Destroyers of Innocence

Destroyers of Innocence are type of villains who are responsible for a "loss of innocence". A "loss of innocence" occurs when a sympathetic and (usually) somewhat defenseless character is broken or harmed in some way or similar; this often invokes great feelings of anger by audiences and marks a common Moral Event Horizon. It can also refer to an event that causes unprecedented outrage in society, such as child murder and terrorist attacks, which challenges our concepts of what people can do to each other. Often, victims whose innocence are lost would never be the same person they used to be.

Destroyers of Innocence are villains who effectively "destroy" the innocence of a story, setting or character; they are often especially wicked beings who ruin lives and their crimes can never truly be reversed as it erases the concept of "innocence", though some rarer examples do not fully know that they are responsible for this occurring (e.g. Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist). While not an automatic qualifier, this quality is common among Pure Evil villains.

A Destroyer of Innocence is the evil opposite of a Protector of Innocence.