When Good Guys Go Bad On Soaps

Heroes and villains often feel like the essence of soap opera, the classic tale of good versus evil with good usually prevailing… but not always.

Sometimes characters are black and white – the straight villain or the good guy with the heart of gold – but even the best people can turn to the dark side… and even back again, in these little morality tales known as soap operas.

Soap Hub asked if you like when good guys go bad on your favorite daytime drama, and your response was overwhelming.

Good All The Time
Out of a whopping 24,000 votes, 57% of you prefer your good guys to stay that way. You often fall in love with a character for his heroic qualities and don’t want to see him any other way.

When they do go bad, you’re absolutely shocked–like nice guy college student Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson) on Days of Our Lives. He turned out to be a deranged serial killer and it seemed to come out of nowhere, although it was entertaining and surely will be again once he returns to Salem this fall.

You’re also not sure if Liam’s (Scott Clifton) new-found power on The Bold and the Beautiful, will corrupt him like it did his father. He’s been lording it over his brother Wyatt (Darin Brooks), who is not happy to see his brother in this light.

It Depends
Another 35% of you need the fall from grace to at least make sense, story-wise. In the case of Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher) on General Hospital, we watched him lose more and more year after year and become more bitter and vindictive by the day.

Sure, he was a Cassadine and they’re known for their evil, but he’s also the son of Laura Spencer (Genie Francis), a pillar of the Port Charles community. Seeing both sides of him duke it out for the bad guy to finally win made sense to you.

Bad To The Bone
A final 8% of you are okay with good guys turning into bad guys. You love the shock and even love to see reformed baddies resort to their old ways.

For example, Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) started out as a scoundrel on The Young and the Restless, went somewhat good and pure for a while, and is back to being a scoundrel. Full circle. Hooray!

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