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alt title(s): Face Turn; Turn To The Light Side

And what happened then?
Well, in Whoville, they say,
The Grinch's small heart
Grew three sizes that day.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

John Newton, "Amazing Grace"

In Professional Wrestling, an evil wrestler (a "heel") sometimes has a change of heart and becomes good, thereby becoming a "babyface". The term for this is "Heel Face Turn." Magazines and other promotional material from the various wrestling leagues comment on various wrestlers' changes in alignment nearly as frequently as they actually cover events in the ring themselves.

It doesn't just happen in Professional Wrestling, either. In other genres, it means "bad guy turns good." This usually makes for a good plot, for three reasons:

  1. It lets them reintroduce the villain as a "darker, edgier" hero.
  2. It reinforces a desired notion of the inherent goodness within people.
  3. It prevents the Worthy Opponent from falling victim to What A Senseless Waste Of Human Life.

An encounter with The Messiah, Turn The Other Cheek, a Pet The Dog moment, An Aesop, Deliver Us From Evil, Slap Slap Kiss, spending quality time with one's Morality Pet, discovering that Machiavelli Was Wrong and Being Evil Sucks, Becoming The Mask as The Mole because Good Feels Good, an Enemy Mine situation leading to Fire Forged Friendship, getting Help Face Turn from an abusive Big Bad superior, or being the target of Help Face Turn by a Magnetic Hero or a Bad Boss can all cause a villain to reconsider his or her evil ways. Sadly, all too frequently Redemption Equals Death... (if there's any redeeming to be had) and when it doesn't, someone still needs to draw that Get Out Of Jail Free Card.

The many reasons and the probability for a turn are listed in the Sorting Algorithm Of Face Heel Turning.

A very common fate for a female character in any evil group.

Compare the Reverse Mole, who is secretly working for the good guys all along.

The inverse of Face Heel Turn. May be the result of a person that was Evil All Along.

When someone who doesn't care one way or the other is forced to fight they become Neutral No Longer.

It has one subtrope: Heel Face Mind Screw, more or less the opposite of Brainwashed And Crazy.

Examples:

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Heel Face Revolving DoorProfessional WrestlingThe Jimmy Hart Version
Heel Face Mind ScrewHeel Face IndexHigh Heel Face Turn
Face Heel TurnBetrayal TropesHelp Face Turn
Hand WaveTropes Of LegendFace Heel Turn
Face Heel TurnEvil TropesHelp Face Turn