History Main / UsedToBeASweetKid

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': [[Characters/BojackHorsemanBojackHorseman The title character]] is a major JerkAss in present-day, but his upbringing [[AbusiveParents was less]] [[ResentfulGuardian than stellar]].
-->'''Beatrice''': You know, I was beautiful before I got pregnant with you.\\

* Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}. [[DarkIsNotEvil He's not evil, but he became dark and bitter]] after [[DeathByOriginStory his parents were murdered]].
* Characters/{{Magik}} was [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]]' sweet kid sister. Then... [[CorruptTheCutie stuff happened]], and she is now the franchise's main DesignatedHero / VillainProtagonist / NominalHero / AntiHero, DependingOnTheWriter. Regardless of that, she's ''always'' her team's TokenEvilTeammate and a SociopathicHero.
* [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner Bruce Banner]] was once an adorably sweet little boy who was a tiny genius by the time he could walk and was adored and coddled by his mother Rebecca. Sadly his father Brian (through PsychologicalProjection) thought Bruce was a monster, and furious that his son had taken all of Rebecca’s love, violently abused poor little Bruce constantly, culminating in Brian murdering Rebecca in front of Bruce after they attempted to escape his abuse. All this emotional turmoil shaped Bruce into a deeply broken introverted man, whose inner fragmented psyche [[HulkingOut took the shape of a green rage monster]] thanks to some gamma rays.

* ''Comicbook/{{Freedom Fighters|DCComics}}'': In the 2006 miniseries, Americommando is a sadistic BadBoss and BlackShirt. However, Uncle Sam recalls how when Americommando was ten, he wanted to be an astronaut like UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong (which Sam knows due to how he can sense everyone’s American dream). In the present, Sam makes that wish come true [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor by throwing Americommando into outer space, causing him to slam into the moon at high speed.]]
* ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn2021'': Hyperion was a "Gosh, darn, shucks" variety of country boy and a NiceGuy who truly respected and liked his peers in the Imperial Guard (including a pair of male members that were a couple). Contrast this with the grim ultranationalist, hard-liner that he is today (though he's still nowhere as vicious as Nighthawk or Doctor Spectrum and does occasionally regret killing).
* [[Characters/BatmanHuntress Helena Bertinelli]], started out as a sweet, adorable little girl who, granted, had been born into a mafia family, but had not a bad thought for anyone. Then, when she was eight years old, her family was murdered in front of her at dinner. Then the Gotham police sent her a "condolence" card that read "Many Happy Returns!" Then she was taken to Sicily to be raised by her cousins, who turned out to be mafia assassins. They raised her to believe that the mafia were JustLikeRobinHood, and to believe in omerta, and to avenge her family, and, to that end, they trained her as an assassin. Then they were arrested by the Italian government as part of a crackdown on organized crime, and she was sent to boarding school in Switzerland, where she learned the truth about the mob. After an upbringing like that, it's hardly a surprise that she became a ruthless vigilante killer.
* ComicBook/IronMan, Tony Stark himself from the few flashbacks we see from his childhood was a sweet little boy who suffered from verbal abuse from his alcoholic father Howard and buried his nose in books about knights and heroes and studied electronics to cope. When his parents died, Tony was left without guidance and love, becoming a womaniser jerkass ArmsDealer who even as Iron Man manages to be quite the BrokenAce on multiple occasions. Thankfully Tony has conversely managed to keep his HiddenHeartOfGold and has become a BigGood in his own right.

* [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], DependingOnTheWriter, and to the extent that he gets a childhood backstory at all (and which may or may not be true), and possibly Batman himself, when given a DarkerAndEdgier interpretation.
* Chris Genovese/Red Mist/The Motherfucker from ''ComicBook/KickAss.'' Volume 3 reveals that as a child, [[spoiler:he used to be a fan of ''Franchise/XMen'' to the point where he would dress up as Wolverine on a daily basis]].

** Surprisingly enough, the ComicBook/{{Venom}} symbiote. The reason it got imprisoned in the first place was that it was [[TokenGoodTeammate too nice for its species]], and when Peter freed it, it was perfectly happy to be a superhero with him as his [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper extra-super costume]]. It only became bloodthirsty and crazed after Peter rejected it and it bonded with [[Characters/MarvelComicsEddieBrock Eddie Brock]], whose pre-existing instability [[TheCorruptible corrupted the symbiote]]. After the symbiote was purified and Eddie experienced SanityStrengthening, Venom decided to return to being a superhero. And even from the start, Venom's sympathetic traits resulted in the creation of [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage]] to be a completely villainous substitute.

* Jason, the protagonist of ''ComicBook/LongAgoAndFarAway'' used to be the heroic "[[KidHero Child Knight]]" who saved the land of Elvenwood from the evil Witch-Queen Nexis. In the years since then, he's become a 30-year-old JerkAss who can't run his comic book store.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': Depending on a whole lot of things ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]]'' might have been one of these, after getting over the abusive blood relatives, and before the adoptive ones and fate itself turned out to be jerks too, and he stepped on his path of darkness. We can't really tell for certain because all stories of his childhood are plagued by {{unreliable narrator}}s. Generally if Thor or Loki himself tell about those times then he was a sweet kid, if anybody else then he was always evil apparently. But the theory got more believable when he was reborn as a child and turned out to be... a nice kid albeit also very rebellious and mischievous [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer with serious problems fitting in]].
* According to the ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'' comics, King Sombra was one before his mother revealed his true nature to him and he was corrupted by the power she gave him, leading to him conquering the very ponies that he had lived most of his life around.
* Heroic example with [[Characters/MarvelComicsRogue Rogue]]. Anna Marie was the adorable daughter of Mississippi hippies, but the disappearance of her mother Priscilla led to her being raised by her mean and authoritarian aunt which caused Rogue to run away from home. Things got better when she met a boy named Cody and had some PuppyLove with him, but upon her FirstKiss her [[PowerParasite mutant power]] activated and [[TouchOfDeath put Cody in a life-long coma]]. Unable to control her powers, Rogue hid in the wilderness threatening anyone who approached her with a shotgun, at which Rogue was found and adopted by [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] who raised her to be a supervillain. Eventually Rogue would have a HeelFaceTurn and join the X-Men and regain her lost better nature, although she is still a BrokenBird at times.
* Herr Starr, a BigBad [[note]]It's hard to pin down just ''one'' BigBad in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''; candidates for the title include ''{{God}}''[[/note]] from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' was this until a bully-induced trauma that cost him an eye, his hair, and a good chunk of his humanity before he'd even hit puberty.
* The Creator/GarthEnnis penned tale "The Tyger" shows a snippet of the childhood of Frank Castle before the days ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''. He's a quiet, thoughtful young man who does well at school and is quite close to a girl his age. Events of the one-shot however show that Frank was surrounded by the refuse left by mobsters from an early age, and it left its mark.
* [[Characters/RobinTimDrake Tim Drake]] was very much a sweet kid when he sought out Batman to try and save him from himself. The TraumaCongaLine that has followed has noticeably changed him to the point that he's willing to use [[Characters/BatmanTheScarecrow The Scarecrow]]'s fear toxin and has a hit list that includes large swaths of the ComicBook/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} as a precaution alongside the expected villains.
* As multiple flashbacks to ComicBook/BlackWidow’s past show, she was once a sweet little girl and aspiring ballerina, getting forced to be a {{Child Soldier|s}} through the Red Room TrainingFromHell and being subjected to brainwashing turned her into the DarkActionGirl FemmeFataleSpy we see in early ''ComicBook/IronMan'' issues. Thankfully she pulls a HeelFaceTurn and becomes a heroic Avenger later in life.
* There are a couple of ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' webstrips set between the original and prequel trilogy. They cameo [[ManipulativeBastard Ysanne Isard]], BigBad of the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' comics, as a little girl. She idolized her [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Armand_Isard father]], Director of Imperial Intelligence, back then, although her innocence was in doubt even then, since he brought her to see his work, which involved hunting down and killing Jedi. As she grew up she was groomed to be a field operative and started cultivating connections, which worried her father to the point that he sent her on a suicide mission. She survived, came back, trumped up a treason charge, executed her father, and took his place.
* Both Characters/ScarletWitch and [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]] were once upon a time happy and sweet Romani children (similar to Victor Von Doom as a boy) who traveled around Europe in a Gypsy clan with their loving adoptive parents Django and Marya. Starvation, several traumatic incidents, Wanda accidentally setting fire to a village and getting hounded by a mob, getting found and brutally raised by [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] who had them ForcedIntoEvil all resulted in Wanda and Pietro becoming the very mentally unstable anti-heroes they are as adults.
* Before Deathstroke [[BrainwashedAndCrazy drugged her into villainy]], Rose Wilson used to be a fairly normal, sweet girl even serving as Arsenal's daughter's caretaker for some time.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy'': Subverted. [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] used to be a friendly, extremely intelligent kid until he -unfairly- blamed ComicBook/{{Superboy}} for a lab accident and started hating him. Nonetheless, before the accident, Lex was already showing subtle hints of the kind of hubris, jealousy, and hair-trigger temper that led him to become a villain.
** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} enemy Blackstarr used to be a cheerful, sweet little girl named Rachel Berkowitz... and then the Third Reich happened. She was forcefully taken from her parents and dumped in a concentration camp. [[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 Forty years later she's twisted and full of hatred and bitterness]].
* ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos THANOS]]'', of all beings. In his youth, he had a loving father and many friends despite his strange appearance. He was also a FriendToAllLivingThings and was sickened when he was first made to dissect something. Then he learned that the cave creatures he had befriended killed and ate his Eternal friends, causing him to be blamed for it. There was also that little matter of the crush he had on a vicious friend ([[spoiler: Death]]) who manipulated him into doing things that led him to become evil.

* Victor von Doom aka [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]] in a textbook case of FromNobodyToNightmare once was a kindly gypsy boy from Latveria whose mother was taken by [[Characters/MarvelComicsDemons Mephisto]] and whose father froze to death sheltering his son while fleeing a vengeful baron. Growing up without his parents Victor found love in a beautiful girl known as Valeria, but desiring to make a name for himself and angry about his father's death he studied both science and sorcery and became an infamous swindler, which drove Valeria away from him. When the opportunity to escape from his country and study at State University was offered, Victor took it and found himself the dorm mate of one Reed Richards. Already embittered from his troubled childhood in Latveria, Victor spited his peers, especially Reed, and almost strangled a girl at a party, and failed to heed Reed’s advice while building a device (which Victor hoped would help him communicate with his mother in Hell). The device literally blew up in Victor’s face. Stricken with damaged pride, Victor [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped off the slippery slope]] and became the EvilOverlord AGodAmI supervillain he is today.

* ''ComicBook/Warlock1967'': [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Gamora]] was once an innocent little alien girl who had her race decimated by the Grand Inquisitors of the Magus. She was then found by GalacticConqueror Thanos, who actually did [[PetTheDog care for her]] despite being '''far''' from ideal father material, but nevertheless was bound and determined [[TykeBomb to make a ruthless killer out of her]]. This, along with other traumatic incidents including almost getting killed by Thanos’s Black Order (jealous of all the attention their boss was giving her), losing all her limbs and getting them replaced with cybernetics, infamously getting raped by a group of alien thugs after running away from Sanctuary all shaped Gamora into “[[RedBaron The Deadliest Woman In The Universe]]”. Her just being a NominalHero among the Guardians is an incredible improvement given what she’s suffered.
* [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]], while not a villain, used to be this. Grown in a tank, briefly made an appearance as a small child and was so adorable that he elicited CutenessProximity in none other than ''Mister Sinister''. Even after, when he escaped from the cloning tanks as a teenager, he ended up an idealistic revolutionary - surprisingly idealistic, considering it was the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse. Sinister killing his ParentalSubstitute, Forge and another of his companions, while an assassin killed another of his companions, and finding out that he was LaserGuidedTykeBomb with a self-destruct switch significantly embittered him, and while he remained a KnightInSourArmor, he eventually drifted into a stranger and more ruthless form of AntiHero (developing BlueAndOrangeMorality as part of his [[MessianicArchetype 'Mutant Shaman']] thing didn't help), while his renewed idealism was shattered in ''Dark X-Men'' and he ended up becoming an AntiVillain in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2018'' and ''ComicBook/AgeOfXMan'' -- until [[HeelRealization he realized that for all his best efforts, he'd become as bad as Apocalypse, if not worse]].
* Graydon Creed, the human son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] was once a genuinely sweet and nice little boy searching for his mommy and daddy. When he learned firsthand how absolutely monstrous both his mutant parents were however Graydon snapped and became a BoomerangBigot and PresidentEvil. It’s especially tragic that his half-brother [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] despite his obvious mutant appearance and discrimination he got from it — actually had a comparatively better and healthier childhood than poor Graydon.
* [[Characters/MarvelComicsLogan Wolverine]] was once a gentle, sickly little boy named James who wanted only to play with his friends Dog and Rose and his puppy. This ended the day that Dog propositioned Rose, causing James to report him to his father. This set off a chain of events that led to Dog and his father storming James' home and slaughtering his family, which in turn caused his mutant powers to manifest themselves. Everything has been downhill for him ever since.
* [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] from ''ComicBook/XMen''. Had UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust not happened...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': The title character was a fairly normal kid, but his mother wasn't around at all until he was 5, and messed him up even worse after she returned.

** While hiding out in Zuko's summer home, the group find [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110329213952/avatar/images/4/45/Baby_Ozai.png a picture of a smiling and sweet-looking boy]] and tease Zuko about it. But much to Team Gaang's dismay, Zuko reveals that it's not of him -- it's a picture of his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] [[BigBad Fire Lord Ozai]]. They're left [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil baffled and horrified at this]], wondering how such an innocent toddler would one day become the genocidal, sociopathic, and warmongering tyrant they're now up against. Even [[InvokedTrope invoked]]:

** Zuko himself counts. Even after his [[spoiler:HeelFaceTurn]], Zuko is still a [[PerpetualFrowner perpetually frowning]] [[EmoTeen emo]] [[IneffectualLoner loner]], [[spoiler:though he softens quite a bit as he becomes a good guy]]. But in flashbacks, he's shown to actually have been a genuinely sweet, happy kid... at least until the [[StartOfDarkness shit hit the fan]]. The series illustrates this with [[http://33.media.tumblr.com/1703ef0809b7893d2ed1f3fed0db8de6/tumblr_inline_nko752iLLp1sqmymu.png a still image of him from a flashback before a lightning strike transition to him in the present]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': The title character is a major JerkAss in present-day, but his upbringing [[AbusiveParents was less]] [[ResentfulGuardian than stellar]].

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': "Helga on the Couch" shows us in a flashback that Helga Pataki was a normal girl who was so neglected and ignored by her parents that she had to walk to preschool by herself, getting splashed with mud and having her lunch stolen by a dog. She then meets Arnold, probably the first person to ever show her genuine affection, and immediately falls for him. After Harold steals her graham crackers and the other kids start laughing at her, she starts bullying them in order to get respect.

** Season 4 gives us an older example in [[BigBad Kuvira]]. In Season 3, she was a kind and caring person who rescued Korra's father from certain death and was devoted to Suyin. Suyin even claimed she was like a daughter to her. But the fateful fallout with her over how to save the Earth Kingdom and the subsequent 3 years would turn her into a cold, power-hungry tyrant.

** [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Nightmare Moon]] used to be a {{Socially Awkward Hero}}ine Princess Luna before [[GreenEyedMonster bitterness and jealousy]] toward her sister twisted her into a monster. Subverted in that not only did she [[HeelFaceTurn get better]], but WordOfGod says that she was [[BrainwashedAndCrazy actually corrupted by outside forces]] and not acting of her own accord.

** Memory portraits in Emperor Belos' mindscape reveal that he was once a sweet child [[spoiler:named Philip Wittebane]] who loved to play games with his older brother. His descent into a fanatical, cruel tyrant of the Boiling Isles [[spoiler:who seeks to wipe out all witches]] is the result of said-older brother [[spoiler:falling in love with a witch named Evelyn, which Philip saw as a betrayal to their upbringing as witch hunters. He ends up killing his older brother in a fit of rage, leading him into a downward spiral where he becomes a literal monster trying (and failing) to salvage his happy past by [[ReplacementGoldfish cloning his brother]] and fulfilling his dream of being a witch hunter]].

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E4Rosebud Rosebud]]": Young Monty Burns was depicted as one. A flashback showed him happily playing with his teddy bear Bobo, and being referred to by his parents as "Happy."

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax Lisa's Sax]]" has flashbacks to Bart's first day of school, showing how he became a bad kid at school ([[SadistTeacher his kindergarten teacher openly told him he had no future whatsoever]], and he was bullied by Jimbo Jones, all while Homer calling him and his problems as nothing more than a lost cause).
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E19PanicOnTheStreetsOfSpringfield Panic on the Streets of Springfield]]": Largely subverted. Lisa becomes enamored with an '80s musician and adopts both his grungy aesthetic and cynical, world-weary philosophy. A dismayed Marge claims that Lisa used to be such a happy little girl, but Lisa, who has always been defined by angst, activism, and moral outrage, dismisses her mother's BS with a single word ("When?"). Marge quickly admits that she was looking through rose-colored glasses, but still doesn't approve of the level of nihilism Lisa is currently operating under ([[StatusQuoIsGod which Lisa herself dispenses with by the episode's end]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': In the third Season opener, Queen Moon Butterfly, Star's uptight, stodgy mother, reveals why she's the way she is; her own mother had been killed when Moon was the age Star is, forcing a once-carefree girl into the role of queen.

Compare SheIsAllGrownUp, in which the character may have been a sweet kid, but is now a very attractive woman. Compare UsedToBeMoreSocial in which the character used to be a social butterfly, but has become introverted and withdrawn. Contrast ReformedBully, a character who was mean and/or smug while young, but is a much nicer person now, and FormerTeenRebel, a character who was rebellious and immoral while young, but is no longer like that. Compare WasOnceAMan, where a person was a human being (not necessarily a child) becoming a monstrous being, though they nay overlap.

Compare SheIsAllGrownUp, in which the character may have been a sweet kid, but is now a very attractive woman. Compare UsedToBeMoreSocial in which the character used to be a social butterfly, but has become introverted and withdrawn. Contrast ReformedBully, a character who was mean and/or smug while young, but is a much nicer person now, and FormerTeenRebel, a character who was rebellious and immoral while young, but is no longer like that.

* Graydon Creed, the human son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] was once a genuinely sweet and nice little boy searching for his mommy and daddy, who when he learned firsthand how absolutely monstrous both his mutant parents were, snapped and became a BoomerangBigot and PresidentEvil. It’s especially tragic that his half-brother [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] despite his obvious mutant appearance and discrimination he got from it — actually had a comparatively better and healthier childhood than poor Graydon.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner Bruce Banner]] was once an adorably sweet little boy who was a tiny genius by the time he could walk and was adored and coddled by his mother Rebecca. Sadly his father Brian (through PsychologicalProjection) thought Bruce was a monster and, furious that his son had taken all of Rebecca’s love, violently abused poor little Bruce constantly, culminating in Brian murdering Rebecca in front of Bruce after they attempted to escape his abuse. All this emotional turmoil shaped Bruce into a deeply broken introverted man, whose inner fragmented psyche [[HulkingOut took the shape of a green rage monster]] thanks to some gamma rays.

* ''Film/KungFuHustle'' has Sing, [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain a low-level thug]] who wants to [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster join the Axe Gang]], but used to be a HeroicWannabe who intervened when a CuteMute girl was being harassed by bullies trying to steal her lollipop. It was only after the bullies [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome beat him to a pulp]] that he gave up on his heroic aspirations.

* [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner Bruce Banner]] was once an adorably sweet little boy who was a tiny genius by the time he could walk and was adored and coddled by his mother Rebecca. Sadly his father Brian (through PsychologicalProjection) thought Bruce was a monster and, furious that his son had taken all of Rebecca’s love, violently abused poor little Bruce constantly, culminating in Brian murdering Rebecca in front of Bruce after they attempted to escape his abuse. All this emotional turmoil shaped Bruce into a deeply broken introverted man, whose inner fragmented psyche [[HulkingOut took the shape of a green rage monster]] thanks to some gamma rays.
** The Hulk's EvilCounterpart the Abomination didn't have it much better. As a child living in Soviet Russia, Emil Blonsky loved his grandmother who told him stories, and wanted to be an author someday. Then his grandma was taken away and institutionalized, and Emil grew up to be a jaded, self-loathing man who instead joined the KGB. He fell in love and married an actress named Nadia Dornova, but had to leave her on a fateful mission to a U.S. military base. There he was exposed to Gamma radiation, which combined with his own inner demons transformed him into the Abomination, a bloodthirsty reptillian version of Hulk with nothing in his life but raging hatred of Bruce Banner.

** Surprisingly enough, the ComicBook/{{Venom}} symbiote. The reason it got imprisoned in the first place was that it was [[TokenGoodTeammate too nice for its species]], and when Peter freed it, it was perfectly happy to be a superhero with him as his [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper extra-super costume]]. It only became bloodthirsty and crazed after Peter rejected it and it bonded with [[Characters/VenomEddieBrock Eddie Brock]], whose pre-existing instability [[TheCorruptible corrupted the symbiote]]. After the symbiote was purified and Eddie experienced SanityStrengthening, Venom decided to return to being a superhero. And even from the start, Venom's sympathetic traits resulted in the creation of [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarnage Carnage]] to be a completely villainous substitute.
** Zigzagged with Cletus Kasady aka Carnage who like the Joker might DependingOnTheWriter have been a sweet kid once who was abused by his deranged grandmother and turned into a sociopathic dog-killing child by the time he was found by his foster parents. Or according to other comics, Kasady was an EnfantTerrible from the moment he was born. Since Carnage is an UnreliableNarrator concerning his past, we’ll never know for sure.

** Xander Rice is first introduced in ''Innocence Lost'' as a wide-eyed toddler whom Martin Sutter has to tell his father won't be coming home. He grows up with such deep-seated loathing of Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} as a result, that [[RevengeByProxy he takes it all out on Laura just because she's Logan's clone]]. And then he doesn't so much [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jump off the slippery slope]] as he does take it with a rocket-powered toboggan and keep going.

* Graydon Creed, the human son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsSabretooth Sabretooth]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsMystique Mystique]] was once a genuinely sweet and nice little boy searching for his mommy and daddy, who when he learned firsthand how absolutely monstrous both his mutant parents were, snapped and became a BoomerangBigot and PresidentEvil. It’s especially tragic that his half-brother ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} despite his obvious mutant appearance and discrimination he got from it — actually had a comparatively better and healthier childhood than poor Graydon.
* Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} was once a gentle, sickly little boy named James who wanted only to play with his friends Dog and Rose and his puppy. This ended the day that Dog propositioned Rose, causing James to report him to his father. This set off a chain of events that led to Dog and his father storming James' home and slaughtering his family, which in turn caused his mutant powers to manifest themselves. Everything has been downhill for him ever since.

-->'''Kincade''': The night I told him his parents had died, he hid in here for two days. When he did come out he wasn't a boy anymore.

** {{Averted|Trope}} hard with [[BigBad Sheev Palaptine]], as shown in the expanded material he was a RoyalBrat who had a cruel nature since the time he learned to walk and had already killed someone before even finding TheDarkSide.

** [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Gamora]] as seen in a {{flashback}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' was once an innocent girl. Thanos and his army arrived on her planet and killed half her race along with her mother and abducted Gamora training her as a TykeBomb from an early age. When we first see her as an adult in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', she’s an aloof and violent DarkActionGirl although she does become a DefectorFromDecadence. Teammate [[Characters/StarLord Peter Quill]] as seen in his [[AMinorKidroduction minor kidtroduction]] was a sweet kid who loved his mom and music and only got into a fight with some other kids because they squashed a frog. Having watched his mother pass away from brain cancer in front of him and was subsequently raised by SpacePirates, who turned Peter into a thrill-seeking outlaw and GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe womaniser. Peter did manage to retain his love of music and better nature, however, buried underneath his immature jerkass behaviour.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Subverted with Strong Bad, he was still a bully to his brother Strong Sad when they were kids, but he sometimes showed him affection like giving him noogies.

--> '''Sozin:''' As I feel my own life dimming, I can't help but think of a time when everything was so much brighter...

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving, and affectionate toddler with whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship. When they are reunited seven years later, Max is now the [[SourOutsideSadInside foul-mouthed, jaded, bitter]] ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all and is [[AdultHater disdainful and deeply mistrusting of him]] (at least at first). David points out the trope at one point when he mentions how terrifying it is for him to imagine what could have happened to influence such a drastic personality shift in the child and much of the later chapters involve him attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from said trauma.

* ''[[Fanfic/JusticeLeagueOfEquestria Mare of Steel]]''; Princess Celestia mentions that [[PrinceCharmless Prince Blueblood]] used to be much more respectful when he was younger. [[spoiler: This is a plot point, as it turns out that [[BigBad General Zod]] replaced Blueblood several years prior to the story's beginning.]]

* As flashbacks in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheTwilightChild'' show, the main character was an almost painfully [[CheerfulChild cheerful foal]], a far cry from the emotionally broken teenager she's become when we first see her.

* ''Fanfic/HarmonyTheory'' has Charisma, TheDreaded BloodKnight and TheDragon to one of the story's {{big bad}}s, who is revealed to originally have been a sweet filly who liked to dance around and had a loving family, until her "talent glyph" appeared and basically marked her as a natural born killer and drove her to [[spoiler: murder her own brother]], leading to her being disowned by her family and leading her down the path she chose.

* In ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfTheEquinox'', Brutus Meadows is Scootaloo's alcoholic and [[AbusiveParents abusive foster father]] who ends up [[spoiler:[[TilMurderDoUsPart killing in anger his wife Vibrant Glow]] whose gambling addiction has eaten up most of his savings]], and he tries to kill [[spoiler:Cheerilee]] simply [[HeKnowsTooMuch for discovering that crime]]. However, when Brutus is [[spoiler:dying, [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes the flashbacks]] he has]] show that he was an adorkably shy colt when he first met at school [[ChildhoodFriendRomance his future wife]] with whom he later [[HappilyAdopted adopted Scootaloo when nopony else seemed to be doing so]]. Sadly, his wife's gambling debts led to him becoming an alcoholic and forgetting his love for both her and Scootaloo.

Aversions will usually be notable here, given expectations that ChildrenAreInnocent, or that there's at least some AmbiguousInnocence even when KidsAreCruel, so people will tend to assume a StartOfDarkness ''must'' have happened, and that there ''will'' be a FreudianExcuse that will explain (if not excuse) all. By extension, this trope frequently applies through {{subver|tedTrope}}sion, {{inver|tedTrope}}sion etc. where an EnfantTerrible, CreepyChild, or AxCrazy junior [[DevilInPlainSight initially manages to get past everyone's radar but is actually a little horror from the start]]. ("And he ''seemed'' like such a nice kid"). Often, it is not clear which a character fits under, which in turn often leads to a FlameWar, especially if the character is also a DracoInLeatherPants.

** The Hulk's EvilCounterpart the Abomination didn't have it much better. As a child living in Soviet Russia, Emil Blonsky loved his grandmother who told him stories, and wanted to be an author someday. Then his grandma was taken away and institutionalized, and Emil grew up to be a jaded, self-loathing man who intead joined the KGB. He fell in love and married an actress named Nadia Dornova, but had to leave her on a fateful mission to a U.S Military base. There he was exposed to Gamma radiation, which combined with his own inner demons transformed him into the Abomination, a bloodthirsty reptillian version of Hulk with nothing in his life but raging hatred of Bruce Banner.

* Both Characters/ScarletWitch and [[Characters/MarvelComicsQuicksilver Quicksilver]] were once upon a time happy and sweet Romani children (similar to Victor Von Doom as a boy) who traveled around Europe in a Gypsy clan with their loving adoptive parents Django and Marya. Starvation, several traumatic incidents, Wanda accidentally setting fire to a village and getting hounded a mob, getting found and brutally raised by [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] who had them ForcedIntoEvil all resulted in Wanda and Pietro becoming the very mentally unstable anti-heroes they are as adults.

** ''ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy'': Subverted. [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] used to be a friendly, extremely intelligent kid until he -unfairly- blamed ComicBook/{{Superboy}} for a lab accident and started hating him. Nonetheless, before the accident, Lex was already showing subtle hints of the kind of hubris, jealousy, and hair-trigger temper which led him to become a villain.

* ''[[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos THANOS]]'', of all beings. In his youth, he had a loving father and many friends despite his strange appearance. He was also a FriendToAllLivingThings and sickened when he was first made to dissect something. Then he learned that the cave creatures he had befriended killed and ate his Eternal friends, causing him to be blamed for it. There was also that little matter of the crush he had on a vicious friend ([[spoiler: Death]]) who manipulated him into doing things that lead him to become evil.

* ''Fanfic/TheSilverRaven'' (''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' & ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''): {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Growing up, Nero was an adorable, exuberant CheerfulChild. As he grew into his teenage years, while he remained a fundamentally good person at his core, he lost his cheerfulness and became an aloof, vulgar tongued JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving and affectionate toddler with whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship. When they are reunited seven years later, Max is now the [[SourOutsideSadInside foul-mouthed, jaded, bitter]] ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all and is [[AdultHater disdainful and deeply mistrusting of him]] (at least at first). David points out the trope at one point when he mentions how terrifying it is for him imagining what could have happened to influence such a drastic personality shift in the child, and much of the later chapters involve him attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from said trauma.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheWrathOfAvelina'', Agustin notes that he often saw the titular Avelina playing with the other kids when Luisa was young, and that he's surprised she would ever turn against the Madrigals.

* The alien creature who would one day become [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonKingGhidorah Ichi, the middle head of Ghidorah]], in the backstory of the Franchise/MonsterVerse fic ''[[Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon Abraxas]]''. Originally, Ichi was apparently a compassionate being who would risk his own neck helping others and nurtured his younger brothers (who became Ni and San respectively) as best he could [[PromotionToParent in the absence]] [[ParentalAbandonment of their parent]] -- a far cry from the sadistic, murderous psychopath Ichi is in the present, who only knows how to show his youngest brother-head San abuse. [[spoiler:After the three brothers were captured by [[AbusivePrecursors the Makers]], viciously experimented on, and transformed into Ghidorah, Ichi understandably grew to hate the Makers and anything that reminded him of them with a murderous passion -- and after Ghidorah turned against and eradicated the Makers, Ichi and his brothers still had [[TerribleTicking the Old Noise]] screaming in their brains, compelling them to kill things endlessly. With the Makers' experiments having granted Ghidorah an immortal lifespan, the horrors of Ichi's and his brothers' continuous deeds under the Old Noise's influence slowly ground away and erased all the good qualities and redeeming traits that Ichi once possessed over millions of years, leaving the utter monster that we now know Ichi as.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheSmeetSeries'': Cheesecake the Indokuro started as a pampered, playful and adorable (though disobedient and misbehaving) PetMonstrosity of Tallest Purple's. However, after being left in the wild with a pack of wild indokuros he starts behaving more like his kind, becoming aggressive, standoffish, and predatory to the point of nearly biting Purple when he tries to touch him while feeding.

[[AC:Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse]]

* In ''Fanfic/KarmaInRetrograde'', Touya Todoroki was an aspiring hero student who loved his siblings and wanted to rescue them and their mother from their [[ArchnemesisDad abusive father's]] influence. Somewhere down the line, he fell down the path of villainy, becoming the murderous Dabi who is disillusioned with hero society. A [[FountainOfYouth de-aging]] Quirk brings Touya back to the surface and lets 1-A see who he originally was, but [[FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome the effects are temporary]] and he will [[YouCantFightFate eventually return to being Dabi no matter how badly he wants to remain Touya]].

* In ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndEmerald'', Enji Todoroki as a teenager was actually the CloudcuckoolandersMinder in his group of friends, using his powers to help keep them out of trouble. Then he became the pro hero Endeavor and unhealthily obsessed with overcoming All Might, and used his family as stepping stones to do so.
* In ''Fanfic/ThePowerOfTheEquinox'', Brutus Meadows is Scootaloo's alcoholic and [[AbusiveParents abusive foster father]] who ends up [[spoiler:[[TilMurderDoUsPart killing in anger his wife Vibrant Glow]] whose gambling addiction has eaten up most of his savings]], and he tries to kill [[spoiler:Cheerilee]] simply [[HeKnowsTooMuch for discovering that crime]]. However, when Brutus is [[spoiler:dying, [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes the flashbacks]] he has]] show that he was an adorkably shy colt when he first met at school [[ChildhoodFriendRomance his future wife]] with whom he later [[HappilyAdopted adopted Scootaloo when nopony else seemed to be doing so]]. Sadly, his wife's gambling debts led to him becoming an alcoholic and forgetting his love towards both her and Scootaloo.

** Inverted with Gideon Grey, a vicious fox childhood bully who had [[WouldHitAGirl no qualms about beating up Judy Hopps and clawing her left cheek]] during the AMinorKidroduction. Later, [[spoiler: during Judy's TenMinuteRetirement in the third act]], she discovers that her parents have formed a partnership with Gideon Grey, who thanks to fifteen years of CharacterDevelopment is now [[ReformedBully a much kinder mammal]] and a [[SupremeChef extremely successful pastry chef]]. In fact, the first thing he does upon meeting Judy for the first time in years is apologize for how he treated her in his youth.

* The heroine of ''Film/DeadfulMelody'' used to be an innocent, sweet, bubbly child until witnessing her family being massacred by a rival sect. She survived, took her father's magical lute, and becomes an assassin who doesn't bat an eye after killing hundreds of people.

* ''Film/LadyWithASword'': The titular lady's childhood friend, whom she was betrothed to, used to be a sweet, pleasant, if somewhat mischievous young lad. He grows up to be a power-hungry, cruel, sadistic asshole and pervert who ends up raping the heroine's elder sister before killing her.

* ''Film/{{Sleepers}}'': While mischievous and nonchalant about getting money by doing jobs for mob leader King Benny, the four sleepers were good, cheerful boys. Shakes and John, in particular, were the kindest of them all and wanted to be priests in a neighborhood where the only career option is being a criminal. After their time in the youth detention center, John and Tommy turned into violent, addicted-to-drugs killers, while Michael and Shakes lost their faith in the Legal System and police officers. Hence, the foursome's ability to take revenge via illegal means, namely corruption and outright murder.

** As seen by one film reel in ''Film/IronMan2'' Tony Stark was once a playful little boy who innocently wandered into his father Howard’s filmshoot and played with the scale model of the Stark Expo, at which his father growled at him and had a member of the film crew take Tony away to his mother out of frame. With this glimpse of his childhood, coupled with getting shipped off to boarding school, is it any real wonder Tony grew up to be such a jerky egotistical, womanising InsufferableGenius in his adult life? He does take a major level in kindness and heroism though.

** [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Gamora]] as seen in a {{flashback}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' was once an innocent girl. Thanos and his army arrived on her planet and killed half her race along with her mother and abducted Gamora training her as a TykeBomb from an early age. When we first see her as an adult in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', she’s an aloof and violent DarkActionGirl although she does become a DefectorFromDecadence. Teammate [[Characters/StarLord Peter Quill]] as seen in his [[AMinorKidroduction minor kidtroduction]] was a sweet kid who loved his mom and music and only got into a fight with some other kids because they squashed a frog. Having watched his mother pass away from brain cancer in front of him and was subsequently raised by SpacePirates, who turned Peter into a thrill-seeking outlaw and GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe womaniser. Peter did manage to retain his love of music and better nature however, buried underneath his immature jerkass behaviour.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3'' shows that [[spoiler:Rocket was once this. He started life as an ordinary baby raccoon from Earth but then was painfully genetically and cybernetically modified, but even then was a very innocent and child-like kit who was eager to impress his father figure, wanted to fly on rockets in the blue sky with his friends in the new world and had hope that he would do so. Then said friends die by the hands by said father figure, and moments before that man said he wasn't worth anything other than his unique brain and was definitely not going to the new world. It's no wonder Rocket became a bitterly, even bitingly sarcastic, foul-mouthed, cynical and generally misanthropic jerkass by the time we see him in the first movie.]]

* Lance tells his son Kyle from Film/WorldsGreatestDad that he used to be such a nice kid who enjoyed going to the movies and other recreational activities before he became an angry, listless, foul mouthed, verbally abusive, perverted jerk of a teenager, Kyle claims he was faking.

** The Stark children, before they were all {{br|eakTheCutie}}oken and put on their JadeColoredGlasses. An example that is easily missed are Catelyn Stark's memories of [[MagnificentBastard Petyr Baelish]] as a mischievous, bold and sweet-natured little boy, who believed in all the songs and started out as idealistic as [[WideEyedIdealist Sansa]].

** Aerys' son Viserys was not always a self-absorbed megalomaniac as he is today. Daenerys has fond memories of her brother as a child, and readily credits him for bringing her up and protecting her as best as he could after the fall of House Targaryen. But the pressure of being the teenage heir of a deposed dynasty, who had no prestige beyond their family name, was just too much, causing him to slowly descend into insanity. The final straw was when Viserys had to sell their mother's crown to keep them fed, which, according to Daenerys, [[DespairEventHorizon destroyed any semblance of kindness her brother had]].

** All audiences get to see is his worst side, but it's implied that Viserys had been a reasonably nice guy at one point before the hardship of his own and his sister's life broke him. In the books, Daenerys specifically points at the moment that Viserys was forced to part with their dead mother's crown for money to survive as the point where Viserys started to snap. This is in parallel to their father, who is known as the "Mad King" but was also reasonably sane as a younger man, up until an incident where he was betrayed and held hostage by one of his own vassals and locked in a tower for half a year.

** The first few episodes where Alicent Hightower is still a teen explicitly show her this way. Which only serves to make her journey from a devoted and innocent girl to a cold queen who's resentful, vengeful and envious of her old childhood friend (due to both Otto and Larys Strong's manipulations and her own fear for the safety of her children) even more tragic.
** When Aegon first appears, he's a two-year-old toddler and appears to be a normal and happy child. It's unknown what he was like as a small child, but when he reappears as a teenager he's grown into a lazy BigBrotherBully who only wants to drink and leer at girls, and finally as an adult he's a hedonistic, selfish wreck of a man who only wants to sleep with women (whether they agree or not) and drink and does not want to be king because he knows he has neither the skill nor temperament to make a good one.

** In ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'', the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]], Phantoms, start off as "inner demons" which kill their hosts if they cross the DespairEventHorizon and take on their human form as a disguise. They're actually entirely different beings from their hosts, but to those not in on the {{Masquerade}}, this trope seems to be in full effect. In particular, one episode had [[TheHero Haruto]] dealing with a young woman who doesn't understand her college friend's bizarre shift in attitude, and Haruto chooses to tell her that the friend went overseas to study filmmaking rather than crush her with the painful truth. The biggest exception to this is [[spoiler:Gremlin, who was a SerialKiller ''before'' becoming a Phantom, and ends up becoming one of the most monstrous ''Kamen Rider'' enemies in a long time]].

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': Mando [[spoiler:Din Darin]] himself. Flashbacks show he was once an innocent little boy, whose parents and an entire got village got massacred by Battle Droids during the Clone Wars and was taken in by the Mandalorians. As an adult, he's a stoical, ruthless AntiHero BountyHunter who prior to meeting The Child [[spoiler:Grogu]] was OnlyInItForTheMoney. He gets better over the course of the series though.

* ''Series/WandaVision'' has an ''extremely'' [[TearJerker tragic]] example [[spoiler: as we see a {{flashback}} of Wanda Maximoff's childhood in Sokovia, Wanda was once a sweet and cheerful girl who loved sitting with her family watching the wholesome American [[{{Sitcom}} sitcoms]] her father managed to find and she dreamed of being like the glamorous women on the TV who didn't live in a war-torn country. One night during their routine family TV time a mortar shell from Stark Industries bombs their house killing her parents and leaving her and her brother Pietro sitting waiting for it go off under a table. Afterwards Wanda went from innocent girl to BrokenBird and [[ComicBook/{{Hydra}} Hydra]] volunteer to supervillain turned AntiHero who after losing her brother and later her android husband eventually snapped and created a fake reality based on the idyllic sitcom family life she wanted when she was little]].
* ''Series/{{Willow}}'': According to Willow, Bavmorda was much like Dove/Elora when she was young: bright, curious and full of promise. Then she was abducted and indoctrinated by the Crow, twisting her into doing evil.

* The Norfolk Dolls of the FWA/WWA Academies started wrestling in their early teens and were [[KidAppealCharacter instant hits]] with the little girls in attendance. Melody would increasingly pattern herself after her manager, Sam Knee, going by such names as "Melody Knee" and "Sammi Baynze", also becoming quite TheBully in to wrestlers she was once like.[[/folder]]

** Series BigBad Mr. Benevolent was a good-natured kid. Then there were three abusive stepfathers, the first of whom deported or killed all his friends, the second murdered and ate his pets, and the third had him sent to Antarctica. By the time he gets back, he learns his mother had been doing all this to make sure he became a complete bastard, because he's descended from Judas Iscariot[[spoiler:'s accountant]]. However, it's learning that his childhood sweetheart had married another, which he ''just'' missed, and getting taunted about it by an obnoxious kid that pushes him over into full evil.

* Happens frequently in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' if you read [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters pre-game]]. Many characters come off as likable, friendly people, only to be [[BreakTheCutie broken]] once the game starts, in a good portion of cases turning AxCrazy. As a result, you will be seeing this trope a lot, especially if the character showed up in pre-game frequently or there are any flashbacks involving the character.

** Her friend Gagagigo started his carrier as the little and cute Gigobyte and fights along with Eria. As the grown-up Gagagigo he eventually left her and someday he fought Freed the Brave Wanderer, ended up being trapped in another dimension. He met Marauding Captain and fought against Inpachi, who later appeared again as Blazing Inpachi; the Marauding Captain took the bullet, which inspired Gagagigo to do the same for one of the Captain's men during the war against Invader of Darkness. Later, in hope to defeat Invader of Darkness, he asked the MadScientist Kozaky to make him stronger who rebuilds his body to the corrupted Giga Gagagigo. When he fought against Freed the Brave Wanderer again in his native dimension, he got his own attack reflected and lost. Obsessed to continue gaining strength to defeat his rivals, he continued his rampage and eventually transformed into Gogiga Gagagigo and truly lost his soul.

** Most of Kurloz's group fit this trope thanks to being stuck as "kids" for [[NotGrowingUpSucks several millennia]]. [[TheBully Cronus]] [[EntitledToHaveYou Ampora]] was a wannabe magician that hoped to defeat an evil wizard, [[{{Yandere}} Damara]] [[ClingyJealousGirl Megido]] was a lovestruck schoolgirl that spoke little English, and [[{{Hypocrite}} Kankri]] [[InsufferableGenius Vantas]] planned to reform his discriminatory society.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Hayley Smith is a 19-year-old SoapboxSadie who is perpetually angry, depressed and cynical. But when she was a young girl, she was a normal cheerful and loving child who everyone called "Happy Hayley". The change in her demeanor happened on her seventh birthday, when she saw a baby seal being clubbed to death on the news, being her first exposure to life's unpleasantness.

** Memory portraits in Emperor Belos' mindscape reveal that he was once a sweet child [[spoiler:named Philip Wittebane]] who loves to play games with his older brother. His descent into a fanatical, cruel tyrant of the Boiling Isles [[spoiler:who seeks to wipe out all witches]] is the result of said-older brother [[spoiler:falling in love with a witch named Evelyn, which Philip saw as a betrayal to their upbringing as witch hunters. He ends up killing his older brother in a fit of rage, leading him into a downward spiral where he becomes a literal monster trying (and failing) to salvage his happy past by [[ReplacementGoldfish cloning his brother]] and fulfilling his dream of being a witch hunter]].

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E19PanicOnTheStreetsOfSpringfield Panic on the Streets of Springfield]]": Largely subverted. Lisa becomes enamored with an '80's musician and adopts both his grungy aesthetic and cynical, world-weary philosophy. A dismayed Marge claims that Lisa used to be such a happy little girl, but Lisa, who has always been defined by angst, activism, and moral outrage, dismisses her mother's BS with a single word ("When?"). Marge quickly admits that she was looking through rose-colored glasses, but still doesn't approve of the level of nihilism Lisa is currently operating under ([[StatusQuoIsGod which Lisa herself dispenses with by the episode's end]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Hayley Smith is a 19-year-old SoapboxSadie who is perpetually angry, depressed and cynical. But when she was a young girl, she was a normal cheerful and loving child. The change in her demeanor happened on her seventh birthday, when she saw a baby seal being clubbed to death on the news, being her first exposure to life's unpleasantness.

* Adam from ''WebVideo/ArbyNTheChief'' is an 8-year-old boy who's a member of Chaos Theosis, a group of [[PsychoForHire cyberterrorists]] who wreak havoc across Xbox's Network. However, he is demonstrated to be the most cruel and volatile of all its members. [[spoiler:He always screams and shouts online, verbally abuses his mother and friends, [[ForTheEvulz gleefully enjoys killing people for fun]], and stealing their account information to do what he feels like doing with it.]] During his final appearance though, when his mom finally breaks down asking what can be done to make him behave, she reminds him (and his friends) that was once a very happy young boy who would play nicely until playing Halo corrupted him into the monstrous child that he's become. Adam however coldly dismisses her yet again and continues acting the way he does. [[spoiler:[[TheDogBitesBack Needless to say, this comes back to bite Adam at his demise, HARD]].]]

* ''Fanfic/InvaderZimABadThingNeverEnds'': According to Skoodge, while Zim's more or less always had the same personality, when he was younger he was more affectionate towards his friends and only expressed his more aggressive attitude [[BullyHunter towards those who messed with them]]. It was only after enduring years of torment from his supposed friends Red and Purple that something finally happened that caused that better part of him to die and leave only the Zim we know now.

** Anakin Skywalker. Innocent, friendly, bright-eyed mother's boy who builds {{robot budd|y}}ies turned into, well... [[spoiler: [[TheDreaded Darth Vader]]]]

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving and affectionate toddler with whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship. When they are reunited seven years later, Max is now the [[SourOutsideSadInside jaded, bitter, mean-spirited]] ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all and is disdainful and deeply mistrusting of him (at least at first). David points out the trope at one point when he mentions how terrifying it is for him imagining what could have happened to influence such a dramatic personality shift in the child, and much of the later chapters involve him attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from said trauma.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving and affectionate toddler with whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship. When they are reunited seven years later, Max is now the [[SourOutsideSadInside jaded, bitter, mean-spirited]] ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all. Much of the later chapters involve David attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from the trauma that influenced such a dramatic personality shift.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45110314/chapters/113480020 invisible string (tying you to me)]]'': The premise of this AlternateUniverse fic is that David used to be neighbors with Max's family and was Max's regular babysitter from when he was only a few months old to when the family moved away when he was three. He remembers Max as a generally sweet, fun-loving and affectionate toddler whom he had essentially a surrogate-brotherly relationship with. When they are reunited seven years later, Max is now the jaded, bitter, mean-spirited ten-year-old from the main series (arguably even worse, as his parents are explicitly shown to be [[AbusiveParents abusive]] alongside the [[ParentalNeglect neglect]] implied in the show), and also doesn't remember David at all. Much of the later chapters involve David attempting to break through Max's walls to help him heal from the trauma that influenced such a dramatic personality shift.

* In ''Literature/{{Room}}'', Ma/Joy Newsome is not a villain or even a bad person, but she is understandably deeply troubled from being held captive and raped by a stranger for ye
ars. She lampshades this trope herself, and how impossible it would be for her to be anything but, in an argument with her mother in the film.

* In ''Literature/{{Room}}'', Ma/Joy Newsome is not a villain or even a bad person, but she is understandably deeply troubled from being held captive and raped by a stranger for years. She lampshades this trope herself, and how impossible it would be for her to be anything but, in an argument with her mother in the film.

* In ''[[Literature/ThePrecipice The Precipice]]'' Grace goes from a gawky, awkward teenager with a fascination with superhumans that is headed to college early (maybe too early) to [[spoiler: murdering two people]].

--> "He seemed like a good kid, didn't he Cullen? 'Axe Boy'? Jesus, what a thing to call someone!"
--> "Danny, our young friend 'Axe Boy' Alvin Willians chopped his mother and sister into pieces exactly one floor above our apartment. A good boy he is not."
* ''Franchise/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In ''The Gatekeeper Trilogy'', genocidal EvilSorcerer Giacomo Fulcanelli was a shy and kind child until his mother was burned as a witch while their whole village applauded. He was taken in by a sorcerer, who was secretly his biological father, and helped him get revenge. However, the sorcerer also physically abused Giacomo, denied him any affection, inspired him to be cruel and satanic, and smugly revealed that he was the one who sold out Giacomo's mother to the inquisition before setting his son on fire to make him unleash his full powers and cruelty. Fulcanelli grows up to gleefully do things far, far worse than what his father did, but there is a definite sense that he had a chance to be something else, only to be cruelly robbed of that chance.

* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/ChroniclesOfChaos Titans of Chaos]]'', Amelia thinks that the maenad she is working out how to shoot was once a sweet little baby. She braces herself by defying AMillionIsAStatistic.
* The long-awaited giant children in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' are this, until [[spoiler:they get possessed and AxCrazy]].

* The short story [[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians "The Diary of Luke Castellan"]] shows this off with the titular Luke, a villain-turned-hero who used to be a very sweet kid. Or, as in this chapter of history, a sweet teenager. He's brave, protective, and caring towards his little adopted family, to the point that he [[MirrorCharacter closely resembles the later hero of the series, Percy]].

** [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Gamora]] as seen in a {{flashback}} in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' was once an innocent girl. Thanos and his army arrived on her planet and killed half her race along with her mother and abducted Gamora training her as a TykeBomb from an early age. When we first see her as an adult in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', she’s an aloof and violent DarkActionGirl although she does become a DefectorFromDecadence. Teammate [[Characters/StarLord Peter Quill]] as seen in his [[AMinorKidroduction minor kidtroduction]] was a sweet kid who loved his mom and music and only got into a fight with some other kids because they squashed a bug. Having watched his mother pass away from brain cancer in front of him and was subsequently raised by SpacePirates, who turned Peter into a thrill-seeking outlaw and GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe womaniser. Peter did manage to retain his love of music and better nature however, buried underneath his immature jerkass behaviour.
** As extensively shown in TheTeaser to ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' Natasha and Yelena were once cheerful and happy little girls living comfortably in Ohio in the '80s with loving (non-biological) parents Alexei and Melina. Getting forced back to Russia, taken away from said parents, shoved in cargo containers with many other girls, surgically having their uteruses cut out and rendered infertile, [[TrainingFromHell brutally trained]] and disgustingly abused in the Red Room by Dreykov in order to be Black Widows — all unsurprisingly turned Natasha and Yelena into depressed, brutal, sarcastically jaded adult women. Although Nat like the aforementioned Tony was able to alter the course of her life and become a hero instead, which given the circumstances of her past is a miracle in itself.

* ''Fanfic/TheSmeetSeries'': Cheesecake'' the Indokuro started as a pampered, playful and adorable (though disobedient and misbehaving) PetMonstrosity. However, after being left in the wild with a pack of wild indokuros he starts behaving more like his kind; becoming aggressive, standoffish, and predatory to the point of nearly biting Purple when he tries to touch him while feeding.