History Main / HeWhoFightsMonsters

[[TitleDrop He Who Fights Monsters]] is [[AntiVillain not quite a villain]], but they act antagonistically enough that [[AntiHero they're little better than a villain]]. He may have [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intentions]]; he might have a point when he says that the fiend is too dangerous to be kept alive. Other characters within the work itself [[JerkassHasAPoint might even concede that point]]. But ultimately, his [[AmbitionIsEvil obsession]] with dealing out [[PayEvilUntoEvil due punishment]] ([[DisproportionateRetribution or worse]]) and his refusal to think about what he's doing twists him into a monster [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil just as bad as, or even worse than, the one he's hunting]]. And [[MoralEventHorizon even before he gets to that point]], it's nigh-impossible to turn him away; [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out on it]] will be ignored or [[ShutUpKirk retaliated against]]. ThePowerOfFriendship and ThePowerOfLove were lost to him the moment [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive the atrocity that sent him on his wild goose chase]] happened; he feels that TeamSpirit is just a hindrance, and that LoveIsAWeakness that he can't afford to have. {{Heel Realization}}s will be [[IgnoredEpiphany ignored or viewed as a moment of weakness to crush]], and he will never have an "IveComeTooFar" or "NoPlaceForMeThere" moment. Those require insight which he just doesn't have. In fact, his views are utterly incorrigible; he's either a TautologicalTemplar or is very far down the road to becoming one, and [[ObliviouslyEvil he is utterly convinced of his own moral infallibility and the righteousness of his own cause]]. The more his quest drags on or throws up hurdles, the more likely it is that [[MotiveDecay he'll forget just what his original mission even was]], In fact, the further along in his quest he is, the more likely it is that he'll get a ''lot'' more dangerous due to how fast his list of targets can mushroom when he isn't entirely sure who his enemies are any more. Don't expect him to make a HeroicSacrifice or HeelFaceTurn anytime soon; if he dies in the process of bringing his nemesis down, it's usually with him crossing into Villainstown in his moment of glory. If he [[StartOfDarkness doesn't die...]]

** [[BigBad Megatron]] himself is this in several continuities, such as most of the comics series, ''Beast Wars'', ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]]'', usually getting his start fighting against an oppressive and unjust Autobot/Maximal regime, and then going more mad and power-hungry than the guys he rebelled against. In Animated, he's fallen less far than usual, to the point where he would be downright antiheroic if not for his rampaging [[FantasticRacism anti-organic bias]] and somewhat psychopathic minions.

-->'''Batman:''' It'd be too damned ''easy''. All I've ever wanted to do is kill him [ComicBook/TheJoker]. A day doesn't go by when I don't think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he's dealt out to others and then... '''end him'''.[...] But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place, I'll never come back.

* Agent Kent Mansley from ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', whose fanatical anti-communist efforts made him unable to accept the titular robot's overtures of peace, even when the general he was advising was willing to stand his soldiers down. He then [[spoiler:got a nuke launched at a small American coastal town. [[TooDumbToLive Where he happened to be.]]]]

** The BigBad, Yokai a.k.a [[spoiler: Professor Callaghan blames Krei for cutting corners, then steals Hiro's invention and uses it to get his revenge, not minding the damage he causes in the process. Krei is indirectly responsible for (apparent) death of his daughter, and on his RoaringRampageOfRevenge, Callaghan [[AccidentalMurder indirectly causes Tadashi's death]]. Only his daughter turns out to be alive while for Tadashi, there is no such luck.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'', [[spoiler:Miles spent the entirety of the previous film trying to stop ComicBook/TheKingpin from [[WellIntentionedExtremist jeopardizing their universe for his family]], but ends up doing the same thing here after learning that his father is fated to die and [[YouCantFightFate attempting to stop it]] would result in a RealityBreakingParadox, which he disregards. The other Spider-Men in the AllianceOfAlternates desperately try to get him to embrace WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility, and when that fails resort to trying to beat sense into him BecauseDestinySaysSo]].

* Music/{{Atreyu}}'s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FCyvV5V8Jo Becoming The Bull]]"

* This happens at the end of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxsFtCSOJyc Strength of the World]]" by Music/AvengedSevenfold after the narrator went on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on those who killed his family:

* The running theme of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnPloIFgU8k The eye of the abyss]]" by Music/{{Vader}} describing the fall into the abyss

* Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin's Heel turn during the Wrestling/{{WWE}} Attitude Era. After years of battling Vince [=McMahon=] and eventually Wrestling/TripleH who was with Vince, Austin out of desperation to become the WWE Champion again, does a WeCanRuleTogether and reveals he joined Vince at Wrestling/WrestleMania X-Seven. Cemented during the following Monday Night Raw broadcast where Steve Austin publicly beats up his best friend Wrestling/JimRoss who openly spoke against Austin's decision.
** Austin was on the other side of it a few years earlier during his feud with Wrestling/BretHart. Austin kept going after Bret, calling him out, and attacking him at every opportunity. Getting beaten by Bret in matches didn't discourage Austin, who kept hounding him. So it really shouldn't have been a surprise that Bret finally got angry enough to absolutely brutalize Austin in their famous submission match at Wrestling/WrestleMania, which was the beginning of his FaceHeelTurn.

* Hinted at the end of Wrestling/KevinSteen and [[Wrestling/SamiZayn El Generico]]'s confrontation at Wrestling/RingOfHonor Final Battle 2010. Generico, after suffering a whole year of his former friend's abuse, has Steen on his knees and is holding the very chair that was used to start the feud a year earlier. As Generico swings it, Steen holds up Generico's former mask, as if to suggest actually hitting him would make him just as bad as he is. Generico holds the mask up to his face, contemplates it... [[spoiler:[[AvertedTrope And realizes that no, Kevin Steen is just a complete scumbag who deserves to get hit in the face.]] He drops the mask, smacks Steen with the chair, and pins him for the victory.]]

* ''Theatre/CesareIlCreatoreCheHaDistrutto'' has an ElevenOClockNumber where the titular Cesare Borgia sings a duet with Creator/DanteAlighieri (a vision in his mind) discussing this issue (whether or not Cesare should leave the church and do more good outside of it, seeking power to destroy the corrupt church, and whether doing so would make him as corrupt as those he opposes).

* In ''Theatre/TheSecretOfSherlockHolmes'', the titular secret is that [[spoiler:Literature/SherlockHolmes is actually [[DiabolicalMastermind Professor Moriarty]] as well, an alter-ego [[WellIntentionedExtremist to allow him a tight watch on the criminal world]] and [[GoodIsNotNice to keep him from getting bored.]]]]

** [[spoiler:Phoenix Wright]] himself becomes this in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney''. After having his attorney's badge taken away for [[spoiler:(accidentally) presenting forged evidence, he loses respect for the whole judicial process, and manipulates crime scenes, forging evidence to get Kristoph Gavin convicted.]] He gets better by Dual Destinies.

** In the sequel to ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'', the final villain ([[spoiler:Simon Keyes]]) was driven to commit a large array of crimes including [[spoiler:kidnapping two minors and framing both of them for murder, killing a man with a falling hot-air balloon and arranging the murders of two other people, all so that the murderers would be caught and arrested]] because [[spoiler:he had been a witness to a murder 12 years earlier but was silenced by the joint conspiracy of Blaise Debeste, Patricia Roland and the fake Di-Jung Huang and forced to go on the run in order to avoid being killed. Edgeworth even points out that his motive was a mix of justice and revenge but that he had become as bad as his enemies.]] At the end of the game, Edgeworth pledges to capture corrupt people in power before their victims become examples of this trope.
** At the end of the third case of ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney: Adventures'', mere minutes after [[spoiler: Magnus [=McGilded=]]] is erroneously declared not guilty, [[spoiler: he is led back into the courtoom by a bailiff for further inspection of the omnibus where the murder took place -- he is then locked inside the omnibus as it's doused with paraffin and lit on fire, leaving him to burn to death. At the end of the final case, culprit Ashley Graydon confesses that that bailiff was an assassin he hired to kill [=McGilded=], a smooth-talking VillainWithGoodPublicity who used his many public works projects to draw attention away from the fact that he made his vast fortune off of vicious loansharking -- not only did he fabricate evidence and threaten Gina into providing false testimony, which together brought about his not guilty verdict, but it turns out that prior to his death, he had been working with Graydon, a communications officer, to secretly record and sell state secrets as acts of high treason. Graydon had returned to his childhood home in the slums and asked his father, whom he hadn't seen in years as part of his attempt to distance himself from his past, to make the music disks used in the scheme under the guise of giving them to a musician friend; Mason eventually realized that his son was being dishonest and insisted on being the middle-man for the next hand-off. During the course of an argument inside the aforementioned omnibus over the disk, [=McGilded=] stabbed him to death. Graydon says that he didn't realize how truly evil [=McGilded=] was until he killed Mason, and that he then vowed on his father's name to exact revenge and rid the world of a "monster." He also (unintentionally) shot and killed Pop Windibank while attempting to retrieve the disk that Mason died over and tried to pin the crime on Gina. Barok van Zieks points out that by attempting to use his wealth and influence to get away with murder, he became the very kind of person he hated in McGilded. Graydon solemnly agrees.]]

*** [[spoiler: Kazuma Asogi]] comes ''dangerously'' close to this during the final trial, [[spoiler: when he tries to do the ''exact same thing'' to Barok that he hates Barok for doing in the backstory- prosecuting despite a conflict of interests and convicting an innocent man due to personal biases. Kazuma just gets lucky that Ryunosuke was there to snap him out of it before he could get Barok declared guilty.]]
*** [[spoiler:Mael Stronghart believed that the Reaper assassinations were a necessary evil to punish criminal masterminds who use JuryAndWitnessTampering to get away with their crimes. In the process of creating his conspiracy, he had several people blackmailed and killed, including the Lord Chief Justice before him, who Stronghart had killed just so [[KlingonPromotion he could take his place]]. So in attempting to curtail London's crime rate, he himself became a criminal mastermind]].

** Motonari, who lost many loved ones and suffered through a bloody power struggle when he was younger, became a OmnicidalManiac who wants to turn all of Japan into a violent, lawless hellscape where only chaos reigns. The main character, after learning about Motonari's past from Sasuke, thinks that the quote "he who fights with monsters" would apply well to him.

* ''WebComic/ParanormalMysterySquad'': Stephanie is introduced as having a staunch [[VanHelsingHateCrimes zero-tolerance policy]] against cryptids, because of what happened to her parents. However, by the time of the ''[[Webcomic/VampireCheerleaders "Vampire Cheerleaders Must Die!"]]'' arc, she's [[CharacterDevelopment come to accept that]] [[http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/my_dark_passenger not all cryptids are evil as she first thought]], as a result of her sister becoming a werewolf and after spending time with their friends, who're also cryptids. [[spoiler:Stephanie later becomes a rare literal example and figurative subversion when she becomes a cryptid herself.]]

* In the spanish creepypasta fanfiction [[https://www.wattpad.com/story/187281189-una-promesa-no-cumplida-ben-drowned-y-tu-terminada "Una promesa no cumplida"]], the protagonist is a nameless girl who one day loses her best friend to BEN and copes with it by going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against him. After a long time devoted to hunting him down to fullfil the titular vow to kill him, she tracks him down to [[FandomSpecificPlot the Creepypasta Mansion]] and goes fullblown LeeroyJenkins on BEN. After being finally defeated, the creepypastas, impressed with her AxCrazy hatred towards BEN and [[SuperPersistentPredator single minded obsession with killing him]] decide the best way to deal with her is to give her LaserGuidedAmnesia and welcome her into their ranks with open arms, turning her into another creepypasta monster like the one who she tried to kill.

** Gertrude Robinson, despite her role as [[ApocalypseMaiden Archivist]], refused to use her Beholding abilities and devoted her life to stopping the Powers' rituals, including the Watcher's Crown. She prevented countless rituals over her lifetime... but to do so, she had to betray and [[AFateWorseThanDeath sacrifice]] her assistants, doom innocent civilians, and commit all sorts of other crimes. It's nearly universally accepted that Gertrude was a terrible person. Her actions are put into an even harsher light by MAG 160, which reveals that [[spoiler:every ritual she destroyed was doomed to failure with or without her intervention, meaning the terrible acts she committed were AllForNothing]].

** Jon becomes this in later seasons. [[spoiler:As he settles into the role of [[ApocalypseMaiden Archivist]], he gains several evil-seeming powers -- a CompellingVoice, the ability to give people nightmares and then watch their dreams, the ability to [[MindRape rip information out of people's minds]], and a HorrorHunger for others' trauma - but at first he intends to only use these powers for good. But over time, he starts losing his moral scruples regarding his powers, first using them when they aren't absolutely necessary and then feeding on innocent civilians. By the end of season 4, he's the lynchpin in a successful Beholding ritual to bring about the apocalypse, all because he couldn't overcome his hunger for statements]].

** However, Quackity seems to play this trope fully straight via BecameTheirOwnAntithesis in his "Las Nevadas" series, going from [[spoiler:a WideEyedIdealist who opposed abuse of power to a [[JadeColoredGlasses disillusioned]] man who would resort to torture by exploiting abuse of power to achieve his increasingly morally questionable goals.]]

* The TropeNamer is ''quoted'' in the teaser trailer for the [[Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos Slender Man]] series ''WebVideo/TribeTwelve''. And, sure enough, the series shows signs of this. [[spoiler:It's now inevitable (well, probably) as Firebrand, the Collective member that pulled a FaceHeelTurn (with the help of [[WebVideo/EverymanHYBRID HABIT]]) has been revealed to be a [[FutureMeScaresMe future version of]] Noah, the protagonist.]]

* This is apparently the reason for Shego from ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'''s FaceHeelTurn (at least going by her LawfulStupid brother's version of events). More likely, she was fed up with [[DefectorFromDecadence their stupidity]].
* Depth Charge in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' snubbed most of the Maximal cast to continue his hunt for Rampage, who had murdered the colony he was supposed to protect beforehand. The one time he decided ''not'' to put his vendetta before an important mission, he was ambushed by his prey, and chose to finish him off in a suicide attack rather than return to his duty. Being frequently AWOL allowed him to pull off several BigDamnHeroes moments, but that doesn't excuse his not being there fighting in the first place. He also utters this trope's StockPhrase word-for-word: "It's not revenge I'm looking for, it's justice." Depth Charge even went head-to-head with Optimus over it, when he showed no remorse at Cheetor's death and didn't care about what really happened to him. Optimus-fucking-Primal had to threaten him with a lobotomy to get an answer and some respect. Once Depth Charge opened up a bit, he revealed a fondness for Cheetor.
** Let's also throw in the Maximal government; they locked down all information and locations related to the Great War, Big Brother style, they experimented on their own citizens in order to copy a condition in a ''Decepticon's'' spark that rendered it immortal (resulting in the creation of Rampage and the atrocities he committed, above), and their treatment of the Predacons is very much like the treatment of the Allies towards post-World War I Germany. All in the name of keeping the peace and not letting the atrocities of the past come back to haunt Cybertron again.
** [[BigBad Megatron]] himself is this in several continuities, such as most of the comics series, Beast Wars, WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated and [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]], usually getting his start fighting against an oppressive and unjust Autobot/Maximal regime, and then going more mad and power-hungry than the guys he rebelled against. In Animated, he's fallen less far than usual, to the point where he would be downright antiheroic if not for his rampaging [[FantasticRacism anti-organic bias]] and somewhat psychopathic minions.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' features a lot of these.
** [[WellIntentionedExtremist Jet]] was first established as a freedom fighter similar to Robin Hood, but was later shown to be completely willing to take some innocent lives in order to kill some Fire Nation soldiers. He calmed down a little eventually. And by "eventually", we mean "[[HeelFaceDoorSlam too late]]".
** Fong the Earth Kingdom general, was obsessed with triggering the highly destructive Avatar State in Aang by ordering his men to attack him. He even went as far as to endanger Katara's life, by burying her alive.
** Hama was an imprisoned waterbender who taught herself the dark art of bloodbending, allowing her to control the bodies of her victims in a rather painful way. She used this to escape the Fire Nation prison. In her later life she became at least as destructive and cruel as the fire benders she hated, as she used her bloodbending to abduct innocent Fire Nation citizens.
** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderKatara Katara]] herself almost becomes this trope in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSouthernRaiders The Southern Raiders]]". In order to find closure to the death of her mother, she decides to hunt down the man responsible for it, going as far as to willingly use bloodbending, a technique she really did not want to learn in the first place. When she does find her mother's killer, she almost impales him with a barrage of icicles, but manages to restrain herself at the last minute.
* This is a recurring theme in the SequelSeries, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', where each of the main antagonists stands for an ideal, but takes said ideal too far, resulting in them becoming the villain.
** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAmon Amon]] [[spoiler:was the son of the mob boss Yakone and a young waterbender who was taught by his father to bloodbend. Eventually his father's abuse of both him and his brother Tarrlok, brought him the belief that bending was the root of all evil and needed to be ended.]] By the time the series comes around and by the end of it he has become just as cruel as any bender was.
** [[spoiler:Hiroshi Sato]] also fits, wanting to eradicate bending to avenge the murder of his wife. However, his thirst for vengeance goes to the point where he loses all capacity for love and [[OffingTheOffspring even attempts to murder his daughter who opposes him and his plans.]] [[CallingTheOldManOut She even tells him that his wife would hate what he's become.]]
** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAvatarKorra Korra]] herself came within spitting distance of this trope during season 2. After her father was arrested on charges of conspiring to kill Unalaq and sentenced to life in prison, Korra arbitrarily decided the judge was corrupt and chased him down after the trial, threatening to have Naga ''bite his head off'' if he didn't tell her what she wanted to know.
** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraZaheer Zaheer]] wanted freedom for everyone and saw all the government corruption, incompetence and tyranny as something that needed to be dismantled completely in order to provide that. While no one shed tears over his first victim, [[AssholeVictim the tyrannical Earth Queen]], he still began an uprising and had plans to assassinate every world leader to plunge the world into complete anarchy. While he disdained hurting innocents, he wouldn't hesitate to do it to further his goals.
** [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]] was the result of Zaheer's uprising. Originally a brave and heroic woman, she desired the stabilization, safety and reuniting of the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer's uprising. The stabilization took three years to accomplish and she was determined to never let it happen again, nor let the circumstances that led to Zaheer to come back. So, she overthrew the outdated monarchy and established the Earth Empire, becoming an even worse tyrant than the previous Earth Queen ([[WellIntentionedExtremist albeit with much more noble intentions]]). [[spoiler:Korra revealing to her just how far she had fallen is what finally convinced her to surrender]].

* A major theme in the "City of Thieves" episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', though it is used more for the RuleOfFunny.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10 Ultimate Alien}}'': Charmcaster becomes this [[spoiler: after her best efforts in resurrecting her father drove her to madness and insanity to the point where she became even worse than the previous tyrant who killed him in the first place. After her father calls her out on this, [[HeelFaceTurn she gets better]]...[[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor mostly]]]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''. This is a recurring theme throughout the series.
** Demona. Demona responds to human racism and genocide against her species by gradually turning into a raging, murderous, genocidal maniac who wants to kill all humans.
** Jon Canmore/Castaway. Jon Canmore, to avoid having to admit that he spent his life hunting innocent people and that his own error paralyzed his brother for life, also becomes a genocidal maniac who wants to kill all gargoyles.
** The Captain of the Guard, Gillecomgain, and Macbeth allowed their desire to revenge to turn themselves into monsters, though The Captain of the Guard and Macbeth managed to redeem themselves. Goliath also nearly succumbed to it, but he realized this was only another part of a pointless cycle of revenge.
* ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'': Simon the Monster Hunter wanted to prove that monsters were real, and fancied himself the OnlySaneMan, despite how the world at large viewed him as a lunatic. As the series progressed, he developed a personal vendetta against Ickis that drove him to increasingly nastier and ever-more-insane plans, eventually becoming dead-set on getting his revenge on monsters in general and the Trio in particular.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' loves this trope. In one particular episode, in order to keep [[ItMakesSenseInContext tomato Kenny]] alive, Stan and Kyle enlisted the Republicans, and showed Kenny on national TV like that...only to learn that his last wish, if he were ever hooked up to a feeding tube, was "...for the love of God, don't show me on national TV like that.". {{Downplayed}}, since this was an accident, the rest of their methods weren't that bad and they still had good intentions.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' played this trope surprisingly straight in the ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E11RevengeIsADishBestServedThreeTimes Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Three Times]]'' segment "Revenge of the Geeks", in which, the Elementary School's group of nerds, tired of being bullied, created a weapon and gave it to Milhouse, since he's the only one with hand-eye coordination. At first, he uses the invention to get back at the bullies, but then he started to use it on anybody who wronged him in the past, to the point of becoming a bully himself. Lisa, who was narrating the story, says that the aesop of the story is that revenge can make you as bad as the people who harm you. (Homer, however, [[AlternateAesopInterpretation interpreted it as "Never put down your weapon."]])
** Lampshaded in "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes," where Homer and Ned become bounty hunters and Homer scolds Ned for "not becoming as bad as the people they were hunting."
* After time travelling to a BadFuture, Gosalyn finds that her absence made WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck turn into Darkwarrior Duck whose idea of justice is DisproportionateRetribution. He is, without a doubt, far worse than any of the villains who he has already disposed of permanently.
* The seeming moral of the animated short "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-n72sADsg Who's Afraid of Mr. Greedy]]"
* This whole trope was [[AnAesop the moral]] of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "One Bad Apple."
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by [[MetaGuy Sweetie Belle]].
---> '''Sweetie Belle''': Why does life have to be so ''ironic?!''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'' become this in "Candy Is Dandy." They strike a deal with Mojo Jojo to get an endless supply of candy, but when the candy gives out, they beat Mojo to a pulp like they never had before. It's Blossom [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone who finally realizes this]], the girls becoming as bad as the villains they fight over a candy addiction.
* ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'': On the rare ocassion that Jerry loses to Tom, this trope is often his undoing, being so set in his vendetta against Tom that he'll attack him beyond provocation or even draw the first blow.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' does an extrapolation of ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' and points out how what the Nerds do is worse that what was done to them, and that what they did was in fact illegal.

** Compared to [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward Tentacles]], who openly hates [=SpongeBob=] and doesn't bother hiding it, Mrs. Puff was a docile, well meaning character whose nerves have slowly been worn at by Spongebob's antics. Several episodes have shown her take increasingly desperate and sometimes unscrupulous measures just to finally get away from him and in one episode, she outright tried to ''murder'' him.

* Frequently lampshaded by Kion in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard''. He was bestowed with the Roar of the Elders, which is given to the second-born cub, as the first is destined to be the king, while the 2nd is tasked with leading the Lion Guard, a group dedicated to preserving the kingdom and defending the Circle of Life. As its leader, the second-born cub is expected to be the fiercest of the group and is thus gifted with the Roar of the Elders by the Great Kings of the Past. Kion knows that Scar, Simba's grand-uncle, was bestowed with the Roar when Mufasa was heir, but used it for evil purposes, causing the Great Kings to strip Scar of the roar. Therefore, Kion's greatest fear is to become similar to Scar, and it is this reason that forces him to regulate his use of the Roar.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' had Timmy [[SwappedRoles wishing to babysit Vicky.]] Before long, he ends up acting just as bad as Vicky did, to the point where Cosmo and Wanda get reassigned to her!
* This is why the ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' has so many problems with how Nebula and her Warrior Fairies go about fighting with the Wizards of the Black Circle, believing that vengeance will make them no better than their enemies. (The Winx want to stop the Wizards, too, but disagree with the Warrior Fairies' methods.) [[spoiler:Aisha]] rejects the Winx after the death of [[spoiler:Nabu]] when they still believe that acting out of vengeance would make them just as bad as the Wizards. Nebula finally realizes how far she has fallen, from Fairy of Peace to Fairy of War, she tells the others to leave her to presumably die as they flee a destructing planet.

Not to be confused with CompleteMonster. Although somebody might become one by fighting such monsters, this is very rare. They can range from AntiHero to anywhere above. See also CycleOfRevenge, TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget, ProtagonistJourneyToVillain, YouAreWhatYouHate, ThenLetMeBeEvil, and BecameTheirOwnAntithesis. If this trope happens to a child, it can be used as a FreudianExcuse of a character who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare AndThenJohnWasAZombie, where the character becomes a literal monster. IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim is pretty much a sped-up version of this. Political equivalents are TheHorseshoeEffect, ReignOfTerror, FullCircleRevolution, and MeetTheNewBoss. If the monster in question is an animal, that's AnimalNemesis. If the monster is supernatural, it's a decidedly ''un''heroic instance of HunterOfMonsters. When this happens on a species wide scale, compare HumansAreTheRealMonsters. Subtrope of SlowlySlippingIntoEvil.

** '''''Heavily''''' {{discussed|Trope}} and {{deconstructed|Trope}}. Tommy and Tubbo are very aware of the looming possibility of them falling into [[FallenHero Wilbur]] and [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] footsteps respectively, and try their hardest to avoid it and preserve their friendship. However, [[TheChessmaster Dream]] is their biggest obstacle, as he continually sows the seeds of conflict in order to break them apart, and even though they're aware of it they don't have a way to stop it from happening.

** However, Quackity currently seems to play this trope fully straight via BecameTheirOwnAntithesis, going from [[spoiler:a WideEyedIdealist who opposed abuse of power to a [[JadeColoredGlasses disillusioned]] man who would resort to torture by exploiting abuse of power to achieve his increasingly morally questionable goals.]]

** However, Quackity currently seems to play this trope fully straight, going from [[spoiler:a WideEyedIdealist who opposed abuse of power to a disillusioned man who would resort to physical and psychological abuse for the sake of doing so.]]

** Jon becomes this in later seasons. [[spoiler:As he settles into the role of [[ApocalypseMaiden Archivist]], he gains several evil-seeming powers - a CompellingVoice, the ability to give people nightmares and then watch their dreams, the ability to [[MindRape rip information out of people's minds]], and a HorrorHunger for others' trauma - but at first he intends to only use these powers for good. But over time, he starts losing his moral scruples regarding his powers, first using them when they aren't absolutely necessary and then feeding on innocent civilians. By the end of season 4, he's the lynchpin in a successful Beholding ritual to bring about the apocalypse, all because he couldn't overcome his hunger for statements]].
* '''''Heavily''''' {{discussed}} and {{deconstructed}} in the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP''. Tommy and Tubbo are very aware of the looming possibility of them falling into [[FallenHero Wilbur]] and [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] footsteps respectively, and try their hardest to avoid it and preserve their friendship. However, [[TheChessmaster Dream]] is their biggest obstacle, as he continually sows the seeds of conflict in order to break them apart, and even though they're aware of it they don't have a way to stop it from happening.
** However, Quackity currently seems to play this trope fully straight, going from [[spoiler:a WideEyedIdealist who opposed abuse of power to a disillusioned man who would resort to physical and psychological abuse for the sake of doing so.]]

* '''''Heavily''''' {{discussed}} and {{deconstructed}} in the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP''. Tommy and Tubbo are very aware of the looming possibility of them falling into [[FallenHero Wilbur]] and [[PresidentEvil Schlatt's]] footsteps respectively, and try their hardest to avoid it and preserve their friendship. However, [[TheChessmaster Dream]] is their biggest obstacle, as he continually sows the seeds of conflict in order to break them apart, and even though they're aware of it they don't have a way to stop it from happening.

Not to be confused with CompleteMonster, although somebody can well become one by fighting such monsters. They can range from AntiHero to anywhere above. See also CycleOfRevenge, TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget, ProtagonistJourneyToVillain, YouAreWhatYouHate, ThenLetMeBeEvil, and BecameTheirOwnAntithesis. If this trope happens to a child, it can be used as a FreudianExcuse of a character who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare AndThenJohnWasAZombie, where the character becomes a literal monster. IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim is pretty much a sped-up version of this. Political equivalents are TheHorseshoeEffect, ReignOfTerror, FullCircleRevolution, and MeetTheNewBoss. If the monster in question is an animal, that's AnimalNemesis. If the monster is supernatural, it's a decidedly ''un''heroic instance of HunterOfMonsters. When this happens on a species wide scale, compare HumansAreTheRealMonsters. Subtrope of SlowlySlippingIntoEvil.

Not to be confused with ''Manga/ThoseWhoHuntElves'', [[JustForFun/IReadThatAs or]] ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''. For the ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' fanfic, see ''Fanfic/HeWhoFightsMonsters'' (though this one is an example of this trope).

[[folder:Web Original]]

As expected, this twisted situation is very popular in the Revenge {{Tragedy}} genre, especially because of its inherent DramaticIrony. [[note]]Nietzsche himself was also inspired by Ancient Greek tragic antihero archetypes; see also his first book ''The Birth of Tragedy.''[[/note]] This trope can also be used to demonstrate how "eye-for-an-eye" justice, while sounding like sweet [[CallItKarma Karmic]] EquivalentExchange Justice at first, can [[CycleOfRevenge easily spiral out]] into [[ForWantOfANail utter chaos]] if the hero lets his passions, wrath, and {{Pride}} forgo rationality.

...will become no better than the monsters he slays.

He Who Fights Monsters is [[AntiVillain not quite a villain]], but they act antagonistically enough that [[AntiHero they're little better than a villain]]. Something has happened to our FallenHero: his [[DoomedHometown village was destroyed]], [[EverybodysDeadDave his friends were killed]], [[AndYourLittleDogToo his puppy was roasted on an open spit]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking his bike was stolen]], whatever. All that matters is that ItsPersonal, and he feels that the law just isn't suitable enough (or has become [[BadCopIncompetentCop too corrupt and ignorant]]) to be of any use to him in settling the matter. He may justify his actions by claiming that it's [[KnightTemplar justice he's after, not vengeance]], but anyone with half a brain can easily see that he's out for {{revenge}}. Unfortunately, we can also see that the more he hunts the cause of his woes, [[FaceHeelTurn the more he takes on]] [[MirrorCharacter the villain's personality and mannerisms]] -- something that our [[{{Hypocrite}} so-called hero]] is too blinded by his single-minded goal to realize.

Our avenger may have [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intentions]]; he might have a point when he says that the fiend is too dangerous to be kept alive. Other characters within the work itself [[JerkassHasAPoint might even concede that point]]. But ultimately, his [[AmbitionIsEvil obsession]] with dealing out [[PayEvilUntoEvil due punishment]] ([[DisproportionateRetribution or worse]]) and his refusal to think about what he's doing twists him into a monster [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil just as bad as, or even worse than, the one he's hunting]]. And [[MoralEventHorizon even before he gets to that point]], it's nigh-impossible to turn him away; [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out on it]] will be ignored or [[ShutUpKirk retaliated against]]. ThePowerOfFriendship and ThePowerOfLove were lost to him the moment [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive the atrocity that sent him on his wild goose chase]] happened; he feels that TeamSpirit is just a hindrance, and that LoveIsAWeakness that he can't afford to have. {{Heel Realization}}s will be [[IgnoredEpiphany ignored or viewed as a moment of weakness to crush]], and he will never have an "IveComeTooFar" or "NoPlaceForMeThere" moment. Those require insight which he just doesn't have. In fact, his views are utterly incorrigible; he's either a TautologicalTemplar or is very far down the road to becoming one, and [[ObliviouslyEvil he is utterly convinced of his own moral infallibility and the righteousness of his own cause]]. The more his quest drags on or throws up hurdles, the more likely it is that [[MotiveDecay he'll forget just what his original mission even was]], In fact, the further along in his quest he is, the more likely it is that he'll get a ''lot'' more dangerous due to how fast his list of targets can mushroom when he isn't entirely sure who his enemies are any more. Don't expect him to make a HeroicSacrifice or HeelFaceTurn anytime soon; if he dies in the process of bringing his nemesis down, it's usually with him crossing into Villainstown in his moment of glory. If he [[StartOfDarkness doesn't die...]]

* Any rare ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short that Jerry lost to Tom, this trope was often his undoing, being so set in his vendetta against Tom he'd attack him beyond provocation or even draw the first blow.

A significant reason why this happens is the avenger's motivation. Those who seek justice are out to stop the villain from hurting any more people, because they doesn't want them to suffer like they have; and while they may be [[AntiHero ruthless]] about pursuing the villain (and may even be willing to kill the villain if they are dangerous enough), they're ultimately looking to benefit society, so long as they don't [[MotiveDecay forget their cause]]. Meanwhile, those who seek revenge are out to make the villain suffer for what they did to them or those close to them, believing that what was done to them has given them the right to inflict pain in return. They're not looking to improve society; they're doing it [[ItsAllAboutMe for their own sake]].

** Katara herself almost becomes this trope in "The Southern Raiders". In order to find closure to the death of her mother, she decides to hunt down the man responsible for it, going as far as to willingly use bloodbending, a technique she really did not want to learn in the first place. When she does find her mother's killer, she almost impales him with a barrage of icicles, but manages to restrain herself at the last minute.

** Amon [[spoiler:was the son of the mob boss Yakone and a young waterbender who was taught by his father to bloodbend. Eventually his father's abuse of both him and his brother Tarrlok, brought him the belief that bending was the root of all evil and needed to be ended.]] By the time the series comes around and by the end of it he has become just as cruel as any bender was.

** Korra herself came within spitting distance of this trope during season 2. After her father was arrested on charges of conspiring to kill Unalaq and sentenced to life in prison, Korra arbitrarily decided the judge was corrupt and chased him down after the trial, threatening to have Naga ''bite his head off'' if he didn't tell her what she wanted to know.
** Zaheer wanted freedom for everyone and saw all the government corruption, incompetence and tyranny as something that needed to be dismantled completely in order to provide that. While no one shed tears over his first victim, [[AssholeVictim the tyrannical Earth Queen]], he still began an uprising and had plans to assassinate every world leader to plunge the world into complete anarchy. While he disdained hurting innocents, he wouldn't hesitate to do it to further his goals.
** Kuvira was the result of Zaheer's uprising. Originally a brave and heroic woman, she desired the stabilization, safety and reuniting of the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer's uprising. The stabilization took three years to accomplish and she was determined to never let it happen again, nor let the circumstances that led to Zaheer to come back. So, she overthrew the outdated monarchy and established the Earth Empire, becoming an even worse tyrant than the previous Earth Queen ([[WellIntentionedExtremist albeit with much more noble intentions]]). [[spoiler:Korra revealing to her just how far she had fallen is what finally convinced her to surrender]].

** Kyle gets this most, considering his personal hatred for Cartman (not that Cartman's actions make it any less justifiable). Episodes such as "Fatbeard" display his borderline murderous vendetta against him.
*** In earlier season it was implied that [[SpoiledBrat Cartman]] became such a {{Jerkass}} because he was constantly bullied for his weight. "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" goes so far to imply that Clyde almost underwent the same evolution after the boys turned their attention onto him instead, even taking on some of Cartman's obnoxious attributes.

** In the pre-movie seasons, Mr. Krabs was originally the BigGood to Plankton's BigBad, simply defending his business against Plankton's {{Evil Plan}}s. Post-movie, due to {{Flanderization}}, he's often shown to be just as evil and cruel as Plankton, if not worse, and often makes it his personal duty to sabotage Plankton when he's making legitimate profits or simply isn't miserable. In "The Krabby Kronicle," ''Plankton himself'' is actually disgusted at how low Krabs would stoop to make money:

** Compared to Squidward, who openly hates [=SpongeBob=] and doesn't bother hiding it, Mrs. Puff was a docile, well meaning character whose nerves have slowly been worn at by Spongebob's antics. Several episodes have shown her take increasingly desperate and sometimes unscrupulous measures just to finally get away from him and in one episode, she outright tried to ''murder'' him.

A significant reason why this happens is the avenger's motivation. He who seeks justice is out to stop the villain from hurting any more people, because he doesn't want them to suffer like he has; and while he may be [[AntiHero ruthless]] in pursuing the villain (and may even be willing to kill the villain if they are dangerous enough), he's ultimately looking to benefit society, so long as he doesn't [[MotiveDecay forget his cause]]. Meanwhile, he who seeks revenge is out to make the villain suffer for what they did to him, believing that he has the right to inflict pain. He's not looking to improve society; he's doing it [[ItsAllAboutMe for his own sake]].

* The [[TheJailer eponymous villain]] of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode '' Lockup'' was a fairly obvious [[StrawmanPolitical GOP pundit]] parody. Lyle Bolton constantly says that the "liberal media," "coddling doctors," and "gutless police" are responsible for supercrime in Gotham. He believes that the criminals at Arkham don't deserve privileges or even the most basic humane treatment. The first part of the point is not necessarily wrong given that those criminals include the likes of the Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and plenty of more public threats. Obviously, he's hyperbolized, but it's still pretty severe for a [[ParentalBonus kids' show.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'':
** General Wade Eiling became so obsessed with taking down the show's titular League (and metahumans in general), that he injected himself with an unstable Nazi-created SuperSoldier serum so he could more readily combat them. His only claim to fame after this? Beating up seven non-powered second-stringers and causing the same superhuman fear-mongering from the citizens that he swore to protect from the League.

'''General Eiling:''' ...All right, [[YouAreWhatYouHate I've become what I hate,]] [[LampshadeHanging I'll give you that.]] But in the long run, you'll see I was right. You'll see you need the likes of me to protect you from them.
** And before that, the Justice Lords, the alternate reality counterparts to the League who fell to this after Lex Luthor became president and killed the Flash.

* The [[TheJailer eponymous villain]] of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode '' Lockup'' was a [[Flanderization/WesternAnimation fairly obvious]] [[StrawmanPolitical GOP]] [[AcceptableTargets pundit]] parody. Lyle Bolton constantly says that the "liberal media," "coddling doctors," and "gutless police" are responsible for supercrime in Gotham. He believes that the criminals at Arkham don't deserve privileges or even the most basic humane treatment. The first part of the point is not necessarily wrong given that those criminals include the likes of the Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and plenty of more public threats. Obviously, he's hyperbolized, but it's still pretty severe for a [[ParentalBonus kids' show.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths'', after Batman's OmnicidalManiac AlternateUniverse counterpart Owlman gives him a NotSoDifferentRemark, Batman's eventual rebuttal (and PreMortemOneLiner) references the Nietzsche quote.

* ''WebComic/ParanormalMysterySquad'': Stephanie is introduced as having a staunch [[VanHelsingHateCrimes zero-tolerance policy]] against cryptids, because of what happened to her parents. Howeverm by the time of the ''[[Webcomic/VampireCheerleaders "Vampire Cheerleaders Must Die!"]]'' arc, she's [[CharacterDevelopment come to accept that]] [[http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/my_dark_passenger not all cryptids are evil as she first thought]], as a result of her sister becoming a werewolf and after spending time with their friends, who're also cryptids. [[spoiler:Stephanie later becomes a rare literal example and figurative subversion when she becomes a cryptid herself.]]

* This is invoked in ''Webcomic/GastroPhobia'': when Bambikles seeks to avenge his mother by killing [[HumansAreBastards the monster]] who took her life, he's told that "To ''kill'' a monster, you must ''become'' a monster." So he does[[note]]partly because his girlfriend promises to marry him if can become a true monster, subverting the VengeanceFeelsEmpty trope with AllGirlsWantBadBoys sex[[/note]]. [[spoiler:He can't go through with it and is killed off. His 'girlfriend' is revealed to be an evil A.I. mastermind, whose original function was to create fun, whimsical games of adventure. Too much time and too many battle simulations warped her programming.]]

%%* As is usual, ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' gives us quite the [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/11/ atypical example.]]

* ''WebComic/ParanormalMysterySquad'': Stephanie is introduced as having a staunch [[VanHelsingHateCrimes zero-tolerance policy]] against cryptids, because of what happened to her parents. But by the time of the ''[[WebComic/VampireCheerleaders "Vampire Cheerleaders Must Die!"]]'' arc, she's [[CharacterDevelopment come to accept that]] [[http://www.vampirecheerleaders.net/strips-vc/my_dark_passenger not all cryptids are evil as she first thought]], as a result of her sister becoming a werewolf and after spending time with their friends, who're also cryptids. [[spoiler:Stephanie later becomes a rare literal example and figurative subversion when she becomes a cryptid herself.]]

* [[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]] made a reference to this trope in his review of ''Shrek 4'' while he was describing the progression of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movies, pointing out that while the first movie was an original and entertaining parody of corporate-driven animated movies, the series had slowly progressed into becoming the very same type of corporate-driven animated movie that the first film had made fun of.