History Main / TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget

Compare to HeWhoFightsMonsters and ItGetsEasier. Related to TheCorruption, DarkIsEvil and BadPowersBadPeople (especially when it starts out as BadPowersGoodPeople).

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'': Dimitri, Knuckles's ancestor, once sought to restore the Floating Island to its original home in the ground and after his plan to siphon the energies of the Chaos Emeralds was rejected he still went ahead with it, believing he could fix their home. The machine overloaded and infused him with the Chaos Energies and he was reborn as the villain Enerjak. In his new role he simply sought a technological empire with him at its head, DrunkOnTheDarkside with his God-like powers. After being de-powered though, Dimitri's sanity gradually returns and he eventually pulls a HeelFaceTurn, his old beliefs in helping his people having resurfaced.

** [[BigBad Master Xehanort]] started out as a WellIntentionedExtremist, believing that the universe is too full of light and that a perfect balance between light and darkness is needed; his plan to trigger a second Keyblade War was so he could acquire the power of Kingdom Hears and remake it in his image of balance. Of course, he's long since become DrunkOnTheDarkSide, and now just wants to cause an apocalypse ForScience. [[spoiler:He does have a HeelRealization about it when he's finally defeated in the end, though.]]
** At the end of ''Birth By Sleep'', certified paladin [[spoiler:Aqua]]'s HeroicSacrifice trapped her in the Realm of Darkness, which she did deliberately so her friend could leave it. Ten years of wandering the darkness later, she (or what is left of her) has completely forgotten that and blames Mickey for "abandoning" her. In accordance with this trope, the instant she is magically purified with Light she recognizes the truth.

** Eventually, this trope is downplayed. Toffee's goal of "good" is in [[spoiler: ridding the realm of magic as he views it as dangerous and something Star comes to agree with.]] On the other hand, later episodes show he was always a jerk (even back as an adolescent, being reminscing of a punk gang leader) and that his complaints seem dishonest since his race, the Septarians, are invulnerable with a strong HealingFactor that only magic can harm. Even most other monsters were afraid of his kind, making his own goals of "good" seem hypocritical when compared to his race's own talents and him beign afraid of something that can actually hurt him.

* The Templars in the ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'' series. While modern society wouldn't begin to agree with their ideas of a plutocracy, their overall goal of creating a utopia where there's no more war and suffering isn't a bad one. But they never reach that point, even by the modern age; the technologies they find combined with the power they already wield by 2012 in the AC Universe would be more than enough to sit down and establish their utopia, or at least parts of it. Instead, even in 2012, they simply keep hoarding more and more power, killing more and more people to get more power, and never reach the point where they feel they should finally sit down and install their utopia instead of killing the Assassins or doing the two aforementioned goals. This is in part due to the continued interference by the Assassins, who are ideologically opposed to them, but their WellIntentionedExtremist stance on UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans keeps falling flat on it's face when presented to us, the players, because they never even try to actually install their utopia in the first place, instead feeling they just never have enough control of the populace.

* It's explicitly mentioned in ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' that, on their way to the top, only a rare few remember the reason they originally wanted to climb the tower for. Most forget it amidst the power and riches they encounter, and don't realise it until much later, if at all.

* In, ''Extreme Prejudice'', a story in Creator/JerryPournelle's "High Justice" universe, an assassin is sent to an underwater research community to kill a defector. Over the course of the story, he realizes the defector has built a happy, productive life for himself and his family -- and this just makes the assassin hate the defector even more; ''he'' has sacrificed any and all hope for a normal life in order to carry out his missions. It's when he discovers the reason for the defection that he realizes the trope is in effect; [[spoiler:the President ordered the defector to kill his Solicitor General just as he began investigating his office for Mafia ties. He defected instead of killing a cop to protect a crooked politician -- and warned the cop first]].
-->'''Defector:''' ''You can’t admit you're wrong. You’ve spilled too much blood for the cause. Admit you're wrong and you're a monster. I know. I '''know.'''''\\

** It's revealed early on that Nihilus was once a heroic Jedi who wanted to save innocent lives during the Mandalorian Wars. He started using the Dark Side to give himself the strength he needed to defeat the Mandalorians in battle. However, he slowly slips deeper into the Dark Side the more he used it, until eventually becoming a bloodthirsty sadist driven solely by his Fantastic Racism towards the Mandalorians.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Using the Dark Side of the Force does this to Jaune over the course of the story. He starts out as a well-meaning, if [[GenreBlind genre-blind]], IdiotHero. All his efforts to grow stronger through the Dark Side is fueled by one desire: to be strong enough to protect his teammates. Unfortunately, the Dark Side's corrupting influence twists this desire and slowly warps Jaune into something unrecognizable to his friends. By the end, he's turned into an [[ControlFreak overly possessive]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who thinks that everyone is secretly out to destroy him.

* The original ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'':

* In ''{{Fanfic/Spellbound}}'', Felix prepares himself for a Samhain revel by "unrooting" himself from the material world. It's a necessary part of protecting his mind and the secrets he carries, but it leaves him emotionally adrift for months afterwards. And after he [[MercyKill consumes a tormented soul]], his magic power increases but his empathy is permanently damaged.

* Arakune in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' starts out as a WellIntentionedExtremist version of scientist named Lotte Carmine, who wished to use the power of [[TheCorruption Boundary]] in order to achieve a discovery that would be beneficial to mankind in the long run... even at cost of a lot of human lives. He tapped onto it, and slowly turned into a man-eating EldritchAbomination that couldn't remember anything except "Want to eat", especially the Azure Grimoire. He still remembered some of his best friends like Litchi, but that 'discovery beneficial to mankind' AKA his original intention? All forgotten.

*** It's even worse than it sounds: [[spoiler:he didn't just decide one day to let a demon into his head. After the second battle he was bleeding out and about to die, cursing himself for being unable to avenge Miluda. Only then does the Zodiac stone offer him another chance by accepting it's power, and he takes it; he was never told the stone held a demon.)]]

* Trace from ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'' tried to resurrect his dead wife before black magic poisoning turned him into a power-hungry dictator. Or at least, that's what a character told him...

-->'''Klaus:''' You are correct. I ''have'' sacrified lives to the peace of the empire. ''Many lives.'' But still have no idea ''why, do you?''

* Averted in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Baron Klaus Wulfenbach used his Spark of Genius to take over Europe, and installed a shallow copy of his own mind that [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150420 takes over his son's body]] when he deems it necessary, but he ''never'' forgot ''[[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150427 why]]'' he did it.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade''
** This was the revelation about Nergal learned in chapter 19x2, the most difficult bonus chapter to receive in the game. [[spoiler:It turns out that Nergal is the father of Nils and Ninian. His research of the dark arts was so that he could find a way to open the Dragon's Gate and be reunited with his children. But the dark magic so corrupted his mind that he forgot the second half of this motive and ended up concluding that the reason he wanted to open Dragon's Gate was so he could destroy the world with dragons ForTheEvulz.]]
** It's stated by at least two other sources that this is what happens to ''anyone'' who dabbles with dark magic for too long, though as [[spoiler:Bramimond]] demonstrates, they won't necessarily turn ''[[DarkIsNotEvil evil]]'' afterwards. Although it still doesn't display a terribly good fate for those who work with elder magic, as [[spoiler:Bramimond]] is shown to have no personality of its own, merely mimicking the mannerisms of whoever it is speaking to. The lack of gendered pronouns in the previous sentence is a result of this -- Athos initially calls it a "he" before switching to genderless pronouns and explaining that the true [[spoiler:Bramimond]] is long gone and that the being they were speaking to was little more than a living mirror.
** The other source happens to be [[spoiler: Teodor]], also in 19x2, who explicitly says that this has to happen to anyone who wants to be really good with dark magic. Yikes.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': Supports in [=SpotPass=] reveal this to be the case with Gangrel, the first ArcVillain of the game. [[spoiler:Walhart's conquest of the continent of Valm worried Gangrel, causing him to start his own unification plan that involved uniting Plegia, Ferox, and Ylisse under himself, so that they could stand up to the Valmese Empire. The power he got from starting the war, and his self-imposed rush to unite the countries, went to his head and caused MotiveDecay; by the time of the game's beginning, his only ''real'' motive is [[WarForFunAndProfit deliberately provoking open war with Ylisse for the hell of it]].]]

* ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'': Dimitri, Knuckles's ancestor, once sought to restore the Floating Island to its original home in the ground and after his plan to siphon the energies of the Chaos Emeralds was rejected he still went ahead with it, believing he could fix their home. The machine overloaded and infused him with the Chaos Energies and he was reborn as the villain Enerjak. In his new role he simply sought a technological empire with him at its head, DrunkOnTheDarkside with his God-like powers. After being de-powered though, Dimitri's sanity gradually returns and he eventually pulls a HeelFaceTurn, his old beliefs in helping his people having resurfaced.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Using the Dark Side of the Force does this to Jaune over the course of the story. He starts out as a well-meaning, if [[GenreBlind genre-blind]], IdiotHero. All his efforts to grow stronger through the Dark Side is fueled by one desire: to be strong enough to protect his teammates. Unfortunately, the Dark Side's corrupting influence twists this desire and slowly warps Jaune into something unrecognizable to his friends. By the end, he's turned into an [[ControlFreak overly possessive]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who thinks that everyone is secretly out to destroy him.

* Wiegraff from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' starts out as a battle-hardened yet genuinely [[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned]] rebel who develops a personal vendetta with Ramza after the latter kills the former's sister. His desire to avenge his sister's death is what leads him to [[spoiler: become a knight in the Church]]. After a second failed battle against Ramza, Wiegraff [[spoiler: makes a DealWithTheDevil and becomes a Lucavi Demon]]. The last time we see him, for his final confrontation with Ramza, he explicitly states that he no longer cares about what happened to his sister, and just wants to cause as much pain and chaos as he can. The speech he gives is actually rather unnerving.\\\
It's a even worse than it sounds: [[spoiler:he didn't just decide one day to let a demon into his head. After the second battle he was bleeding out and about to die, cursing himself for being unable to avenge Miluda. Only then does the Zodiac stone offer him another chance by accepting it's power, and he takes it; he was never told the stone held a demon.)]]
* Case of the Lifestream, a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' novella, shows that Sephiroth considers memories of his friends, appearance, and childhood "unimportant" compared with his contempt for humanity.

** Prince Arthas, particularly in ''Warcraft III'' (''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' arguably doesn't count because the Lich King had mind melded with him). Arthas started out wanting to stop the undead scourge; then he wanted to kill Mal'Ganis to avenge the people who had been killed or turned by the undead. Then he becomes a Death Knight, travels back to civilization and immediately starts killing people. While the descent started a bit earlier, the ArtifactOfDoom Frostmourne (and its corrupting influence) was the part that made him completely forget that he ever cared about keeping people alive in the first place.\\\
It still counts in ''World of Warcraft'' as, for the better part of the time between his ascent to the Frozen Throne and Wrath of the Lich King, Arthas has been in a torpor reflecting on [[HowWeGotHere his actions in his rise to power,]] as detailed in the book Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. By the end, [[spoiler:Arthas comes to terms with using TheDarkSide, and actually assimilates Ner'Zhul, taking his power and becoming the sole force of will behind the Lich King.]]

* Discussed in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'':

Compare to HeWhoFightsMonsters. Related to TheCorruption, DarkIsEvil and BadPowersBadPeople (especially when it starts out as BadPowersGoodPeople).

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', BigBad Urizen is so obsessed with obtaining power at any cost that he no longer remembers his past [[spoiler: as Vergil]] or the reason he wanted power in the first place. At most, all he has is a vague sense of having lost something important to him and believes that power will fill that hole. In fact, this lack of motivation is why in the end he lost to Dante who actually has something he wants to protect.

* Jacen Solo in ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' (part of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'') ends up this way as a result of the philosophical growth he goes through that's necessary [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop to save the galaxy without committing genocide]]. Twice invoked, as another reason he started down that path was because of a vision in which he and Luke fight to the death. Naturally, by the end he no longer cares if Luke dies.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', BigBad Urizen is so obsessed with obtaining power at any cost that he no longer remembers his past [[spoiler: as Vergil]] or the reason he wanted power in the first place. In fact, this lack of motivation is why in the end he lost to Dante who actually has something he wants to protect.

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': Originally, Zamasu just wanted the gods to be more involved with mortal affairs so they would stop misusing the knowledge giving to them by the gods. At worst, he wanted the gods to stop protecting mortals since [[HumansAreBastards they're not worth it]]. After he meets and fights Goku, however, he goes off the deep end and decides that mortals are foolish ''and'' dangerous and need to be destroyed for the peace of the universe. [[spoiler:To that end, he kills his own master, takes his Time Ring, uses the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body, and murders him and his family [[EvilIsPetty out of spite]]. By the time Zamasu (now Goku Black) reaches Earth, he's wiped out all the gods in the future timeline, is clearly insane, and sees himself as the one true god of TheMultiverse along with Future Zamasu.]] Whatever nobility he may have had in his goals is long gone.

* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/WithThisRing''. [[spoiler: Paul]] merges with the Ophidian to save his friends and while [[spoiler: Paulphidian]] is still largely benevolent and supports the good guys, they cannot feel any emotion besides Avarice and so they longer understand why they are so attached to them. They have completely forgotten what feeling emotions are like.

* Los Magnificos, the heroic defenders of Mexico City in the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', made a deal with the Garodillos crime family to turn a blind eye to certain crimes in exchange for the crime family's assistance in policing the barrios they controlled of its more extreme elements, because the problems faced by those areas were too much for the heroes to handle on their own. And it worked, for a while. Sure, there was still drug-trafficking, but murders and rapes went down. Eventually, however, the members of Los Magnificos were little more than a superhuman enforcement arm for the Mexican mafia.