Cry for the Devil: Difference between revisions

** Played straight in the finale {{spoiler|(Or is it?)}} when Johan reveals {{spoiler|that his mother was forced to make a horrible [[Sadistic Choice]] in regards to him and his twin sister, Anna, causing Johan to question his own sense of worth.}}

*** The straightest example is Johan's suicidal tendencies and his attitude to other evil people. Throughout the story, the impression is that he is tired with his own evil nature, something everyone else makes a big deal of, but which, for him, is so plain, ordinary, and banal. He remarks that he is searching for the darkest place or person in the world, but fails to find it, presumably in a search for somewhere he can belong, which won't happen as he is {{spoiler|[[The Antichrist]] (probably)}} and therefore more evil than anyone or anything, anywhere on Earth. Hence, he encourages people to try and kill him, and doesn't particularly care for all the apocalyptic plans his followers expect from him and he is presumably destined to fulfill.

* In ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'', Mashiba Ryo is a quiet and pretty much sociopathic boxer who's nicknamed "The Executioner" for his horribly violent boxing style. Then, we see his backstory {{spoiler|as an orphan who had to raise himself and his little sister, after losing his parents in an accident. By the time we learn what happened to him, Mashiba had pretty much lost faith in others and come to hate everyone but his current boss and Kumi}}...

* In ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', the [[Big Bad]] Nakago gets this treatment via a flashback presented in the final episode, {{spoiler|while Tamahome has his fist through him and gets to watch.}}

* ''[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Wuthering Heights]]'' begins by showing the audience Heathcliff as an adult, nasty and abusive to everyone he's around (even sending his hunting dogs after his guest) and then quickly shows his childhood, when he had potential to be a better person. One line that stands out is when, at one point in the story, Nelly, the main narrator, consoles a crying Heathcliff by telling him that he may be a [[Moses in the Bulrushes|lost Asian prince]] out of a fairy tale, leading him to imagine regaining such status and taking revenge on everyone who has wronged him in a way that foreshadows his later [[Face Heel Turn]].

* Although it is actually written more to show a character as villainous who, up to this point, seemed more of a [[Loveable Rogue]], Gogol's novel ''[[Dead Souls]]'' ends this way. Up to this point, the reader knows that the protagonist Chichikov is some kind of [[Honest John]] or con artist who has a mysterious plan to buy the records of recently deceased serfs, and he is presented as more sinned against than sinning. Then, the [[Lemony Narrator]] discusses how he came from an upwardly mobile family and, at a young age, had all of his creativity beaten out of him by his father and schoolmasters, leading him to become a [[Stepford Smiler]] and [[Smug Snake]] and manipulate and betray people in order to rise through the bureaucracy. Periodically, he is caught engaged in corrupt action and has to bribe his even more corrupt colleagues to escape complete disgrace. Thus, by the start of the novel, Chichikov has become something of an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]].

** When Harry does feel a twinge of pity for Voldemort after hearing his backstory, Dumbledore tells him to ignore it and to save that pity for Voldemort's many victims. Even after that, in their final confrontation, {{spoiler|Harry tries to convince Voldemort to feel some remorse for his deeds to help him restore his soul. Harry knows that Voldemort is doomed to suffer a horrific afterlife otherwise, and it is not a fate he would wish on anyone, not even Voldemort.}}

* The last section of ''[[Frankenstein]]'' shows very sharply that the creature was formed by his surroundings, not created evil.