I don't mean secretly a villain all this time like in the star wars.
I mean someone genuinely a hero in book 1, turns into a villain throughout the series, becoming the main villain in the last book.
I've read Baru Cormarant's first book. It felt like the series was heading in this direction. But later books are too long for my preference, so never read them.
No romance, no young adult. Preferably fantasy, but sci-fi is good too
by hbe_bme
1 Comment
The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie kinda does this but not exactly how you described – more like everyone’s morally gray from the start and gets worse. But if you want the full hero-to-villain arc, check out The Poppy War series by R.F. Kuang. Rin starts as this scrappy underdog you’re rooting for and by the end she’s basically committing genocide and you’re like “oh shit when did I stop cheering for her”
The transformation is gradual and really well done, each book she makes choices that seem justified in the moment but compound into something horrifying. Fair warning though, it gets pretty dark – like war crimes and psychological torture level dark. But it’s exactly what you’re looking for in terms of that hero-to-villain progression, and it’s not YA despite having a young protagonist