Basic Trope: Somebody changes sides because they can't tolerate the actions of their former team.
- Straight:
- Bob, a paladin working for The Empire, protests after being ordered to raze a village on the off-chance one of them might know a member of La Résistance. After failing to keep his allies from carrying out their orders and seeing the results firsthand, Bob decides to switch sides and turn on the empire.
- Exaggerated:
- The resistance is entirely made up of former members of The Empire who decided they couldn't put up with their ruler's evil ways any longer.
- The leader of a utopian world accidentally steps on an ant and causes a revolt.
- Downplayed:
- Commander Bob likes the war thing but does not approve the current Evil General's policy and decides to take his troops elsewhere, not helping the Hero, but not killing him either.
- Bob breaks off from the Empire and forms a new faction, one that still does terrible things, but does them to fulfill goals rather then personal profit and pleasure.
- Justified:
- Bob just had a Heel Realization and acts accordingly.
- Alice isn't really changing sides so much as making where she stands clearer after her parents seem to pull a Face–Heel Turn.
- Bob and Alice know that either option stinks, and that staying on a side their conscience can't take is just as likely to end with them dead, so might as well die with a cleaner one than they'd have otherwise.
- Inverted:
- Emily, a scout for the resistance, sees the rapine/destruction/looting The Empire's forces are permitted to indulge in and decides the benefits are much better on their side.
- Fred, adamantly believing that heroism is a fool's game, and that the resistance is doomed, willingly sides with The Empire's forces out of sheer spite.
- Subverted:
- Bob is shaken by the village's destruction, but justifies it to himself and remains a soldier of the empire.
- While upset, Princess Alice remains with her parents and doesn't run off to join the rebellion.
- It's not actually "The Empire" who are the evil side, but the defectors who formed a Renegade Splinter Faction based off of fringe politics and/or evil means.
- Double Subverted:
- However, the next time Bob's commander orders them across the Moral Event Horizon, he chops off his commander's head and turns on those of his comrades who won't stand down.
- However, she takes advantage of this position to feed the rebellion vital information about the empire's plans.
- Parodied:
- Bob has been a Lawful Stupid Knight Templar to the core, but switches sides after witnessing Emperor Evulz punting a puppy — who Bob promptly adopts as his Morality Pet.
- Bob defects when Emperor Evulz refuses to give him a free limousine. However, resistance doesn't want to give him a free limousine either. Bob ends up creating an alliance called "Free Limousine for Bob", but can't get anyone to join.
- Zig Zagged: Bob defects from Emperor Evulz since he could no longer stand their excessive cruelty, but it turns out that resistance is even worse. Then we find out the atrocities the resistance committed were actually done by the Empire to frame the resistance, and Bob was one of the many people in the Empire who pretended to defect to commit these atrocities.
- Averted: Bob is fixated on the idea of My Master, Right or Wrong, no matter how tortured his conscience is.
- Enforced: "Hey, this series is too reliant on heroes being heroes and villains being villains. Let's add a more nuanced character who feels conflicted about the actions of his former comrades, and switches sides because of it."
- Lampshaded: "Could you do something about the outfit?" "It's the only set of armor I have". "Come on! File down the spikes, get a paint job, something!" "Sorry".
- Invoked:
- Bob's commander, suspecting that his loyalty isn't absolute, deliberately engineers a Secret Test of Character in the guise of a Moral Event Horizon to see whether or not he'll defect (fully expecting that, if he does defect, he can kill Bob before he escapes).
- King Charles and Queen Diane decide to align themselves with the empire in order to protect their kingdom, despite suspecting that their daughter will leave and start supporting the rebellion openly.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Bob's commander, suspecting that he might defect, sends him to another unit or simply kills him beforehand.
- Discussed: "If Emperopr Evulz keeps being such a pointlessly sadistic bastard, resistance is going to double in size by the end of the month!"
- Conversed: "That one's too nice, he will never last running with the forces of Emperor Evulz".
- Deconstructed:
- Despite switching sides because he could no longer stand by what his peers were doing, Bob finds himself still judged by their behavior, as well as his past misdeeds. The camadarie he once shared with his comrades is gone, the bonds broken by his own decisions, and he can't forge new ones to replace them because nobody trusts a traitor. Ultimately, Bob becomes a Martyr Without a Cause, seeking to atone for his mistakes by sacrificing himself for his ideals.
- Princess Alice quickly finds that her rank hardly matters in the rebellion, save among those hoping to make her a puppet ruler or otherwise take advantage of her — something which becomes somewhat of a moot point after her parents disinherit her. She struggles to adjust to the harshness of life as a renegade underground, and questions whether her decision to defect was really all that smart, ideals aside.
- Reconstructed:
- Though distrusted by the bulk of the resistance's forces, Bob manages to prove himself to a few members and forges a new group of True Companions, their bonds strengthened by shared ideals. This reinforces his newfound alliegence and assures him that he made the right decision turning on his former allies after they crossed the line.
- Despite becoming a Fallen Princess, Alice buckles down and becomes a crucial figure in the rebellion, inspiring others through her sacrifices and her absolute refusal to become anyone's puppet.
- Played For Laughs: The Rebels are just as bloodthirsty and horrible as the Empire, but Bob doesn't mind, the real reason he defected were those awful Imperial Army combat rations.
- Played For Drama: After they extract plenty of useful information from him, the revolutionaries decide Bob should be Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves.
Back to Defector from Decadence. Yes, Troper Tales were my comrades, but they've gone too far this time. If going back to the main page is what it takes to stop them, then that's what it takes.
