Times where the villain creates their own hero in Live-Action TV series.
- Arrowverse:
- Arrow: Oliver Queen's transformation into the Green Arrow began when his family's yacht, the Queen's Gambit, sank, and he became stranded on Lian Yu. There, he was trained to fight by Slade Wilson. The Queen's Gambit was sunk by Malcolm Merlyn, the Big Bad of Season 1, while Slade Wilson became the Big Bad of Season 2. Oliver even expressly acknowledges at the end of Season 2 that it was Slade who made Oliver into a hero.
- Black Lightning: Jefferson Pierce was motivated to become a superhero after he witnessed the murder of his father by Tobias Whale. Later it is revealed that the corrupt government organisation, the A.S.A. (American Security Agency), created a vaccine to make the minority population of Freeland docile but ended up giving numerous people, including Jefferson, superpowers instead. The A.S.A. are also the ones who ordered Whale to kill Jefferson's father as his articles would have exposed their crimes.
- The Flash (2014): The man in yellow, also known as the Reverse-Flash, deliberately played a major role in making Barry Allen into the Flash. The irony is that Eobard Thawne deliberately traveled back in time to try to kill Barry as a child. Future!Barry saved his past self, so Thawne ended up killing his mother. His trip back in time messed up his connection to the Speed Force, making him unable to return to his own time. Determined to bring about the Flash sooner than in his own history, he stole Harrison Wells's identity (and killed the real one) and built the particle accelerator 6 years earlier than expected. His eventual goal is to train Barry to be at his best, and then use him (willingly or otherwise) to open a time portal and return home.
- In Season 4, the Thinker ends up masterminding the transformation of a busload of people into new metahumans. While a number of them end up becoming criminals, one ends up becoming Central City's newest hero (under Barry's tutelage) — Ralph Dibny (AKA the Elongated Man). How does this work against the Thinker? Dibny uses his Shapeshifter ability to spring Barry from prison, where he was put by the Thinker framing him for murder.
- Game of Thrones: At the start of the show, the Starks are a peaceful and close-knit family who are happy to remain at Winterfell and care for the North under the King's rule until events early in the narrative separate them, initially splitting them into Ned/Sansa/Arya in King's Landing, Jon/Benjen at Castle Black, and Catelyn/Robb/Bran/Rickon at Winterfell and they are further separated due to unfortunate events. All the while, the Lannisters' ambitions and habit of brutally murdering House Stark members (Joffrey executes Ned, and Tywin conspires with the Boltons and Freys to murder Catelyn and Robb) contribute to turning the younger Starks into an increasingly ruthless, badass bunch who are bent on getting vengeance for their loved ones and protecting the smallfolk from the Lannisters and Boltons. And, in terms of undermining the Stark's reputation and support, it wasn't a great idea to kill members from the most honourable House in the kingdom in the most dishonourable way possible. Just think: if they hadn't done all of this and had simply allowed Joffrey and Sansa's betrothal to take its course without any extra drama, the Lannisters could have had powerful allies in the Starks instead of now ABSURDLY powerful enemies.
- Specifically between them all: Cersei and Joffrey abuse Sansa for years, which led her to help reclaim the North with Jon after they took back Winterfell from the Boltons as well as the fact that her time in King's Landing taught her how to play the game of thrones better than anyone else in the show; Jaime cripples and almost kills Bran, who develops supernatural powers as a result; and Twyin's arranged-murder of Robb and Catelyn is witnessed by Arya, resulting in her becoming a finely-honed assassin barely into her teens, and she personally takes out many of the Lannisters' allies. Even Joffrey trying to kill Arya's Direwolf Nymeria ended with her becoming the leader of a massive wolf pack loyal to the Starks, and the absolutely abhorrent treatment of the Stark family by the Lannisters eventually leads to the whole North rebelling and proclaiming Jon Snow their king.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider: In the original show, Shocker had not one, but TWO super-cyborgs escape from them and become superheroes! This trope is very common throughout the Showa era, and is so recurrent that it has been given an In-Universe name: The Cross of Fire, and for the most part, it has happened a couple of times. A villain causing an eclipse caused a wizard with the potential to be a real pain to be born, a corporation using kids as guinea pigs ended up with several kids gunning for them, hell even killing a guy ends up in them becoming a Kamen Rider. Even if the villains didn't accidentally create the heroes' powers, their actions will somehow result in this. Notably, the Cross of Fire is implied to be some cosmic force, meaning this trope is technically a law of reality in the Kamen Rider universe!
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid follows a more Showa-era approach to the main rider. Emu was used as a test subject to help refine the Bugster virus by Doctor Pac-Mannote . As a result, not only does this allow him to use the Gamer Driver and a Gashat without the special immunity surgery the other Riders had to go through, but his special biology later opens the way for completing the Mighty Brothers XX Gashat.
- Kamen Rider Build has the real Big Bad invoke this with the main heroes! Sento was formerly known as Takumi Katsuragi aka the Devil's Scientist who was the creator of Faust along the Build system. After wanting to quit Faust, Blood Stalk knocks him out and uses his powers to arrange Takumi's appearance into Sento Kiryu from Tarou Sato who was killed at that time... then framing Ryuuga for the murder of Takumi Katsuragi who then became a test subject for Faust who didn't turn into a Smash and escaped. After erasing the memories of the man who is now known as Sento, he is founded by Soichi who helped him become Kamen Rider Build to become the hero while Ryuuga becomes Sento's ally and eventually becomes Kamen Rider Cross-Z to fight against the Smash and Soichi's daughter Misora has powers to purify Fullbottles from the Smash to help aid the heroes for justice. However, Soichi is none other than Blood Stalk of Faust! So Soichi "rescued" his daughter from Faust while setting Sento up as the hero of justice while had his daughter believe she was purifying the Fullbottles for good after refusing to do so when she found out it was for Faust even when threatened. So he has the heroes fight to collect all Fullbottles and Panels to use the Pandora Box for his own reason as he's the astronaut who founded the Pandora and then opened it to cause the Skywall Incident. Then comes the revelation that Ryuuga is not human as he was born half human and blood tribe due to an alien specimen coming across his mother and she give birth to him in two months. His origin is similar to Evolt who is actually Soichi being possessed by him the entire time and that they can weld the Pandora Box!
- Kidou Keiji Jiban: Rookie police officer Naoto Tamura was fatally injured in an attack by Criminal Syndicate Bioron. This just so happened to make him the perfect candidate for the police department's Cyborg Super Cop program.
- In the pilot of Leverage, Victor Dubenich hires most of what would become the Leverage team to steal back airplane plans from his business rival. However, when it comes time for payment, Dubenich instead tries to kill them. After narrowly escaping from the attempt and the authorities that came to investigate, they find out they were actually just plain stealing the plans, and decide to get both payback and the payment they were promised. So, they recruit Sophie and not only do they steal back the plans, with evidence that Dubenich's company stole them, but they also run his reputation and company to the ground and use the ensuing plummet in the company's stock price to make an enormous killing in short-selling. And then the team finds that they enjoyed it so much and want to do it again, and the rest is what makes up the rest of the series.
- Loki (2021): He Who Remains spends eons manipulating events so that Loki and Sylvie find him at the end of time, in order to persuade Loki to join him, take his place or both. In doing so, he forces Loki to go through the degradation of being captured by the T.V.A.; the realization that everyone in the T.V.A. are variants that were kidnapped and memory wiped and purposely exposes Loki to powerful radiation from the Temporal Loom that allows Loki to time travel at will to every and any point in time assuming that seeing the futility of trying to change things would make Loki agree that He Who Remains way is the only way to prevent a Multiversal War that would kill everyone and everything. Instead, Loki chooses a third option and destroys the Temporal Loom, instead of He Who Remains, sacrificing his freedom to allow everyone else on every timeline to have the choices he never did, by taking the Loom's place and using his own body, power and sheer will to sustain every timeline and help them grow. Had He Who Remains not manipulated events Loki would have never had the ability or, more importantly, the empathy to do what he does.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron's murder of Finrod is the event that changed Galadriel from a happy young woman into a Knight Templar searching to kill him.
- Luke Cage: As revenge for their father disowning him, Willis "Diamondback" Stryker frames his half-brother Carl Lucas for a crime which results in Carl being sent to Seagate Prison. While there, Carl is subjected to an experiment that grants him Super-Strength and Super-Toughness, becoming the hero of Harlem, Luke Cage. Lampshaded by Diamondback himself:I sent you to hell and you come back with superpowers! Ain't that a bitch.
- Outlander: Captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall and his cruel sadistic streak converts Jamie Fraser from a teenager working on his family's farm into an infamous Jacobite rebel fighting to over throw the Crown and expel the Redcoats from Scotland. Because of Black Jack's numerous sexual assaults against Jamie and his family, the two men repeatedly clash, culminating in Jamie killing Black Jack during a battle between the Jacobites and Randall's Redcoats batallion. Had Randall never falsely imprisoned Jamie, Jamie would have still been at Lallybroch, farming and dealing with his tenants.
- Power Rangers:
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
- The first time this happens is when the series' original Big Bad, Rita Repulsa sends her Mooks to attack the five chosen teens when she sees them leaving Zordon's base. What she didn't know was that the teens had initially refused Zordon's offer to become Power Rangers. The only reason they end up using the morphers Zordon gave them is because of self-defense. This event causes the team to realize what is at stake and they accept Zordon's offer to become Power Rangers.
- In "Green With Evil", Rita abducts, brainwashes and empowers Tommy Oliver, a new kid in town whose martial arts skills rival that of Jason's. The Rangers ultimately free Tommy from Rita's evil grip and gain a new ally in the process. Tommy would then go on to be the longest serving Ranger in the entire franchise, making him a thorn in not only Rita's side but for a number of other villains as well. Basically, the Machine Empire, Divatox and Mesogog all have Rita to thank for Tommy Oliver being a Ranger.
- In Season 2, the Rangers meet and befriend three teenagers from Stone Canyon named Rocky, Adam and Aisha. These teens end up getting kidnapped by the villains to lure the Rangers into a trap. This results in the trio discovering the Rangers' identities and subsequently joining the team when Jason, Trini and Zack are Put on a Bus.
- Rita later creates a clone of Tommy and gives him Tommy's old Green Ranger powers. Tommy breaks Rita's control over the clone and he helps Tommy save the other five Rangers.
- In Season 3, Rita kidnaps and brainwashes a teenager who is new in town yet again. This time, the teen in question is an Australian student named Katherine whom Rita has instructed to spy on the Rangers and steal Kimberly's power coin which would result in the Pink Ranger's death as the power coins are connected to the Rangers' life force. Not only does Kat break free from Rita's control and help save Kim, but she takes over as the Pink Ranger after Kim is Put on a Bus. Even better, Kat had a temporary psychic connection to Rita as a result of the spell which allowed her to foil another of Rita's plans.
- As Power Rangers: Dino Thunder is a homage of the above mentioned Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the villains end up being guilty of this trope as well.
- Elsa aka Principal Randall places Tommy in charge of Conner, Ethan and Kira's detention. This leads to them finding the Dino Gems and becoming Power Rangers.
- Mesogog captures Tommy and tries to force him to release the Black Dino Gem from its resting place. The gem bonds with Tommy of its own accord and he becomes a Ranger once more.
- Zeltrax frames Trent (who is Brainwashed and Crazy) for destroying Mesogog's lab, leading to Mesogog trying to kill Trent. Hearing his son beg for his help causes Anton Mercer to momentarily wrest control from Mesogog, and in doing so, he destroys the evil encoding on the White Dino Gem. This allows Trent to make a Heel–Face Turn and join the other four Rangers, completing the Dino Thunder team.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
- Seigi No Symbol Condorman: The Monster Clan do this twice over in the first episode. Them killing Isshin Mitsuya's mentor is what inspires him to investigate into their dealings, and them killing him while he was attempting to save the Dragon Condor and its egg is what leads to the Dragon Condor's child reviving him as Condorman.
- Supernatural: Dean and Sam Winchester were genetically engineered to be the human embodiment of the archangels Michael and Lucifer respectively. To make them strong enough to physically/emotionally handle their essence the Winchesters' lives were made a living hell, almost from infancy. Guess who defeated, multiple times, Michael and Lucifer's attempts to end humanity?
- Super Sentai:
- Himitsu Sentai Gorenger: The first episode sees the Black Cross Army carrying out attacks against five different EAGLE bases. The Sole Survivors of each of these attacks would go on to form the Gorangers to fight them.
- Choujuu Sentai Liveman: It's safe to say the Liveman would have just been three regular university students had they not lost two of their friends to the Armed Brain Army Volt and had three more of their classmates defect to join them.
- Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: The protagonists all suffered tragedies due to the Zangyack, which through some way or another led to them joining Captain Marvelous's crew and fighting against them.
- Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger: The Lupinrangers lost their loved ones to the Gangler. They then learn that the legendary Lupin Collection can grant a wish to revive their loved ones. And guess who used a piece of the Lupin Collection to kill their loved ones!
