History HeelFaceTurn / LiveActionTV

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* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' excellently subverts this. After being revealed as a HYDRA agent and killing several people, Ward starts off Season 2 claiming to be making amends and clearly thinking he'll be accepted. However, it's soon made clear the team are ''never'' going to forgive him for what he did and thus his turn never takes (in large part because Ward's actual motives don't really seem to be all that pure anyway).

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** Most notable example is probably Leonard Snart/Captain Cold. Although [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold he does retain his somewhat villainous mannerism, he turns out to be a legitimately good person.]] He even becomes a member of a team consisting of time-travelling scientists and superheroes, the Legends.
** Killer Frost, Caitlin Snow's second personality. In Season 3, she starts out as a manifestation of Caitlin's repressed pain and anger, she gradually learns to see value in giving others a hand and being a nice person. She even learns to love Caitlin as a sister she shares a body with (and vice versa). In Season 6, Frost starts living her own life and express herself on a level previously unseen.
** Marlize De Voe in Season 4. Despite being a caring and empathetic person, [[FaceHeelTurn she is slowly twisted into a cold, fanatical zealot]] by her husband, Clifford De Voe/Thinker. However, her good qualities push through and arise, bringing her back to the good guy status, courtesy of Harrison Wells and Cecile Horton, who managed to convince her to do the right thing.
** Orlin Dwyer/Cicada in Season 5. As a SympatheticMurderer, he is constantly asked by Barry and the team to abandon his anti-metahuman crusade. It takes several attempts to persuade him, but eventually he agrees, upon learning that he and his niece Grace might become normal again. After being healed, he truly does revoke his grudges, but doesn't last long enough to do more good as he is killed by Grace's future variant for abandoning his mission.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** Lionel Luthor starts out as a ruthless businessman, bad father, and the TropeCodifier for MagnificentBastard, undergoes an abrupt about-turn while in prison. His devotion to a life of poverty and charity work is short-lived, however, as a fight with Lex motivates him to return to ruthless tactics, ostensibly to actually protect Lex... And then he finds himself serving as a conduit for Clark's dead father, Jor-El, repenting for his past acts, devoting his life to protecting Clark, and suffering from really bad migraines. Unfortunately, all of this is so confusing that no one actually believes that he's a good guy when he begs them for help. [[spoiler:He is eventually killed by his own son, Lex, after which Clark finally learns, once and for all, that Lionel had been on his side in the end, dying to protect Clark's identity as the Traveller from Lex. Clark acknowledges that Lionel was the third 'father' who had died for him, and honours him the same way he honoured Jonathan Kent -- by pouring a handful of dirt on his coffin.]]
** Metallo pulls one in Season 9, after a restructuring of his system purges him of the adrenaline rush that heightened his aggression and made him evil. Since the comic book character is still evil though, there's no telling if it will last.
** [[RoboticPsychopath Brainiac]] appears to have turned to the side of the angels. [[spoiler:He now calls himself Brainiac 5 and is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, claiming that they and Clark "cured" him of his evil. He returned to the present to aid Clark by 1) preventing Smallville High's student councilor from trying to kill Clark at his high school reunion and 2) [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol showing him his past, present and future]], to help Clark get over his misplaced guilt over Pa Kent's death and his fear of the future, and move toward his destiny. However, since this is [[HeelFaceBrainwashing due to reprogramming]], it may not count as genuine. Made even more muddled by the fact that this version of the character was reprogrammed into performing a FaceHeelTurn in the first place before the destruction of Krypton.]]
** [[DarkActionGirl Tess Mercer]] also attempts one of these in Season 10. Despite her HeelFaceRevolvingDoor track record, she sticks with it -- even [[spoiler:shooting down Earth-2 Lionel's offer to become the father she never had]] -- right to the end of the series, [[spoiler:when in the GrandFinale, she uses her last breaths to give a last-minute verbal TakeThat to Lex and wipe his mind with a neurotoxin, ensuring that he cannot use any of the knowledge he accumulated since the beginning of the series against the newly dubbed Superman]].

* ''Series/WonderWoman1975'': In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman", Fausta turns on her Nazi masters and helps Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor escape.

* ''Film/PerfectAssassins'': Leo goes from TheMole who sells the heroes out to [[PsychoPsychologist Greely]] to helping them after Greely orders them killed, thus going against their deal.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'':
** [[spoiler:Sawa]] turns out to be a spy for Nanba Heavy Industry, but after [[spoiler:they pull a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness in episode 11, she]] defects to Sento's gang. [[spoiler: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.]]
** Kazumi (Kamen Rider Grease) is a downplayed example since he was ultimately just [[PunchClockVillain a Hokuto soldier]] in the Hokuto--Touto war who has no personal problem with Sento and his friends. After Hokuto falls to Seito, Kazumi joins Sento to save Hokuto and Sento's idealism eventually rubs on him.
** [[spoiler:Gentoku]], in his desire for power, is forced to endure the process of becoming a Kamen Rider which breaks the HatePlague that have been affecting him and making him a villain. He joins the heroes' side when [[spoiler:Nanba and Blood Stalk's actions become too much for him and Gentoku's KryptoniteRing (that have been preventing him from following his conscience for a while) is disabled by Sento]].

** Torin, TheMentor, from ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' 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.

** There’s a similar two-part episode with ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' in one of the western settings, when famous gunslinger Matonsísimo Kid makes a HeelFaceTurn, 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 convince him otherwise.
* ''Film/TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt'': The BigBad Prune, after spending the whole film being a ChildHater and CardCarryingVillain, finally recovers his forgotten childhood when he receives a sailboat he had wished for as a child; his StartOfDarkness was indeed when he never got it and decided his childhood just didn't happen. The moment the turn occurs is as we see Prune gripping his sailboat at the end; and it's hammered home when he gives it to a little boy at the VERY end!

** [[DarkActionGirl Tess Mercer]] is also attempts one of these in Season 10. Despite her HeelFaceRevolvingDoor track record, she sticks with it -- even [[spoiler:shooting down Earth-2 Lionel's offer to become the father she never had]] -- right to the end of the series, [[spoiler:when in the GrandFinale, she uses her last breaths to give a last-minute verbal TakeThat to Lex and wipe his mind with a neurotoxin, ensuring that he cannot use any of the knowledge he accumulated since the beginning of the series against the newly dubbed Superman]].

* Lionel Luthor, in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', who starts out as a ruthless businessman, bad father, and the TropeCodifier for MagnificentBastard, undergoes an abrupt about-turn while in prison. His devotion to a life of poverty and charity work is short-lived, however, as a fight with Lex motivates him to return to ruthless tactics, ostensibly to actually protect Lex... And then he finds himself serving as a conduit for Clark's dead father, Jor-El, repenting for his past acts, devoting his life to protecting Clark, and suffering from really bad migraines. Unfortunately, all of this is so confusing that no one actually believes that he's a good guy when he begs them for help. [[spoiler: He is eventually killed by his own son, Lex, after which Clark finally learns, once and for all, that Lionel had been on his side in the end, dying to protect Clark's identity as The Traveller from Lex. Clark acknowledges that Lionel was the third 'father' who had died for him, and honours him the same way he honoured Jonathan Kent - by pouring a handful of dirt on his coffin]].

** More recently, [[RoboticPsychopath Brainiac]] appears to have turned to the side of the angels. [[spoiler: He now calls himself Brainiac 5 and is a member of the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes, claiming that they and Clark "cured" him of his evil. He returned to the present to aid Clark by 1) preventing Smallville High's student councilor from trying to kill Clark at his high school reunion and 2) [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol showing him his past, present and future,]] to help Clark get over his misplaced guilt over Pa Kent's death and his fear of the future, and move toward his destiny. Since this is due to reprogramming however, it may not count as genuine. Made even more muddled by the fact that this version of the character was reprogrammed into performing a FaceHeelTurn in the first place before the destruction of Krypton.]]
** [[DarkActionGirl Tess Mercer]] is also attempting one of these as of Season 10. Given her HeelFaceRevolvingDoor track record, it's hard to see where she'll end up. So far though, she's stayed loyal, even [[spoiler:shooting down Earth-2 Lionel's offer to become the father she never had]].
*** She stuck with it right to the end of the series, [[spoiler: when in the GrandFinale, she uses her last breaths to give a last-minute verbal TakeThat to Lex and wipe his mind with a neurotoxin, ensuring that he cannot use any of the knowledge he accumulated since the beginning of the series against the newly dubbed Superman.]]

** [[TheDragon Jindrax]] and [[DarkChick Toxica]] from ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' 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 ''Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger'', [[spoiler:Rasetsu [[HumanShield used Tsuetsue as a shield]] against the Gaorangers' Hundred-Beast Sword, resulting in her death. Yabaiba brought her back to life, but [[IgnoredEpiphany Tsuetsue obviously learned nothing from it and became more obsessed with serving the Orgs, despite Yabaiba's hesitance]].]] In Wild Force, however, [[spoiler: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'' [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal with serving the monsters that were so willing to throw them away]]. [[BigDamnHeroes 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.]]

** ''Series/GekisouSentaiCarranger'': [[DarkChick Beauty Zonnette]] only really tags along with the [[UsefulNotes/{{bosozoku}} Universal Reckless Driving Tribe Bowzock]] because she was bored with her former life: she was originally a RebelliousPrincess of Planet Fanbelt who was constantly rejecting one ArrangedMarriage 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 [[TheHero Kyosuke/Red Racer]] and hearing from Radietta that [[GreaterScopeVillain Emperor Exhaus]] endangers Planet Fanbelt as well as Earth. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When Exhaus callously discards]] [[BigBad President Gynamo]] and the rest of the Bowzock, Zonnette convinces her former colleagues to follow suit and help them stop Exhaus.

* ''Series/WonderWoman'': In "Fausta the Nazi Wonder Woman", Fausta turns on her Nazi masters and helps Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor escape.

** ''[[Series/PowerRangersMysticForce Mystic Force]]'' has Leelee first, followed by 2 of the 10 terrors, and in the finale, Necrolai.

** Most notable example is probably Leonard Snart/Captain Cold. Although [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold he does retain his somewhat villainous mannerism, he turns out to be a legitimately good person.]} He even becomes a member of a team consisting of time-travelling scientists and superheroes, the Legends.

** Marlize De Voe in Season 4. Despite being a caring and empathetic person, she is slowly twisted into a cold, fanatical zealot by her husband, Clifford De Voe/Thinker. However, her good qualities push through and arise, bringing her back to the good guy status, courtesy of Harrison Wells and Cecile Horton, who managed to convince her to do the right thing.

** Orlin Dwyer/Cicada in Season 5. As a SympatheticMurderer, he is constantly asked by Barry and the team to abandon his anti-metahuman crusade. It takes several attempts to persuade him, but eventually he agrees, upon learning that he and his niece Grace might become normal again. After being healed, he truly does revoke his