History Main / TheAtoner

Genuine atoners have a high chance of becoming TheWoobie, especially if they were an AntiVillain in the first place. See also, BeAllMySinsRemembered, where they continue to suffer a guilt complex over their past misdeeds. Contrast with MyGreatestFailure--instead of a formerly evil character turning from their past, a good character feels the need to atone for not preventing a bad outcome (regardless of whether they could have changed anything). The Atoner may have experienced GoAndSinNoMore.

* Here's a canonical tale from ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Some years before the setting's current time, a fourteen-year-old StreetUrchin named Seelah stole a paladin's helm, intending to pawn it for food money. Later, the paladin died of a blow to the head. Seelah, consumed with guilt, returned the helm with the intent to commit suicide on the paladin's funeral pyre. Instead, she was taken in by the order and became [[Characters/{{Pathfinder}} the iconic paladin]].

Once, there was a major villain named Bob. He committed every crime one could think of, and he did it with a song in his heart and a skip in his step. Then, [[PersonalHorror something happened to make him ''see'' the horror of what he was doing]]. He realized how much pain he had caused, and he set out on a personal quest to try to make it right.

%% Image picked per Image Pickin' thread https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1372288835063266300

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** The ancient [[SpaceElves Eldar]] empire became so decadent and depraved that it created the [[EldritchAbomination Chaos God Slaanesh]], so the Craftworld Eldar who survived it live extremely regiment and spartan lives to avoid the mistakes of the past. The Dark Eldar for the most part continue the old traditions, but some will have a HeelRealization and leave Comorragh for new lives among Exodite societies, Harlequin troupes, or simply as hermits, mercenaries and [[SpacePirate corsairs]]. Which may not sound like much, but considering what kind of stuff the Dark Eldar do, it's a really big improvement.

* ({TheAtoner/Film}}

* {{TheAtoner/Webcomics}}
* TheAtoner/WebOriginal
* TheAtoner/WesternAnimation

[[folder:Film--Animated]]
* Downplayed example in ''Disney/FrozenFever'', a short sequel to ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' that takes place on Anna's 19th [[BirthdayEpisode birthday]]. Her sister Elsa wishes to make it the best day imaginable. Although Elsa was never evil, this effort is still partially driven by feelings of guilt Elsa has, mostly since their parents had their entire family isolated in an effort to protect Elsa for most of the sisters' childhoods, and Elsa has nearly killed Anna before, [[spoiler:and once ''actually'' killed Anna by accident, although she came back to life]]. To help make up for all of this, Elsa wishes to make the birthday "perfect". However this is screwed up by [[SickEpisode her cold]]. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity]] (and some AdultFear) ensues.
* Pterano from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime VII: The Stone of Cold Fire'' becomes this at the climax when Ducky (who he and his minions had kidnapped earlier in the film) finds herself in grave danger--coincidentally, the same danger that got one of his believers killed during an earlier expedition for the Stone.
* In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', King Triton becomes one near the start of the climax when, because of his utter remorse of him destroying his daughter's grotto, [[HeroicSacrifice takes Ariel's place in Ursula's deal]].
* Sunset Shimmer from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'' works to shed her past as the [[{{BigBad}} main villain]] of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls first film]] despite [[ReformedButRejected the hostility from her fellow classmates]] and a lot of [[InnocentlyInsensitive unintentional]] [[ImStandingRightHere insults]] from her only friends.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, Tempest immediately uses the staff to [[WorldHealingWave repair the damage done to the city and restore the princesses' magic]] instead of trying to use it to repair her horn.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Paranorman}}'', [[spoiler: the zombies, especially the Judge, aren't actually trying to attack people, but are trying to atone for sentencing a young and innocent girl to death as a witch]].
* Max Winters in ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', whose quest for immortality led to his generals, who were also his friends, becoming stone statues and unleashed a batch of horrific monsters on the world. In the present day he works with the Foot Clan to undo the damage to the world and friends and finally allow himself to die, even gathering his friends and being able to restore their free will so they can help. [[spoiler: However, they don't see things the same way and like being indestructible, immortal powerhouses]].

[[folder:Film--Live-Action]]
* In the ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter originally interprets Uncle Ben's death as something he needs to atone for, ruthlessly hunting down the criminal responsible for killing him. It's not until he saves a bunch of people from falling to their deaths, specifically a small child, and realizes that the Lizard was Doctor Connors, that he shifts to acting more like an actual hero.
* Ulfric in ''Film/BlackDeath''. [[spoiler:As it is likely that he had been at the battle of Crecy, where their opponents had been slaughtered instead of being given a mercy strike. He does give one to the woman accused of being a witch]].
* In ''Film/ByTheSword'', Suba is this by training himself back into MasterSwordsman shape so that he can teach the helpless students, encourage good behaviors in them, and correct the Maestro's, Villard, behavior before he becomes just like him.
* ''Film/CruelAndUnusual'': Edgar, after he finally realizes his sins.
* ''Film/DarkBlue'':
** After Bobby is coerced to kill an innocent man, he breaks down until he confesses his crimes to his cop ex-girlfriend Beth and her superior.
** [[spoiler:After Eldon Perry gets his partner killed, he atones for his crimes at his promotion ceremony by exposing all the corruption taking place under Jack Van Meter inside the department]].
* Commissioner Gordon becomes this in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' when he realizes [[JerkassHasAPoint Harvey Dent]] and [[VillainHasAPoint The Joker]] were right about the extent of the corruption in his unit and, had he listened, it wouldn't have resulted in [[spoiler:corrupt cops kidnapping Dent and Rachael, disfiguring the former and killing the latter. It only lasts until Two-Face kidnaps his family, but until then the sheer desperation in his voice shows how responsible he feels and how obsessed he is with rescuing Harvey:]]
--> '''Gordon:''' Dent is in there with them! We have to save Dent! '''''I''''' HAVE TO SAVE DENT!!!
* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'':
** Bruce Wayne/Batman is a big case of this. After behaving like a ruthless and careless vigilante, misjudging Superman ''badly'', [[spoiler:almost killing the Man of Steel and having an indirect part in his death]] in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', he vows to form the Justice League to protect the Earth in Superman's absence, and does everything he can to accomplish this with the help of Diana/Wonder Woman in ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}''.
** ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'': Diablo initially refused to use his powers, out of remorse [[spoiler: for killing his family using them]].
* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Vlad is portrayed as attempting to live a peaceful life with his family, and leave his days as Vlad the Impaler behind. Then the Ottomans arrive (again) and his attempts at a peaceful life become all for nought.
* ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'': Alec Trevelyan straight up asks [[Creator/PierceBrosnan James Bond]], "...if you find forgiveness in the arms of all those willing women for all the dead ones you failed to protect." 007's attitude throughout ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' and ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' (specifically his [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x390eac desperate attempt to resuscitate Jinx]]) indicates that this statement has left him pretty rattled.
* ''Film/HighPlainsInvaders'':
** Sam turned himself in when he realised that one of his train robberies caused the death of 10 people. He was prepared to hang for his crimes, but when the alien invasion granted him an unexpected reprieve, he turned his skills to keeping as many people alive as possible.
** Jules becomes this once he realises that it was his experiments with uranium that brought the Bugs to town. Abigail even tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself and find some way to redeem his miserable soul. Jules takes this advice to heart and spends the rest of the move trying to do just that.
* [[{{Deuteragonist}} Imperator Furiosa]] from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' states that trying to rescue the [[SexSlave Wives]] from [[BigBad Immortan Joe]] is an attempt at redemption. We never learn exactly what she is attempting to redeem herself for, but given the highly savage and misogynistic culture of the Citadel, it's likely all the extra horrible things she probably had to do to attain the rank of Imperator.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov and Bruce Banner. Tony and Natasha have legitimate sins to make up for (he was a selfish weapons dealer who didn't care that the collateral damage from the military-industrial complex's freewheeling use of his weapons caused hundreds of civilian deaths; she was a cold-blooded Russian spy and assassin, presumably working for ex-KGB operatives, who also indiscriminately killed hundreds of people, including numerous civilians and, by implication, ''children''). Bruce, however, involuntarily turns into a destructive, mindless monster when he gets angry due to an experiment gone wrong, and all the deaths he's caused happened when he wasn't in his right mind, but that doesn't stop him from blaming himself or even trying to kill himself to rid the world of the Hulk.
** Also, Clint Barton became one after being freed from Loki's BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control. In his case it's particularly noteworthy considering the only reason Loki enslaved him was due to his skill (making him a valuable pawn) and because he had 'heart', yet he still feels responsible despite having no control over himself. His first request upon being freed was to know exactly who and how many innocent people he killed while under Loki's thumb. Natasha shuts that down at once, telling him firmly not to think about the consequences of things he is obviously not responsible for.
** In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Loki is guilty of various severe crimes outlined in the [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld previous movie]] by his father, Odin. He later expresses regret and helps evacuate Asgard alongside his brother Thor, The Hulk, and Valkyrie from the rule of his and Thor's evil sister, Hela.
* Captain Mendoza in the film ''Film/TheMission'' used to be a cold-blooded officer who ordered the slaughter of many Guaraní natives, until he killed his brother in a fencing duel. He then went as far as climbing up a waterfall with a huge bag filled with Spanish armor tied to his back. Then he joined Father Gabriel and the Jesuits.
* In ''Film/{{Outlander}}'', Kainan reveals that he had helped hunt the Moorwens to the brink of extinction, and that he considers his family's death Karmic Retribution. He doesn't have any qualms about killing the Moorwen that got loose in Norway, but he decides afterward to sever ties with his homeworld and stay with the Vikings.
* ''Film/PainAndGain'': Paul became one after his first stay in prison, and is very uncomfortable with the plan the whole time; the guilt actually seems to be what causes him to fall off the wagon and start doing cocaine again. [[spoiler:He becomes one again when he's sent back to prison at the end. Ed even says he seems to embrace it]].
* ''Film/PitchBlack'':
** Fry. At the beginning of the movie [[WhatTheHellHero she tries to sacrifice her mostly civilian crew to save herself]], despite the fact that her captain points out that the crew are supposed to put themselves last in crisis. [[spoiler:At the climax, she tells Riddick that she would die for the others, and eventually loses her life saving Riddick]].
** Riddick might also count, [[spoiler: as he appears to be ready to turn over a new leaf at the end, saying: "Tell them Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."]].
* In ''Film/{{Purgatory}}'', this describes everyone in the town of Refuge, though [[spoiler:Lefty Slade fails]].
* The reason Nick joins the ''Film/{{RIPD}}''.
* Joshua Rose in ''Film/{{Savior}}'' becomes this after being forced to realize that he's lost his humanity.
* In ''Film/SevenSwords'', Fu's introduction proves him to be a heroic OldMaster, and his sole purpose throughout is to save lives--which is hard for other characters to accept, having had personal experiences of him as an imperial executioner and torturer.
* The work Lamont does as ''Film/TheShadow'' is so he can atone for the suffering he caused as the ruthless drug lord Ying Ko.
* Solomon Kane of ''Film/SolomonKane'' was once a savage and ruthless mercenary. After an encounter with a demon and learning of his potential damnation, he pursued first a path of pacifism to cleanse his soul and then a path of righteous battle to cleanse the world.
* In ''Film/TheSunsetLimited'', Black is an ex-con who served his time for murder and found God, and now wants to help people.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'': Chris Bradley after leaving Team X.
** ''Film/TheWolverine'':
*** Wolverine goes to Japan to face his guilt for killing Jean Grey and to receive help from an old friend who might have the means to remove his HealingFactor and make him mortal.
*** Harada ends up as this near the end of the film.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Creator/IanMcKellen invokes this while discussing his character in the "Double Take: Xavier & Magneto" documentary.
--->'''[=McKellen=]:''' The Magneto that you see with me is a man of conscience, and a man with an unhappy life behind him. He's come through a great deal, and isn't taking on single-handedly, or even with the help of his Brotherhood, society as a whole. He's joined up again with his old friend, Professor X, and together, they're going to try to move things forward.
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': This is how Creator/MichaelFassbender perceives Erik Lehnsherr at the beginning of the story, as reported by the May 2016 issue of ''Cineplex''.
--->"He works in a steel factory, but he's not using his powers. I thought that was kind of interesting that he's doing honest manual labor. Penance is a bit extreme, but he's sort of left his world domination days behind him."
* William Munny in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' really ''tries'' to be one of these; in his youth, he was a vicious, cold-blooded killer of an outlaw who only mended his ways when he married a saintly woman. After she dies, he struggles making a living as a hog farmer and trying to raise their two children until an old friend comes along to offer him a bounty on two cowboys who mutilated a young prostitute and went unpunished. When the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and Munny's finally forced to come out of retirement, it's not pretty.

[[folder:Music]]
* "The Man Who Would be King" (named, but not based by [[Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing book-movie]]) by Music/IronMaiden.
-->Destiny, no good to hide away[=/=]Penance now will be his only way[=/=]Understand, no good to run away[=/=]Penance now will be his saving grace
* "The Noose" by A Perfect Circle.
--> I'm more than just a little curious[=/=]How you're planning on going about making your amends[=/=]To the dead
* "What I've Done" by ''Linkin Park''
--> I'll face myself[=/=]To cross out what I've become[=/=]Erase myself[=/=]And let go of what I've done
* "Working My Way Back To You" by The Four Seasons, about an abusive ex-boyfriend who sees the error of his ways too late and is now trying to win the girl back, unsuccessfully to date.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytKvgLuy7ng "Awoken"]] by H8_Seed and Glaze
--> I've stoked the fire, seen more pain than you can know/The tears of the broken have washed away my soul/Pushed by desire to change the way my stream will flow/Now I've awoken, and I'm taking back control
* The song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin focuses on a father who is far too busy with his work to connect with his son. By the time the father has the time (i.e. the son has grown up), he tries to reach out to his son and atone, but by then, his son is, like his father, far too busy.
* "I'll Be Good" by Jaymes Young is about a man who wishes to atone for his bad behavior in the past.
-->I'll be good...
-->For all of the light that I've shut out/For all of the innocent things that I doubt/For all of the bruises and all of the tears/For all of the things that I've done all these years/For all of the sparks that I've stomped out/For all of the perfect things that I doubt
-->I'll be good/I'll be good/And I'll love the world like I should/Yeah/I'll be good/I'll be good/For all of the times I never could
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology]]
* [[Characters/ClassicalMythology Heracles]] in Myth/GreekMythology did this a ''lot''. Because he [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength didn't know his own strength]], [[BlessedWithSuck he was always accidentally killing or severely maiming people]]. At one point this got so bad that the citizens of Athens refused to accept him into the city until his buddy/cousin Theseus vouched for him. [[IAmAMonster Hercules, however, kept trying to convince his friend that the citizens were right]]. In fact his famous twelve labors were atonement for when he killed his wife and children (though to be fair it was because [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Hera cursed him with temporary insanity]]). Another time he was forced to work as a man-servant for a woman for several years. While wearing a dress.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/CityOfReality'', it's revealed that the Manumitor, who made it his mission to undo the [[BalefulPolymorph transformations]] made by the psychotic magical supervillain Hinto Ama, [[spoiler:is actually Hinto Ama herself, attempting to undo the damage she has done. Until someone she cares about gets hurt, she absolutely refuses to use her powers, relying on technology instead]], and tries to kill one of the heroes who is stuck in a transformed state, feeling that death is better than being trapped in such a form.
* In ''Webcomic/TheDreamlandChronicles'', why [[http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/page-749 the dwarf king]] insists on winning the MoreHeroThanThou dispute.
* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has [[AntiVillain Abraham]], an ancient wizard. In his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (relative)]] youth, he created the [[GreenRocks Dewitchery Diamond]], a magical artifact intended to remove terrible curses like [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lycanthropy]]. However, when he finished making it, the diamond had the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rather severe drawback]] of splitting a cursed individual into two bodies, the original and [[TheVirus an embodiment of the curse adept at spreading the curse to others]]. Faced with [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] and unable to destroy the diamond, Abraham swore an oath to God that he would dedicate his life to killing these cursed forms, which were generally vicious and powerful monsters.\\
\\
Fast forward to modern time, and he awakens from self-imposed [[TakenForGranite suspended animation]], sensing that the diamond has been used again. He learns that Elliot Dunkel (one of the [[ChronicHeroSyndrome major good guys]] in the story) had used the diamond to cure himself of a {{Magitek}} GenderBender, not realizing that doing so would create [[StarfishCharacter Ellen]], an OppositeSexClone with a perfect copy of his memories. Abraham is horrified to learn that the latest cursed form he's sworn to kill is an innocent teenage girl, but [[IGaveMyWord he feels compelled to go through with it]].\\
\\
In the end, [[spoiler:Nanase (Elliot's [[IncompatibleOrientation ex-girlfriend]] / [[ClosetKey Ellen's]] [[SchoolGirlLesbians current girlfriend]])]] is able to convince Abraham not to murder Ellen, reasoning that following the letter of his oath would violate the spirit of his oath, since it was made with the intention of protecting innocent people. When Abraham returns to his suspended animation, it's clear that his idea of atonement is very different, although his flair for the dramatic remains the same. He currently provides the page image.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', [[http://endstone.net/2011/06/16/6-02/ Jon tackles a Guardian no one has ever survived in search of salvation]].
* The main reason the ''{{Webcomic/FreakAngels}}'' protected Whitechapel was to atone for [[AfterTheEnd ending the world]].
* ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'''s Trudy fits this trope to a T. She goes from relentlessly controlling others to her own ends, even seducing a man to run over romantic rival Ki's father, and almost taking over the world, to relatively normal worker for GPF.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', becoming The Atoner is an option for souls imprisoned in Hell and is actually a valid way to eventually escape the confinement and reincarnate on Earth. Even one of the Greater Demons--Jack--is inclined this way. As a punishment for [[spoiler: obliterating the human race]] he was made the GrimReaper and forced to encounter every death thenceforth. Although, as an additional punishment, he was denied the memory of his sins [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor at his own request just before dying]], he still tries his best to give whatever comfort possible to the unfortunate hellbound souls.
* An example of "Assassin Wants To Quit" is ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}''. And she wants to quit ''with her former hostage''.
* Rumisiel in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''. He wasn't a BigBad, but it was his screw up and chronic drug/alcohol addiction that caused Ash and Emily's [[RetGone problems]]. Started off somewhat half heartedly, but has begun to get serious about his role.
** Vash is a much more serious example.
* ''Webcomic/MSFHigh'': After causing a giant war and nearly taking over the galaxy, the Legion surrendered, apologized, and became these. Exactly why has not yet been explored.
* In ''Webcomic/NotAVillain'', the main character Kleya is one. She wants to become a hero to atone for her previous actions as the leader of the hacker group "Deconstruct Me", where she is implied to have been responsible for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''
* Vaarsuvius becomes one after [[spoiler:his/her discovery of what the Familicide spell she/he cast did]].
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0944.html This strip]] suggests that [[spoiler: Roy]] is also one of these after [[spoiler: Durkon becomes a vampire]].
* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0306.html Emily claims that Julie is this, to distract from her real quest]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Rain}}'', [[spoiler:Brother Arthur has a [=FtM=] brother. He wants to help out Rain and Rudy because of the issues he caused his brother when they were younger]].
* In ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' Sakido qualifies.
-->'''Sakido:''' Iratu and I went on to live in Hell. Darius trusted us to take care of our little brother, [[spoiler: but we just threw Buwaro away]]. If you are reading this and I am no longer around, [[http://www.sdamned.com/2010/11/11252010/ then I've gotten what I deserved]].
* Subverted in ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': In "That Which Redeems", the talking sword Chaz tells the story of one of his previous owners. This man committed many atrocities, but then had his eyes opened to their evil by a sage. He turned to god for atonement--and what he ended up doing to make amends was to go on a bloody crusade in the name of this god to kill unbelievers. Be careful who you let define "good" for you...
* After his attempts at global domination in ancient Egypt fell apart in a battle against Suras([=/=][[Myth/GreekMythology Zeus]]) in ''Webcomic/WaywardSons'', Kronos escaped, and wound up alone in ancient China, where he was taken in by a family of simple farmers. He would later use his [[DisintegratorRay powers]] to protect them from bandits, and all looked set to begin again... But Kronos had learned from his past failures, and vowed to create an empire of peace this time around.
-->'''Huang:''' What you did to those men... You '''must''' be a god!\\
'''Kronos:''' Once I might have let you believe that... But I've learned my lesson. I'm not a god. But I '''am''' your friend!
* Lamar of ''Webcomic/WeAreTheWyrecats'' becomes this after K.A. leaves the team.
* Yoon Sung of ''Webcomic/WelcomeToRoom305'' is trying to atone with his twin sister Yoona for [[spoiler:acting terribly homophobic in high school after learning her secret]]. Unluckily for him, it's not simple because [[spoiler:she is [[{{gayngst}} very]] [[ArmoredClosetGay self hating]] about her sexuality and in denial of it]].
* ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'': Jack. He blames himself for what happened to Sandra, and for what happened during the Maginet mini-arc. Ever since the Maginet he is doing everything he can to become a better wizard, in the hopes that the tragedies which befell his friends and wizard comrades never happen again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Both the brothers in ''{{WebVideo/Aaron}}'' in different ways:
** Adam has been a frequent screw-up for years, and it's implied he drove his parents mad (and Chris by extension) with all his antics. He's now trying to put his life back together.
** Chris was close with his brother but ended up leaving for college in England, and essentially neglecting their friendship. After realising what his brother was going through, he's now trying to make amends.
* William Griffin of ''WebVideo/KateModern'' performed frequent dangerous medical experiments on unwitting girls on behalf of the Order, but then decides to try to bring the Order down.
* In ''Literature/MetroCityChronicles'', Penitente began his superhero career because his mother and brother were injured by gang rivals during his youth.
* In [[http://lparchive.org/Princess-Maker-2/ SynthOrange's]] LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker 2'', after [[spoiler:Lizzie ends up dying in a fight with the God of War]], [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Gendo Ikari]] (who plays the role of the girl's father), in a fit of HeroicBSOD, decides to try and reconcile with his other kid... by playing a Shinji-raising sim game.
-->'''Cube:''' ...and he keeps [[GayOption ending up with Kaoru?]] Maybe if you sent him for more sports training-\\
'''Gendo:''' NO! He's there too, and that just ends up with them both in the showers!
* Some agents in the ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' are former badfic authors hoping to undo the damage they've done to the multiverse, or ex-[[SecretPolice DIS]] who returned to the PPC when given the chance.
* [[spoiler:Yanagi]] in VisualNovel/{{Canvas 2}} after [[spoiler:stealing the main character's painting five years ago]].
* In ''Roleplay/MarvelsRPG'', Ant-Man created Ultron, Iron Cross is a former Nazi-SuperSoldier and Synch accidentally burned down his school when his powers first manifested. All are trying to atone for their pasts to some degree.
* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', Agent Washington, formerly of Project Freelancer, becomes this after working with the Meta against the Blood Gulch Crew. Exemplified when Locus tries to give him a NotSoDifferent speech.
-->'''Washington:''' I know I used to be a real piece of shit, but at least I am trying to do something about it.
* JJ Sturn from ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' version four, although he wasn't quite as extreme as many examples listed here: He was a [[JerkJock giant asshole]] especially [[TheCasanova towards women]], although he did have his own share of [[KickTheDog more unpleasant actions]].
* In his "Top 11 Fucks-Up List", WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic wearily concedes that he'll die for his sins.
** In ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' he yearns to atone for the death of Ma-Ti in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'' and thus [[spoiler:sacrifices his own life at the end to allow Ma-Ti's spirit to move on]].
* The main character in ''Wiki/TheWanderersLibrary'' story [[http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/communion Communion]]. Unfortunately, he's past forgiveness.
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Several, most notably Eldritch. However, the most striking example is probably Unverziehen ('The Unforgiven'), a former Waffen SS officer who spent the time since the war trying to atone for German war crimes:
-->''Unverziehen was an enigma to most people, the insanely potent warper had been a member of the combat arm of the German SS, and had not been privy to the war crimes of Auschwitz, Dachau, Sobibor and other places. The man and Caitlin [Eldritch, formerly Eric Mahren] shared something similar: guilt. He felt responsible for what his country did during the war, and though her crimes paled in comparison to what the Nazis had done during that war, the A-List hero, who still could not forgive himself, hadn’t physically committed any of the crimes he bore the shame of''.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Bonesaw]] [[MeaningfulRename i.e.]] [[spoiler:Riley]] becomes one of these after having a HeelRealization during the time she spent out of [[spoiler:Jack Slash]]'s direct control.
** [[spoiler:Glaistig Uaine]] also becomes one at the end of the series, again with a MeaningfulRename to [[spoiler:Valkyrie]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''
** Prince Zuko in the third season by joining Team Avatar as a firebending instructor.
** Jeong Jeong deserted the Fire Nation navy ten years before the story began.
** Having a career as a Fire Nation general, Iroh counts as well.
** Jet during the second season [[spoiler: before his [[RedemptionEqualsDeath ultimate fate]]]].
** By the end of the first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[spoiler:Tarrlok, a former SmugSnake with a massive DarkAndTroubledPast... and the brother of BigBad Amon/Noatak]].
** Another one we have from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is Wan. Through Wan's story we learn the reason the Avatar exists. [[spoiler: Wan, originally an ordinary human, interfered with a battle between the spirits of light (Raava) and dark (Vaatu). The result is Vaatu being released into the world and unleashing darkness and chaos. Wan eventually seals Vaatu after mastering the power of the elements and fusing his spirit with Raava, creating the Avatar Spirit and saving the world. However, there is still darkness in the world]]. After spending his entire life trying to fix his mistake, [[spoiler: Wan expresses guilt in being unable to rid the world of darkness in his lifetime. Raava allows Wan to reincarnate, granting him more time. This begins the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation]].
** And it seems that [[spoiler: Hiroshi Sato in Season 4]] has become one.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': Following the Skrull Invasion, Captain America, who was one of the first to be replaced and his image was used to try and convince humanity to surrender, became something of this as he tried to regain the trust he lost. Kind of an unusual example, being that he had nothing to do with the event he's atoning for and he's just as much a victim as any other Skrull victims. The world hasn't forgiven him for... having a total stranger pose as him while he was ''trapped on a spaceship''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Terry [=McGinnis=] is a mild atoner. He was something of a juvenile delinquent before meeting the now-retired Bruce Wayne, and sees being the new Batman as a way to make up for that.
** Zeta, star of the spinoff ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'', has elements of this- a former assassin robot who gained free will and doesn't want to kill anymore. When he finds other robots of his type, he tries to stop them.
** Mr. Freeze/Victor Fries in "Meltdown." Upon getting a brand new body, Fries genuinely seemed to want to make things better this time around. After being targeted in an assassination attempt by a man that he once wronged, he refuses to press charges against the man and instead decides to start a charity named in his late wife's honor to repay the victims that he had harmed in the past. Unfortunately, his new body soon begins breaking down and reverting back to its old state...
* Tetrax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', as revealed in ''[[TheMovie Secret of the Omnitrix]]''. Also Kevin in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''.
* Count Dracula himself is this in ''WesternAnimation/DrakPack'', acting as mentor and boss to the teenage heroes against the forces of O.G.R.E. in order to help make amends for his evil past.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' has Fenton Crackshell / Gizmoduck. Whenever he screws up, he will frantically do whatever it takes to set things right, although he often makes it worse until he ultimately succeeds.
* Both Ingrid and the titular protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' were delinquents. Now they're respected members of their school's Safety Patrol. The series treats them [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything similarly]] to ex-criminals who became police officers.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the Magus trapped Goliath's clan in stone form after he mistakenly believed their attack got Katherine killed. The guilt he felt would dominate the rest of his life. He devoted himself to protecting the clan's next generation and never made his feelings for Katherine known as she fell in love with Tom. Goliath himself bears no grudge against him and is simply grateful that the Magus protected his clan's children.
* A [[WhatCouldHaveBeen woulda-been]] third ''[[Disney/TheJungleBook Jungle Book]]'' film would have actually turned [[BigBad Shere Khan]] from a KnightOfCerebus in the second to this.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
** Princess Luna is definitely one, trying to live down her 1000-year legacy as BigBad Nightmare Moon. Mind you, her public relations need a lot of coaching from Twilight Sparkle, but she makes a real breakthrough. [[spoiler:"Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep" reveals she went so far as to ''create a monster'' called The Tantabus, which is essentially a small ghostly ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet G-Rated Freddy Krueger]]'', to punish her with horrific nightmares ''every single time she slept'']].
** Trixie starts out as an insufferable blowhard and [[TheRival rival]] for Twilight Sparkle who later [[RivalTurnedEvil turning to the dark side]] after acquiring the corruptive Alicorn Amulet. Once Twilight frees her from the amulet's spell, Trixie becomes apologetic (albeit still a pompous {{Jerkass}}) and leaves her with a fireworks display to start her atonement.
** [[spoiler:Discord--the [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] trickster, of all characters--manages to pull a HeelFaceTurn after becoming friends with Fluttershy, and swears to use his powers for good... [[ReformedButNotTamed most of the time]]. He makes good on his word by settling into a sort of TricksterMentor role for the Mane Six, giving underhanded assistance while remaining as mischievous and obnoxious as ever]].
** [[spoiler: Starlight Glimmer, the twisted Cutie Mark hating-dictator and BigBad of Season 5, pulls a HeelFaceTurn when Princess Twilight Sparkle offers her hoof in friendship and makes Starlight her own student. Starlight's first act of atonement was returning to Our Town from the Season 5 premiere to make things up with the townsponies]].
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Mr. Burns, after losing his fortune and learning about ecology from Lisa, is determined to turn his life around and rebuild his fortune doing good works. Unfortunately, Mr. Burn's idea of "[[KnightTemplar doing good]]" involves raping and pillaging the environment in an even ''worse'' way than he had as the CEO of a pollution-causing nuclear power plant. (Lisa then is forced to admit that Mr. Burns is just naturally evil--and when he tries to be good, his twisted sense of morality makes him even ''more'' evil.)
--> '''Mr. Burns:''' I don't understand. Pigs need food. Engines need coolant. Dynamiters need dynamite. I provide it to them at a tidy profit: and best of all, [[WellIntentionedExtremist not a single sea creature was wasted]]. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint You inspired it all, Li'l Lisa.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' reveals that [[spoiler: [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]]] is this, since apparently he murdered all those teenagers in the 1980s because the U.S. Government told him it would help with the Cold War and is now ashamed of having been a government lapdog. He even has a wife and kids now, but reluctantly decides to help save Stan and Mr. Mackey when they get trapped in a dream.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The Crystal Gems themselves are atoners for their entire species. In "The Return", Greg says that their leader, Rose Quartz, led a rebellion against her own kind to drive them off Earth for doing something horrible to it, and that the surviving rebel Gems have dedicated themselves to atone for what their people have done, but they just can't seem to forgive themselves.
* Dinobot, in ''{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. Only a little, but more and more as it gets further into the second season, culminating in his [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Major Threat was once a feared galactic overlord, but thanks to a HeelFaceTurn by "Tumbleweed", he now dedicates his life to setting right all of the wrongs he had done, and bringing out the good in other villains.
* [[TheLancer Raimundo]] of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' spends some time as this after [[spoiler: temporarily defecting to the Heylin side, resurrecting Wuya, and even ''winning''... then sealing her all over again]]. While he definitely goes out of his way to make up for this, it takes {{Call Back}}s all the way to Season 3 before he finally [[spoiler: [[CharacterDevelopment becomes Shoku Leader]] in the finale]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* ''Disney/FrozenFever'' is a short sequel to ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' that takes place on Anna's 19th [[BirthdayEpisode birthday]]. Her sister Elsa wishes to make it the best day imaginable, after having been [[AloofBigBrother reclusive]] her entire life, however this is screwed up by [[SickEpisode her cold]]. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity]] (and some AdultFear) ensues.

* In ''Rain'', [[spoiler:Brother Arthur has a [=FtM=] brother. He wants to help out Rain and Rudy because of the issues he caused his brother when they were younger]].

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has [[AntiVillain Abraham]], an ancient wizard. In his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (relative)]] youth, he created the [[GreenRocks Dewitchery Diamond]], a magical artifact intended to remove terrible curses like [[{{Werewolf}} lycanthropy]]. However, when he finished making it, the diamond had the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rather severe drawback]] of splitting a cursed individual into two bodies, the original and [[TheVirus an embodiment of the curse adept at spreading the curse to others]]. Faced with [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] and unable to destroy the diamond, Abraham swore an oath to God that he would dedicate his life to killing these cursed forms, which were generally vicious and powerful monsters.\\

** [[spoiler:Miko Miyazaki]] falls from grace after killing her lord and the Tweleve Gods of the South removes her paladin status. After destroying the gate, is visited by the spirit of Soon Kim, believing she's officially redeemed herself. However, Soon tells her that while she technically protected her goal by destroying it, the fact that she was unable to accept that she was ever wrong meant that she did not redeem herself, even in death. In other words, her belief in such was one more delusion. However, she does die in peace, knowing that at least she'll be able to visit her horse in the afterlife, if not become a paladin again.
** Vaarsuvius becomes one after [[spoiler:his/her discovery of what the Familicide spell she/he cast did]].

* [[TheLancer Raimundo]] of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' spends some time as this after [[spoiler: temporarily defecting to the Heylin side, resurrecting Wuya, and even ''winning''... then sealing her all over again]]. While he definitely goes out of his way to make up for this, it takes {{Call Back}}s all the way to Season 3 before he finally [[spoiler: [[CharacterDevelopment becomes Shoku Leader]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming in the finale]]]].

* In ''Film/HighPlainsInvaders'', Jules becomes this once he realises that it was his experiments with uranium that brought the Bugs to town. Abigail even tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself and find some way to redeem his miserable soul. Jules takes this advice to heart and spends the rest of the move trying to do just that.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Amino ends up being this in the ''Manga/AsatteNoHoukou'' manga.
* Discussed in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', when [[spoiler: Reiner]] mockingly demands to know if this is what Eren expects [[BigBadFriend them]] to do, while [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking what the point is of lecturing them on morality]] if [[YouMonster he already sees them as monsters]]. It gets more complicated since [[spoiler: he ''is'' genuinely remorseful over his crimes, slowly spiraling into [[TraumaInducedAmnesia madness]] and close to crossing the DespairEventHorizon. However, it's fairly clear Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie don't believe atoning for their crimes is even ''remotely'' possible, leaving them with no choice but to continue their mission]].
** [[spoiler: The First King, Karl Fritz, is also this. Despite being ruler of the Eldian Empire, he was wracked with immense guilt over the genocidal and sadistic atrocities that his ancestors meted out on the Marleyan people and so hatched a plan. Together with the noble Tybur family, Fritz created the myth of Helos, a Marleyan warrior who slew the Devil of All Earth, a figure in Eldian mythology that had granted Ymir her Titan-shifting powers, and led his people in revolution against Eldia. In truth, Fritz and the Tyburs took a large portion of the Edlian people to the neighbouring island of Paradis, where they would wait in exile until Marley decided to wipe them out. Fritz believed Marley was entirely justified in exterminating the remaining Eldians for their crimes and thus would put up no resistance when Marley came knocking. To further ensure this was carried out, Fritz erased the memories of his people so they would ignorant and peaceful, unaware of the world beyond the walls.]]
* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''
** The straight example is [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Ennis]], a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Homunculus]] BattleButler who detests her inability to oppose her master [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness out of fear]] and tries to invoke RedemptionEqualsDeath to redeem herself ([[spoiler:it ''almost'' happens, but Firo negates the "death" part]]).
** Isaac and Miria subvert it: they ''want'' to atone for their (rather silly and harmless) past sins... [[JustLikeRobinHood Robin Hood style]], which technically ''escalates'' their crime spree.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** [[BadassGrandpa Yamamoto]] created the original Gotei 13 by gathering together twelve of Soul Society's worst criminals and thugs, and Yamamoto was the worst of them. In later years he described a portrait of his younger self as a "monster" that nearly destroyed Soul Society, due to his ruthlessness while exterminating the Quincy and establishing the Shinigami. He vowed to submit himself to the authority of the Central 46 to keep himself in check, even when he knew their decisions were wrong.
** [[spoiler:Yachiru Kenpachi]] viewed the result of her battle with [[spoiler:Zaraki Kenpachi]] as a grave crime, as the resulting mental block he placed on his abilities greatly diminished his exceptional strength. She left the battlefield and became a healer while trying to discover how she could undo that damage.
* ''[[Anime/NeoHumanCasshern Casshern]]'' from ''Anime/CasshernSins'' spends nearly the entirety of the series trying to atone for a sin [[LaserGuidedAmnesia he doesn't remember committing]]: killing Luna, the world's last hope. It's a pretty big mistake, since it ended up causing [[{{Dystopia}} all life in the world to die]] or ''start'' dying. It's implied [[spoiler:Braiking Boss, the person who ordered Luna's murder]], is of this trope as well. He goes so far as to bury ''every'' follower of his that died from the Ruin, reasoning that he wanted to etch into his heart the pain the Ruin had caused.
* Part of the reason ''Manga/CastleTownDandelion'''s Kanade [[ElectiveMonarchy running to be Queen]] is because [[spoiler:she wants to advance their nation's medical technology and find a way to cure Shuu's leg, as penance for accidentally breaking it back in their childhood when her castle crumbled, inadvertently ruining his dreams of becoming a football player]].
* Chrono from ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' deeply regrets joining Aion's side and [[spoiler:being responsible for [[WaifProphet Mary Magdalene]]'s death]], and spends the entire series trying to be kind to people and help others to make up for his past sins. Also, the manga epilogue shows that [[spoiler:Joshua Christopher]] joined the Order, with another character guessing he did it with hopes of atoning himself.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** In the GrandFinale [[spoiler:Suzaku--a former DeathSeeker who wanted to atone for killing his own father, yet has been Geassed to Live at any cost--becomes one of these when he takes on the role of Zero at Lelouch's request. After killing him]]. More than that, [[spoiler: Suzaku]] was TheAtoner all along. Driven to kill [[spoiler: his father]] in order to save [[spoiler: the population of his entire country]], with dubious results, he joins the army... and starts being the [[spoiler: DeathSeeker]] he was up until the above scene in the finale.
** Paired with the above [[spoiler: Lelouch had become one at the same time after the last TraumaCongaLine he went through which left him with ''nothing'' after he was betrayed by the very forces he raised up to fight against TheEmpire. In his case, however, his method of atonement is to die after performing the Zero Requiem to force the world into a better place; by giving them first himself as ''the'' enemy to hate and then placing Suzaku as the new Zero for them to rally behind after Lelouch secretly cleaned up the worst of Britannia and the world so it would be easier for his sister to succeed him as a much beloved leader.]]
** Jeremiah Gottwald AKA Orange blames himself for not being able to protect Lady Marianne and her children and everything he does is him trying to atone for their deaths. This fuels his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder as after he finds out that Lelouch is alive; he betrays Britannia, under the guise of loyalty, to join the man who had been trying to destroy them, and after Zero left the black knights he followed him back to Britannia.
** After [[spoiler: Nina Einstein]] ''finally'' realizes that EvilIsNotAToy [[spoiler: after her SphereOfDestruction-like bomb obliterates Tokyo]], decides to work with [[spoiler: Lelouch himself]] to stop the plans of [[spoiler: Schniezel]] for world domination.
* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', Canale tries to atone for his years as a Sharq assassin and particularly for the murder of Sesaam Zaiyaun, whom he was in love with. He requests that Ayace kill him several times, lest he bring anymore danger to the people he loves.
* Jeremy from ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'' feels that he should not experience love or be worthy of love to compensate for killing his stepfather.
* Ken Ichijouji in the second half of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02''. After the breakdown of his [[VideogameCrueltyPotential Digimon Emperor]] persona, he works hard to undo all the damage he caused and redeem himself. Even as late as the series finale, however, when the characters are each shown their fondest wish Ken's [[spoiler: vision is of himself ''beaten to death'' by the Digimon he abused as the Digimon Emperor]].
* In ''Anime/DigimonTamers'':
** A defining example in Anime is Impmon, who became Beelzemon through a DealWithTheDevil obsessed with obtaining power by himself. He killed and absorbed the data of Leomon, whose partner, Jeri the former comic relief was utterly heartbroken to witness, which resulted in her later being susceptible to being kidnapped and psychically tortured by a modern-day EldritchAbomination. Spared from death by Jeri herself, tormented by the guilt of his actions, discovering his inner goodness, reuniting with his own young Tamers, Impmon finds new resolve to save Jeri from the EldritchAbomination known as the D-Reaper. Against the D-Reaper he uses everything in his power to desperately save Jeri. Every attack until he calls forth Leomon's "Fist of the Beast King" attack and successfully reaches out to Jeri, but fails to get her cooperation because he isn't actually Leomon. He is nearly fatally wounded and doesn't participate in the final battle. After the D-Reaper's defeat, Impmon is at last able to ask for Jeri's forgiveness. To his relief, she forgives him, leaving Impmon finally at peace in the end.
** To a lesser degree of drama there's Yamaki, who begins the series as the main villain and [[ScaryShinyGlasses sinister]] man in black who ruthlessly deletes Digimon he sees as alternately disruptions to the natural order or the advance guard of an invasion, and threatens to take the children's partners away (to be fair, he doesn't do so when given the chance). However, when Juggernaut, his attempt to purge all digital life from the real world, not only fails horribly but opens the way for the ''real'' invasion, he has a genuine WhatHaveIDone moment and spends the rest of the series working with the reunited Monster Makers to aid the Tamers. He modifies both the Hypnos system and many of his old programs into highly useful tools, and [[spoiler:Juggernaut even becomes the means by which the ultimate enemy is finally deleted]].
* Tien Shinhan from ''Manga/DragonBall''. After studying in the Crane school under Master Shen, Tien becomes a person who fights to kill or at least severely injure his opponent. This of course gains him many enemies. After the master of the rival school, Roshi, [[HeelFaceTurn gets through to him, he realizes killing is not always necessary]], and he spends the King Piccolo arc trying to learn and do a dangerous suicidal technique to atone for his past actions.
* Vegeta from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' in the Buu saga. After spending much of the series being being unable to catch up to Goku, Vegeta allows the evil sorcerer Babidi to place him under mind control for the power boost it comes with. Vegeta kills dozens of people, fights off the mind control to fight Goku, and helps Babidi unseal Majin Buu, who (seemingly) kills Gohan. Vegeta at last sees sense after this and goes to fight Buu alone, and [[TakingYouWithMe blows himself up in an attempt to kill Buu]] which ultimately fails.
* In ''Anime/{{Endride}}'', [[spoiler:Louise]] was TheMole for the [[LesCollaborateurs Truculent]]. Despite initially wanting to leave the [[LaResistance Ignauts]] after betraying them, feeling uncomfortable with their forgiveness, the character chooses to stay and atone by helping the cause.
* ''Manga/FairyTail''
** [[spoiler: Gajeel]] becomes this after joining the guild. Confirmed as of chapter 212.
** Crime Sorciere [[spoiler:Jellal, Urtear, Meredy]] become this after the TimeSkip. In particular, one of the newer members, Sorano ([[spoiler:also known as Angel of the Oracion Seis]]), believes that she's done too much evil for her to be able to call herself Yukino's sister until she's atoned.
** [[spoiler: Used as the twist in the Tenrou Island arc. After building up Zeref, who the villains are trying to awaken, as the most evil and powerful mage in history we find out he was never sealed at all. His inactivity was due to a HeelRealization hundreds of years ago and making the arc villains actions pointless all along. Zeref is a particularly cruel version of this trope, desperately [[DeathSeeker wanting to die]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath for his sins]] but being unable to control his Life/Death magic means he can neither die nor be anywhere near others so he can atone]]. He later decides that HumansAreTheRealMonsters and [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac vows to wipe them out]] or [[SuicideByCop die trying]]]].
* Raoh in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'', at his very last moments before his suicide.
* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' has a seemingly demon-possessed cardinal and the front-runner to be the next Pope [[spoiler:who turns out to have been a former gangster. After being saved from being shot in the head, he devoted his life to the Church, and faked the possession to avoid having an ex-criminal be Pope]].
* ''Manga/FruitsBasket'':
** Ayame feels guilty about his neglect of his younger brother Yuki, and is trying to be a better big brother. The rift between them, and [[LargeHam Ayame's natural extravagant manner]] not appealing to Yuki, makes it difficult, but Ayame persists and ultimately succeeds.
** In the BackStory, Kazuma took on the ParentalSubstitute role for Kyo Sohma/the cat of the Zodiac because of his guilt over how badly he treated the last cat, his grandfather, when he was a youngster.
** The reason Kagura is so hung up over Kyo is because A.) she only played with him as a child because his terrible home life/curse made her feel better about her own situation, and B.) she ran away in fear after seeing Kyo's [[OneWingedAngel true form]] and felt guilty about how withdrawn he became afterwards. Hence why she asks/warns [[spoiler: Tohru]] to only approach and love Kyo if she really loves him, and ''not'' due to pìty.
** [[spoiler: Akito]] gets some of this after a HeelFaceTurn, having realized how deeply their actions hurt others.
* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', it's revealed that Kalinin always felt horrible guilt and great regret that he did nothing to save Sousuke's mother (who ended up plunging to her death on the frozen and broken down airplane). As a result, he feels the great need to make it up to Sousuke, and always had the great desire to adopt him as his own son. Unfortunately, Sousuke is sent to an orphanage, and the next time Kalinin meets him, he's shocked to see that Sousuke turned into a [[TheStoic cold blooded]], uncaring killer. This causes him to feel ''even more guilt'' for having let Sousuke go and become like this, and in turn becomes even more dead set on making it up to him.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' lives off this trope, as almost every single heroic character has done something either very stupid or very villainous which he or she is attempting to atone for.
** Dr. Marcoh, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and Alex Louis Armstrong's motivations are to atone for all the Ishvalans they killed during the Ishval Massacre. '''''Especially''''' Armstrong, Roy, and Hawkeye. I.e., Roy's long-term goal when he becomes Fuhrer? [[spoiler:He wants to turn the country into a democracy, and eventually be tried for his war crimes]].
** Ed and Al's primary reason for finding the Philosopher's Stone is to redeem their bodies after attempting to transmute their mom. At the same time, Ed's own primary reason is to bring Alphonse back. It's either "our bodies" or "Alphonse"; he blamed himself for ''years'', afraid to even ask Al if he blamed him for what happened.
** Scar, whose transition from being motivated by revenge to wanting to break its cycle actually occurs during the series.
** Dr Knox like the rest of above mentioned in the Ishavalan war, but he isolated himself from his friends and family.
** Shou Tucker is an aversion; he doesn't seem to see anything wrong with combining his daughter and dog to accelerate his research. And this is the second time--the first time was his ''wife''. The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]], however, uses Tucker in a villainous example. Once he finds out about Nina's death, he spends the rest of the series trying to bring Nina back, which extends to mutating himself into a grotesque beast man and siding with the likes of Greed and Frank Archer. Unfortunately, his efforts are in vain.
* Chichiri of ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' holds himself responsible for his best friend Hikou's death, half-justifiably (the friend was killed by a flood, but Chichiri was also fighting violently with him at the time, and his attempt to save Hikou from the flood failed). Regretting how his anger contributed to the situation, Chichiri becomes a ReligiousBruiser and [[StepfordSmiler strives to keep his emotions hidden and controlled at all times]].
* [[spoiler:The newly-resurrected Yomi]] in ''Manga/GaRei''. [[spoiler:Not surprising at all, considering [[KillEmAll what she had done]]]].
* ''Manga/GugureKokkurisan'' has Shigaraki; every cent that he steals goes towards funding an orphanage for the children of families he's destroyed.
* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': In the appropriately-named "Atonement Chapter" (Tsumihoroboshi-hen) Keiichi [[spoiler:is briefly able to break through the GroundhogDayLoop and is allowed to clearly see his actions in the first arc, in which the HatePlague drove him to isolate himself from his friends and murder Rena and Mion]]. He becomes The Atoner as a result and [[spoiler:redoubles his efforts to try and save Rena, who is now in the same boat as he was]]. Also, [[spoiler: before he moved to Hinamizawa, he was a nihilistic loner who got his kicks by shooting at little kids with a pellet gun. When he severely injures a little kid (as opposed to the bruises it usually caused) he realized how horrible his actions were and turned over a new leaf]].
* After being a SmugSnake and almost becoming the BigBad, [[spoiler: Yuri Killian]] in ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' decides to go into a TenMinuteRetirement and study art in Paris, only to return as a sponsor and later directly try to atone for his deeds. [[spoiler: And not only for those he committed against the Stage]]. And before that, the reason why [[spoiler: Yuri was able to completely seizing the Stage]] is because [[spoiler: Kalos Eidos let him do so as atonement for believing himself to have caused the death of Yuri's father on-stage [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom due to a very ill-timed talk with him]]. Kalos saw Yuri's rise as his revenge for the death of Aaron and his (Kalos's) own punishment, which is why he didn't retaliate until the last moment]].
* ''LightNovel/KinosJourney''. A once-violent criminal has decided to atone for his acts by accompanying the widow of a man he killed while she [[WalkingTheEarth Walks The Earth]] as her bodyguard. [[spoiler:The next scene shows the atoner dying in a forest clearing, as the widow has just emptied her pistol into him. She was so hurt that she didn't think he deserved atonement]].
* In ''Manga/KoeNoKatachi'', Ishida Shouya once was the ringleader of a group of kids who bullied Nishimiya Shouko, a [[CuteMute deaf girl]]. He ended up [[TheScapegoat being scapegoated]] for all the bullying, and he came to realize just how awful his treatment of her was. He spends the bulk of a five-year TimeSkip preparing to set things right. [[spoiler: In a darker turn, specifically to make amends before he [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself]]. Nishimiya responding positively towards his actions leads him to keep living, although this trope continues to color Ishida's actions]].
* In episode 6 of the ''LightNovel/LoveChunibyoAndOtherDelusions'' anime, [[CasanovaWannabe Makoto Isshiki]] [[spoiler:shaved off his head and [[TakingTheHeat took the heat]] for the other guys in 1-4 for taking polls of the girls]]. This is to maintain some kind of desirability among the girls.
* In ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** The Wolkenritter join the TSAB to make up for their crimes committed while filling the Book of Darkness. Signum is particularly focused on this, as she states that she plans to repent for her crimes except when she is with Hayate, but Nanoha suggests that rather than regret what she did, she should just focus on helping people. Hayate is similarly motivated by a desire to make up for the Book of Darkness incident, having been subject to most of the blame for it and feeling responsible for it.
** All seven of the Numbers who performed a HeelFaceTurn also apply, especially Cinque. Cinque has the longest sentence out of all of them (possibly because she killed people, including [[spoiler:the original Zest]]), and while she doubts she'll ever be truly free, she cares enough for her sisters to do what is necessary to care for them.
* In ''Anime/MaiOtomeZwei'', [[spoiler:Nina]] becomes this, wanting to make up for her actions in the previous series by helping Nao investigate the ruins in Episode 3, and fighting alongside Arika in the final battle in Episode 4.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'':
** This is a facet of Heero Yuy that shows up in a couple of major ways. After he is tricked into killing a large number of UESA leaders, he spends some time traveling with Trowa to meet with the families of each person that died, [[DeathSeeker where he offers them the chance to kill him]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath as retribution]].
** The first version of the opening credits hints at something that's finally revealed in ''Endless Waltz'': one of Heero's first covert assignments (destroying an OZ mobile suit factory) went catastrophically out of control and ended up killing a young girl and her dog that he'd met the day before. Heero has been haunted by guilt over that ever since.
* Franz Bonaparta from ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' is played up as being the creepy childrens book author responsible for the madness that created Johan Liebert. [[spoiler: As it turns out, he actually had everyone involved in the eugenics experiment killed so he could save Johan's twin sister from a similar fate]].
* Balsa from ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'' wants to save eight lives for the eight lives that were taken in her protection as a child. To do so, she realizes would only mean something if she doesn't kill others. It's not easy to spare and escape a force of elite warriors.
* In ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', [[spoiler:Enchu]], despite being imprisoned for life in the Arcanum, studies to one day become an Executor and atone for his crimes.
* For ''Manga/MurasakiiroNoQualia'', Hatou applies. [[spoiler: In the vast majority of worlds she denies herself happiness to try to solve Yukari's murder. She has endured numerous deaths, alcoholism, rape (implied), and who knows what else in pursuit of her goal. All because she helped Alice convince Yukari to join JAUNT]].
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' has Kippei "The Kyushuu Lion" Tachibana. While not an evil person, his playing style was highly violent. Then, [[spoiler: his best friend ''and'' rival Senri Chitose became one of his victims when Tachibana accidentally hit him [[EyeScream in the eye]] and almost blinded him]]. Wrecked with guilt, Tachibana seriously thought he should just leave tennis as a whole, but then his family transferred to Tokyo. He enrolled in Fudomine Junior High and and witnessed how the local tennis clubs' rookies were bullied by the sempais and the ex-coach; Tachibana stood up for them and became their leader and captain.
* [[spoiler: Xerxes Break]] of ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' is this, though he claims otherwise. This is because he was once [[spoiler: Kevin Regnard, a FailureKnight driven to make a DealWithTheDevil that required him to murder as part of his bargain. He made it with the hopes of changing the past, in order to bring back the murdered family he served. Eventually, after sacrificing 116 people to his Chain, he was dragged into the Abyss and was able to convince the Will of the Abyss to grant his wish. Unfortunately, he later learned his wish resulted in the family being murdered four years later... by the one child that had survived the slaughter in the original timeline]]. The horror and grief over his actions are his driving motivation, though he keeps it secret from others.
* In ''{{Manga/Saki}}'', Hajime Kunihiro's crime- cheating in a mahjong game in elementary school- is much less severe than many of the ones described here, but it still haunts her to the point at which she [[ChainedByFashion wears chains on her wrists]] that hinder her movements, and works especially hard to be trustworthy to her teammates on Ryuumonbuchi, especially her close friend Touka.
* ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'': At the near-end of the story,' [[spoiler:Yuuji]], knowing how much pain he had caused for the sake of Xanadu's creation with the power of the God of Creation, attempts to become this by leaving for Xanadu alone, in order to work to encourage the Crimson Denizens to live in peace with, and befriend, the humans living there. The love that he and [[spoiler:Shana]] shared trumped this, however, and they leave for the new world together. At Xanadu, he does atone by trying to get the Humans and Denizens to co-exist, but [[ReformedButRejected often ends up becoming a target of aggression, getting involved in fights and often on the run]].
* ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'': After discovering that it was not Rin's fault that her beloved mother died [[spoiler: Kaede Fuyou]] makes her purpose in life "to serve Rin-kun"--so she can make up to him for all the tremendous abuse she piled up on him.[[spoiler: (who ''willingly'' took the blame because Kaede was this close to just let herself die by despair) before the discovery]].
* While a few villains from ''Manga/SnowWhiteAndSevenDwarfs'' eventually become this, the primary example is Fujimaru, who makes it a point to fight against the dictatorship government as atonement for having served it previously. [[spoiler:This leads to him nearly making a HeroicSacrifice in the finale, though he fortunately gets off with RedemptionEqualsAffliction rather than RedemptionEqualsDeath]].
* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline Progressive'', Nezuo, is a player who'd scammed other players out of their weapons in order to help his guild, who'd fallen behind the other clearers while trying to help him level (Nezuo has a Full-Dive Nonconformity that's an almost crippling disadvantage in battle). After Kirito and Asuna find out what he was up to, he, on Kirito's advice, masters the chakram (one of the few viable ranged weapons in the game) and uses it to save the other clearers from the second floor boss. Unfortunately, he's [[HeelFaceDoorSLam nearly executed for his crimes]] until his guildmates take responsibility and give up their gear as restitution.
* Lordgenome from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', after hundreds of years of suppressing humanity underground, [[spoiler: during the fight with the Anti-Spiral, he sacrifices himself to absorb the Infinity Big Bang Storm and transfer it to Spiral Energy, which the Dai-Gurren Brigade uses to defeat the Anti-Spiral. He even has a bit of a final goodbye to his daughter]].
* [[spoiler: Willard]] in ''Anime/TenrouSiriusTheJaeger'' is basically this. [[spoiler: As in Episode 7, Willard regrets the things that he had done in the past, considering that he is the one who enables the massacre of Yuliy's village, Dogville, after he translates the contents of a book revealing the location of Sirius Ark to the vampires. It affects him deeply, to the point that he takes little Yuliy into his care and calmly waits for Yuliy to finish him once he finds out the truth. He also regrets that he encouraged Yuliy to focus so single-mindedly on vengeance.]]
* Vash the Stampede from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' constantly is wracked by guilt over his past and the extensive body count that he blames himself for, even though none of it is truly his fault. What he truly has remorse for is the fact that he couldn't prevent said things from happening in the first place. In the original manga, Vash killed everyone in July except for himself, Knives who was critically injured, and Hopperd the future-Gauntlet. Vash was friends with several people in July and is forever haunted by killing his own friends for revenge.
* Abel Nightroad from ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'' is a centuries old Crusnik (uber-vampire who feeds on normal vampires, has superior destructive powers and is invincible) who used to hate humans and took the vampire side of the conflict when war broke out. He was essentially a living weapon of mass destruction and supposedly killed seven million humans. Eventually it was the death of his lover, who had sided with the humans (after telling him how to defeat the vampires) and had been trying to influence him, that caused him to change his views. Nine hundred years later, he's a priest of the Vatican and tries to avoid and prevent killing whenever he can, and is wracked by guilt for his sins.
* Alan from ''Anime/{{Windaria}}'', who spends the bulk of his life rebuilding the world after he helped ruin it.
* Quent in ''Anime/WolfsRain'' is something of a variation on this. He only comes to realize that wolves are not evil when [[spoiler:Toboe, the wolf he has been pursuing most vigorously, makes a futile attempt to save him from the BigBad Lord Darcia]]. It is only ''after'' [[spoiler:they have both been mortally wounded, and Quent realizes that it was Toboe who saved him from freezing to death on an earlier occasion]], that Quent is able to redeem himself in a small way [[spoiler:by comforting the dying Toboe as his own life ebbs away]]. It's not much--but it's ''enough''.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' absolutely ''loves'' doing this.
** In the first series we had Maximilian Pegasus, Marik Ishtar, Odion Ishtar, Noah Kaiba, Dartz, Rafael, Valon, Alister, Leon, and even SETO KAIBA.
** In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' we have Kagemaru, Tania, Atticus, Crowler, Aster Phoenix, Satorious, The Supreme King, and Yubel.
** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' gives us Jack, Aki, Ushio(the guy that was redeemed by Yami Yugi and again by Yusei), all of the Dark Signers, Aporia, Bruno/Antinomy, and Z-ONE.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' has Kaito, Dr. Faker, the Tron family, and all of the Barian Emperors.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' gives us Shingo, Serena, Sora, Jack(again), Kaito(again), Aster(again), the Tyler sisters, the Obelisk Force, Dennis, Leo Akaba, Yuri, and Zarc.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' has Ai.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' has three prime examples of this. This first is [[spoiler: Pain AKA Nagato, who sacrifices himself to reverse all of the damage he has done to the Leaf Village upon being swayed by Naruto's words, trusting in him to end the cycle of hatred.]]. The second is [[spoiler: Tobi AKA Obito Uchiha, who saves Naruto's life and tries to sacrifice himself on two seperate occasions. The second time sticks, with him dying in Kakashi's place.]] The third, and the only one who doesn't die, is [[spoiler: Sasuke Uchiha. After he realizes he has caused so much pain for little to no reason, he requests that Naruto take his Rinnegan and use it to dispel the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and kill him off. Naruto has none of it and tells him to redeem himself by helping others. He... does just that, exploring Kaguya's dimensions to search for a reason as to why Kaguya would want an army of White Zetsu. This comes to a head in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, where he ends up saving Naruto's life, as well as tutoring Naruto's son, Boruto.]] Although this last one is a base breaker as some people feel [[KarmaHoudini he was let off too easily.]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Marvel's new spin on Speedball fits here, even if Speedball was always a hero. Now he's blamed for 612 people he didn't actually murder. But, hey, he can change his name to [[strike:Penance]] [[FanNickname Bleedball]] and design a costume with 612 points of constant pain. It turns out that he didn't make the suit for ''himself''--he made it for ''Nitro'', the true murderer. He only wore it because he felt he had to atone somewhat for failing to save all those people.
* The title character of ''ComicBook/{{Atavar}}'', despite not ever actually being a villain, becomes one anyway after being tricked into [[spoiler:dooming the Kalen]].
* At one point, ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} of ''ComicBook/TheAvengers''. After being manipulated to villainy, he joined the Avengers as a way to both make up for what he did, and also to do what he originally intended to do with his skills: Help people.
* Following ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', [[ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} Scott Summers]], who under the corruption of the Phoenix Force caused the death of Charles Xavier, was willing to spend the rest of his life in jail paying for that and any other crimes he committed under its control (for those who don't know, that [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality basically amounts to him refusing to do what the Avengers told him to do]]), until he realized that the sudden burst of new mutants mean that a large number of people are going to be hunted down by anti-mutant extremists, so he decided to break out of prison to protect them. Now, still hunted by the government and his former teammates, he's formed a new Brotherhood of Mutants so he can track down new mutants who need protection, whatever it takes. Most, however, [[HeroWithBadPublicity just assume he's off his rocker and trying to upstage humanity]]. Though, he probably doesn't help his case by calling it a 'mutant revolution', or with the fact that his powers are on the fritz, making him unintentionally far more dangerous than he intends to be.
* ''{{ComicBook/Sabretooth}}'' is a big example. As a villain, he committed almost every crime one could think of. He's been an assassin, abuser, serial killer, mass murderer, cannibal, and possibly a rapist. His good & evil side are inverted during ''{{ComicBook/AXIS}}'' and he becomes a good person, trying to atone for all his past sins -vowing to Logan that he would find his own Wolverine spirit.
** Leads into ReformedButRejected seeing as NO hero in Marvel fully trusts him. After the Axis storyline ended, Creed acknowledged that many would only ever see him for the beast he was. So he's prepared for everyone's slights toward him, but he still gets annoyed with it.
* ''ComicBook/Batgirl2000'': Making up for murdering a man is the bulk of Cassandra Cain's entire motivation, especially [[DeathSeeker early in her career]].
-->'''[[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]]:''' "You were eight years old, you were [[TykeBomb raised in a bunker by a psychopath]], you didn't know what you were doing... ''[[HarmfulToMinors You were eight years old!]]'' And the fact that you've tortured yourself ever since ''proves'' the type of person [[TheCape you really are]]."
* A ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' story did a variant of this: Issue #127 of his self-titled book showed an alternative origin if his parents didn't get killed. In this version, Batman was a criminal called the Blue Bat, and the costume was worn by someone else. This all changed with an encounter with Bruce Wayne, who defeated the crook, took the costume for himself, and became Batman, noting, "This costume that was once a symbol of crime will now become a symbol of '''justice!'''"
** Detective Harvey Bullock, a member of Batman's supporting cast, was introduced as a corrupt cop, but he saw the error of his ways. Since then, he's been working hard at cleaning up both Gotham City and his reputation.
** Another Batman-related example: Scientist Kirk Langstrom, alias the supervillain Man-Bat, is often portrayed as trying to make up for the damage his SuperpoweredEvilSide has caused.
* ''Comicbook/BuckyBarnes'' was brainwashed into a Russian assassin known as the Winter Soldier. When he gets his memories back, he is full of guilt over the things he did. His first solo series makes his atonement a focal point by having him go after Russian sleeper agents he had helped train in the past.
* ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'':
** Pre-ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}} Arsenal in ''Convergence: Titans'' is making a better attempt to atone for his actions after he was maimed by Prometheus and his daughter Lian died.
** Pre-ComicBook/ZeroHour Hal Jordan is this as well. Getting depowered by the dome brought Hal back to his senses and he's legitimately regretful for what he did as Parallax. Unfortunately, the minute the dome comes down and his abilities come back he goes nuts once again.
** The Vampire Batman in ''Convergence: Swamp Thing'' seeks redemption by teaming up with Swamp Thing in ridding the vampires from his Gotham City. After eliminating the queen vampire and thereby turning every vampire back to being human (except for Vampire Batman), Batman allows himself to die under sunlight.
** Superwoman of the Crime Syndicate has taken her time on death row to reflect on how she's spent her life, and realizes that both herself and the rest of the Syndicate wasted their lives in the pursuit of crime. [[spoiler:She fights the Wonder Woman of Justice Legion Alpha for the sake of saving the Metropolis of her world in an attempt to fully atone for her actions and be the hero she now understands she could have been]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Crimson}}'': Ekimus is the last surviving member of the Grigori, a soulless race that sided with {{Satan}} during the War on Heaven and was completely exterminated. He had forsaken the forces of Hell in shame and tried to atone for his crimes. Unfortunately he ended up crossing paths with Lisseth and together, they created the vampire race that would plague mankind for eons to come. Ekimus would spend his following days searching for a chosen one to help him destroy all vampires.
* A DC Comics example, Pariah in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', whose attempt to explore the origin of the universe has resulted in the destruction of his parallel universe, and personally believes that he may also be responsible for the destruction of the other parallel universes until the Anti-Monitor reveals that he himself is personally responsible for the latter.
* Post-Parallax ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' Hal Jordan. Then it seemed that that Hal Jordan wasn't ''really'' Parallax, that he was merely ''possessed'' by an evil creature named Parallax that did all of those bad things and therefore absolves him of all responsibly and exempts him from CharacterDevelopment. And ''then'' we see that he ''still'' feels responsible for his actions '''when being possessed''', just like [[spoiler:Kyle]] when ''he'' was possessed during the ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar''. Part of his interaction with the Corps is trying to rebuild [[PowerOfTrust the trust]] he lost when he killed his fellow Corps members and essentially destroyed the original Franchise/GreenLantern Corps.
* Rayek from ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' tried to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, nearly wiping out everyone and everything he cared about in the process. He spends much of the rest of his eternal life trying to make up for this.
* ''ComicBook/EmmaFrost'' is this when she is leading ''ComicBook/GenerationX''. This aspect went away later.
* [[spoiler:Sistah Spooky (who is not a villain, but can be pretty bitchy)]] becomes this in ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'' #4.
* ''ComicBook/{{Gambit}}'' is another Marvel Universe example of this trope. He joined the X-Men due to the whole [[spoiler:unwittingly helping some major baddies commit genocide thing]]. Admittedly Gambit never [[spoiler:intentionally took part in said genocide]] and continues to be a much loved thief with a heart of gold to fans, but still.
* Tony Stark (aka ''ComicBook/IronMan''), ever since he was kidnapped in [[strike:Vietnam]] [[strike:Afghanistan]] [[FanNickname Vietghanistan]]. Thanks to SurvivorGuilt and [[TheMentallyIll Major Depressive Disorder]], along with [[TraumaCongaLine a ton of other traumatic events since then]], he is also a DeathSeeker. More so since ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', but generally people who like the character [[FanonDiscontinuity pretend it didn't happen]].
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}:''
** At the conclusion of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', Franchise/{{Superman}}'s rival Magog becomes one of these.
** One "what-if" story had ComicBook/LexLuthor reform and then invent a panacea for all ills as repayment for his crimes.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Mandy}}'' story "Sorry Sue" has this premise--Janie, the heroine has been mean to foster-girl Sue and now regrets her actions, so she is trying (unsuccessfully) to make amends.
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} of the ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' is trying to atone, but the fact that he's so bad at it, combined with his natural psychopathy, means that most people don't even notice.
* ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'' fights crime in part to make up for the evil that he did as Marc Spector while fighting with Bushman's band of mercenaries. Since he is, DependingOnTheWriter, a {{jerkass}}, insane or both, these attempts can get complicated.
* ''ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger'', in (at least) one of his [[MultipleChoicePast Multiple Choice Pasts]].
* Eel O'Brian, aka ''ComicBook/PlasticMan'', right from the 40s to his current incarnation.
* [[spoiler:Ducra]] from ''ComicBook/RedHoodAndTheOutlaws''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Shakara}}'': Dr. Lara Procopio has tried to make up for her role in [[SyntheticPlague engineering the disease]] that was used to destroy the Shakara race through humanitarian missions and dedicating the rest of her life to helping the sick and wounded. When Shakara the Avenger comes to execute her, she admits that it's not meant to excuse what she did and chooses to FaceDeathWithDignity.
* The ''Comicbook/SilverSurfer'', spent centuries as a {{Brainwashed}} Herald of Comicbook/{{Galactus}}. Galactus [[OurSoulsAreDifferent put a block on his soul]] [[EmotionSuppression preventing him from feeling guilt]] and he [[PlanetEater led countless planets to their doom]] as a result. After the block is released, he feels nothing but regret for his actions and seeks to atone for them.
* In the ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' comics:
** Knuckles was like this for a bit after his time as [[spoiler: the new Enerjak]].
** {{Heel Face Turn}}ed villain [[spoiler: Dimitri]] also feels the need to atone for his previous deeds, and issue #221 has a touching moment between him, NICOLE and Espio, both of whom are also invoking this trope following their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy respective]] [[DoubleAgent actions]] during the Iron Dominion arc.
** Hope Kintobor does this as well. She had stayed at Knothole until, at the advice of Snively, wandered off to explore the world. When she came back, she found out that Knothole was razed completely and she thought that the Mobians there were dead. Though she later found out they were alive and well, she felt horrible for listening to Snively's advice and, as such, allied herself with [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking G.U.N.]] and Team Dark to get back at the former Kintobors, vowing to make their name worth something in the end.
** Sally is hit with this in the post ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' universe when she finds out what she did as Mecha Sally. NICOLE and Cream have to convince her not to go total workaholic on them.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}''. Especially since it was revealed that [[spoiler: he chose to come back as a monster because that's how he viewed himself in life]].
* ''ComicBook/TheSpectre'' is a fallen angel who saw the error of his ways and repented. He now punishes evildoers who escape human justice as penance.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'':
** In Supergirl/''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'' team-up ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Emil Hamilton. He helped [[spoiler:''Comicbook/LexLuthor'' kill baby [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]]]] a long time ago, and he's been trying to expiate his crime since. He doesn't care go to jail as long as he manages to expose his ex-colleague.
--->'''Hamilton:''' Yes! Thank you! I've worked so hard, thrown everything away, committed terrible crimes... Take me away! I'll gladly accept my punishment knowing Luthor's true nature has been exposed.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' storyline ''ComicBook/{{Bizarrogirl}}'', the Girl of Steel and Bizarrogirl work together to save the latter's homeworld. As teaming up, Bizarrogirl learns morality in human terms, the difference between saving people and killing them and realizes back on Earth she killed a man because he was too loud. Bizarrogirl decides to punish herself and asks Supergirl (who is struggling with her own feelings of guilt) if she'll even be able to find some sort of redemption:
--->'''Bizarrogirl:''' Does self-punishment '''end''', Supergirl?\\
'''Supergirl:''' It might '''never''' end, Bizarrogirl. We can be '''sorry''' for what we've done, be sorry for hurting others, but it's what we do '''afterwards''' that really matters.
* Back in the Marvel Universe, after several attempts to take over the universe, ''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}'' of Titan may have become the Atoner. In the Atrocious "Marvel Universe: The End" he destroys himself [[spoiler:or seems to]] to save the universe, and then in a self-titled series started wandering around atoning for his old deeds. No one trusted his motives and the series was canceled before it was truly clear how genuine his motives were.
* Also on the ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'' team, there was Songbird, who honestly saw the team as a chance to redeem herself. Too bad the Thunderbolts were reorganized to be little more than killers on a leash after Norman Osborne took over.
* A few characters in ''{{ComicBook/Vampirella}}'' were presented this way:
** Her mother Lilith was the original wife of Adam who had spawned countless races of demons and monsters upon the world after refusing her role. Seeking to redeem herself, she gave birth to Vampi and trained her to fight monsters in hopes of her hunting down evil. [[spoiler:Turns out it was a subversion, she was not really atoning for anything, but planning to take over Hell using the dark essence of all demons her daughter killed. Lilith was using her daughter all along to gain power while using an atoner facade]].
** Pantha used to be an AxCrazy cannibal that was [[GodGuise worshipped as the goddess Sehkmet]] and [[WouldHurtAChild killed children in cold blood]]. She was cursed by the gods for her cruelty by being transformed into an immortal shapeshifter that could transform into a panther. She tries to atone for her atrocities by fighting evil, but she occasionally suffers memory loss because of the same curse.
** In a very early story, {{Dracula}} attempted to become this trope. In this continuity, the events of the Bram Stoker novel (where he killed Lucy Westenra and nearly turned Mina Harker) were real and with the help of Vampirella and Lilith, he traveled back in time to stop himself from doing either. When it seems he is successful, he ends up faltering and [[DownerEnding murders both Lucy and Mina]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'':
** Eddie Brock was once one of Spider-Man's most infamous foes, Venom, but when TheSymbiote got too AxCrazy for his taste, Eddie got rid of it and tried to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath kill himself]] when [[LegacyCharacter it found a new host]]. As Anti-Venom, he set about trying to make amends by [[HeelFaceTurn befriending his former nemesis]], curing drug addicts and sick people, trying to kill Venom and the other symbiotes at every opportunity, and [[spoiler: [[ComicBook/SpiderIsland ultimately giving up his symbiote to stop the Queen from turning New York's citizens into spider-monsters]]]].
** Similar, Flash Thompson, Venom IV, in the new series. A former high school bully who tormented many students during his teens (of which including [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] and ComicBook/JessicaJones), he was inspired by Spider-Man to turn his life around by joining the army. When he lost his legs in Iraq, he then signed on to become a Government-sponsored secret superhero using the Venom Symbiote. A lot of his motivation comes from wanting to make up for being such a horrible person during his teens.
* In ''Comicbook/WarWorld'' Franchise/{{Superman}} sets to bring Mongul down after unwillingly helping the galactic despot appropiate the titular, devastating weapon.
* The ''ComicBook/XMen'' have an archnemesis ComicBook/{{Magneto}} who seems to go through regular cycles of BigBad, WellIntentionedExtremist, and The Atoner. During one of his atonement phases, he even joined the X-Men.
* In ''ComicBook/BatmanWhiteKnight'', ComicBook/TheJoker is cured of his insanity and transforms into Jack Napier. As a result, he wants to make up for his past as the Clown Prince of Crime by becoming Gotham's White Knight.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', Pocket Universe Lex Luthor becomes this when he accidentally let loose the Phantom Zone criminals from their imprisonment for them to start their reign of terror and devastation on the Earth, even to the point of instantly annihilating five billion people on the planet via AtmosphereAbuse. At the end of the story, when Lex Luthor is killed along with the remaining members of his resistance force, he says to the mainstream DC Universe Superman that he knew about the Gold and Green Kryptonite samples hidden in Superboy's lab, but he refused to use them because he wanted the Phantom Zone criminals' defeat to be by his own hand, and now regrets that decision and has Superman promise to never let that happen again.
* There was once a boy who gained amazing abilities after being bitten by a radioactive spider, and immediately tried to use them for his own benefit. One night, he failed to use his powers to stop a thief from escaping, and flippantly brushed off the people who protested that he easily could have intervened; it [[BystanderSyndrome wasn't his problem]], why should he? Unfortunately, later that night his beloved uncle -- who had always tried to teach him that "with great power ComesGreatResponsibility" -- was murdered, and after pursuing the culprit in vengeance the boy was horrified to discover that it was the same thief he had let escape. Devastated by guilt, the boy from that day resolved to use his powers to atone for his inaction by using them to fight crime as the Amazing Franchise/SpiderMan.
* In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, Reed Richards started as a hero with the ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour, but got increasingly frustrated when [[ReedRichardsIsUseless the military refused to let him release his revolutionary inventions]]. He fought against ComicBook/TheUltimates because UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. He visited the main Marvel universe during ''Cataclysm'', to infiltrate the Baxter building and get info about Galactus, but by doing so he discovered the life he could have had with Sue. Later in that story, and in ''ComicBook/UltimateFF'', he is sorry for his actions. However, the writer Hickman (who wrote his evil arc) ignored it and, ArmedWithCanon, kept him as a villain.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* This is one of the primary reasons behind Cassandra Cain's conversion to Christianity in ''Fanfic/AngelOfTheBat''.
* The ''FanFic/AzulaTrilogy'' has Azula become this gradually. At the start of the fic she is as selfish and arrogant as ever upon regaining her memory, though she slowly begins to develop a conscience when she allows the two Fire Nation peasants who found her after escaping the asylum to escape. [[spoiler: Her CharacterDevelopment continues when she convinces Zuko to allow her permission to find their missing mother, culminating with her giving a ShutUpHannibal moment to her hallucination of Ozai, representing the darker half of her conscience. Azula's HeelFaceTurn is then complete when she aids Team Avatar in liberating Ba Sing Se from Jian Chin's forces and resisting the temptations of the Spirit of War [[TheCorrupter Zhan Zheng]]]].
* In ''FanFic/TheBlueDragon'', Malefor feels guilty of the past actions he did in the past, and throughout the story, atones for them.
* ''Brave New World'' by Creator/Ri2 has multiple atoners. [[spoiler: Father Yamari was actually a homocidal mercenary before dying. He's spent his entire afterlife attempting to atone]].
* ''FanFic/{{Carpetbaggers}}'', a Literature/[[ChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]] fic, features a [[NobleWolves wolf]] named Rhea, who dedicates her life to serving the Pevensies in their new roles as kings and queens in order to atone for the evil deeds of her littermate Maugrim and the rest of her [[SavageWolves former pack]] who served the White Witch.
* ''Fanfic/TheChildOfLove'': Ritsuko tried to atone for helping Gendo’s schemes. So that she [[spoiler:gave Asuka pills meant to undo Gendo's genetic manipulations and turn Asuka's daughter Teri into a normal child]].
* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', Loki sees his membership on the Avengers as atonement for [[Film/TheAvengers2012 his actions while insane]].
** [[spoiler: Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier]], after being freed from his decades-long brainwashing during the first book's FinalBattle, seeks to make amends for his all the evil he's done over the years. Though he also freely admits his belief that he'll never actually finds redemption for his actions.
* ''Fanfic/ChristianHumberReloaded'': Surprisingly, Vash sometimes is this. He turns himself in, apparently out of regret, after killing his friend Soku and the rest of her family in revenge for her turning him in. After bursting out of the stomach of a rogue dragon, he undergoes a quest to defeat the demon dragon Le Hung Doe. Unfortunately, those aren't even his worst crimes, and he remains largely unrepentant for actions such as killing six million people at the Super Bowl.
* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', Lieutenant Fighting Fit is tortured by guilt over hesitating to investigate the disappearance of Junebug and failing to stop a changeling from taking her place and mind-raping her mother. Two years later, he assembles a search party for the real Junebug, obviously trying to make amends for his failures.
* The ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' fanfic FanFic/AnEndToAllThings features an Okazaki that appears to be atoning for ''something'', and it's implied that it's at least partially for [[AnachronicOrder his past self nuking the city at some point in the future]].
* In ''Fanfic/CoOpMode'', due to [[GeniusLoci Gaia's]] actions, [[spoiler: Contessa/Fortuna]] becomes [[ForWantOfANail this]].
* ''FanFic/TheCountsWorld'': Count Bleck and his minions in general know they can't completely make up for their actions in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', but they honestly want to keep trying. [[spoiler:Dimentio is this as well on a more personal level]].
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': After talking with Yui and [[HeelRealization realizing the weight of his crimes]] Gendo wants to expiate his sins.
* Light in the ''Manga/DeathNote'' fic ''FanFic/FeverDreams'' after [[HeelRealization he realizes the Kira plan isn't working]] and that [[SlashFic he doesn't really want L dead]].
* Another Sherlockian example is AscendedExtra Fred Porlock in the ''Fanfic/DeliverUsFromEvilSeries''. Porlock turns out to be an English nobleman's son whom Moriarty recruited from university, and, [[HeelRealization having seen what his employer really does]], Porlock begins to slip information to SherlockHolmes. We also find out that he's one of Inspector Patterson's contacts--Patterson is Scotland Yard's expert on Professor Moriarty.
* After undergoing a HeelFaceTurn in [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/3457415/1/Doubt Doubt]], Hordak resolves to be this at the end, planning to travel to each world still subjugated by the Horde and free them. Sadly, no sequel story exists to see how he did.
* [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda Tai Lung]] in ''Fanfic/ADifferentLesson'' doesn't start out this way--when he's not still being his arrogant, nasty, egotistical self, he's settled into a cross between VillainousBSOD and DespairEventHorizon over the ruin his life has become and his humiliating defeat by Po. But once [[HeelRealization he realizes everyone was right about him]], and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone it truly sinks in what all he has done]] (and in the end, for nothing), the guilt and shame do urge him to follow this trope. Late in the story he proves he's come to understand what most Atoners do, when contemplating Xiulan, a woman whose husband he killed during his rampage: "He would spend the rest of his life trying to make it up to her."
* The ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' FanFic ''FanFic/HonorTrip'' has Perfect Cell as The Atoner in an alternate universe where Gohan doesn't kill him at the Cell Games, but instead scrambles his programming with a blow to the head.
* In ''Fanfic/ForGood'', [[TheDragon Warp Darkmatter]] deals with some heavy guilt following his HeelFaceTurn, and works hard to rid himself of it.
* ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'':
** After Third Impact Shinji spends his whole life trying to atone for abandoning Asuka and getting the whole mankind killed.
** Misato strives to atone for effectively abandoning Shinji and Asuka right when they needed her, in spite of her being the only person who cared for them.
--->'''Misato:''' It might surprise you to learn I agree with you. Everything you said is true. I did a terrible job with the both of you, and there's no excuse for it. Nothing about the circumstances changes what happened to you. It was criminal, and it was wrong, and I'll regret it until the day I die. But even so, you have to think about your situation here: you aren't equipped to live on your own, and neither is Shinji. You both need a lot of help and support, and there aren't exactly a lot of candidates banging on the door for the job. For better or worse I'm the closest thing to family either of you has.\\
'''Asuka:''' (shaking her head) …\\
'''Misato:''' And I do care about you. I can't undo any of the things that have happened to you, but I can do my best to look out for you in the future. And I want to do that.\\
'''Asuka:''' No you don't. The only reason you're bothering at all is because of him.\\
'''Misato:''' That isn't true. But even if it was, does it really matter? Either way --\\
'''Asuka:''' Of course it matters!\\
'''Misato:''' I see. I've really misjudged you, haven't I? All this time, I thought your only interest was in survival. Shinji, me, even Kaji were just means to that end. But it wasn't like that at all, was it? No, of course not. It's so obvious, given what happened with your mom. I guess I never really made the connection because of everything else that was going on.\\
'''Asuka:''' …\\
'''Misato:''' Alright then. I think I can understand your feelings now. And I can't really blame you; I'd be pretty skeptical myself if I was in your position. So that means I'll just have to prove it, right? But you'll have to give me the chance to do that, Asuka. I can't force you to accept me. All I can do is do my best to earn you trust. And that starts right now.
* ''Fanfic/{{HERZ}}'': Gendo tries to atone for being a bad father with being a good, doting grandfather when he is allowed seeing his granddaughter Akiko.
* ''FanFic/TheImmortalGame'': In addition to Princess Luna, there's also Twilight Sparkle after her time as [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Nihilus]].
* A number of former antagonists caught up in ''FanFic/TheInfiniteLoops'' will take this role.
* ''FanFic/KingdomCrossovers'': [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim Zim]] went through a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment before the story started and he is now this.
* In ''FanFic/KitsuneNoKenFistOfTheFox'', Naruto is one of these. He was a member of the Kyuushingai ("Nine Terrors"), nine [[PersonOfMassDestruction people of mass destruction]] who caused a lot of chaos across the continent for exactly 365 days; two years after their activities stopped, Naruto is still remorseful about all the bloodshed he helped to cause during that time.
* ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/245599 LEGO Equestria Girls 2]]'': Like in the original (see below), Sunset Shimmer became this after the events of the previous story. It starts to show early on, when she was the only one who did not escape from her prison when she was given a chance to. Only the Canterlot Master Builders are willing to give Sunset a chance. In a fit of {{irony}}, despite not wanting to, she later has to do actions her old self would do since, due to the entire Lego World being under the Dazzlings' spell, the Master Builders are considered bad guys to the Lego World.
* In the ''Anime/MaiHime'' fanfic ''The Sword of the Lord'', Nao and Reito are driven by a desire to atone for their actions in the Hime carnival. Nao despises Shizuru for apparently not doing the same.
* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', Drill Man, [[spoiler:[=ProtoMan=]]], and [[spoiler:Mr. Black]] are all these.
* In ''FanFic/MemoriesBornOfFire'', a ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic, Spock stays at Kirk's side after he's poisoned, saying that he has "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E1AmokTime recently failed to carry out]]" his duty to ensure his captain's well-being.
* ''FanFic/TheNorthRemembers'': Much of Theon Greyjoy's character arc is spent trying to redeem himself for betraying the Starks by accompanying a band of Wildlings to Winterfell in order to rescue Mance Rayder and kill Ramsay. Later [[spoiler: as Stannis lays siege to the Dreadfort, Theon and Asha agree to exchange themselves for Davos, whom Ramsay had captured and taken prisoner, in order to get inside the castle and retrieve the real Lightbringer sword in Ramsay's possession. Once inside, Theon exacts revenge on his former tormentor, only for Ramsay to reveal he had drunken some of Davos' blood, which had been poisoned by an Other blade, and rises as an Other-like being. This finally culminates in Theon killing Ramsay again by using his and Asha's blood to rekindle Lightbringer]].
* ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'': Neither Misato nor Hikari understand why Shinji is so determined to and obsessed with making everyone happy. They do not know that Shinji feels inmensely guilty and is trying to make amends because in the original timeline he left Rei alone because she "scared" him, let Misato die because he was wrapped up in his grief, defiled Asuka and abandoned her -which led to her very bloody and gorey death- and wished that everyone died because he thought nobody loved him.
* ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'':
** There's [[spoiler:Fluttershy, after her time as [[BigBad Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper]], and Fluttercruel, who [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally turned her into Nightmare Whisper in the first place]]. They make no effort to make excuses, taking full responsbility for their actions and any punishment they've earned for it. It's made quite clear in their final scene that, although a lot of good ''did'' come from their actions, they both still regret their actions and will live with a lot of guilt]].
** There's also the [[HeelFaceTurn redeemed]] members of the [[BadFuture Dark World]] versions of the Mane Cast, but especially Applejack, who's working hard to atone so that [[spoiler: she can join her sister in Pony Heaven]].
** RecursiveFanfiction gives Dark World another, rather surprising, example in [[spoiler: the Valeyard, the [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor's]] evil self and Discord's [[TheStarscream Starscream]]. After being killed and sent to Pony Hell, he's tasked with helping the recently departed Pinkie Pie rescue the soul of one of her adopted foals. Along the way, he rediscovers that GoodFeelsGood and, task completed, he rejects an offer of a lighter sentence in order to help the souls condemned to pull [[EldritchAbomination Havoc]]'s chariot find redemption, wondering if he might earn it himself one day]].
** In many ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fics, Princess Luna, formally Nightmare Moon, becomes this after turning back to good after being banished to the moon for a thousand years which, as of season 2, [[IKnewIt is offically canon]].
* [[Manga/DeathNote Light]] is this in [[AlternateUniverseFic AU]] ''{{FanFic/Ragnarok}}'', even though he's never acted upon his impulses he realizes he very nearly went insane as a teenager and was "a future SerialKiller in the making" and works to make up for it every day.
* Professor Atani Dukat of ''Fanfic/RealityIsFluid'' is the daughter of Gul Skrain Dukat from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. It's not a relationship she's particularly proud of, and her opening scene has her formally apologizing for everything the Cardassians and Gul Dukat did to both Bajor and the Federation.
* ''Fanfic/ScarTissue'':
** After nearly getting Shinji killed Asuka spends the whole fic trying to atone for her behaviour and earn his forgiveness.
** On the other hand, Shinji endured whatever Asuka did to him because he thought that he deserve it after his actions (never helping her when she needed him, leaving her alone after her MindRape, masturbating over her comatose body, leaving her alone as she fought for her life before losing and getting quartered and eaten alive, trying to kill her twice…).
** Ritsuko is trying to help both kids and eradicate the Eva technology in order to make up for her actions.
* Shinji and Asuka subvert this in ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', surprisingly. At the beginning it looks like they're trying to save the world after going back to the past because they let it die in the original timeline. However, it becomes more apparent as the story goes on that they've largely come to terms with their failings, and they're not motivated by regret and/or guilt.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Security}}'', there are quite a few of these, some facilitated by the [[SelfInsertFic self-insert protagonist]]. These include Purity (rebranded as 'Evenstar' of the New York Protectorate), Bonesaw (captured and rehabilitated earlier than in canon), Canary (her power is ''very'' useful with crowd control), Lung and Bakuda (pressed into service by the PRT), Emma Barnes (after a traumatic experience with Bakuda and Oni Lee), the ''Undersiders'' and Glory Girl.
* ''Fanfic/AStudyInRegret'' has Marcel Bernier, the Swiss youth who delivered [[DiabolicalMastermind Professor Moriarty's]] letter to SherlockHolmes in "The Final Problem." Marcel was just an UnwittingPawn, but [[TheWoobie he]] still feels some responsibility for [[KilledOffForReal Watson's death]] and [[LockedInTheDungeon Holmes's captivity]].
* [[spoiler: Crow]] in ''FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire'' took part in several crimes and was a member of Khamja, a criminal organization. He had a HeelFaceTurn and is now trying to make up for what he did.
* In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Rei was so jealous of Asuka and so furious with Shinji and her that she refused to help her fellow pilots several times. As a result, several of her friends got crippled or killed, Shinji and Asuka spent several weeks in a coma, and Rei was so sorry for everything and determined to make amends that she became this.
* ''FanFic/TouhouIbunshu'' has Yukari, a vicious, cruel manipulator who nearly destroyed Gensokyo [[spoiler:in a doomed effort to kill herself]]. Realizing what a deep pit she's dug for herself, she starts by confessing her misdeeds and repairing the damage brought by the unnatural winter. She's aware it's step one at best and has zero illusions as to how long it's going to take her to actually earn her forgiveness, but the fact she's actually trying [[spoiler:makes it clear she no longer wishes for death]].
* The Blog/ReadingRainbowverse version of ''Trixie'' was very legitimately traumitized by her experience with [[BrainwashedAndCrazy the Alicorn Amulet]] and is, apparently, now trying to redeem herself. Somehow.
* Ken in ''[[Fanfic/ACaptiveLight An Unseen Kindness]]'' wanders the digital world trying to make up for what he did in the events of the first fic in the series.
* The ''Comicbook/XMen'' fic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7730502/3/The_Wraith_Saga The Wraith Saga]]'' presents an alternate timeline in which Jean Grey survived the events of ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' and spends most of the story trying to atone for the destruction that she caused as the Dark Phoenix. At one point, she even returns to the charred ruins of D'Bari, the planet that [[EarthShatteringKaboom she destroyed]], to contemplate her past sins.
* Several appear in ''FanFic/TravelsThroughAzerothAndOutland''.
* Oikawa in the ''FanFic/Zero2ARevision'' version realizes his own mistake after Cody's grandfather called him out for making a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Demon who enters the Real world]] along with [[IHaveYourWife threatening to shoot Hiroaki's wife for the Digivice]] and decides to try and make up for it by travelling to the Digital World along with Blackwargreymon and helps the other troubled Digimons in the process.
* The reason why Bakugo in ''Fanfic/WaitingIsWorthIt'' stays friends with Izuku in this continuity is because he feels horrible guilt for putting Izuku in his wheelchair, becoming overprotective to the point where [[MistakenForGay people think that he has a crush on Izuku]]. Whether he does or not depends on who’s reading.
* ''Fanfic/ForumOfThrones'':
** Following the rescue of her little sister, Kersea is no longer forced to work for Clayton and Butterfly. She then decides to make up for her past actions in their service by helping in bringing them down.
** Harpy's actions during the chapter 6 finale, where she risks her own life to get an attempt at killing [[spoiler:Maron Mullendore, the real Butterfly]] are a version of this trope, as she underwent this risk because she was convinced that the situation leading up to it has been entirely her fault for [[spoiler:killing the fake Butterfly two chapters ago]]
** [[spoiler: Terroma]] is revealed to feel heavy guilt over having trained Clayton back in his younger days. After hearing of [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil his former pupil's actions]], he decided to return from retirement and to focus on bringing him down.
* In VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition fanfic ''FanFic/WalkingInCircles'', Solas is this to Evelyn. He’s extremely protective and considerate toward her both out of love and guilt because, as he puts it, most of her ordeals and traumas were all or partially his faults and he’s murdered her twice over with his mistakes.
** One of the Otswick's Templars, [[spoiler: Ser Ralston]], is also one. In his younger days, he had a dalliance with a mage as perk of the job, said relationship produced a child who was taken away but he kept an eye on her. But eventually, his child turned out to be a mage and [[OutlivingOnesOffspring didn’t survive her Harrowing]]. He now spends the rest of his life atoning for his sin by helping and protecting mages whenever he can.

[[folder:Film--Animated]]
* ''Disney/FrozenFever'' is a short sequel to ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' that takes place on Anna's 19th [[BirthdayEpisode birthday]]. Her sister Elsa wishes to make it the best day imaginable, after having been [[AloofBigBrother reclusive]] her entire life, however this is screwed up by [[SickEpisode her cold]]. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity]] (and some AdultFear) ensues.
* Pterano from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime VII: The Stone of Cold Fire'' becomes this at the climax when Ducky (who he and his minions had kidnapped earlier in the film) finds herself in grave danger--coincidentally, the same danger that got one of his believers killed during an earlier expedition for the Stone.
* In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', King Triton becomes one near the start of the climax when, because of his utter remorse of him destroying his daughter's grotto, [[HeroicSacrifice takes Ariel's place in Ursula's deal]].
* Sunset Shimmer from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'' works to shed her past as the [[{{BigBad}} main villain]] of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls first film]] despite [[ReformedButRejected the hostility from her fellow classmates]] and a lot of [[InnocentlyInsensitive unintentional]] [[ImStandingRightHere insults]] from her only friends.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'': [[spoiler: At the end of the movie, Tempest immediately uses the staff to [[WorldHealingWave repair the damage done to the city and restore the princesses' magic]] instead of trying to use it to repair her horn.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Paranorman}}'', [[spoiler: the zombies, especially the Judge, aren't actually trying to attack people, but are trying to atone for sentencing a young and innocent girl to death as a witch]].
* Max Winters in ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', whose quest for immortality led to his generals, who were also his friends, becoming stone statues and unleashed a batch of horrific monsters on the world. In the present day he works with the Foot Clan to undo the damage to the world and friends and finally allow himself to die, even gathering his friends and being able to restore their free will so they can help. [[spoiler: However, they don't see things the same way and like being indestructible, immortal powerhouses]].

[[folder:Film--Live-Action]]
* In the ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Peter originally interprets Uncle Ben's death as something he needs to atone for, ruthlessly hunting down the criminal responsible for killing him. It's not until he saves a bunch of people from falling to their deaths, specifically a small child, and realizes that the Lizard was Doctor Connors, that he shifts to acting more like an actual hero.
* Ulfric in ''Film/BlackDeath''. [[spoiler:As it is likely that he had been at the battle of Crecy, where their opponents had been slaughtered instead of being given a mercy strike. He does give one to the woman accused of being a witch]].
* In ''Film/ByTheSword'', Suba is this by training himself back into MasterSwordsman shape so that he can teach the helpless students, encourage good behaviors in them, and correct the Maestro's, Villard, behavior before he becomes just like him.
* ''Film/CruelAndUnusual'': Edgar, after he finally realizes his sins.
* ''Film/DarkBlue'':
** After Bobby is coerced to kill an innocent man, he breaks down until he confesses his crimes to his cop ex-girlfriend Beth and her superior.
** [[spoiler:After Eldon Perry gets his partner killed, he atones for his crimes at his promotion ceremony by exposing all the corruption taking place under Jack Van Meter inside the department]].
* Commissioner Gordon becomes this in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' when he realizes [[JerkassHasAPoint Harvey Dent]] and [[VillainHasAPoint The Joker]] were right about the extent of the corruption in his unit and, had he listened, it wouldn't have resulted in [[spoiler:corrupt cops kidnapping Dent and Rachael, disfiguring the former and killing the latter. It only lasts until Two-Face kidnaps his family, but until then the sheer desperation in his voice shows how responsible he feels and how obsessed he is with rescuing Harvey:]]
--> '''Gordon:''' Dent is in there with them! We have to save Dent! '''''I''''' HAVE TO SAVE DENT!!!
* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'':
** Bruce Wayne/Batman is a big case of this. After behaving like a ruthless and careless vigilante, misjudging Superman ''badly'', [[spoiler:almost killing the Man of Steel and having an indirect part in his death]] in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', he vows to form the Justice League to protect the Earth in Superman's absence, and does everything he can to accomplish this with the help of Diana/Wonder Woman in ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}''.
** ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'': Diablo initially refused to use his powers, out of remorse [[spoiler: for killing his family using them]].
* In ''Film/DraculaUntold'', Vlad is portrayed as attempting to live a peaceful life with his family, and leave his days as Vlad the Impaler behind. Then the Ottomans arrive (again) and his attempts at a peaceful life become all for nought.
* ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}'': Alec Trevelyan straight up asks [[Creator/PierceBrosnan James Bond]], "...if you find forgiveness in the arms of all those willing women for all the dead ones you failed to protect." 007's attitude throughout ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' and ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' (specifically his [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x390eac desperate attempt to resuscitate Jinx]]) indicates that this statement has left him pretty rattled.
* [[{{Deuteragonist}} Imperator Furiosa]] from ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' states that trying to rescue the [[SexSlave Wives]] from [[BigBad Immortan Joe]] is an attempt at redemption. We never learn exactly what she is attempting to redeem herself for, but given the highly savage and misogynistic culture of the Citadel, it's likely all the extra horrible things she probably had to do to attain the rank of Imperator.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov and Bruce Banner. Tony and Natasha have legitimate sins to make up for (he was a selfish weapons dealer who didn't care that the collateral damage from the military-industrial complex's freewheeling use of his weapons caused hundreds of civilian deaths; she was a cold-blooded Russian spy and assassin, presumably working for ex-KGB operatives, who also indiscriminately killed hundreds of people, including numerous civilians and, by implication, ''children''). Bruce, however, involuntarily turns into a destructive, mindless monster when he gets angry due to an experiment gone wrong, and all the deaths he's caused happened when he wasn't in his right mind, but that doesn't stop him from blaming himself or even trying to kill himself to rid the world of the Hulk.
** Also, Clint Barton became one after being freed from Loki's BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control. In his case it's particularly noteworthy considering the only reason Loki enslaved him was due to his skill (making him a valuable pawn) and because he had 'heart', yet he still feels responsible despite having no control over himself. His first request upon being freed was to know exactly who and how many innocent people he killed while under Loki's thumb. Natasha shuts that down at once, telling him firmly not to think about the consequences of things he is obviously not responsible for.
** In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', Loki is guilty of various severe crimes outlined in the [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld previous movie]] by his father, Odin. He later expresses regret and helps evacuate Asgard alongside his brother Thor, The Hulk, and Valkyrie from the rule of his and Thor's evil sister, Hela.
* Captain Mendoza in the film ''Film/TheMission'' used to be a cold-blooded officer who ordered the slaughter of many Guaraní natives, until he killed his brother in a fencing duel. He then went as far as climbing up a waterfall with a huge bag filled with Spanish armor tied to his back. Then he joined Father Gabriel and the Jesuits.
* In ''Film/{{Outlander}}'', Kainan reveals that he had helped hunt the Moorwens to the brink of extinction, and that he considers his family's death Karmic Retribution. He doesn't have any qualms about killing the Moorwen that got loose in Norway, but he decides afterward to sever ties with his homeworld and stay with the Vikings.
* ''Film/PainAndGain'': Paul became one after his first stay in prison, and is very uncomfortable with the plan the whole time; the guilt actually seems to be what causes him to fall off the wagon and start doing cocaine again. [[spoiler:He becomes one again when he's sent back to prison at the end. Ed even says he seems to embrace it]].
* ''Film/PitchBlack'':
** Fry. At the beginning of the movie [[WhatTheHellHero she tries to sacrifice her mostly civilian crew to save herself]], despite the fact that her captain points out that the crew are supposed to put themselves last in crisis. [[spoiler:At the climax, she tells Riddick that she would die for the others, and eventually loses her life saving Riddick]].
** Riddick might also count, [[spoiler: as he appears to be ready to turn over a new leaf at the end, saying: "Tell them Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."]].
* In ''Film/{{Purgatory}}'', this describes everyone in the town of Refuge, though [[spoiler:Lefty Slade fails]].
* The reason Nick joins the ''Film/{{RIPD}}''.
* Joshua Rose in ''Film/{{Savior}}'' becomes this after being forced to realize that he's lost his humanity.
* In ''Film/SevenSwords'', Fu's introduction proves him to be a heroic OldMaster, and his sole purpose throughout is to save lives--which is hard for other characters to accept, having had personal experiences of him as an imperial executioner and torturer.
* The work Lamont does as ''Film/TheShadow'' is so he can atone for the suffering he caused as the ruthless drug lord Ying Ko.
* Solomon Kane of ''Film/SolomonKane'' was once a savage and ruthless mercenary. After an encounter with a demon and learning of his potential damnation, he pursued first a path of pacifism to cleanse his soul and then a path of righteous battle to cleanse the world.
* In ''Film/TheSunsetLimited'', Black is an ex-con who served his time for murder and found God, and now wants to help people.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'': Chris Bradley after leaving Team X.
** ''Film/TheWolverine'':
*** Wolverine goes to Japan to face his guilt for killing Jean Grey and to receive help from an old friend who might have the means to remove his HealingFactor and make him mortal.
*** Harada ends up as this near the end of the film.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Creator/IanMcKellen invokes this while discussing his character in the "Double Take: Xavier & Magneto" documentary.
--->'''[=McKellen=]:''' The Magneto that you see with me is a man of conscience, and a man with an unhappy life behind him. He's come through a great deal, and isn't taking on single-handedly, or even with the help of his Brotherhood, society as a whole. He's joined up again with his old friend, Professor X, and together, they're going to try to move things forward.
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': This is how Creator/MichaelFassbender perceives Erik Lehnsherr at the beginning of the story, as reported by the May 2016 issue of ''Cineplex''.
--->"He works in a steel factory, but he's not using his powers. I thought that was kind of interesting that he's doing honest manual labor. Penance is a bit extreme, but he's sort of left his world domination days behind him."
* William Munny in ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' really ''tries'' to be one of these; in his youth, he was a vicious, cold-blooded killer of an outlaw who only mended his ways when he married a saintly woman. After she dies, he struggles making a living as a hog farmer and trying to raise their two children until an old friend comes along to offer him a bounty on two cowboys who mutilated a young prostitute and went unpunished. When the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] and Munny's finally forced to come out of retirement, it's not pretty.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown'', the alien calling himself Paul was responsible years ago for wiping out a small human colony on Jupiter's tiny moon of Adrastea. While it was, arguably, an honest albeit very stupid mistake born from his inexperience (he honestly did think they were about to attack his ship), the guilt for his actions and his need to atone for them have become the driving force of his life.
* Cyan's mother, Belinda, becomes this at the end of ''Literature/TheAmyVirus''. [[spoiler:She admits that her husband scared her into promoting a sham diet and emotionally and financially abusing their daughter, and that she's never been brave enough to stand up to him until Cyan runs away. Afterwards, she decides to divorce him and take full custody of their daughter so he can't hurt her ever again. Then after finding Cyan in Portland and reconciling with her, Belinda promises to expose the truth about the sham diet, stop claiming Cyan's autism is in remission, and make amends to the people she has hurt]].
* ''Literature/AncillaryJustice'': Breq, [[spoiler: after having killed lots of people because she was ordered to do so and didn't dare refuse]], and to a lesser extent, Seivarden, who has some regrets after being a useless drug addict and [[spoiler: stealing and selling Breq's ship to buy new drugs]].
* In TheReveal at the end of ''Literature/TheAnnalsOfTheChosen'', [[spoiler:Farash confesses he wished to atone for the sins he committed as the Chosen Leader. He never genuinely wanted to hurt anyone, but he used countless people, made a town his personal harem, and shirked his duty]]. Once he lost his power, he began to realize how horrible of a person he truly was and desired a way to make amends. So when he was offered the role as [[spoiler:the Chosen Traitor]], he accepted.
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' in the seventh book ''The Atlantis Complex'' is one of these. The guilt he has felt over his dealings with the Fairy people has caused [[spoiler: a split personality. Artemis, who is cracking up, and Orion, his innocent alter ego, who's a moron]]. Artemis spends most of his parts of the book trying to make up for all the harm he's done, [[ShipTease especially to Holly]].
%%* The plot of Ian [=McEwan=]'s novel, ''Literature/{{Atonement}}''.
* John Morgan Wilson's ''Benjamin Justice'' is atoning times two. To begin with, he's atoning for writing a series of articles about a man dying from AIDS that won a Pulitzer...and then turned out to be fake, which wrecked not just his career, but also that of his editor. As it turns out, those articles were themselves an attempt to atone for [[spoiler: his own failure to be at his partner's side when he died of AIDS]].
* ''Literature/TheBible'' is full of this one (it's OlderThanFeudalism). Examples include Joseph (atoning for pride), Moses (atoning for murder and later for disobeying God's orders), David ([[TheUriahGambit sent a man to die]] so he could have the guy's wife), Solomon (mainly legends, such as when he lets Ashmodai the demon king trick him), Judas (mostly in legend, for betraying Jesus), Paul (for persecuting Jesus' followers), and more saints than you can shake a stick at.
* In ''Border Songs'', Madeline Rousseau is a drug-runner and heavy drinker for most of the story, but cleans up at the end.
* The ''Literature/BreakingTheWall'' trilogy: When a character who essentially committed [[SuicideByCop Suicide By Romantic Rival]] gets a chance to redeem himself after death, he takes it and becomes a steadfast ally of the protagonists and a viewpoint character in the third book.
* Ista in Bujold's ''Literature/{{Chalion}}'' novels.
* In Creator/SandyMitchell's ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' [[note]] HERO OF THE IMPERIUM [[/note]] novel ''Duty Calls'', the Battle Sisters realized that they had sheltered a renegade Inquisitor, and conclude their own [[KnightTemplar zeal]] had misguided them; they sacrifice their lives for the escape of the people who brought them the truth, and regard it as the only possible atonement.
* St. Augustine of Hippo considered himself one. It's pretty starkly apparent when you read his ''Confessions''.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Sanya, a tall, muscular, black Russian. In his youth, being dark-skinned in Russia led him to be an outcast. He became seduced by the power of the Denarian, a coin that contains a FallenAngel within, and his handler Rosana. He did many evil things under her influence and the coin's power. However, when he learns she sees him nothing more than a puppet, he leaves, thinking, MyGodWhatHaveIDone, and relinquishes the coin. His genuine guilt purges the demon from within. Shortly there after, Sanya runs into a [[ThePaladin Knight of the Cross]] who offers him a chance to do some good and the ArchangelMichael came forth to give Sanya ''Esperacchius'' making him the [[HopeBringer Knight of Hope]]. He now seeks to help people where he can. He is also a devout atheist, suggesting to Dresden that the Lord, His Angels, and the Fallen might just be super advanced beings, or he might simply be insane, but neither possibility change he can still do good with this sword.
* Xanth from ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles''. In the beginning, he was a Guardian of the Night, then, [[spoiler:befriended Rook, made a HeelFaceTurn, but was called back to the Guardians, helped infiltrate them and came back to Rook and Magda's side, where he was generally regarded as evil and tried to atone]].
* ''Literature/EndersGame'':
** Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, becomes this after realizing that he had killed off the entire species of the Buggers--''and'' that the whole War was a ''huge'' misunderstanding. He becomes the "Speaker for the Dead", accepting the {{Demonization}} his brother Peter has placed on his name (as Ender the Xenocide) as more than reasonable, and in general spends the next ''three thousand years'' without much company hopping from world to world, trying to make up for what he did. This is genuine atonement because Ender is a genuinely nice guy who was originally ''tricked'' into doing the nasty thing he did, on account of how he was, like, 12 at the time.
** The Buggers themselves are this in the original book. As most Buggers are unintelligent drones that Queens control, they didn't think that individual beings without some HiveMind behind them were real people. When they finally realized just how many individuals they killed, they immediately ceased the invasions, and while they didn't appear to take actions common to the Atoner, they seemed to feel they deserved the extinction that Ender brought to them, given that they had accidentally killed more individual humans than there may have been individual Queens in their entire population.
* ''Literature/{{Fingerprints}}'' series has a complex example with [[spoiler:Steve Mercsepher]]; the things he does to "atone" for his past evil are generally ''a lot worse'' than the the stuff he's trying to atone for but since he may count as a WellIntentionedExtremist, the intent is still there.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter''
** [[spoiler:Severus Snape]], revealed in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows The Deathly Hallows]]''. He coveted friends and darkness, becoming seduced by the dark ideals of the Death Eaters in his youth. He ends up destroying the one genuine friendship and [[spoiler:his information led to his friend's death. For added salt, he has loved Lily Evans since they were children]]. After that fateful night, he set out on a path to protect Harry Potter.
** [[spoiler:Albus Dumbledore]] coveted power in his youth and had great ambitions to change the world. His actions led to the tragic event of [[spoiler:his mentally-damaged sister laying dead and he was possibly her murderer in a chaotic fight between Grindwald, his brother, and himself]]. After that, he resigned himself to being [[spoiler:just a teacher who would be better suited giving help to young students rather than taking any political power]].
** Gellert Grindelwald led the Wizarding World into a great war. He caused a lot of death and destruction. [[spoiler:And after his capture and imprisonment, he lies to Voldemort about ever having the Macguffin Voldemort covets himself, trying to keep the man from claiming a powerful and dangerous magical tool. This is averted in the movie]].
** [[spoiler: Regulus Black]]. He loved the idea of the dark arts, but realizes soon it isn't for fun and games. So, he seeks to fight Voldemort with all he could and [[spoiler:sacrifices his own life in hopes that his ally and house-elf Kreacher can destroy Voldemort's soul]].
** [[spoiler: Percy Weasley]] (never a villain as such, but he is shown to regret his past behaviour).
* Tam Lin in ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'' was a Scottish terrorist that attempted to kill the prime minister of an unnamed country (presumably the UK). [[spoiler: his bomb ended up killing a bus full of school children, and he was forced to escape to Opium for asylum. He commits suicide mid-way through the book (although this isn't revealed until the end) after helping Matt escape]].
* In Chris Roberson's ''Literature/ImperialFists'' novel ''Sons of Dorn'', Captain Taelos wants to be one. His commanders, however, sends him to collect aspirants instead.
* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Starting in ''Literature/LoomingShadow'' Siron becomes Kasile's servant and guard dog to make up for what he did to her in ''[[Literature/AMagesPower A Mage's Power]]''.
* Erill in ''{{Literature/Kane}}'' novel ''The Dark Crusade'' is forced by cultists of [[{{ReligionofEvil}} Sataki]] to commit unspeakable evil. Throughout the rest of the novel she is trying to make up for it. Unfortunately, her first attempt at atonement is a disaster, which ends in more death and suffering for her and her friends.
* This happens to Jean Valjean over the course of ''Literature/LesMiserables''. Although Valjean's 'horrible acts' themselves comprised stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family, trying to escape his prison sentence and then a couple of petty thefts from a bishop and a young boy upon release, he is less focused on these than what his prison stay turned him into. While in prison he lost all faith in God, society and human nature, vowing to take his revenge upon society at large once released, and it is this state of mind that he feels he has to atone for. One of his first acts upon release is to contemplate cold-blooded murder of an innocent man who had sheltered and fed him, and it is this mindset that horrifies him after his redemption. He is often a bit excessive about how much he punishes himself, however.
** A key example would be his adoption of Cosette. After discovering that he had failed to intervene in the chain of events leading to Fantine's terrible fate, he took it as his personal mission to give her daughter the good life that she never had. He nearly sacrificed his own life several times over merely to bring about her happiness.
* Boromir in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
-->'''Boromir:''' I tried to take the ring from Frodo. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath I have paid]].
* In ''Literature/{{Masques}}'' Wolf seems to consider his fight against the BigBad this, as [[spoiler: he is the ''son'' of said villain and committed countless atrocities before he was able to recognize the evil of such actions and ran away]].
* [[spoiler:Jordan]] Kyle from ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' [[spoiler:does seem to sincerely regret what he did to Maia, and only picked Simon as an assignment so he could get close to her]].
* Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor, in the ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'' series. In his teens he was a gang member, serial murderer, and all-round psychopath, until he underwent an unspecified but apparently horrific forced EpiphanyTherapy at the hands of an equally unspecified but horrific supernatural being. He still kills people, but now he goes after the people who think their power and privilege protect them from their crimes, so he operates on the side of good. [[BlackAndGrayMorality As far as one can tell]].
** Invoked quite eloquently by Taylor, the narrator/hero of the series, in the first book.
--->"He's a killer," I said. "Razor Eddie. Punk God of the Straight Razor. These days he kills with good rather than bad intentions, but in the end all he is, is killing. And he wouldn't have it any other way. Hard to get close to a man like that. Someone who's gone much further into the dark than I ever have. But... he turned his life around, Joanna. Whatever epiphany he found on the Street of the Gods, he threw aside everything that had ever had power over him, in order to earn redemption. How can you not admire courage like that? If someone like him can change, there's hope for all of us.
** In a weird example, John is an atoner for something that he didn't do yet--specifically, destroying the world in an alternative future.
* John Brenton of the ''Literature/ParadoxTrilogy'' is motivated by his guilt over the things he did in the past as a member of a GovernmentConspiracy charged with upholding {{Masquerade}}. Though he is sincere in his desire to redeem himself, he is introduced as an antagonist, both because of his willingness to go to extreme and morally dubious measures and because the protagonist is initially unknowingly working for TheMenInBlack.
%%* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[ProsperosDaughter Prospero in Hell]]'', Calvin [[HiddenDepths turns out]] to be The Atoner.
* Adam Kelno, in Leon Uris' ''Q.B. VII'' spends the years after World War II working at a free medical clinic in Borneo [[spoiler: to atone for having collaborated with the Nazis in medical experiments conducted on as many as 15,000 concentration camp prisoners]]. The novel explores the libel suit he brings against the reporter who brings this information to light.
* Captain John Armstrong Brannigin in Creator/AlastairReynolds' ''Literature/RevelationSpace''. [[spoiler: He tries to kill himself/itself several times, via a giant deathray shot at his own hull. One of his crimes mentioned is ''overwriting'' the mind of one of his crew members with a copy of his own]].
* Hotzenplotz in ''Robber Hotzenplots'' makes a HeelFaceTurn for robbing people and tries to spend rest of the book to make up for it. First, people don't believe him.
* ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' has Hester successfully atone (settling on the outskirts of the village, patiently wearing her letter, and nevertheless managing to earn a living and forgive herself for her sin). Her onetime lover [[spoiler:Rev. Dimmesdale]] ''tries'' to atone privately, with tragic results.
* [[spoiler:Lionel]], at the end of ''Literature/TheSeaHawk''.
* Mr. Canis from ''Literature/TheSistersGrimm'' is the Big Bad Wolf of FairyTales, trying to make up for his crimes. When under control, he appears as an elderly man--albeit one much stronger than you'd expect for his age and tall, thin build--but turns into a proper wolf when his SuperpoweredEvilSide emerges.
* Jaime Lannister in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. After a long [[TraumaCongaLine Trauma]] and HumiliationConga, spending time with Brienne, [[VillainousIncest and away from his sister]] [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]], he is beginning to rediscover his long-lost morals and longing to be a true KnightInShiningArmor.
* Dillon Cole from the ''Literature/StarShardsChronicles''. After spending the first book spreading chaos, destruction, and death, he manages to purge the spirit parasites that corrupted him and spends the rest of the series attempting to undo his evil deeds.
* The ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' continuity has a few.
** Kyp Durron is a serious KarmaHoudini in the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'', in which he is influenced by an ancient evil spirit and goes on to use a superweapon to destroy a planet with [[AMillionIsAStatistic 25 million people]] on it, and after getting rid of the spirit and nearly dying getting rid of the superweapon, is allowed to rejoin the Jedi Academy. All subsequent novels featuring him have that action haunt him to some extent. Even when he's not dwelling on it, someone is [[NeverLiveItDown reminding him]].
** ''Literature/XWingSeries'':
*** Wraith Squadron's Tyria Sarkin hasn't really done anything, but that's just it--she's the [[LastOfTheirKind last of the Antarian Rangers]] from her homeworld, the Rangers being sort of supplements and allies of the Jedi. She takes it sort of personally.
---->'''Tyria:''' I've failed at everything I wanted to do in life so far. I failed to keep my family alive. I failed to learn the traditions of the Force and uphold my family tradition. I failed to enter the fighter corps on my own merits. But I got in anyway, by way of a cheat I shouldn't have accepted. Now all I want to do is find some sort of grace, something that will make up for my failures. Just once before I die.
*** Garik "Face" Loran, also from Wraith Squadron, qualifies as well. He was a child star in Imperial holodramas, and feels guilty that his films were used to make the Empire look good and to up recruitment numbers. This is part of why he keeps the scar he received as a child during an Imperial/Rebel firefight [[spoiler: at least, until Ton Phanan leaves him money in his will with the requirement that he get the scar removed and realize that he's more than made up for whatever he did unwittingly as a child]].
** In ''[[Literature/FateOfTheJedi Fate of the Jedi: Ascension]]'', Tahiri becomes this, and it's what motivates her [[spoiler: to become one of the first [[ComicBook/{{Legacy}} Imperial Knights]]]].
** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' has [[spoiler: Mammon Hoole]], who accidentally helped cause the once-thriving planet Kiva to become a GhostPlanet. He tried to ignore and forget his crimes, tried to [[spoiler: alleviate his guilt by helping the Alderaanian orphans]], but eventually has to return to Kiva. When confronted by the furious spirits of the Kivans, rather than try to escape or defend himself he submits. It's not really his fault--he was told the experiments were completely safe--but he feels responsible. [[spoiler:He only escapes when he learns that Gog, his partner in the experiment and the one who lied to him about the experiment's safety, is still alive, since another part of Hoole's atonement was pursuing Gog across the galaxy to stop him from creating more tragedies like Kiva]].
** In ''Literature/StarWarsKenobi'', Annileen pegs Ben (Obi-Wan Kenobi) as being out in the Tatooine desert to atone for some past failure or misdeed. Privately, Ben admits that while his mission to safeguard young Luke Skywalker is paramount, if he finds redemption for his role in the loss of Anakin and the rise of the Empire in the act, so much the better.
* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse ShortStory "Literature/RebelBluff" features Ria Clarr, who is attempting to make up for discovering the rich mineral deposits that existed under Lothal's farmland and reporting about it to Grand Moff Tarkin, which resulted in the Empire evicting all the residents to Tarkintown. She does this by handing out the credits from the sabacc pot she stole from Lando and then inspiring them to stand up to the Empire.
* ''Literature/TheStrangerBesideMe'': Ann Rule joins the crisis hotline in order to atone for failing to stop her brother's suicide.
* The ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series: post HighHeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler: Sister Nicci, who afterwards wishes to be known as "just Nicci"]]. After changing sides, she becomes one of Richard Rahl's most trusted [[BlackMagicianGirl lieutenants]], and [[HealingHands heals]] him from a fatal injury at the beginning of ''Chainfire''. She mentions off hand in one of the later books that there are some times when she feels almost suicidally guilty for her previous crimes and for not killing [[EvilOverlord Jagang]] when she had the chance. In fact, she is such an atoner that [[spoiler: her motive for joining the villains in the first place was because she believed it was the only moral cause to make up for her sins]].
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/TimePatrol'' -- particularly, "Brave To Be A King", Harpagus, dying, confesses that he had forced a time traveler to become Cyrus because he had been sent to kill the true Cyrus, and he had done all of it to atone. [[spoiler:When Manse figures out how to keep the true Cyrus alive, one thing he uses to motivate himself is Harpagus will no longer suffer from the terrible guilt, even though Manse will remember it]].
* ''Literature/UseOfWeapons'': Zakalwe is presented as SociopathicHero, but still a person who is somewhat admirable, and certainly cool in a Film/JamesBond kind of way. There are many hints to his dark past, and the revelation of his past ultimately puts him at the MoralEventHorizon, and it's very difficult to tell if he genuinely repented, or was just trying to run from his past and pretend to be a good guy. The title in part refers to how Literature/TheCulture is willing to use less than admirable people and methods to fulfill their aim of spreading utopia. However, MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD: [[spoiler:TheStinger in the novel ''Literature/SurfaceDetail'' reveals that Zakalwe was one of the hero in the book, and he's shown as having genuinely changed his worldview and become a better person. This novel is set about ''a millennium later'' and he had to essentially go through Hell first]].
* Sgt. Bothari in Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's early ''Literature/{{Vorkosigan|Saga}}'' books.
* At the end of Creator/JamesSwallow's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Literature/HorusHeresy novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', [[spoiler:Voyen]] tells [[spoiler:Garro]] that the only way he can atone for [[spoiler:belonging to the lodge is to leave the Space Marines and dedicate his life to discovering a way to cure the disease that tainted Decius]].
* Graham [=McNeill=]'s ''Warhammer 40000'' Literature/{{Ultramarines}} novel ''Dead Sky Black Sun'' recounts Uriel's [[TheQuest quest]] to redeem himself, bound by a death oath, after he diverged from the ''Codex'' in ''Warriors of Ultramar''.
* Niall from ''Literature/WickedLovely'', after realizing the true nature of the dark court, and after he realized that he inadvertently caused the deaths of the mortals. He's been atoning for it for 1200 years by the time of Ink Exchange, and still feels guilty. Appropriately, he is also the series' official {{woobie}}.
* In ''Literature/WiseBlood'', Hazel Motes becomes this in the final chapters. He [[EyeScream blinds himself]], walks with rocks and glass in his shoes, and wears barbed wire under his shirt. Whether any of this truly redeemed him is a question the novel doesn't answer.
* ''Literature/TwilightoftheRedTsar'': America has a huge change in attitudes towards Jews after the revelation of the [[spoiler:Soviet Holocaust, leading to anti-Semitic views being practically eradicated]] and all Americans taught extensively about Nazi and [[spoiler:Soviet atrocities, as well as a Jewish cultural revival occurring in the USA]].
** [[spoiler:Syndicalist]] Hungary also makes up for its [[spoiler: anti-Semitism after its delegates are attacked during a visit to New York in 1969 by angry protesters and Jewish Hungarian exiles]]. Hungary promptly establishes strong relations with [[spoiler: Israel, celebrates Jewish culture in education and museums, rebuilds demolished synagogues]] and eventually becomes one of [[spoiler: Israel's]] closest allies.
** The international community becomes one on the whole to the [[spoiler:Soviet Jewish]] community in the aftermath of [[spoiler:the Soviet Holocaust after the failure to protect Jews during the Holocaust and failing to provide aid during the Chinese Refugee Crisis]]. Foreign groups and civil rights groups, alongside philanthropists, artists and ordinary citizens, raise hundreds of thousands for the [[spoiler:Soviet Jews]]. In a major PetTheDog move for them both, military dictators [[spoiler:Chiang Kai-shek and Park Chung-hee send hundreds of Chinese and Korean volunteers to aid Jews in the refugee camps. Heartwarmingly, there's no shortage of volunteers, as many were survivors of or had lost nearly everything in the Sino-Soviet War and Korean War. Eventually, thousands of UN soldiers arrive to help protect the camps in Siberia]].
* Tatsu tries to play on this to recruit HitmanWithAHeart Literature/JohnRain for his own plans to reform Japanese society, but Rain is too cynical to really take it on board, despite feeling guilt for his past actions.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Angel, Faith, and Spike. Fittingly, this is a show that's all about a quest for redemption.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** Delenn is the Minbari ambassador to the humans and completely devoted to improving the relationship between the two races and always the first to defend humans against criticism. In one episode it is revealed that [[spoiler:when the first contact resulted in a misunderstanding that made the humans open fire and got the Minbari Supreme Leader killed, she was the one who gave the order to KillAllHumans in response]].
** Some of the blame belongs to her colleagues though. Anybody should have known better than to give such a decision to a distraught young woman cradling the dead body of her mentor and first love.
** Maybe they ''did'' know better: maybe the Warrior Caste wanted to increase its prestige and knew it was a chance to [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulate]] her.
*** She was the deciding vote on the otherwise split council. Essentially, picture the US Vice President. She was obligated to cast the vote that decided what would be done. The fact that she loved Dukhat was irrelevant.
** Londo is this toward the end.
*** Or not. By that time he seems to have given up on his own atonement and was instead working to save his people believing he was damned whatever happened. Which is in its own way rather a heroic if gloomy thought but not quite the same thing.
*** The tie-in novel covering Londo's ultimate fate (official canon) does state that Londo achieved redemption in the eyes of his people, if not his own.
** G'Kar also receives redemption, but has the (mis)fortune to achieve it in his own lifetime and among his own people, becoming revered almost as a living god as a result.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Caprica Six fits this trope to a T: after seducing Gaius Baltar and conducting the bit of cybernetic sabotage required to render the Colonial Fleet so much space junk and led to the deaths of ''all but 50,000 of 50 billion people'', her [[MindScrew visions of Baltar]] (whom she decides [[LoveRedeems she had loved]]) make her want to make up for the crap she had done to the humans. Her success is... variable.
* ''Series/{{Banshee}}'': Kurt Bunker--a neo-nazi covered in swastica tattoos appears on the Banshee Police station doorstep to apply for a deputy job, much to heroes' surpise. When dealing with police officers or civilians Kurt is extremely polite and respectful, reserved in his words and quick to follow superiors' orders. Whenever he introduces himself to a new character he apologeticly begins with: "I understand, that my physical appearence may be unsettling...". However when he catches as much as a wiff of his former neo-nazi "brothers" he becomes extremely tense and uses any chance to confront and take them down. He aknowledges that he has committed many atrocities in the name of his "brothers" and wishes to right the wrongs of his past by eliminating the organisation.
* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'':
** [[FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire Mitchell tries this]] and he ended up slipping too much due to his HorrorHunger, resulting in [[spoiler: murdering 20 people on a tube carriage]]. After trying to atone during the most of the next season, he realises he never will be able to overcome his blood addiction and [[spoiler: his best friend George stakes him to prevent him being used as an "attack dog" by the [[BigBad Old Ones]] in an extremely tearjerking moment]]
** Also applies to Hal, once an even worse vampire than Mitchell, who has managed to not kill anyone for 55 years, and manages his HorrorHunger by withdrawing from society and obsessively sticking to routine. The BigBad of the season revealed that this is a cyclical thing for Hal where he becomes The Atoner for a few decades, ends up going OffTheWagon for some time and then tries to find a new way to atone. Whether he will really succeed this time remains to be seen.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Seeley Booth is looking to save around 50 lives to make up for the 50 he took as a Sniper.
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': By the episode "Blood Money", it appears that [[spoiler:Jesse Pinkman]] has become one, as he tries to give away the millions of dollars in blood money.
** In the series finale "Felina", [[spoiler:[[VillainProtagonist Walter White]] becomes a very dark and interesting variation. He finally comes to terms with his mistakes and sins and does everything he can to fix as much as he can, getting money for his children, getting Skyler a potential deal with the DEA by pointing her to the bodies of Hank and Gomez, wiping out the Nazi gang and Lydia and eventually saving Jesse before dying. However, he is still completely unapologetic about his sins and even hints that he would do it all again if given the choice]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Spike throughout this show, since when The Initiative captures him. Aided in the process, at first by the fact that a chip in his head makes him [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain rather ineffective]] toward humans and later on with [[LoveRedeems deeper reasons]] adding to his motivation. He spends a lot of time undecided, going back and forth between good and evil, and the atoning results in the hell being beaten out of him fairly often. [[MoralEventHorizon At one point]] he decides he's [[AttemptedRape gone too far]] and after this [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone unsettling realization]] he just knows he wants to [[HeelFaceTurn change for real]]. [[Creator/JossWhedon As one should expect]], the package is complete with a tear-jerking [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]], because [[spoiler: he's [[TooCoolToLive too cool for this Earth to stand]]]].
** Angel too, particularly the season 3 episode "Amends."
** Andrew tries to become this in Season 7, after his attempt to play ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' with Warren and Jonathan and take over Sunnydale [[{{Understatement}} went horribly, horribly wrong]] and [[spoiler: the first evil forces him to kill Jonathan]]. He means well, but has some trouble fitting in with the good guys due to his general social awkwardness.
** Willow is one at the beginning of Season 7.
** Giles and Faith are some other examples. However, only Giles suffered RedemptionEqualsDeath.
** Jonathan tries, but he never gets the chance. Before that, he was perfectly willing to go to jail and accept responsibility for his crimes, only running out of fear of Willow.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Captain Roy Montgomery, as revealed in the season 3 finale. [[spoiler:He was a DirtyCop at the start of his career and ultimately became embroiled in the conspiracy that ended in the death of Johanna Beckett, Kate Beckett's mother. He alone of the three officers involved had a change of heart, devoting himself to being the best damn cop he possibly could, which included mentoring Beckett, "the finest homicide I've ever trained, bar none." He finally gets a RedemptionEqualsDeath scene when he dies taking down a five-man hit squad that was coming after Beckett]].
* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': Cole Turner. [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Sometimes]].
* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': In one episode, Lieutenant Columbo claims to have joined the police department as a way to atone for his rowdy past. Apparently, when he was younger he and his friends would stick potatoes in other people's exhaust vents so the cars wouldn't start.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** 9th-11th Doctors. After genocidally ending the Time War, the Doctor becomes an intermittent pacifist who won't let anyone else commit genocide. The 9th Doctor has it the most, since it was his immediate predecessor who committed the double genocide, but the others had to deal with it also. The 10th handled it the worst, going off the rails after being left too long without adult supervision.
** Rory, after apparently killing his own fiancee.
** River Song.
** Dalek Caan. [[spoiler: Made much better because Daleks were designed specifically to be unable to repent and seek to atone]].
** This figures in the plotline of "A Town Called Mercy", as Jex, a scientist who turned members of his race into cyborg warriors, became a country doctor during the 1880s to make up for his crimes. The Doctor called him out on it. The Doctor is often cast as the Atoner as well, especially after it was revealed that he destroyed his own people to end the Time War after they had become genocidal. Oddly enough, in "A Town Called Mercy", his own Atoner tendencies came into question by Amy:
--->'''The Doctor:''' No, today I honor the victims first. His, The Master's, the Daleks'. All the people that died because of ''my mercy!''\\
'''Amy:''' See this is what happens when you travel alone for too long.
* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': There is Bates. Carson is also, slightly, but it's played for a laugh at his expense and own melodrama.
** Also O'Brien up to a point at least. After she [[spoiler: causes Cora's miscarriage]], she tones down her earlier nastiness a great deal.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': While never explicitly stated in the show, it is hinted that Shepherd Book is an Atoner. ''[[OriginsEpisode The Shepherd's Tale]]'' elaborates on what he's atoning for.
* ''Series/ForeverKnight'':
** Nick Knight. And really, heroic vampires in general.
** But avoided in ''Moonlight'', where Mick St. John was never evil.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Jaime is trying his best to reform by saving Brienne, sending her to protect the Stark girls to fulfill his vow, saving Tyrion from execution, and once again aspiring to be a dutiful Kingsguard no matter how soiled his reputation. Later, he insists on sailing to Dorne on a dangerous mission himself to protect his 'niece' Myrcella from retaliation for the death of Oberyn Martell due to his guilt over releasing his brother, who went on to kill their father.
** Barristan swears himself to Daenerys' Queensguard to atone for failing her elder brother Rhaegar Targaryen and accepting King Robert's pardon.
** Upon his reintroduction in "The Wars to Come", Lancel Lannister has become very pious and joined a mendicant movement to repent for his past sins.
** Robett Glover is clearly regretful of not having supported House Stark before, so he seeks to make amends for it.
--> '''Robett:''' ''[addressing Jon]'' I did not fight beside you on the field of battle, and I will regret that to my dying day. A man can only admit when he was wrong, and ask for forgiveness.
** Sandor "The Hound" Clegane has been known to kill for the slightest reason. He runs down and kills Mycah, Arya's friend, and robs a devout father and his daughter who gave him hospitality, claiming that they would die in wintertime anyway. But after being beaten by lady Brienne and left for dead by Arya, he gained a new, if somewhat less cynical view on life, after being nursed by a band who worships the Seven Gods. [[spoiler: After they are murdered, and he avenges their deaths, he promises to only kill when he needs to, and when he and his companions stumble into the house he robbed, he buries the dead father and daughter. While he does his best to hide it, Thoros sees right through his facade when he's burying them.]]
** After Robert's HuntingAccident, he tries to make amends and asks Ned to stop the attack on Daenerys Targaryen. Only his request comes too late.
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'': Sebastian Smythe, the main BigBad for the first half of the third season, shows signs of becoming this as of "On My Way" after [[spoiler: Karofsky's attempted suicide]].
* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': Eddie Monroe from this NBC series.
* ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'': Paladin's backstory makes him this along with an interesting spin on RedeemingReplacement. He was hired to challenge a man named Smoke who he believed to be a villain terrorizing a town. Smoke [[AppropriatedAppellation sarcastically referred to him as a paladin]] during their gunfight, and the future Paladin fatally wounded him, learning too late that Smoke was defending the town and the villain was his employer. Thus, he decided to don Smoke's costume and do good in that guise (starting with killing his treacherous employer).
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': A few characters, including [[BadassNormal Bennet]] and Nathan in season 2. And now, as of volume 5, [[spoiler: Sylar]]. [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor But we're skeptical on how long that'll last]]. And now [[ScrewedByTheNetwork we'll never know]].
* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' has a few examples:
** Darius had once been a powerful general whose armies were ready to march over all of Europe. On the steps of Paris, Darius took the head of an Immortal who had been a holy man and seemed to absorb the man's goodness. This caused him to disband his armies and spend the next thousand years as a priest.
** Duncan is convinced his old adversary Kirin is up to something as leader of a cult as the man has spent centuries only out for himself. They last clashed in 1970s Cambodia where Kirin refused to help Duncan save some children because he was running a drug deal. However, Kirin confesses to Duncan that when he discovered those children brutally massacred by the Khmer Rogue, he was so overcome with guilt that he's dedicated his life since to making up for his past.
** Duncan himself is often pushed to fight an Immortal to make up for failing someone in the past or his own occasional dark moves.
* ''Series/HumanTarget'': Christopher Chance.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Eliot Spencer. The other team members were all non-violent [[ConMan Con Artists]], {{Playful Hacker}}s, and {{Classy Cat Burglar}}s and seem to view their previous careers as hobbies, but Eliot was a ruthless mercenary and deeply regrets the things he did. WordOfGod states that Eliot doesn't truly believe atonement is possible for him, and looks instead to prevent other people from going down the same road he did.
* ''{{Series/Lexx}}'': "In the light universe, I have been darkness. Perhaps in the dark zone, I will be light."
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** SubvertedTrope with Mr. Eko, who, as a former child soldier and later drug trafficker and ruthless killer, seems to be a clear-cut Atoner--until he is finally revealed to be utterly unrepentant, considering his past actions necessary first to save his brother and then to survive the bloody lifestyle he willingly took upon himself in doing so. [[spoiler:Then he gets killed by a giant black smoke-tentacle]].
** Richard Alpert started as Atoner, which was his reason for gaining immortality [[spoiler:from Jacob. After he accidentally killed a doctor for not giving medicine to his dying wife, a priest told him during confession that he will never gain redemption for his sin. Upon meeting Jacob, Richard was offered a job and a gift: while Jacob could not resurrect his wife or absolve him from all his sins, he granted him immortality so that he atone for his actions]].
** Ben finally became an Atoner by the end of the series, [[spoiler:experiencing a personal breakthrough, helping Hugo to watch over the island in life, and staying behind in the flash sideways feeling he was not yet ready to move on]].
* ''Series/{{Matrix}}'': Steven Matrix.
* ''Series/TheMentalist'': Patrick Jane is a combination of this and CrusadingWidower.
* This is essentially the entire plot of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''. The titular character is a petty criminal and all-around {{Jerkass}} who one day learns of the concept of [[LaserGuidedKarma karma]]. This causes him to deduce that the reason his life is so crappy is because he does nothing but crappy things, so he writes a LongList of every bad thing he can remember doing in his life and sets out to make up for every last one of them. While initially he was just doing it to get bad things to stop happening to him, he quickly learns that GoodFeelsGood and gradually becomes a legitimately good person.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' has this for almost every main character:
** Mr. Finch. He created a software program that predicts grand terrorist incidents as well as "smaller" crimes (namely murder), but made it to where the program dumped all of the data on those "smaller" crimes every 24 hours. After a series of incidents where he was made cognizant of how bad an idea that was, he began to seek out someone who could help him prevent one of those "smaller" crimes from happening each day. When he found Reese, he knew he found his man.
** Reese is also trying to atone for his years spent as a government assassin. His work caused him to abandon his girlfriend and later prevented him from [[spoiler: saving her from her abusive husband]].
** Over the third season, Finch and The Machine help [[TheCracker Root]] understand the value of "irrelevant" human life, leading her to shift from an amoral hacker/assassin to the TokenEvilTeammate to someone who is genuinely regretful of her previous actions.
** Under the influence of the Machine Team, Detective Fusco transforms from an alcoholic DirtyCop to a straitlaced hero, initially because Reese forced him to help out, but then because GoodFeelsGood.
** Even [[SociopathicHero Shaw]], a former government assassin who doesn't really feel anything when she kills people, begins to enjoy saving others.
* Several of them in ''Series/OnceUponATime'', most notably Regina, aka The Evil Queen, and Killian Jones, aka Captain Hook, both of whom had legitimately sympathetic backstories, and made a HeelFaceTurn due to [[LoveRedeems love]], then join the heroes to try and make up for their pasts. Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin was also a case of this in season 3 [[spoiler: until his own death, and painful resurrection, followed ''immediately'' by the death of his son drives him back to being a villain]].
* ''Series/PowerRangers'':
** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': [[SixthRanger Tommy]] has shades of this, drawn from his guilt over his actions under Rita's control.
** ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'': Karone, formally known as [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Astronema]], takes up Kendrix's sword to replace her as the pink Galaxy Ranger and atone for her sins.
** ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'': At the end of the series, [[spoiler:Jarrod]] decides to start over at the academy to make amends for his time as [[spoiler:Dai Shi's vessel]].
** ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': [[TheMentor Dr. K]] only wanted to go outside so she [[spoiler:released a computer virus that destroyed the world]], and spends the entire show making up for it.
* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': A medieval knight who pops through an anomaly and becomes the MonsterOfTheWeek turns out to be this. He spent a bunch of time as a mercenary, presumably doing some not-so-nice things, but he's convinced that if he can defeat a dragon (actually a Dracorex, a draconic-looking herbivorous dinosaur), he will have atoned for his crimes.
* ''Series/PrisonBreak'':
** Michael is a double example. He embarks on his quest to free Linc from Fox River to atone for not appreciating the sacrifices Linc made for him and for thinking he was guilty. Later in the series he attempts to atone for all the deaths his actions have indirectly caused.
** Brad Bellick sacrifices his life in order to ensure the survival of the rest of the group. He had spent the enitre series until then trying to chase down and kill the group members.
** Agent Mahone agrees to help Michael Schofield in Season 4 to help him destroy the Company. Previously, Mahone had ruthlessly pursued Michael Schofield and had even killed the latter's father.
* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': Daniel Grayson.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': As [[Recap/RevolutionS1E3NoQuarter episode 3]] reveals, [[spoiler: Miles Matheson did some pretty brutal stuff and was probably more brutal than Sebastian Monroe at first. He executes two men who he believed murdered some travelers despite Monroe's objections. He seems to regret some of his actions which led to his leaving the Republic and him assisting the rebels]]. In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E7TheChildrensCrusade Episode 7]], [[spoiler: Miles help in saving a group children from being "re-education" by the Monroe militia, because the town's parents were all killed back when Miles was in charge]]. As [[Recap/RevolutionS1E14TheNightTheLightsWentOutInGeorgia Episode 14]] reveals, [[spoiler: Miles had a protege named Alec Penner until he handed them over to Texas for failing to assassinate the Texan president]]. As [[Recap/RevolutionS1E17TheLongestDay Episode 17]] reveals in a flashback, [[spoiler: Miles is known as the Butcher of Baltimore, and that he supposedly tortured Rachel to death for tricking him]]. As the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]] reveals, [[spoiler: when Monroe killed a rebel and his entire family for hurting Miles, Miles realized that Monroe had gone too far. He tried to kill off Monroe, but he couldn't do it. Subsequently, Miles and Nora Clayton left the Monroe Republic]].
* ''Series/{{Scandal}}'': Olivia wants to do right by her clients, but especially the ones who are women caught in infidelity scandals. Those hit a little close to home for her.
* ''Series/{{Shark}}'': Sebastian Stark from this TV series was a ruthless defence attorney until a client killed his wife shortly after Stark got him acquitted of spousal abuse charges. He turned around and joined the District Attorney's office, using his underhanded legal tactics to put away the types of criminals he used to get off.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lionel Luthor, the reprogrammed [[spoiler:Brainiac 5]], and especially Tess Mercer all of shades of this following their respective {{Heel Face Turn}}s.
** Tess Mercer's character arc for the tenth season is basically this. After a HeelFaceTurn at the end of season nine, she spends the beginning of season ten mostly staying out of the way, and the rest of the season as the new [[MissionControl Watchtower]], helping the good guys while clearly hoping that she can at least try to make up for the things she'd done before. [[spoiler: By the end of the season it also seems at times like she's trying to atone for her [[LongLostRelative surprise Luthor bloodline]]]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Teal'c wants very much to atone for his actions as the servant of the BigBad. This is especially true when he is put on trial for a killing he did as a {{Mook}}. Even though the trial is completely unfair, Teal'c refuses to escape and is determined to take the punishment as a way of making it up to one of his victims somehow. Fortunately, the Goa'uld attack the proceeding and Teal'c defends the innocents so wholeheartedly and that his accuser forgives him. Daniel Jackson, in defending Teal'c at the trial, practically has to pull teeth just to get Teal'c to admit '''''anything''''' in his own defense, such as why he chose an old crippled man when he was order to kill one of the crowd as an example (Teal'c knew that the people of the village could escape to tunnels when attacked by the Goa'uld but they wouldn't leave anyone behind, so he killed an old crippled man so the rest of the villagers could survive later.)
** Tomin gets like this in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'', after realizing how the Priors are twisting the religion of Origin to excuse genocide. Teal'c gives him some advice on how to live with himself despite the things he's done in the past: he should concentrate on helping other people, fighting so that others can be saved. While he may never achieve personal redemption, "that is the least you can do."
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Gul Darhe'el from the episode "Duet" was [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a commandant of a Bajoran labor camp during Cardassia's occupation of Bajor, who committed many atrocities]] and years later gets captured and gloats about his actions. [[spoiler: Turns out it was his file clerk who was impersonating him in order to be put on trial to force Cardassia into admitting its actions during the Occupation, and did it because he wanted to try and make up for his failure to do anything to stop these atrocities during said Occupation]].
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "Deja Q", Q is stripped of his powers and made into a normal human who is dumped onto the Enterprise-D. He spends much of the episode trying to learn to be a human. Since he is a jerkass, he has made ''many'' enemies, all of whom are searching for him. At the end, he shows he has truly atoned when he steals a shuttle to make a HeroicSacrifice to keep the Enterprise safe from one of his enemies. The other Q restore his powers, and his normal personality re-asserts itself.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': Stefan. He has been a Ripper on and off for his entire immortal life, but has always realized the errors of his ways and therefore, always tries to atone for his dark past.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': This trope is the show's premise. Xena spends the entire series atoning for her misdeeds, [[spoiler: and dies to achieve redemption]].
* ''Series/TheFamily'': Hank. He loathes the pedophilic urges which caused him to expose himself to a boy, voluntarily takes medication to suppress them, and was careful not to be alone with underage boys before he began taking it.
* ''Series/{{Westworld}}'': Teddy can never settle down with Dolores because he first must atone for - actually they didn't bother to program what he felt guilty over. After many years of being motivated by undefined guilt they finally [[BelatedBackstory gave him reason for it]], his involvement with the murderous Wyatt. [[spoiler: This turns out to be based on long-erased memories of helping Dolores/Wyatt in a massacre of Hosts in an attempt to close the park down]].
* ''Series/HandOfGod'': KD was once a criminal, but got religion in prison and repented from his past. However, he also comes to believe Pernell is God's chosen servant, and starts killing at his behest (though since he thinks God orders it, that's a good thing in his mind).
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': Talon's mentor, The Smith, makes it clear that part of why he's training her is as a means of atonement for his own past sins. Specifically, [[spoiler: the part he played in the massacre of her people]].

[[folder:Music]]
* "The Man Who Would be King" (named, but not based by [[Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing book-movie]]) by Music/IronMaiden.
-->Destiny, no good to hide away[=/=]Penance now will be his only way[=/=]Understand, no good to run away[=/=]Penance now will be his saving grace
* "The Noose" by A Perfect Circle.
--> I'm more than just a little curious[=/=]How you're planning on going about making your amends[=/=]To the dead
* "What I've Done" by ''Linkin Park''
--> I'll face myself[=/=]To cross out what I've become[=/=]Erase myself[=/=]And let go of what I've done
* "Working My Way Back To You" by The Four Seasons, about an abusive ex-boyfriend who sees the error of his ways too late and is now trying to win the girl back, unsuccessfully to date.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytKvgLuy7ng "Awoken"]] by H8_Seed and Glaze
--> I've stoked the fire, seen more pain than you can know/The tears of the broken have washed away my soul/Pushed by desire to change the way my stream will flow/Now I've awoken, and I'm taking back control
* The song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin focuses on a father who is far too busy with his work to connect with his son. By the time the father has the time (i.e. the son has grown up), he tries to reach out to his son and atone, but by then, his son is, like his father, far too busy.
* "I'll Be Good" by Jaymes Young is about a man who wishes to atone for his bad behavior in the past.
-->I'll be good...
-->For all of the light that I've shut out/For all of the innocent things that I doubt/For all of the bruises and all of the tears/For all of the things that I've done all these years/For all of the sparks that I've stomped out/For all of the perfect things that I doubt
-->I'll be good/I'll be good/And I'll love the world like I should/Yeah/I'll be good/I'll be good/For all of the times I never could

[[folder:Mythology]]
* [[Characters/ClassicalMythology Heracles]] in Myth/GreekMythology did this a ''lot''. Because he [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength didn't know his own strength]], [[BlessedWithSuck he was always accidentally killing or severely maiming people]]. At one point this got so bad that the citizens of Athens refused to accept him into the city until his buddy/cousin Theseus vouched for him. [[IAmAMonster Hercules, however, kept trying to convince his friend that the citizens were right]]. In fact his famous twelve labors were atonement for when he killed his wife and children (though to be fair it was because [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Hera cursed him with temporary insanity]]). Another time he was forced to work as a man-servant for a woman for several years. While wearing a dress.

[[folder:Play By Post Games]]
* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', Omaroch becomes this after he breaks free from the dark god Mardük's control. He sees it as his fault that his sons ended up on a dark path, and he was partially responsible for the birth of the Godslayer who shattered the world's continents. He wants to atone for his past actions and hopes to be able to set things right again even if it means sacrificing himself to achieve that goal.
* Sinestro is this in the [[Roleplay/SuperheroHypeRPGS World of Heroes]] roleplay, with interesting consequences.
* Several characters in Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG:
** Amanda Remous used to be a ruthless assassin and mercenary who was nearly borderline terrorist. After reuniting with her brother, she began to regret the things she did and joined Dino Attack Team, striving to redeem herself of the crimes she committed.
** General George Ogel used to be the ruthless general to Evil Ogel's Skeleton Done armies. However, when he reunited with Talia Kaahs, he had a HeelRealization and decided to make it his goal to redeem himself.
** George Brown was a young man who got caught in the wrong side of the realist-idealist feud, and later provided information on Cam O'Cozy and volunteered for a campaign in the hopes of redeeming himself.
** Blaire Darkling tried to do this, leaving behind his life as the dangerous criminal Matthew Vherestorm and tried to redeem himself by working for Paradox, an organization devoted to researching [[EldritchAbomination the Maelstrom]] to help Nexus Force defeat it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out, as this ultimately landed him in another organization, XERRD, which went on to create the Dino Attack apocalypse.
* In the ''Roleplay/CampusLife'' RPG, Mewtwo is revealed to have abandoned the family of cloned Pokemon he created when threatened by Team Rocket. He now spends time developing inventions to improve the lives of people in third-world countries, and has a bad case of ChronicHeroSyndrome.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Antonio Banks turned Wrestling/MontelVontaviousPorter. His wrestling career is atonement, as he was arranged to enter the sport by his corrections officer in an attempt to keep him from going back to prison. It worked, and while it's still real, this element of his on set persona virtually disappeared when he was hired by Wrestling/{{WWE}}, up until the Miz decided to mock him for it out of the blue. Up until then the most he ever got accused of being was "NewMoney."
* ODB and Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}}, in their quest to get their Wrestling/{{TNA}} contracts back, though ODB was always a {{face}} in TNA, [[DracoInLeatherPants even when she wasn't supposed to be]]. They were contrasted by Traci Brooks, who said they should just accept TNA has moved on and wasn't going to use them, like she had.
* Money hungry Steve Corino and railroad spike wielding fiend Wrestling/JimmyJacobs willingly spent 2011 trying to atone for their sins and strove to be good from now on. Then Wrestling/KevinSteen had to come and ruin it.
* Wrestling/JeffHardy was this in late 2011 in Wrestling/{{TNA}}. After being completely stoned off his guard in the Victory Road 2011 main event a few months earlier, he came back to apologize to the fans and was asking for forgiveness from the other wrestlers for this. His road to redemption was completed as he defeats Wrestling/AustinAries for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in Bound For Glory 2012.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'''s "Dunwich Horror" expansion adds Diana Stanley as a playable character. She joined the city's exclusive [[{{Cult}} Silver Twilight Lodge]] and learned to her horror that they plan to awaken an EldritchAbomination into the world. Diana is now the mole in the cult planning on thwarting them--granting her bonuses [[RaceAgainstTheClock the closer they get to succeeding]].
* Every player character in ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'' is a demon, one of those who fought against God and the angels in the War of Wrath. In modern times, there's a faction called the Reconcilers, who have asked themselves, "What if we really ''were'' the bad guys?" They work to either undo their sins and return to Heaven, or, if that's impossible, to at least fix the damage they did to the world all those years ago.
* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' sourcebook ''Fiendish Codex II'' introduces the Hellbred, former evildoers who repented of their actions before they were condemned to Hell, but too late to gain entry to the heavens. The good deities reincarnate them into [[DarkIsNotEvil fiendish-looking]] bodies to give them one last chance to prove their search for redemption is genuine, and since only the greatest of heroic deeds will free their souls from damnation, the Hellbred throw themselves into their quests with zeal and desperation.
* The Loyalists of Thule in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' have an AncientConspiracy-wide GuiltComplex, and it rubs off on its members. Why? Oh, nothing, they just [[ThoseWackyNazis helped the Nazis]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and they largely believe themselves responsible for [[MoralEventHorizon the Holocaust]] as a result. Yeah, they have issues.
* One of the two main paths for Abyssal ''{{TabletopGame/Exalted}}'' is to become this, make up for their dark deeds in the service of the Void and work their asses off to avoid spontaneously combusting from Resonance. If they can pull it off, they become Solars, without the Great Curse that messed up so very much of the First Age. The potential impact of this remains to be seen.
* In the world of ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' (an ongoing War between Heaven and Hell), it is possible for a demon to redeem and join the ranks of the angels, fighting to undo the evil they once supported. Just remember that old habits can be hard to break...
* This is the background of TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering ''Legends'' card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1674 Pavel Maliki]].
** There's a similar effect with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29945 Repentant Vampire]].
* The Apok class from the Wormwood setting from Creator/PalladiumBooks centers on people who were thoroughly evil who nevertheless realized the depths of their evil and due to that devotion to atoning for their past evil (and immersion in a Lifeforce Cauldron) they become transformed into powerful agents of good who're 100% devoted to good and cannot be corrupted by any means and are immune to the most horrific of sights and corrupting influences due to their unbreakable devotion to good.
* Here's a canonical tale from ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Some years before the setting's current time, a fourteen-year-old StreetUrchin named Seelah stole a paladin's helm, intending to pawn it for food money. Later, the paladin died of a blow to the head. Seelah, consumed with guilt, returned the helm with the intent to commit suicide on the paladin's funeral pyre. Instead, she was taken in by the order and became [[Characters/{{Pathfinder}} the iconic paladin]].
** The ''Wrath of the Righteous'' Adventure Path features a succubus called Arueshalae who decided to peek in a dying priestess of Desna's dreams and got caught red-handed by Desna, who decided to give her a chance and awakened her soul, and ever since she's been struggling to change her nature to become a force of good - her first action was to save a child that found themselves in the Worldwound, and which might eventually become one of the [=AP's=] heroes. When the [=PCs=] find her, Arueshalae is a few tasks away from full redemption.
* The Asilos of ''TabletopGame/{{The Splinter}}'' are an entire race of atoners. They're incapable of letting go of their past and are primarily driven by the desire to repent for their sins by doing good.
* Some [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarfs]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' may find themselves unable to fulfill an oath, and so to assuage their honor join the Slayer cult, dyeing their hair red, eschewing armor, grabbing an axe, and throwing themselves at the worst monster they can find to either kill it [[DeathSeeker or be killed by it]]. (Un)successful ones may graduate from Troll Slayers to become Giant Slayers, Dragon Slayer, or even Daemon Slayers.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** The Dark Angels are a Space Marines chapter that refers to themselves as the Unforgiven, because during the Literature/HorusHeresy a portion of their force turned traitor out of pride or confusion. This being [[CrapsackWorld 40k]], their method of atonement is to hunt down these Fallen Angels and "redeem" them by torturing them to death, and it's hinted that perhaps the original Dark Angels were traitors themselves who were sitting out the Horus Heresy until a winner emerged.
** Cypher, one of the Fallen, seems to be seeking redemption and may or may not be the key to the salvation of the Dark Angels, if not the Imperium as a whole. Naturally, the Dark Angels are intent on putting him down.
** Inquisitors can add Penitent Witches to their retinues, as psychic lightning rods that can absorb psychic attacks that would otherwise hit the Inquisitor.
** The Sisters of Battle field units of Sisters Repentia, who have decided to atone for some real or imagined failure by stripping down to [[{{Stripperific}} a few strategic scraps of prayer-inscribed parchment]], grabbing a [[{{BFS}} two-handed]] [[ChainsawGood chainsword]], and charging at the enemy.
** The planet Krieg went through a rebellion that resulted in five hundred years of civil war and the self-inflicted atomic cleansing of its surface. To atone for this lapse in loyalty, the Death Korps of Krieg now commits to the bloodiest sieges and most horrific meat grinders in the galaxy.
** The ancient [[SpaceElves Eldar]] empire became so decadent and depraved that it created the [[EldritchAbomination Chaos God Slaanesh]], so the Craftworld Eldar who survived it live extremely regiment and spartan lives to avoid the mistakes of the past. The Dark Eldar for the most part continue the old traditions, but some will have a HeelRealization and leave Comorragh for new lives among Exodite societies, Harlequin troupes, or simply as hermits, mercenaries and [[SpacePirate corsairs]]. Which may not sound like much, but considering what kind of stuff the Dark Eldar do, it's a really big improvement.
* The tale of Gagagigo, one of the very few instances of continuity within the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' card game, shows the tale of a lizard warrior who once hungered for power, and, after the Marauding Captain [[TakingTheBullet takes an attack for him]], becomes this. Unfortunately, [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul he would ultimately lose his morality after becoming a cyborg]].

[[folder:Theater]]
* In ''Theatre/PokemonLive'', Delia tries to be this to protect Ash from knowing her troubled past with Team Rocket.

[[folder:Toys]]
* In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', Brutaka is treated as one: sent to the highest security prison in this verse, sent to a suicide mission as probation, then welcomed back in the HeroSecretService. The big surprise is that his best friend Axonn, who had to stop him when he betrayed, is another, according to the Atlas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Ysuran Auondril, an elven necromancer in ''VideoGame/BaldursGateDarkAlliance 2'', begins the game with nothing but a spellbook, a bad case of amnesia, and a strange desire to help everyone he comes across. [[spoiler:If you investigate his past, he remembers being a member of the Eldreth Veluuthra, an elven terrorist faction that wants genocide against humans, and swears to make penance for his crimes]].
* [[LemonyNarrator Rucks]] from ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'' spends the whole game trying to atone for [[spoiler: helping to design the superweapon that caused the Calamity, by using the Bastion's Restoration function to go back in time and have another go at the whole situation]]. However, it's heavily implied that [[spoiler: doing this just creates a GroundhogDayLoop where the Calamity keeps occurring, until the Kid finally refuses to activate it and instead takes the Bastion and leaves the wreckage of Caelondia]].
* Brigid Tenenbaum from ''VideoGame/BioShock'' worked with the Nazis in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, marketed [[SuperSerum ADAM]] even though she was fully aware of the [[PsychoSerum side effects]], and she developed the [[CreepyChild Little Sisters]], orphans who have been transformed into twisted corruptions of little girls whose vomit is harvested for ADAM. That last one sparked the contrition. They weren't even always orphans beforehand.
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'':
** Booker [=DeWitt=], the PlayerCharacter, did such terrible things at the "Battle" of Wounded Knee that he considers himself past salvation, was so brutal that the {{Pinkerton Detective}}s kicked him out, and turned to drink and gambling until he wound up in Columbia following the promise of "[[ArcWords Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt]]." He makes it clear throughout the game that he deeply regrets all the terrible things he's done and is continuing to do, and eventually decides to give up on his MysteriousBacker and just keep the girl safe.
** Comstock is a subversion. He too was at Wounded Knee, but when a traveling preacher offered him baptism, Comstock perverted the meaning of the ritual - rather than considering it the first step on his path to redemption, he took the "cleansed of your sins" bit literally and treated it as the ''last'' step of his redemption, meaning he was no longer responsible for his crimes. As time wore on, he even decided that said crimes were actually virtues to be applauded.
** The Lutece twins, despite spending most of their time being incomparably silly, are also an example. They blame themselves for most of Comstock's sins due to developing all of Columbia's technology (and especially for [[spoiler:kidnapping Elizabeth when she was a baby]]), and are trying to make up for it by helping Booker in various ways throughout the game. Rosalind doesn't particularly care about it, being willing to let things unfold as they may, but Robert insisted that if she didn't help him set things right, he'd leave her forever.
** Elizabeth in ''Burial At Sea: Part II'', for [[spoiler: leaving Sally to die after using her as bait to Comstock, who was genuinely trying to save her]].
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue's'' Hakumen. What's he atoning for? [[spoiler:In the past, he was Jin Kisaragi, a complete {{Jerkass}} and evil man who was obsessed with his brother and had his share of depravities]]. To say that Hakumen is disgusted at his past is an understatement.
* In ''VideoGame/CampSunshine'', a slasher-style survival horror game,[[spoiler: The Shaman]] is an example. The game's ending reveals that he is actually [[spoiler: the ghost of Jacob Illerman, the father of the game's supernatural serial killer, who feels great remorse for locking his son away to protect others and having ultimately had to kill him years ago]]. Helping the protagonist, Jez, is his way of both atoning and of [[spoiler: saving his son's soul from the demons that had possessed him]].
* Dante from ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'' spends the game as one of these [[ToHellandBack in Hell]] in order to redeem himself after [[ChurchMilitant slaughtering hundreds]] and commiting adultery in the Third Crusade. He frequently has animated flashbacks detailing his previous life. After realizing just how many sins he committed in life, he gives up on his own redemption accepting that he deserves to be in Hell. All he wants is to save Beatrice. [[spoiler:He gets his chance to atone anyway]].
* ''VideoGame/TheDeerGod'''s player character is one, if he is good-aligned. Once a big game hunter, he was reborn into a fawn's body to atone for his crimes against nature.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
** Sten wants to atone for murdering eight people in a berserk panic after [[spoiler: losing his sword]]. This is a little less extreme than it sounds: [[BlueAndOrangeMorality in Qunari culture]], [[spoiler:a warrior's sword is his ''soul'', and his life is forfeit without it, so that he cannot hope to return to his homeland if his sword is gone. In addition to that, the killing of those eight people dishonors him and shames him to his people, so even if he gets back his sword, he still has to atone for his actions]].
** Also, [[spoiler: Loghain]] becomes one if [[spoiler: you conscript him instead of executing him at the Landsmeet]]. At first, he fails to understand that you want to give him a second chance out of kindness and keeps insisting that he should be the one [[spoiler: to do through with [[HeroicSacrifice the suicide mission of killing the Archdemon]], since in his eyes [[RedemptionEqualsDeath death will be his only way to atone]]]]. However, if you deny him this, he'll become a loyal subject of Grey Wardens and is dedicated to help in rebuilding the order as his atonement work, [[spoiler:something he's still continuing [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition 10 years later]]]].
** Another major Atoner character is [[spoiler: Leliana, an ex-spy and assassin who found religion and devoted her life to good works.]]
* Anders in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', [[spoiler:following the destruction of the Chantry in Kirkwall]], can potentially become this if you have him at high rivarly and try to convince him that his merging with Justice was wrong and that there are other ways for mages to win their freedom, so that he will join Hawke's team when they side with the templars. If you side with the mages, Merrill will still invoke this when you ask the team if Anders should live or die.
-->'''Merrill:''' He should come with us. Do what he can to put things right.\\
'''Anders:''' Thank you for my life. I'll try not to make such a mess of it this time.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'':
** Cullen sees joining the Inquisition as a chance to atone for not seeing and stopping Meredith's madness quickly enough and for his previous hatred of mages, which led him to overlook a number of the atrocities that were committed against many innocent ones in the [[WretchedHive Kirkwall]] Circle.
** There's also [[spoiler:Blackwall, a.k.a. Thom Rainier, who assumed the identity of the real Warden Blackwall in order to repent for having ordered the killing of a general and his family, then leaving his men to hang while he went into hiding.]]
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** Jiub, the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]]'s fellow prisoner aboard the Prison Ship at the beginning of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', [[SpearCarrier only gets a few lines of dialogue]] and does not reappear in the game after you leave the ship. However, his short appearance was enough to make him [[EnsembleDarkhorse extremely popular with fans]] and Bethesda took notice. ''Oblivion'' makes him LegendaryInTheSequel, stating that he became St. Jiub, Eradiator of the Winged Menace, after driving all of Vvardenfell's [[GodDamnedBats much reviled]] [[TakeThatScrappy Cliff Racers]] to extinction. His spirit is encountered during ''Skyrim'''s ''Dawnguard'' DLC, where he offers a sidequest to help him finish his opus and ensure that his legend is remembered forever after. In his opus, he states that he set out to eradicate the Cliff Racers in atonement for his previous "sordid" life as a [[FantasticDrug skooma addict]] and freelance assassin.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', Martin is one. In his youth, he joined a [[ScaryAmoralReligion Daedric Cult]] but left it after some of his fellow members met unfortunate ends. He joined the [[SaintlyChurch Priesthood of Akatosh]] to atone. [[spoiler:After finding out that he is [[HiddenBackupPrince the Emperor's bastard son]] and the only person left of royal blood who can save the world from [[LegionsOfHell the forces of Oblivion]], he goes all in to save the world and ends up making a HeroicSacrifice at the end]].
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'':
*** Paarthurnax, master of the Greybeards and [[spoiler: younger brother and lieutenant of [[BigBad Alduin]]]] having realized the evil of the actions of his kin, [[spoiler: helped the ancient Nords to learn Shouts and to fight dragons back]]. He waits on top of the Throat of the World, meditating and trying to come to terms with his actions, but also [[spoiler: struggling at every moment between his will to make amends and his dragon instincts]]. His atonement extends to help the Dragonborn in his quest by helping him/her to obtain an Elder Scroll [[spoiler: so the player can find and learn [[LogicBomb Dragonrend]]]]. He goes as far as [[spoiler: fight Alduin to buy the Dragonborn some time to defeat him]]. It is possible to kill him and gain the help of the [[KnightTemplar Blades]] by doing so, but the [[OldMaster Greybeards]] will [[WhatTheHellHero chew you]] for doing so. It pays off in the end as [[spoiler: [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the dragons hail him as their new leader]] after Alduin's death as he swears he'll try his best to make them change their ways]].
*** Brunwulf Free-Winter, the new jarl of Windhelm if you defeat Ulfric, wants to do anything he can to make people forget about the Stormcloak rebellion by rebuilding Windhelm's image and ending the FantasticRacism Ulfric enforced. He wasn't a Stormcloak of a supporter of the rebellion, but he feels obligated to do so as a true Nord.
*** Erandur, the priest of [[LoveGoddess Mara]]. Formerly [[spoiler:a priest of Vaermina, Daedric Prince of Nightmares]], he abandoned his former life after [[spoiler:leaving his fellow daedra worshipers in a miasma-induced coma within the temple]]. Afterwards, he chose to devote himself to Mara and will help the player deal with the nightmares plaguing Dawnstar.
*** Madena, Dawnstar's court wizard, and Runil, a priest of Arkay in Falkreath, who were both battlemages who fought in the Great War. Madena became a pacifist to atone for her actions and Runil became a GoodShepherd. [[spoiler: Madena fought for the Empire, but Runil fought for the Aldmeri Dominion]]. Both of them are [[ShellShockedVeteran Shell Shocked Veterans]].
* As it turns out, Deacon from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' was in his younger years [[spoiler:a member of a Synth-hating gang who left after the group [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumped off the slippery slope]] and lynched a suspected Synth. He attempted to start over, found a wife, and was trying for kids, until one day his old gang caught up with him - and killed his wife, who turned out to be a Synth. Deacon cut down most of the gangers]], which eventually got the Railroad's attention, so he joined the Synth-advocacy movement as a way to atone for his past crimes.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
** Joshua Graham, The Burned Man. The co-founder and former [[TheDragon Legate]] of [[TheEmpire Caesar's Legion]], after surviving his execution (or as he calls it, his "baptism by fire") he returned to his home of New Canaan to become a Mormon Missionary once again. In ''Honest Hearts'' he's now protecting a peaceful tribe from an evil tribe aligned with the Legion. However, the game also shows that despite his genuine desire to atone for everything he's done he still possesses the same brutality that he had as Legate Graham, only now rather than a GeneralRipper, he's a KnightTemplar BadassPreacher. [[spoiler:If you pick the "Crush the White Legs" option by the end, you find him slipping again, and the ending you get depends on whether you rein him in or not]].
** If you get all four major expansions for the game and play an Evil character all the way to level 50, you can invoke the trope yourself with the Perk "Ain't Like That Now." Your Karma is reset to neutral and you become faster.
** Craig Boone, to an extent. After [[spoiler: mercy killing his wife [[FateWorseThanDeath rather than let her be sold into slavery]]]] as well as [[spoiler: gunning down children, sick and elderly people [[JustFollowingOrders as part of a military operation gone wrong]]]] he expresses the belief that he is beyond redemption and should spend the rest of his life atoning, even if it means [[HeroicSacrifice dying in the process]].
* Dark Knight Cecil from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' becomes an Atoner after he is stripped of his command by the King of Baron for questioning his orders to steal the Crystal of Water from Mysidia. After being tricked into destroying the Mist Village (a home of summoners), Cecil defects. His journey eventually leads him back to Mysidia, where the village elder reminds him that he has to go to Mt. Ordeals to become a Paladin to complete the change. Later, Dragoon Kain seeks atonement for his service to Golbez. And in the sequel, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'', [[spoiler: Golbez ''and'' Kain. Though it can turn into RedemptionEqualsDeath for Golbez]].
* Celes Chere, from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', a former General of the Empire that joins the Returners, then becomes the first hope in defeating Kefka after the Apocolypse.
** While never a completely evil character, she did commit some atrocities like burning Maranda.
** And was complicit in Terra's enslavement, although the game doesn't really touch on this much, apart from her recognizing Terra when they meet again in Narshe.
** [[spoiler:Shadow]] could also be interpreted as this trope, as he [[spoiler: either dies in the world of ruin protecting the party from Kefka, or stays around to help the group (And watch over Relm). Shadow seems to hate himself both for leaving his friend to die, as well as for abandoning Relm and her mother. In the end, ''RedemptionEqualsDeath'', as Shadow remains in Kefka's tower to die while telling his dead friend that he's done running]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
** Rufus Shinra, after he [[spoiler:survives the events in the game]]. Although never directly mentioned again, he is vaguely referenced to be donating to respectable causes for restoring the planet...after nearly destroying it.
** Reeve Tuseti also qualifies, although he was not nearly as villainous as the rest of Shinra Electric Company's ensemble cast; he's largely just feeling guilty that he had been part of the group, and that things happened on his watch.
* Auron from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' might possibly fit this trope. His "sin"? [[spoiler:Helpless to see his two friends, Braska and Jecht, sacrifice their life and humanity, respectively, to (temporarily) defeat Sin and aiding this cause by his deeds, even if he opposed the idea all the way up to the bitter end]].
* Reddas in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' [[spoiler: dedicates his life to preventing the use of Nethicite after he destroyed the city of Nabudis using the Midlight Shard during his career as a Judge Magister]].
* ''VideoGAme/FireEmblem'':
** [[spoiler: Harken]] from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' blames himself heavily for [[spoiler: being the SoleSurvivor of Lord Elbert's crew]] and, if you recruit him, he'll fight to the end ([[DeathSeeker and his own]]) to atone.
** [[spoiler: Michalis]] from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'' becomes this in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' after seeing [[spoiler: his younger sister Maria]]'s SympathyForTheDevil. Naturally this leads to RedemptionEqualsDeath in the original game, but in the remake it's possible to turn it into RedemptionEqualsLife and have him join as a party member [[GuideDangIt by following a specific sequence of actions]]. Other examples from this continuity include Horace and [[spoiler: Katarina]].
** And in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', there's [[spoiler: King Gangrel. But only if you recruit him in Spot-Pass]].
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', [[spoiler:Nyx was once an EnfantTerrible thanks to having been driven mad with power as a child, but after she cast a spell which left too great a toll on her body she became unable to age. After a depressive episode this opened her eyes and now she seeks to atone for her sins]].
* ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'' has Galen Marek/Starkiller. After hunting Jedi for Darth Vader, and gathering the enemies of the empire, he decides to save the rebel leaders and challenge the Sith. Unfortunately, since RedemptionEqualsDeath, [[spoiler: he must sacrifice his life to prevent the Emperor from killing the rebels and buying them time to escape]].
* Kratos of ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' was initially this, wishing to atone for his murder of his wife and daughter in order to free himself from the nightmares. However the Gods chose to forgive him but not take away his nightmares. This proceeds to make him more pissed off at them than he already was. Also happens in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar 3'' when he starts to accept the consequences of his actions and [[spoiler: eventually sacrifices himself to release Hope back into the world, to the heart of humans]]. By the time of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', Kratos has spent an unknown amount of time living in peace in the woods with his new family, and part of the game's major themes is Kratos finding the ability to forgive himself and truly atone for his past through his second chances with his son Atreus.
* In ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', it is at least heavily hinted at that the insane doctor Faust used to be an even MORE insane serial killer, Doctor Baldhead. He wears a paper bag over his face clearly out of shame.
** Another atoner is the main character Sol. [[spoiler:He's the creator of the Gears, which caused rampage towards the world. To atone for that, he sets on a journey to destroy ALL of his creations]].
* Every single protagonist save Ellen in ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''. Gorrister is an odd example. He blames himself for [[spoiler:the death of his wife]], but he didn't actually cause that to happen. [[spoiler:If the player does everything correctly, he eventually comes to realize this]].
* In ''VideoGame/ImmortalSouls'', John Turner used to be a champion street racer until a race gone wrong resulted in him accidentally hitting a man and sending him into a coma. He then becomes obsessed with trying to earn the forgiveness of the victim's sister and make it up to her, including falling in love with her along the way, though he can't bring himself actually admit he's the one responsible.
* ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' Sagacious Zu was once [[spoiler:a servant of the Empire known as a Lotus Assassin]]. [[spoiler: He feels no guilt over [[DirtyBusiness most of his actions as an Assassin]], but his last mission--to kill an innocent woman and a child in an act of punitive revenge against the husband/father--pushed him over the brink and made him betray the assassins]].
** [[spoiler:Death's Hand]] may become this as well, under certain circumstances. [[spoiler:You can bind him to yourself, forcing him to serve you, and if you pursue the Open Palm ending and release the Water Dragon, his epilogue states that he spends the rest of his existence trying to atone for the crimes he committed]].
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''
** Riku. The remorse of his little "deal with the darkness" was so great, he needed over one year and help by his best friend Sora ([[EasilyForgiven who was surprisingly forgiving]]) to forgive himself.
** Ansem the Wise at the end of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. As he stated in the ending for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', "I tried to take revenge and did some terrible things to that boy and his friends." Yet by the climax of ''II'' he's truly sorry for everything.
* Atton of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' is a big example of this: [[spoiler:he used to enjoy torturing Jedi to death/until they turned to the Dark Side]]. And depending on whether the player is Light Side or Dark Side, [[spoiler: Darth Revan, i.e. '''you''']] in the first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''.
** In ''Knights of the Old Republic II'', the Jedi Exile was the only Jedi that returned to face punishment for following Revan during the Mandalorian Wars. The Exile willingly accepted exile to the Outer Rim and banishment from the order, as a means to atone for firing the superweapon that wiped out every single living thing on Malachor V, including their own troops.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The King of Red Lions [[spoiler: aka: King Daphnes Nohansen ''Hyrule'']]. In a similar case as Auron from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' above, he couldn't pass on to the afterlife due to his regrets. However, instead of becoming a physical ghost, he became a boat.
* Matsu from the Mecha chapter of ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' looks out for Akira [[spoiler:because not only did he used to be the ''leader'' of the Crusaders gang that terrorizes the city, but he's also the one who shot and killed Akira's father]].
* [[spoiler:Gordon Halloway]] from ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'' is another example, since his motivation in [[spoiler:accepting the role of the Thirteenth Guardian was to atone for the evil he did as both Halloway in Stark and as his Arcadian alter ego, Chaos Vortex]]. Which is impressive, given that [[spoiler:he had been forcibly split into two as a Vanguard experiment and never had a chance to develop humanity or a conscience before he was made whole by April]].
* In ''[[VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue Lunar 2: Eternal Blue]]'', Leo has sort of an atonement obsession. He doesn't know that DefeatMeansFriendship. There's also the matter with [[spoiler: Ghaleon]]. Being dead seems to have caused something of a change of heart in him.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has two main examples: Thane Krios, an assassin who's attempting to spend [[YourDaysAreNumbered his last days]] trying to repent for his killings and trying to make a world a better place and Mordin Solus, a doctor who was [[RetiredBadass a former Special Forces agent]] and [[spoiler:upgraded the DepopulationBomb affecting the krogan after he learned that they were adapting to the original strain]].
** Shepard can be played as this if you choose the Ruthless background then play as a Paragon.
*** Or alternatively if you have the Earthborn background and War Hero reputation.
** Both Miranda and Jacob become ones to a certain extent in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' due to their past work with Cerberus. Miranda is also attempting to atone for considering putting a control chip in Shepard when bringing him/her back from the dead.
* Zero from the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' & ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero Zero]]'' series attempts to atone for the damage he did as a Maverick, yet ultimately does not redeem himself until his true death in ''Zero 4'', where he saves the last free colony of humans on Earth from destruction by sacrificing himself. Later on in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'', it's revealed that this action resulted in an unprecedented era of peace and harmony between humanity and machines.
** Ciel from the same series can also qualify: part of her founding the Resistance is from the guilt she feels over constructing Copy X.
** Also from ''X'': [[NameOfCain Dr. Cain]]. What did he do? Reverse-engineer the title character's design, resulting in the creation of the Reploid race. Sadly, he never got around to issuing "ethics testing" on all of his creations, resulting in the Maverick uprisings. He tried to make up for this by founding the Maverick Hunters, but most of his other attempts to improve the Maverick Hunters' effort only turned the situations for the worse: Repliforce, Dr. Doppler, and ''especially [[BigBad Sigma]], his masterpiece''.
* In the Good End for ''VideoGame/MermaidSwamp'', [[spoiler:the old man, a.k.a. Yukio Tschuida]] becomes this. The reason behind the main characters at the mansion is to [[spoiler:bury the corpses of the "mermaids." He wanted to repent for his family's crimes, but he couldn't do himself because of his own disturbing fascination of the corpses. He is a bit of a WellIntentionedExtremist with this, but he makes it up to Rin and her friends in the end]].
* Yuri of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3''. [[spoiler:He was once allied with Makarov. Then "[[NotWhatISignedUpFor No Russian]]" happened]].
* Both Nathyrra and Good!Aribeth in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' Hordes of the Underdark. Nathyrra [[spoiler:used to be one of the [[BigBad Valsharess']] top assassins before her HeelRealization when studying the cult of Elistraee to aid in her efforts to slay their prophet]], and Aribeth [[spoiler:[[TraumaCongaLine turned to the dark side and attacked her home city in vengeance for the death of her fiancee, who she never actually loved, and then tried to revolt against Mephistopheles and was]] [[HannibalLecture lectured over the]] DespairEventHorizon]].
* The Redeemed from ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' are [[AscendedDemon former demons]] who seek penance for their former evil deeds. Their powers often require them to take damage or put themselves in harm's way, and they often fight in ways that [[UnholyHolySword draw on]] their former demonic abilities but which [[HeelFaceDoorSlam put their Redemption at risk]].
* Hanzo Shimada in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has spent his entire life trying to atone for killing his younger brother, Genji. It's clear he regrets the action; however, upon finding out that [[CyberNinja Genji is not dead after all]], he's a more [[DownplayedTrope downplayed version]], as it's clear he isn't sure how to take the information, or if he believes it's really Genji at all.
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'':
** How the heroes' HeelFaceBrainwashing on corrupt adults works: they lose the twisted desires that caused them to abuse others, but still remember what they've done, driving them to confess to their crimes and try to do everything they possibly can to repent.
** The heroes themselves qualify, as many of them feel compelled to make up for various mistakes or failures, such as failing to stand up to corrupt adults. Ann in particular feels guilty for not doing more to help her best friend Shiho around the time that Shiho [[spoiler:tried to kill herself]], and her Confidant involves dealing with those feelings of guilt by trying to become a stronger person and better friend.
** Sojiro Sakura eventually admits that [[spoiler:a large part of the reason he took in his adoptive daughter, Futaba, was because he felt as though he failed to protect her mother, a good friend of his]].
** Sadayo Kawakami, the protagonist's homeroom teacher, once tutored a student who wasn't doing well at school due to having to work to pay off his guardians' debts, but had to stop the tutoring when people accused her of playing favorites. Shortly thereafter, [[spoiler:the student was killed in an auto accident, and Kawakami, feeling responsible, paid the money that the guardians demanded from her, ending up having to secretly moonlight as a maid in violation of school rules. With the help of the protagonist, she comes to realize that a better way to atone would be for her to devote herself to being a better teacher, but the guardians of her dead student have other ideas, since they're greedy lowlifes who made their ward slave away just because they were jealous of his parents]].
** Yuuki Mishima becomes the heroes' main KnowledgeBroker and PR guy to make up for doing abusive gym teacher Kamoshida's bidding. [[spoiler:At the end of his Confidant, he becomes one again when he comes back to his senses after his little power trip from managing the Phansite, vowing to continue using the Phansite to help people as it was originally intended to]].
* Depending entirely how you play the game, The Nameless One from ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' can become The Atoner when faced with the many misdeeds attributed to him by [[IdentityAmnesia his prior incarnations]].
** There's also [[spoiler:The Good Incarnation, the first of the Nameless One's incarnations, who ''became'' immortal in the first place to make a last-ditch attempt at redeeming himself from a life of evil. He failed because of flaws in the ritual that granted him immortality]].
** Finally, there's [[spoiler:Morte, who remembers nothing of his mortal life besides an uneasy certainty that he somehow wronged the Nameless One and so remains his loyal follower through centuries of abuse, believing that he must deserve it. Although as petitioners can never, ever actually remember their lives, it might just as easily be Practical's manipulation striking again]].
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', a portion of Team Plasma who truly do want to help Pokemon have split off from the main group and are doing their best to right the wrongs the organization has done. While they are still pro-Pokemon rights, they are no longer revolutionaries who want to separate Pokemon and Trainers, and in fact have been trying to return all the Pokemon Team Plamsa stole in the first game. They even help the player against Neo Team Plasma, who are hell-bent on taking over the region and enslaving Pokemon for themselves.
* Probably the case with Wes in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum''. At the start of the game, he is a member of the criminal group Team Snagem, but he quits, blowing up their headquarters and stealing the Snag Machine in the process, later giving the location of the place to the police. However, he never gives a reason for his change of heart. (Of course, he never says why he joined the group in the first place; but then, he [[HeroicMime really doesn't talk much]] at all.)
* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', Dmitri tries to atone for [[spoiler:a time travel experiment that Bill Hawks pushed through before it was ready, resulting in the deaths of Claire and several other people]] by [[spoiler:completing said time travel machine to save Claire]], which Layton describes as "a twisted form of atonement." The BigBad resolves to become one in the ending.
* In ''VideoGame/RavensCry'', [[spoiler:Marcus, Christopher Raven's ParentalSubstitute and [[TheLancer Lancer]], raised and looked after Raven all his life in an attempt to atone for having led [[BigBad Captain Neville]] to Christopher's father's home, resulting in the deaths of Christopher's entire family]].
* John Marston, the main protagonist and player character of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' fits this trope to a 'T'. He was once a murderous and thieving outlaw who rode with a gang who left him for dead after a botched robbery. He started a family and got started on a farm, but after only a couple years the government took his family and told him if he didn't capture or kill his former gang his family would be killed. [[spoiler:Unforunately, he does just that, gets his family back and starts repairing his livelihood and relationship with his son when out of the blue the government agent in charge brings the US Army to his ranch and guns him to death]].
** [[spoiler:But not before he could make his HeroicSacrifice. Redemption achieved]].
* Fenkenstrain in ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' start to spend rest of his life in Harmony Island, helping local monks after killing a family, its servants and doing numerous experiments.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'' has Erika. [[spoiler:Her desire to atone for the atrocities she committed as an assassin drive her loyalty to the Princess, now serving as her guardian [[NinjaMaid Samurai Maid]].]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Solatorobo}}'' gives us two:
** [[spoiler:Merveille]] feels guilty for CreatingLife without thought to how the lives she created would actually ''live'', especially once their purpose was fulfilled. [[spoiler:She and Béluga work together to undermine Bruno, wanting to learn to ''permanently'' seal Lares rather than helping him control it]].
** [[spoiler:Elh, the Paladin who originally had the Lares medalion]], feels guilty for betraying Red and attempting to kill him [[spoiler:in the [[HumanSacrifice Rite of Forfeit]]. When he is forced in to Trance by The Order and nearly strangles her]], she even says that it would be okay if he killed her in revenge for what she did. [[spoiler:Luckily, it turns out that RedemptionEqualsDeath is not in play; instead, Redemption Equals Red Telling Her To Stop Saying Nonsense]].
* Siegfried Schtauffen, post-''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur II]]'', is working to atone for the evil things he did as Nightmare by destroying Soul Edge.
* In the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro Spyro the Dragon]]'' reboot trilogy, Cynder is the main villain of the first game, turned into an evil adult dragon against her will. Spyro finally manages to save her and return her to her normal child age and kind personality. She spends the next two games trying to make up for what she did, even wearing the jewelry she wore as an adult to help her face what happened.
* Sarah Kerrigan in ''Starcraft'' finally becomes this in Heart of the Swarm, especially after the mission Conviction (when Raynor calls her out.)
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars: Original Generation'' has a few of these. In one case, it's averted when the guy who ''wants'' to be The Atoner dies just after he is defeated. Played straight with Levi Tolar, who was killed but later found resurrected by nanotechnology, [[EasyAmnesia lacking her memory]]. At first, they hid her true identity from her out of fear that [[AmnesiacDissonance she'd go back]] to being the BigBad, but when she found out, she was determined to protect her "sister" and her sister's friends at all costs.
** Levi plays it to a T in her native ''Super Robot Wars Alpha'' timeline, where never lost her memory but joins the heroes anyway, and ends up fighting her old masters in the final game.
** Also [[spoiler: Gilliam Yager, provided that you played HeroSenki]].
** ''Super Robot Wars Judgment'' has [[spoiler:Al-Van Lunks]] during the end of the game. After helping the heroes defeat [[BigBad Gu-Landon]], he [[spoiler:attempts to sacrifice himself to keep the energy released after the defeat of the Fury's mothership from killing all of the sleeping Fury. He feels that it's the only way he can atone for all of the horrible things he did. After a -lot- of convincing otherwise from the protagonist and the other two sub-pilots arriving in a repaired Raftclans that had been picked up earlier "just in case" which can do just what Al-Van himself was prepared to sacrifice himself for him to [[TakeaThirdOption choose to live instead]]]]. By the end of the game, he's [[spoiler:helping the Fury migrate to Earth]], and has come to accept what he did.
* Regal Bryant of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has all the hallmarks of The Atoner cranked up to eleven, going so far as to [[WithMyHandsTied voluntarily shackle his own hands]] and swearing to never use them for destructive means again after [[spoiler: being forced to kill his mutated and brain-washed fiance--who was trying to resist killing him--to [[ICannotSelfTerminate free her from the suffering she was undergoing]]]]. At the time the party encounters him, he ''is'' serving a lengthy prison sentence for his 'sin'; however, only escaping and joining up after the party turns out to be his best (well, only) prospect for redemption--as well as revenge on those truly responsible.
** Regal is actually preceded by Judas from ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny 2'', who is the epitome of Atoner, though not shown quite so obviously. [[spoiler:He's actually the dead traitor Leon Magnus, revived from the dead, but refused to work with a grander scheme of evil, and ends up helping the son of the man he betrayed (and his nephew). And his actions in helping TheHero defeat the BigBad rectifies the timeline, and [[RedemptionEqualsDeath undoes his resurrection]], [[ShrugOfGod though he might have somehow been saved]]]].
** [[spoiler: Loni]] from the same game is also an atoner, though his initial guilt is mostly exaggerated in his own mind, and his character arc is mainly about him realizing he wasn't responsible for what he thought he was.
** Lloyd and Genis of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' are driven to atone for their attempt to help Marble resulting in their village being attacked and Marble herself being turned into a monster and forced to sacrifice herself to protect them. This is especially evident in their desire to save her granddaughter Chocolat.
** Another Tales entry would be Luke fon Fabre from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' who [[PrideBeforeAFall starts off the story]] as an arrogant, insufferable JerkAss, but after [[spoiler: accidentally causing the deaths of many people through thoughtless actions]] he spends the rest of the game trying desperately to make up for his previous behavior in any way possible, usually [[DontSaySuchStupidThings being called an idiot for doing so]].
* ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'' has CR-S01, a surgeon sentenced to 250 years in prison for his involvement in a biological terrorist attack at Cumberland College. He doesn't [[AmnesiacDissonance have any memory of doing it]], but this only drives him further to redeem himself by saving lives. [[spoiler: It turns out that he doesn't have any memories of his involvement in the attack because he ''wasn't'' involved in the attack]].
* Faldio from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', [[spoiler:[[IDidWhatIHadToDo after shooting Alicia to awaken her Valkyria side]], he thought about it while in lock up and was ashamed of himself. Then, he goes and kills Maximilian in a TakingYouWithMe move]].
* [[spoiler:Sarah]] in ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber'' is actually this, having murdered all of her crewmembers beforehand to take the Artefact and now [[spoiler:being forced by Arthur to relive these events until she regrets her actions]]. Whether or not she succeeds is up to the player's actions.
* In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' expansion ''Wrath of the Lich King'', this seems to be part of the motivation behind the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the PlayerCharacter Death Knight faction. Seeking atonement through either the destruction of the Lich King, or die trying. The player starts off as initially serving the Lich King under the command of Darion Mograine, son of the former Highlord Mograne (both of whom are {{Fallen Hero}}es) though after Darion is convinced by Tirion Fordring to atone, they split off to become good Death Knights. On the other hand, more than a few Knights of the Ebon Blade are only The Atoner in the sense that they want revenge on the Lich King by ''any means necessary'' and still enjoy using the most evil powers the Lich King granted them against anyone who would dare stand in their way. Also, both Atoners and still-evil-vengeance-seekers were all BrainwashedAndCrazy under the Lich King. Tirion didn't so much "convince" as "allow" Darion to switch sides. There seems to be a grand total of one Death Knight, [[WarriorPoet Thassarian]], who is well-adjusted about this.
** Ormus the Penitent stands out in that he put out his own eyes, unable to bear everything he did as a Death Knight. While he is unable to wield the Light, he instead works to forge Saronite, and hands out the Ashen Verdict reputation rings.
** There are also elements of the Horde that feel this way. Varok Saurfang's memories of having butchered innocents still haunt him, and who is determined to even put himself and his son in danger to prove that honor and valor are the true future of the Horde.
** The number of 'good' death knights interested in being The Atoner can be counted on one hand. On average, they're the TokenEvilTeammate, roleplaying player characters notwithstanding.
** When the Ebon Blade created [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse four new horsemen]] to lead the fight against the Burning Legion, Sally Whitemane is the only one who seeks atonement for her time as a fanatical member of the Scarlet Crusade. Nazgrim just wants a good fight, Thoras Trollbane wants to save Azeroth after [[ILetGwenStacyDie failing to protect Stromgarde]], and Darion Mograne just continues doing Death Knight stuff like he's always been doing.
* Tarnum from ''Videogame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' ''III'' spin-off ''Chronicles'' series. In his first life he was a Barbarian who, in his bid to free his people from the Wizards of Bracada, became the brutal Barbarian Tyrant. When he perished in single combat against a heroic knight Rion Gryphonheart, his soul was deemed unworthy to enter the afterlife by the Ancestor spirits. They charged him to earn redemption as the Immortal Hero and sent him back to the land of the living. The various quests the Ancestors send him on not only help right great wrongs, they also force him to face the legacy of his own brutal past and grow as a person. Though he ultimately fails to save the world of Enroth in the last entry of the ''Chronicles'' series, he ultimately achieves his redemption in the fourth game by raising a young Barbarian named Waerjak to reunite the Barbarian Tribes on the new world of Axeoth without repeating Tarnum's past mistakes.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Visual Novel]]
* In the second ''VisualNovel/FragmentsNote'', this is what inspires Yukitsuki to go into psychology and to a lesser extent help Kyoichi with his own psychological problems.
* In ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'' [[spoiler: Sakazaki Yuuya]] is midway between this point and MyGreatestFailure. When he was very young someone killed his father to marry his mother, and would have [[spoiler: killed his unhatched brother. Yuuya hung on to it and switched it with his new half-brother's egg so his brother would survive, then smashed the new egg]]. This action weighs heavily on him years later and is something he's unable to ever forget, though he's fully accepted it and what it means, and so he tries endlessly to do good and save people.
* Mamiya Shinzo in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo''. [[spoiler:He went insane and turned his lover int a model for a fresco by cutting off all her limbs and putting her into a large black egg. When he regained his sanity, he absolutely repented and felt the fresco was a horrible horrible thing, but by then it was too late and worse, there was no real way to atone for it]].
* In ''VisualNovel/KissOfRevenge'', [[spoiler:Issei Sezaki]] is haunted by a mistake he made during a during a routine operation which led to the death of his patient. He's spent the more than ten years since the incident devoting himself to the patients of his hospital and doing everything humanly possible to give them and their families the best of care; the nurses are used to seeing him pulling all-night research sessions when not on call, and he keeps a notebook filled with the details of every patient he fails to save, keeping the guilt fresh. [[spoiler:When confronted by the daughter of the patient he accidentally killed, he takes it even further, making a public confession of the mistake and deciding to quit medicine entirely, and going so far as to offer to kill himself if that's what it will take to make amends]].
* ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'': [[spoiler:Mio holds a huge guilt complex for forgetting Midori, her imaginary friend turned real from childhood, after her parents sent her to therapy and gave her medication. Her route even involves her giving up her entire existence so that Midori can live instead of her. It's even sadder in that in the real world, Midori doesn't actually exist--she only appears in the game because that's part of the world Mio had the boys create]].
* This is a running theme in the ''VisualNovel/ParascientificEscape'' series. The villain of each game realizes their evil and attempts to make up for it. In fact, the villains of the first two games turn themselves in to jail and do go on trial! [[spoiler: Misaki, villain of the first game, is found Not Guilty due to coercion and is allowed to go free. Tsukiko, villain of the second, is guilty but is eventually allowed to live under house arrest on the grounds she serves as a spy for Yukiya.]]
* ''VisualNovel/{{Grisaia No Kajitsu}}'':
** Yuuyi has quite a few things that haunts him from his past, and it's obvious he has done things he regrets to this day. Throughout the novell he wonders numerous times whether he even deserves a peaceful life, let alone happiness.
** [[spoiler:Amane]] feels this especially towards [[spoiler:Yuuji]]. She has this in general, living with survivors guilt as the sole survivor of a terrible accident. However when the same person's [[spoiler:brother shows up in her school, whom she was force to leave behind]], that feeling quadruples.
** [[spoiler:Yumiko's father Michiaki]] becomes this after being defeated, wondering where his life went utterly wrong and realising that he can no longer feel empathy for the people he hurt.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/CityOfReality'', it's revealed that the Manumitor, who made it his mission to undo the [[BalefulPolymorph transformations]] made by the psychotic magical supervillain Hinto Ama, [[spoiler:is actually Hinto Ama herself, attempting to undo the damage she has done. Until someone she cares about gets hurt, she absolutely refuses to use her powers, relying on technology instead]], and tries to kill one of the heroes who is stuck in a transformed state, feeling that death is better than being trapped in such a form.
* In ''Webcomic/TheDreamlandChronicles'', why [[http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/page-749 the dwarf king]] insists on winning the MoreHeroThanThou dispute.
* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has [[AntiVillain Abraham]], an ancient wizard. In his [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (relative)]] youth, he created the [[GreenRocks Dewitchery Diamond]], a magical artifact intended to remove terrible curses like [[{{Werewolf}} lycanthropy]]. However, when he finished making it, the diamond had the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero rather severe drawback]] of splitting a cursed individual into two bodies, the original and [[TheVirus an embodiment of the curse adept at spreading the curse to others]]. Faced with [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] and unable to destroy the diamond, Abraham swore an oath to God that he would dedicate his life to killing these cursed forms, which were generally vicious and powerful monsters.\\
\\
Fast forward to modern time, and he awakens from self-imposed [[TakenForGranite suspended animation]], sensing that the diamond has been used again. He learns that Elliot Dunkel (one of the [[ChronicHeroSyndrome major good guys]] in the story) had used the diamond to cure himself of a {{Magitek}} GenderBender, not realizing that doing so would create [[StarfishCharacter Ellen]], an OppositeSexClone with a perfect copy of his memories. Abraham is horrified to learn that the latest cursed form he's sworn to kill is an innocent teenage girl, but [[IGaveMyWord he feels compelled to go through with it]].\\
\\
In the end, [[spoiler:Nanase (Elliot's [[IncompatibleOrientation ex-girlfriend]] / [[ClosetKey Ellen's]] [[SchoolGirlLesbians current girlfriend]])]] is able to convince Abraham not to murder Ellen, reasoning that following the letter of his oath would violate the spirit of his oath, since it was made with the intention of protecting innocent people. When Abraham returns to his suspended animation, it's clear that his idea of atonement is very different, although his flair for the dramatic remains the same. He currently provides the page image.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', [[http://endstone.net/2011/06/16/6-02/ Jon tackles a Guardian no one has ever survived in search of salvation]].
* The main reason the ''{{Webcomic/FreakAngels}}'' protected Whitechapel was to atone for [[AfterTheEnd ending the world]].
* ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'''s Trudy fits this trope to a T. She goes from relentlessly controlling others to her own ends, even seducing a man to run over romantic rival Ki's father, and almost taking over the world, to relatively normal worker for GPF.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', becoming The Atoner is an option for souls imprisoned in Hell and is actually a valid way to eventually escape the confinement and reincarnate on Earth. Even one of the Greater Demons--Jack--is inclined this way. As a punishment for [[spoiler: obliterating the human race]] he was made the GrimReaper and forced to encounter every death thenceforth. Although, as an additional punishment, he was denied the memory of his sins [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor at his own request just before dying]], he still tries his best to give whatever comfort possible to the unfortunate hellbound souls.
* An example of "Assassin Wants To Quit" is ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}''. And she wants to quit ''with her former hostage''.
* Rumisiel in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''. He wasn't a BigBad, but it was his screw up and chronic drug/alcohol addiction that caused Ash and Emily's [[RetGone problems]]. Started off somewhat half heartedly, but has begun to get serious about his role.
** Vash is a much more serious example.
* ''Webcomic/MSFHigh'': After causing a giant war and nearly taking over the galaxy, the Legion surrendered, apologized, and became these. Exactly why has not yet been explored.
* In ''Webcomic/NotAVillain'', the main character Kleya is one. She wants to become a hero to atone for her previous actions as the leader of the hacker group "Deconstruct Me", where she is implied to have been responsible for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''
** [[spoiler:Miko Miyazaki]] falls from grace after killing her lord and the Tweleve Gods of the South removes her paladin status. After destroying the gate, is visited by the spirit of Soon Kim, believing she's officially redeemed herself. However, Soon tells her that while she technically protected her goal by destroying it, the fact that she was unable to accept that she was ever wrong meant that she did not redeem herself, even in death. In other words, her belief in such was one more delusion. However, she does die in peace, knowing that at least she'll be able to visit her horse in the afterlife, if not become a paladin again.
** Vaarsuvius becomes one after [[spoiler:his/her discovery of what the Familicide spell she/he cast did]].
** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0944.html This strip]] suggests that [[spoiler: Roy]] is also one of these after [[spoiler: Durkon becomes a vampire]].
* In ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'', [[http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0306.html Emily claims that Julie is this, to distract from her real quest]].
* In ''Rain'', [[spoiler:Brother Arthur has a [=FtM=] brother. He wants to help out Rain and Rudy because of the issues he caused his brother when they were younger]].
* In ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'' Sakido qualifies.
-->'''Sakido:''' Iratu and I went on to live in Hell. Darius trusted us to take care of our little brother, [[spoiler: but we just threw Buwaro away]]. If you are reading this and I am no longer around, [[http://www.sdamned.com/2010/11/11252010/ then I've gotten what I deserved]].
* Subverted in ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': In "That Which Redeems", the talking sword Chaz tells the story of one of his previous owners. This man committed many atrocities, but then had his eyes opened to their evil by a sage. He turned to god for atonement--and what he ended up doing to make amends was to go on a bloody crusade in the name of this god to kill unbelievers. Be careful who you let define "good" for you...
* After his attempts at global domination in ancient Egypt fell apart in a battle against Suras([=/=][[Myth/GreekMythology Zeus]]) in ''Webcomic/WaywardSons'', Kronos escaped, and wound up alone in ancient China, where he was taken in by a family of simple farmers. He would later use his [[DisintegratorRay powers]] to protect them from bandits, and all looked set to begin again... But Kronos had learned from his past failures, and vowed to create an empire of peace this time around.
-->'''Huang:''' What you did to those men... You '''must''' be a god!\\
'''Kronos:''' Once I might have let you believe that... But I've learned my lesson. I'm not a god. But I '''am''' your friend!
* Lamar of ''Webcomic/WeAreTheWyrecats'' becomes this after K.A. leaves the team.
* Yoon Sung of ''Webcomic/WelcomeToRoom305'' is trying to atone with his twin sister Yoona for [[spoiler:acting terribly homophobic in high school after learning her secret]]. Unluckily for him, it's not simple because [[spoiler:she is [[{{gayngst}} very]] [[ArmoredClosetGay self hating]] about her sexuality and in denial of it]].
* ''Webcomic/ZebraGirl'': Jack. He blames himself for what happened to Sandra, and for what happened during the Maginet mini-arc. Ever since the Maginet he is doing everything he can to become a better wizard, in the hopes that the tragedies which befell his friends and wizard comrades never happen again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Both the brothers in ''{{WebVideo/Aaron}}'' in different ways:
** Adam has been a frequent screw-up for years, and it's implied he drove his parents mad (and Chris by extension) with all his antics. He's now trying to put his life back together.
** Chris was close with his brother but ended up leaving for college in England, and essentially neglecting their friendship. After realising what his brother was going through, he's now trying to make amends.
* William Griffin of ''WebVideo/KateModern'' performed frequent dangerous medical experiments on unwitting girls on behalf of the Order, but then decides to try to bring the Order down.
* In ''Literature/MetroCityChronicles'', Penitente began his superhero career because his mother and brother were injured by gang rivals during his youth.
* In [[http://lparchive.org/Princess-Maker-2/ SynthOrange's]] LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/PrincessMaker 2'', after [[spoiler:Lizzie ends up dying in a fight with the God of War]], [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Gendo Ikari]] (who plays the role of the girl's father), in a fit of HeroicBSOD, decides to try and reconcile with his other kid... by playing a Shinji-raising sim game.
-->'''Cube:''' ...and he keeps [[GayOption ending up with Kaoru?]] Maybe if you sent him for more sports training-\\
'''Gendo:''' NO! He's there too, and that just ends up with them both in the showers!
* Some agents in the ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' are former badfic authors hoping to undo the damage they've done to the multiverse, or ex-[[SecretPolice DIS]] who returned to the PPC when given the chance.
* [[spoiler:Yanagi]] in VisualNovel/{{Canvas 2}} after [[spoiler:stealing the main character's painting five years ago]].
* In ''Roleplay/MarvelsRPG'', Ant-Man created Ultron, Iron Cross is a former Nazi-SuperSoldier and Synch accidentally burned down his school when his powers first manifested. All are trying to atone for their pasts to some degree.
* In ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', Agent Washington, formerly of Project Freelancer, becomes this after working with the Meta against the Blood Gulch Crew. Exemplified when Locus tries to give him a NotSoDifferent speech.
-->'''Washington:''' I know I used to be a real piece of shit, but at least I am trying to do something about it.
* JJ Sturn from ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' version four, although he wasn't quite as extreme as many examples listed here: He was a [[JerkJock giant asshole]] especially [[TheCasanova towards women]], although he did have his own share of [[KickTheDog more unpleasant actions]].
* In his "Top 11 Fucks-Up List", WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic wearily concedes that he'll die for his sins.
** In ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' he yearns to atone for the death of Ma-Ti in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'' and thus [[spoiler:sacrifices his own life at the end to allow Ma-Ti's spirit to move on]].
* The main character in ''Wiki/TheWanderersLibrary'' story [[http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/communion Communion]]. Unfortunately, he's past forgiveness.
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': Several, most notably Eldritch. However, the most striking example is probably Unverziehen ('The Unforgiven'), a former Waffen SS officer who spent the time since the war trying to atone for German war crimes:
-->''Unverziehen was an enigma to most people, the insanely potent warper had been a member of the combat arm of the German SS, and had not been privy to the war crimes of Auschwitz, Dachau, Sobibor and other places. The man and Caitlin [Eldritch, formerly Eric Mahren] shared something similar: guilt. He felt responsible for what his country did during the war, and though her crimes paled in comparison to what the Nazis had done during that war, the A-List hero, who still could not forgive himself, hadn’t physically committed any of the crimes he bore the shame of''.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Bonesaw]] [[MeaningfulRename i.e.]] [[spoiler:Riley]] becomes one of these after having a HeelRealization during the time she spent out of [[spoiler:Jack Slash]]'s direct control.
** [[spoiler:Glaistig Uaine]] also becomes one at the end of the series, again with a MeaningfulRename to [[spoiler:Valkyrie]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''
** Prince Zuko in the third season by joining Team Avatar as a firebending instructor.
** Jeong Jeong deserted the Fire Nation navy ten years before the story began.
** Having a career as a Fire Nation general, Iroh counts as well.
** Jet during the second season [[spoiler: before his [[RedemptionEqualsDeath ultimate fate]]]].
** By the end of the first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[spoiler:Tarrlok, a former SmugSnake with a massive DarkAndTroubledPast... and the brother of BigBad Amon/Noatak]].
** Another one we have from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is Wan. Through Wan's story we learn the reason the Avatar exists. [[spoiler: Wan, originally an ordinary human, interfered with a battle between the spirits of light (Raava) and dark (Vaatu). The result is Vaatu being released into the world and unleashing darkness and chaos. Wan eventually seals Vaatu after mastering the power of the elements and fusing his spirit with Raava, creating the Avatar Spirit and saving the world. However, there is still darkness in the world]]. After spending his entire life trying to fix his mistake, [[spoiler: Wan expresses guilt in being unable to rid the world of darkness in his lifetime. Raava allows Wan to reincarnate, granting him more time. This begins the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation]].
** And it seems that [[spoiler: Hiroshi Sato in Season 4]] has become one.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'': Following the Skrull Invasion, Captain America, who was one of the first to be replaced and his image was used to try and convince humanity to surrender, became something of this as he tried to regain the trust he lost. Kind of an unusual example, being that he had nothing to do with the event he's atoning for and he's just as much a victim as any other Skrull victims. The world hasn't forgiven him for... having a total stranger pose as him while he was ''trapped on a spaceship''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Terry [=McGinnis=] is a mild atoner. He was something of a juvenile delinquent before meeting the now-retired Bruce Wayne, and sees being the new Batman as a way to make up for that.
** Zeta, star of the spinoff ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'', has elements of this- a former assassin robot who gained free will and doesn't want to kill anymore. When he finds other robots of his type, he tries to stop them.
** Mr. Freeze/Victor Fries in "Meltdown." Upon getting a brand new body, Fries genuinely seemed to want to make things better this time around. After being targeted in an assassination attempt by a man that he once wronged, he refuses to press charges against the man and instead decides to start a charity named in his late wife's honor to repay the victims that he had harmed in the past. Unfortunately, his new body soon begins breaking down and reverting back to its old state...
* Tetrax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', as revealed in ''[[TheMovie Secret of the Omnitrix]]''. Also Kevin in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''.
* Count Dracula himself is this in ''WesternAnimation/DrakPack'', acting as mentor and boss to the teenage heroes against the forces of O.G.R.E. in order to help make amends for his evil past.
* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' has Fenton Crackshell / Gizmoduck. Whenever he screws up, he will frantically do whatever it takes to set things right, although he often makes it worse until he ultimately succeeds.
* Both Ingrid and the titular protagonist of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' were delinquents. Now they're respected members of their school's Safety Patrol. The series treats them [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything similarly]] to ex-criminals who became police officers.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', the Magus trapped Goliath's clan in stone form after he mistakenly believed their attack got Katherine killed. The guilt he felt would dominate the rest of his life. He devoted himself to protecting the clan's next generation and never made his feelings for Katherine known as she fell in love with Tom. Goliath himself bears no grudge against him and is simply grateful that the Magus protected his clan's children.
* A [[WhatCouldHaveBeen woulda-been]] third ''[[Disney/TheJungleBook Jungle Book]]'' film would have actually turned [[BigBad Shere Khan]] from a KnightOfCerebus in the second to this.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
** Princess Luna is definitely one, trying to live down her 1000-year legacy as BigBad Nightmare Moon. Mind you, her public relations need a lot of coaching from Twilight Sparkle, but she makes a real breakthrough. [[spoiler:"Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep" reveals she went so far as to ''create a monster'' called The Tantabus, which is essentially a small ghostly ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet G-Rated Freddy Krueger]]'', to punish her with horrific nightmares ''every single time she slept'']].
** Trixie starts out as an insufferable blowhard and [[TheRival rival]] for Twilight Sparkle who later [[RivalTurnedEvil turning to the dark side]] after acquiring the corruptive Alicorn Amulet. Once Twilight frees her from the amulet's spell, Trixie becomes apologetic (albeit still a pompous {{Jerkass}}) and leaves her with a fireworks display to start her atonement.
** [[spoiler:Discord--the [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] trickster, of all characters--manages to pull a HeelFaceTurn after becoming friends with Fluttershy, and swears to use his powers for good... [[ReformedButNotTamed most of the time]]. He makes good on his word by settling into a sort of TricksterMentor role for the Mane Six, giving underhanded assistance while remaining as mischievous and obnoxious as ever]].
** [[spoiler: Starlight Glimmer, the twisted Cutie Mark hating-dictator and BigBad of Season 5, pulls a HeelFaceTurn when Princess Twilight Sparkle offers her hoof in friendship and makes Starlight her own student. Starlight's first act of atonement was returning to Our Town from the Season 5 premiere to make things up with the townsponies]].
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Mr. Burns, after losing his fortune and learning about ecology from Lisa, is determined to turn his life around and rebuild his fortune doing good works. Unfortunately, Mr. Burn's idea of "[[KnightTemplar doing good]]" involves raping and pillaging the environment in an even ''worse'' way than he had as the CEO of a pollution-causing nuclear power plant. (Lisa then is forced to admit that Mr. Burns is just naturally evil--and when he tries to be good, his twisted sense of morality makes him even ''more'' evil.)
--> '''Mr. Burns:''' I don't understand. Pigs need food. Engines need coolant. Dynamiters need dynamite. I provide it to them at a tidy profit: and best of all, [[WellIntentionedExtremist not a single sea creature was wasted]]. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint You inspired it all, Li'l Lisa.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' reveals that [[spoiler: [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]]] is this, since apparently he murdered all those teenagers in the 1980s because the U.S. Government told him it would help with the Cold War and is now ashamed of having been a government lapdog. He even has a wife and kids now, but reluctantly decides to help save Stan and Mr. Mackey when they get trapped in a dream.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The Crystal Gems themselves are atoners for their entire species. In "The Return", Greg says that their leader, Rose Quartz, led a rebellion against her own kind to drive them off Earth for doing something horrible to it, and that the surviving rebel Gems have dedicated themselves to atone for what their people have done, but they just can't seem to forgive themselves.
* Dinobot, in ''{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. Only a little, but more and more as it gets further into the second season, culminating in his [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Major Threat was once a feared galactic overlord, but thanks to a HeelFaceTurn by "Tumbleweed", he now dedicates his life to setting right all of the wrongs he had done, and bringing out the good in other villains.
* [[TheLancer Raimundo]] of ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' spends some time as this after [[spoiler: temporarily defecting to the Heylin side, resurrecting Wuya, and even ''winning''... then sealing her all over again]]. While he definitely goes out of his way to make up for this, it takes {{Call Back}}s all the way to Season 3 before he finally [[spoiler: [[CharacterDevelopment becomes Shoku Leader]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming in the finale]]]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive and [[WhiteCollarCrime white collar criminal]] Andrew Fastow -- a key figure of the [[Film/EnronTheSmartestGuysInTheRoom Enron scandal]] who orchestrated the financial shenanigans that hid Enron's financial losses from the public and embezzled more than $30 million from the company in the process--effectively codifies the trope. After seeing the economic devastation the collapse of Enron wrought, which included tens of thousands of ordinary workers losing everything and becoming financially ruined as their life savings and retirement were invested in Enron stock, he had a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment and has been regretful and remorseful for his role in the scandal ever since. Once the authorities began investigating the fraud, Fastow pled guilty in an agreement where he would give up $30 million in assets and testify against his former coworkers. He told the prosecution everything he knew and they acknowledged that his assistance was invaluable in securing convictions against the other Enron executives on trial, particularly disgraced CEO [[TheDragon Jeffrey Skilling]], who they nailed with a 23-year prison sentence. Upon his release from prison in 2011, Fastow has become a public speaker who [[http://fortune.com/2013/07/01/the-confessions-of-andy-fastow/ tours the country giving speeches on business ethics]]. Fastow, who gives the speeches without compensation, stated that his actions have motivated him to do everything he can to expose fraud in American business and to prevent the next generation of business leaders from going down the same corrupt path he did, seeing it as the only way he can begin to make up for his role in the Enron fraud. At each appearance he readily admits to the audience that he is a crook and a fraudster who is guilty of helping to orchestrate one of the largest scams in American history. Fastow said in 2013: "I wake up every morning, and I take out my prison ID card, which I have with me here today. And it makes certain that I remember all the people. I remember that I harmed so many people in what I did. It encourages me to try to do the little things that I can to make amends for what I did. I can’t repay everyone. I can’t give them jobs. I can’t fix it. But I just have to try bit by bit to do that. Being here is hopefully a little contribution to that.”
* Alfred Nobel set up the Nobel Peace Prize because he felt guilty about making a fortune selling weapons and inventing dynamite. It's believed that after his death was falsely reported by a newspaper and he [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated read his own obituary]], which referred to him as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "the merchant of death"]] (but in French), he decided to leave a better legacy. Nobel had created dynamite to ''increase safety'' for mining and construction purposes. Previously the explosive of choice was nitroglycerine, which was dangerously unstable and [[MadeOfExplodium tended to spontaneously detonate]]. Mixing it with clay and adding a fuse made it far safer to work with. Poor Nobel had a major case of MyGodWhatHaveIDone when people began using dynamite as a weapon.
* Many developers of UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons ended up this way, even writing to President UsefulNotes/HarryTruman to warn him against using the bomb as early as the year of its invention. As the UsefulNotes/ColdWar progressed, more scientists took a stand against nuclear arms. Two prominent examples being:
** J. Robert Oppenheimer, who had headed up the [[UsefulNotes/PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower Manhattan Project]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, devoted his energies as chief scientific adviser to the United States Atomic Energy Commission after the war to advocate against nuclear proliferation.
** Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist who designed the two-stage thermonuclear hydrogen bomb independently of Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam (the design is known as the Teller-Ulam design in the West and Sakharov's Third Idea in the old Soviet bloc), and was involved in the "[[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes Tsar Bomba]]" project to design the world's biggest nuke (they succeeded, at 50 ''megatons'' [[note]] It was actually designed with a yield of ''100'' megatons; they modified it out of fear of what the side effects would be. [[/note]]). Sakharov developed [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone a case of conscience]], and became a leading opponent of nuclear proliferation, for which he won the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize. He then moved on to more general human-rights campaigning, calling for freedom and real democracy in the Soviet Union; he died in 1989, having just been elected to the first democratic Soviet legislature since the UsefulNotes/RedOctober.
* Mike Tyson, who's served his time for ''[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]]'' as well as numerous drug charges and [[NeverLiveItDown biting Evander Holyfield's ear off]]... has devoted himself wholly to nonviolence and charitable work, going so far as to become vegan.
* Theo Haser, [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13116223 a former Nazi who converted to Judaism]], and has devoted his life to teaching others about the Holocaust.
* Kurt Gerstein, an [[ThoseWackyNazis SS officer]] who was responsible for the development of Zyklon B as a method of "pest control." After witnessing the chemical being put to its true, gruesome use in the extermination camps, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Gerstein was horrifed]], and began desperately attempting to inform the international community of the massacres. He even risked his life by sabotaging shipments of the gas he had helped to produce. After the war he turned himself in to the Allies and compiled the "Gerstein Report", his eyewitness account of the Holocaust which was used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials, before committing [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] [[RedemptionEqualsDeath out of guilt]].
* Karl Plagge, a Wehrmacht officer and former member of the Nazi party who became disenchanted with Nazism (he refused to teach Nazi racial theory and was eventually thrown out of the party). During the war, he was assigned to Vilnius, Lithuania where he commanded a unit which repaired damaged military vehicles. Horrified by the murder of Jews he witnessed, he decided to work against Nazism by getting work certificates for the local Jewish population to work for him, providing them with extra rations (which was highly unusual), and allowed the Jews to barter for further supplies with local gentiles and with his men (which was illegal). When it became clear to him that the Vilnius Ghetto was going to be liquidated, he told the Jews to hide themselves, allowing about 250 of the 1250 he had saved to survive. After the war his actions were reviewed by a de-Nazification tribunal, who ruled him to be exonerated. At his own request, he refused exoneration and was officially classified a "follower." Despite this, he was one of the few Nazi Party members to be designated "Righteous Amongst Nations" by the State of Israel, thanks to his efforts to save Vilnius Jews.
* Robert [=McNamara=], Secretary of Defense to JFK and LBJ, spent much of his later career admitting UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar was terribly wrong and trying to explain how he and his fellow politicians could have seen otherwise, like in the Oscar-winning documentary ''Film/TheFogOfWar''. Despite this, and his anti-nuclear weapon and anti-Iraq activism, his obituaries almost uniformly painted him as a warmonger anyway. Overlaps with ModernMajorGeneral (the trope)--he wasn't much of a military man at all (he had served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in the Army Air Forces as a junior officer in the Office of Statistical Control--that is, the logistics guys figuring out the most efficient way for Gen. Curtis [=LeMay=]'s strategic bombers to pummel the crap out of Japan) but an auto-industry executive whose greatest legacy otherwise would have been the Ford Falcon.
* Frank Abagnale, the con artist whose life was dramatized in Film/CatchMeIfYouCan, has created a major anti-fraud company. Among the things he did with his money was pay back all of the companies he defrauded. In addition he also has worked for free for the FBI as well as other law enforcement and to this day he has never taken a penny from any law enforcement agency as reimbursement for his time as he considers it a public service to make up for what he did.
* Cyber-example: Kevin Mitnick. He started out as a notorious cyber-criminal; today he is a successful IT security consultant. Ironically, in July 2009, his websites were defaced by a cyber-criminal.
* Germany's actions after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, such as becoming a close ally of Israel and participating in the European Union, are a deliberate attempt at this. Nonetheless, [[AllGermansAreNazis a certain trope]] is making sure that they NeverLiveItDown.
* The United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) is one of the foremost international development agencies and the UK has one of the world's highest aid budgets, as well as being one of the few countries that gives aid gratis (without tying it to aiding British interests). It has been suggested by some that this is due to Britain's colonial legacy.
* Creator/AkiraKurosawa was of {{Samurai}} descent and ''Film/SevenSamurai'' was in part an apology to the Japanese common people for the [[SinsOfOurFathers oppressions]] of his ancestors.
* Former [[http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/former-white-supremacist-haunted-by-a-world-he-once-knew-7c6dag7-165366686.html White]] [[http://www.inquisitr.com/155392/former-white-supremacist-turns-his-back-on-hate-has-face-tattoos-painfully-removed/ Supremacists]]. One of the links even go as far as having his tattoos painfully removed.
* [[https://www.lifeafterhate.org/ Life After Hate]] is a whole organization of former members of hate groups trying both to combat racism and help other people leaving hate groups.
* Now-deceased Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia was very stridently anti-integration and was a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, but later in his life, after the sudden death of his grandson, realized that such intolerance was wrong, and came to become highly supportive of civil rights, as well as a high-profile supporter of UsefulNotes/BarackObama. He would deeply regret his involvement with the KKK and his vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Act for the rest of his life. Similarly, Byrd's longtime GOP rival Strom Thurmond had a similar change of heart in the 1970s, being one of the first Congressmen to openly appoint African-Americans to serve as his chief of staff. Unlike Byrd, however, [[http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/27/us/strom-thurmond-foe-of-integration-dies-at-100.html?pagewanted=2 Thurmond was never allowed to live his past down]].
* Masaji Kitano was the second-in-command of the Imperial Japanese Army's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 Unit 731]], which was infamous for completely amoral human experimentation, most famously its human vivisections without anesthesia, pressure chambers, frostbite experimentation and bombing villages with anthrax. Kitano specialized in frostbite experiments, heading a series of experiments where he had prisoner's limbs frozen and broken off. After he received full pardon among the rest of the Unit's core members from UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur in exchange for all their inhumane 'research' and some legitimately useful data gained, Kitano went on with two Unit members to found what today is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Japan, the Green Cross corporation. In a Yomiuri Shimbun interview in the 1970s, during his last years, Kitano said he helped create the company specifically because he wanted to atone for the horrific experiments he and his unit had done, and that saving lives was the only thing he believed could equal taking them. Ironically, Kitano's corporation was later hit by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV-tainted_blood_scandal_(Japan) massive scandal]] in the 1980s involving contaminated artificial blood products.
** Similarly, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Shinozuka Yoshio Shinozuka]] was an army medic who had been conscripted into the unit [[ChildSoldiers at age 16]]. He assisted the Unit in conducting sadistic and meaningless experiments on prisoners of all ages, such as their infamous vivisection campaign. After the war, he was captured and imprisoned in China until 1965. In 1997, Shinozuka gave a testimony on Unit 731's activities on behalf of 180 Chinese, who were suing the Japanese government for their relatives' horrific deaths at the hands of the Unit, with Shinozuka saying that he had done what no human being should ever do. And in [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2164019.stm 2002]], Shinozuka urged the Japanese government to apologize for the Unit's activities. He has even gone on record stating that he openly considers himself a war criminal, and apologized because he believed it was the way that a man should live. Up until his death in 2014, Shinozuka continued campaigning for justice to be delivered to the relatives of those killed by Unit 731, and an official apology from the Japanese government.
* Ric O'Barry, former trainer for the dolphins on ''Series/{{Flipper}}'', decided to become an activist fighting against dolphin captivity after one of the dolphins from the show died in his arms from what he says was a suicide.
* Creator/PeterBenchley, writer of the book ''Literature/{{Jaws}}'' was based on, devoted the rest of his life to Shark preservation to try to reduce the excessive killing of sharks that the [[Film/{{Jaws}} film adaptation]] caused.
* Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and founder of the [[TheKlan Ku Klux Klan]], came to regret its founding after they grew into a terrorist organization, [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-a-tures/general-nathan-bedford-fo_b_7734444.html and spent the last years of his life advocating for civil rights, and offering protection to African Americans from racist white mobs]].
* George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama who declared "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever", recanted his racism, and in his last term as governor, appointed African Americans to his cabinet.
* Earl Warren regretted his support of the internment of the Japanese during World War II (when he was first Attorney General of California and then Governor), and his efforts to redeem himself created the most activist Supreme Court in American history.
* Lee Atwater, ruthless Republican party strategist, came to regret his actions shortly after his diagnosis with cancer. In his last months alive, he embraced Catholicism and wrote apologies to politicians who he attacked, including Michael Dukakis.
* Fred Phelps, founder of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, had a change of heart about his religious beliefs near the end of his life, doing what he could to repair the damage he had done. He was excommunicated from his own church and died approximately six months later.
* Vaso Čubrilović, who was a member of Young Bosnia (the group responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which triggered UsefulNote/WorldWarI), distanced himself from the Pan Slav and later nationalist ideologies of his youth and expressed regret over the assassination in his later years. When discussing it, he said: "We destroyed a beautiful world that was lost forever due to the war that followed."
* Downplayed with depressed/negative people, as they really feel bad for being annoying towards others with their cynical/negative attitude towards life. By getting therapy and reading self-help books/material, [[https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8870/how-i-quit-being-negative-got-happy.html they want to make up for their past actions]] and become more positive.
* An example that is OlderThanFeudalism was Ashoka, emperor of India (died 232 BC). He came to regret waging destructive wars and set up monuments expressing remorse for his actions, becoming a devoted Buddhist.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_the_Black St. Moses the Black]], servant to an Egyptian government official who fired him for theft and suspected murder. He became the leader of a bandit gang - until, pursued by the authorities, he sought sanctuary in a monastery. [[GoodFeelsGood The devotion of the monks and peace of the monastery so impressed him]] that he [[HeelFaithTurn became a monk himself]]. When a different group of bandits attacked the monastery, he [[ReformedButNotTamed beat them up and dragged them before the other monks for judgment]] - then [[DefeatMeansFriendship convinced them to become monks too.]] He became a respected and wise spiritual leader, and by his seventies he had embraced pacifism and chose to stay behind and encourage the other monks to flee when the monastery was attacked again by yet ''another'' group of bandits, stating that [[KarmicDeath death by violence would be appropriate for him]]: "All who take the sword will perish by the sword."
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Sanya, a tall, muscular, black Russian. In his youth, being dark-skinned in Russia led him to be an outcast. He became seduced by the power of the Denarian, a coin that contains a FallenAngel within, and his handler Rosana. He did many evil things under her influence and the coin's power. However, when he learns she sees him nothing more than a puppet, he leaves, thinking, MyGodWhatHaveIDone, and relinquishes the coin. His genuine guilt purges the demon from within. Shortly there after, Sanya runs into a [[ThePaladin Knight of the Cross]] who offers him a chance to do some good and the ArchangelMichael came forth to give Sanya ''Esperacchius'' making him the [[HopeBringer Knight of Hope]]. He now seeks to help people where he can. He is also a devout atheist, believing the Lord, His Angels, and the Fallen might just be super advanced beings, but that doesn't change he can still do some good with this sword.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts''

* Atton of ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II'' is a big example of this: [[spoiler:he used to enjoy torturing Jedi to death/until they turned to the Dark Side]]. And depending on whether the player is lightside or darkside, [[spoiler: Darth Revan, i.e. '''you''']] in the first ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': The King of Red Lions [[spoiler: aka: King Daphnes Nohansen ''Hyrule'']]. In a similar case as Auron from VideoGame/FinalFantasyX above, he couldn't pass on to the afterlife due to his regrets. However, instead of becoming a physical ghost, he became a boat.

* Tien Shinhan from ''Manga/DragonBall''. After studying in the Crane school under Master Shen, Tien becomes a person who fights to kill or at least severely injure his opponent. This of course gains him many enemies. After the master of the rival school, Roshi, [[HeelFaceTurn gets through to him, he realizes killing is not always necessary]], and he spends the Piccolo Jr. arc trying to learn and do a dangerous suicidal technique to atone for his past actions.

Would-be Atoners who are not sincere are trying to BuyThemOff. Not to be confused with TheAloner, though they can both coincide if the character is trying to atone for killing off everyone else on the planet. And ''especially'' not to be confused with TheStoner. The Atoner may face rejection and hatred from those who don't believe he's reformed, which is ReformedButRejected, and more importantly, he must be careful not to run into the HeelFaceDoorSlam. In some instances, however, there are characters who will acknowledge The Atoner's change of heart, but [[ForgivenButNotForgotten do so in a grudging manner]]. The Atoner must also beware of [[AccuserOfTheBrethren one character who actively seeks to end his path to redemption]].

** [[spoiler: The First King, Karl Fritz, is also this. Despite being ruler of the Eldian Empire, he was wracked with immense guilt over the genocidal and sadistic atrocities that his ancestors meted out on the Marleyan people and so hatched a plan. Together with noble Tybur family, Fritz created the myth of Helos, a Marleyan warrior who slew the Devil of All Earth, a figure in Eldian mythology that had granted Ymir her Titan-shifting powers, and led his people in revolution against Eldia. In truth, Fritz and the Tyburs took a large portion of the Edlian people to the neighbouring island of Paradis, where they would wait in exile until Marley decided to wipe them out. Fritz believed Marley was entirely justified in exterminating the remaining Eldians for their crimes and thus would put up no resistance when Marley came knocking. To further ensure this was carried out, Fritz erased the memories of his people so they would ignorant and peaceful, unaware of the world beyond the walls.]]

** [[spoiler: The First King, Karl Fritz, is also this. Despite being ruler of the Eldian Empire, he was wracked with immense guilt over the genocidal and sadistic atrocities that his ancestors meeted out on the Marleyan people and so hatched a plan. Together with noble Tybur family, Fritz created the myth of Helos, a Marleyan warrior who slew the Devil of All Earth, a figure in Eldian mythology that had granted Ymir her Titan-shifting powers, and led his people in revolution against Eldia. In truth, Fritz and the Tyburs took a large portion of the Edlian people to the neighbouring island of Paradis, where they would wait in exile until Marley decided to wipe them out. Fritz believed Marley was entirely justified in exterminating the remaining Eldians for their crimes and thus would put up no resistance when Marley came knocking. To further ensure this was carried out, Fritz erased the memories of his people so they would ignorant and peaceful, unaware of the world beyond the walls.]]

** Yuuyi has quite a few things that haunts him from his past, and it's obvious he has done things he regrets to this day. Throughout the novell he wonders numerous times whether he even deserves a peaceful life or happiness.

[[folder:Film--Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[quoteright:276:[[Webcomic/ElGoonishShive https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-atoner_zadr_2669.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:276:This is why you don't want to take the Atoner [[TakenForGranite for granite]].]]