->'''Elizabeth''': Whose side is Jack on?
->'''Will''': At the moment?
-->-- ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean''

When a villain is sufficiently sympathetic with the audience, he has a tendency to do a HeelFaceTurn and this coincides with a tendency to do {{Face Heel Turn}}s when it's realized that he [[RedemptionDemotion really worked better as a villain]]. The result is a further temporary Heel Face Turns because they are uncomfortable with their audience RootingForTheEmpire.

This phenomenon works the other way, as well. The Hero loses perspective and becomes a WellIntentionedExtremist, and then comes back from the edge again. He's done it before, and it worked well (narratively) that first time -- why not do it again?

The long-term result is the same either way -- the character in question will switch sides often enough that, in the long run, he doesn't ''have'' a side. This is what makes a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor (or FaceHeelRevolvingDoor, depending on which side the character starts out on).

If it happens to a popular or well-developed character, the fans will stick with them; but this will, by necessity, drag the morality of the series to [[BlackAndGreyMorality one]] of the [[WhiteAndGrayMorality gray]]-[[GrayAndGreyMorality scales.]]

This is common in ComicBooks, media using the FleetingDemographicRule, and collaborative media written by fans RunningTheAsylum. It's easier with characters who have what is initially a NeverLiveItDown moment or a RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun in their past.

EnemyMine can facilitate this. It's often understood that switching sides through EnemyMine won't create a permanent change of allegiance but if a sufficiently high percentage of a character's appearances are EnemyMine, this is one of the possible implications.

Someone who has been through the revolving door too many times may turn into the WildCard. If mostly on the side of good, despite having decidedly nonheroic intentions, may be a NominalHero.

Compare ChronicBackstabbingDisorder (which is more about switching between grey groups than white-to-black or visa versa), WildCard (where the character isn't strongly on anybody's side ever), UnscrupulousHero (a character who is unambiguously on the heroic side but commits villainous acts on the side), and the DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent (he never changes sides, but no one is sure what side he's really on).
----
!!Examples
[[index]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/AnimeAndManga
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/ComicBooks
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/{{Literature}}
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/LiveActionTV
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/VideoGames
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor/WesternAnimation
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Harry Osborn changes sides three times in ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 3''.
* Salim from ''SlumdogMillionaire'' pretty much spends the entire movie spinning around in the revolving door.
* [[spoiler:Silver]] from ''TreasurePlanet''. It helps that he's a LoveableRogue.
* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'': "Whose side is Jack on?"
** "... At the moment?"
*** Almost all important characters in the second and third movie do this.
* Indy's partner in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. Fairly early in the movie, he's with Indy. Then, we discover he's working for the bad guys, then about halfway through the movie, he is still concerned about Indy's health, but is still working for the villains. A little more than halfway through the movie, he says he's a double agent, then at the end, he reveals he was lying about being a double agent, but he seems repentant of his actions when he choses to stay in the collapsing temple while Indy's friend and family escape. In all likelihood, he was just continually picking the paths that would lead to his one true goal: knowledge and treasure. His "repentance" was just the realization that the alien ship contained all he ever sought, and he no longer had any need or desire to battle that stubborn old adventurer.
* In ''HappilyNEverAfter'', Rumpelstiltskin starts out evil and later turns good. In the sequel he's back to being evil. Though this may be more a case of NegativeContinuity and TheyJustDidntCare, since they don't give an explanation for why he's gone back to being evil.
** Also the same case for The shrek version of Rumpelstiltskin between 3 and 4.
* Franchise/{{Godzilla}} goes through this pretty much every other movie. He was undoubtedly an unstoppable menace in the first few installments, but as the original series continued to drag on, it slowly turned him from Villain to AntiHero to outright Hero. This was reset in ''[[Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla Godzilla 1985]]'', where he was a villainous monster once again, and ever since he has been more consistent as either a Villain or Anti Hero.
* Tiffany from the last two ''Film/ChildsPlay'' films. She does a DeathEqualsRedemption at the end of ''BrideOfChucky'', only to come back in ''SeedOfChucky'' back in love with the equally, if not more, psychotic Chucky. However, upon learning that they have a child, Glen, Tiffany tries to give up killing to set a better example. Only she has a number of slip-ups and murders twice (and possibly more due to a TimeSkip). She justifies these as "Rome wasn't built in a day", and that one of the people she killed had it coming.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* This can be literal if a wrestler or tag team is employed by more than one company at a time, leaving one building as heel and coming into another face a day later. Common in the indies.
* Since "Heel" and "Face" are wrestling terms, there are of course many examples in ProfessionalWrestling: TheUndertaker, his "[[{{Kayfabe}} brother]]" Wrestling/{{Kane}}, RicFlair, and probably the big example right now is TripleH.
* KurtAngle is also notorious for turning about once a year. The problem with him is that he is most effective playing a heel, but his immense wrestling talent, the gold medal, and all around BadAss qualities sometimes result in Face reactions even when playing a heel, thus resulting in the bookers [[HeelFaceTurn turning him face]]. Then he does his [[AllAmericanFace bland face routine]] until his crowd reactions wane, and [[FaceHeelTurn then he turns heel again]]. This effect was {{lampshaded}} during an interview [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ydZDLLtp8Y where he denounced all black people and Jesus, and still got cheered.]]
* Back in the old days, before the bookers developed extreme Attention Deficit Disorder, Lex Luger was the absolute king of this, occasionally doing multiple rounds in the revolving door during the same title reign.
* And then there was the aforementioned ADD era, exemplified by WCW in 1999 and 2000. ''Anyone'' was fair game for a turn one way or the other, even the most popular of fan favorites such as {{Goldberg}} and Wrestler/{{Sting}}, with little or no warning, and, in the case of lesser stars, sometimes little or no explanation. And that's not even getting into the countless [[FakeDefector fakeouts]].
* In fact it's pretty rare, especially in the last few decades, for any notable wrestler to ''not'' go through at least a couple of {{Heel Face Turn}}s and {{Face Heel Turn}}s over the course of his career. The main exceptions in modern professional wrestling are people whose careers simply didn't last long enough to turn from heel to face or vice versa.
** Averted by Ricky Steamboat, who never once [[FaceHeelTurn turned heel]] during his career, due to being such a natural face. To give an idea of how good of a face he was (or how horrible of a heel he would have been), Steamboat's real name is [[AwesomeMcCoolName Richard Blood]], and yet he had to use a different name because that was a heel's name.
*** Supposedly during his run in the WWF in the very early '90s he wanted to do a heel turn. He was told that even if he went out to the ring and cut Hulk Hogan's arms off with a chainsaw the fans wouldn't buy it.
** Also averted by ReyMysterioJr. Has never been a heel. He may have been sort of considered a heel, sort of, in the WCW faction "The Filthy Animals" but even then the stable was more of a tweener thing, and he was not at that long before becoming a full fledged face again.
* Kane is probably unique in that the booking team tries to make him a major-league {{wrestling monster}} heel every couple of years but as soon as they stop paying attention to him (i.e. as soon as he's not running around setting announcers on fire or suchlike), the fans start cheering for him again. May have something to do with his Woobie backstory.
** It's gotten to the point that Kane will go through the revolving door two or three times a year, if not more. When asked Kane's alignment, the best answer is simply "Kane."
* Happens often with wrestlers who are too likeable or dislikeable for any turn to take. No matter how heroic he acts, a lot of fans can't bring themselves to cheer RandyOrton. EddieGuerrero had to virtually murder Rey Mysterio for the fans to buy him as a heel and even then, as soon as he wasn't acting like a complete maniac, they started cheering for him again. Ditto Steve Austin's attempted heel turns after he became "[[StoneColdSteveAustin Stone Cold]]".
** Ended up getting a variation in Orton's case; he's recently become cheered as a face-by-default, thanks to feuding with CodyRhodes and Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr., despite still showing heeling tendencies. Turns out he didn't need heroics to be a face, he just needed opponents nobody liked.
* If you're a TNA wrestler prepare to flip-flop more than a goldfish surrounded by water and a broken fishbowl.
** See: Mr. Anderson.
** Not even ''Wrestling/JeffHardy'' was immune. And at the time he could have been second in-line for being the Ricky Steamboat of his generation, having only been heel once.
* ScottSteiner. Starting at the second half of his WCW run, the only way to know whether he was a face or heel was the opponent he was going to face next. He's not a traditional {{Tweener}} though, because he was supposed to go through {{Face Heel Turn}}s and {{Heel Face Turn}}s, it's just that nothing changed between them, so nobody really noticed.
* TheBigShow is notable for turning about once a year. Being the largest guy on the roster means that he can play the role of TheBrute against guys like Wrestling/{{Kane}} and TheUndertaker, and just demolish the plucky babyfaces like ReyMysterioJr and Kofi Kingston. However, the guy has great comedic timing and plays the role of the GentleGiant so well that bookers will eventually turn him. He will then proceed to be great friends with the Rey Mysterio's of the world.
* One infamous occasion happened in early 2003. VinceMcMahon appeared on Raw to override the heel GM Eric Bischoff but then a few weeks later was involved in an angle with HulkHogan as a heel leading into ''WrestleMania XIX''. So he was effectively a face on Raw and a heel on Smackdown.
** Another odd case with Vince occurred in 1999, where he was a heel going up against StoneColdSteveAustin and the Ministry of Darkness, led by an also-heel [[TheUndertaker Undertaker]], heading into ''WrestleMania XV''. He soon turned face when Undertaker started threatening his family, but again turned heel when he was revealed to be the Higher Power behind the Ministry, and remained there until he was forced to "leave" after ''Fully Loaded''. Again, Vince turned face when he returned a few weeks later to oppose main event heel TripleH and stayed face until ''WrestleMania 2000'', when he aligned himself with The Game.
* In late 2010 Nikki Bella turned heel in an angle on ''NXT'' but was a face whenever she appeared on ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown''. When that season of ''NXT'' was over she went back to being a face for a couple of months before she and her sister turned heel properly.
* This is a staple of the booking style of VinceRusso.
** The Wrestling/AttitudeEra in general, with or without Russo. In large part due to the GreyAndGrayMorality.
* ChrisJericho doesn't really do this all that often, but he's so good at playing heel ''and'' face, it's no wonder he's been both multiple times. Including his most recent comeback, where he came back to face pops and managed to draw out heel heat ''by doing next to nothing''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The 1st Edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' had druids doing the same thing as Lord Gro, though in the name of "balance". They dropped this when they realized that it gives all druids ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.
** In 2nd Edition this was instead used for the petitioners of the [[{{Planescape}} Outlands]]. It seems to have been subsequently dropped.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* In ''[[DongBangShinKi DBSK]]'''s music video for ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTev-dfmpyo&feature=related Before]]'' ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY9EsuPWHp0&feature=related U Go]]'' had a friend of Yunho and Changmin do this. First, he joined the police force with Yunho and Changmin. Then for an unknown reason, he was TheMole for the mafia. After he accidentally shot Yunho and was caught by Changmin, he decided to quit. A year later, he forced to kill Changmin when the mafia held his [[IllGirl sick sister]] hostage. By the time things were over and after Yunho and Changmin found out the truth, they could never fully trust him again.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* It's hard to keep track of anybody's moral alignment in ''{{Narbonic}}'', probably because nearly everyone is either insane (and varies the degree of evil and their motives beyond the speed of logic) or [[PunchClockVillain just there for the paycheck]].
* Tarvek Sturmvoraus in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' alternates between helpful, heroic, not-entirely-trusted sidekick and toadying, evil, certainly-not-trusted minion when heroine Agatha Heterodyne and villain The Other start grappling for control of [[GrandTheftMe Agatha's body]]. He makes the switch every few ''pages'', eventually caught red-handed by the Other. Even this doesn't stop him from serving his own purposes, eventually betraying everybody. ''Absolutely [[GambitPileup Everybody.]]'' Including his own father and his treacherous sister. And it seems that ''his'' goal is to use Agatha (or a lookalike), his claim to a royal ancestor, and a story out of mythology and opera to not only rule Europe, but do it to cheering crowds.
** Now it appears it MAY be a more sincere FaceHeelTurn and he genuinely wants to help Agatha. For now.
** Gil's manservant [[BattleButler Wooster]] may have changed allegiences from his [[spoiler: British spymasters]] to Gil and then possibly from Gil to Agatha--or he never abandoned his first loyalties. Given the way Sparks influence non-Sparks, it's not entirely clear.
* Oasis from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''. At first she was an (admittedly sympathetic) {{Yandere}} villain who was obsessed with Torg and would kill anyone or anything to be with him. After Torg promised to marry her, though, she shifted into a (admittedly [[AntiHero anti-heroic]]) good guy, helping to take down Hereti Corp and protect the town of Podunkton. However, after her {{Mentor}} [[spoiler:is killed in front of her]] and Zoe rekindles her jealous streak, she's off on another RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Prior to Dr. Schlock's]] [[spoiler:takeover of Hertit-Corp]], he tended to change sides quite often, although it was almost always based entirely on who was pointing a gun at his head at the time.
* In ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' Galatea is an emotional basket case who will switch sides with very little provocation. It's probably safe to describe her as ChaoticNeutral.
* Nicolae of ''GaiaOnline'' tends to do whatever gives him the most benefit at the moment, be it con artistry, theft, assisting players in ''[=zOMG!=]'' or [[spoiler: accepting a hit job on Gino Gambino, which he then takes every opportunity to sabotage]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'''s Vriska Serket manages to do this without ever technically changing sides, switching back and forth from VillainProtagonist to SociopathicHero. She [[KickTheDog kicks the proverbial dog]] (usually her personal ButtMonkey, Tavros) on a regular basis, but also has some [[PetTheDog nicer]] moments, especially when it comes to [[MoralityPet John]]. She's a SmugSnake most of the time, but occasionally [[BeneathTheMask her mask will start to slip]], revealing crippling self-hatred that she tries to cover up by being a JerkAss. She has a massive body count, but [[AbusiveParents an excuse]] [[HorrorHunger for it]], and while she's the TokenEvilTeammate for most of the trolls' session, [[spoiler:she very well might be ''less'' evil than the other two contenders for that title later, who are respectively AxCrazy and planning to betray the group to the BigBad]]. [[WordOfGod The author says]] he [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste intended for her]] to be a BaseBreaker.
* In ''IrregularWebcomic'', there's Dr. Ginny. She pretty much works with whoever she feels like.
* In ''{{Sinfest}}'', Fuchsia bounced back and forth between crushing on Criminy and actively helping Blue and the Devil antagonize Slick and Monique until her character development led her to pretty much stop being evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''{{lonelygirl15}}'': How many times did [[spoiler:Gemma]] either change sides or turn out not to have changed sides after all? In a relatively small amount of appearances, at that? Granted, this doesn't seem to have been a result of lazy or inconsistent writing - the woman just couldn't commit.
** There's also [[spoiler:Sarah]]. In her first appearance, she appeared to be a villain when she held the heroes at gunpoint; but then she sided with the heroes; but then she got brainwashed by the villains; but then the heroes rescued her from the brainwashing; but then it turned out she'd actually been working for the villains all along; but no, wait, she was ''actually'' being blackmailed that time, she's really on the heroes' side; and now, the sequel series ''lg15: the Resistance'' has her once more turning out to really, actually, honest to God, this time we mean it, have been on the villains' side all along.
*** Making it worse is that a video was actually put up solely to explain how various actions we'd seen Sarah taking over the past weeks were signs of her villainy. It couldn't be more obvious that all the footage in it is from the spinoff, for the simple reason that there's no freaking way to incorporate the majority of her scenes in the original show into the new story.
* Happens with Julie Mikan in ''SurvivalOfTheFittest''. She undergoes a FaceHeelTurn at the very start whilst deciding to play, killing Owen Fontaine gives her a HeelFaceTurn and a HeroicBSOD, before a few days later, she once again decides to play, becoming a 'heel' for the second time.
* Cale from ''DarwinsSoldiers'' switches sides no less than four times, playing for almost every faction (experiments, terrorists, scientists, Dragnostorm) at some point. This is [[http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/index.php?showtopic=7319&view=findpost&p=9202069 lampshaded]] by Dr. Shelton.
** In ''Pavlov's Checkmate'', Cale finally gets over this, refusing to switch sides when the antagonist gives him the offer.
* Everyone in the YWC (Youtube Wrestling Community) seems to switch sides so much that they seem to live inside this door.
* [[DarkDreamChronicle Vadiir]] started on the side of the [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Communes]], then he went to the [[LaResistance Rebellion]], and now he's back with the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Commune]], though he says he's a [[ChaoticNeutral free agent]].
* Definitely occurs, to pretty much everybody, in the Prolecto Series. Starts with the standard virus induced FaceHeelTurn, then most of the Succubi switch to Faces, then a few switch to WellIntentionedExtremist, then they switch back, then one of the Faces goes Heel...Then some people who stayed Heel go face. A couple actually qualify as HazyFeelTurns, actually.
** http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6721353
* A few examples in ''TheQuestportChronicles'', but most noticeably the Lord of Angels and Demons, who switches sides at the drop of a hat. He's [[AffablyEvil never truly]] ''evil'', but he oscillates between being mildly useful and incredibly annoying.
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue:'' Agent Washington has had a few trips through the revolving door. He starts off firmly on the side of the Director of Project Freelancer, defending and trusting him more than just about anybody else. When he learns the truth about the origins of the AIs the agents use, he secretly begins working against Project Freelancer. Then, after getting sent to prison due to the mysterious disappearance of critical evidence that would prove he was on the side of good (thanks to a certain Blue's idiocy), he agrees to work with the Meta (the villain of season 6) to get the evidence back. When the Meta betrays him, Wash realizes his mistake and works with the Reds and Blues against the Meta. So far, the last HeelFaceTurn seems to be sticking... mostly because he realized that even after all he did, the Reds and Blues still forgave him.
[[/folder]]
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