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alt title(s): Face Heel Revolving Door 
Make up your frakking mind!
D'Anna: "Boomer's an Eight. Shouldn't she be on the other side?''
Cavil: "Boomer's my pet Eight. She's seen the light of reason. And an Eight can make a passionate ally."
When a villain is sufficiently popular, they have a tendency to do a Heel Face Turn. And such characters have a tendency to do Face Heel Turns when it's realized that they really worked better as a villain. But, even though the character works better as a villain, he's so popular that the powers that be will often give him further temporary Heel Face Turns because they are uncomfortable with their audience Rooting For The Empire.
This phenomenon works the other way, as well. The Hero loses perspective and becomes a Well Intentioned Extremist, 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 Heel Face Revolving Door.
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 one of the gray- scales. And done carelessly, it'll hurt the quality or create Character Derailment.
This is common in Comic Books, media using the Seven Year Rule, and collaborative media written by fans Running The Asylum. It's easier with characters who have what is initially a Never Live It Down moment or a Remember When You Blew Up A Sun in their past.
Enemy Mine can facilitate this. It's often understood that switching sides through Enemy Mine won't create a permanent change of allegiance. But if a sufficiently high percentage of a character's appearances are Enemy Mine, this is one of the possible implications.
The Wild Card is what someone who has been through the revolving door too many times may turn into.
Compare Chronic Backstabbing Disorder (which, in some cases, is the Alternate Character Interpretation of this trope), and the Enigmatic Minion (he never changes sides, but no one is sure what side he's really on).
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Seto Kaiba, one of anime's most prominent 'Tweeners.
- A character in the anime version of the Mushiking arcade, called Soma. He is at first suspicious, but becomes good, then becomes a baddie to be with his mother, who's one of them, and then becomes good again when everyone but The Dragon sees how ludicrous the Big Bad's plan is. Really, this guy gets the Revolving Door award.
- Ling Yao and Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist. Ling spends the time when he's not possessed by Greed picking sides based off of who knew the most about immortaity, such as running around with Barry the Chopper. After he's possessed by Greed, you could say he basically does the same thing. Only leaning more towards world domination. As of late, he's leaning more towards anti-villain.
- Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. First he was a villain, then he joined Goku and the other Z Fighters in the fight against Frieza...then he turned back into a villain in a Not Brainwashed moment during the Buu saga...and then became a good guy once again. Then he was brainwashed and fused with the new Big Bad, Baby. Then he was good again. The series ended before he could rotate any more.
- When in this series is he a good guy? Surely, he changes sides very often, but without drastic moral or ethical changes, which would indicate Heel Face/Face Heel-Turns.
- Well, that final Heel Face Turn in the Buu saga seemed to be the genuine thing. It was even accompanied by a Redemption Equals Death moment to show it was the real thing.
- And then they brought him back to life.
- DBZ also likes to have ex-villains insist they haven't really changed: see Piccolo, who still claimed to be "the devil" long after his Face credentials were firmly established.
- It's the moral version of Single Target Sexuality. When you start pairing with Goku, you can't avoid being a goodoers, even when you'd like to stay evil.
- Inuyasha: Kikyo can't seem to decide if she wants Naraku dead, or Inuyasha, or both. She also has difficulty deciding why she wants it done and how to do it.
- Char Aznable: The Rival, then The Mentor to his rival's successor, then the Big Bad, then finally a Heroic Sacrifice over the course of two series and a movie.
- Also in Gundam Wing Char's 'greatest fan' Milliardo Peacecraft switches in almost the exact same pattern that Char did, only he does it all in one season.
- Naruto: Not actual good-to-evil-to-good-etc flip, but the character Sasuke has done enough 90 degree side turns that he's one away from being Naruto's ally again.
- Viletta Nu from Code Geass. She started as an enemy soldier, then got amnesia and became Ohgi's love interest, then recovered her memory and non-fatally shot Ohgi, then was recruited in the second season to spy on Lelouch while posing as a teacher, then got blackmailed by Lelouch into working for him while pretending to still be secretly spying on him. When Jeremiah showed up hunting for Lelouch, she revealed his location eagerly and begged Jeremiah to free her from Lelouch's control, but as soon as he left, she contacted Lelouch to warn him that Jeremiah was coming for him, giving him time to set up a trap. She later arranged a meeting with Ohgi, intending to kill him, but ended up reconciling with him and eventually betrayed Lelouch alongside him. After Lelouch dies, they both got married. Can she do ballet spins on those High Heels?
- Evangeline A.K. McDowell from Mahou Sensei Negima is more or less trapped in the revolving door, appearing first as the villain, then as the Eleventh Hour Superpower, then mostly remaining the "evil" good. Being a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold does not help definig her either.
- For being a anime about wrestlers, happens VERY rarely in Kinnikuman and Kinnikuman Nisei. The only three examples out there are Neptuneman, Sunshine, and Ashuraman. The latter two started out as Akuma Choujin in the Golden Mask arc and were villains during the Dream Tournament arc, but Sunshine always had a soft spot for displays of friendship and Ashuraman had strong morals for a prince of the underworld. After Sunshine is killed by THAT arc's Big Bad, Ashuraman does everything he can to help out the heroes. Later, in Ultimate Muscle, Sunshine makes a return as the instructor for two new Akuma Choujin, and his motivation was because his time as an Akuma Choujin was the only time he had genuine friends. Much later, during the Demon Seed arc, Ashuraman goes crazy again after his son finds out he's a murderous demon and kills his mother as a result, causing Ashuraman to kill him. Ashuraman then returns to his old ways as well.
- Neptuneman's the king of this, however. Initially a Seiji (Justice) Choujin, he decides nobody's enough of a challenge for him. So he makes a Deal With The Devil, well, King Neptune, to help him return wrestling to its bloody and archaic roots. During the Dream Tournament arc, he is *the* Big Bad, merciless and cruel, although he eventually admits defeat. Afterwards, during the Throne arc, he helps Kinnikuman's team during the final match, culminating in a Heroic Sacrifice. Sounds great right? WRONG!!! In Ultimate Muscle's latest arc, he's back to his old ways and ripping the faces off his opponents, along with Whether or not Neptuneman is again the Big Bad is unknown, considering there's an equally evil team out there they might end up fighting.
- By the looks of it, they *will*.
- Gazille from Fairy Tail seems to be turning into this, but he's been leaning to the Face side recently... He starts out as a mercenary for a rival guild, but gets defeated and then is convinced to join Fairy Tail by Lluvia, a guild member from said rival guild who did a permanent Heel Face Turn. After supposedly proving that he was on their side by doing a small show and protecting Levi (whom he had gravely injured in the previously mentioned attack on the guild) from an attack, he shows himself (although not to the guild) to be The Mole for another contrator who also aims to take down Fairy Tail. Once Luxus' attempt to forcibly rebuild the guild to his liking is foiled, he goes to his new employer and finds out his plan. He returns to the guild, where he tells Makarov of his employer's location and his plan, apparently working as a double agent.
- The key word is Double Agent. He didn't join Raven Tail, and then defect from Raven Tail to Fairy Tail. He "joined" Raven Tail as a Reverse Mole for Fairy Tail. So... (carry the one...) that comes out to one Heel Face Turn.
- Gerard seems to be shooting for this too.
- Team Rocket from Pokemon love this trope. Some episodes just have them doing casual work with no intention to hurt anybody, but they go back to more dishonest work later.
- Dammit, Beato. Introduced looking like a Complete Monster, but gets rather Moe at points, has a very weird Tsundere-ish relationship with Battler, and has a lot of Pet The Dog moments, some going so far as to resemble a Heroic Sacrifice when she's faced with a real Complete Monster like Eva-Beatrice. She appears to be aware of this trope, and will joyfully trip back and forth across it just for the lulz.
- Crona from Soul Eater looks like he/she might be falling into this trope (at least in the manga). When we first meet Crona she is the first reoccurring antagonist. After the Kishin revival arc Crona does a Heel Face Turn and helps Shibusen—or at least intends to. Then Medusa uses this as an opportunity to turn Crona into The Mole, which she is very reluctant to go along with. The anime leaves Crona with the good guys. The manga has Crona captured by Medusa. As of the latest chapters Crona has been once again driven to madness and is against Shibusen—or really, anyone who's not with Medusa... which is just about everyone (except Free and a reluctant Eruka and Mizune).
- Recent manga chapters have revealed pretty definite proof that he/she is, in fact, a girl.
Comic Books
- Catwoman.
- Magneto of X-Men.
- Mystique is sometimes mentioned as an example (with an actual revolving door reference here
 ), but isn't, really; she's more like the character who works with whichever side supports her current goal.
- Since her "current goals" have been both heroic and villainous, and he's been a villain, federal agent, terrorist, spy and full-fledged X-Man at various times, she pretty much counts. It's not as if the other examples of this trope spend a lot of time working contrary to their "current goals."
- Gambit tends to wemble sides, but usually his goal is whatever keeps him closest to Rogue.
- And yet the X-Men never seem to figure this out and consistently assume he really has changed sides again.
- Deadpool wavers between mercenary, good guy, or doing merc work for the bad guy of the week. This is due in large part to the fact that he's insane.
- It's a fairly well documented and much lamented fact that any time a villain becomes popular enough, Marvel will take a stab at making them a hero, or at least an anti-hero, until they realize that that robs them of everything that made them popular in the first place.
- Arguably the most ridiculous example: their repeated (at least three times) attempts to make sociopathic casual killer Sabertooth into an X-Man. At least they recently seem to have realized that rehabilitating him will never pan out, and resorted to coercing him into behaving himself. Although there have been at least two alternate universe versions that exist primarily to allow a heroic Sabertooth without all the baggage.
- Magneto's children Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch started as member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants then reformed and joined the Avengers and have been ping-ponging back and forth between heroism and villainy ever since. Quicksilver primarily because he'd really like to be a hero but is too self-centered to not do something he thinks will improve his situation just because it's illegal or wrong or something; Scarlet Witch primarily because she has a mental breakdown whenever a writer can't think of something more interesting to do with her near-omnipotent powers.
- Batman villain Two-Face literally flips a coin. Harley Quinn has also had more than one failed reformation, mostly due to her lingering, err, affections for the Joker, probably the Batman villain least likely to have a Heel Face Turn.
- In his very first appearance, Two-Face had captured Batman and was throwing the coin for whether to kill or free him. Batman asked what if the coin stood on its edge? and got Two-Face agree to surrender and submit to plastic surgery and therapy. The coin — substituted by Batman for the real coin — stood on its edge, and Two-Face returned to a normal life. However, he was later injured again and return to his life as Two-Face.
- ANY time Two-Face gets his face restored or tries to give up on his evil personality, he always goes back to his old ways. One was even helped along by the Joker.
- Since he would've had the scarred face as a villain and the uninjured face otherwise, does this make this a Heel Face Face Face Turn?
- Possibly a Heal Face Turn.
- The Riddler sometimes went through the door as well, though currently he's a Face. It's unknown whether he will become a Heel again.
- Luke Skywalker of all people, in the first Dark Empire miniseries. He joins the resurrected Emperor to learn to "defeat evil from within" and very quickly starts Becoming The Mask, although it's debatable whether he actually turns or just comes close. Then an encounter with his sister and friends knocks some sense into him and he turns against the Emperor. The Emperor defeats Luke and claims to have annihilated his personality, leaving him a mindless puppet completely loyal to the Emperor. However, their following confrontation with Leia quickly proves the Emperor wrong, as she is able to break through his Mind Control, at which point, brother and sister team up and finally take the Emperor down. Er, again.
- And they have to do it a few more times before he's finally Deader Than Dead, but I digress ...
- Spider Man "villain" Venom had a tendency to hop back and forth between villain and anti-hero (usually dependant on whose perspective a given book was shown from). Sometime in the 90's it just became accepted that he was an anti-hero, never really being cast as a proper villain, even when working as an enemy to Spider-Man. This is likely because his villain gig was taken over by his "son", Carnage.
- Namor the Sub-Mariner deals with this so often that the trope may as well be named The Namor. He fought the original Human Torch (that's bad) and allied with him against the Axis in World War II (that's good ) then swore revenge against humanity when he thought they'd destroyed Atlantis (that's bad) then swore to defend Atlantis once it was discovered again (that's good), and the frogurt is also cursed (that's bad). To put it another way: Marvel currently has two "ruling councils" of good guys and bad guys. Namor is on both of them.
- Your reference makes me ponder the two trips that Sideshow Bob has taken through the door...
- This Trope could also be named The Black Adam. He started out as a champion of his people in ancient times named Mighty Adam (that's good) then became a brutal dictator and conqueror when his family was killed by a supervillain (that's bad) then millennia later attempted to reform and even joined the Justice Society Of America (that's good) then became a not-so-brutal dictator of his country again (NOT the bad part) and later joined a Society of Villains to ensure their safety (that's bad). After said Society betrayed him, he later fought against them when they tried to take over Metropolis (that's good) then went back to being a harsh dictator with plans to form a new Axis Powers coalition (that's bad). When he gained a new family he tried to go back to his old heroic ways and traveled the world fighting evil alongside them (that's good). When this family was killed by supervillains he went on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, murdered an entire country, and fought every superhero on Earth (that's bad, but awesome). Most recently, his wife Came Back Wrong and started turning his people into dirt and he tried to defend them leading to a truly bizarre situation with Black Adam defending innocents from the corrupted Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel (that's good. The spoilered section is a bit of a Wall Banger though). Then he got turned into a statue alongside his wife for his troubles and an oh so ominous shadowy figure wants to make them his champions...(that's bad). At least there's a free choice of toppings (that's good)...that contain potassium benzoate (...that's bad). By the Power of Shazam, that is one busy revolving door.
- Quinlan Vos, a major character in the Star Wars: Republic comic books, is a good example. Here's how he progresses:
- First appears as in the Malastare arc as a minor character who operates most efficiently from the shadows, but is nonetheless a respected Jedi Knight (that's good).
- Next, he shows up as the main focus of the Twilight arc. Having suffered a complete mindwipe, he's no longer inhibited by the Jedi teachings and resorts to using the dark side to find his missing apprentice (that's bad). At the end of the story, he realises his mistake and submits himself to Mace Windu for retraining (that's good).
- Saves the Republic in the Infinity Gate arc (that's good) and gets his knighthood back as a result. Then there's the Darkness arc, which sees him resorting to the dark side once again to fight mutant space vampires (that's bad), but he's able to get himself together again in time to defeat Volfe Karkko (that's good). The next arc which has him as the main character doesn't really feature much of his struggle with the dark side.
- Then there's the Clone Wars stories, which sees Vos getting involved in a tangled web of byzantine plans enacted by himself, his Master Tholme and Count Dooku. To become The Mole in Dooku's gang of dark Jedi, Vos fakes a defection to the Separatists (neither good nor bad), killing the information broker who betrayed him in the process (that's bad). While he's there, he proceeds to kill both his Evil Matriarch aunt (who organised the murder of his parents) and a corrupt senator after being convinced by Dooku that he was Darth Sidious, injuring another Jedi Master in the process (that's bad).
- After killing several more on Dooku's orders - having decided that Dark Is Not Bad and convinced himself thathis victims would endanger the Republic otherwise (that's bad) - he meets up with his childhood friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi and rejoins the Jedi Order (that's good). However, it seems that he's actually spying for Dooku (that's bad).
- Finally appears to resolve his problems once and for all in the climactic Salucami arc, which shows him defeat the dark Jedi Master Sora Bulq, save the life of Master Tholme and pledge to leave the Jedi to marry his love interest Khaleen after the war was over and raise their child (that's good).
- But it's not done yet. Quinlan's final story is set during Order 66, which shows him deciding that he has to survive and kill Emperor Palpatine by any means necessary (that's bad). Ultimately, though, he realises that his duty as a Jedi is to protect a Wookiee village from the clone commander hunting him, and seems to sacrifice his life to stop him (that's good). He survives, returns to his surviving friends and promises never to let his darkness affect his infant son (that's even better)
- So, there we have Quinlan Vos; possibly the only Star Wars character even more conflicted than Anakin Skywalker.
- Storm Shadow from the G.I. Joe comics originally began as Cobra's answer to Snake-Eyes, but joined the Joes after reconciling with his former "sword brother", only to be brainwashed to serve Cobra again by the end of the Marvel run. He continues being on Cobra's side at the beginning of the Devil's Due run and then joins the Joes again.
- Bucky is at first Captain America's trusty sidekick. Then he dies, and comes back as the antagonistic Winter Soldier. As of now, he has a change in mind, reverts to his good old ways and is now taking the mantle of Captain America.
- Raven from Titans, whose turned evil and been redeemed or cleansed of evil about 4 times and counting by now. Most of this has to do with attempts to recapture the success and impact of the first time it happened in the Wolfman/Pereze Titans run. That time it was subtly built up over months. The later ones? Eh, they just sort of happen in a rather transparent attempt to drive up sales. Her Face/Heel turning points almost make her The Millstone of Face Heel Revolving Doors if only for the transparancy of her subsequent changes.
- Fellow Titan Jericho is just as bad. He started out good but was driven insane by evil spirits from Raven's father's home dimension. After his father killed him to stop his rampage Jericho clung to existence as an evil spirit being. Years later he was revived and purified of his evil. Then he went evil again due to spending too much time in Superboy's clone Match. Now, he's well...kind of a mess to be honest. It's not clear at this time whether he's good, evil, or even functional.
- And with both? It's explicitly In The Blood with Raven and arguably the case with Joseph. We ARE dealing with Deathstroke's kid here, and the Ravagers (Grant and Rose) weren't/aren't all that sane, either.
- Spider-Man's sometime enemy the Sandman started as a villain, then became a hero and even joined the Avengers. Now he's a villain again, though usually a fairly sympathetic one.
Film
- Harry Osborne changes sides three times in Spider-Man 3.
- Well one of them wasn't genuine as he only went back to normal because he hit his head and got amnesia. And that wasn't the stupidest thing in the film either.
- Salim from Slumdog Millionaire pretty much spends the entire movie spinning around in the revolving door.
- Silver from Treasure Planet. It helps that they're a Loveable Rogue though.
- "Whose side is Jack on?"
Literature
- Lily in Soon I Will Be Invincible does it pretty good, although in that case it's less that the character is intentionally trying to play the sides, and more that the character has enough common sense not to see the world in terms of "hero" and "villain".
- Lord Gro from E.R. Eddison's pre-Tolkiensian fantasy The Worm Ouroborous. Not only is he an incredibly manipulative Magnificent Bastard, but he has a soft spot for the underdog. Thus every time he pulls off a successful Xanatos Gambit (and this happens frequently), he immediately goes and switches sides to support the people he just screwed over. This makes him by far the most awesome character in the book.
- Yamato Masamoto from Young Samurai: Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford. He starts out as a full on Jerkass who despises Jack, pulls a Heel Face Turn after Dokugan Ryu's attack, then pulls a Face Heel Turn later on, then he pulls another Heel Face Turn towards the end of the book and he and Jack become friends.......So Yeah.....
- Raistlin from Dragonlance might as well be the Trope Namer, given his actions in the books.
- In the Sword Of Truth, the morally ambiguous Sister of the Dark Nicci gets the experience of serving just about every major faction. By the end of the series, she's gone from a totally innocent girl, to a supporter of the Fellowship of Order, to a respected Sister of the Light in service to the Creator, to a member of the secretive Sisters of the Dark who serve the Keeper of the Underworld, to The Dragon of the Imperial Order under Emperor Jagang, then known as Death's Mistress, to a True Neutral wanderer teetering between the sides as she fulfills her personal quest to discover the meaning of existence, to the hero's Black Magician Girl lieutenant. In the end, it turns out that she is ultimately on the good side, and she remains one of Richard's most trusted allies up to the end of the series and beyond.
- Lampshaded in the Time of Troubles series by Harry Turtledove. A character is called a connoisseur of defection, changing sides five times. Both sides put up with him because he's such a damn good commander, and they feel that he can help them more while on their side than he can hurt them when he defects.
- Jeb Batchelder of the Maximum Ride books. Went from Mad Scientist to helpful parental figure back to mad scientist, and he's been attempting to play the father figure again lately.
- Sauron of Lord Of The Rings and The Silmarillion. In The Beginning, he was good, a servant of Aule the Smith. Then Morgoth, Black Enemy of the World seduced him to the side of evil, and he left with Morgoth to rule in Middle Earth. When Morgoth was defeated in an incredibly destructive war, Sauron had a true change of heart, and genuinely wanted to help with the reconstruction and make Middle Earth beautiful again. He was too afraid to surrender himself to the Gods and potentially face retribution, however, so he took advantage of the reconstruction to set himself up as the next Dark Lord.
Live Action TV
- Lampshaded in Angel, where the character of Lindsay switched sides often enough that Angel decided to take pre-emptive action. Near the end of the series finale, Lorne, on Angel's orders, shoots him in the back before he goes through the Face Heel Turn phase again.
- And, of course, Angel himself, the no-good Irish lad turned into a bloodsucking demon turned into a mourning atoner still in the demon's body. At one point, during a complex sting operation, he pretended to have turned evil again and then had to pretend pretending to be charming Buffy's mother. That's five stacked layers simultaneously!
- Also Connor and Darla (though that one tended to have more logical reasons - whether she was a vampire or not, had a soul or not...)
- Don't forget Harmony. One of the best examples of Heel Face Revolving Door, because she remained clearly the same person throughout and her switching sides fit into her conformist character.
- Due to the aggressively gray morality of the show, somebody either does a full 180, or is set up to look like they have, in almost every episode of Lost.
- Cole Turner/Belthazor/The Source/The Avatar/The Ghost on Charmed. There's a reason he has so many personas.
- Phoebe jumped into the revolving door with him for a while before she finally got off on the Face side again.
- Selena Coombs of American Gothic certainly seems to be riding one of these, or perhaps a seesaw. Aside from the moments when we see the weakening of her evil resolve and the good heart shining through (particularly the episode "Potato Boy"), the last several episodes of the series involve her repeatedly switching sides based on opportunism, a Xanatos Roulette, or Character Derailment depending on your interpretation. It's hard to tell exactly who she's lying to at any given moment—Buck, Dr. Peele, or Caleb.
- John Abruzzi from Prison Break
- Heroes: Volume 3 Sylar, of all people.
- Just to show how crazy it's gotten: First, he was standard "killer" Sylar. Then he joined Angela Petrelli and tried to reform. Then he joined Arthur Petrelli against Angela Petrelli and tried to reform in a different way. Then he betrayed Arthur Petrelli and skipped town with another character. Then they go BACK to Arthur Petrelli. And then he becomes a serial killer again and goes AFTER Arthur Petrelli. After that, he gets split into a friendly "empty slate" body (which occasionally thinks it's Nathan) and unwanted dark passenger in Matt's head. When he finally manages to get body and mind back together, he is suddenly "impotent (sic)" at killing people and gets really nice and cosy towards Claire. Because, as we are learning, he wants to become socially accepted again.
- HRG fits this trope as well. He is constantly shifting, so we are never entirely sure which side he is on save his own. We know his agenda is to protect his family, particularly Claire, which would put him on the good guys' side, but the methods he uses have alienated his family.
- HRG is on HRG's and Claire's side. He'll work with whoever can guarantee his safety and that of his family.
- Nathan Petrelli also fits this trope, even better than HRG. In Volume 4 He went from Big Bad to
good guy slightly less of a bastard guy.
- Teal'c from Stargate SG 1 was originally the most trusted right hand man of the series' Big Bad, then he defected to the side of Earth, and then he was captured and his mind altered to make him think that his defection was part of a (very stupid) long term Xanatos Gambit to gain the trust of the heroes (bear in mind the heroes kill the Big Bad many times over during this period). The heroes, under the guidance of The Mentor, then gave him a quick Near Death Experience to fix him up again.
- The next episode has a Sinister Suit conduct an thorough investigation into the team, noting that "Teal'c changes sides more often than I change the oil in my car.".
- Kiba Yuuji from Kamen Rider 555 switches back and forth between helping and hating humankind several times during the story.
- Boomer from Battlestar Galactica. First she's cylon sleeper agent, then she doesn't want to be one, then she fails to overcome her programming and shoots Admiral Adama. Then she tries to make peace between cylons and humans and, failing that, she tries to kill her counterpart's daughter and betrays her model number, causing a civil war. Then she has a change of heart and escapes with the Final Cylon when the others want surgically to remove her brain. Then, faced with execution for causing the cylon civil war, she knocks out another cylon to take her place in the brig while abducting Athena's baby to use as a hostage in her escape plan which ultimately cripples the battlestar. Then she starts having second thoughts after bonding with Hera. Make up your damn mind, woman! If you weren't so flaky maybe more people would like you. At least Athena killed her after she returned Hera before she had the chance to change her mind again.
- To be fair, though, her constant mind-changing isn't entirely unjustified. if you flew all the way to some middle of ass nowhere planet to bond with the humans, only to have them start suicide bombing you, and then, on top of that, the man you love has married and is having a baby with the girl who shot you, then, well, you'd probably be a little peeved too.
- It's mentioned several times by other Cylon models that this is a characteristic of the Eights, in that they're easily swayed. Even Athena calls them on it. In fact Athena's fanatical devotion to the Colonial cause may be an attempt to compensate for this perceived weakness in herself. That and the fact that the slightest indication of treachery would get her thrown out an airlock.
- Boomer's "rescue" of the Final Cylon was part of a Cavil Xanatos Gambit. Kidnapping Hera was the plan all along.
- Tony Almeida in the seventh season of 24, as part of a Xanatos Gambit to get revenge on the guy responsible for the death of his wife and son two seasons earlier.
- Puck and Santana from Glee do this in varying degrees.
- Garak from Star Trek Deep Space Nine tends to do these at least twice per episode. He's a bastard, he has some really compelling characteristics, he's really amazingly... no wait, he's a bastard again. End credits.
- Chuck:Jill Founds out to be a fulcrum agent but says she was fosced to but Chuck then seeces that she was going to Kill Sarah and arrests her in anther episode thought Chuck founds out that Jill was talling the turths and lets her go.
Professional Wrestling
- Since "Heel" and "Face" are wrestling terms, there are of course many examples in Professional Wrestling: The Undertaker, his "brother" Kane, Ric Flair, and probably the big example right now is Triple H.
- Kurt Angle 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 Bad Ass qualities sometimes result in Face reactions even when playing a heel, thus resulting in the bookers turning him face. Then he does his bland face routine until his crowd reactions wane, and then he turns heel again. This effect was lampshaded during an interview 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 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 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 Turns and Face Heel Turns 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 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 Richard Blood, and yet he had to use a different name because that was a heel's name.
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Kain, of Final Fantasy IV is pretty often used as an example, though all his turns were due to mind control by the real villain. (It's still discussed, if his first Heel Face Turn is an act or real and he gets controlled again later) And it happened only twice. So, mainly it's a case of Never Live It Down.
- Lampshaded in the DS remake - if you use the "read the party leader's thoughts" feature (set Kain as the visible character on the map, then bring up the menu) as you're leaving the Sealed Cave, you'll see him fighting Golbez reasserting control (unsuccessfully). If you repeat this as you travel through the Lunar Subterraine, Kain will be fighting the attempts of Zemus to control him (this time more successfully.)
- Subverted in the sequel, where Kain joins forces with the villain the Mysterious Maiden, he steals several crystals and fights Fabul before being defeated by the Mysterious Swordsman who is Kain: the evil Kain is actually his Dark Side having escaped Mt. Ordeals, the real Kain had to track him down, before being able to pass his test.
- Captain SNES of course uses the trope again, as not only he is touched by the sovereign of sorrow, he is also in love with Rosa (pretty canonically) which the Drab Lord amplified sufficiently as to make him his minion.
- Face, heel, face, heel, face. Having five alignments throughout the game qualifies Kain for the trope.
- The middle three were all under mind control. Even the "face" part. Golbez just wanted the party to think that Kain was himself again.
- Something that is occasionally forgotten though is that Kain did not invent this Trope for Final Fantasy. That honor goes to Leon (the real one) of Final Fantasy II who goes from Aloof Big Brother to MIA to The Dragon to The Big Bad (For all of five seconds) to Heel Face Turn to repentant loner over the course of the game.
- Several characters in Super Robot Wars are prone to this, whether due to being frequent victims of Mind Control (Lamia, Excellen), having a hidden agenda (Sanger), or just generally being a Magnificent Bastard (Shu Shirakawa).
- Taken on full throttle in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 if you pick Selena Recital as the protagonist, who in the beginning of her game tends to switch factions. Your hero just pulls multiple Heel Face Revolving Door, so sit back and enjoy as you blast the hell outta those UC Gundam, Wing Gundams, etc... sometimes alongside the likes of Rau Le Creuset... and then, she goes to join the heroes again, later switch sides again, and so on, until she joins the Alpha Numbers for good.
- Subverted in Super Robot Wars Z where the ZEUTH team splits up and each group is manipulated by the Earth Alliance into thinking the other has gone rogue, leading to an inter-series Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny, as well as an excuse to re-enact the destruction of the Freedom Gundam without making either side out to be villainous.
- Zero, if you get the bad endings of Mega Man X 2 and Mega Man X 5, as well as a Heel Face Turn in his backstory.
- Illidan Stormrage of the Warcraft franchise. This is partly because he's mentally unbalanced, and partly because even when he does try to do good, he's not very effective at it.
- Depending on your point of view, this can happen to a lot of characters in World Of Warcraft, especially if they're a member of the opposing faction. For example, King Varian Wrynn is almost universally loathed by the Horde, but the extraordinary amount of Enemy Mine in the game means that much of what he does is good for the Horde as well (like killing Onyxia), and he has his Pet The Dog moment in Icecrown Citadel. Similar arguments could be made about Horde leaders from the Alliance perspective.
- Bowser in the Super Mario Bros franchise, especially in the RPG's. He's been an Enemy Mine so often—to say nothing of when he Goes Karting With Mario—that it's hard to say just WHOSE side he's on anymore.
- Although he usually only stays with Mario until the Big Bad is gone
- Persona 3: Chidori starts off as a member of Strega, the crazy-end-of-the-world guys. She then quite inadvertently befriends Junpei, a member for the heroic SEES, who talks too much about what he does. She captures him and holds him for ransom essentially, but is then captured by SEES. Junpei works up a friendship with her to the point that she won't talk to anyone else, resulting in a Heel Face Turn. Then SEES supposedly kills the other members for Strega, and she rejects Junpei. About a month later, she attacks SEES for a Face Heel Turn. Five minutes later, she sacrifices herself to save Junpei, for a Heel Face Turn, because of course Redemption Equals Death.
- Capitan Qwark of Ratchet And Clank fame. Initially he was a hero. Then he became villainous has-been. Then he got his shot at being the Big Bad. Then he returned to a hero status,and has been tagging along with Ratchet ever since.
- The Kirby games love this trope, although it's much lighter than most other interpretations. Characters like Chef Kawasaki and Knuckle Joe can appear as mini-bosses in one game, and be allies in a different one.
- While King Dedede is the perhaps the most obvious culprit of this, Meta Knight does this a staggering number of times in the very first game he was featured in. Most of the time, he's sending his mooks after you to impede your progress, and eventually directly confronts you. However, he also gives you INVINCIBLE CANDY periodically throughout the game, even after you defeat him.
- Fire Emblem: If you do things a certain way, Jill can change sides five times across the two games she's in (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn). That's one more than Kain up there!
- Five? I only count four—two in each game.
- Daein -> Crimea -> (Daein -> Crimea, one or both optional in Path of Radiance) -> Daein -> Laguz Alliance. That's five times she can switch sides.
- Archer in Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works.
- In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, Dusknoir is a perfect example of this. After being sent back to the future with Grovyle, he finds out that Primal Dialga is now trying to get rid of him, and has a new henchman at it's side. Due to this, he has to team up with Grovyle as they make their way to Primal Dialga. Towards the end of the episode when Grovyle attempts to rescue Celebi, he is captured in a trap set by Dusknoir that is designed to destroy Grovyle's soul so that Dusknoir can take over his body and go back to the past to foil the hero's plan to save the future. However after remembering what Grovyle had told him about himself earlier, Dusknoir has a breif personality crisis before swiftly becoming a good guy and saving Grovyle at the last second.
- In Red Faction II, Shrike initially Face Heel Turns with Molov, but heel face turns during the final battle.
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 just there for the paycheck.
- Tarvek Sturmvoraus in Girl Genius 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 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 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.
- Oasis from Sluggy Freelance. 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 anti-heroic) good guy, helping to take down Hereti Corp and protect the town of Podunkton. However, after her Mentor is killed in front of her and Zoe rekindles her jealous streak, she's off on another Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
Web Original
- lonelygirl15: How many times did 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.
- She was evil all along, but pretending to be good. Dr. Hart, on the other hand, really didn't seem able to make up his mind.
- There's also 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 Survival Of The Fittest. She undergoes a Face Heel Turn at the very start whilst deciding to play, killing Owen Fontaine gives her a Heel Face Turn and a Heroic BSOD, before a few days later, she once again decides to play, becoming a 'heel' for the second time.
Western Animation
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