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  • A common character type in kids cartoon shows, especially in the 80s, was the one obnoxious member of the regular cast who could be counted upon to do something stupid, selfish, and/or rude and act contrary to the interests of the group whenever the plot focused on their everyday lives, but was considered just one of the gang when the plot focused on the world outside the main characters. They'll be trying to get the other characters expelled from school just to win an essay contest one week, then heading to the amusement park with the gang like nothing happened the next. Examples include Junior on The Snorks, Brainy on The Smurfs (1981), Bianca on Beverly Hills Teens, Eric on Dungeons & Dragons (1983), and Reggie on The Archie Show. Modern versions on non-kids shows would include Cartman on South Park and Stewie on Family Guy.
  • Evil-Lyn and Beast Man from Masters of the Universe: Revelation are very straightforward examples of this trope. At the beginning of the series, He-Man and Skeletor are both killed, their battle having destroyed Eternia's source of magic within Castle Grayskull, which leaves the entire universe in a dying state. After a time skip, the now-masterless Evil-Lyn and Beast Man soon join our heroes in their quest to restore magic to the realm, and together they prove to be a very formidable team (and even start to genuinely like each other — Evil-Lyn admits as much). However, after Skeletor's shocking resurrection, Evil-Lyn and Beast Man immediately betray their new allies and return to Skeletor's side.
  • Kevin Levin. Evil in Ben 10, good in Alien Force, evil again for a few episodes in Ultimate Alien, good again in Omniverse then pretends to be evil for one arc in Season 4.
  • Wes Weasley from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog dislikes Dr. Robotnik, especially when he bullies and cheats him, but whenever he is a potential customer, he is always right as far as Wes is concerned. He only turns against him because he will inevitably prove to be bad for business. Lampshaded by Sonic in "Hero of the Year":
    "Don't tell me you're switching sides again!"
  • The Ice King on Adventure Time. He's genuinely a nice guy (the main characters now consider him a friend), and he has good intentions, but his mind is too warped by the Ice Crown to realize when his actions are hurting people, meaning that Finn and Jake still have to defeat him from time to time.
  • A rare intersection of this trope and The Protagonist: Gumball and Darwin of The Amazing World of Gumball become Temporarily a Villain so often that it sometimes feels like they're just relatively likeable Villain Protagonists.
  • In the "Muscular Beaver" episodes of The Angry Beavers, Norbert's alter ego switched between good and evil every time he was featured. Originally known as "Baron Bad Beaver," he incorporated his side switches into his name, so in his third appearance he was "Baron Once Bad Then Good Now Bad Again Beaver." It eventually culminated with "Once Bad Then Good Then Bad Again and now something that's Neither."
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko found himself constantly switching sides due to his confused feelings and lack of resolve. Halfway through the third season, he finally made up his mind, but even before that he was trying to save Aang half the time, mostly for his own selfish purposes. Lampshaded in one episode when no one takes his Heel–Face Turn seriously, and he accidentally burns Toph (the one hero who DID take it seriously).
    Zuko: Why am I so bad at being good?!
  • Zeke from Bob's Burgers, in some episodes he is The Bully or a borderline delinquent, while in others he is good friends with the Belchers.
  • Count Duckula started out as a hammy, arrogant antagonist on Danger Mouse, even teaming up with Silas Greenback on a few occasions. Then in his Spin-Off he was reduced to a good-hearted, cowardly goof so completely ineffectual he couldn't even keep his own servants in line (canonically due to a resurrection ritual that went wrong because Nanny used ketchup instead of blood, thus justifying it as him being the next incarnation with his own personality). In the 2015 reboot of Danger Mouse the older incarnation appears and is back to his old ways.
  • Pyrrah from Dragon Booster.
  • Throughout The Emperor's New School, Kronk contently switches between Yzma's lackey and Kuzco's friend. Although in the Series Finale, he has a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Doug Dimmadome of The Fairly Oddparents wants something different every time he shows up. Sometimes his goals line up with Timmy's, sometimes they don't. Lampshaded in one movie special, where Timmy's parents request his aid, and he spends a long time debating whether or not to by recounting all his individual appearances up to that point and tallying how many times Timmy helped or hindered him.
  • The Professor in the Joe Oriolo Felix the Cat cartoons. Due to how hastily written the Trans-Lux episodes were (they were given mere hours to write the scripts for each episode) and the series' rather loose continuity, the Professor's relationship with Felix is constantly in flux. One episode, he's just after the Magic Bag for his own ends, with Felix just being an annoying obstacle to that goal. In episodes like "The Vacation Mirage", he is portrayed as downright sadistic and goes out of his way to torment Felix, even after he's separated from his Magic Bag. And yet in other episodes, he willingly hires Felix (who always seems to be willing to give Professor the benefit of the doubt) as a babysitter to watch over Poindexter, or hires him as a lab assistant, where he just acts grouchy at worst to Felix.
    • Though not to the extent of Professor, Rock Bottom, Professor's henchman and occasional independent criminal, varies between being a crook that Felix has to stop, a bully who just wants to antagonize Felix, or just being a grouchy neighbor at worst to Felix.
  • In Filmation's Ghostbusters, there were three mischievous imps called the Tooth Scaries, who really couldn't make their minds up; as one henchman to the Big Bad told them in one episode, "You don't know whether you want to be good or bad!"
  • Bender from Futurama embodies this far too often to list every instance, so here's two examples: In an episode where he lost use of his body, he became a musician and inspired thousands of broken robots, only to turn it into a scam when he recovered (and didn't tell anyone). In another episode, he and Fry join the military just so they can get military discounts, but when an actual war happens, Bender ends up throwing himself on top of an explosive to protect his fellows without a second thought, knowing full well that the blast will probably kill him. Generally speaking he's a Magnificent Bastard, but he's occasionally shown that there are some things he actually cares about more than his own selfish ends.
  • David Xanatos of Gargoyles went back and forth between being the Big Bad and being an Anti-Villain, even working together with the heroes in some cases. Good Is Not Dumb, in this case, as Xanatos retained his Magnificent Bastard status no matter whose side he was on.
    • In the comics, which continue the series' plot, Xanatos is housing the gargoyles at his home again, all the while doing jobs for the Illuminati, who are becoming the new main antagonists. In other words, he's uninstalled the revolving door and started outright living in the threshold.
    • Macbeth was an interesting case. After his first encounter with the Gargoyles, Macbeth never went out of his way to attack them. They either were getting in the middle of his schemes (like finding Merlin's scrolls, which turned out to just be diaries) or was under mind control. During the World Tour, Macbeth parted on perfectly fine terms without trading blows, and is briefly seen supporting the gargoyles in a TV interview during the Goliath Chronicles.
  • Heckle and Jeckle were mainly portrayed as mischief makers but there were some cartoons that had them as jailbound reprobates ("A Merry Chase," "In Again, Out Again") and others that had them as heroes ("Sno' Fun," "Hair Cut-Ups").
  • The Grinch does this; how often depends on how the continuity of the specials are interpreted. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, he's a bad guy who reforms. In Halloween Is Grinch Night, which is either a sequel or prequel to the first special, he's not only a bad guy, he's much worse. In The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat, he starts out good, turns bad, and then ends good. (Most likely scenario, the second special is a prequel, giving the Grinch two Heel Face Turns and one Face–Heel Turn.)
  • Kaeloo: As the series progresses, Mr. Cat swings back and forth between being a horrific bully and being a caring friend to the other main characters. In Episode 204, Mr. Cat's friends tell him that he's starting to become a nicer person, and the trope is discussed. Mr. Cat acknowledges that being kinder to people would help him feel happier in the long run, but he also thinks that being kind all the time would be boring because being mean allows him to have fun, and in the end he decides that he'll accept a little bit of both.
  • In Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, the inventor villain Taotie does a Heel Face Heel Face Heel Turn during the course of a single episode.
  • The Duke of Detroit on Motorcity. He's a bit of a Friendly Enemy or Anti-Villain, who's usually not as much of a threat to the Burners as Kane, but still opposes Mike Chilton at times. He's just more about having fun. He teams up with Kane in the first part of the finale, but is back to help the Burners in the second part, carrying out this trope.
  • Discord of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. His premiere had him as a full heel. He turned partially face in Season 3 thanks to Fluttershy, turned heel again at the end of Season 4, but turned full face at the end of that episode.
  • Phineas and Ferb: Dr Doofenshmirtz is a self-proclaimed evil scientist bent on taking over the Tri-State Area and has done many evil schemes which always fail, either due to his incompetence or Perry's interference. However, he has on many situations joined the good side and helped defeat several other great villains. Despite all of his heroics, he still insists that he is evil and continues with his schemes in later episodes. He always circles back and forth between both sides depending on the episode plot.
  • In The Real Ghostbusters, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was a bad guy in a some episodes, but an ally of the heroes in others; it seemed to be a case of Depending on the Writer.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Entrapta doesn't hold any particular allegiance to either side of the war, and changes sides twice. She first decides to leave the Rebellion after feeling that they betrayed her by leaving her behind, joining the Horde purely because they have technology that she could study and improve on, and then rejoins the Rebellion after they rescue her from Beast Island.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Sideshow Bob. First he was just a part of Krusty's show, then he framed Krusty for armed robbery and became a criminal for his next few appearances, then changed his ways and helped Bart take down his brother who was the true villain of the episode, then planned to have a hypnotized Bart blow up Krusty but realized he was wrong and tried to stop it before the episode ended, then helped the Simpsons family to find a criminal before promptly making another attempt on Bart's life, then changed his mind and decided to leave town instead...you get the picture.
    • Nelson's been a bully, a Bully Turned Buddy, and a Bully Turned Buddy Turned Bully to Bart and his friends, with his role in a typical episode ranging anywhere from Bart's chief tormenter at school to Bart's second best friend after Milhouse.
  • Butters from South Park oftentimes seems to end up working with Cartman on whatever his latest scheme is. Given Butters personality, however, it's more likely he just doesn't understand what he's doing.
    • Cartman himself has been through the door a few times. While usually a villain of some sort, there are times when he's treated as no more than just a jerk, rather than a person capable of mass murder. There are also times when his goals are almost selfless or his goals align with the 'heroes' of the episode enough that he's effectively the Big Damn Hero.
  • Man Ray from Spongebob Squarepants is a villain the first time we meet him. However, he's been fitted with a tickle belt that tickles him whenever he does something bad. He finally tricks SpongeBob and Patrick into taking it off him before going on a rampage. However, whenever he's about to do something evil he is conditioned to feel the tickle of the belt, eventually prompting/forcing him to give up and become a good citizen. It seems though that the belt's influence wears off after a while because in his next appearance, he's become a villain again, although this was probably just Negative Continuity.
  • In Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its sequel/Spiritual Successor, Star Wars Rebels, Hondo Ohnaka is on nobody's side except his own. He aids or hinders the heroes as it suits him.
  • Shere Khan from Talespin is a Deconstruction of Ambition Is Evil, and as such shows that while a desire for only money and power (his self-proclaimed motive) is not necessarily a good thing, neither does it just make you a bad guy all the time. This means that in some episodes he's ruthlessly conspiring with sky pirates to create a fuel shortage and a monopoly, while in others he saves the day at the end by shutting down his corrupt underlings in their scheming plans, not because they were corrupt, but because they were holding the Idiot Ball a little too much and that's bad for business. He's very nearly a prototypical David Xanatos, with more of an emphasis on money rather than power.
  • Terra, from the animated version of Teen Titans. She started off good, but after a Hannibal Lecture from Slade in her first outing with the team, mingled with her own paranoia, she mistakenly believed Beast Boy had gone behind her back and told Robin about her Power Incontinence, so she ran away from the Titans. Off-screen, she hooked up with Slade, agreeing to become his agent in exchange for his help in honing and controlling her powers, going so far as to become a spy inside the Titans after he was done training her. During her time as The Mole, she fell for Beast Boy and tried to manipulate events so he wouldn't be captured/killed by Slade when she finally betrayed the team, but Slade appeared before them when they were on their date and revealed to Beast Boy that Terra was his double agent. Beast Boy angrily telling Terra that she didn't have or deserve any friends made Terra push aside any guilt and throw herself wholeheartedly into being Slade's minion. As a result, she fought and seemingly killed the Titans, but they escaped, rallied and attacked her. The combination of nearly losing to them, Slade's abusive treatment for failing, and a Kirk Summation from Beast Boy all pushed her to make a final Heel–Face Turn and resulted in a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In the Thomas & Friends episode, "Bulgy", the titular double-decker bus hated railways and wanted to have them ripped up. He became a henhouse after he got stuck under a bridge, but when Sir Topham Hatt gave him a second chance in "Bulgy Rides Again", Bulgy became a lot friendlier and was turned into a mobile vegetable stand. Years later in "Unscheduled Stops", Bulgy is not only back to his original job as a double-decker bus, but is also back to his old anti-rail ways.
  • This is the very premise of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, with titular character being unable to choose what path to follow thanks to the influences of his heroic father, a villainous grandfather, and whatever his best friend Frida feels like that day. Manny's moral compass is always spinning, and this is most evident when put in the herometer, a device that tells whether or not its subject is a hero. The readout flip-flopped between good and evil so much that it quickly exploded.
  • Courtney in Total Drama is one of the most prominent examples due to her changing morality in each season. She begins as good/neutral in early-Island, changes to evil in late-Island and Action where she serves as the Big Bad, reverts back to good in the first half of World Tour, before returning to evil in the second half, turns good halfway through All-Stars, before being evil once again in her elimination episode. Needless to say, she's arguably one of the most frustrating cases of this trope in recent years.
  • Transformers has had a few such characters. In particular, it's hard to remember whether Armada Starscream was working for or against Megatron when he died.
    • Dinobot in Beast Wars betrayed the Predacons in the Pilot Episode when he realizes that Megatron did not bring them to Earth. However, in Season 2, when he realizes that Megatron DID bring them to Earth, realizing that Megatron is smart after all and could win the Beast Wars, he flips back to the Predacons, only to come back to the Maximals at the end of the same episode when Megatron tries to force him to kill Rattrap.
    • The beast Era had a couple based on this: Blackarachnia and Silverbolt. Both were originally maximal protoforms who were found by Predacons. Silverbolt betrayed the Predacons and joined the Maximals after finding out who were the good guys. Then he convinced Blackarachnia to join them. In Beast Machines they go to Cybertron after the Beast Wars are over, Silverbolt is captured by Megatron and turned into the Vehicon general Jetstorm and Blackarachnia has to free him and brings him back. Then in the comics they are captured by Unicron and Blackarachnia gets infected by a virus which makes her evil again. Then after the universe war Silverbolt brings her back to their home dimension to turn her back again.
    • Wreck-Gar of Transformers: Animated switches from neutral to criminal to Autobot to good for only one thing - GARBAGE! to Decepticon. This is as a result of him being basically a newborn baby who has yet to develop an understanding of the world around him or personality of his own, which meant that he basically did whatever somebody else suggested him to do. At the end of the episode, Ratchet advises him to simply be who he wants to be, at which he promptly announces "I am Wreck-Gar! I am a hero!", and sticks with it.
      • The Constructicons don't really seem to understand the fact that the Autobots and Decepticons are opposing sides of a WAR THAT WILL DECIDE THE FATE OF AN ENTIRE PLANET, so they have a tendency to flip between the two sides without a second thought. After jumping from Autobot to Decepticon for the first time, they still address the Autobots as friends and casually explain their reasoning, expecting the Autobots to understand (they did it because Megatron's oil tasted better than theirs). They flip sides about 7 times over the course of the series.
  • Winx Club:
    • Diaspro was never a nice person, and even good might be stretching it, but at first she was merely a jerk in the wrong place and ended up victimized. Come Season 3 and she brainwashes Sky into loving her, resulting in her banishment. She returns in Season 5 apparently reformed, and while she tries to break up Bloom and Sky she does nothing evil and is ultimately looking out for Sky's safety. Then in Season 6 she teams up with the Trix in an attempt to assassinate Bloom, putting her squarely on the evil side once again.
    • Nebula was once a good fairy in the past, but her imprisonment by the Wizards of the Black Circle left her bitter to humans. She was one of the strongest advocators of committing genocide on them. When Bloom beats her she reluctantly stops trying to kill humans and is willing to forgive the wizards that sealed her. Then the wizards betray them, and she launches a coup on her queen in order to hunt the wizards down without resistance, planning to later resume eliminating the humans. Once the wizards are defeated, she regrets her actions and is forgiven, placing her permanently on the good side.
  • Jack Spicer in Xiaolin Showdown has teamed up with the Monks more than once, usually as a matter of them mutually benefiting in taking down a common enemy, but once as a genuine attempt to join the side of good. However, in the end, he betrayed them once again and returned to evil... because he was afraid he'd be even worse at being a good guy than he was at being a villain.
    • Raimundo has had his share of this, though he only earnestly switched sides once, when he felt unappreciated by both Master Fung and his friends. He once got possessed by an evil entity, and he later faked another Face–Heel Turn as part of an elaborate plan.
    • The Yin-Yang World switches the alignment of anyone who leaves it without both the Yin Yo-Yo and the Yang Yo-Yo. Due to this mechanic, anyone can be a Heel Face Revolving Door.
  • Ninja Go: First Spinjitsu Master, Garmadon.


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