History Main / CryForTheDevil

* Ganondorf gets a bit of this just before the final battle of ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]''. YourMileageMayVary, but that monologue went a long way toward making this troper sympathize with the King of Evil, just a tad.

****** The hell!? Had that been [[Spoiler: [[TheScrappy Yuka]]]] or any other human in the series except for [[Spoiler: Mayu, Kouta and Nozomi]] I would've understand, but seriously, cheering over the death of a little girl... HumansAreBasatards indeed.

**** That's only if you haven't seen how cruel humanity, and especially kids, can be.
***** Consideirng that I've seen some ElfenLied fans cheer when [[spoiler: Kouta's little sister (an innocent kid, quite unlike the cruel orphans) is beheaded]] and call ''her'' "a little slut who deserved to be killed by [[spoiler: Lucy-baby]]"...

* [[MarvelComics Loki]] gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's [[TheScapegoat the ultimate scapegoat]]. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being an effeminate, magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil. To rub it in even more, he always has a [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone a moment of repentance]] at the apex of his latest scheme to usurp Asgard, pulling a [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turn]]...right before [[CainAndAbel Thor kills him]]).

* [[MarvelComics Loki]] gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's [[TheScapegoat the ultimate scapegoat]]. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being a effeminate and a magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil. To rub it in even more, he always has a [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone a moment of repentance]] at the apex of his latest scheme to usurp Asgard, pulling a [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turn]]...right before [[CainAndAbel Thor kills him]]).

* Marvel's Loki gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's [[TheScapegoat the ultimate scapegoat]]. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being a effeminate and a magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil. To rub it in even more, he always has a [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone a moment of repentance]] at the apex of his latest scheme to usurp Asgard, pulling a [[HeelFaceTurn]]...right before [[CainAndAbel Thor kills him]]).

* Marvel's Loki gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's [[TheScapegoat]]. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being a effeminate and a magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil. To rub it in even more, he always has a [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone]] moment at the climax of his latest scheme to usurp Asgard, right at the apex of his victory and does a [[HeelFaceTurn]...right before Thor kills him(in a reverse [[CainAndAbel]]).

* Marvel Comic's Loki gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's the ultimate scapegoat. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his people's enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being a effeminate and a magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil, though he always repents from his latest scheme to usurp Asgard in the end (right before he's killed).

* Marvel Comic's [[Loki]] gets this treatment in all of his stories as he's the ultimate [[scapegoat]]. He's basically a battered, neglected child whose father was killed in front of him (never mind he set his father up to die) and ended up adopted by his people's enemies. As a result, he's fearful of authority figures and can't completely accept his new adopted family's love. To make matters worse, he's subtly rejected by Asgard society due to being a effeminate and a magic user in a burly warrior culture. This eventually turns him evil, though he always repents from his latest scheme to usurp Asgard in the end (right before he's killed).

* The millenium world arc of {{Yu-Gi-Oh}} has the flash back to the Thief King Bakura watching the massacre of his village Kul Elna from a hiding place

* [[HarryPotter J.K. Rowling]] really loves to play around with this one. [[spoiler:Snape is a complete bastard, but is hinted to being a good guy throughout the series. In the end, the reader can't be certain of what side he's on. That is, until Harry gets to see his memories and Snape is explained to be a good guy.]] Voldemort is explained to have had a bad childhood throughout the series, but Rowling says he's the only really bad person in the books. Thus, he was bad from the start and his experiences in life are no excuse for who he is. On the completely opposite side of that is Harry, who had a bad childhood too, and yet is a very surprisingly selfless person.
** Yep. Only really bad person in the books. [[Characters/HarryPotter Uh-huh.]]

** Yep. Only really bad person in the books. [[TheUmbridge Uh-huh.]]

*** Well, yeah. [[{{Anvilicious}} The trope was invoked so strongly, that it fell flat on its ass.]] By making the kids and the researchers so stupidly one dimensional, some people simply can't feel sorry for Lucy even if they try, since it's too up-in-your-face to ever cause real reactions. I.e. the [[spoiler: puppy killing]] scene? It often comes closer to {{Narm}} than TearJerker because it was so over-the-top and the kids were so cartoonish-ly evil.

* Thomas Harris' ''Red Dragon'' provides a horrendous backstory for the "Tooth Fairy", from his mother rejecting him at birth (illegitimate and with facial deformations), through rough life in an orphanage, to adoption by his EvilMatriarch [[NeverMessWithGranny grandmother]], to eventual adoption by his reluctant mother whose other children reject and abuse him. After that, the StartOfDarkness kicks in, and AxeCrazy as he ends up, he still at one point tries, albeit unsuccessfully, to fight his evil SplitPersonality, even in the middle of being played for a XanatosSucker by [[SilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]].

** It also does it ''[[IncrediblyLamePun insanely]]'' well with Mao in episode 15. He's introduced as a completely diabolical SmugSnake who tries to kill our [[TheHero hero]] Lelouch and chase down CC and how can he be stopped with his mind-reading skills? Then CC confronts him and invokes... [[spoiler: pictures of Mao together with her as a ([[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe cute, huggable]]) little boy as she promises to stay with him forever...!]] And once he's taken care of for the episode, CC relates that [[spoiler: she found him as a ''six-year-old orphan'' and gave him mind-reading powers that he lost the ability to control and which ultimately caused him to go insane....]] By the time [[spoiler: he finally dies [[MercyKill it isn't]] a KarmicDeath [[MercyKill at all...]]]] and shouldn't very well be, since it wasn't even his fault he was insane!

* [[{{CreepyChild}} Alois]] [[{{AxCrazy}} Trancy]] from ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}'' season 2. Spent the first episodes abusing his maid and generally acting like a complete JerkAss. Then episode eight reveals in a flashback that Alois lost the only person he cared about and was later sold as a sex slave to the earl. After telling his BattleButler Claude [[spoiler: while bleeding to death from a stab wound he got in the previous episode]] that he is the only one he's got left in the world [[spoiler:Claude simply kills Alois and takes his soul]]. Even Alois's greatest detractors found the scene [[{{TearJerker}} quite heartbreaking]]. Having [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Lt_RaUOH0 this song]] playing in the background did not help matters.

* [[{{CreepyChild}} Alois]] [[{{AxCrazy}} Trancy]] from ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}'' season 2. Spent the first episodes abusing his maid and generally acting like a complete JerkAss. Then episode eight reveals in a flashback that Alois lost the only person he cared about and was later sold as a sex slave the earl. After telling his BattleButler Claude [[spoiler: while bleeding to death from a stab wound he got in the previous episode]] that he is the only one he's got left in the world [[spoiler:Claude simply kills Alois and takes his soul]]. Even Alois's greatest detractors found the scene [[{{TearJerker}} utterly heartbreaking]]. Having [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Lt_RaUOH0 this song]] playing in the background did not help matters.

*** Well, yeah. [[{{Anvilicious}} The trope was invoked so strongly, that it fell flat on its ass.]] By making the kids and the researchers so stupidly onedimensional, some people simply can't feel sorry for Lucy even if they try, since it's too up-in-your-face to ever cause real reactions. I.e. the [[spoiler: puppy killing]] scene? It often comes closer to {{Narm}} than TearJerker because it was so over-the-top and the kids were so cartoonish-ly evil.

*** The straightest example is Johans' suicidal tendencies and his attitude to other evil people. Throughout the story the impression is that he is tired with his own evil nature, something everyone else makes a big deal of but which for him is so plain ordinary and banal. He remarks that he is searching for the darkest place or person in the world, but fails to find it, presmably a search for somewhere he can belong. Which won't happen as he is the [[spoiler: TheAntichrist (probably)]] and therefore more evil than anyone or anything, anywhere on Earth. Hence, he encourages people to try and kill him, and does'nt particularly care for all the apoclayptic plans his followers expect from him and he is presumably destined to fulfill.

* Diva's backstory in BloodPlus is definitely worth the viewer's pity.[[spoiler: As a baby, she was separated from her twin sister Saya as soon as she was born and locked in a tower without being given a name and with nothing but the basic necessities to live. Her only companion was a man that was completely obsessed with her and only viewed her as a very interesting, study worthy creature. She spends the first twenty something years of her life like this, after which she escapes with her caretaker. As a result of her seclusion and her ruthless upbringing, she developed an unstable, immature personality and severe attachment issues, being unable to respond to her Chevaliers' undying devotion and affection (which messed up quite a few of them). Despite her deep, desperate craving for a family of her own, she never obtains it, as she dies before her babies emerge from their cocoons.]]

* The ''FullmetalAlchemist'' manga does this for Wrath[[spoiler: King Bradley]] [[spoiler: he was part of an experiment to create the leader of Amnestris which involved a TrainingFromHell beginning in childhood, and then being put through a painful transformation into a homunculus. What makes the character somewhat sympathetic, is that because he had no real identity prior to the transformation, any human that did exist was killed, and you can see Bradley's PetTheDog moments as the vestige of humanity in him. Nevertheless, he's still an extremely cruel, FantasyCounterpartCulture AdolfHitler]].

* How has [[spoiler: Takano]] from ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' not yet been mentioned? [[spoiler: She never knew her mother, her father gets in a car crash, and immediately after her father tells her with his last words that she should go to live with a Mr. Hifumi, she's told that's "not how it works" and shipped off to an OrphanageOfFear, where she is brutally abused and sees most of her friends die horrifically. After she is rescued by Hifumi about a year (?) later, she sees his (mostly correct) theories scoffed at and the man himself laughed out of the scientific community.]] I mean, ''ouch''. After that, it's almost impossible not to feel a little sorry for her.
* We're told how crappy the life Lucia, from ''RaveMaster'', live before we even get to see any of the horrible things he does as a result. But for good measure, when he's entering the final phase of his plan to destroy the world we get to see a page or so from back when he was six. If the horrified look on his face after having his mother shot down in cold blood ''by the govenment'' isn't enought for you, then seeing his reaction to being locked up had better be.

* MyImmortal, arguably. Satan was rather calm, nice,(in fact much more sane and likeable than the protagonist herself) and never did anything directly bad. Dumbledore even demonizes the goths and punks at the school, but Satan seems to ride this off. And he becomes Voldemort, who harasses the main characters constantly.

* J.K. Rowling really loves to play around with this one. [[spoiler:Snape is a complete bastard, but is hinted to being a good guy throughout the series. In the end, the reader can't be certain of what side he's on. That is, until Harry gets to see his memories and Snape is explained to be a good guy.]] Voldemort is explained to have had a bad childhood throughout the series, but Rowling says he's the only really bad person in the books. Thus, he was bad from the start and his experiences in life are no excuse for who he is. On the completely opposite side of that is Harry, who had a bad childhood too, and yet is a very surprisingly selfless person.

* Several characters in ''{{American Gods}}'', including the serial child murderer of a small god who is revealed to have started life as a child raised in darkness and isolation for five years, then sacrificed...
* Both in-story and out-of-story with Mayella Ewell, "the loneliest person in the world," in the book of ''{{To Kill A Mockingbird}}''. This is particularly true if you happen to catch one easy-to-miss remark, spoilered here because it has the most impact in context: "She said she never kissed a man before, and she might as well kiss a nigger. [[spoiler:She said what her pa do to her don't count.]]"

* In Dickens' ''A Christmas Carol'', the point of the Christmas Past sections is to show how Scrooge became an old meanie. Basically, it shows how he came to believe that 'if you like anybody or let yourself feel any emotion, you'll get hurt'.

* ''RichardIII''. If you miss the first 15 minutes of the play, Richard is a JerkAss, unrepentant in what he's done, and deserve all the hatred and scorn he receives. If you DO see the first bit, however, and pay close attention, something stays with you for the entirety of the play:

* This is probably one of the biggest themes in ''Wicked: The Musical''. Not only does it get the audience to see from the 'villain's' point of view, but in turn points the finger at society for being such a bitch to one poor, different person.

* In TalesOfSymphonia: [[TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld Dawn of the New World]], Richter wants to kill Marta, yet Emil still sympathizes with him. It turns out that [[spoiler: Richter wasn't always a "bad guy" but is against Ratatosk because of the murder of his friend Aster.]]
* In {{Fable}} II, we meet completely unrepentant bastard Reaver, whose unthinking and casually selfish evil surpasses the main villain's [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned Extremism.]] After the game, you have the option of finding out his backstory: [[spoiler:his MoralEventHorizon of sacrificing the entire village of Oakvale was an accident, the unknown cost of a bargain to protect his life and youth. All of his DepravedBisexual behavior and rampant human sacrifice afterward takes on a new light with the knowledge that his despair basically collapsed in on itself hundreds of years ago.]]
* SilentHill4: Walter Sullivan. [[BreakTheCutie Just]]...[[OrphansOrdeal Walter]] [[TraumaCongaLine Sullivan]]. It's ''almost'' enough to excuse the fact that he's a delusional SerialKiller.
* ''Seiken Densetsu III'' does this with the wizard Koren, though it depends on whether you pick Angela or Duran as your main character. [[spoiler: As the second to final boss, you defeat Koren, who then laments doing so much damage, claiming that in his desperation to gain magic power, he sold his soul to the Dragon Emperor. If Duran is your lead character he feels sorry for Koren and it makes the player do so as well as Koren takes his own life. However if Angela, who hates Koren, is your main character, you get a much different scene. Koren claims it wasn't his fault again; but Angela refuses to forgive him as he brainwashed Valda, her mother, into neglecting her and then tried to make Valda kill Angela. Angela calls him a coward and while Koren still takes his own life; it is made to seem as if Angela would've wanted to get the killing blow instead.]]

* GodOfWar: Kratos spends the course of three games murdering everything in Greek mythology on a quest for vengeance. He is presented as a violent, sadistic monster (though still not as bad as a lot of the more [[ValuesDissonance traditional Greek heroes]]), but he wasn't always that way. His desire for conquest led to him making a pact with the god Ares, [[DealWithTheDevil offering his life in exchange for power]]. He and his army slaughtered thousands of innocents, and he grew more monstrous every day. But when [[spoiler: Ares tricked him into murdering his own wife and child,]] Kratos realized the horror of [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone what he had done]], and tried to become TheAtoner by serving the Gods of Olympus. The twist in all this is that Kratos is the ''[[VillainProtagonist player character]]''. The experience of playing as him and seeing things from his point of view is the only thing that inspires sympathy from the audience; in any other situation, he'd be the villain.
* [[{{Myst}} Gehn]] doesn't get much back-story in ''Riven'' (aside from a journal entry mourning his dead wife), but read [[AllThereInTheManual ''The Book of Ti'ana]] and you learn [[spoiler: he lost his home world and almost his whole family - save only his mother, who was partly (albeit unintentionally) responsible for it. Then at eighteen, he loses his young wife in childbirth.]] Everything he does is to try and restore his lost childhood. [[AGodAmI Not that that justifies his actions .. ]]

* Ganondorf gets a bit of this just before the final battle of [[TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]. YourMileageMayVary, but that monologue went a long way toward making this troper sympathize with the King of Evil, just a tad.
* Vergil in DevilMayCry, particularly in the third game, Dante's Awakening [[spoiler: after Vergil falls into Hell]]:

* GunnerkriggCourt: Despite his nickname, Ysengrin is not a nice wood wolf. We first see him trying to instigate a war and attempting to skewer a 12-year-old girl for a percieved slight. Then you find out the [[BlessedWithSuck incredible toll]] his powers have taken on him...

* GeneratorRex episode 8. [[SuperOCD Poor]], [[VillainousBreakdown poor]], [[CuteMonsterGirl Breach]].

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* [[MarvelComics Dr. Doom's]] backstory has his homeland of Latveria being ruled by a cruel tyrant, prompting his mother to make a deal with Mephisto for the power to overthrow him. She does, but then dies afterward, allowing Mephisto to claim her soul. Much of Doom's descent into villainy is related to his relentless attempts to free her soul through science and sorcery.

** This troper found the ending of that game to be pretty full of ValuesDissonance, at least for a modern Humanist who doesn't believe in the Divine Right of kings. To be clear [[spoiler: the Gods essentially destroyed all of Hyrule centuries ago rather than let Ganondorf take over and replace the King, then at the end of WindWaker they finish the job, leaving Hyrule's descendents to fend for themselves on a sea which bears no fish. Better to destroy the kingdom and exile EVERYONE than let the dark-skinned foriegner replace the "rightful" absolute monarch]]