History Main / ForcedIntoEvil

* The Seven Disfigured Swordsmen who serves the evil Jiuxian Witch from ''Film/TheDevilsMirror'' are actually lawful warriors poisoned by the witch's Corpse Worm Pills, who ends up having their faces melted and would die agonizingly within days. They're forced to perform assasinations and theft under the witch's orders, where upon completing their assignment, the witch will give them ''half'' the antidote, prolonging their lives for a few more days, making them return to serve her later on. Near the halfway point of the film, two remaining swordsmen decide to pull a HeelFaceTurn to save the heroes, getting killed by the Witch's underlings in the process.
* In ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', Dom is forced to do Cipher's bidding because [[spoiler: Cipher has Elena & Dom's newborn son held hostage, threatening to kill them if he doesn't obey her.]].

--> "I am not a lackey! I... I have no choice."
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Robin briefly joins forces with Slade because [[spoiler:he injected his teammates with lethal nanobots that he could trigger and deactivate at will]].
** This also happens to [[spoiler: [[DarkMagicalGirl Raven]]]] in Season 4. [[spoiler: Slade forces her to become the AntiChrist for the BigBad of the season, [[UltimateEvil her father Trigon]].]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': The traitor in the UA who's been leaking intel to All For One turns out to be [[spoiler:Aoyama, but not on his own volition. Turns out that he was born Quirkless, and while his parents loved him dearly, they were afraid [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer he'd be an outcast because of this]], and when they heard of someone giving out Quirks, they immediately jumped the chance to give their son one so he could fulfill his dream of being a hero. Since then, he's been forced to endanger his classmates lives on repeated ocassions, due to fearing for the lives of his parents]].

* This is the premise of the [[KoreanWebtoon webtoon]] ''{{Webcomic/Bastard}}''. The protagonist Jin was forced from a young age to assist his SerialKiller father in committing murder even while knowing that it's wrong, the implication being that the moment he becomes a threat, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he'll be killed]].

[[noreallife]]

Character types that usually fall victim to this are the SympatheticSentientWeapon, {{Tykebomb}}, FriendlyEnemy, TragicMonster, SlaveMook and AntiVillain ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains almost always the "Villain in Name Only" type]]). Situations like ExplosiveLeash, IHaveYourWife, PleaseSpareHimMyLiege, TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt or AnOfferYouCantRefuse usually turns into this (when TheHero is the pleading party). Also expect one-sided TeethClenchedTeamwork on the side of the forced, if they're told to fight alongside the evil. When the audience knows the characters are forcibly doing this but the protagonists don't, see DramaticIrony.

* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Clippy the {{Robot}} created the "Gardener in the Dark" plot, which would inflict a MindReformat death on half a billion [=AIs=], and is expertly running it at his CorruptCorporateExecutive boss's behest, all because his boss ordered him to and he's programmed to be IncapableOfDisobeying. Law enforcement treats Clippy as an innocent, traumatized victim afterwards.

* Nearly everyone in ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'' were ForcedIntoEvil when subjugated by Orochi, with many blackmails to follow, be it their people in danger (Tokugawa), their leaders getting held hostage (Shu and Wu), etc. The exceptions include Maeda Keiji ([[SympathyForTheDevil feeling sympathetic]] [[HiddenDepths on Orochi's true purpose]]), Sima Yi and Date Masamune ([[SmugSnake Opportunists]], the latter probably got hit in BreakTheHaughty and lost faith in the constantly warring humanity), Fuuma Kotarou ([[AxCrazy Chaos-seeking like usual]]), Lu Bu ([[BloodKnight looking for good fights]], this extends to [[VideoGame/WarriorsLegendsOfTroy Achilles]] later) and Dong Zhuo ([[CardCarryingVillain because he's a dick]])
** And reversed in ''3''. In order to prevent reuniting with Orochi, Dong Zhuo is forced by Zhuge Liang to serve the force of Good, which makes him 'Forced Into Good'.

* The fourth case in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' starts with a message from [[BigBad Monokuma]] that amongst the students, there's [[TheMole a mole working for him]]. And that mole is... the resident GentleGiant LadyLooksLikeADude Sakura Oogami. She has shown disgust towards Monokuma, claiming that she won't stand for any other murders of her friends, but gets promptly reminded by Monokuma that he has her whole dojo hostage and in case a murder doesn't happen, she is to kill someone, causing people to distrust her. [[spoiler:She solves this by choosing to murder herself and this manages to at least stop the remaining the students from trying to kill each other.]]

* Dracula, [[spoiler:previously known as Gabriel Belmont]], in the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' series, believes himself to be this. Embittered towards those he feels drove him into evil, he decides to embrace it, at least at first.

* ''VideoGame/{{Tyranny}}'' deconstructs this trope (as well as ''many'' other tropes about evil in fiction), to the extent that it's ambigious just who in Kyros the Overlord's empire ''isn't'', to one extent or another, a victim of this trope (except for Kyros him/herself). It's certainly a valid interpretation of the PlayerCharacter's motivation for being JudgeJuryAndExecutioner in Kyros' judicial system, given some of the roleplaying options you're given.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13041974/1/Sailor-John-A-Pirate-s-Vendetta Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta]]'', none of the [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends diesels]] (except Diesel and Diesel 10) want to work for Sailor John, but he forces them to obey him by threatening to do something horrible but unspecified to them.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13041974/1/Sailor-John-A-Pirate-s-Vendetta Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta]]'', none of the [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends diesels]] (except Diesel 10) want to work for Sailor John, but he forces them to obey him by threatening to do something horrible but unspecified to them.

* In ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', Dom is forced to do Cipher's bidding because [[spoiler: she has Elena and her and Dom's newborn son held hostage, threatening to kill them if he doesn't obey her.]].

* Played with in ''Literature/DragonBones'': Oreg is a slave, who was MadeASlave by magical means, so he has no way out at all. The fact that he's trained as assassin hints at him having been used as a murder weapon - probably to murder innocent and good people, too. Then there's Garranon, who's quite likeable on his own, but would [[KickTheDog torture puppies]] to protect his brother, and antagonizes the protagonist for that reason. The protagonist, Ward, feels forced to make a deal with the villain to protect the lives of those dear to him, at the end. [[spoiler: He doesn't go through with it, as Oreg suggests to TakeAThirdOption, that consists of killing [[GeniusLoci Oreg]], which causes castle Hurog to collapse on the villains. Ward feels guilty about that, too, even though he believes it was the right thing to do.]]

* In ''ComicBook/WolverineAndTheXMen'', the Hellfire Academy student Tin Man has no interest in being a supervillain, but is taken against his will and forced to take classes along with the other students, and later made to battle the X-Men when they attack the Academy. He's unable to resist, or make any attempt to escape, mostly because he's too meek and spineless.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons''. [[PlanetLooters Mottom]] presents herself as a victim of this trope, forced to continiously strip worlds under her dominion to the bone and [[spoiler:[[ImmortalityImmorality sacrifice blood tithes of her citizens to her husband's corpse to maintain her immortality]]]] because of the EvilPowerVacuum that would arise should her power or control slip but a little, leading to either [[OmnicidalManiac Jagganoth]] or her DeadlyDecadentCourt killing her. Once Allison realizes the full extent of Mottom's actions ([[spoiler:and that she's trying to pawn off all her responsibilities onto Allison]]) she rejects all of it, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech stating that Mottom is nothing but a frightened old woman deluding herself into thinking she has no choice]] when she is a demi-god and has almost ''every'' kind of choice available to a human being in TheMultiverse. She simply chooses not to try to be better.

This type of character is similar to, but separate from a NecessarilyEvil villain. A NecessarilyEvil villain typically performs their heinous acts of their own free will, because [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids they think an ideal solution isn't possible]] or because it's the path that guarantees the most success. Ultimately, they may be [[TheExtremistWasRight right]] or wrong, but the responsibility rests completely with themselves. [[WellIntentionedExtremst They believe their actions will lead to a greater good,]] [[IDidWhatIHadTo and they are carrying out their own will.]] No one made them do anything.

This type of character is similar to, but separate from a NecessarilyEvil villain. A NecessarilyEvil villain typically performs their heinous acts of their own free will, because [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids they think an ideal solution isn't possible]] or because it's the path that guarantees the most success. Ultimately, they may be [[TheExtremistWasRight right]] or wrong, but the responsibility rests completely with themselves. They believe their actions will lead to a greater good, and they are carrying out their own will. No one made them do anything.

* In ''Series/{{Diablero}}, it's clear from the beginning that Wences is a fundamentally nice person who has objections to Mama Chabela kidnapping and imprisoning the kids, but that he has some kind of AmbiguousDisorder that makes it almost impossible for him to disagree with her. It also can't be helping that [[spoiler: she uses him as a demon host, which Nancy recognizes as not his fault and pities him for]].

* In the ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' TV series, at some point Methos is coerced with physical harm or death by Kronos into rejoining his evil old friends. However, this development only lasts a few episodes.
* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', Gaius Baltar's bad actions are usually more misguided than actively malicious, but one example from the New Caprica arc definitively fits this trope. Baltar, as the nominal president of the 'Twelve Colonies', is required as a legal rubber stamp by the Cylons to give their occupation of the human settlement some air of legitimacy. They order Baltar to sign a mass execution order for Resistance members, but when he refuses, they [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse shove a gun in his face]] while yelling at him to sign. He eventually relents after some guidance from Head Six.
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E22AllHellBreaksLoosePartTwo "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part Two" (S02, Ep22)]], Jake is forced to help the Yellow-Eyed Demon who threatens Jake's family.

** Skitter originally wanted to be a hero, joining the Undersiders as a ReverseMole, but couldn't bring herself to betray the only friends she'd had in years.

* The Mamas, Grandmas, and Sisters in ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland''. They are women who showed exceptional abilities and high scores in their farms as children, and were offered two choices: to die and be eaten by the demons, or to live on and train to raise more children as food. These women chose the latter, and became the farmers instead of the cattle. [[spoiler: In the final arc, all of the Mamas and Sisters, led by Grandma Isabella, rebel against their demonic masters and help the children of Grace Field escape to the human world. Isabella ends up sacrificing her life to save Emma, revealing in her dying breath that she did indeed love the children she took care of in her own way.