Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic
Cquote1
"Ok, Ron is acting really dumb... but it’s my story. Ron is my least fave character and I make him how I want him to be dumb cuz he is. Sorry for the inconvenience."
A fic that is no longer available
Cquote2


The result of shoehorning a good canon character into being a villain or making a villain significantly more evil than in canon is Ron the Death Eater, the inverse of Draco in Leather Pants.

This can be seen as a kind of deliberate Flanderization — Often, in creating Ron the Death Eater, a fanfic writer spins his canonical (non-evil) actions into evil acts, and every possible negative trait of the character is exaggerated until they become a Complete Monster. A measure of ruthlessness becomes complete and utter sociopathy, a tendency towards holding grudges becomes an obsessive hatred of anything they dislike, slight denseness becomes raging stupidity, et cetera.

This is often the result of a Draco in Leather Pants, but it doesn't have to be — some characters inspire this sort of hatred on their own, either by their canon merits or by being a romantic rival that interferes with the writer's One True Pairing, especially if the subject is part of an Official Couple.

In other cases, it seems like the target character, regardless of their original characterization, will simply default to one of two stock personalities, based entirely on their gender. Basically, male characters end up as drunken rapist assholes while female characters end up as manipulative vindictive bitches.

The fic may also have other characters who are canonically friends of the victim act as though he or she has always been an object of justified loathing, rather than going the "shocked at betrayal" approach. Or, even if these characters end up siding with the Draco in Leather Pants, they are subject to some Ron The Death Eater-ness themselves by way of "I was stupid to love him and not you".

In a number of cases however this is deliberately invoked by fans who think a good character looks better evil. This is quite common in doujinshi where an otherwise normal male character suddenly becomes a psychotic rapist or where a female character becomes a sadistic bitch who gets other girls raped.

Named for the tendency in Harry Potter fanfics where Draco turns good and hooks up with Hermione to have Ron — in Canon a decent, upstanding sort of fellow firmly on the side of good who happens to have a long-standing enmity with Draco — lose his mind and, often, join Lord Voldemort just for a chance at killing the sainted Malfoy.

A Sub-Trope of Demonization.

Compare Die for Our Ship (which is a major cause of this trope), Historical Villain Upgrade, and Adaptational Villainy.

Contrast Draco in Leather Pants.

And last but not least, fandoms that have so many examples of this that they needed to be moved to their own pages:


Now you, too, can join in the madness!

Examples (sorted by the original canons' media):


Anime and Manga[]

Cquote1

 Souichiro: Pray that there's a Taco Bell in Hell!

Cquote2
  • Chris Thorndyke from Sonic X, and he's quite a huge case.
  • Several examples of this from the Voltron fandom, especially one particular author:
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Conflicting Convictions portrays Nephrite in love with Kunzite to the point of being a Crazy Jealous Guy who constantly bullies poor little Zoisite. Now, Nephrite isn't a saint in canon but he's shown to be the most redeemable of the four in the first anime and to care for his fellow Shitennou in the manga. Plus, in the first anime where the antagonism originated, Zoisite was the one bullying him.
    • Too many fics turn Mamoru into an abuser so Usagi can run into the arms of Rei or Seiya.
    • One Nephrite/Naru fic had Umino suddenly become a snob who dumped Naru for not being smart enough for his liking, just so she could be lured into an abusive relationship with a jerkass and be rescued by Nephrite.
    • This author often turns Shingo/Sammy into a possessive creep towards Ami/Amy to make Zoisite look better, though most of the time it's explained away by an evil spell. This fic, however, gives him no such excuse, making him force her to marry him because Sammy is a noble and Zoisite is just a knight. She even has him yelling it in all caps to make him sound extra evil!
    • This ChibiUsa/Hotaru fic twisted Ikuko, Kenji, and Usagi into homophobic assholes who punished ChibiUsa for kissing her girlfriend and called said girlfriend a "delinquent" who was getting too many "twisted ideas" from Haruka and Michiru. There is nothing in canon to suggest Kenji and Ikuko are bigots, and Usagi is the last person who would try to ruin her future daughter's happiness. The fic ends with Hotaru using her psychic powers to kill ChibiUsa and then herself so they can be together in the next life.
    • Crystal Tokyo in general gets hit with this constantly. Neo-Queen Serenity is portrayed as a creepy Happiness Is Mandatory dictator who banishes people at the drop of a hat if they don't fit her standards for goodness, Sailor Pluto is painted as a manipulative bitch who uses the Time Gate to control people, and the Black Moon family were just one of this evil totalitarian Big Sister Is Watching society's poor exiled victims.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman:
  • Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2 gets hit with this quite hard in fics pairing Ranma with other people, especially from Ranma/Ukyo fans:
    • The Bitter End is infamous for twisting Akane from a tsundere into a psychotic abuser, while Ukyo is painted as a loving and loyal friend who ultimately failed to rescue the man she loved from Akane.
    • Mike Rhea's fics portrayed her as a shrieking harpy who makes Ranma's life a living hell, and Ranma never misses a chance to point out how much he hated being engaged to her and how much happier he is with Ukyo instead of "that uncute tomboy who couldn't even cook a good meal." Post-canon fics fobbed her off onto Ryouga and Akari, where she was supposedly happy popping out babies for Ryouga for the rest of her life.
    • Ryouga gets this treatment even in non-shippy fics. In canon, he's Ranma's eternal rival who occasionally shows signs of considering him a friend. In fanfic, he's either attempting to ruin Ranma's life, cheering from the sidelines as someone else does it, or raping Ranma's female form.
  • A good number of Sorcerer Hunters fics pulled this on Carrot or Gateau, depending on whom Marron was being shipped with. If it was Gateau, Carrot would become a homophobic jerkass who pretty much disowned his brother for being gay. If it was Carrot, Gateau would inexplicably become an abusive rapist.
    • Carrot could also get this in Tira/Marron fics, written as a flippant jerk who broke Tira's heart or chose her sister so she could run sobbing into Marron's arms.
  • Pokémon:
    • Many Ash/Misty fics in the old days had Gary either going out of his way to hurt Misty to emotionally cripple Ash, or simply kidnapping and trying to have his way with her so Ash could rescue her. In canon, Gary didn't acknowledge her much outside of her being a gym leader he fought once, his japes were always aimed at Ash.
    • Brock was also placed in such a role, though it didn't happen as much as with Gary.
    • Misty's sisters got this treatment from fans who believed they were evil and abusive simply because they were shallow and gave Misty a hard time (you know, as older siblings do). Completely ignoring that they did love Misty and told her as much in their debut episode.
    • Misty herself got hit with this in fics that paired Ash with other people (usually Gary, May, or Brock). She went from a tsundere who cared for Ash despite fighting with him to an evil Clingy Jealous Girl who wanted Ash all to herself and would even attack anyone who tried to get close to him.
    • Cori Falls's fanfiction loves this trope. Jessiebelle, James's fiance, is portrayed as a Complete Monster who would murder Jessie in cold blood just to be able to keep James chained to her forever. (Granted, Jessiebelle is a sadist in canon, but not to this extent!) In a non-shippy sense, Ash Ketchum is made into a holy terror whose only purpose in life is to ruin the trio's.
  • This Bleach fic, written as a crazed BNF's "farewell" to the series, has Ishida dump Orihime for Renji while Orihime is twisted into a crazed, psychotic, fully hateable yandere. The fic ends with her being erased from existence and written off as a tragic mess who would soon be forgotten forever. All because Orihime dared get with the boy she loved, marry him, and have his child instead of "growing up" by abandoning her love for Ichigo to hop on Ishida's dick and have his babies.
    • The fic "Gift of Our Fathers" sees Orihime getting possessed by a demon, lashing out at Ichigo and Rukia, and hating Rukia so much she wants to kill her. The story ends with the couple killing her, but dying under falling rubble in the process.
  • Love Live! Sunshine!!: Aside from being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, and owning to the Die for Our Ship status; Riko Sakurauchi is also painted as some kind of a Manipulative Bastard when it comes to talking to other girls while secretly destroying the hearts of other girls that are friends with.

Comic Books[]

  • Parodied in The Unwritten, about a son of a writer who got famous after creating a series of novels very similar to Harry Potter. The first two start with fragments of those books, and the third with a fragment of Frankenstein. The first page of the fourth issue shows Harry's counterpart slaughtering Ron's and Hermione's counterparts in a really terrible way, only to have it turn out on the next page that it's a Dark Fic.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen seems to be based around this trope. Mina, who at the end of Dracula was happily married to Jonathan Harker at the end of Dracula divorces her husband and presumably abandons her child prior to the beginning of the first volume The upstanding Great White Hunter Alan Quatermain is an opium addict. Perhaps the most extreme example is from Black Dossier. The comic features a violent, sociopathic, date rapist version of James Bond in a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo. Jonathan Harker goes from a loving and fiercely devoted husband to dumping his wife for being 'soiled goods'. And Harry Potter is literally the Antichrist.
  • Tron: Ghost in the Machine (based off the Alternate Continuity of Tron 2.0) depicts Alan as somewhat callous, work-driven, and harsh towards his son. Of course, his circumstances in the 2.0 timeline suck worse than his circumstances in the Tron: Legacy one — Flynn still vanishes, but he's been relegated to a lab instead of the boardroom, and while Lora's alive in Legacy, she died in 2.0 — but the depiction really goes off the rails when he was shown murdering his wife in a jealous rage. Granted, it was just an attempt to Mind Rape Jet, but...

Film[]

  • Oh the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
    • The most obvious example is everything to do with Loki. After Thor, the fangirls denounced everyone in Asgard as spiteful, lunkheaded, primitive abusers of such a precious cinnamon roll. Indeed it's not uncommon for fangirls to jump through hoops to rationalize how the Jotuns were the good guys in the war on the simple basis that they weren't Asgard.
      • In Dark World, Thor outright says that he doesn't trust Loki and has to threaten him with death to get him to cooperate. The fangirls interpreted this as Thor being a Domestic Abuser and Loki taking the throne, not because it's his actual motivation, but simply as a tear-filled spiteful middle finger to Thor who didn't care that he died. When Thor cried on-screen and was the only character in the film to not whoop for joy at Loki's death. When Thor later says that he mourned Loki, Loki's reaction can be best summarized as "bemused disgust."
      • Ragnarok is where it gets interesting because this is the film where Thor and Loki finally make amends. First, people began hating Thor for throwing a TV remote at Loki to confirm that he was real and not an illusion. Then they hate him for saying he's okay with leaving Loki behind despite it having been Reverse Psychology to have Loki truly reform his ways. Thor's tears for Loki in Infinity War are of course, also fake, because again, Thor didn't bother to really check if Loki died (even though the neck snap is audible, Loki is leaking blood from his eyes and mouth, and Thor was content to cradle Loki's body as he died). Never mind that Thor was just rendered unconscious after tanking the full might of the Power Stone or anything like that.
      • Throughout the whole saga, Odin was vilified as a warmongering tyrant who Eats Babies. When it was found that he was a Galactic Conqueror in the past, albeit as a Necessary Evil to bring peace to the Realms, some branded him as Eviler Than Thou to Thanos, gave a full on Draco in Leather Pants treatment to Hela, insisting that Odin was a spiteful Green-Eyed Monster to her awesome power. Chapter 18 of Balance by Crosshairs is perhaps the most extreme example of this, casting Odin as a full-on villain; whose acts include brainwashing, rape, attacking his Child by Rape, conquest for shits and giggles; and Hela and Loki as incapable of doing any wrong. In fact, the same fic even applies this to Frigga for daring not to do anything to help Loki in his youth. Remember Frigga? The mother who loved Loki unconditionally and tried to help him reform in Dark World while having taught him all his magic personally from his youth?
        • Balance is part of a series that originally did this to Team Cap; particularly Cap, Hawkeye, and Hank Pym; based off of reasonable, if somewhat exaggerated, Alternative Character Interpretations but later began doing this to anyone who wasn't Team Iron Man for the barest of reasons, such as demonizing Banner for falling into a wormhole post Age of Ultron, undoing all of Thor's Character Development, or making Star-Lord a short tempered It's All About Me idiot who was Epic Fail personified because of... reasons.
    • Captain America: Civil War opened the doors to do this for either Cap or Iron Man, depending on which hero you think was right. If you think Cap was right, then Iron Man is a Tautological Templar Karma Houdini Hypocrite trying to make the world pay for his mistakes. If you think Iron Man was right, then Cap is a He Who Fights Monsters Hypocrite, becoming no worse than the Red Skull in his belief that he knows what's best and would sacrifice anyone and everything just to make sure that so much as a gentle breeze doesn't hurt Bucky.
      • The Tony fangirls insisted that Cap fell victim to this as early as The Avengers, demonizing him as ignorant, backwards thinking, anti-intellectual, bully. This is born out of the fact that Tony's outside the box thinking, and his acceptance of the Hulk, was what led to victory in the film. Even Cap's sinking of the HYDRA helicarriers is reinterpreted as him creating a new crisis (a lack of SHIELD) so he doesn't become obsolete in the 21st century and, of course, Cap didn't care about the citizens of D.C. that he was dropping the helicarriers on.
      • Diehard Wanda fans in Age of Ultron insist that Tony was personally responsible for the deaths of her and Pietro's parents. Discounting the fact that Tony's contributions to his company are mostly R&D, given Sokovia's status as a war-torn third-world ex-Soviet state, it's much more likely that the defective bomb was sold by Obadiah Stane.
    • Before Age of Ultron showed that Clint was married, Clintasha was the most popular ship based around him. This led to massive Ron the Death Eater syndrome for Mockingbird, Clint's comic love interest. Despite the fact that Mockingbird hadn't even appeared yet in the MCU. And yes, poor Laura Barton got this treatment too.
    • Even Thanos is not safe from this. In Avengers: Infinity War, he's portrayed as a Noble Demon and Well-Intentioned Extremist. In many fanfics that continued the film, or outright rewrote it (both before and after it came out), such as the aforementioned Balance, Thanos is a Complete Monster Generic Doomsday Villain who only wants the Infinity Stones for the sake of his own personal power and doesn't give a damn about anyone else. Though after Avengers: Endgame, this portrayal might have had some ground to stand on.
    • Star-Lord after Infinity War given that he screwed up the plan to restrain Thanos. In fairness to Quill, he'd just learnt that the love of his life had been killed and his reaction was completely justified, it just happened at the worst possible time. Quill even acknowledges his error later on but that doesn't stop some fans from viewing him as a complete asshole who deserved to be Snapped away.
    • Those who ship Wanda Maximoff with someone who isn't Vision, particularly supporters of the Crack Pairing Crossover Ship of Wanda Maximoff/Barry Allen, have somehow managed to reinvent Vision - an All-Loving Hero whose guiding life principle is Greater Need Than Mine - into a creepy Stalker with a Crush who doesn't respect Wanda's privacy and is a controlling abuser. As one can imagine, these people weren't too happy when most of these undesirable attitudes better described Wanda in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
    • Avengers Redeux is unique among the MCU fandom as it does this for all the Asgardians including Loki. All the Asgardians invading Earth, save Canon Immigrant Thrud and Reasonable Authority Figure Frigga, are portrayed as little more than bullies who like picking on Puny Earthlings and run crying if someone gives them a bloody nose. The author tries to pre-empt anyone calling him out about this by defending it as having rerailed the Aesir to how they were both in Norse Mythology and Earth-616. Regardless of whether he has, he's still turned heroic MCU characters into proud colonizers and imperialists that get a high from beating up Earth heroes.
  • After Star Trek: Into Darkness aired, the Federation became a People's Republic of Tyranny that squashed out anything different, brainwashed children from youth, and harassed innocent species so as to give Khan a villain to fight against.
  • Star Wars:
    • An amusing example is Jar-Jar Binks. He was meant to be a Kid Appeal Character, and to an extent Lucasfilm succeeded in that, but the older fandom found him to be The Scrappy before the Darth Jar-Jar meme was born. In this case, Ron the Death Eater makes the character even more beloved.
    • Canon doesn't hide the fact that the Jedi are out of touch and bought their own hype, The Last Jedi has Luke outright say this. If you ask the fans, crossover writers in particular, the Jedi are a mind raping religious cult of child stealers. The Jedi have also been demonized for causing the Clone Wars even though they had nothing to do with the outbreak of the conflict. It was the Republic's increasing trend of taxation without representation that planted the seeds of war.
    • There are a lot of fans who will demonize Obi-Wan for crippling Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. Because he obviously did that For the Evulz. Not because Anakin had committed high treason and multiple murders or anything like that.
    • The Sith Resurgence does this to just about every character in the Sequel Trilogy with the possible exception of Rey. Luke and Leia are presented as Holier Than Thou monsters for distrusting the Sith, Finn spends the longest time being mocked a whiner and Kylo Ren is flanderized into a purely tantrum throwing Big Bad Wannabe, lacking any of his internal conflict and his relationship with Rey. And Rey is only a possible exception because while she is still guided by noble goals, she has no issue following the teachings of the Sith.
    • Rooting for the Empire is this trope on a large scale in the Star Wars fanbase. Whole fansites like StarDestroyer.Net praise the Empire as a force for order and demonize the Rebel Alliance as Bomb-Throwing Anarchists who are doing it all For the Evulz. Some even go so far as to view the Rebels as the Villain Protagonists of the Original Trilogy.
  • Were the King and Queen in Frozen perfect parents? No. But they were Good Parents who loved their girls and only wanted to protect both. In fanfics, they only separated Anna and Elsa so that the former wouldn't hear the latter's screams as they tortured her to understand how her powers worked.
  • Superman in Man of Steel. He had no fighting experience, was hilariously outnumbered and ultimately had no choice but to kill Zod, something he was horrified about. To haters however, Superman is an amoral All Powerful Bystander who didn't give a damn about all the deaths he, not Zod or the Hostile Terraforming, caused.

Literature[]

Live-Action TV[]

  • In the, since removed, Friends fic Somebody Save Me, Richard — a perfectly nice, well-loved guy whose relationship with Monica only broke up because of May-December Romance problems — was portrayed as a drunken, selfish, physically and emotionally abusive rapist who does not care for Monica at all, so that Chandler can be there to protect and rescue Monica from her evil abuser. Why an OC abusive boyfriend could not have been made up, seeing as Monica dates dozens of men throughout the run of Friends, is a mystery. It's not the only one of its kind either.
  • One particularly bad and extremely unsettling NSFW Degrassi fic called The Junkie Journals turns Riley Stavros into a rapist, MindRapeist, gay basher, drug addict, Jerk Jock, Villain Sue, and Karma Houdini. He's such a Complete Monster that people walk away from the story feeling like they've come across the seedy underbelly of the world. All of this without warning or explanation. The main character of the story is also rescued by Peter but it's a mystery why the so-called "author" couldn't just make up an OC who's a Complete Monster instead of having to defile Riley's character.
  • Allecto's controversial critiques of Firefly are something of an extreme example of this; the actions of several of the characters (and especially the white male ones) are often twisted in order to fit an extreme feminist reading, thus unfairly painting them as evil.
  • Back when he was first introduced to the show as Lucy's future husband, fics portraying Kevin Kinkirk of 7th Heaven as a Domestic Abuser were a dime a dozen. Here's an example. The trend died down a bit after season 8, thankfully.
  • The web series Zack Morris is Trash is all about making Zack from Saved by the Bell look as evil as possible. While a lot of his actions were morally questionable at best and he could be a massive jerkass to his friends, this series goes from merely pointing it out to blaming Zack for everything bad about the series. Even things other people clearly did!
  • Doctor Who:
    • When the show was rebooted and allowed for romance, this trope arrived in full force. While it can apply to anyone, it's most frequently used by Rose/Doctor shippers who vilify Martha Jones, River Song, and Clara Oswald, despite the fact that those three, unlike Rose, acknowledge that, though they love the Doctor, they can't stay with him forever and that, one day, they'll have to move on. There's also those Rose shippers who vilify Rose's, unseen, ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Stone, painting him as a Domestic Abuser. He may have been an asshole who only loved Rose for her body, but he never got physical. The relationship may have cost Rose her higher education but Rose was ultimately the one who made the bad decision to consent to it.
    • And of course, there are those who don't like Rose at all, viewing her an Entitled to Have You (with respect to both the Doctor and Mickey) Clingy Jealous Girl who would damn all of creation just to reunite with the Doctor. The peak of this is the fanfics where Rose decides to take offence at Susan (the Doctor's granddaughter) looking on the Time Lady with such contempt while still expecting the Doctor to love her.
    • The Time Lords get this a lot. To be fair, there a lot of corrupt Time Lords but they're in the minority of their race's population. Most Time Lords have never been outside of Gallifrey and were brought up in such a rigid system that they simply can't conceive of a life outside of tradition and/or are rightfully terrified of Rassilon. But to a group of fans, most of them Rose/Doctor shippers, the Time Lords are Always Chaotic Evil who will readily abduct and abuse Rose to understand the Bad Wolf while laughing at the Doctor's Inelegant Blubbering as he begs them to stop.
    • The fandom has an interesting variation on this that mixes it with Die for Our Ship. The person who dies for the ship is the Doctor themselves, with people who ship him with someone else exaggerating the Doctor's more, for lack of a better word, callous moments towards his other potential romances (such as Ten dumping Rose in a parallel universe with a clone[1], Eleven simply dumping River and being content to die without taking her to Darillium[2] or Twelve letting Clara handle the Moon Creature[3]) as a way of proving why he wasn't in love with them.
    • TimeTraveller-1900 practically communicates through this trope. In his mind, a Fix Fic version of Doctor Who is making the Doctor a Sophisticated As Hell version of Rick Sanchez, a self-confessed Sociopathic Hero. He also usually writes Rose Tyler and River Song as abusive manipulators.
  • iCarly has one of the most toxic fandoms that ever existed so of course this applies.
    • For Creddie shippers, Sam is an unrepentant monster who sabotages any chance of Carly and Freddie being together and openly dreams of murdering Freddie and/or his mother.
    • For Seddie shippers, Carly is an Alpha Bitch who strings Freddie along, and will never ever return his feelings.
    • And in all the Fix Fics born out of Seasons 4 and 5, everyone bar Freddie (and Col. Steven Shay) is this. Though one could argue that Freddie (and Col. Steven Shay) succumbs to this, mixing it in with Fixer Sue, as the Fix Fic becomes an increasingly elaborate Revenge Fic and both become massive jerks who go around insulting anyone who disagrees with them and everything about their lives. And if a "The Reason You Suck" Speech doesn't work, then fisticuffs are always an option. In canon, Freddie, and for what little was seen of Col. Shay, was a Nice Guy who, while he could get annoyed and devious, never resorted to violence and preferred a diplomatic approach to conflict.
  • And while its sister show Victorious isn't as bad, it gets in on it too.
    • The Bade shippers view every action that Tori takes, no matter how helpful and nice it is towards Beck and Jade, as part of a carefully calculated scheme to bring Bade crashing down. Never mind that the show went out of its way to show that Tori is not crushing on Beck but that he's crushing on her. In a way, Bade fics even do this to Beck by showing him as always laughing at Jade insulting his friends or getting in on it himself despite the fact that, when push came to shove, he chose his friends over Jade in canon.
      • In fact, since Bade is so hated In-Universe, everyone bar Beck and Jade (except maybe Cat should they be feeling generous) can get this treatment in a Bade fic.
    • And though they don't indulge in it as much, the Bori (Beck/Tori) shippers are known to fire back and make Jade an irredeemable Jerkass. In fact, some early Tandré/Cabbie fics still cast Jade as Satan's daughter. She didn't have any impact on the plot, they just hated her and wanted her to get some Laser-Guided Karma.
    • But all that is nothing compared to how the Jori (Jade/Tori) shippers treat Beck who's now become a misogynistic Jerkass homophobe and possible Domestic Abuser.
    • Jade/André fics can only survive if, at best, Tori and Beck are treated as terminally dumb idiots who can't conceive of how wonderful André and Jade, respectively, are. At their worst, Tori and Beck are dirty cheaters who laugh at Jade's fragile ego so that André can come rescue her.
    • This video tries to paint Tori in the worst possible light by claiming she's "not as talented" as her co-stars, and using her "Take That!" Kiss with Beck as an example of her being "the worst" as a protagonist. The same channel also applies the Draco in Leather Pants treatment to Jade, to no surprise. Thankfully the video's comment section was smart enough to call them out.
  • Some Boy Meets World fics make Chet Hunter an abusive parent towards Shawn. While the man was canonically not a good father, the problem was that he let his own issues get in the way of raising his son; in addition to being an alcoholic he struggled to hold a steady job, had a rocky relationship with his wife, and in his final (living) appearance told Shawn he felt like he wasn't good enough for him, so he tried to keep his distance. He was a neglectful father and a mess of a person, but he still loved his son and showed no inclinations towards beating him.

Theatre[]

  • It's semi-canonical, in that the text can be interpreted in different ways, but a lot of productions of The Merchant of Venice (notably that with Laurence Olivier as Shylock) not only make Shylock as sympathetic as is possible, but also chose the most unflattering interpretations of the protagonists' characters. i.e., Bassanio is an Impoverished Patrician with traces of Gold Digger but is the most sympathetic of Portia's prospect husbands, and yet many adaptation make him a full-blooded materialistic bastard.

Video Games[]

  • Nerf Now did this to The Legend of Zelda series star Link, and made it look easy. In the comments, readers are seen not only developing the theme, but approving "Hey! Listen!" in more than one way.
  • Touhou:
    • The Chinese Touhou doujin Yuyuko's Yukkuri Farm goes to the extreme and has Yuyuko as a literal baby eater (warning: link is to Danbooru and has NSFW ads).
    • A dark fic author by the name of Stripe Pattern believes Byakuren, one of the unambiguously good characters in Touhou, is a psychotic monster in the doujin Love and Peace.
  • Spyro the Dragon: Ember was included in The Legend of Spyro: A New Dawn mainly to defy this trope because the author was sick and tired of her getting this treatment by the fandom. Quite a few readers agreed and she ended up being the Ensemble Darkhorse.
  • This artist from Deviant ART writes the eponymous protagonist of Mega Man this way simply because he destroys their favorite robot master(s).
    • On a more serious note, Iris from the Mega Man X games has a sizable number of people who exaggerate her negative qualities (along with those of other Repliforce members) in discussion, misblaming her for actions actually done by other characters.
  • Endlessly done to Luigi in Super Mario World ROM hacks. Some examples:
    • SMW YEAHHH has him as the true villain and final boss
    • Brutal Mario looks to be the same, as implied by this early final overworld map. Note him riding in the clown car and the giant neon letters on the castle. Also, it does the same to Peach (who's shown to be working with Luigi, and can be seen as an unfinished boss in game) and Mario (who's apparently trying to take back the kingdom he ran as a dictatorship beforehand).
    • S Mario has this, according to the translation raocow is working with. -->Luigi: "Brother, I've become a wielder of Black Magic."
  • N Harmonia of Pokémon Black and White was consistently written as a rapist during the Unova fandom's heyday. The ones where he forced himself on Hilda so whoever the author shipped her with could rescue and comfort her were bad enough, but fics about the ship itself had N "raping her in a moment of passion" and the two ending up together. While N had lacked social skills or sense of boundaries and had some creepy moments in the games themselves, he showed no signs of being so stupid about sex he would end up thinking rape was a good idea.
    • Grimsley is a frequent target of this as well, due to his mysterious nature and gothic looks. One fic flat-out says he rapes all female trainers who challenge him, and has been raping Shauntal for years. Then he rapes and impregnates Hilda.
    • Lusamine is perhaps the franchise’s champion of this trope, with haters often trying to make her out as a straight Complete Monster instead of a subversion, by bringing up things like the frozen Pikachu. This often goes hand-in-hand with giving Colress the biggest leather pants in the store. Some of the other villains, such as Lysandre, Zinnia, and many others, also get this from time to time.
    • For a time, Red and Professor Oak were treated this way by Blue fans in the original games. Oak got this for forgetting his grandson's name (so the player could choose the rival's name themselves) and shaming Blue for losing at the Pokemon league due to "not being caring enough" towards his Pokemon. Red was given this in the "You Killed Gary's Raticate" theory, and for being Oak's obvious favorite. The later games had Blue as a successful gym leader and good friends with Red, and Oak giving them equal appreciation.
    • Professors Sada and Turo from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet get hit with this stick due to their obsession with building a time machine so they could blend the past/future with the present, even though their motives are morally gray at best and contain zero malice. Additionally, they basically abandoned their son Arven in favor of their work, and Arven is one of the game's biggest woobies and an instant fan favorite. So naturally, Sada/Turo is The Worst in fans' eyes even though they did love their son.
      • Chairwoman Geeta from the same game is hated by many players. Either they find her "boring" compared to other characters, or they think she's a hypocrite for claiming not to hold back in battles while they, as players, find her easy to beat and personally dislike her battle style. Many of these people outright claim she must be the true villain, either because they want her to be evil so they can justify hating her or because someone as businesslike and kind as her can't possibly exist without having a secret dark side.
  • Danganronpa has a few common targets of this in the fandom. For example, Angie Yonaga from the third game is very often made into a killer in fanfiction, even some that aren't V3 rewrites such as "A New Hope". Sayaka Maizono often gets her negative traits exaggerated by memers, looking to deem her a "snake" even when there are slimier characters in the series. Hiyoko Saionji may be a racist, bug-killing nuisance, but she's a genuine friend to Mahiru, rather than the diabolical villain she is in "Final Horizon", for example. Mahiru herself is also often mis-characterized as a man-hater. ‘’V3’’ also has expires of both Sayaka and Mahiru in Tsumugi Shirogane and Tenko Chabashira, who really are as treacherous and man-hating as the respective fanon perceptions of Sayaka and Mahiru. Furthermore, due to the former's Ambiguously Evil status, she herself gets this from a lot of fans for taking out Kaede.
  • The Final Fantasy X yuri fic "Scratching the Surface" does this to Rikku's brother, who inexplicably raped her when she was incapacitated by a lightning spell. Rikku repressed the memory, and only Lulu's firm but gentle hand can bring it to the surface and later heal her trauma with loving sex.
  • Earthbound/Mother fans who feel sorry for Porky Minch tend to blame Ness entirely for his slide into darkness. While it's true that Porky came from a dysfunctional and abusive household, and that he did show tendencies towards loneliness and just wanting Ness to pay attention to him, he was also a spoiled brat and chose to become a world-destroying monster because of it. Ness had no way of knowing Porky would sink so low, or be able to predict the events of MOTHER 3.
    • Fans of Lucas from MOTHER 3 also cast Ness as a spoiled brat who gets every victory handed to him and has it too easy compared to Lucas who suffers so beautifully.
  • Some of this author's Ace Attorney fics do this to Klavier Gavin, turning him from a friendly rival who flirts with Ema Skye into a conniving bastard who rapes her or makes her his sex slave so Apollo can come to her rescue.

Webcomics[]

  • Bro Strider, Dave's badass older brother in Homestuck, is subjected to this by fans who take his over the top Training From Hell of Dave too seriously and treat their relationship as down right abusive in one way or another, nevermind there is little to no evidence of this and Dave obviously loves and respects his older brother. A good example of this attitude is in Out of His Depth A Dave/Tavros fic, where he is both abusive and a homophobic jerkass who's only real purpose in the fic is to provide a reason for Dave to be reluctant to admit his feelings and someone for Tavros to stand up to. This is a bit Hilarious in Hindsight as the fic was written before the Alpha Universe versions of the kids' Guardians were introduced and Bro's own counterpart Dirk is revealed to be both a pretty nice guy and, more importantly, openly gay.

Websites[]

Western Animation[]

  • In the Teen Titans fic Intertwining Hearts, Robin behaves like a jerk when Starfire tells him she wants to include Raven in their relationship (normal for Tamaran). So instead, Starfire and Raven include Beast Boy in their relationship. Robin is not that evil, however (though he does briefly attempt breaking up Starfire and Raven), and the fic ends with him having an emotional breakdown.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Infamous example: Mai in the fan comic How I Became Yours. Because how dare the woman be angry that her husband cheated on her and had a kid with another woman, clearly she deserves to be killed.
    • Aang in the since removed Toph/Katara fic, Do you hate me?, is twisted into a swearing, angry jackass who throws rocks and hurts Toph on purpose. Granted, this does take place during "The Desert" and he was angry at Toph for not saving Appa, but he'd never go out of his way to hurt her. He, in fact, became upset after intentionally hurting creatures that are a combination of buzzards and wasps.
    • Embers. Katara's season three rage over Zuko getting Aang mostly-killed after she'd started to trust him is transposed into a season one homicidal fury that Zuko is of the Fire Nation and has the nerve to be a better healer than she is. Since then, Katara has been publicly humiliated by the amazing Zuko in three or four different ways and has been reclaimed as an acceptable being, but is being used as a prop in the new goal of showing that Aang is a horrible, selfish boy who is deeply intolerant of everything that doesn't fit into his childhood culture (which by the way is secretly evil).
    • The Zutara "epic" Stormbenders portrays Aang as a selfish, unsympathetic child who refuses to grow up (by which the author means "give up the ideals he holds close to him because they're all he has left of his dead culture") and whose initial refusal to give up his love for Katara caused the fall of the Earth Kingdom.
    • This fic has Aang beating and abusing Katara so she can run into Zuko's arms. That said, the opening author's note does apologize for using this trope.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • The infamous Abuse Cycle fic twists Mako into a domestic abuser who beats Korra down, cripples her self-confidence, rapes her, and ends up killing her after their baby's born.
  • X-Men: Evolution:
    • Not Just A Sleepoverdepicts Cyclops aka Scott Summers as a humorless, oppressing, and incompetent would-be dictator who just hates the Brotherhood for no reason at all.
    • Tsunami depicts Jean Grey as a cliché Alpha Bitch, with everyone vocally denouncing her as a two-faced bitch, all while her powers are degraded to Pre-Claramont Comics!Jean level in order to "fix" how "perfect" she is.
    • In Diamonds Are A Fuzzy Dudes Best Friend Scott and Jean get this treatment.
    • Logan Vs Lance has Lance portrayed as a cheating, abusive, Bastard Boyfriend to motivate the X-Men to beat him up so Kitty would have a reason to break up with him.
  • In the interest of saving time, we're going to just tell you that there are some Transformers fans who honestly believe that the Decepticons are a group of Well-Intentioned Extremists and that the Autobots are evil communists who make other planets dependent on them. Keep in mind that genocide is standard operating procedure for Decepticons when they conquer a planet and that Optimus Prime has willingly sacrificed long-term victories just to rescue one person.
    • And yes, some also view the Maximals as a corrupt upper-class and the Predacons as an unfairly repressed minority. To be fair, this has some canon basis but it's clearly nowhere near as bad as the fanfics portray it as.
    • When it comes to the characters, just know that if any Autobot displays any signs of moral greying, they're liable to have this done to them. Sentinel Prime is a Jerkass sure, but in fanfics, he's a closet Decepticon. Bulkhead doesn't like risking his life to rescue Jerkasses or Ungrateful Bastards so he must be a Sociopathic Soldier. Optimus Prime annexed Earth to protect it from Galvatron so he must be a Galactic Conqueror with delusions of godhood while Starscream; who keep in mind, murdered, lied, and manipulated his way into office and ran countless shady side bets; is not only an overworked but well meaning politician but the only sincere politician who ever lived.
    • The Triumph of Time series, which features the aforementioned defamation of Optimus, continues to vilify all the Autobots, and the Thirteen Primes. The latter does have some justification as the outline for the story was written before The Reveal that Onyx Prime was really Shockwave in disguise and was acting as The Corrupter to the Primes, and it seemed that the Thirteen were simply victims of Adaptational Villainy (though the comics still portrayed them as much better than this fic does).
    • The Transformers Animated fanfic Carry on Wayward Son casts Ultra Magnus as a Knight Templar who will lock up anyone descended from, or suspected to sympathize with, the Decepticons in the name of security and endorses Police Brutality against bound prisoners. Even the Autobot government as a whole is given this treatment, having them enforce a Fantastic Caste System and discriminate against beastformers. For all the morally grey things the Autobots did in Animated, they never did those last two. And of course, the Decepticons are portrayed as downtrodden freedom fighters.
  • This entire blog is all about painting Doug Funnie as a pyscho, mostly for his constant fantasy sequences but also viewing everything he does in a negative light. Instead of, you know, just him being an insecure eleven-year-old boy on the cusp of puberty.
  • Steven Universe:
    • Every Dark Secret revealed about Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond inspires more and more hate for her. Many reviews for The Movie even said "You'll find a new reason to hate Pink Diamond." It's gotten so bad that some critics of Ask White Pearl and Steven (almost) Anything! genuinely believe that the author has given Rose a Draco in Leather Pants treatment for writing her as a flawed Reasonable Authority Figure/All-Loving Hero, i.e.: her canon depiction, rather than a sociopathic chessmaster.
    • To a lesser extent, Yellow Diamond. Sure she was a villain for most of the show, but fanfics really amp it up. The period between "The Trial" and "A Single Pale Rose", where it was thought that Yellow had shattered Pink, was the pinnacle of this.
    • Pearl was also victim to this in earlier episodes, given her Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies towards Rose before more of her backstory and insecurities were revealed.
    • Fans of Jasper tend to portray Lapis Lazuli in this light due to her dark side, and how she forced Jasper to stay fused to her at the bottom of the ocean for a long time before they separated, and when Jasper returned she was showing signs of PTSD despite having changed very little from the rough, abusive gem she'd been pre-fusion. These stories tend to completely miss the point of how Lapis and Jasper's relationship was mutually abusive, rather than just one being in the wrong.
  • Gaz in The New Adventures of Invader Zim. Granted she was never the nicest girl in the world but here she's a self-proclaimed nihilist who openly says that she doesn't care if Zim destroys Earth and has actually helped him just to spite Dib. Though per Word of God, this may be toned down given how Gaz was made more likeable in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus.
  • When Merlin was shown to be, at best, a Jerkass Anti-Hero in Trollhunters, this trope was not far behind. Some fanfics even have Jim say that, although Morgana's actions are wrong, her reasons for hating Merlin are very valid.
  • Monique, Trent Lane's on-again off-again girlfriend on Daria, is normally a chill lady who is always kind to Daria whenever their paths cross, with Daria's envy of her only minor and not something she's proud of. In many Daria/Trent fics, though, she's a two-faced bitch out to ensnare Trent's affections from the more deserving Daria. One installment of the Diane Long Continuum has her lock Daria out of her and Trent's apartment in the rain, forcing her to miss one of Trent's shows and manipulating him into believing Daria doesn't care so she can break them up.
    • Tom Sloane could get a lot of this treatment, too, even raping Daria in a few fics so Trent could rescue and comfort her.
    • TDLC also paints Helen as a stern, unsympathetic mother who had Daria put in a mental institution for a week when she was seven and blatantly favoring Quinn over her, despite Helen in canon truly caring about Daria despite the latter's closed-off nature. Quinn, too, is portrayed as more bitchy and manipulative as opposed to the Bratty Teenage Daughter who just has a lot of growing up to do.
  • Sir Topham Hatt/the Fat Controller gets this a lot in Thomas the Tank Engine stories as many an older fan enjoys casting the Island of Sodor as a Crapsaccharine World where the engines are a slave labour force. It's about half joking, half serious.
  • While never a great guy, Quagmire can really get this in the Family Guy fandom, exaggerating his more perverted tendencies and his hatred for Brian. Meg-centric stories in particular seem unable to survive without making him a villain in at least one chapter. (Unless she's being shipped with him)
  • American Dad! doesn't hide the fact that the Smiths are terrible people. But if you ask the fanbase, they'll say, though often in jest, that the Smiths are murdering cannibalistic sociopaths.
  • In the canon of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Glimmer is not perfect (she's reckless, prone to jealousy every now and then, is something of an Attention Whore) but much of that can be explained away as her sheltered upbringing and whatever her faults, Glimmer is intensely devoted to her friends and the protection of Etheria. But as she's Adora's second most popular choice for a lover, Catra/Adora fans exaggerate Glimmer's more ruthless moments into making her a sociopathic monster, such as arguing that her mild electric shocking of Catra in Season 4 was an act of utter sadism. Catra giving a horribly painful shock to Adora one episode prior however was nothing.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • All the Idiot Plots regarding Lila Rossi have led to some fan writers taking a critical view of Marinette's entire class, Alya in particular, for blindly believing Lila's Blatant Lies and turning against Marinette each and every time. The episodes "Ladybug" and "Chameleon" in particular were rich mines for hater material.
      • A flipside of Alya's status is to make her an aggressive Shipper on Deck for Marinette/Adrien, ignoring Marinette and Adrien's feelings in the matter.
    • Canon does not shy away from the fact that Marinette/Ladybug is sometimes a bit creepy and is a hypocrite from time to time. Ask her biggest detractors and she's a full-on Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Control Freak who thinks herself entitled to Adrien. In other words, they just make her another Lila or Chloé.
    • Adrien/Chat Noir has a similar treatment from his detractors. Like Marinette, he has flaws but detractors turn them Up to Eleven, painting him as nothing but an Extreme Doormat to Chloé and Lila in his civilian form and nothing but an Entitled to Have You douche towards Ladybug as Chat Noir.
    • Following "Derision", Kim has seen a spike in hatred painting him as a total douche and outright bully.
    • Mme. Bustier. Given how Adults Are Useless in dealing with Chloé and Lila, many interpret her as less of a Cool Teacher and more of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher given how she victim blames those who have been bullied.
    • Zoé Lee gets this from Chloé's Vocal Minority who still refuse to see Zoé as anything but a Replacement Scrappy and believe Chloé to be the victim of Character Derailment. In their fics to have Chloé heroically reclaim the Bee Miraculous from Season 4 onwards, Zoé is reimagined as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, despite all evidence to the contrary, and a Gabriel-level slave driver to Pollen. Or essentially just pull a Personality Swap between Chloé and Zoé.
  1. Giving her the happily ever after he felt she'd so richly deserved and couldn't offer her himself.
  2. Because he loved her so much that he couldn't bring himself to say goodbye. He doesn't like endings.
  3. It was a botched attempt at showing how much he respects Clara as his equal by letting her handle it.
Advertisement