Heel Face Turn / Live-Action TV

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• 30 Rock uses this in a Show Within a Show that Jack's girlfriend's grandmother watches. The villain, Generalissimo, looks exactly like Jack, so Jack uses Executive Meddling to make the Generalissimo a good man who loves old Puerto Rican women, scratching lottery tickets, and going to McDonald's to order only coffee.
• Angel:
  • Fred does a Face–Heel Turn when becoming Illyria, and then ends up doing a Heel Face Turn later that season, though she's deeply, deeply unhappy about it.
  • Darla and Lindsey both flirt with a Heel Face Turn at various points, and Connor does a full Heel Face Turn.
• G'Kar started out the Babylon 5 Myth Arc looking deceptively like the heavy, and evolved into the conscience of the entire Interstellar Alliance. This was intentional misdirection of the audience.
  • Or, as with Londo, he simply changed because the situation had done so and remained the same inside.
  • The Minbari warrior caste leader Neroon was a true Heel Face Turn.
  • Bester appears to make one in Seasons 3 and 4, providing significant aid to the rebels, but later on reverts to his true allegiance: himself (and, secondarily, Psi Corps over and above the Earth Alliance government) Not before programming Garibaldi to function as a double agent, however..
• Battlestar Galactica: Athena and Caprica-Six. Later, the Leobens, Sixes, and Sharons as a whole. Also, Lt. Kelly during the mutiny.
• The Boys (2019): Starlight ends up helping The Boys and Hughie get his payback from A-Train.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Happens to Spike slowly over the course of four seasons. He started as part of the Big Bad trio (and the original Big Bad before Dru was healed and Angelus came to play) in Season 2, came back for a brief but still antagonistic cameo in Season 3, joined the main cast as a Nominal Hero in Seasons 4 and 5, then just completely joined the Scoobies Season 6 onward.
  • On top of that, we have Faith, who did a Face–Heel Turn first, then came back and Wesley, who appeared (to the team) to do a Face–Heel Turn before later coming back—both on the Buffy spinoff Angel, though the former appeared in the final season of Buffy too.
  • Timid wanna-be villain Andrew got one in Season 7, at first motivated primarily by his fear of Buffy and her gang, but later becoming Giles' protégé and a respected leader among the slayers.
  • Also Anya, who is a villain for, uh, two episodes. Then she falls for Xander...
  • Angel/Angelus who is a Heel–Face Revolving Door due to his unstable soul—unlike Spike, without it, he basically turns into a monster.
• Cole Turner/Belthazor of Charmed had more Heel/Face Face/Heel turns than some entire shows.
• Chespirito:
  • El Chompiras and El Botija, a couple of thieves with a long criminal career and several convictions, at some point in the series promise to left the criminal life, and they succeed, working honestly in an hotel alongside Botija’s wife Chimoltrufia and with certain support of local policeman Sargento Refugio and Licenciado Morales (the local D.A.), who in previous sketches where their antagonists. Several episodes after that deal with their struggle for rehabilitation in society and/or the bad times they spent in prison.
  • There’s a similar two-part episode with El Chapulín Colorado in one of the western settings, when famous gunslinger Matonsísimo Kid makes a Heel–Face Turn, sadly due to his criminal past the people in the town still wants to hang him thus forcing Chapulin to help him escape prison. The bittersweet ending left ambiguous if Kid is gonna keep his turn or, on the contrary, the experience convinces him otherwise.
• Control Z: Gerry slowly goes through one when he genuinely regrets his mistreatment of Luis and comes to terms with his guilt in having murdered him, at which point he decided that the best course of action is to turn himself in as a way to pay his debt.
• In Deadwood, Al Swearengen starts out as the villain of the series, stepping on a prostitute's neck in the first episode and quickly getting into a rivalry with the honorable main character, Seth Bullock. However, the more Hearst influence insinuates itself into the town, the more heroic Al becomes, forming an alliance with other sympathetic citizens and working to thwart the new Big Bad. He's still a total bastard.
• Doctor Who:
  • Neeva and Calib in "The Face of Evil".
  • The Fifth Doctor's companion, Vislor Turlough, joins the TARDIS crew as The Mole, under orders to kill the Doctor by the Black Guardian, but has a change of heart, defies the Guardian, and remains a loyal companion until his departure.
  • "Evolution of the Daleks": Dalek Sec, the leader of the Cult of Skaro, has one after merging with a human, coming to reject the Daleks' absolute xenophobia. The other Daleks unsurprisingly turn on him for this, and he winds up exterminated.
  • "The Poison Sky": Luke Rattigan eventually does this after learning that the Sontarans were only using him all along and had no intention of fulfilling their deal to take him and his students to a new world (General Staal smugly claims that the planet never existed in the first place). In his case, it leads to Redemption Equals Death, as he decides to atone by taking the Doctor's place in a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Sontaran ship.
  • "Journey's End" reveals that Dalek Caan had one after his last appearance. He does a face turn after seeing "the whole of time and space" and bearing witness to the destruction and devastation that his species have caused throughout history. Unfortunately, since he had become insane and babbling, it was a little too late by the time the Daleks had discovered his actions.
  • In "The End of Time", the Master realizes that much of his insanity was caused by the High Council of the Time Lords as part of a Time War-related gambit, and ultimately after fighting the Doctor for years joins him in defeating Rassilon and his council.
    • Although, by the Master's next appearance, she's back to her usual tricks.
    • Or is she?
    • The answer is revealed in "The Doctor Falls": after a few relapses, Missy finally decides to turn good and stand with the Doctor against an army of Cybermen... right before the Saxon Master shoots her in the back before she can act on it. Apparently, her past incarnation wasn't so much standing with the Doctor as killing someone he happened to be fighting.
  • "Let's Kill Hitler": After the Doctor has been poisoned by Mels, who was raised to kill the Doctor, he whispers something in her ear intended for River Song. When Mels figures out that she is River Song, she uses all of her remaining regenerations to bring him back to life.
  • "Into the Dalek": Rusty has a Face–Heel Turn and a Heel Face Turn within twenty minutes. Sort of. He's still a Dalek, but he only exterminates other Daleks now. The whole episode was about finding out if the Daleks were capable of this.
• Dollhouse: Alpha, the psychopathic doll that spends the majority of the series torturing and killing innocent victims, inexplicably becomes a self-sacrificing hero when he reappears in the episode "The Attic". Apparently being mindraped and tortured is an effective method of rehabilitating prisoners in the Whedonverse.
• Both Crais, and then Scorpius start off in pursuit of our heroes before they end up joining the crew in Farscape. Aeryn is the original one to pull that move. When you see that video of what she used to be like three cycles ago ... whoah.
• Game of Thrones:
  • After Jon wins the Battle of the Bastards, Robett Glover joins him.
  • Sandor deserts Joffrey and the Lannisters in "Blackwater".
  • Although Tyrion was never a true villain, he spent the majority of the show's early seasons actively furthering the goals of House Lannister (one of the show's most morally dubious factions.) After being cast out and betrayed the entirety of his family (sans Jamie), he becomes a key ally of the (relatively) more heroic Daenerys.
  • Formerly a mercenary and member of the Second Sons, Daario kills Mero and Prendahl and joins Dany.
  • Qhono was (and in many ways, still is) a brutal rampaging warrior who wanted to rape and pillage everything in his sight, but now he's steadfastly loyal to Daenerys, who keeps his impulses in check.
• In Garrow's Law, right at the very end, Sir Arthur Hill turns the tables on Lord Melville by exposing corruption at Garrow's instigation - and in the last scene he is shown giving Garrow and Sarah his blessing as they embark on a new life together. Quite amazing, given the animosity he has exuded throughout the series.
• Quinn Fabray on Glee, and arguably Puck as well (though he could also be considered a Heel–Face Revolving Door).
  • No mention yet of Sue Sylvester? Not only did she rank New Directions top amongst the other teams in Sectionals, she was also entirely responsible for the club staying open another year, despite having spent the past nine months continually trying to close it down.
  • Well, Sue only allowed New Directions to live because she loved hating it so much.
• Gossip Girl: Chuck Bass to some extent, thanks to Blair. While he's not turned completely good, he's a lot better than he was when the show started.
• Kamen Rider:
  • A recurring type of secondary Rider is someone who starts out opposed to the protagonist for several episodes, then eventually turns face. How good the original reason for them to fight is varies and ranges from opposing ideologies, to being a Punch-Clock Villain, to brainwashing, to simply holding the Conflict Ball. Examples include Chaser, Specter, Necrom, Grease, and Rogue, among others.
  • Kamen Rider Decade: Decade himself underwent a face turn before the series began, courtesy of Ultimate Kuuga punching him so hard that he got amnesia and forgot that he was the Destroyer of Worlds. He swings between face and heel a few more times in sequel movies, but always lands back on face in the end.
  • Kamen Rider Double: Shroud is never exactly villainous, but eventually manages to switch from Double's Evil Mentor using them as pawns to enact her vengeance to being the one who talks the monster to death when Double no longer can.
  • Kamen Rider Build: Besides the usual examples with Grease and Rogue, Sawa also turns out to be a spy for Nanba Heavy Industries, but after they pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness in episode 11, she defects to Sento's gang. Then, it turns out that the defection is faked, but Sawa comes to feel that Sento and his friends are more her family than Nanba ever was and quietly stops being a spy. When the truth comes out in episode 28, Sawa tells Nanba that she has cut ties with them for real.
• LazyTown: Robbie's three villains he orders for the infamous "We Are Number One" musical number end up playing football with Sportacus, declaring that playing sports is much more fun than being a villain.
• It's implied that Eliot Spencer from Leverage had one of these at some point pre-series, although we never get much in the way of details.
• Lost: As shown in flashback, Juliet had actually gotten sick of the Others some time before she was even introduced on the show. She took the first opportunity she could (being made The Mole) to betray Ben.
  • Ben himself finally has one part-way through Season 6, but only after having everything he cared about—his daughter, his authority, and Jacob—taken away from him.
  • The Freighties didn't really know that they were on the wrong side at first, but after witnessing some of Keamy's atrocities, they switch to the Losties' side pretty quick.
  • Likewise, Charles Widmore, the former Big Bad of the series, suddenly stops trying to take over the Island and returns to fight the evil of the Man in Black after an off-screen meeting with Jacob.
  • Sawyer too. In the beginning a true Jerkass he gradually becomes more and more likeable before completing the Heel Face Turn in Season 5.
    • The argument could be made that he actually made the Heel Face Turn in Season 1, when he told Jack about Jack's father.
• Layne Price in Mad Men moves in this direction when he agrees to Sterling, Cooper, and Draper's conspiracy; he completes it with gusto when he delivers his "Happy Christmas" to St. John, who had been pushing him around.
• Occasionally used in the 60s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Sometimes the U.N.C.L.E. agents manage to subvert a THRUSH operative into working for them (e.g., the second season episode "The Arabian Affair", where Solo informs a THRUSH minion who is due to retire that THRUSH liquidates retired minions to insure their permanent silence), whereas other times the villain comes over to the good side for his own reasons (e.g., the second season episode "The King of Diamonds Affair", where diamond thief Rafael Delgado decides to betray his organized criminal allies, free Solo and the Girl of the Week, and help them escape).
• Margaret Houlihan has a very well-orchestrated one on M*A*S*H, which takes place over the entire fifth season, with a pivotal episode called "The Nurses", which Loretta Swit says is her favorite episode. Two other important episodes are one where an old friend of hers visits, and tells her that not just her pierced ears have closed up, she has, after which she makes a deliberate effort to be more open with others, and the two-part episode where she is stranded with Hawkeye under fire. The great part of the story arc is that while the character softens, and becomes kinder, and warmer toward people, she does not lose her "regular army" bearing, and there's no retconning of her earlier coldness, so it is real character growth, and not a reboot.
• The 1998 Merlin series has Lord Lot and Lord Ardent, who are originally generals opposing the main characters but later become their allies.
• In No Good Nick, Nick starts out with the intention of robbing the Thompsons blind, but warms up to them and reconsiders her scheme over the course of the series, ultimately abandoning it at the end of Part 2.
• NUMB3RS: Dwayne Carter, who had betrayed his country and become a spy for the Chinese, ultimately turns on his boss, at the cost of his own life, to save Colby after Colby is exposed as a mole.
• Odd Squad:
  • Odd Todd, the Big Bad of Season 1 and Olive's former partner, doesn't go through a straight Heel–Face Turn. In the Season 1 finale, he ends up retreating when numerous odd creatures (revealed to be the agents in disguise) end up advancing on him, but he doesn't show signs of reformation. Come "Mid-Day in the Garden of Good and Odd", he's shown being Reformed, but Not Tamed, having given up on causing oddness but initially refusing to help Odd Squad and keeping a lot of his old tics and mannerisms from when he was evil. This comes to a head in the climax when he begins to perform a Face–Heel Turn upon getting ahold of Olympia's Toast-inator gadget, with Otis managing to stop him by showing him a tomato he had given him earlier. By "Odds and Ends", Odd Todd is shown having made a complete turn to the good side, running his own Home for Villains (which embodies this trope) and being far more cooperative with Odd Squad than before.
  • The Noisemaker is a subverted example. The main premise of the two Synchronous Episodes "Olympia's Day" and "Otis's Day" involves the Noisemaker going into Odd Squad's Villain Protection Program due to wanting to become good. However, in spite of all the trials and tribulations Otis goes through trying to get him back to Headquarters without other villains finding out in "Otis's Day", he comes to the conclusion that if he goes into the Villain Protection Program then he'll lose Otis as a friend and cites that as his reason for refusing to reform. By "Villains in Need Are Villains Indeed", he's returned to being a villain.
  • Brother Zero, from "Total Zeroes", ends up fulfilling his dream of quitting villainy to open and run his own flower shop. His sister, on the other hand, doesn't turn good and continues to be a villain despite her having been Drunk on the Dark Side and going too far with her powers for a period of time.
  • Otis's reformation is a major factor of his character arc and the Story Arc of Season 2. In "Who is Agent Otis?", it's revealed that Otis used to be a former villain who was raised by a villainous duck family as a young child and went along with their harassment of innocent people in various parks. However, as he grew older, he realized that what his family was doing was wrong, and when they decided to enact an Evil Plan to bring the Earth closer to the Sun so winters will be nonexistent, he decided to rat them out to Odd Squad and stop the machine before it could be activated, knowing that doing so would cause the deaths of him, his family, and the rest of the world. This caused him to develop an Absurd Phobia of ducks stemming from his fear that his adoptive family will come to hurt him, but he gained a valuable ally in Odd Squad and underwent a Heel–Face Turn with the help of Oprah, who trained him herself versus sending him to the Odd Squad Academy. In spite of all this, however, he remains Reformed, but Rejected to the Big O, the X's, and Olympia, and it's not until he saves Odd Squad from Ohlm attempting to suck everyone into a black hole that he becomes accepted by his coworkers. Likewise, Brother Quack, Otis' brother and father figure, ends up turning to the side of good when he realizes Otis' true intentions in betraying his family.
  • Ohlm is the only Enfant Terrible in the show that averts the trope, as even when he's saved from his untimely death, he is still an Ungrateful Bastard and refuses to stop being evil until Odd Squad is dead and in the ground.
  • In "Sample of New York", Polka Dot Pete ends up turning over a new leaf when he strikes a deal with Omar and Orla to polka-dot a landmark that they haven't been to yet, since it's a win-win for the both of them — they get to see new landmarks and he gets to explore more of New York City with his sister Cheryl, which he has never had a chance to do.
  • The entire premise of "16-and-a-Half-Blocks", which is the first episode of the mid-Season 3 finale, surrounds Evil Sculptor wishing to leave The Shadow's Villain Network and become good. The episode also performs a deconstruction of Heel–Face Turn as a trope — Evil Sculptor's reformation is not instant and he is shown to constantly struggle with his thoughts of villainy, lamenting that even if the Odd Squad Mobile Unit helps him become good and is successful in doing so, everyone will always see him as a villain. Upon saying this, Orla suggests he do other jobs (apart from making evil sculptures) that will make people see that he's a hero, but when he decides to try the idea out by attempting to help a postal worker with her packages, she believes he's robbing him and gets publicly shamed by most everyone in Nathan Phillips Square. In addition, other villains in the Villain Network attempt to close in on him and, at one point, give him a "They Still Belong to Us" Lecture that falls flat. By the end of the episode, Evil Sculptor officially breaks free of the Villain Network and fully reforms, entering the Villain Protection Program in the process.
  • The Shadow ends up pulling one in "End of the Road" after Opal, her older sister, apologizes to her for being so overprotective of her. From then on, she becomes The Atoner and decides to leave with Opal to make amends with her and to fix the damage she caused in Australia and in other countries around the world while she was still a villain. However, what became of Brutus, her henchman, is unknown.
  • In "Box Trot", the Form-Changer, Star Wipe, Monsieur Papier-Mache and Lady Bread all pull a simultaneous Heel–Face Turn. Lady Bread realizes that if she gets her odd powers back then she'll be unable to have normal human hands instead of the loaves of bread she had for hands, and both Monsieur Papier-Mache and Star Wipe realize that their powers, as well as going back to being villains, will hinder their current respective careers of being a DJ and a party decorator. After the Mobile Unit tells the group that they don't have to be villains and they can live normal lives doing what they love instead, the Form-Changer also decides to turn good and becomes the first customer of Star Wipe, Lady Bread and Monsieur Papier-Mache's combined party-planning business.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Regina the Evil Queen attempts one as early as the second season, wanting to become a good mother for Henry. Although she gets hindered by her mother's manipulations, Regina is on the side of good by Season 3 — even getting to use Light Magic, which only good can use.
  • Jefferson was previously a lackey of Regina but gave it all up to raise his daughter (after it's implied his wife was killed during one of their jobs). Although he gets sucked back into his old ways by Regina, he's ultimately reunited with his daughter and gets to live happily with her.
  • Ingrid the Snow Queen gets a last-minute one - when she discovers that her sister regretted sealing her in the urn years ago and her dying words were to free her. Ingrid has unfortunately cast a spell that will destroy everyone else so Redemption Equals Death comes into play.
  • Ursula the sea witch is given back her singing voice by Hook and reconciles with her father, leaving Storybrooke to live happily with him.
  • Maleficent gets to be redeemed when she finds out she is going to be a mother. Although separated from her child, she abandons any villainy when they are reunited.
  • After being sexist jerkasses, the Lords of the United Clans from Season 5's Brave arc finally accept Merida fit to be Queen of Dunbroch after she saved Harris, Hubert, and Hamish from execution; in addition, they aid her into finding her father's Enchanted Helm and defeating King Arthur. Even the Dunbroch Witch accepts Merida as Queen; after threatening to cast a bear curse on her subjects, when Merida has finally the aforementioned helm from her late father, King Fergus, the Witch admits that Merida has proved her leadership in Dunbroch as a Secret Test of Character and gives her magical ale from the Seonaidh.
  • Zelena (the Wicked Witch of the West) finally undergoes some Character Development in the second half of Season 5 before redeeming in Sisters. She becomes more neutral again throughout the first half of Season 6, but by Where Bluebirds Fly she is definitely a hero.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland:
  • The Red Queen turns out to be Will's former girlfriend Anastasia and, once realises what Jafar has planned for Wonderland, joins Alice and Will to try and stop him.
  • Amara was previously shown to be a Lady of Black Magic who made Jafar what he is. However once it's known she is Cyrus's mother and she's saved from her prison, she actively fights against him.
• Our Miss Brooks: In "Mr. Whipple", Miss Brooks, Walter Denton and Mr. Conklin are so affected by the story of the eponymous Mr. Whipple, a man who hasn't has a bite of solid food for a week. It turns out Mr. Whipple is a bad tempered miser who's on a liquid diet. No matter, the show of kindness affects Mr. Whipple so much he undergoes a heel-face turn and donates the money for Madison's new gymnasium.
• Person of Interest: Root started off as a Monster of the Week, became a Big Bad, then after a Villainous BSoD was put into an asylum to protect her. Once she regains her composure and breaks out, with some guidance from The Machine, she is considered a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain, eventually joining the team to save Reese in a move that Finch considers a clear use of the Godzilla Threshold. She proceeds to stick around, being considered a Token Evil Teammate at best and an Enemy Mine at worst. Then, in "/", she finally does something unambiguously good, which Finch in particular seems to consider her official Heel–Face Turn. The whole team is much more willing to work with her from that point on.
• Happens fairly often in Power Rangers. Sixth rangers such as Mighty Morphin's Green Ranger Tommy Oliver and Lightspeed Rescue's Titanium Ranger Ryan Mitchell have started out evil.
  • In Space actually had the Big Bad, Astronema, briefly join the rangers after finding out that The Hero Andros was her long-lost brother. While she originally intended to betray the Space Rangers and thus secure her place as Dark Specter's chosen heir, she ended up siding with them, and was even declared an honorary Power Ranger herself. While Dark Specter and Darkonda recaptured and brainwashed her into an even more evil Astronema v2.0, she was restored to her true self, Karone, in the Grand Finale and later took over the position of Lost Galaxy's Pink Ranger.
  • Another example from Lightspeed Rescue is Diabolico, who starts off as the Big Bad, then becomes The Dragon when Queen Bansheera reveals herself, then dies at the Rangers' hands and has his powers transferred to Impus, Bansheera's son. The latter becomes Olympius, and has no intention of sharing his power, which results in the other two Elite Mooks, Vypra and Loki, reviving Diabolico. In the end, Bansheera shows that she's willing to sacrifice all of them for her sake, and even forces Diabolico into killing Loki, his best friend who was blindly loyal to Bansheera. In spite of Bansheera's best attempts to make Diabolico Brainwashed and Crazy afterwards, his loyalties lie with the rangers from that point on until his second death. And the clincher? His ghost is what ultimately saves Red Ranger Carter from making a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Bansheera forever, taking on that role himself.
  • Jindrax and Toxica from Power Rangers Wild Force are a massive example, especially given their Sentai counterparts, Yabaiba and Tsuetsue, stayed bad guys, after all the grief they were put through by Highness Duke Org Rasetsu. In Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, Rasetsu used Tsuetsue as a shield against the Gaorangers' Hundred-Beast Sword, resulting in her death. Yabaiba brought her back to life, but Tsuetsue obviously learned nothing from it and became more obsessed with serving the Orgs, despite Yabaiba's hesitance. In Wild Force, however, when Mandilok, Rasetsu's PR counterpart, pulled the same shit with Toxica (she died too, but Jindrax brought her back), both Jindrax and Toxica agreed that they were finished with serving the monsters that were so willing to throw them away. They even help the Wild Force Rangers to help them save Princess Shayla from Master Org, and depart afterwards, looking to go find themselves in life.
  • Mystic Force has Leelee first, followed by 2 of the 10 terrors, and in the finale, Necrolai. And their Big Good, the Mystic Mother, turns out to be none other than Rita Repulsa. Yes, the very first Big Bad of the entire franchise.
  • Also Jarrod and Camile from Jungle Fury, even though Jarrod was possessed he still had a change of heart.
• Alia on Quantum Leap is talked out of her evil ways and happily leaps out alongside Sam to escape the evil leaping project's control. It's a justified example given that her handlers tortured her, and that she'd been told the only way to get home would be to commit evil acts, which is something that Sam debunks.
• Resurrection: Ertuğrul: Several occur over the course of the show, most of them involving the character converting to Islam. Those that do not qualify as Heel–Faith Turn include:
  • Selcan Hatun in Season 1. After spending much of the season constantly scheming against her fellow Kayis and collaborating with Kurdoglu occasionally, she ceases to commit any truly malicious acts after Kurdoglu conquers the Kayi clan from the inside, giving her a considerable change of heart. Season 2 goes out of its way to give this character her own story arc so as to make up for the atrocities that had been committed by her during Season 1.
  • The Tekfur of Karacahisar is set up to become a major threat to the Kayis after he embargoes the goods arriving at his city through the Hanli Market. But with a little convincing from Ertugrul and his alps, he lifts the embargo and commends them on saving his daughter’s life.
• Show Me a Hero: Mary Dorman goes from being the housing project's most outspoken opponent to being one of its most substantial supporters after realizing that the people it helps are just regular people like her.
• Sylar on Heroes had the shortest Heel Face Turn in recent memory, lasting only partway through Season 3. And both a Heel-Face Mind Screw and a straight turn during Season 4.
  • More permanent examples would be Mr. Bennet towards the end of Season 1 and Daphne during Season 3, at least until she died.
• Damar, Gul Dukat's Dragon on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, stays on with the Dominion after Dukat goes off to do his own thing. Eventually, though, he realizes the Dominion is using Cardassia, and starts a resistance movement. He even winds up taking terrorist lessons from old enemy Kira Nerys.
  • This then leads the entire Cardassian fleet to turn on the Dominion during the final battle.
• Star Trek: Voyager has two interesting examples:
  • Seven Of Nine, a former Borg drone that the crew rescued from the collective, is the most famous example in the Trek franchise. Janeway is convinced that they can rehabilitate this drone back into the human being she once was, but it's not apparent early on, as she's initially adamant about returning to the Borg collective. Slowly but surely, Seven settles into an ordinary life aboard Voyager (well, as ordinary as it gets on that ship) and is given duties to perform as she readjusts to being a human being. Being a former Borg drone, she proves to be ridiculously capable and intelligent, as reliable as anyone on the ship. While this means Seven maintains a disagreeable, condescending attitude toward mostly everyone around her, and never exactly runs from her past (punctuated by the cortical implant on her forehead), she eventually begins to feel some level of remorse for her past actions as a Borg drone. After some time, she's embraced, in her own way, being human again, regarding Janeway and the Doctor as her mentors, and the Voyager crew as her "collective."
  • Species 8472, who debuted in the same two-parter as Seven did. They quickly make an impression as intimidating Starfish Aliens whose ships somehow outgun the Borg, which was unthinkable a few short years ago. Voyager somehow manages to survive their encounter with them, but Species 8472 return in Season 5 having set a trap for the Voyager crew while adopting human forms, and designing a section of a planet to look like Starfleet Academy. This time, rather than risk fighting them, Janeway and the crew manage to sit down and negotiate with them. Species 8472 actually come away from the meeting with a better perspective of Voyager, and a tentative agreement of peace.
• Supernatural:
  • Castiel had a very very gradual Heel Face Turn over the course of Season 4, although nobody knows until the final episode that the angels are the bad guys, so although the change in loyalty is gradual, the act of changing sides appears to happen quickly. It almost happens a couple of episodes earlier, but his superiors catch him, prompting a brief Face–Heel Revolving Door situation. In fact, we catch glimpses of that trope throughout the season, with Castiel frequently deliberating between his orders and his increasing sympathy for Dean.
  • Meg had one of these in Season 7, first working with the Winchesters simply because they have a mutual enemy in Crowley. Gradually, she develops an attraction to Castiel and sacrifices herself so the Winchesters and Castiel can escape.
• Super Sentai
  • Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger: Burai started out as a vengeful warrior, who wanted to tried to destroy the Zyurangers to avenge his father. But after learning that the Red Ranger Geki is actually his brother who really cares for him, he decides to join the Zyurangers.
  • Gekisou Sentai Carranger: Beauty Zonnette only really tags along with the Universal Reckless Driving Tribe Bowzock because she was bored with her former life: she was originally a Rebellious Princess of Planet Fanbelt who was constantly rejecting one Arranged Marriage after another with nobles from other planets. This is why she ended up ditching her identity of Princess Vanity Mirror Fanbelt, as well as her sister Radietta, to live a life of excitement with the Bowzock. She eventually ditches the Bowzock as well after developing feelings for Kyosuke/Red Racer and hearing from Radietta that Emperor Exhaus endangers Planet Fanbelt as well as Earth. When Exhaus callously discards President Gynamo and the rest of the Bowzock, Zonnette convinces her former colleagues to follow suit and help them stop Exhaus.
    • Funny enough: Gynamo, Zelmoda, Grotch, Zonnette, Goki-chan, and the surviving members of the Bosou Sentai Zokuranger aren't that malicious either, having been tricked by Exhaus into destroying planets to make way for his intergalactic highway. After Exhaus' final defeat, they survive the series, reform, and have a happy ending. Instructor Ritchihiker doesn't, however: he goes fully evil sometime before Exhaus becomes involved in the plot, takes over the Bowzock by ousting Gynamo and Zonnette, and ultimately has to be killed by the Carrangers' Mid-Season Upgrade Mecha, VRV Robo.
  • Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger:
    • Jeanne is one of the Evolian's generals who resembles Mahoro, Asuka's late wife. it is later revealed she actually is Mahoro, only Brainwashed and Crazy. After Asuka removes her brainwashing, she joins the heroes.
    • Sixth Ranger Mikoto Nakadai starts the series as a Jerkass who only opposes the Abarangers For the Evulz. However, when it is revealed he carries part of the Big Bad within him and is manipulated by the other villains, he joins the Abarangers. It is interesting to note that, contrary to most Sixth Rangers, he only joins the team near the finale.
  • Mahou Sentai Magiranger has several characters doing this.
    • Wolzard is revealed to be the Brainwashed and Crazy father of the Rangers.
    • Hades God Sphinx, Hades God Titan and Vancuria all decide to defect because they realize the evil side only consists of backstabbing jerkasses.
  • Rio and Mele from Juken Sentai Gekiranger more or less start out as a rival team of Ranger-like warriors. Rio's motivation is to become the strongest warrior ever, to compensate for his past weakness. But after learning that the traumatic experiences of his past were orchestrated by Long, he and Mele join the Gekirangers.
  • Engine Sentai Go-onger has the Big Bad Triumvirate themselves, of all people. It happens over time and even Reunion Shows. It starts near the very end of the regular series, when the surviving two tell the Rangers how to defeat their much more despicable boss after he betrays them. All three reappearing in the Sanzu River in Shinkenger after their deaths, they tell the Rangers where the movie villain is after having decided not to help the Evil Plan more because they couldn't be bothered than anything else. Fast-forward to Gokaiger and they're found in the prison for villains who have betrayed evil, containing every Heel Face Turning monster across sentai history, suggesting the three are considered actual 'good guys' now. Fast-foward more to 10 Years Grand Prix, where they genuinely help the Go-Ongers out of the goodness of their hearts for the first time and become true allies.
  • Ressha Sentai ToQger has Akira Nijino, aka ToQ #6... aka Zaram, a Shadow Monster who defected to become the Rainbow Line's signal man. He is The Atoner but feels that Redemption Equals Death; he won't be fully forgiven until he dies for his crimes. Of course, we're not talking the most serious Sentai there has ever been; we find out that when he was Zaram his crimes fell straight into Poke the Poodle territory and that even a Death Seeker can be played entirely for comedy.
  • Torin, The Mentor, from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger was formerly a member of the Deboss Army, one of its highest-ranked members alongside his brother Hundred-Faced High Priest Chaos, destroying planets full of intelligent life. He made his turn after arriving on Mesozoic Earth, moved by the beauty of the planet and the potential of its inhabitants. Thus, he defected to recruit warriors to protect the planet from Deboss and its minions. In the final act, all of the initial villains defect as well, because Deboss has proven to be such a Bad Boss that every single one of them has been given at least one good reason to switch sides.
• Taken:
  • In "God's Equation", Ray Morrison holds the other members of his Alien Abduction therapy group, Dr. Harriet Penzler and later Allie hostage, accidentally shooting Charlie in the process. After Allie helps him to realize that he is angry because he was sexually molested as a child, he lets the hostages go. He apologizes to Charlie for having shot him in "Dropping the Dishes" and joins the other group members in protecting Allie from the government in the final episode "Taken".
  • In the final episode "Taken", Dr. Wakeman tries to phone Tom in order to warn him that Mary is aware that he, Charlie, Lisa and Allie are hiding in Sally's old house in Lubbock, Texas. However, he is shot and killed by Mary before he has the chance to do so. Wakeman's attempt to help his erstwhile adversaries is motivated not by a realization that what he was doing was wrong but by a desire to allow the aliens' plan to reach fruition without interference.
• Tin Man reveals that Azkadelia is not evil of her own free will but possessed by the original Wicked Witch. She ultimately casts the witch out and sisterly love saves her in the end.
• Surprisingly, Ultraman Tiga is revealed to have experienced this in The Movie The Final Odyssey. He was formerly one of the Dark Giants, fighting other Ultras and almost destroying the ancient civilization they protected. However, in his human form, he fell in love with a woman called Yuzare, who turned him to the side of light. Tiga defeated the rest of the Dark Giants afterwards, sealing them in stone.
• Warehouse 13 has Claudia Donovan, initially seen as an antagonist. Early in Season 1, she hacked into the Warehouse to get to Artie, blaming him for her brother's victimization to an artifact and trying to have him help her bring him back. Once that succeeds, she's proven to be an overall good person, and becomes the Warehouse's Techno Wizard, and later a fully fledged agent.
  • Another example is Helena Wells, Big Bad of Season 2 who is forced to see the error of her ways and reforms, becoming an ally starting in Season 3.
• Xena started off as a villain on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys before turning good and getting her own show.
  • After a loooong time, Xena's Evil Counterpart Callisto has one too.

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