence becomes an AxCrazy, ruthless BloodKnight after having been tortured by the Turks... ''as a deserter''.
* In the film ''Film/FleshAndBlood'', the innocent virgin DamselInDistress gets kidnapped by a group of bandits and gang-raped. She then joins their crew and merrily takes part in their excursions.
** ... except she was [[FilleFatale never all that (sexually) innocent]] and participated out of a combination of [[StockholmSyndrome Stockholm Syndrome]] and a desire to avoid further abuse by fitting in - so, a [[JustifiedTrope relatively realistic application of the trope.]]

* In ''Film/{{Super 8}}'', it's eventually revealed [[spoiler:that the monster is an alien who's been experimented on and tortured by the military for decades, to the point that it views all humans as threats and is willing to [[KillAllHumans kill them all]].]]
* ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'': Koba, Koba, Koba. [[Film/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes The following decade just makes him worse]] [[spoiler:and he's willing to start a war because he can't let go of the memory of [[AnimalTesting being a test subject]]]].
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
** This sums up Erik Lehnsherr's (who later becomes Magneto) backstory in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''. The torture he endured involved a lot of "anger and pain," a room full of creepy sharp instruments, and there was a flash of something akin to sadistic dentistry, but it's the emotional torment that seems to have broken him.
** Implied in Mystique's backstory told in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. After [[spoiler:assassinating Trask to avenge her fellow mutants, she is taken captive and experimented on, with her DNA being used to create the BadFuture Sentinels. The [[DespairEventHorizon experience likely resulted]] in her transformation into the remorseless killer we see in the original trilogy]].
** ''Film/Deadpool2'': Russell spends the majority of the movie filled with murderous rage towards the orphanage and its staff, particularly its headmaster, who tortured him because he is a mutant. Cable reveals that once Russell kills the headmaster, he quickly gets addicted to killing and becomes a psychopathic murderer. Deadpool manages to stop Russell from going down this path.
* Somewhat true for Freddy Krueger in [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet the Nightmare on Elm Street films]].
* The point of ''Film/SaloOrThe120DaysOfSodom''. [[spoiler: Given that refusing to be turned evil means being gruesomely tortured and executed, although none of the victims know this.]]
* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', Silva was captured and tortured for five months, to the point where he tried to commit suicide only for his CyanidePill to end up horribly disfiguring him but leaving him alive. What really drove him over the edge, though, was the realization that [[spoiler:[[ParentalBetrayal M betrayed him]] and left him to this fate. The pain he suffered because of her is the source of his RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].
* The Cenobites from ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' were once human, but years of torture in Hell have turned them into monsters. [[HumanoidAbomination Rather literally]].

* In ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', we get glimpses of the induction process Treadstone (and presumably Blackbriar) agents undergo. Specifically, Jason is told to murder a man, sitting in a room with a bag over his head, and every time he refused Jason had a bag put on his head and he was severely punished, vis-à-vis solitary confinement and waterboarding among other methods, until he finally broke and killed him. To twist the knife further it seems that Jason, who volunteered, initially seemed to think the test was to not kill the man, given how soldier-like he took the orders.

* The Japanese ''[[http://yokai.com/inugami/ inugami]]'' is, in traditional folklore at least, exactly this trope; in the process of creating it, the summoner (called an ''inugami-mochi'') is said to literally [[KickTheDog torture a dog]] not only to death, [[UpToEleven but also]] ''[[FateWorseThanDeath post-mortem]]''. This creates a powerful entity that can be forged into a [[CanineCompanion loyal servant]] willing and able to commit any kind of sin on its creator/master's behalf up to and including murder, curses, or [[DemonicPossession bodily possession]] - at least, so long as you maintain and retain its mummified head and "don't seriously mistreat it". Would-be inugami-mochi [[EvilIsNotAToy should beware]] though: as [[GoneHorriblyRight powerful, anger-prone spirits]] they have a tendency to pull a sometimes very ''literal'' TheDogBitesBack... and for [[MoralEventHorizon obvious reasons]], the Japanese government as far back as the Heian period outlawed the practice, complete with permanent shunning for anybody even ''suspected'' of having tried to use it against another person, a punishment including ''continued'' shunning of any and all of the suspected inugami-mochi's ''future children''. Little wonder that these sorcerers were said to be "secretive".

* Averted in the ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' novels with a couple of characters, but most notably Oreg, who spent his "life" magically bound to generations of owners of the eponymous castle Hurog, not all of whom were kind to him. There was no corrupting him - he is even nice to Ward, who looks like his father. Then there is Ward, who didn't become one bit evil, even though his father was abusive and at least once almost killed him.
* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' (a sort of prequel to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Literature/TheHobbit''), it is revealed that the original orcs in Creator/JRRTolkien's Universe were created thousands of years ago by Melkor, an allegorical version of Satan, who tortured elves he captured endlessly until they went mad and became monsters.
** Tolkien was rather ambivalent about this detail; his notes made it clear that he didn't want it to be canon, and it also raises a number of thorny questions about his mythology. For example, why haven't the number of orcs decreased over time as the originals were killed off? Orcs as corrupted elves also didn't mesh with his cosmology; would dead orcs go to the Halls of Mandos, where normal elves are taken after death, or would they share the fate of Men? The deeply Catholic Tolkien was conflicted over these, along with the concept of AlwaysChaoticEvil, which is why he didn't publish ''The Silmarillion'' before his death.
** Averted with the AntiVillain Maedhros: his being tortured (hung by his right hand from a cliff for a couple of years) only made him more badass. Though he did become something of a villain, it was for different reasons.
** Also averted with Húrin. After watching what Morgoth's curse did to his family, did he set out on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge? No, he killed exactly one dwarf - Mîm, who betrayed his son to the orcs and was arguably asking for it. Then he bitched out his son's foster-father and left. Things went to hell anyway...
*** Only in the published ''Silmarillion''. In ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'', he sparks a civil war among the Haladin and orchestrates the death of their chief and his remaining family members out of the belief that they failed to protect his children and thrust his wife out to die. He then ends up killing the Haladin who followed him in a petty fight over treasure, and is only stopped from causing more damage by Melian telling him that he isn't helping anyone. [[DrivenToSuicide Then he kills himself]]. This might actually be a case of being tortured makes you crazy instead, which would certainly be justified after what happened to him.
** A straight example would be Maeglin- although he was definitely jealous of Tuor beforehand, it was only being captured and tortured (or the threat of it at least) by Morgoth that caused him to spill the location of Gondolin and try to kill Tuor and his son, Eärendil.
** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Gollum was evil to begin with, but after being tortured by Sauron he became worse.
* ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' - you only need fear and pain to break a rebel into an obedient citizen who finds HappinessInSlavery.

* Mord Sith from the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' books, but although one described what happened, it never really got into why it worked (something about the most innocent can be turned, but that's still not getting into it). It just did.
** It was explained as 'Years of horrific torture designed to break someone, and then keep torturing them and only stop if they torture other people for you.'
** It also probably helps that the people Mord-Sith come from have grown up ''worshiping'' and learning blind obedience to the Mord-Sith's master. As terrifying as the prospect is, the girls chosen have already had it hammered into them that this is a holy calling and their destined fate, and are partially picked for a lack of innate resistance and a natural desire to please. StockholmSyndrome is far more powerful when you ''start out'' seeing your captors as compassionate teachers and ideal role models.
** They take the sweetest, most eager-to-please girls at a very young age, torture them elaborately and horrifically, physically and psychologically, until they will do anything for their teacher; until they become so used to pain that they actually get off on using the weapon which causes anyone it touches - including the wielder - unendurable pain; then they are forced to watch as their mother is tortured to death, and then to torture their own father to death. Oh, and it's considered commendable if they thereafter avenge themselves on their masters by torturing them to death. Anyone who is pushed that far without dying is bound to go a bit insane.
** The loyalty thing is explained by a magical connection they have to whoever the current Lord Rahl is - even if they don't necessarily like it.
* ''The Scorpion Signal'', an espionage novel by [[Creator/EllestonTrevor Adam Hall]]. The protagonist Literature/{{Quiller}} is sent to track down a RogueAgent who was tortured by the KGB, and nearly gets killed because he fails to consider just how much torture can change a man. Like making him willing to kill a former friend [[spoiler:when he interferes in his plot to assassinate the Soviet Premier.]] To a professional intelligence agent being tortured is NothingPersonal -- Quiller fails to consider just how much ItsPersonal for the person being tortured.

* ''Literature/XWingSeries'': Ysanne Isard, Director of Imperial Intelligence, has a secret prison called the Lusankya. She captures people, brainwashes them, and turns them into unwitting agents, letting them free afterwards to go back to the New Republic, completely unaware of what's happened to them [[ManchurianAgent until they find themselves doing her will]]. The process of converting people is never detailed in full, but it does involve torture. Tycho Celchu went through this and remembers being in that prison when he's let go. When he reports back he's suspected to be one of the unwitting agents even though he remembers being there. [[spoiler:But he was [[IncorruptiblePurePureness immune]].]]
** 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.
** In ''Rebel Force'' a different Imperial has a method for turning people into emotionless assassins, which involves torturing them vigorously while he wasn't in sight to induce StockholmSyndrome, then [[CriminalAmnesiac erasing all of their old memories]]. It's suggested but left up in the air that his best assassin, X-7, may have used to be one of the heroes of ''Last of the Jedi''. Late in the series, he gets his hands on Luke Skywalker, but Luke resists and plays along.

* [[spoiler:Thomas Raith]] in the eleventh book of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', is hideously tortured by the Skinwalker. While he had spent the previous books finding ways to sate his hunger without harming anyone, this event makes him reconsider whether it's worth it. In his next appearance, he's as good and friendly as he had been, but still decidedly well-fed. In the following book, he has apparently undergone a sort of hunger strike[=/=]HeroicBSOD after [[spoiler:Harry's death]].
** [[spoiler: Since the woman he's in love with has figured out a way around the whole 'I can't touch you' thing he no longer has any need to feed from anyone else, rendering the whole thing moot anyway.]]
* Questioned in ''The Cursed'' by Creator/DaveDuncan, though not exactly lampshaded. The response is that this does indeed work if you don't only use torture, but combine it with a system of mental conditioning (the nature of which is never actually explained.)

* Creator/NeilGaiman's short story [[http://holdinghandswithhades.edublogs.org/seven-deadly-sins-part-7-the-others-by-neil-gaiman/ "Other People"]] in which a businessman is tortured by a demon, first physically with two hundred and eleven different devices, then mentally with all his lies and misdeeds and their consequences over and over until he can no longer lie his way out of them. When it is done, the demon is gone, and [[StableTimeLoop a businessman comes in]]...

* Murtagh from the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' started out as Eragon's friend and well-intentioned {{antihero}}, but his capture and MindRape (and who knows what else) at the hands of [[BigBad Galbatorix]] turned him bitter, power-hungry, and rather unstable. Galbatorix ensured his loyalty by using Murtagh's true name (which gives total control to the one who uses it) and forcing him to swear various oaths that he was magically bound to follow. Once freed, Murtagh seems to be a basically okay guy again, so you decide if he was actually bad.
* Volkov, Russian chief vampire from Alexander Yang's Literature/MidnightWorld series, became a victim of extremely unjust court at a very young age. He was cruelly tortured to extract the evidence against his father, and almost died, when his Master showed him the way to survival and revenge.
* Inverted in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' with [[spoiler:Theon Greyjoy. Previously a definite SmugSnake, the brutal torture he receives at the hands of the series' resident BastardBastard leaves him frail both physically and mentally and, while not a good person, leagues away from the outright villain he'd been before. And it's only after all this that he commits his first truly selfless act by saving Jeyne Poole.]]
* Myth/NorseMythology: The original god Loki in the ''Literature/{{Edda}}''. (Not to be confused with the Loki in Marvel's superhero comics and movies.) His origin is unclear, as he is neither one of the Aesir nor a Vanir, but becomes bloodbrother to Odin and friend of Thor. Loki, the shapeshifting god of the hearthfire, starts out as a trickster who causes mischief but often gets the gods of Asgard out of a tight corner. This changes after he has to flee from the halls of Asgard and hide on Midgard (Middle Earth), although the reasons given vary according to the various tales in the ''Literature/ProseEdda'' and the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'':
** One version claims Loki, the father of the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Snake, and of Hel, the goddess of the Underworld, was feared for his prophesied role in the coming Final Winter, which is why the gods wanted to imprison him (despite the fact it was also prophesied that he would free himself in time for the final battle).
** Another tale paints Loki as indirectly responsible for the (prophesied) death-by-mistletoe of Baldur, god of light, and the subsequent unsuccessful attempt to resurrect Baldur from the Underworld, which set in motion the events of ''Ragnarök'', the Norse apocalypse.
** The ballad "Lokasenna" (Loki's taunting of the gods) from the ''Poetic Edda'' however describes how the sea god Aegir aroused Loki's ire by holding a big feast at his hall and inviting everyone in Asgard except Loki; when Loki crashed the party and started angrily taunting the assembled gods and goddesses, Loki not only insulted several of them with sarcastic banter about their various not-so-brave deeds but also bragged how he bedded many of the goddesses while their husbands were away. Enraged, the gods tried to kill Loki, who had to flee. When the gods finally captured him, they transformed one of Loki's sons into a raging wolf who tore the other son apart in front of Loki and Loki's Aesir wife, then used the sons' entrails as chains to bind Loki to a boulder in a cave until he couldn't move, ''then'' they hung a poisonous snake over his exposed face that drooled acidic poison into Loki's eyes day and night; after the gods had left Loki's loyal wife spent days and nights holding up a bowl over Loki's face to catch the poison, but whenever she went outside to empty the bowl, the agony of pain made Loki tear madly against his chains (which caused earthquakes). He manages to free himself in time for Ragnarök and joined 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. - Which makes this trope OlderThanPrint, depending on if you believe Loki was always secretly evil or if his mind snapped during the torture.
** Loki could be kind to his followers at times, as told in the very few remaining stories about him. So he's not always depicted as evil.
* [[spoiler: Peeta]] was tortured and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] by the Capital in ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]''. While he wasn't exactly [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds evil]], his vision of [[IRejectYourReality reality]] was so screwed that he [[spoiler: tried to kill Katniss.]]
* This is what seemed to have happed with Dr. Edith Marlok in ''{{Literature/Suspicion}}'' by Swiss author ''Friedrich Dürrenmatt''. According to her, she’d been once a faithful young communist who believed in a better world. After being sent to concentration camp Stutthof and working with BigBad Dr. Emmenberger she became a cynical, indifferent, misanthropic morphine addict.
** This is averted however with Gulliver, who was also tortured by Emmenberger and had been in many concentration camps but became a VigilanteMan and NaziHunter instead.

* [=FitzChivalry=] toys with this in the third trilogy of the ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings''. He notes that he was once tortured to death ([[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow although it didn't stick]]), and it left him with an occasional sadistic streak; his fight-or-flight response got ramped up, and although [[BewareTheNiceOnes he always wants to run...]]
* ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' has [[BlackSheep Konrad Curze]] try to invoke this on [[WhiteSheep Vulkan]] - Curze believes that every man is evil at heart and he intends to prove it on his brother. Ultimately, [[spoiler:it fails, but Vulkan goes completely insane.]]
* Played with in ''LightNovel/DateALive''. For a Spirit to [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Inverse]], they must experience absolute despair. Westcott believes in using torture to achieve this. He proposes doing this to Tohka, though it's rendered moot when Shidou is seemingly killed in front of her and she Inverses anyway. When he did this successfully to Nia, she didn't Inverse and simply stopped responding to anything. Westcott therefore decided to apply a block on her memories of being tortured and then released her. As it turns out, Nia had lost faith in humanity prior to being captured and tortured (due to her omniscience letting her see all the ugly parts of humans), but she regains it after being freed. After this happens, Westcott orders the memory block be removed. The sudden return of all of the memories of suffering, combined with her new positive outlook, succeeds in making her Inverse.
* ''Literature/TheImmortalRules'': This seems to be [[BigBad Sarren]]'s FreudianExcuse for why he wants Kanin and any other vampire Kanin has made dead. Though how much of a stable and well-adjusted vampire he was before [[spoiler:[[StrappedToAnOperatingTable suffering cruel and unusual experiments in hopes that vampire blood held the key to saving the human race]]]], is up for debate.
* ''On The Uses Of Torture'', a short story by Creator/PiersAnthony, has the protagonist, who is already evil and routinely uses torture on others, volunteer to be tortured by aliens in order to get them to negotiate a treaty. He ends up impressing them so much they give him a seat on their ruling council, but he has become so mentally corrupted he no longer cares about anything human.
* In ''Literature/TheMouseWatch'', {{Cyborg}} MadScientist rat Dr. Thornpaw was "shaped by pain" due to the horrific AnimalTesting he endured, and now he wants {{Revenge}} on all humanity.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'' used a more realistic version of this: Season Three BigBad [[spoiler:Stephen Saunders was on the same team with Jack Bauer that went into Kosovo for a covert mission; Jack was assumed to be the only member of the team who survived, and Stephen was left for dead. His disillusionment at being abandoned to the enemy is the driving force behind his actions in Season Three]].
* [[spoiler:Gray]] in the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' series 2 finale. Jack lost him while fleeing some very evil aliens who captured and tortured him for years and years. He survived with no conscience and a mega-sized grudge against his big brother for failing him. So he killed a lot of people.
* In ''Series/{{Firefly}},'' this can happen to you at the hands of the Reavers. Even though the original Reavers were created by a drug that made them go berserk, they can produce exactly the same effects in other people simply by making people ''watch'' them do their Reaver thing. Apparently, it's a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
** Since the drug is inhaled, the first thing the Reavers do is exchange atmospheres with their captured ships, and most crews don't seem able to put up much resistance, it's likely they're dosing crews with the same drug that transformed them. In the series proper, though, no explanation is given and psychological damage is blamed.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':
** [[spoiler:Gideon]]'s torture of [[spoiler:Wyatt]] in an alternate timeline turned him evil. Fortunately, they fixed the problem.
** It's implied that this happened to [[spoiler:Christy, Billie's sister]] since she was kidnapped by demons when she was six years old.
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', the Wraith can do this to turn the boldest humans into lawful servants. They did this to [[spoiler:three Satedan friends of Ronon]] and later [[spoiler:even Ronon himself]]. It also helps that the victims become addicted to the enzyme used in feeding, which makes the one addicted exercise extremely poor judgement.
* Though nearly all vampires in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' are evil, Drusilla is more fond of slow torture than most, probably because of the way she was tortured extensively by her sire Angelus before she was turned. Her torture also made her very, very unhinged.
* Allan-a-Dale in the BBC's version of ''Series/RobinHood'' was captured by Guy of Gisborne and tortured into becoming TheMole. There were a few mitigating factors including the fact that Allan was already dissatisfied with the lifestyle of an outlaw, but when he's discovered, he uses the torture as his excuse.
* ''Series/TheColbertReport'' once used this in a bit of circular StrawmanPolitical InsaneTrollLogic: if you're mistaken for a terrorist who hates America and consequently imprisoned in Gitmo and subjected to EnhancedInterrogationTechniques, you'll soon hate America -- and therefore, we'll have to imprison and torture you!

* ''Series/LostGirl'': [[spoiler:Bo's mother after being tortured by the Dark Fae]]. Though this overlaps with being tortured makes you crazy.
* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'' loves this trope, much like the books it was based on. The Mord'Siths' strength and devotion to eeeevil comes from having the good tortured out of them as kids. And it works on Cara ''again'' [[spoiler:when she's tortured back to the dark side by Darken Rahl]].
* ''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.
* ''[[Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand Spartacus War Of The Damned]]'': Features a fairly realistic version. Naevia spent some time as a SexSlave to various Romans, and spends much of ''Vengeance'' as a BrokenBird. In ''War of the Damned'', she comes off as an AxeCrazy DarkActionGirl wanting to slaughter all Romans, even perfectly innocent civilians and children.
* In the second season of ''Series/TheMusketeers'', quite a lot of Rochefort's more deranged behaviour is blamed on being tortured for years as a prisoner of the Spanish. However, it's strongly implied that he was pretty bad before that, and it's reported that Richelieu deliberately abandoned him to the Spanish because he considered him to be mentally unhinged.
* ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' doesn't go with ''evil'' in so much as a ''WellIntentionedExtremist who went mad from revelation'' with emphasis on the tragic part. Kento was subjected to visions of countless BadFuture[=s=] while imprisoned inside [[ArtifactofDoom Kurayami]]. Seeing his friends killed and the world destroyed over and over turned the kind team [[TheReliableOne backbone]] person into a whispering EmptyShell hellbent on averting those futures even if it means fighting his friends, ruining their lives and potentially endangering everyone and everything. They tried to reason with him, but nothing worked. It's no wonder considering he can barely look at them without being reminded of all the times he lost them, which in turn reassures him he does what's best for everyone.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', torture in Hell makes bad people worse - after some time they hate their tormentors so deeply that the last remains of their humanity snap and they start to transform into bottom-rank devils themselves.

* In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', [[TheFairFolk The True Fae]] are sociopathic monsters incapable of compassion. They reproduce by abducting humans from the real world, (usually) subject them to constant, brutal, horrific tortures, and then once the last bit of their humanity is stripped away, they become True Fae.

* Kratos' younger brother, Deimos, from ''VideoGame/GodOfWarGhostOfSparta''. When the gods kidnapped him as a child, he was left at the hands of God of Death, Thanatos. Whatever the death god was doing to him, Deimos had to suffer through it for many years until adulthood. As a result, he grew an unbearable hatred for Kratos, vowing revenge on him for not saving him.
* This is pretty much word-for-word the backstory for [[ColdSniper Widowmaker]] in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}''. She was kidnapped by Talon agents and tortured/brainwashed until they literally "broke her will, suppressed her personality, and reprogrammed her as a sleeper agent."
* In the first ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'' game, you can torture captured heroes into joining your side. As long as you're careful not to kill them (which turns them into fairly mediocre Ghosts), anyone will break eventually...
** This even includes the [[BigGood Avatar]], although it takes a very long time. However, since the Avatar is supposed to [[BackFromTheDead come back]] when you kill him, if you don't and convert him then his also good twin shows up to fight you.
** Enemy Mistresses, however, don't join your forces because your torture has broken their spirits. [[TooKinkyToTorture They happily and willing to join you out of gratitude for being tortured]].
** It works the same way in the sequel, though torturing your enemies to death now causes them to reveal map information to you instead of turning into Ghosts.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Malak turns Bastila to TheDarkSide... by hitting her repeatedly with Force Lightning. Makes you wonder if TheEmperor was trying to duplicate that stunt at the end of ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
-->'''Malak''': No, you misunderstand. This is but a taste of the Dark Side, to whet your appetite.
** Torture is a standard method for Sith "converting" light-side Jedi, as mentioned in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' and shown in other parts of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''. It's a good way to crack a Jedi's emotional control, [[TeachHimAnger getting them angry]] and setting them at the top of the slippery slope.
** Because the Sith have practically built their religion around the idea of the apprentice betrays the master thing, the loyalty issue is less relevant for them. Being TheStarscream is downright ''desirable'' among the Sith.
** And the DarkSide of the Force acts as psychological {{phlebotinum}} that explains any remaining bits about Jedi turning evil that don't make sense as such.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' continues the tradition with a Republic quest on Nar Shadaa, where the protagonist is tasked with going into a top security Imperial prison to free a beloved Jedi war hero from the last war. [[spoiler:He turns out to be the one running the prison. A heavily corrupted Jedi-turned-Sith who deals out torturous punishments and executions like candy, he became a StrawNihilist when he saw men in the prison crack under torture and starvation, and loathes the Republic for its "weakness" in failing to let the Empire do such unspeakably monstrous things. So he serves the Empire in doing such monstrous things, as you do.]]
* [[spoiler:Aribeth]] in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' turned to the dark side following some pretty severe psychological torture (read MindRape).
** The character in question was on the path before that, seeing as how [[spoiler:her love interest,]] a genuinely good, innocent person, was executed by the bloodthirsty populace demanding justice. It's not hard to imagine [[spoiler:her falling, seeing as how her patron deity's portfolio is, specifically, justice.]] Taken back in the second add-on, ''Hordes of the Underdark'', where [[spoiler:Aribeth states that her affection for Fenthick was more due to her devotion to her faith than because of her love for him - or, as she states it: "it was like being married to my church" (she was a paladin of Tyr, he was a priest). So her decision to defect was not because she went insane from grief but rather out of her own wantonness.]]
* Jak from ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' goes halfway there by going from WideEyedIdealist to cynic AntiHero with a SuperpoweredEvilSide. While he was not tortured for the sake of torture, he ''was'' subject to two years of Dark Eco experimentation, pumping him full of the stuff, in the Baron's attempts to create a SuperSoldier. Dark Eco tends to have some ''really'' nasty effects on people exposed to it, ranging from insanity to outright killing a person.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' has [[QuirkyMinibossSquad The B&B Corps]], civilian women who've been driven insane by the horrors of warfare, and undergone transformation into super soldiers in the misguided belief that fighting will ease their trauma. Each one plays the trope in a slightly different way:
** Laughing Octopus both plays it straight and inverts it; she was kidnapped by a cult and forced to torture her family and friends to death, and said cult also forced her to react as though she took sadistic amusement in their suffering when committing the action.
** Raging Raven plays it completely straight; she was locked in a cage and tortured for the amusement of a band of soldiers until she came to hate the world, and when she was finally freed by the sheer luck of the ravens' pecking killing the ropes faster than her life, she went on an UnstoppableRage.
** Crying Wolf was left traumatized when her family (except her and her baby brother) were slaughtered in an ethnic cleansing. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], while hiding from some soldiers who were hunting her, she accidentally smothered her brother rather than let his crying draw the soldiers to her location. And THEN she found a refugee camp, which promptly disposed of the rotting corpse of her brother that she lugged around. One AxeCrazy fit later, and she had murdered them all in their sleep.
** Screaming Mantis is a slight variation; she was locked in a basement beneath a torture chamber, and driven insane by the sound of screams echoing above her. The kicker? The chamber ''housed the dead corpses of torture victims''. ''She had to eat them to survive''.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': Kaz is no longer the peppy TeamDad after nine years, two amputated limbs, and cataracts.
* Saavedro from ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'' was tied to a post, severely beaten, and was left on several small islands for 20 years, while believing that his family, nay, his entire world was dead. His mind is...not where it used to be, as evidenced by passages in his journal detailing how much he had forgotten and how desperate he was for revenge.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' Apparently, the difficult-path ending boss used to be a real nice guy... until someone got jealous of him and decided to torture him for a while. Now... well... He's... not so nice anymore. Though he averts the "joins his captors" aspect of the trope.
** Though it's not so much that he lost his morals as that he lost his self-control. He even [[ICannotSelfTerminate wants you to kill him.]]
* Averted in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. The Lich King tries to torture Bolvar Fordragon after capturing; [[spoiler:It doesn't work, and Bolvar actually ends up replacing him.]]
** Played absolutely straight with Sylvannas Windrunner however. After he mutilated her body, defiled her spirit, killed her, and raised her back as a banshee and then [[ForcedToWatch turned her on her own homeland and people]], since she has regained her body and her free will she has gradually become everything she fought against in Arthas in so many ways, becoming more and more irredeemable with each atrocity.
*** The breaking point was being ''sent to [[{{Hell}} The Maw]]'' for committing suicide. The torture and realization that anyone could get sent to The Maw drove her completely psychopathic, and she made a deal with The Maw's jailer for freedom and power in exchange for sending ''everyone'' there with her.
** 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.]]
** Partly played straight with [[spoiler:Maiev Shadowsong]] after [[spoiler:her]] capture and torture at the hands of [[spoiler:Illidan Stormrage]]. While [[spoiler:she]] does go crazy and start metting out [[spoiler:her]] own brand of justice, the torture is only the last straw that takes [[spoiler:her]] over the edge of sanity. Although she gets somewhat better later on.
** It turns out that after Sargeras killed the [[spoiler:rest of the Titans]], he captured their souls and has spent millennia torturing them in an attempt to create his own [[spoiler:Dark Pantheon]]. He succeeded with [[spoiler:Aggramar]] and the rest have nearly given in.
*** [[spoiler:Argus]] was tortured for eons and was finally driven insane at the moment his soul was taken to the [[spoiler:Seat of the Pantheon]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'', Lab Zero did their best to do this with Painwheel. [[spoiler:In both her and Filia's ending, it doesn't stick. She breaks free in the former, and is saved by Filia's wish for her to have a normal life in the latter.]]
** This is also explained as the origin story for Peacock... sort of. She went totally psycho after enduring gruesome, horrible torture, but never joins up with her tormentors. She has a decidedly heroic role, though she [[HeroicComedicSociopath favors violent methods]].
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': Near the end of the game, [[spoiler: Booker is sent to a BadFuture where years of torture and psychological conditioning have rendered Elizabeth so afraid of Comstock that she cannot bring herself to defy him even decades after his death. Instead, she becomes his successor and carries out his plan to purify "the Sodom below" by destroying New York City. However, she does feel guilty enough to give Booker a message for her past self that she hopes will SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong]].

** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' gives us Aksum, an angaara who was once a brilliant and curious student of Remnant technology, until the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Kett]] kidnapped him, tortured him, and held him in a labor camp for over a year. This turned him into an AbsoluteXenophobe who hates even friendly aliens like the Milky Way species. He forms a terrorist group called Roekarr which attempts multiple times to inflict a genocide on all non angaara. He crosses the MoralEventHorizon in the eyes of many angaara, including his former best friend Jaal when he starts ranting about even eliminating angaara who aren’t xenophobic - and then tries to kill Jaal.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'' has Rorke, a former Ghost who was captured and tortured by the Federation, turning him into their best assassin and soldier whose primary focus is hunting down his former comrades, especially his former commanding officer, who Rorke believes betrayed him. [[spoiler:Come the end of the game, he captures the main protagonist to attempt to do the same to him.]]
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Angra Mainyu became a being filled with absolute hatred for humankind after a lifetime of being tortured by his own village, all because they had chosen him at random to be [[TheScapegoat "The Source of All Evil"]]. [[spoiler:Should the Holy Grail War be seen through to the end, his corrupting influence on the Grail will lead to him being unleashed upon Earth, an act that could very well lead to mankind's extinction. In ''VisualNovel/FateHollowAtaraxia'', however, the influence of both the Holy Grail and Shirou lead to him finding some peace, despite everything.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Demonheart}}'', certain demonic characters have been tortured from birth, making them utterly deranged. Sir Brash was also tortured [[spoiler:when Rivera first captured him,]] and while he was never truly noble to begin with and his courage mostly came from his [[spoiler:newly obtained demonic heart]], his mistreatment may have played a role in him becoming a rampaging, murderous beast, leading to his recruitment by the evil knights of Scarcewall.

* The seven demonic Dire Unicorns in [[http://www.daemonslayers.net/links.htm The Daemonslayers]], including Blackjack's somewhat loyal mount and [[MixandMatchCritters unicorn/dragon]] hybrid Knightmare, were all once pure and noble unicorns. When they were captured by the Demon Queen, Shine, and her minions, they were horribly tortured and corrupted with her dark magic into twisted beings who could no longer remember their names and former lives. The only unicorn who still retained much of his former self was Frenzy. Unfortunately, since the universe he inhabits is [[CrapsackWorld such an awful place to live in]] that it happily wishes to screw, torture, and maim any decent being that lives in it, he is cursed with a blood-red mist that is like a {{Hate Plague}} to anyone who breathes it. Because he remembers his former life, Frenzy is the most peaceful of the dire unicorns, yet seeing the effects time and again of the horrible curse of rage and destruction that travels with him caused him to slowly lose his mind and is now quite insane.

* Done successfully to IncorruptiblePurePureness in ''WebAnimation/BrokenSaints''. Justified in that said character is an [[TheEmpath empath]], and the torture was simply necessary to turn [[spoiler:her]] into a conduit for negative emotion. Not that that makes [[EyeScream any of the torture]] less disturbing.
* While Nights of ''Roleplay/{{AJCO}}'' was hardly a saint to begin with, following the psychological torture she suffered during the Silo arc she lost her only redeeming feature - her love for the Castle Crew.
** And ''then'' when she tried to reclaim power by threatening Breyos, he injected her with deadly spider venom and left her to die. She's now [[DespairEventHorizon completely broken and loyal to AJCO]]. At least for now.
* In ''Literature/{{Addergoole}}'' a lot of the worst Keepers are those who were abused when they were Kept previously.
* In ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'', Spoony recounts the time his ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' LARP character was captured and tortured into joining the [[KnightTemplar Lancea]] [[ReligionOfEvil Sanctum]] and does the horrible things they tell him to. [[{{Subversion}} For the first session.]] Pissed off they tried to forcibly take over his character, Spoony decided to fight back, used his massive chemistry score to make a bathtub full of Semtex, sneaked it into the Vampire Prince's sanctum without anyone noticing, then went to his car and used the detonator. If not for GM fiat, Spoony would have leveled the building and took with it the head of the oppressive vampire hierarchy. (Just for reference, this is a LARP, there was no actual Semtex or detonators, just index cards that say that).

* [[Anime/TransformersEnergon One incarnation of Megatron]] attempted this on the Autobot Inferno. Megatron tortured Inferno for information and his own amusement. When Inferno still wouldn't break, Megatron tried forcibly converting him to the Decepticon cause. Although Inferno was eventually rescued by the other Autobots it looked like he might turn on them. In the end [[spoiler: Inferno [[SubvertedTrope fought off the effects of Megatron's influence]] and died.]]
** See Films -- Animated for another example.
* Shockingly enough for a {{Creator/Disney}} [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids cartoon series ostensibly aimed at kids]], ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'' goes here in "Scars." While Tron's torture at the hands of Dyson didn't ''completely'' turn him to the dark side, it's coming pretty close [[spoiler: And probably helps Clu [[ReforgedIntoAMinion twist him into "Rinzler" later]] ]] - to the point where he tries to ''kill'' Beck for intervening in his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* Hama, an old lady the protagonists encounter late in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', was a waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe who through years of attrition, desperation, a cruel prison, lack of access to her element, and discovering a [[PeoplePuppets technique]] that warped her, went from apparently normal and friendly to someone who ''appeared'' friendly but happily abducted and imprisoned random civilians of her torturers' Nation and quickly turned against the nice Water Tribe kids who objected to her.