After a few weeks off, Trope Tuesday is back! Each Tuesday (provided I’m not being lazy) we dive into that time sink in the cloud known as TV Tropes and investigate a literary theme or device that makes our favorite entertainment chug along. This week, we’re looking at how a character can Become Their Own Antithesis.
After Character Development, some people regress into a vulnerable state. Others become betterpeople, somebecome much worse, and others turn into a fragile, highly poetic and a bit irrational version of themselves.
Another group of people tend to reject everything that seemed to define their identity for the viewer, their appearance, their values, their main quirk, and their general attitude towards The Hero, Save The World, and Good Versus Evil. Then, they manage to become a negative picture of themselves, the complete antithesis of what they formerly were known for. This is this trope.
The trope is mostly used to make a Face Heel Turn more dramatic, using The Dark Side Will Make You Forget, but can also serve the other way around, to prove how much someone can better himself when under the influence of Good.
Now who can relate to this trope? Someone that was compassionate at one point, but became a vile and inhumane person? Someone whose love of all living things was tossed away? Someone who …
Well that works.
