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->''"Why does Music/FiftyCent rough up and insult all of his allies and act surprised when every single one of them betrays him?"''
-->-- '''[[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee's]]''' review on ''VideoGame/FiftyCentBloodOnTheSand''
The BigBad has a loyal minion who has been feeling... somewhat less than loyal recently. Maybe he met the heroes and [[MinionWithAnFInEvil liked them.]] Maybe he discovered [[ItsAllAboutMe more than]] [[CyanidePill a few]] [[YouHaveFailedMe reasons]] to believe that his master wasn't as nice as he seemed. Maybe he's not sure he [[EvenEvilHasStandards approves]] of the current plot. Maybe he just [[NotWhatISignedOnFor learned what the plan really was]]. And seeing how TheLeader on the other side treats ''his'' allies might be the cherry on top. Whatever the reason, he is pondering a difficult dilemma. Remain loyal, or betray the boss?
Fortunately, the BigBad is willing to help him (or possibly [[DarkChick her]]) come to a decision. He immediately starts doing [[VillainousDemotivator everything]] in his [[AgonyBeam power]] to [[ColdBloodedTorture make]] the minion [[EvenEvilHasStandards feel hurt]] and [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes miserable]], possibly going as far as putting him through a HumiliationConga, thus perfectly solidifying and [[LaserGuidedKarma justifying]] the inevitable Almost-Any-Face Turn.
Villains who think ItsAllAboutMe are particularly prone to this -- and particularly prone to being ''shocked'' when the minion leaves. Double that if the minion hooks up with the other side.
EvilCannotComprehendGood is often, though not always, an element in their motivations. A particularly MagneticHero can usually tip the balance in his favor with a few kind words, or just by showing how he treats ''his'' [[TrueCompanions friends.]] Indeed, when the villain goes for FlawExploitation, endangering his minions to force the hero to save them, or just leaving them in danger because he knows the hero will save them, the [[{{Foil}} contrast]] is generally as vivid as it gets.
A more rare variant is when a [[GoodIsNotNice good, but not nice]] character mistreats his or her sidekick, who has enough of being the underdog and [[FaceHeelTurn becomes a villain]].
Not to be confused with EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes, where the minion considers betraying the boss for being cruel to their friends or relatives. Contrast KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand. Watch out for HeelFaceDoorSlam. Cross your fingers for RedemptionEarnsLife. Compare RebelliousRebel, where the original discovery of the villain's treachery motivates his defection. Also see DefectingForLove. When the villain's words and acts draw the character, see BringThemAround. See also WhosLaughingNow for when a ButtMonkey minion commits a FaceHeelTurn due to mistreatment from the GoodIsNotNice hero. If the minion in question ends up betraying and finishing off his/her former boss without actually defecting to the other side, it is TheDogBitesBack. Contrast with its polar opposite, BecauseYouWereNiceToMe.
'''SPOILERS''' for many {{Heel Face Turn}}s follow.
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Subverted in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. Despite all the horrific stuff Precia does to Fate, the latter is too good of a person to even consider betrayal, even after her mother basically abandons Fate as a useless and ultimately failed experiment. Although Fate does give up her {{Love Martyr}}dom and performs a HeelFaceTurn after this event, she never gives up on trying to redeem Precia until the very end.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': [[TheDragon Baron Ashura]] was mostly loyal to [[BigBad Dr. Hell]], who felt that [[AvertedTrope he was above of]] [[YouHaveFailedMe executing his subordinates]] but not of punishing their failures with strikes, insults or torture. Due to this sometimes he got fed up with being mistreated and mocked and he disobeyed orders or acted on his/her own (the final time was when he [[spoiler:stole the [[AirborneAircraftCarrier fortress Ghoul]] to make a kamikaze attack on the [[HomeBase Institute]]]] in order to show all, Dr. Hell and his enemies, who he was. In the GosakuOta alternate manga, he went a step beyond that and he decided betraying Dr. Hell and TakeOverTheWorld on his/her own because he was "sick of that crazy old man and [[CoDragons that headless idiot (Count Brocken)]] always mocking him" and he intended to give them a lesson to everyone.
* Bunbee in ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' does two Heel Neutral Turns when he realizes that his employers don't appreciate him, are blocking his dream of advancement and will likely send him to his death. [[spoiler:He finally does a full HeelFaceTurn at the end.]]
* Kaoru in ''Manga/FlameOfRecca'' is an example. After Kurei breaks his promise with Kaoru and tortures Yanagi, Kaoru abandons him, and joins up with Recca several chapters later. Why? Because Yanagi was nice to him.
* ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere''. Hamdo's not really helping his own case by continuously abusing his HyperCompetentSidekick Abelia, even after [[spoiler:the last bastion of LaResistance has been crushed]]. In the end, she stands by and watches him die without lifting a finger to help.
* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Kagura got so sick of Naraku treating her like a slave she actively colluded with the good guys. Probably remembering the end that [[spoiler:Kagura]] came to, Kanna gave Naraku the metaphorical finger by [[spoiler:committing suicide as ordered, but without taking Inu-Yasha and his TrueCompanions with her. [[DeathEqualsRedemption She even gives Kagome advice on Naraku's weakness]] [[SubvertedTrope when one shard]] [[EyeScream hits her eye]].]]
* ''LightNovel/IzureShinwaNoRagnarok'': The main antagonist of the first volume, [[spoiler:Freyja]], used [[spoiler:Brunhild]] as a decoy to fool the other contestants in Ragnarok and later tries to dispose of her minion when she gets placed under a {{Geas}}. Unsurprisingly, the minion cuts off her boss's escape when the latter is on the losing end of a fight with the protagonist, who at least protected [[spoiler:Brunhild]] for his own reasons.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** A variant in which the mistreated underlings turn ''evil'' happens in one filler episode. Kunihisa's helpers, whom he summons by throwing money (for example, throwing money at something he wants them to retrieve, or paying them to dress up as him in a crude imitation of the Shadow Clone Jutsu) turn on him and assist the people trying to kidnap him when he runs out of money.
** In canon, [[spoiler:Karin gives up on Sasuke after he shoots a Chidori Blade through her to get to Danzo, and abandons her for being weak... [[SubvertedTrope but she goes back to faithfully working for him once she meets him afterwards]]]].
* [[spoiler:Gemini]] in ''Manga/FairyTail'' cannot kill Lucy after seeing how kind she is and how much she values her spirits. [[spoiler:Gemini]]'s former master wasn't ''quite'' as bad as other examples of celestial mages, but thought nothing of inflicting non-lethal damage on her own spirits to secure victory. Even what seemed like an inanimate object refused to hit her. At the end, they all join Lucy.
* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'' R2, [[spoiler: Schneizel manages to convince the Black Knights to oust their leader, Zero, by revealing Zero's identity and the fact that he has mind-control powers, which he kept secret from them, along with other secrets of his that range from questionable to outright horrifying. Schneizel told them that Lelouch could have used his geass power to control ''them'', and they have no way of knowing for sure that he didn't - aside from Lelouch's word. He returned ''a whole year'' after abandoning them in the middle of a battle that they end up losing because of it, and while he had good reasons, he never told them any of it. From then on, he keeps doing things like bringing in special agents - Britannians - who report directly to him, who haven't earned the trust of the Black Knights; and creating missions that are a lot more sinister than what he tells them (like massacring an entire lab of seemingly innocent doctors and test subjects). Because of this, resentment against him had already been building, and by not explaining himself, he leaves quite the opening for Schneizel to come in and do exactly what he did.]]
* A bit of a sick inversion happens in the ''Manga/SoulEater'' manga. [[spoiler:After spending their entire life as their mother's personal, human Guinea pig, Crona has effectively gone insane. Then their mother, Medusa, suddenly starts apologizing to them for everything she's done and even hugs them, calling them "her pride." The fact that Crona has never seen Medusa act in a way besides "abusive mother," Crona gets convinced that this is not the real Medusa, and completely butchers her. The end of the chapter implies that this is part of Medusa's plan.]]
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Human chimeras Heinkel and Darius join Edward after Kimblee blows up the mine shaft containing all three of them.
* Fat Buu of ''Manga/DragonballZ'' was childish and difficult for [[EvilSorceror Babidi]] to control. Babidi eventually resorted to [[BadBoss threats of sealing Buu away]] unless he obeyed Babidi's orders. When Goku pointed out that it was shameful how Buu was allowing a much weaker being to control him with threats, Buu promptly killed Babidi and decided to build himself a house.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'', Cima Garahau turns on the [[TheRemnant Delaz Fleet]] because [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer their members have been treating her and her fellow Marines like crap for years]]. In particular, Cima's fleet was denied permission to take refuge at the asteroid base Axis (with the story's main antagonist Anavel Gato casting the deciding vote) and were forced to spend the next four years hiding out from TheFederation and barely eking out an existence. (The fact that the Federation offered her amnesty and wads of money didn't hurt either.) It doesn't end well for her, not because of [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves the trope one might expect here]], but because [[TheHero Kou Uraki]] didn't know a blessed word of this[[note]]and wasn't exactly on good terms with Federation leadership at this point anyhow[[/note]] and ends up slaughtering all the Marines before Cima's eyes before impaling her on the Gundam GP03's megacannon and blasting her in half.
* In ''Animation/GuardianFairyMichel'', the final episode has Biam turned into a monster against his will. He reforms after snapping back to normal.
* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'' [[RebelLeader Miria]] attempts to overthrow the Organization on her own and [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified without killing or seriously hurting any of her former Claymore companions still loyal to the Organization]], [[spoiler:but is eventually defeated. The other Claymores are expected to execute Miria for being a traitor but then decide to pull a DeathFakedForYou in Miria's favour and join the rebellion. This change of hearth is caused by the Claymores' realization that Miria was the only one who gave any importance to their own life, as opposed to the Organization's attitude who ranges from "WeHaveReserves" to downright "YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness"]].
[[folder:Comic Books]]
* There is an issue in the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' involving Sixtus, an elite member of Imperial Special Intelligence. He [[CombatByChampion competed]] with the Rebels to impress someone so they would hand over a smuggler his superior wanted, and although the Rebels fought valiantly, Sixtus won. But while they were competing his superior went behind Sixtus's back, stole the smuggler, and lifted off, [[ShaggyDogStory abandoning the trooper and thirteen of his companions on Ryloth]]. Ryloth's laws mean that if they can't get transport, they get sold into slavery. So when the Rebels took them out for a drink and offered a chance to get revenge on that superior, they accepted. They didn't become Rebels themselves right away, but from the novel ''The Bacta War'', we know that they came around eventually.
* Happens in ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme''; when Hyperion's EvilTwin falls in love with Power Princess, he betrays [[TheChessmaster Master Menace]].
* [=NPCs=] in the ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'''s party frequently end up doing this... which leads the Knights to [[ComedicSociopathy view the mistreatment as justified]] [[CircularReasoning because the NPC ended up betraying them]].
* A proxy example in the case of Comicbook/{{X 23}}: At first, Dr. Sarah Kinney was firmly ForScience in the creation of the OppositeSexClone of Wolverine, but as her immediate superior, Xander Rice's, abuse of the girl mounted (highlights: constant physical and emotional torture, placing her in the care of a pyschopathic handler, exposing her to lethal doses of radiation at the age of ''seven'' to forcibly activate her HealingFactor, and ''denying'' her anasthesia ''at the same age'' during the surgery to rip out her claws one by one to bond them with adamantium) combined with the project lead's apathy (if not complicity) in the abuse, she grows increasingly disillusioned with the project, and is finally drivent to turn X loose on the installation and escape. Considering X herself spent ''ten minutes'' beating Rice to death '''''with her bare hands''''', [[ItsPersonal it was just a tiny bit personal]] for ''her'', as well.
* This is how ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' is decided. Four eight years since the Final Incursion, SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom locked away the Molecule Man within his realm within Battleworld, rarely visiting him and, when he did, never fed him. When the Peter Parker and Miles Morales Spider-Men show up, Miles gives the Molecule Man a hamburger he had tucked away. During the FinalBattle between Doom and Reed Richards, Doom admits that, yes, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Reed would have done much better in his shoes]] and just tries to outright kill him. Pleased with hearing these words, the Molecule Man gives Reed Doom's powers, allowing him to do just that. [[spoiler:And as extra thanks, the Molecule Man brought Miles and his friends and family to the mainstream Marvel Universe, resurrecting his mom in the process.]]
* In ''ComicBook/TheTechnopriests'', Panepha spent years mistreating her daughter Onyx because the girl's father was Ulritch the Red, a pirate who had raped Panepha. This comes back to bite her in the ass when she offers Onyx to a mercenary in exchange for aid in tracking down Ulritch for revenge; the merc realizes that Ulritch will pay quite handsomely for the return of his daughter and betrays Panepha. Onyx is only too happy to play along.
[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In Shadow Dragon8685's ''FanFic/MisfiledDreams'' Jenny Jr. has already been awed by the friendliness and compassion of Ash and Emily, so what better way for her [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]] of a mother to keep her on side than by verbally abusing and disowning her. Jenny Jr.'s HeelFaceTurn is probably the easiest decision ever made as a result.
* In ''FanFic/AnEntryWithABang[=!=]'', the Buron Cavalry decide to try and get in Clancy-Earth's good graces after they find out that C-Earth has nukes and Vorax did not mention as such beforehand. Aladdin Al Azim does the same after he realises that the Earthers he faces includes Muslims and that Mecca is one of Vorax's targets.
* In ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors'', "Battle With the Sphinx", William, a Prayer Warrior, gets captured by Carter Kane and is taken to the Egyptian god Horus's base of operations. William tries to get Carter to convert to Christianity, to no avail, but soon, he comes back, angry with Horus for ordering him to go to America instead of the front lines, as he says that [[NoodleIncident bad things happened to him there, but he refuses to elaborate]]. This time, [[EasyEvangelism he's willing]] to [[HeelFaceTurn convert]], free William and help him defeat Horus.
* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''MassEffect''[=/=]''StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]], [[spoiler:Evil!Shepard]] insults Lilith one time too many, causing her to both recognize what a wreck she is and the various demerits of working for an InsaneAdmiral/that admiral's nutty commander. She ends up assisting the heroes in taking over her boss' ship, and ultimately [[spoiler:crashes that ship into Pandora's north pole, destroying all Reapers]].
* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'''s ''FanFic/APieceOfRebellion''. When they find the Piece of Resistance, Bad Cop makes Good Cop take control because President Business is much harsher on his 'good half', so he needs the credit more. Good Cop then accidentally kick-starts the plot by making a mistaken that gets them labeled a traitor.
** Moreover, even after they got the Piece stuck to their back, Good Cop/Bad Cop were perfectly willing to hand it over to President Business like the loyal officer they were. Instead Business declares them traitors and try to have them executed.
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': Given everything what [[TheWoobie Shinji]] [[BattleCouple and]] [[BrokenBird Asuka]] endured at the hands of Jinnai and his ex-boss Winthrop (both dictators treated them like pawns in the [[AfterTheEnd post-Third Impact]] wars -and they would have shot Shinji and Asuka without the slightest concern if they thought that the pair of teenagers might be a problem-, and they forced Asuka to be their toy for three years), it is not a wonder that they switched sides instantly when someone made them an offer.
* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': [[TheWoobie Shinji]] was abandoned by his father Gendo when he was four, [[BrokenBird Asuka]] was also abandoned by her father when she was four and then trained to be a ChildSoldier, [[BattleCouple they]] have been used like disposable and replaceable weapons for Gendo and then fired when he thought he had a replacement who would not disobey their orders, and in chapter 7 they found that their mothers' deaths were not "accidents"... in summary, they are turning on Nerv.
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': On top of all abuse Gendo had heaped on his son, his pilots and all his employees, he [[spoiler:used drugs to drive a thirteen-years-old girl to have sex with someone, planning using her ''baby'', who coincidentally is his granddaughter, as a war weapon.]] And then he threatened with dire punishments to whoever learnt about his ploy. The funny part is he was seriously shocked when [[spoiler:everyone turned against him.]]
* [[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Shinji]] joins [[Franchise/MassEffect Aria]] in ''Fanfic/AlphaAndOmega'' after his older alternate self points out that everyone in NERV and WILLE treats him like shit despite proving that they can't accomplish anything without him.
-->'''WILLE Bridge Bunny''': "So you're on their side now!?"
-->'''Shinji''': "Since when were any of you ever on my side?"
* ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'': When Misato discovers that Gendo and Ritsuko had mistreated, hurt and treated her pilots as puppets and lab rats ''again'', she decides to finally turn fully against NERV and strike a deal with the American government to protect her kids.
* ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'': Shinji was abandoned by his father when he was four and summoned ten years later because his father needed him to pilot a HumongousMecha and fight [[{{EldritchAbomination}} alien monsters]]. Due to the machinations of his father during the Angel war Shinji got hurt physically and emotionally, and saw [[HeroesWantRedheads his life's love]], his sister, his [[ParentalSubstitute surrogate mother]] and [[ThoseTwoGuys his friends]] suffering and dying until [[DespairEventhorizon he crumbled down]] and [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds let the world dying]]. [[PeggySue Then he got a second chance]], and he [[spoiler:revealed the secrets of Nerv to [[TheMole Kaji]] as soon as he met him.]]
* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'': [[AncientConspiracy Seele]] raised and tortured a child to turn him into the ultimate soldier, and then they decided unleashing him against their enemies. And then one of their enemies offered him a bigger sum of money for finding and killing the members of Seele. He gleefully took up [[spoiler:her]] offer.
* ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'': Shinji and Asuka lost their mothers, were abandoned by their fathers, were forced to fight a war against {{Eldritch Abomination}}s and died in combat before they were fifteen, outlived the [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt end of the world]] and had to survive in the wastes left [[AfterTheEnd after the Third Impact]]. Then they got flung back in time, and schemed to ruin the plans of their superiors.
* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': Gendo abandoned his son Shinji when he was four. When summoned to Tokyo-3 by his father ten years later, Shinji has learnt the ways of scheming and plotting, and several useful skills, and he decides paying his father back. In the process [[EmotionlessGirl Rei]] -who had been treated as a tool for Gendo- and [[FieryRedhead Asuka]] -who had lost her mother and been turned into a ChildSoldier cause Nerv and whom [[spoiler:Gendo forced to attack her best friend]]- side with him.
* In the Literature/{{Worm}} fanfic, ''FanFic/{{Intrepid}}'', this is the reason Rune finishes her HeelFaceTurn in 8-01, because Kaiser electrocuted her for the sake of torture.
* The plot of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8914586/1/Harry-Potter-Junior-Inquisitor Harry Potter: Junior Inquisitor]]'' is kicked off by Dumbledore throwing Harry under the bus by both recanting his statements about Voldemort's return and not defending Harry at his trial. As a result, Harry promptly throws Dumbledore under the bus in turn.
* In ''Fanfic/CodeGeassThePreparedRebellion'', Clovis tells CC that his experiments on her had Charles' blessing. Needless to say, once she gets free, she immediately throws her support behind Lelouch's rebellion.
* In ''XCOMTheHadesContingency'', the UN was going to execute the Commander's men despite their assurances to the contrary. ''The Atlas Protocol'' reveals that [[spoiler:when EXALT manages to save some of them, they promptly join up.]]
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12394742/8/The-Defeated The Defeated]]'' after they fail to save Rukia, both Ichigo and Orihime join Aizen out of a desire for revenge on Soul Society for torturing them and killing their friends then refusing to accept they were wrong to do so. That Aizen is willing to spare their families and remaining friends is further incentive.
* ''Webcomic/ProjectRiribirth'' has an unusual example: Riri Williams goes after Tony in part because he was too '''nice''' to her, not too mean. As Riri sees it, if Tony hadn't overpraised her and convinced her that she was one of the world's strongest heroes, Riri wouldn't have jumped into a fight way above her weight class and gotten the NoHoldsBarredBeatdown that ended her superhero career permanently.
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''/''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' crossover ''Fanfic/TheVampireOfSteel'', [[BigBad Vladislav]] abuses, threatens, hits and kills his lackeys to his heart's content until his underlying Robert Platt gets fed up with being mistreated and stakes him.
[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* At the climax of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'', [[spoiler:the Storm King reveals that [[ILied he had no intention of restoring Tempest Shadow's broken horn]]. This, along with Twilight [[SaveTheVillain saving Tempest from being sucked into a tornado]], convinces Tempest to switch sides, even TakingTheBullet for Twilight when she's about to be [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]]]].
* Colonel Cutter in ''WesternAnimation/{{Antz}}'' seems to start turning when General Mandible seems more intent on taking over, but is otherwise totally and completely loyal. Until the end of the film, that is, when he does finally turn.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies'': Miss Waller is loyal to Lex Luthor right up until she realizes he's gone bat-shit crazy. Mind you, he doesn't mistreat her, he ''hits on'' her in the mistaken belief this will somehow cement her loyalty, instead of creeping her the hell out. Being high and insane is not actually that good for your charisma.
* Luthor's deeply creepy treatment of his brainwashed replacement Superman in the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanDoomsday'' movie. It's a disturbing cross of {{Abusive Parent|s}} and really blatant FoeYay, and his eventual "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it" both inspires the betrayal and gives Cloneboy the hint to look inside his own skull for a lead-wrapped Krytonite bomb, and carve it out. Mind you, you can't say Cloney {{Heel Face Turn}}s; Lex's whole threat-inducing problem with him is how fast he's careering into KnightTemplar BewareTheSuperman territory. He just turns ''on Lex'', and then slaughters [[SendInTheClones the whole clone army]] while they're still in their pods, because there aren't going to be any evil Supermen on ''his'' watch, nuh-uh. Just a terrifying one. And while he'd killed a murderer he only ''threatened'' the old woman with the cat, and blew up the guns of cops trying to arrest him... Anyone familiar with the character of Post-Crisis Superboy, Conner Kent, finds this especially freaky, since it's like his origin story gone all wrong. Well, wronger than it was to begin with.
* ''Disney/TheLionKing''
** At the end of the original film, Scar's plea for mercy from Simba wasn't very convincing or effective, but his KarmicDeath could have been averted if he [[TheDogBitesBack hadn't slagged off the hyenas]] at the same time.
** In [[Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride the sequel]], the Outsiders from Simba's Pride's main reason for [[spoiler:defecting to Simba's Kingdom]] essentially amounted to [[spoiler:disgust towards Zira after she made the mistake of threatening her own daughter, Vitani with death if she didn't obey her command]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'', the captain of Lord Shen's wolves refuses to fire a cannon that would kill their own men. [[spoiler:Lord Shen kills him immediately and fires the cannon himself.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', when Mr. Incredible grabs Mirage and threatens her life, Syndrome [[FlawExploitation calls his bluff]], knowing Mr. Incredible couldn't hurt a helpless woman. While he was spot on about Mr. Incredible, he completely failed to realize that Mirage would be upset at being treated as expendable, and might admire Mr. Incredible for his concern. She [[EvenEvilHasStandards already had doubts after Syndrome ordered missiles launched at a plane with children in it.]]
* ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': Kronk, Yzma's DumbMuscle, is treated like dirt throughout the entire film without seeming to be overly bothered by it. Towards the end, after taking a moment to consult (out loud) with his [[GoodAngelBadAngel shoulder morality companions]], Yzma finally snaps and starts into a particularly vicious tirade. The clincher is [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking claiming to have never liked his spinach puffs]].
* Iago from ''Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar''.
* [[spoiler: Helga]] from ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', as a result of [[spoiler: Rourke]] throwing her off a blimp at a very great height, nearly killing her in the process. [[LastBreathBullet Her response?]]
--> '''[[spoiler:Helga]]''': [[IronicEcho Nothing personal.]] (''fires her gun'')
* [[TheDragon Bad Cop]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie''. Being forced to Kraggle his parents pushed him close, but flat-out being [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness abandoned for really no reason at all]] by [[BigBad Lord Business]] is what pushes him over the edge.
* Lawrence from ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' is an inversion, doing a FaceHeelTurn for being mistreated by a good guy. He is Prince Naveen's mistreated servant/valet, who initially tries to be the StraightMan and the voice of reason to his RoyalBrat master. However, when Dr. Facilier offers him a deal to betray the prince so that he won't be pushed around anymore, Lawrence doesn't hesitate for a moment to accept the deal.
* [[spoiler: Dawn Bellwether]] in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' ultimately gets fed up with being pushed around, under-appreciated and over-worked by her boss, leading to her [[spoiler:actively working to expose her boss, Mayor Lionheart's covert operation at Cliffside Asylum so he will be arrested and she can take over as Mayor... then continuing to foster a city-wide panic and fear of predators so she will remain in power. Worst of all, she may have even planned to have had all predators systematically ''exterminated''.]]
* Bladebeak in ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'' was never a true villain (and mistreated when he was on their side), so he ends up switching to the heroes' side. The movie doesn't exactly make this clear, though.
* Dr. Nefarious in ''WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank2016'' used to be [[spoiler: a weapons engineer and tactician for the Galactic Rangers and]] by all appearances a NiceGuy, but his AttentionWhore boss taking credit for everything he did, cutting his budget constantly, mocking him for being a nerd, and otherwise mistreating him led him to become evil. [[DisproportionateRetribution By the time we meet him, he's working on blowing up planets for revenge.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AnExtremelyGoofyMovie'': Bradley leaves his right hand man Tank to die in the burning X games logo just so he can finish the race. Max and Goofy manage to help Tank escape and Max wins the race. Tank then turns on Bradley for betraying him and then slingshots him towards the X-Games zeppelin flying overhead.
[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/LittleSweetheart'' [[spoiler:Elizabeth tries to betray Thelma after Thelma repeatedly threatens her with a gun. She is RewardedAsATraitorDeserves.]]
* In ''Film/VForVendetta'', after V offers Creedy the chance to betray Adam Sutler, Sutler almost comically goes out of his way to blame Creedy for everything, ensuring his upcoming betrayal.
* Throughout the movie version of ''Film/GetSmart'', Dalip is constantly mocked by his boss Siegfried for being his DumbMuscle. Later on, Max recognizes Dalip from tapped communications that he used to listen to, and proceeds to give the big guy relationship advice about his wife. At the end of the movie, Dalip returns the favor by giving Max a tip on the radio about the bomb, then - finally sick of Siegfried - punches him out of a car.
** The last straw was Siegfried telling Dalip that, while their plan failed, he can't kill Dalip's wife because Dalip did exactly what he was told but points out that it would be a favor to humanity to kill someone so ugly. Dalip loves his wife. Cue Siegfried falling from a bridge.
* In the movie version of ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'', the villains force Gomez to lead them to the vault by [[AndYourLittleDogToo threatening to]] ''[[KickTheDog genuinely]]'' [[AndYourLittleDogToo injure his]] TooKinkyToTorture [[IHaveYourWife kidnapped wife Morticia]]. "Fester" has been kinda torn on which side he truly supports, [[BecomingTheMask and has been growing closer to the Addamses]]. But he doesn't come to his decision until Miss Craven reaches the breaking point and goes into a lengthy rant about how much Fester disgusts her and how she should have left him on the beach she found him on. Amazingly, she is surprised when he betrays her seconds later.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Emperor. His long speeches at the end of ''Return of the Jedi'' did little to win Luke over to the Dark Side. Whether or not they affected Vader as well is debatable. Sith philosophy holds that the most powerful will lead, the second most powerful will follow, and everyone else dies.
** According to a pre-release novel, this is why [[Film/TheForceAwakens Finn]] abandoned the First Order - being constantly seen as an outsider despite being raised along with the rest of his unit, he chose to abandon the Order after the Battle of Jakku.
* In ''Film/{{Willow}}'', Sorsha's [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter throwing in with the heroes]] was as much driven by her mother's contemptuous treatment as by her interest in Madmartigan.
** Slight subversion in that the evil queen actually treated her daughter fairly well and balked at the idea of Sorsha eventually betraying her, despite the warnings from her fortunetellers.
** The Novelization gives more weight for Sorsha's betrayal - [[spoiler: after finding out the prophecy about Sorsha's betrayal, her mother put a spell on her to keep her in line. Finding out her mother murdered her father broke the spell and gave her more reason to defect.]]
* When ex-stuntman Bear (James Gandolfini) tries to quit working for drug dealer Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) in ''Film/GetShorty'', Bo threatens to frame him if he takes a fall. This prompts Bear to pull a HeelFaceTurn, ultimately killing Bo by pushing him over his balcony railing (which he'd had specially rigged to give way "like they do in the movies" for Chili.)
* ''Film/JamesBond'''s Jaws. In ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', the BigBad has James and his DamselInDistress tied up and is explaining his master plan, which involves [[ApocalypseHow exterminating everyone on earth]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName who isn't "perfect"]] - [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness including his own less than perfect employees once he no longer needs them]]. Jaws overhears this, and is worried since he is a giant with metal teeth (and it's implied he isn't exactly firing on all eight cylinders intellectually), while his [[MinionShipping girlfriend]] is short, weak, and wearing glasses. So, while on the [[KillSat station]], Jaws helps Bond escape a sticky situation ''and'' [[PutTheirHeadsTogether gets physical with some of his former allies]].
* The uncut version of Peter Jackson's ''Film/TheReturnOfTheKing'' uses this trope, as Théoden is reaching out to Gríma Wormtongue in regards to returning to Rohan, reminding him of what he originally was, and is going to forgive him. Saruman then makes the mistake of mocking Rohan, causing Gríma to angrily whisper "No...!" in response, causing Saruman to knock him down, which pretty much ensured that Gríma would stab him in the back. Of course, said action of stabbing Saruman in the back also resulted in his death due to their needing Saruman to supply information about Sauron's next attack.
* Hoggle in ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. If Jareth had settled on just giving him orders, then there would have been no problem, especially since Hoggle is a dyed-in-the-wool misanthrope. However, Jareth just can't seem to stop insulting Hoggle, belittling him, physically mistreating him, and issuing dire threats (it was probably his threat to dump Hoggle into the Bog Of Eternal Stench that finally tipped the scales).
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''
** A rare hero-to-villain example in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': Angel was sick and tired of the CIA grunts mocking her and her teammates for her being a mutant (enough to say that even men gawking at her in her former job at a strip club was actually better than this), so she figured that she might as well defect to the Hellfire Club since at least they had some respect for her mutant abilities.
** In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', [[spoiler:Magneto's attempt to kill Mystique essentially derails her off his path of a race war, though for most of the film she's still determined to kill Trask for his crimes.]]
* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}''
-->'''Nathaniel:''' I've always treated her like a queen, but lately I'm starting to feel there's this whole other side to her, like I don't even know her anymore.\\
'''Radio Therapist:''' I think you need to take her aside and find out how she really feels about you.\\
'''Narissa:''' Hello, worthless. Miss me?
* Not that he doesn't deserve the scorn he gets, but Rod Farva from ''Film/SuperTroopers'' ends up telling [[DirtyCop Officer Grady]] about the state trooper's plan in exchange for a position as a Sudbury Police Officer due to nonstop abuse the troopers pile onto him.
* The BigBad's bodyguard in ''Film/TheRunningMan'' leaves him to [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Ben]] at the end of the film after being constantly insulted.
* Three examples in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'':
** Carina, after being threatened with being [[AndIMustScream rendered part of his collection]] by The Collector, takes the opportunity to [[spoiler:seize the Infinity Stone rather than live as his slave, knowing that it will destroy her, and in the process destroys a huge chunk of his collection and denies him the second stone.]]
** Both Gamora and Nebula seem to hate Thanos for (in Gamora's case that we know of, possibly Nebula's too) killing her family, and being reshaped into weapons to serve him. Gamora betrays him to keep the orb away from him, and Nebula [[spoiler:sides with the genocidal Ronan because he's going to use his new power against Thanos next.]]
* In the backstory of ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' Furiosa was deemed unfit to be Immortan's breeder. She clawed her way up the ranks of the Citadel, but being Imperator did not earn her respect from Immortan or his cronies. She was still treated as Joe's property, and thus, she decided to take his wives into a joyride.
* [[spoiler:Fredo]] ends up betraying Michael in ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'' because he resented being trusted only with menial tasks and [[spoiler:because Michael became godfather instead of him.]]
* ''Film/BigFatLiar'': Movie Producer Marty Wolf is a major {{Jerkass}} with a serious case of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. As a result, ''every single one'' of his employees immediately agree to help Jason Shepard and his friend Kaylee [[EngineeredPublicConfession trick Wolf into confessing on live TV that]] [[PlagiarismInFiction he stole Jason's creative writing assignment and turned it into his next movie]].
* Mentioned in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'': Ren, after [[spoiler: seducing]] the Whistler family's [[spoiler: son, Jerin, on the kitchen floor]], fears the Whistlers will lure her into a trap. [[spoiler: They don't, in fact, the family doesn't know about it, yet.]] Ren is not a villain, but sometimes acts like a jerk, as the spoilered incident proves.
* In ''Literature/TheBoxOfDelights'', PunchClockVillain Joe is feeling uncomfortable with Abner Brown's plans, but is still trying to talk him around. Then Abner [[KickTheDog locks him in a cell and leaves him to die]]. When Joe is released, he rescues most of Abner's prisoners and ultimately contributes to his KarmicDeath.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', the BigBad murders one of the minor villains because said minor villain mistreated the people he was intended to rule, and the main villain knows that this could lead to betrayal, which would be inconvenient. The villain himself is more of the AffablyEvil sort.
* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse:
** [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Mara Jade]] [[Literature/{{Allegiance}} was once]] Emperor's Hand, sort of a secret agent doing TheEmperor's bidding. After his death, she left TheEmpire and basically bounced from one neutral smuggling group to another as her Force Sensitivity fluctuated, hating the Rebellion but finding no one in the Empire that commanded her allegiance. Her last smuggling group was also her best, with a boss she respected and who respected her in turn. The newest and greatest Imperial leader, Grand Admiral Thrawn, was impressive, knew who and what Mara was, and requested that she get some information from her boss and bring it to him in a few days. Thrawn then put a tracking device on her, followed her back to the rendezvous, and kidnapped her boss. His [[ILied lie]] was what drove her permanently away from the Empire, and thus reluctantly towards the New Republic.
*** Likewise in the Thrawn Trilogy, Thrawn's Noghri assassin Rukh stabs him in revenge after the Empire's manipulation of the Noghri race is exposed.
** There are several of these in the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. The captain of the Imperial Interdictor Cruiser protested when some of her crew were transferred out as punishment for a nonexistent offense (supposedly the squadron leader of the ship's TIE fighters had blundered by killing a Rebel pilot they'd been assigned to capture alive, but Director Isard stubbornly refused to believe the truth that the X-wing had blown up on its own despite the fact that sensor records would have confirmed the Interdictor and its fighters had never shot it), the protest was ignored, and she and her entire crew went over to the Rebellion. Inyri Forge, who'd become the lover of a criminal who hated the Rogues, [[BulletHolesAndRevelations killed him]] when he threatened one of them because while he'd respected her and forced others and herself to do the same, he hadn't risked himself to save her or shown concern over her welfare like the Rogues had, and she knew that he was not the kind of person she was raised to respect.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars Chessman of Mars]]'', I-Gos greatly admires courage and comes to see how Tara and Turan show such courage as he has not [[GoodOldWays seen in centuries]]. And then his jeddak calls him "doddering fool" -- a point he repeats to Turan in explaining that [[{{Turncoat}} he wants to help him now]].
* Inverted in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' during the David Trilogy: David, the team's new SixthRanger, is more or less forcibly recruited, kidnapped and thrust into a battle he wants no part of. He tries making the best of it for a little while, but after team leader Jake threatens to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill him for breaking into a hotel room]] he has enough and goes SixthRangerTraitor on them.
** In context, though, Jake disliked David long before the "hotel room" incident. It was more like Jake snapped because of a series of minor infractions on David's part, such as when David kills a crow ''for the fun of it'' while in morph and then lying about having lost control of his morph.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', a couple of Voldemort's lieutenants go this way. A big deal is made of Voldemort's [[EvilCannotComprehendGood inability to comprehend human emotion]] and how he doesn't trust (or even particularly like) his underlings.
** Severus Snape [[spoiler: defected from the Death Eaters and became a spy for Dumbledore after Voldemort ended up killing his childhood love, Lily Evens (now Potter, yes as Harry's mother).]] Granted, it was a bit more complicated; [[spoiler: Voldemort did make some effort in sparing Lily, but she refused to move out the way and let Harry die and Snape joining was also for him being TheAtoner. The only reason Voldemort went after the Potters in the first place was because of a prophecy that ''Snape'' overheard and told Voldemort himself.]]
** In a FaceHeelTurn variation, this is what causes Kreacher to betray Sirius to the Death Eaters in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': Sirius was justifiably upset at being forced to live in a house he hates with a painting that constantly hurls verbal abuse at him and a house elf that does the same. But Sirius's mistake was that he took out his anger on Kreacher, who was working for the hated Black family but had not actually caused Sirius harm in any way. Well, not caused Sirius harm before the "betrayal" part, anyway.
** A mild FaceHeelTurn version: Percy Weasley is constantly pranked, insulted and mocked by his siblings, particularly his twin brothers, while Harry Potter is quickly welcomed into the Burrow as practically an adopted son. Percy never directly witnesses any of Harry's heroics in the first four books (well, outside of saving his brother in Book 4), so it's not that surprising that when he is given a promotion at the Ministry of Magic, a promotion which his father Arthur Weasley flat out says he didn't earn and that his boss only wants to use Percy to spy on the Order, etc, he shuns all contact with his family, determined to prove that he is not the sort of man who blindly follows Dumbledore like all the other Weasleys supposedly do. Unfortunately, Dumbledore turned out to be ''right'', and Arthur probably wasn't far off the mark either. ([[JerkassHasAPoint Even if he was less than tactful about it in the heat of the moment.]])
* Odile in ''Literature/TheBlackSwan'' (Creator/MercedesLackey's retelling of ''Theatre/SwanLake'') turns on her father after he uses her as a PeoplePuppet to deceive Siegfried.
* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth''
** The D'harans have an en-masse version of this with the new Lord Rahl. Even though it was after Darken Rahl died, there were still all ''sorts'' of ways they could have helped him, including when he briefly came back from the dead.
** Altur'Rang has an en-masse one of these, deserting the Imperial Order to throw their lot in with Richard.
* In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Field of Dishonor]]'', [[AristocratsAreEvil Pavel Young]] compels his (female) security chief to become his lover. This leads her to give Honor Harrington's allies evidence that implicates Young in the murder of [[spoiler:Honor's lover, Paul Tankersley]], ultimately leading to [[spoiler:Honor killing Young in a duel]]. She even notes how stupid he is to abuse his security chief this way.
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''Literature/SpiralArm'' novel ''On the Razor's Edge'', the Radiant Name orders his men to stay put, though he has armor and a teleport device, and they don't, right before one [[spoiler:assassinates him]].
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** In ''Literature/BloodRites'' [[spoiler:Lara Raith has been abused, mentally and sexually, by her father for decades. Her mind is very eager to turn against him but fear of his terrifying power kept her from acting. When Harry gets him to confess that he has no power or means of replenishing it until the decedents of the woman who cursed him are killed, namely Harry, and even Lara can be replaced if she proves to be an inconvenience to him, it is enough for her to break free and take him down.]]
** ''Literature/WhiteNight'' has a unique version with guaranteed mistreatment to come causes the betrayal when Harry gets [[spoiler:Lash, the shadow of a Fallen Angel in his head, to admit if Harry does take up the Coin of Lasciel, she will effectively be killed by being reabsorbed into the true Fallen. As she has existed in Harry's head for years, she is more than just the simple copy of the ageless Fallen. This was one step in the many that would lead Lash to choose to fully separate herself from the Fallen Angel and become something different]].
* In ''Literature/JurassicPark'' Nedry chooses to sell Ingen's secrets to its competitors in large part because Hammond was such a cheapskate and BadBoss, having forced Nedry to program the park's entire computer network by himself ([[CuttingCorners instead of hiring a full team of programmers]]) while paying him low wages and keeping him on the island for long periods of time.
* In ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' Khayman had MyMasterRightOrWrong attitude towards Akasha and Enkil. What made him finally switch sides, was Akasha forcibly turning him into a vampire just to test her new abilities. Khayman then freed Maharet and Mekare from prison and started a rebellion against his former sovereigns.
* Inverted in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. [[VillainHasAPoint Luke and numerous other demigods]] turn evil and join the Titans because they're sick of their godly parents mistreating and neglecting them all their lives and leaving their mortal parent to fend for themselves. The gods also outright ''forget'' to claim their children after they arrive at Camp Half-Blood, leaving them wondering who their divine parent even is. The good guys even acknowledge that [[BlackAndGreyMorality while the Olympians may be overall better than the villains they are fighting against, they sure aren't what they would call good]].
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** The ''History and Lore'' videos cites this as Tywin's reason for betraying Aerys, largely due to the King refusing to allow Prince Rhaegar to marry Cersei, thus spurning the man who was running the kingdom for Aerys and insulting a vassal of one of the oldest houses of the kingdom, to say nothing of ordering Jaime into the Kingsguard to block him from being Tywin's heir. Tywin even {{lampshades}} this, stating that if Aerys had been nicer to him and accepted his match, he would have remained loyal to the Crown.
** And then of course there's Tyrion, who despite the impossibility of the thing went far and beyond for the sake of House Lannister in order to please his father... up until Tywin pushes him one time too many, causing Tyrion to snap and leave King's Landing and his family behind... with two fatal crossbow bolts in Tywin's chest.
* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', in the few months before Ben sent Juliet to infiltrate the main cast, he got her lover killed, dared Jack to kill her, and reneged on a promise to send her home. One wonders why he thought she'd remain faithful.
** After Mikhail shoots Bonnie and Greta, Charlie convinces Bonnie to give him the code to unblock transmissions to the island as a way of flipping Ben the bird.
* In the ''Series/KnightRider'' episode "White Bird", the secretary Stevie has been picked up as a witness for crimes attributed to her lawyer boss Cole. Rather than use his lawyer power to spring her out of jail and shut her up, he chooses to pin all his crimes onto her. This convinces her to testify against him.
* In the second season ''Series/TheManFromUncle'' episode "The Arabian Affair", Solo persuades a THRUSH minion on the verge of retirement to work for U.N.C.L.E. by providing the minion with evidence that THRUSH liquidates its retirees to insure they don't reveal any secrets.
* It appears that this trope is being set up in ''Series/GeneralHospital'' with FBI Agent Leeds and her hard-ass boss Raynor, especially with all the attention she's giving Spinelli. (Of course, the mobsters are the heroes in this story...)
* On an episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', a mook played by Rafer Johnson shoots the main villain (Christopher George) once he realizes that the terrorist plot will result in his own death (as well as that of George, who has a terminal disease and thus doesn't care).
* ''Series/StargateSG1''
** Richard Woolsey started off as an ObstructiveBureaucrat on the series. Then he realized that [[HeelRealization he was working for the bad guys]] when Robert Kinsey, firmly clutching his VillainBall, basically ''[[WhatAnIdiot told him]]''.
** Also how Teal'C -- and Bra'tac, for that matter -- are introduced, as First Primes looking to undermine the Goa'uld.
*** [[spoiler: In Continuum Teal'c is loyal to Ba'al-precisely because Ba'al realized the other System lords were being idiots and that by supporting the free Jaffa he could get an effective and loyal army from within their ranks, without having to worry about being betrayed by them. It worked.]]
*** At the same time, when [[spoiler:Qetesh is threatening Ba'al's life]], instead of doing everything he can to save him, [[spoiler:Teal'c writes off Ba'al as dead (which is true, as Qetesh never intended to let him go) and opts to go to Ba'al's time machine]].
** Also happens in a ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode where an IOA investigator comes to review Woolsey's performance. Woolsey, himself being a former IOA lapdog, quickly realizes that the "review" is basically an excuse to replace him with someone more loyal to the IOA party line, like the investigator herself. An alien being fakes a transmission to the investigator from the IOA informing her that they have decided to go with someone else as replacement for Woolsey. Angry at this backstab, she officially notes Woolsey's performance as satisfactory in order to ruin the IOA plans.
* The season finale of ''Crime Story'' had mobster Ray Luca on top of the world running his organization's Vegas operation. This was somewhat boring for the career criminal so he ended up sleeping with a fellow mobster's wife and then raping his sidekick's girlfriend. This last act causes the sidekick to testify against him.
* This is how Damar eventually turns against [[EvilEmpire the Dominion]] in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
** [[spoiler:Eventually, the rest of the Cardassian military follows suit, after the female Changeling orders one of Cardassia's most populous cities to be reduced to rubble in retribution for Damar's revolution, doing so right in the middle of the Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Empire's joint push against towards Cardassia. Note to all would-be conquerors. It's probably not a good idea to announce you're wiping out millions of the people who joined you for protection, especially when your enemy is right on your doorstep.]]
* In the 1998 ''[[Series/{{Merlin1998}} Merlin]]'' series, [[spoiler:Lord Ardent]] changes sides when [[spoiler:King Vortigern tries to have his daughter sacrificed]] and [[spoiler:Frik]] changes sides when [[spoiler:Mab kills the woman he loves.]] This also applies to Merlin himself, who had no need to [[spoiler:join Uther]] before [[spoiler:Vortigern's attempt to have him and his LoveInterest sacrificed to a dragon]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Angelus' continual insults to Spike, as well as him taking Dru's affections, lead to Spike siding with Buffy in the season 2 finale.
** Was also part of Faith's reason for going to the Mayor in season 3.
** The entire cast kicks Buffy out of her own house on Season Seven because Buffy lets the "ChosenOne, 'general' of the Slayer Army" role get to her head and becomes TheNeidermeyer, essentially keeping on hitting everybody over the head with how much of a sorry bunch of [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] they are compared to her. They would have gleefully ''kept'' her out hadn't the next episode showcased that, when it comes to being a badass, Buffy pretty much has VetinariJobSecurity.
* In the second season of ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' Prosecutor Esther Randolph questions DirtyCop Halloran in an attempt to get him to testify against his boss Eli and Eli's brother, [[VillainProtagonist Nucky]]. Halloran doesn't say anything, but Eli knows that Halloran met with Randolph and suspects Halloran is getting ready to be her [[TheStoolPigeon Stool Pigeon]], so Eli orders a crippling NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Halloran. Within ''seconds'' of realizing that Eli ordered the attack, Halloran calls Randolph and starts giving her all the information she needs to go after Eli.
* In ''To Play the King'' (sequel to ''Series/{{House Of Cards|UK}}''), Prime Minister Francis Urquhart implicitly reneges on his promise to appoint his hatchet man Tim Stamper to his cabinet. [[spoiler: Stamper tries to expose Urquhart as a murderer, in revenge, but Urquhart has him killed first.]]
* In C-drama ''The Holy Pearl'', [[BigBad Shi You Ming]] induces this starting from the first episode, leading his BastardUnderstudy to outright revolution by episode ten.
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Ulkesh's physically and emotionally abusive behaviour to his aide Lyta strongly contributes to her defecting to Sheridan and collaborating in Ulkesh's murder.
* ''Series/SleepyHollow'': [[spoiler: Henry]] is loyal to Moloch since Moloch saved him and took him under his wing after he was abandoned by [[spoiler: his parents]], though they had good excuses. This lasts until the season 2 fall finale when Moloch repeatedly states that [[spoiler: Henry]] is disposable and makes it clear that Moloch does not care about anyone other than himself. This inspires [[spoiler: Henry to kill Moloch]] to save the protagonists.
* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': Boyd Crowder's total inability to treat his cousin Johnny with any respect is what ultimately turns him into TheStarscream. First Boyd got him crippled (though he was legitimately regretful about that, at least for a time). Then he repeatedly sidelined Johnny, taking advice from Ava (his girlfriend who has no criminal experience), Arlo (a senile old man), and Colt (a drug addict) over Johnny. In "Raw Deal", we learn that Boyd stole Johnny's girlfriend in high school, suggesting that Boyd's mistreatment of Johnny goes back years. Johnny's betrayal is ultimately not that surprising, and ends up devastating Boyd's entire organisation [[spoiler:though not enough to put him out of business, and certainly not enough to save him from Boyd [[BoomHeadshot putting a hole through his skull]] when all is said and done]].
* Zigzagged in the second season of ''Series/{{Primeval}}''. Helen Cutter and Oliver Leek are more a VillainTeamUp, but Helen clearly calls the shots and spends most the time smugly threatening or toying with him. After Leek finally makes their power play, he makes quite clear he isn't playing the abused underling of their partnership anymore. Helen however refuses to take the position as well and pulls an EnemyMine in turn.
* In the series ''Series/{{House}}'', Chase is willing to feed information to the new Hospital board member and owner-in-all-but-name Vogler in exchange for favors after House is particularly rude and disrespectful to him (just before Vogler's arrival, House was abstaining from Vicodin for a week and actually hit Chase in the face while going through withdrawal). Interestingly, Chase isn't portrayed as particularly unsympathetic for doing this, save for House giving him tedious job assignments for a while as payback. By House's own admission he's an ass, and the other reason the other members of the team didn't turn against him as well is that Foreman didn't trust Vogler and Cameron has a deeply-misguided crush on House.
* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Hernan "Shades" Alvarez is absolutely loyal to whoever he's working for and won't snitch. But if it's clear his employer is losing it, he will find a new employer. He won't cross them, but if they cross him, he's not holding back. When he falls out of favor with Diamondback, Diamondback sends Zip to kill him off. Shades kills Zip and his men, and then he and Mariah try to form a truce with Luke Cage to get rid of Diamondback.
* ''Series/IronFist2017'': Ward Meachum's constant use as his resurrected father's puppet eventually leads him to turn against Harold and begin actively working with Danny.
[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* One of Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s best {{Heel Face Turn}}s of the early [[TheNineties 90s]] was that of Wrestling/{{Virgil}}, Wrestling/{{Ted DiBiase}}'s bodyguard and BeleagueredAssistant. In 1990, [=DiBiase=] began taking Virgil for granted and abusing his services, to the point of boasting about it in interviews, knowing Virgil would just take it because he needed the money. Come ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble 1991,'' [=DiBiase=] berated him after a match for a mistake, and demanded he put the Million Dollar Championship around his waist. He got the belt all right - ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome right in the face,]]'' to the biggest pop of Virgil's career.
* While Dalton Castle wasn't the best boss The Boys could ask for, they only left him after he lost a wager to Silas Young in Wrestling/RingOfHonor. After spending four months doing everything they could to appease Young though, they left him for Castle at "Final Battle", even though that wasn't a stipulation of the match.
* During the infamous InVasion angle, the WWE Wrestlers attacked Wrestling/{{Test}} due to him been seen talking to the Alliance wrestlers, suspecting him to be a traitor. Only to realize he wasn't. However, despite trying to apologize (which he didn't accept), this would lead him to defect to the Alliance.
* In Machinima/RedVsBlue season 15, [[spoiler: the vast majority of the surviving Sim Troopers pull this on the UNSC for selling them out to Project Freelancer so they could be target practice for their Freelancers, and Doc does this to the Blood Gulch Crew for their crap treatment of him. Only the Blood Gulch Crew doesn't do this, though [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife Sarge still defects for other reasons.]]]]
[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'': Doc Hopper's henchman Max, when he realizes Hopper plans to kill Kermit.
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'': The Technocracy triggered this in an entire faction. Twice. They drove the [[MadScientist Sons of Ether]] into the arms of their enemies by removing their pet theory from [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the consensus]], and they did the same with the [[CyberPunk Virtual Adepts]] by killing Alan Turing.
* The Literature/HorusHeresy in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' was helped along in its beginning due to the fact that a lot of the Primarchs were bitter towards the Emperor for one reason or another. While some were at first manipulated by the Chaos Gods (Horus and Fulgrim) or joined out of their own reasons (Mortarion was loyal to Horus due to feeling more comfortable around him than the other primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon were doing it in an effort to save the galaxy from Chaos) others joined Horus because of ways that the Emperor had angered them, such as Lorgar being desperate for an object of worship after the Emperor humiliated he and his Legion (when they had violated his "no gods, only man" prescription in the first place) or Perturabo (the Iron Warriors had constantly been used as a besieging force, causing year after year of hellish attrition warfare) or Kelbor Hal, the Fabricator General of Mars that was annoyed that he had to share the fruits of Mars' labor with the Imperium.
* In ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', the Clan Smoke Jaguar warrior, Trent, suffered grievous wounds in the Battle of Tukayyid, which his Clan lost to [=ComStar=] and was subsequently forced into a ceasefire. His lancemates claimed they saved his life - [[ProudWarriorRace a sign of weakness]] - his [[HumongousMecha battlemech]] was sabotaged in a trial to earn his Bloodname, he was repeatedly ReassignedToAntarctica, and betrayed and lied to by his superior officers, caused him to snap and betray the Clan. He was captured by [=ComStar=] and gave them the coordinates of the Clan's homeworld in exchange for the right to lead a battlemech lance in combat against his former allies.
** The Draconis Combine has long history of mistreating and blackmailing mercenaries under their employ, the Eridani Light Horses and the Wolf's Dragoons suffered this when their depends were held hostages and killed by their employers prompting the units turn on them and leave. The Combine were so appalled on what happened to the former, that the reinforcements sent to deal with the Light Horses simply left when they heard what happened.
** The 21st Centauri Lancers were formerly part of the Cappellan Confederations armies, but when their commander hasn't paided them in 9 months, the unit mutinied and when on to work as mercenaries for the other Successor States except for the Confederation.
* The Duke of Buckingham in ''Theatre/RichardIII'' is a classic example: he helps Richard to the throne with the understanding that he'll get land and another title in return. When he goes to Richard to remind him of this promise, Richard first ignores him, then yells at him, at which point Buckingham promptly defects to the side of the rebels. [[HeelFaceDoorSlam Or tries to. He's found out pretty darn quickly and killed.]] Lord Darby, on the other hand, gains nothing at all, is treated as a ButtMonkey servant, and defects successfully.
[[folder:Video Games]]
* Mother Brain's speech to Robo in the Geno Dome in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. There ''had'' to be a better way to convince him to come back to the side of the robots than telling him that she would erase his memory and slaughter his new friends. The DS re-release, featuring a new translation, shows that she actually does try to convince him much more effectively (he's stymied for a few seconds), but after he kills Atropos and reveals that he can't give up on his new friends, Mother Brain states that she'll destroy him, mindwipe him, and rebuild him to help her take over the world. Yeah, that didn't work too well.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'' has quite a few examples of this:
** Sion's RedemptionEqualsDeath is made easier if you point out how much of a bitch [[spoiler:Kreia]] has been in her treatment of him.
** [[spoiler:Colonel Tobin]] feels this way about Darth Nihilus, when he finds out the latter doesn't really care about his homeworld and has been using him all the time. When he runs into the main hero(ine)'s team, he asks them to kill him and they may do just that or simply leave him be. It is possible, however, to make him realize it still isn't too late for him to make up for all the crimes he has committed in Darth Nihilus' name. He then rushes off to help set up explosive devices all over the Sith ship.
** Nihilus seems to have [[BadBoss a bad habit of causing this]], because his apprentice, Visas Marr, also turns on him if the Exile treats her nicely (even if s/he [[PetTheDog is otherwise]] [[ALighterShadeOfBlack a rampaging Sith Lord him/herself]]). This is justified because Visas [[MadeASlave didn't join him of her own volition in the first place]], so naturally she would jump at the chance to serve someone else. Note that in this case 'treats her nicely' mean 'didn't kill her after defeating her.' Serving a Sith Lord lowers your standards.
* Cyril from ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin''. Although he is a clone, he helps the heroes thwart the plans of the Big Bad, while losing his life in the process.
** Earlier on when you rescue Waylon from the Lazurian army, he takes off but his entire unit sticks around (which gives you access to aerial units). They only followed him because they had nowhere else to go, and are more than happy to jump ship to Brenner's Wolves when they hear Brenner isn't a complete dick.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow''
** Subverted in [[VideoGame/SaintsRow1 the first game]]. Warren was rather displeased with how badly the situation was faring on the criminal front, and always used the opportunity to anger King with his gung ho policy of trying to kill every opposing gang member. After the Saints cracked down on several of King's bribed cops, Warren betrays King... and gets killed trying to put his policy to work.
** Played straight in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird''. [[TheBaroness Viola DeWynter]] defects to the Saints after Killbane [[YouKilledMyFather murders her twin sister Kiki]] for '''[[BerserkButton referring to him by his real name]]''', and then casually makes light of it while she's still crying over Kiki's body.
* In ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'', Belleza gets cold feet when Galcian declares his intention to dissent from the Valuan Empire, although she maintains her SubordinateExcuse. In an initial subversion, Galcian genuinely appears to care, and tries to convince her to his point of view... Before sending her off as a diplomat to deliver his intentions to the Valuan empire, and then uses his island-destroying super-weapon on the nation while she's inside. The next time they meet, TheDogBitesBack.
* In ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', [[spoiler:Xion and Roxas]] both HeelFaceTurn. The two were treated cruelly by BigBad Xemnas and [[TheDragon Dragon]] Saix. Unfortunately the former [[BrainwashedAndCrazy didn't have much say in the matter]] and the latter kind of [[LossOfIdentity lost himself.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', after being belittled and fired by Lionwhyte for constantly losing against Eddie Riggs, the Bouncers are then recruited by Lars. Lionwhyte does attempt to make amends (promising to get them slimming t-shirts), but by then it's too late for him.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', [[spoiler:Gabranth]] was loyal to [[spoiler:Vayne]] because his primary task was to [[spoiler:protect Larsa, upon orders by his Excellency Emperor Gramis, his honor as Judge Magister, and an oath to colleague Judge Drace, who was killed under orders from Vayne himself]]. But he was fiercely loyal up to the very end, when [[spoiler:Larsa opposed Vayne and Vayne decided that Larsa was an enemy that had to be put down. Vayne even taunted Gabranth about his role as Larsa's guard dog]], [[TheDogBitesBack which he really shouldn't have done]].
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' begins with Cecil and the Redwings under his command returning to the kingdom of Baron after having attacked Mysidia to seize its [[MineralMacGuffin Crystal]]. His men are concerned about the atrocities they were ordered to commit, and Cecil speaks his mind to the King of Baron: he responds by stripping him of his command and sending him off to deliver a signet ring to Mist, home of the summoners. Once he arrives, he discovers two things: he's killed an innocent girl's mother by defeating the Eidolon that was guarding the exit to the cavern leading to the village, and the seemingly-innocuous ring he was tasked with delivering summons an army of Bomb monsters which destroy the village and murder its inhabitants. It's not surprising that the rest of the game concerns [[TheAtoner Cecil's quest for redemption]], fighting a losing battle against the armies of his former kingdom to stop them from seizing the Crystals.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'':
*** It's heavily implied that [[TykeBomb Rafa]] turned against her master because [[spoiler:he ''[[RapeAsDrama raped]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil her]]'' ([[AttemptedRape or at least attempted it]]). Her brother Marach would also later [[HeelFaceTurn turn against him]] when he learns of this.]]
*** The reason why [[RebelLeader Wiegraf]] and the [[LaResistance Corpse Brigade]] rebel against the [[AristocratsAreEvil Duke Larg]]. After risking their lives in the [[GreatOffscreenWar Fifty Years War]] they returned with no jobs, ''[[MemeticMutation little money]]'' and of course, less loyalty to the crown.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' gives us Sephiroth, an exceptionally powerful SOLDIER who discovered that he was the product of an experiment and that he had been lied to for his entire life. He then mistakenly believes himself to be sole survivor of an ancient race which the humans betrayed by hiding during the battle with the BigBad of that time. Needless to say, he does not take this well.
*** The prequel, ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'', gives us his fellow high-level supersoldier [[AxCrazy Genesis]], the BigBad of the prequel game, who finds out he was genetically engineered around the time he starts getting CloneDegeneration, since Shinra canceled his program in favor of Project S, or something like that, and stuck the baby with a family that may or may not have been his original genetic donors. Fan opinion holds that he did not have a good home life.
*** Also from the prequel, [[TheBigGuy Angeal]] also counts, albeit to a less extent. [[TheHero Zack]]'s mentor who was always talking about honor, he did go rogue because of the AwfulTruth, but didn't really do any harm to either side after going AWOL. He was actually raised by his mother Gillian, the scientist who self-experimented with Jenova cells to create Project G. She appears to have been a pretty good mother, despite his degenerative condition being all her fault, but her choice to suicide where he'd find her body and (she probably didn't intend this part) be mistaken for her murderer was pretty shitty. And probably inspired Angeal to, in turn, [[SuicideByCop make his protege Zack kill him]].
* Edgar from ''VideoGame/KingsQuest''... '''twice'''. In his first appearance in [=KQ4=], he's a homely little hunchback who the wicked fairy [[BigBad Lolotte]] introduces as her son [[spoiler: turns out later not to be the case]]. Rosella shows up and Lolotte's eager to kill her, but Edgar convinces Lolotte to send Rosella out on some {{FetchQuest}}s instead. After Rosella obtains the items, Lolotte gleefully announces that Rosella's "reward" will be to marry Edgar and locks her up. Edgar ends up slipping a single red rose under the door...with the key attached. In his second appearance, he's BrainwashedandCrazy [[spoiler: and turned into a troll]] by [[spoiler: his aunt]] Malicia. He drags his heels and stalls for time as much as he can, despite the brainwashing, allowing Rosella and Valanice to start throwing wrenches into Malicia's plan.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', there is the "Plaguelands: Scarlet Enclave" instance -- which serves as the introduction to the Death Knight class. Simply put, you are one of [[BigBad the Lich King's]] EliteMooks, and up to a point are gleefully terrorizing and slaughtering hapless villagers and the [[KnightTemplar Scarlet Crusade]]... then you're given a certain quest: Go kill a member of [[TheAlliance the Argent Dawn]]... someone who you knew in life... someone who begs you to fight against the Lich King's control... then after a few more kill-them-all quests, you're sent to meet the Argent Dawn head on. Which turns out, the Lich King was [[WeHaveReserves sending you and the rest of the Death Knights of Acherus on a suicide mission]] simply to lure out Tirion Fordring. Shortly after this, Acherus's Death Knights are formed into the Knights of the Ebon Blade, who have one goal: Kick Arthas for this betrayal. And you go off and join your respective faction.
** Mistreatment is also the core reason why Blood Elves are not in the Alliance: they were essentially being used as {{cannon fodder}} by the human Grand Marshal Garithos, who [[FantasticRacism loathed their race]]. This makes Garrosh's behaviour towards the Blood Elves in ''Mists of Pandaria'' all the more facepalm-worthy, as he's basically doing the exact same thing and presumably expecting different results.
*** During one story arc, it's revealed that the situation had gotten so bad that the Blood Elves were actually on the verge of rejoining the Alliance. This was only stopped when Jaina punished all of the Sunreavers for a few of them breaking their neutrality, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero reminding Lor'themar of Garithos]].
*** The Blood Elves themselves did this to the Void Elves. While rightfully suspicious of elves trying to master the corruptive powers of the Void, the Blood Elves banished them from of Silvermoon, and Alleria Windrunner, who had successfully mastered the Void, invited them to rejoin the Alliance.
** The Trolls led the initial rebellion against Garrosh in response to his increasingly genocidal actions towards them. The rest of the Horde joined not long after.
* Beldam in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' goes out of her way to belittle, berate, and degrade her sister Vivian at every opportunity; her taunts in the Japanese version have even resulted in [[ShesAManInJapan a certain amount of ambiguity regarding her actual gender in said version]]. She's also scapegoating Vivian constantly, even on at least two occasions blaming her for losing something, when previously Beldam had decided to hold onto it herself on the basis that she couldn't trust dumb ol' Vivian not to lose it. It's a wonder it takes Vivian as long as it does to join Mario.
* According to the backstory of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', K. Lumsy disliked K. Rool's plan to destroy the island where the Kongs live. In response, K. Rool imprisoned him. Conveniently enough, all of the Kongs' progress occurs as a direct result of K. Lumsy's intervention. [[BullyingADragon Way to antagonize the guy]] [[{{Kaiju}} who's about as big as the island you're trying to destroy]], K. Rool.
* ''Franchise/MetalGear''
** Kyle Schneider and Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar's reasons for defecting to Zanzibar Land in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2''. In regards to Kyle Schneider, he initially supported NATO/FOXHOUND in regards to taking down Outer Heaven, but after Outer Heaven was destroyed, he and his resistance were stabbed in the back so to speak when NATO commenced an air raid that completely and indiscriminately wiped out pretty much a lot of people, and he himself was also captured and experimented upon at NATO for an extraterrestrial special forces project. After traveling to the Mercenary War, he ended up joining Big Boss and Outer Heaven not just due to what NATO did to him, but also because unlike NATO, Big Boss actually saved his resistance as well as the rest of his soldiers. As for Madnar, after defecting to America from the Soviet Union, even abandoning his own daughter, his treatment by the American government and the Scientific Community was... not too good to put it simply. Aside from being ridiculed for his theories about Metal Gear, he also was frequently abused by his superiors and often treated with complete contempt, especially when they only wanted him to make stuff like SDI, NEDW, and brain bombs. Eventually, he had enough and joined Zanzibar Land.
** Although not a direct result of Outer Heaven, it is implied that Gray Fox's defection to Zanzibar Land, aside from [[MyMasterRightOrWrong his obvious loyalty to Big Boss]] and [[BloodKnight his need for war]], also came from a Mistreatment Induced Betrayal. While watching the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988, Gray Fox (living under the paper-thin alias of Frank Hunter [his last name, Jaegar, was German for Hunter]) he ended up falling in love with Gustava Heffner, a ice-skating competitor from Czechoslovakia, and they attempted to elope together, with her attempting to defect to America. Unfortunately, America rejected her request, which also made life a living hell for her and the rest of her family as she was stripped of her competition rights and she and her family was later hunted down. Suffice to say, Gray Fox was not too happy about this at all.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' has a rather twisted double subversion: The President of the United States, James Johnson, secretly worked with the Sons of Liberty in their Big Shell takeover because he was never given any real power besides creating an illusion that the People actually voted for him under their free will, and wanted to have power similar to The Patriots. However, they presumably refused to grant him this. Unfortunately, this backfires on him when Solidus ends up keeping him alive just to reconfirm his vital signs, stating that "pawns cannot become players." It is also later revealed by Ocelot that even his reasons for defecting were in fact manipulated by The Patriots, and the script even mentions this.
** Ocelot is a slight subversion. At first, it seems as though he aids Snake in stopping Volgin because he became too disgusted with his former employer to continue working with him. However, it turns out that the real reason why he's aiding Snake is because [[spoiler:That was his mission given to him by the CIA, his true employers.]] Possibly played straight in Portable Ops, when he executes the CIA Director in cold blood, if one buys his statements about regaining what the DCI stole from them about The Boss.
** In ''Portable Ops'', Elisa defects to Naked Snake's side when she realizes that Gene is going to launch a nuke due to negotiations failing, since she feels that nukes should never be used after she was exposed to radiation from the Khystym Disaster. Ursula, although she took longer, also ended up turning against Gene (it is also implied that the reason why she didn't turn sooner is because she didn't discover her boss's true intentions until after she barely survived her battle with Snake. Cunningham also intended to go through with the Pentagon's plan of defacing the CIA's reputation due to their casting him aside when he was forced to amputate his leg, and also because of disgust towards them for selling The Boss out.
** Huey Emmerich initially worked for the Peace Sentinels under the belief that he could maintain true peace under deterrence and not have to launch a nuke even once. After discovering that Coldman, the leader of the Peace Sentinels, had actually planned to launch a nuke just to show the world its power, and presumably to get a step up in negotiations with the CIA (the organization he used to run as director until they eventually became so disgusted with him they ended up Kicking him Upstairs to Station Chief of Central America), he ended up going against him, and his chances of defecting from him increased substantially after Coldman pushed him down the stairs. Although not as clear, Strangelove was also implied to have undergone a similar Mistreatment Induced Betrayal. If the player managed to complete the quick-time event that cumulates in Snake swiping Strangelove's ID badge, she apparently allows Snake to keep the badge. The fact that the torture sessions afterwards do not show her with an ID badge at any point hints at Snake stealing her ID badge being canon, which means that she was actually helping Snake, the one person she hated the most due to his involvement in The Boss's death, escape and presumably take down Coldman's group.
** Big Boss ''himself''. His entire StartOfDarkness was triggered by [[spoiler:having to kill his maternal figure The Boss. It only went downhill for him from there.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', this can arguably be used by the player to justify choosing to [[spoiler:destroy the Collector base rather than hand it over to Cerberus]] after the Illusive Man talks about using it to ensure the dominance of humanity, despite all his assurances during the game that Cerberus really isn't anti-alien. Also justifies [[spoiler: the crew of the ''Normandy SR-2'']] apparently all deciding to go with Shepard (in the Everyone Lives ending). They knew the Illusive Man and Cerberus considered them expendable in order to carry out the mission; [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind Shepard doesn't]].
* [[TheDragon Dusknoir]] and his Sableyes in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky]].''
* Mundus having Trish hostage after her failure in getting rid of Dante in the first ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' has really put her to this.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' had Lucrezia Borgia betray her brother [[IncestIsRelative and lover]] Cesare because in a fit of rage after their father denied Cesare more money he informed her that he doesn't care about her, just the Apple because that will allow him to rule. When Ezio finds her afterwards, she willingly tells him where Cesare is going.
* ''VideoGame/MadFather'': If you're on the path to the Good ([[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy well, subjectively Good]]) Ending, Maria pulls one of these. She's right and dandy about [[spoiler:The Doctor killing his wife, and whatever homeless he can get his hands on (which, at one point, included Maria herself) in the name of science. She's even alright with killing Aya.]] But when the Doctor fatally wounds her in frustration (and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Aya comes along to fix it]]), she promptly switches sides.
* The Dungeon Leader in ''Sakura Dungeon'' is such a JerkAss BadBoss that main character Yomi is easily able to recruit the various {{CuteMonsterGirl}}s that live in the dungeon to her side just by offering to allow them to go outside and to give them spare outfits.
* In the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' comics, Medic betrays his new employers, the [[spoiler:Classic team]], when [[KickTheDog their leader stomps on his beloved pet dove, Archimedes]].
* 10,000 years before the events of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', the Sheikah tribe built a huge army of {{Magitek}} machines in order to defend Hyrule from [[BigBad Calamity Ganon]]. This worked out, but the power of said machines made the other inhabitants of Hyrule fearful, and the Sheikah were banished from the kingdom lest they become a threat. While some abandoned their technology in order to be readmitted back into mainstream society, others, who came to be known as the Yiga Clan, decided to take revenge against Hyrule by swearing their allegiance to Ganon and eliminating any who opposed the Demon King.
* Fairly early on in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', [[BigBad Frau Engel]] brings her daughter Sigrun to an operation to try to capture [[TheHero B.J. Blazkowicz]]. But since Frau is pure {{Jerkass}}, she takes every opportunity she can to treat her daughter like absolute shit, mocking her for being a BigEater and reading her dairy before giving the young woman absolute hell for the [[CovertPervert sexual fantasies]] inside of it. With [[ImpliedDeathThreat implications of sending her off to the camps.]] After trying to force Sigrun to [[spoiler: execute Caroline]] despite not having much in the way of violence in her system and then ''brutally'' mocking and slapping her for failing to meet Frau's standards, [[BigDamnHeroes Sigrun finally snaps and incidentally saves BJ in the process.]]
** Notable in that, in Wyatt's timeline at least, she fully expected to be RewardedAsATraitorDeserves and killed by the resistance afterwards. Blazkowicz, having made a friend in the late Klaus from ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'' despite the man having been a former Nazi, has no second thoughts about recruiting her instead ([[DudeWheresMyRespect not that the rest of the Resistance gives her much mind]]).
* ''{{VideoGame/Warframe}}'': This seems to be the default end result of ''absolutely everything'' the [[AbusivePrecursors Orokin]] do.[[note]] And given what we've learned, and keep learning, of the Orokin, they ''completely deserved'' what they got.[[/note]]
** Their best and most brilliant minds? If their scientists fail ''once'' they're executed for it. They have a chance to plead for their lives to a panel of their leaders who act as judge, jury, and executioner, but the scientist has to both be very eloquent, and have a backup experimental program to offer as proof they're too valuable to kill. It's implied that even that's usually not enough, and the one successful example we ''do'' know of ''still'' managed to bite the Orokin in the ass.
** Their medics, capable of healing absolutely everything, including potentially old age? Hidden out of sight and regarded as "shameful" if their aid is needed for anything.
** Their cannon fodder non-clone army? "Here's an unarmored spacesuit and a flintlock, you're up against robots with disintegration beams. We don't care or expect you to survive our human-wave tactics."
** Their elite super-soldiers? Turns on them ''and destroys the ruling class'' for their abuse and the torture required to make them into said super-soldiers.
** Their cannon fodder, slightly better-equipped ''clone'' army? Turns on them and wipes out the last remnants of their empire and create a new empire, leading them into conflict with...
** Their mercantile minions? Tired of the threat of executions of whole families if they fail to meet draconian quotas, instead of moving to give aid to the shattered empire, go off on their own to found their own empire by scavenging the tech of their former overlords.
** Their ''[[UpToEleven terraforming drones]]'' sent to a different system? Gain sentience and try to wipe them out (and very nearly succeed), leading to the creation of said super soldiers, armies, and indirectly the Grineer and Corpus empires.
** Their method of immortality? "HarmfulToMinors" is a ''woeful understatement''. Every time the playerbase thinks they've discovered the Orokin's MoralEventHorizon, they somehow manage to ''find a new one to cross''.
* ''VideoGame/RandalsMonday'': The HorsemenOfTheApocalypse agree to help Randal return everything to normal because they're fed up with how [[spoiler:Sally]] is treating them.
[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' parodies the ''StarWars'' scene temptation mentioned above: [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/462.html "My lord, if you'd just shut up..."]]
* Iron Jane in ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' [[http://eheroes.smackjeeves.com/comics/1991017/nobody-can-stop-him/ turns against her team leader]] [[spoiler:after she watches him kill her best friend]].
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. Black Mage of is fully and truly ChaoticEvil, yet the noble (and ''dense'') Fighter believes him to be a true hero who's just misunderstood. This despite the fact that Black Mage constantly kills innocent civilians in the most gruesome ways possible, betrays his own team and even ''stabs Fighter in the head'' whenever he can. In fact, Fighter doesn't turn against Black Mage until [[spoiler:the latter -- on a power trip fueled by Hell itself and power absorbed from his own clone -- inadvertently stabs White Mage through the chest with a spiky black tentacle thing while showing off.]] They then prepare to battle... but gets interrupted and [[StatusQuoIsGod go back to being on the same team five minutes later.]] The conflict has not been mentioned since.
* In the ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' prequel ''StartOfDarkness'', Right-Eye is this in regards to Xykon's [[WeHaveReserves irresponsibility]] to the lives of his partners/subordinates. While his brother Redcloak was willing to suffer in silence if it meant staying in Xykon's good graces and having his help with The Plan, Right-Eye soon decided enough was enough, and tried to, in order; 1) Get a wizard with a BloodOath of Vengeance to kill Xykon for him, 2) Run away from The Plan entirely and start a family, and 3) kill Xykon himself. It ultimately doesn't end well for Right-Eye.
-->'''Right-Eye:''' I'm what you would call your classic, "disgruntled employee."
** A double invocation when Haley points out to [[spoiler:Golem Crystal]] that it would have been much cheaper for Bozzok to resurrect [[spoiler:Crystal]] than go through all the trouble of [[spoiler:creating a flesh golem that could feel pain and have all the memories and emotions of Crystal]]. She then attacks Bozzok saying that he made her this way. When Bozzok asks Grubwiggler for help, he refuses, given that Bozzok had interfered with his work too many times to help him out (thus invoking the trope for the second time). Things don't end well for Bozzok.
* Beausoleil of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' claims his reason for turning against [[spoiler:the Master was because the man was so stingy about sharing his technology secrets, which could have been used to improve his clank-bodies]].
* ''[[http://bloody-nipple.groboclown.net/0001.html The Bloody Nipple Saga]]'' (a CampaignComic adaptation of the first ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan the Barbarian]]'' movie), [[spoiler: Tom (the player who initially was playing Valeria)]] is eventually so disguted by [[spoiler: Chris (Conan) and Michael (Subutai)]] lack of subtlelity and roleplay that he eventually requests (which the DM accepts!) to end the campaign by playing [[spoiler: Thulsa Doom (yes, the Big Bad of the story)]].
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'': Rogue was never really that loyal to Mystique anyway, but even so, she does question her allegiance to her after she gets to know [[TheCaptain Scott]]. More importantly, [[spoiler:Mystique stalks and attacks them]] just as Rogue is coming to the point where she has to make a decision. If she'd stayed out of it -- and consequently prevented [[spoiler:Rogue from reading her memories]] -- who knows how much longer her side would have kept Rogue (previous continuity inevitability aside).
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''
** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''
*** At the very end of the series, as the Dinobot clone remembers who he once was, Megatron's [[spoiler:murdering of Tigerhawk and general blowing up the Earth]] makes it much easier to embrace his past.
*** WordOfGod tells us that there was an episode that focused on Rattrap trying to load a copy of Dinobot's original programming onto the clone, does so successfully, but finds that since Dinobot is under the influence of Rampage's spark, he is still a Predacon. This was scrapped because ExecutiveMeddling found it too dark for a kids show. However, the HeelFaceTurn comes when Rampage is finally destroyed, thus freeing up the "good" Dinobot.
*** Earlier on, Blackarachnia is convinced to switch sides after Megatron decides a good way to deal with the Maximals is to kill Optimus Prime, thereby negating their existence. Blackarachnia originally being a Maximal, this predictably results in her defecting.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'': During the arc where Optimus is out of commission, the rest of the team gets hostile at Rattrap because they think he's useless; Cheetor gives it to him worst of all, possibly because the notion that Rattrap is TheLoad is conflicting with his deeply-held personal conviction that no one gets left behind. Rattrap, desperate to be accepted by his team members again, makes a deal with Megatron: Megatron will give him firepower to make him useful to the Maximals again, and in return Rattrap will use that firepower to keep Megatron safe for the night. Optimus talks him around later. And the Maximals are ''surprised'' that this happened. The people who were abusing him to his face and talking about ditching him can't comprehend why he would even give the time of day to their greatest enemy.
** In ''Anime/TransformersArmada,'' Starscream is loyal until Megs abandons him on the battlefield after his purpose in the current plot is served. This is the final insult after ages and ages of disrespect from the leader he'd [[BrokenPedestal once truly believed in]]. However, he returns to the 'cons after the Autobots want to do things in a logical manner instead of supporting 'Screamer's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, and [[TheStarscream plots from within, as other Starscreams]] [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers have before]] and [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime will again]]. He still remains more of a NobleDemon than other Starscreams, and eventually [[GodOfEvil Unicron]] gives everyone more important things to worry about.
** Played with in ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'', since Sixshot wasn't exactly loyal to Galvatron in the first place. A good few beatings for disobeying orders in favor of [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou attacking Optimus Prime]] ensured his primary target changed from Prime to his lingering master. He gets a good start during his coup and blasts Galvatron to pieces with his laser cannon, but then makes the mistake of stopping to gloat his ass off while Scorpinok defends his injured master. [[spoiler: Galvatron gets juiced up as the fight occurs, with things ending ''very'' badly for Sixshot.]]
** Taken to extremes in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' when [[spoiler:''all'' of Galvatron's minions pull a HeelFaceTurn after he labels them disposable pawns.]]
** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' also plays with this a little on several occasions. It makes an effort to set up a "chicken or the egg" question of if Megatron berates and brutalizes Starscream so often because of Starscream's treacherous nature or if Starscream is so treacherous against Megatron because ''Prime'' Megatron is a horrendously abusive and dubiously sane commanding officer. Megatron's callous disregard for the lives of his own men gives Starscream a following among some of the other Decepticons, including Breakdown considering his offer to join him when Starscream's time came or Knockout being perfectly willing to finish Megatron off to become Starscream's Dragon. [[spoiler: Ironically, in Starscream's last episode, he renounces his ambition to usurp Megatron and becomes a loyal officer right when Airachnid is trying to worm her way back into Megatron's good graces. Megatron treats Starscream as crappily as ever, and when [[StupidEvil Airachnid betrays him and leaves him to die out of spite]] on a mission, Starscream declares a DyingCurse and deserts, resolving to be loyal only to himself.]]
*** Near the end of Season 2, Dreadwing, after learning that Starscream was the one who turned his brother, Skyquake, into a Terrorcon zombie and disgraced his death, and that Megatron was willing to hide that fact from him, betrays the Decepticons by handing over the Forge of Solus Prime to the Autobots, though he stays with the Decepticons.
*** Later on, Predaking turns on the Decepticons after discovering that Megatron was the one responsible for him staying the LastOfHisKind. To his credit, Megatron at least saw this coming way back during the planning phase several episodes earlier, but felt the risk the other Predacons represented was greater than the risks involved in a plan that would at worst anger just Predaking.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''
** Azula learns the hard way that MachiavelliWasWrong when her "best friends" [[EtTuBrute betray her]].
** Zuko ''doesn't'' exactly pull this on Ozai; if Ozai had given him even a modicum of positive reinforcement he probably would never have [[HeelFaceTurn turned]], but when he actually does it Ozai is treating him okay (at least, for [[AbusiveParents Ozai]]) and it's just a matter of principle. (That and knowing that Azula is going to use him as a scapegoat any time now.) In fact the moment of mistreatment does not occur until AFTER Zuko announces his HeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler:when Ozai attempts to put him on the business end of OffingTheOffspring near the end of "The Day of Black Sun."]]
* Jinx in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' might not have been so quick to hook up with charming speedster Kid Flash had Madame Rouge not treated her like crap on a near-constant basis. It probably helped that her teammates were extremely incompetent. It also helps that ComicBook/TheFlash is just that kind of guy. In the comics, he and his RoguesGallery have a strange respect for each other. However this ''is'' probably the stronger motivator. We see in "Lightspeed" that what Jinx wants is respect. She'll settle for fear, but she straight up says "At least with the Brotherhood of Evil, I can ''be'' somebody. I'll get respect." (Which is another strike against her teammates, by the way: unlike Jinx, they had no ''ambition''.) And when she's treated like dirt, she doesn't take it sitting down. Hero, villain, nobody messes with her. And that's where Jinx breaks with her team and considers what Kid Flash had been saying to her.
* Campion in the ''WesternAnimation/WatershipDown'' TV series. After being saved by Hazel, he reluctantly decides he likes the Watership rabbits. This causes him a lot of personal conflict, as he doesn't want to be disloyal to his chief. He becomes something of a DoubleAgent for the Watership rabbits, but still ends up TakingTheBullet for his Chief, Woundwart in the end. [[FirstLawOfResurrection Don't worry]], he gets better.
* In ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', Hämsterviel is [[TooDumbToLive dumb enough]] to tell Gantu that he'll be fired as soon as he's finished locking up Lilo and Reuben. Naturally, Gantu decides that he's got nothing to lose, and releases them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' Hack and Slash switch sides after Megabyte's actions become [[EvenEvilHasStandards too evil for them]] and Bob is no longer around to stop them from finishing evil acts. Megabyte doesn't care about this at all, even sending them to the front lines simply to get rid of them. Switching sides was inevitable for them at this point.
* ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo''
** Killface's constant abuse of his personal assistant Valerie causes her to turn against him, at which point she makes several failed attempts to kill him.
** Played with between Killface and Phil, who start out with a genial relationship. Phil sues Killface after he learns that the Annihilatrix has given him cancer, and that Killface [[RunningJoke doesn't have insurance]]. Killface responds by trying to poison him.
** Killface also views Val's quest for revenge as a betrayal. Considering the circumstances of her "employment", though...
* Tohru on ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. At the end of the first season, Tohru is severely injured after he is forced by his boss, Valmont, to fight the newly-repowered demon Shendu. Later, he identifies Shendu for the Chans, who had previously been unknown to them. When Section 13's Captain Black asks why he wants to help them, he answers that [[BrickJoke he heard Section 13 served donuts on Tuesdays]]. Starting in the second season, Tohru also becomes Uncle's apprentice.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'', Rubilax cements his HeelFaceTurn after his fellow Shushus, and especially their lord Rushu, insult him one time too many.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' movie, Big Bob Pataki initially goes along with [[BigBad Mr. Scheck]]'s plan to bulldoze Arnold's neighborhood and replace it with a mall because he was promised that one of the stores contained therein would be his largest-ever beeper emporium. Later on, however, he reads the fine print of the contract and discovers that [[spoiler:in exchange for said beeper emporium, Scheck gets 51% of the shares in his company]]. Cue one HeelFaceTurn.
* Every one of the four main characters of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' have performed temporary {{Face Heel Turn}}s at some point in the show, and this trope was what brought about Raimundo's. A little ways in, Raimundo is denied a promotion to the Xiaolin Apprentice level due to an incident where he accidentally made things worse by trying to help, and the other Xiaolin dragons (Omi especially) mock him to no end over it. Somehow, they're surprised when Raimundo takes [[BigBad Wuya's]] offer of WeCanRuleTogether (which, for a CardCarryingVillain, she follows through surprisingly well on). Fortunately, Raimundo being the strongest example of CharacterDevelopment in the series, actually makes this brief betrayal work for him and the good side later on.
* Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse:
** Subverted with Darkseid in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. Superman kicks the stuffing out of Darkseid and throws him to his abused and enslaved people. In a subversion that almost breaks Superman, Darkseid's people help him up to be healed. Darkseid then tells Superman, "I am many things, Kal-El. But here, I am God."
** Played straight with Mercy Graves. Luthor treating her like crap and leaving her to die in "Ghost in the Machine" comes back to bite him. In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Tabula Rasa", over [=LexCorp=] while Luthor is in prison (doing a far better job, having brought stock up 38% now that they're legit) and is hesitant to return it to him because of all that has happened. Her true betrayal comes at the end of the episode where he's arrested and uses his OnePhoneCall to call her for help, and she hangs up on him. (Unfortunately, she would eventually work for him again.)
** WordOfGod claims that this is why Luthor "accidentally" resurrected Darkseid instead of Brainiac in "Alive". It was a deliberate sabotaged by Tala as a final act of revenge, as Luthor had cruelly sacrificed her to power the mystical conduit.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** [[EnsembleDarkHorse Coco Pommel]] ditches her boss [[AlphaBitch Suri Polomare]] thanks to both the former's mistreatment and seeing how Rarity treats ''her'' friends.
** Discord pulls on in the Season 4 Finale. While it's not exactly undeserved, pretty much the entire main cast save for Fluttershy treat him badly, leaps at every opportunity to take jabs at him or let him know he's been a nuisance to them, and remind him that he's not even close to being forgiven for his actions as a villain. It's no wonder Tirek was so easily able to sway him back to the side of villainy. But then Tirek rebuffs Discord's proposal that WeCanRuleTogether, on top of giving him a critical trinket.
** [[spoiler:The Season 6 finale has all the Changelings turning on Chrysalis after finding out she had been using them and keeping them in constant hunger for her own selfishness.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', the heads of the Royal Flush gang keep their children loyal to them through emotional manipulation. When their daughter Melanie has had enough and leaves the gang, they disown her and beat her brother Jack for even mentioning her. Jack also left the gang when Melanie paid his bail, in contrast to their parents who left him in jail.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[GirlFriday Zhu Li]], fed up with Varrick's endless disrespect toward her, abandons any loyalty to him in favor of Kuvira when she captures them both. Notably this is [[HazyFeelTurn closer to being]] a FaceHeelTurn than the opposite, because it happened just ''after'' Varrick refused to do something amoral [[EvenEvilHasStandards for once]]. [[spoiler: And then subverted. Turns out Zhu Li, while genuinely angry about the mistreatment, was still fundamentally loyal to Varrick -- and with Kuvira thinking Zhu Li had turned, arranging an escape was easier than it would have been...]]
** In the same season, Varrick is an unscrupulous businessman and mad scientist and has had no issues at all helping the tyrannical overlord Kuvira with her conquests. When he starts to show just a hint of reluctance about weaponizing Spirit energy though, her immediate response isn't to reason with him but to hurl him off a moving train. He switches sides shortly after.
* WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse: This combined with BecauseYouWereNiceToMe is the main reason why Rose and Steven are so good at gaining Homeworld Gems as followers and friends: Rose and Steven are unconditionally loving and kind, and Homeworld's Diamond Authority treats their citizens with a mix of WeHaveReserves and FantasticRacism (towards cross-gem fusions and Pearls), and frequently use physical violence (including the death penalty) to punish behaviors they disapprove of.
* Coop from ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'' is more of an example of StalkerWithACrush and LoveMakesYouEvil, but what ultimately cements his FaceHeelTurn is years of being a ButtMonkey at his crush's hand, followed by said crush having the nerve to say she had been nice to him.
* Mookie from ''WesternAnimation/AtomicPuppet'' is implied to have transformed Captain Atomic into a sock puppet because of this, as flashbacks to Captain Atomic show him being extremely dismissive of his sidekick.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' ''Super Santa'' short "Naughty", Elmer Scrooge's lackeys turn on him because he never treated them well, opting to instead help Santa because he treated them nicer.
* When ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' and Pizzazz lead girls on a treasure hunt, Pizzazz abandons one of her girls, Sandra, when she sprains her ankle. When Jem and her girls help Sandra, she changes teams and helps them win.
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Japanese warrior Akechi Mitsuhide has been traditionally depicted as an honorable samurai, albeit a usual victim of his BadBoss UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga's not-so-pleasant demeanor. Apparently, things came to a head when Mitsuhide's mother was involved in a [[SadisticChoice tight hostage situation]] which ended with her getting killed, inadvertently caused by Nobunaga's tactics. This apparently paved the way for him turning on Nobunaga at the Incident on Honnoji, leading to the latter's death.
* [[WeAllLiveInAmerica If you've read history books]], [[PopCulturalOsmosis or even watch enough tv and movies]], they always portray [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Benedict Arnold]] as a {{Jerkass}} who betrayed his colony after it rebelled seemingly for the hell of it. But it just so happens that for a long time, colonial command seemed to have kicking Arnold in the guts as a pleasant hobby. He was not acknowledged for his role in any early American successes in the war, including Saratoga, which was the battle that convinced France to enter the war on behalf of the Americans and was won almost entirely by Arnold; at the time this was the highest insult to an officer. It came to a head when he was military governor of Philadelphia, he was forced out on trumped-up charges of corruption and officially reprimanded for it. What he didn't know and was not informed of is that, if General Washington had not done so, Pennsylvania would have withdrawn their support from the Continental Army. This caused him to feel unappreciated and offer to betray the Americans in return for a hefty sum of money and a generalship in the British army. In return, he offered them West Point (which at the time was named Fort Arnold, for him). Days afterward, Washington offered him command of approximately half the Continental Army. He refused, citing a leg injury he received at Saratoga, and asked for West Point instead. His plan would have succeeded, except his contact in the British Army was captured the night Arnold gave him the information (on paper) about the fort that the British would have used to take it.
* This was one of the reasons why Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick and the original Kingmaker, deserted Edward IV of England and restored Henry VI to the throne (apart from Edward finally demonstrating he was not Warwick's puppet). Warwick had bled for the Yorkist cause at Towton, and was in the middle of negotiating a marriage for Edward to a princess of France when he got word that the king had already married. The woman he married, at the time, was completely unsuitable, being the widow of a Lancastrian commander, a commoner, and something of a parvenu who secured all the best positions at court for her relatives, who, until a few months before, had been sworn enemies to the Yorkists. Warwick was also left in the embarrassing position of having to explain to the King of France why his daughter had been jilted. It's no wonder that Warwick defected and brought a significant portion of Edward's support with him.
* Played straight throughout the ages on armies based on {{conscription}}. Conscripts are more prone to desert, surrender or set up a mutiny than professional soldiers, since the have personally little else on stake but their own personal survival while subjugated to harsh conditions and discipline, constant fear of death and few amenities. The UpToEleven variant of this trope was the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Army Vlasov Army]].
* In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Costa Rica team was performing way beyond their paygrade and everything seemed to be going fine; cue their elimination and trip back home, where they were received as heroes. Some days later, coach Jorge Luis Pinto was dismissed from the national team on the players' accounts of him being one of the most overbearing and accosting people they've ever had to work with; the accusations included the coach showing up at the players' homes when they called in sick to verify that they were actually sick, endless hounding of the players and the support staff, and being a remarkably rude person as a whole. Though Costa Rica was thoroughly grateful for his work in the team, they soundly asked him to never, ever come back. If they had bothered to ask why Pinto was ousted from the Colombia National Team, they would have found that a coach like him demands too much patience and that Pinto left few friends at the Colombian Federation, leaving with a reputation of being a remarkably caustic man; granted, he is an incredibly talented coach if you don't mind being stripped of your privacy and dignity. In hindsight, and after reviewing the video evidence, it was noted by the media that none of the players or the support staff in Costa Rica ever celebrated scoring with their coach. When Pinto sought support in the eve of his ousting, he found no friends in his staff.
* Sima Quin, the great Chinese historian, described this trope as the reason for the first major rebellion against the Qin dynasty, which relied on extremely heavy punishments for even minor offenses to maintain order. This lead to a situation where a military unit found itself late and realized that since the penalties for lateness and rebellion were both death, they might as well rebel and die fighting.

subset: commoncrawl