History Main / EvilFormerFriend

So you have your EccentricMentor and with his backing you're facing off against the nefarious machinations of the local EvilSorcerer, when suddenly you learn a shocking truth- in their youth, rather than being bitter enemies, these guys were best friends!

* HOW DID EVERYONE FORGET TO ADD ScottPilgrim ?!?!?!

* Darth Vader and Obi-Wan from ''StarWars'' are a double-hitter, as Vader (as Anakin Skywalker) was both Obi-wan's student and his closest friend.

* Alec Trevelyan in ''Film/GoldenEye''.

* Alan Garner's ''{{The Weirdstone of Brisingamen}}'' ends with a fight between Cadellin and Grimnir, the evil wizard. When [[spoiler: Cadellin kills Grimnir, he reveals that they were once friends and brothers.]]

* Apparently Megatron and Optimus were this in the IDW continuity and in the Movie prequel comics as well. WarForCybertron (and, by extension, TransformersPrime) takes it UpToEleven, with Optimus being swayed to help start Megatron's rebellion, and even successfully lobbying for the Council to grant the rebels an audience... where Optimus argued his understanding of ''Megatron's'' cause so well, the Council agreed and named Optimus the next Prime. Megatron saw this as a betrayal, and started the civil war, anyway. NiceJobBreakingItHero, indeed.

* Alan Garner's ''The Weirdstone of Brisingamen'' ends with a fight between Cadellin and Grimnir, the evil wizard. When [[spoiler: Cadellin kills Grimnir, he reveals that they were once friends and brothers.]]

* [[FantasticFour Reed Richards]] and [[DoctorDoom Victor von Doom]].
** Not really. They went to college together, but Doom treated Reed with contempt even ''before'' the accident that made him actively ''hate'' Reed.

** Sasuke has become this to his former teammates, Naruto and Sakura, betraying them and the Leaf village to further his own vengeance-oriented goals.

** Sasuke has become this for Naruto and Sakura, betraying them and the Leaf village to further his own vengeance-oriented goals.

*** Sasuke has become this to Naruto and Sakura.

As the top of the page indicates, tends to happen a disproportionate amount of the time with the resident [[EccentricMentor Wise Old Wizard]] and the EvilSorcerer. Compare and contrast BigBadFriend, where the revelation occurs during the story and the "Bad" character was evil all along (or at least had been for a while) and would rather remain friends despite this. Usually, either the evil character will be a FallenHero or the good one will be TheAtoner (or both, if both started out more morally grey). The evil character will most likely be an EvilCounterpart and/or ShadowArchetype for the good one, and may also be their ArchEnemy. If traces of the past friendship still exist, they might be FriendlyEnemies or even have FoeYay. Compare and contrast RivalTurnedEvil, for where the friendship broke up over personal rivalry before one of the characters turned evil (though certain examples will overlap, not all will).

* In TheNew52, [[{{Nightwing}} Nightwing's]] newest foe Saiko [[spoiler:is former friend and fellow former member of Haly's circus Raymond. Raymond was taken by the Court of Owls and put through TrainingFromHell to become a Talon, only to be washed out and left for dead with his eyes pecked out by birds.]] Saiko hates Dick Grayson because [[spoiler:the Court only took Raymond because they couldn't get Dick, their original candidate, after Bruce Wayne adopted him in the wake of the Flying Graysons' deaths.]]

* In the {{New52}}, [[{{Nightwing}} Nightwing's]] newest foe Saiko [[spoiler:is former friend and fellow former member of Haly's circus Raymond. Raymond was taken by the Court of Owls and put through TrainingFromHell to become a Talon, only to be washed out and left for dead with his eyes pecked out by birds.]] Saiko hates Dick Grayson because [[spoiler:the Court only took Raymond because they couldn't get Dick, their original candidate, after Bruce Wayne adopted him in the wake of the Flying Graysons' deaths.]]

* Dr. Light and Dr. Wily had this relationship in ''Game/MegaMan''.

* Delia Ketchum used to date Giovanni in the ''{{PokemonLive}}'' musical.

* In ''SuitePrettyCure'', [[CatsAreMean Siren]] and [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens Hummy]] used to be the best of friends until Hummy took Siren's title as singer of the annual "Melody of Happiness", causing the latter to defect to the villains' side. They ''almost'' made up early in the series before [[BigBad Mephisto]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy forcefully won Siren's loyalty back]]. However, they do get a proper reconcilliation about nine episodes later, leading to Siren joining the team as [[SixthRanger Cure Beat]].

* TheBatman gives us Ethan Bennett, both a high-school friend of Bruce Wayne's and one of the only cops willing to give Batman a chance. [[spoiler: Naturally, he's accidentally turned into Clayface into the Season 1 finale. He eventually becomes a good guy again after spending a while in the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.]]

This trope occurs whenever a good aligned character (sometimes TheHero, but more commonly TheObiWan, the EccentricMentor, TheAragorn, or the BigGood) is revealed to have had a history as friend, ally, mentor, or even student with a major villain (commonly the BigBad, but sometimes TheDragon or another high-ranking [[EvilMinions Evil Minion]]). Usually the friendship fell through simply because the future villain went power mad and the other character didn't want any more to do with it, but more complex and unusual variations exist. Sometimes it will be known all along, but sometimes it will be the subject of a dramatic reveal that can lead TheHero and the audience to reevaluate what they know about both characters.

[[caption-width-right:250:Future EccentricMentor Dumbledore and future EvilSorcerer Gellert Grindelwald in happier times.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:EccentricMentor Dumbledore and future EvilSorcerer Gellert Grindelwald in happier times.]]

[[quoteright:250:[[HarryPotter http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-Gellert_Grindelwald_and_Albus_Dumbledore_1110.JPG]]]]

* Wheeljack in Transformers Armada was friends with Hot Shot before Hot Shot betrays him...or so Wheeljack thinks. Turns out, Hot Shot tried to go back and save him, but failed.