Sometimes, even the best intentions often end with them taking us down a dark path. Modern media is full of characters that started off as the good guys at one point or another and for whatever reason they went bad. So why do they exist? For starters, they act as a way to stir the plot in a new direction while others serve as means of explaining the origins of some characters. In any way, this list is my opinion as who are the top five characters with good intentions that eventually led them down the road to evil.
1. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars) ![]()
You knew this was coming-- what is more tragic than this characters downfall from being a hero of the Galactic Republic to the most feared enforcer of the Emperor? If you ask me, it’s probably the entire Prequel trilogy.
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2. Harvey Dent aka Two Face (Batman)![]()
Gotham City’s most famous district attorney and one of its most notorious villains are one and the same. This once proud warrior for justice in a city loaded with crime eventually became one himself after a traumatic disfiguring injury. When he’s not rotting in Arkham Asylum, he’s probably roaming the streets judging anyone with just the flip of a coin.
3. Gaius Baltar (Reimagined Battlestar Galactica)
This character was on a rocky journey throughout the series. His noble backfires include accidentally allowing the Cylon agents a backdoor into the Colonial’s defense mainframe, all because he was in love with one of them, which nearly leads to the extinction of humanity; giving a nuclear device to another cylon as a means of mending their relationship which leads to several ships getting blown up and alerting the cylons where the humans were hiding at the end of season 2; and finally surrendering to them immediately after they were discovered a year later which led to an authoritarian regime with roving mechanical enforcement, torture on prisoners, and death squads. The fact that this guy managed to redeem himself before they decided to blow him out an airlock is definite proof that some higher power was on his side.
4. Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2 and Borderlands the Presequel)
We are first introduced to this comical megalomaniac in Borderlands 2 when he attempts to kill you right at the beginning and then proceeds to taunt you throughout the rest of the game. At first, he seems more comical than a real threat, but it isn’t until the final act of the game that you realize that this guy is as violently dangerous as he is crazy. He’s the dictator of the planet Pandora and he rules it with an iridium fist going so far as enslaving his own daughter and having people executed for profanity or even spitting-- and I thought Singapore’s ban on chewing gum to be over the top!
5. Stannis Baratheon (A Song of Fire and Ice and Game of Thrones)
An incestuous woman and her eldest child kills your brother, his best friend, and then proceeds to highjack the throne that should rightfully belong to you who wouldn’t be pissed? From a legal standpoint, Stannis had the right to the iron throne and by all definitions should have been king-- but that doesn’t make good storytelling, does it? No. Stannis goes on the warpath against his brother Renly and the usurper Joffery; however, when we are first introduced to his character he’s enlisted the aid of a powerful sorceress that may have brought him early victories with her black magic by killing Renly. His mad drive for the throne eventually led him to burn a lot of innocent people at the stake including his own daughter. Thankfully, we didn’t have to see any of him in season six for good reasons.
