History Main / DrivenToVillainy

* The Queen from ''Series/OnceUponATime''. She did many horrible things, but they were done because she crossed the DespairEventHorizon after her mother ripped her boyfriend's heart out in front of her. It was also kind of Snow White's fault, though she didn't do it on purpose.
** Rumplestiltskin was one of the main villains of the series. He committed many terrible crimes and screwed people over, but the reason he became the Dark One in the first place was to save his son. His son would have been forcefully recruited to fight a losing war against ogres on his fourteenth birthday (the reason kids were fighting is that so many people were killed that they were running low on troops). He was manipulated into becoming the Dark One by the previous one, who was tired of doing the job himself. The power was implied to be corrupting Rumplestiltskin. Never mind the fact that Baelfire left Rumplestiltskin ''because'' he became the Dark One (or, more accurately, because he grew too fond of the power given to him by the Dark One's Dagger).

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare crosses the DespairEventHorizon after helplessly [[OutlivingOnesOffspring watching her son Kiritaka die]] in front of her eyes [[ABirthdayNotABreak the night of his birthday]] and later learning that apparently [[DrivenToSuicide he committed suicide]] due to AbusiveParents, which makes Mari [[ItsAllMyFault blame herself for his death]]. ''Then'' she finds [[DeadManWriting Kiri's diary]] and learns from reading it that in truth he was [[BullyBrutality horrifically bullied]] at school by [[BigBad Okaya]] and [[GangOfBullies his gang]]; Mari puts two and two together and realizes that Okaya's gang sent Kiri to his death before covering their tracks to [[NeverSuicide make it look like a suicide]]. This serves as the last straw in Mari's TraumaCongaLine, after which she decides to personally [[BullyHunter hunt down and murder Kiri's bullies]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the most painful way possible]]. Two years later, once she's completed her [[BestServedCold preparations]] and finally gets around to doing it, [[ThatWomanIsDead Maria Akeboshi]] is all too aware of hhow it's negatively affected her, [[IHaveComeTooFar but is determined to see her revenge through to the bitter end]].

* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare crosses the DespairEventHorizon after helplessly [[OutlivingOnesOffspring watching her son Kiritaka die]] in front of her eyes [[ABirthdayNotABreak the night of his birthday]] and later learning that apparently [[DrivenToSuicide he committed suicide]] due to AbusiveParents, which makes Mari [[ItsAllMyFault blame herself for his death]]. ''Then'' she finds [[DeadManWriting Kiri's diary]] and learns from reading it that in truth he was [[BullyBrutality horrifically bullied]] at school by [[BigBad Okaya]] and [[GangOfBullies his gang]]; Mari puts two and two together and realizes that Okaya's gang sent Kiri to his death before covering their tracks to [[NeverSuicide make it look like a suicide]]. This serves as the last straw in Mari's TraumaCongaLine, after which she decides to personally [[BullyHunter hunt down and murder Kiri's bullies]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the most painful way possible]]. Two years later, once she's completed her [[BestServedCold preparations]] and finally gets around to doing it, [[ThatWomanIsDead Maria Akeboshi]] is all too aware of how she's become far from a good person, [[IHaveComeTooFar but is determined to see her revenge through to the bitter end]].

* The main character, Kearu of ''Anime/RedoOfHealer'' was left with no choice but to become a SerialRapist VillainProtagonist because not only was he so broken and tortured, with his entire home village the victim of RapePillageAndBurn, but his tormentors would hunt him down, without respite, if he didn't enact horrific vengeance upon them, especially Flare, who can somehow sense where a "Hero" is, and if he didn't subject her to HeelFaceBrainwashing, any hope of escape would have been tragically short-lived.

* Izuku in ''[[FanFic/MastermindStrategistForHire Mastermind: Strategist for Hire]]'' accidentally gives a villain the perfect plan to kill Mt. Lady after All-Might crushes his dream. Afterwards, Izuku tries to get a regular job only to learn [[FantasticRacism no one wants to hire a Quirkless teen]], eventually causing him to hire himself out as a strategist for villains.

* Fou-lu in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV''. [[spoiler: He is a PhysicalGod who is also the KingInTheMountain for the country he founded as a GodEmperor (after being summoned there by a VestigialEmpire--who buggered up the summoning leading to aforementioned PhysicalGod developing a LiteralSplitPersonality that ends up displaced 600 years in the future). Unfortunately, said empire has become TheEmpire over six hundred years of hibernation, TheEmperor doesn't want to give up his seat, one of TheEmperor's main assistants is MadScientist [[KarmaHoudini Yuna]] who convinces him he can kill a ''god'', and this ends up in increasingly more extreme methods by TheEmpire to kill Fou-lu (eventually culminating in the use of a FantasticNuke which runs on nightmares and created the the ColdBloodedTorture and HumanSacrifice of people with very close connections to the target...with Fou-lu's ''girlfriend'' used as the [[HumanResources Thermonuclear Country Girl]] because aforementioned FantasticNuke ''also'' works on the principle of LoveHurts). This cascading Pain Train [[BreakTheCutie Breaks The Cutie]] to the point Fou-lu ends up a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.]]

* Kael'Thas Sunstrider in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. His homeland was wrecked, his people's allies in the Alliance turned on them, and long-term exposure to the Sunwell followed by its' removal had given his people addictions to magic. The only way to escape the Alliance general hunting him was to flee to Outland, and the only place to get large amounts of magic in Outland is to absorb it from demons. Tragically, Fel energy is even more addictive than normal magic and makes one DrunkOnTheDarkSide, to the point where Kael is willing to align with the same Demon Lord who ordered his homeland destroyed in the first place to get more power.

--> '''Billy:''' You knew about those damn creatures all along while we were out there, exposed, humping around like idiots looking for our pilot! We were nearly killed by one of our own men. Probably bitten by one of those things just like D-Caf. Who knows where his catatonic body is now. Both our teams are dead! Oscar is DEAD! All because of your dinosaurs. ALL because of ''you''!

* Deconstructed with [[BigBad Demona]] from ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}''. If you ask her about it, she would certainly tell you at length about how humans have always [[FantasticRacism hated, feared, and mistreated]] gargoyles. She would also claim that all of her evil actions are justified to protect her race from the human threat, and that she has a thousand years of tragic backstory to back it up. A closer examination of said backstory, though, shows that Demona's own track record of phenomenally poor decisions is responsible for at least as much of her suffering as outside agency (indeed, many of the incidents resulting in humans massacring gargoyles were in retaliation to things ''she'' did in the first place) and that her real motivation is somewhere between revenge and misdirected self-loathing which manifests as FantasticRacism against humans. Ultimately, it is her inability to recognize her own culpability in the suffering of herself and those around her- and as a result, her inability to move on- which is the true tragedy of Demona. Even her loneliness, which drives some of her decisions, is the result of Demona having alienated most of her former allies.