Warning: While not always a Death Trope, can often involve that, so be wary of spoilers.
Heel-Face Door-Slams in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic Avatar: The Last Alicorn, Sweetie puts the breaks on Rarity's redemption due to her amplifying the darkness in her heart.
- In the Rosario + Vampire/Ranma ½ crossover Big Human on Campus, the Holy Dragon enforcer was sincere in rejoining the Protection Committee to make Youkai Acadamy a better place but was thrown of a cliff for his troubles.
- Lude (APH Germany) starts to have a Heel Realization in the fourth story of the Hetalia: Axis Powers / The Hunger Games crossover fanfic What If, but dies before he can carry it out.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Kamen Rider Wizard crossover Friendship Is Showtime, Dryad arranges for herself, Harpy, Hellhound, and Minotaur to go into protective custody to protect themselves from the Higher Phantoms so they can live in peace. Unfortunately, Gremlin proceeds to corrupt Harpy, Hellhound, and Minotaur into berserk monsters via the Akumaizer's tomb and then murders them himself before they get the chance to join her.
- The Lost Child Of Azarath: While Hedgy starts out as one of the Tautological Templar saboteurs trying to tear down Safe Harbor, when he gets a good look at the methods of both the Daleks and Earth Alliance, he starts to have a Heel Realization, and after Safe Harbor falls, he's clearly uncomfortable with the group he used to be part of. However, before he can build up the mental fortitude to reject them, the saboteurs get gunned down by the surviving citizens of Safe Harbor, Hedgy included.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Cree Lincoln begins to reconsider her feud and hatred of kids when she and her sister realize how petty it was during the Disasteroid crises. It was implied that she was starting to reconnect with her sister Abigail Lincoln, only for chapter 47 to reveal she was jailed for her connection to the secret war. Cree told Danny she got 5 years because of her dad and even admits that she deserves more time.
- In the Mega Man Loops of The Infinite Loops, Bass was helping the Anchors (to impress Roll) when the reality warp hit. After that, Dr Wily reprogrammed him to be obedient.
- Nephrite in the Sailor Moon/Ranma ½ crossover No Chance for Fate.
- Relationship-wise, in the Pretty Cure/Cars crossover Piston Pretty Cure, Rod gets killed by Professor Z before he can really warm up to Hayward, who he tended to look down on most of the time.
- In The Prayer Warriors: The Evil Gods Part One, Thalia Grace says she wants to repent, but Jerry kills her, believing that she'll go to heaven if she's telling the truth, and will go to hell if she's lying.
- Yayoi/Sunder felt a heavy amount of remorse for her actions toward the end of the Smile Pretty Cure!/Puella Magi Madoka Magica crossover Respect. Mami offered her one last chance of redemption, but Yayoi's despair reached a peak. She vanished from the area, but it is implied she had just fled and turned into a Witch later...
- Starlight Series: Lilo convinces Experiment 628 to lower his weapon with a heartfelt speech about how they don't have to be enemies. Jumba then orders her to contain 628 in his Matter-To-Energy converter.
- In the third chapter of Troll Fic The Darker Knight, The Joker declares he wants to help Batman and is now a good guy. The police still shoot him because he's a criminal.
- In Diligo Victum Nusquam, Sebastian gets turned into an Empty Shell before he can redeem himself.
- In Stronger Together
, Spike basically does this to himself when he allies with Darla to turn Buffy; while Spike tries to subsequently claim that he was never intending to let Darla go through with it, Buffy and Angel conclude that Spike's obsession with her has gone too far after he created the Buffybut, and so Spike ends up staked.
- In Hellsister Trilogy, Supergirl faces off with her old enemy, neo-Nazi reality-warper Blackstar, who is now working for Darkseid. Upon realizing Blackstar is beginning to feel regret over her life choices, Kara tries to persuade her to switch sides and start atoning for her past actions; unfortunately, Blackstar has been a villain for so long she doesn't know how to stop, forcing Supergirl to stop her for good.
- Poor Ikusaba gets hit by this several times in And Again. In the final loop, she manages to make a full turn without getting killed for it.
- Umemoto in Dangan Ronpa Forever Despair. After turning a new leaf from their conflict-causing, disrespectful ways, they end up dead.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Denial has the tragic case of Fuyuhiko, who has a Heel Realization upon discovering the body and suicide note of the Imposter. Unfortunately, their resolve to make amends comes to nothing, as they die before they have a chance to act upon it.
- Everything Turns to Gold: Sausage was already not too thrilled about the plans he was getting roped into, so he eventually decides to help Scott escape from captivity in the Mythland dungeon in Chapter 17. Exor figures out what he's doing, however, and responds by fully taking over Sausage's body, transforming him into a new vessel for himself and knocking Scott out cold before he can get away.
- In A Brighter Dark, Hans (the Hate Sink of the of the original game) spends much of his screen time being encouraged (and often nagged) to become a better person through in interactions with Sakura, and despite all odds, it actually appears to be working. Then he's set on fire by Leo as retribution for a past crime. Tragically, if this hadn't occurred, it's likely he would have gone all the way with the reformation into a decent human being. At least, if his last scene is anything to go by.
- Sold to the Highest Bidder: Roguish Poacher Captain Kirkland finds that none of the protagonists particularly trust him when they're forced to work together, and doesn't put much effort into convincing them otherwise. This comes back to haunt him when he gets caught, as the protagonists have the chance to help him escape execution, but refuse.
- Blake from It's not the Raptor DNA started off as antagonistic towards Elise, allowing his alcoholism to become such a problem that he was a danger to himself, his co-workers, and the park. After a brief leave of absence, he comes back and says he's getting better, going to therapy and staying away from booze. Then he's shot dead by Bridges when he stumbles across an operation to raid the old Visitor's Center for embryos.
- For His Own Sake: In the final chapter, Granny Hina learns about how Kagura and Chisato targeted her grandson. She's also forced to recognize how ungrateful Naru is — that after everything she's done to help her, Naru remains All Take and No Give, reacting hostilely to any hint of resistance on Hina's end. Despite her Heel Realization, she finds that it's too late to make amends; the rest of her family want nothing more to do with her, cutting her out of their lives.
- Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe: While Master Fu is meant to be Marinette and Adrien's mentor, he took a very hands-off approach, and blindly supported the idea of the two hooking up while ignoring all evidence of how lopsided and toxic their dynamic was, with Chat Noir feeling entitled to Ladybug's love and doggedly harassing her. After several encounters where Juleka forces him to actually pay attention to how the two interact, Fu realizes his mistakes and intends to address them... but before he can act, The Universe acts first, unleashing Miracle Queen and forcing him to surrender his position as Guardian, wiping his memories and preventing him from having that much-needed conversation with Marinette.
- Villain Of Your Own Story: When Alya made her reality-warping Wish, she was transported into a world where she was Hawk Moth all along. This alternate Alya found the Peacock Pin, but wasn't impressed by its powers, hatching a scheme to try and lure out other Miraculous users with more direct powers, wanting to use them to become a front-line superheroine. Ironically, she was thinking better of it and intended to surrender to the heroes... until the Wishmaker Alya mentally replaced her.
- In a flashback in Chapter 7 of PostMU: Life's a Scream!, Big Red attempts to visit Oozma Kappa at Squishy's mother's house for the very first time. He claims that he and the rest of Frat Row REALLY want to make it up to OK for laughing at them about the ROR prank as well as having rejected them since the fraternity's founding, announcing that a party is being made in their honor back at the JOX frat house. Knowing Terry had just delivered Johnny Worthington of all monsters a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, not only does he finally release his pent-up emotions about what OK suffered even long before Mike and Sulley arrived, he makes it perfectly clear to the JOX president that he doesn't want to do anything with the Greek community (as well as the student body) any longer.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In Change, Queen Imperatrix, the mother of Avia and Crudelis, starts as a regular Evil Queen who is cruel to her subjects and tries to teach her daughters that ponies are nothing but a food source to them. While Crudelis happily accepts her lessons, Avia refuses them and eventually leaves the Hive because of them. 155 years after Avia leaves, Imperatrix begins to grow tired of being an evil queen, realizing that all it did was cost her one of her daughters. Before she can make any attempt to improve herself or the Hive though, she is immediately murdered by Crudelis for betraying the beliefs that she taught her.
- In The Negotiations-verse, Rarity regretted the part she'd played in supporting Queen Celestia and their attempts to invade Earth. Before she could bring herself to act upon her remorse, Ponyville was bombed, and both she and Pinkie Pie were among the casualties.
- The Subterraneans in One Punch Man: Hero's Harem gave up on their goal of destroying humanity and were coming around to the idea of living in peace with them, only to be slaughtered by the Monster's Association, leaving the Subterranean Queen as the Sole Survivor.
- In 'Brave New World'', after making it very clear that Oblivion's Shadow has completely and utterly lost, Mewtwo says that he could surrender, kill the Nihilators, and join Team Aurabolt to prevent the Ruler of Evil being released. Oblivion's Shadow considers this — and then the Ruler of Evil puts a stop to that.
- Pretty Cure Entwined Hearts:
- Shylock suffers this; just when he's about to step through the mirror portal and join the Cures on Earth, Break strikes him down.
- When Tamora attempts to leave Heartbreak Manor, she succumbs to poison before she can reach the door. However, the following episode reveals that she barely survived the incident.
- Inverted in Pretty Cure Heavy Metal, where Cure Nirvana manages to use rakansen on the brainwashing machine before Lady Marilyn can finish turning Shugo evil, resulting in a Face-Heel Door-Slam on her own part.
- This happens to Anakin in the fanfic Passion Play.
- Faded Blue: As Diamond In The Rough shows, while spending time on Earth had gradually made Blue Diamond more empathic and caring, she was still an Evil Overlord... and ultimately, her final words to Blue Pearl make clear how far she had yet to go. And since having Steven forced her to give up her physical form...
- In The Strength in Weakness, whoever has been using Mind Control on Master Cyclonis has been keeping her from making good on her decision to end the war peacefully.
- Late into Episode 1 of Total Drama: Some Stars, Mike's new demeanor is shown to even be bothering him in the confessional, but he winds up getting the boot without even being able to apologize for his misbehavior.
- In Total Drama Voyage, despite his villainous ways, Scott gradually starts to bond with the Killer Blades, even beginning to try to win challenges for the team at points. However, Alejandro, who was working together with Scott, decided that this meant he had no more use for Scott, and rats him out. This results in Scott's elimination, and him leaving on bad terms with everyone on the team except for Duncan.
- Brolli from Diamond in the Rough starts out as a prime candidate for turning into a power-hungry villain until he realizes the damage he could potentially do to Gensokyo. However, he realizes this just as Gensokyo is ready to watch him die.
- Bathing with Eradicons: After attempting forcefully to bond with Soundwave, Megatron realizes he crossed the line and is clearly remorseful when he sees Soundwave's face for the first time and when Soundwave manages to talk him out of it. Unfortunately right after this, he is shot by Shockwave.
- In this fan-animation of Sans' fake surrender, it's made quite clear that Frisk genuinely regrets their actions and wants to stop fighting. Sans kills them anyway.
- Subverted in Intrepid. When it looks like Rune was about to switch sides and revealed Dinah was there, Kaiser had her electrocuted unconscious. The moment she can move again, though, she finishes it.
- In Devil's Diary, Magneto briefly considers to drop his plans and lead a normal life the eve of his first terrorist act. Regardless, he suits up and attacks an army base only to be stopped by his erstwhile friend Xavier's team. In the aftermath, he swears he will be Magneto until his last breath. So it says in his journal:Eric Masters lies locked away in a hold deeper than Davy Jones's locker. I shall not lose him again.
Resist the Temptation to Bend.
I AM MAGNETO.
And I shall be Magneto till my dying day.
And long after Xavier's.
