History Main / RousseauWasRight

* ''Literature/TheFarawayPaladin'': Protagonist Will Maryblood, who died as a {{hikikomori}} in Japan, is given a second chance at life in a fantasy world by the goddess of reincarnation. He's raised to adulthood by three {{undead}} former heroes who teach him everything they know and becomes a paladin of the goddess who saved him. This is pretty much the tone of the series: even characters who seem sketchy at first, like Bishop Bagley, turn out to be at least decent if not outright heroic, and even sometime ArcVillain Stagnate is a WellIntentionedExtremist who hopes to remove the possibility of grief from the world by eliminating death. Only the demons and the foul-dragon Valacirca are true villains, and even Valacirca recognizes Will as a WorthyOpponent.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', this is how "changing someone's heart" works. By going into a person's [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind mental landscape]], the protagonists force that person to experience a single moment free of delusion or bias- to see themselves clearly. Because their targets are invariably villainous, and because of this trope, this process always results in the person [[HeelRealization changing who they are]]. They remember who they were before greed/fear/anger corrupted them, and make the choice themselves to become that person again.

** The series’ other antagonists follow a similar track. Agent Yamaki truly wanted to protect humans from Digimon, as he was ignorant to how Digimon aren’t just simple monsters. [[spoiler: When his new weapon to destroy the Digimon, the Juggernaut, goes out of control and nearly destroys Tokyo, he’s outright shattered by what he’d done, and later pulls a Heel-Face Turn. Zhuqiaomon and the Devas, [[FantasticRacism despite believing Digimon to be inherently superior to humans,]] genuinely wanted to protect their race. The reason they kidnapped Calumon in the first place was for that goal, to use his powers as a weapon against the D-Reaper. In the end, while Zhuqiaomon admits he’ll likely never be at ease knowing that there are Digimon running around with humans, he at least keeps to his word in ending his aggression towards humanity. ]]

* ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'', despite being just as dark as ''Digimon Tamers'' and then some (being explicitly designed as a horror series), like ''Tamers'' before it, admittedly follows this too. More than any other Digimon series before it, ''Ghost Game'' demonstrates to its audience that Digimon are ''not'' humans, and thus, don’t normally ''live'' like humans. Apart from a few scattered examples, the Digimon that regularly emerge on Earth are genuinely good-natured. After the protagonists get through stopping their trouble and giving them a good talking-to, they most often adjust well to life on Earth. [[spoiler: Even the introduction of Digimon on Earth follows this. Quantumon, the leader of the Digital World, genuinely wants Digimon and humans to cooperate with each other, but she admits that she doesn’t understand human emotion, so she released Digimon on Earth to act as her proxies for gathering data on humanity. The series itself, CosmicHorrorStory that it is, ends on a very optimistic note, implying that humans and Digimon truly will live together peacefully in the future. On top of that, GulusGammmamon, pretty much the worst villain within the series, ends his time on the scene with the implication that even he could be genuinely reformed one day.]]

** Impmon’s character arc is practically made of this principle. For the first third or so of the series, he’s TheBully of the cast and a general nuisance rather than an outright villain. Even so, [[Tsundere as much as he tried to hide it,]] he’s shown to [[HiddenHeartOfGold genuinely enjoy the heroes’ company.]] His harsh troublemaker attitude came as a result of his first contact with humans, namely with the young twins Ai and Mako. The twins hurt Impmon and drove him away, simply [[ChildrenAreInnocent because they were too young and immature to know how to take care of him.]] That experience made Impmon associate humans with pain, and he wants to grow stronger [[NeverBeHurtAgain so no one can ever hurt him again.]] In the 2nd third of the show, [[spoiler: he’s finally given a taste of power as Beelzemon, with tragic results. He’s then beaten by Gallantmon, spared (but not forgiven, not yet at first) by Jeri, and finally rescued from the emerging D-Reaper by Rika and Renamon. All of this causes Impmon to realize the gravity of what he’s done, and he slowly pulls a HeelFaceTurn. He spends the final third of the series as TheAtoner, turning the power he gained as Beelzemon towards helping to stop the D-Reaper and save Jeri. He even manages to make up with Ai and Mako, the twins themselves having grown a bit, realizing how they hurt him, and wanting to make up for it. It finally comes full circle when Jeri forgives Impmon for his past crimes, [[EarnYourHappyEnding her accepting how he'd truly changed.]]]]

** Even [[spoiller: the D-Reaper, EldritchAbomination that it is, has reasons for its evil actions. It first existed as a mere computer program, no simpler than a ''calculator,'' for the purpose of regulating the Digital World by limiting the amount of Digimon in existence. Unfortunately, the Digital World and its inhabitants evolved far beyond its pre-programmed limitations. Its initial goal of destroying the Digital World isn’t pursued out of hatred or malice, but only out of its attempts to fulfill its programming. Then, it captures Jeri and uses her trauma and despair to evolve itself. It also used Jeri as a reference point to study humanity, and, because it saw Jeri at her lowest point, came to the conclusion that humanity was inherently chaotic and needed to be destroyed as well. The D-Reaper developed a nihilistic, evil persona in reaction to seeing Jeri’s total pain and despair.]]

%%* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': The nature of good and evil is disputed several times:
%%** Arondir and his warden, Medhor, have an interesting debate about the Southlanders possible fall from grace just like their ancestors who stood with Morgoth in the War of Wrath. Medhor believes that the Southlanders never changed their nature. Arondir tries to argue that what happened was a long time ago and the Southlanders are not their ancestors, but Medhor reminds him that they aren't stationed in the Southlands to watch over its inhabitants because of what they ancestors did, but because is in their nature to join the Evil if changes arise. Several episodes later, a part of the Southlanders led by Waldreg --who is secretly a Morgoth worshipper-- do chose to join Adar's Orcish forces, proving Medhor's point.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Arondir and his warden, Medhor, have an interesting debate about the Southlanders possible fall from grace just like their ancestors who stood with Morgoth in the War of Wrath. Medhor believes that the Southlanders never changed their nature. Arondir tries to argue that what happened was a long time ago and the Southlanders are not their ancestors, but Medhor reminds him that they aren't stationed in the Southlands to watch over its inhabitants because of what they ancestors did, but because is in their nature to join the Evil if changes arise. Several episodes later, a part of the Southlanders led by Waldregdo chose to join Adar's Orcish forces.

* Whenever a [[AudienceParticipation a poll is done]] where kids can mail in to decide if the Advertising/TrixRabbit should be allowed to have a bowl of the titled cereal, the results are ''always'' an ''overwhelming yes''.