Heel Face Turn - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Face Turn

Sam: You smell more panicky than I did. That's why I trusted you in the alley, I thought maybe you'd already switched sides. You're a classic "switch sides" kind of character.
Wally: No, I'm not—
Sam: (slaps Wally) Switch sides, or I'll kick your ass!

—Zebra Girl

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:

It lets them reintroduce the villain as a "darker, edgier" hero.
It reinforces our notion of the inherent goodness within people.
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 or being the target of Help Face Turn by a Magnetic Hero can all cause a villain to reconsider his or her evil ways. Sadly, all too frequently Redemption Equals Death...and when it doesn't, someone still needs to draw that Get Out Of Jail Free Card.

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

The inverse of Face Heel Turn.

Examples:

Professional Wrestling, of course.
- Spoofed well by The Onion in this piece

Live Action TV

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. However, the Minbari leader Neroon was a true Heel Face Turn.
- There was nothing 'deceptive' about G'Kar's 'heavy' status ... his major role in the (pilot?) movie for the series was to try and kill the commander of Babylon 5, a man who was not only the show's protagonist, but the leader of the place that was the galaxy's main recourse for diplomacy and peaceful negotiation. G'Kar did have true Heel Face Turn, essentially evolving from a Well Intentioned Extremist to something akin to The Messiah.
Battlestar Galactica: Athena and Caprica-Six.
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.
Of course there's Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. 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.
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 are using Cardassia, and starts a resistance movement. He even winds up taking terrorist lessons from old enemy Kira Nerys.
Happens fairly often in Power Rangers. Sixth Rangers such as original Green Ranger Tommy and Titanium Ranger Ryan 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, and later took over the position of Lost Galaxy Pink Ranger.
Both Crais, and then Scorpius start off in pursuit of our heroes before they end up joining the crew in Farscape.
Cole Turner/Balthazar of Charmed had more Heel/Face Face/Heel turns than some entire shows.
Number Two in The Prisoner. Well, one of them. The new Number Two.
Teal'c, in the pilot of Stargate SG-1.

Anime

Nephrite and Fish Eye, in different seasons of Sailor Moon.
- Also the Ayakashi Sisters and the Amazoness Quartet. (In the manga, the Quartet even turn out to actually be Sailor Senshi.)
- Saphir and his brother Demando too.
- And half of the other villains too. Half the time they even survive it. Of course, the series is a giant showcase for The Power Of Love.
Amiboshi from Fushigi Yuugi.
Digimon has one every year: season one has Gatomon, season two has Ken, season three has Beelzemon (Beelzebumon), season four has Kouichi, and season five has Keenan.
At least one major villain or rival (but usually more) per season in Yu-Gi-Oh and Yu-Gi-Oh GX; balanced by the fact that the opposite is none too rare, either.
Used twice in Naruto's "Land of Waves" arc. Traitorous ninja Zabuza and his androgynous young henchman Haku, whom he habitually mistreats, have been hired by gangster Gato to stop the Land of Waves villagers from building a bridge that will be economically vital to their island. Naruto and his friends are sent to make sure the bridge gets built. When Haku seems to kill Sasuke, Naruto swears Revenge until he learns of Haku's tragic past, which calms him down. (Besides, Haku made sure that Sasuke is Not Quite Dead.) Then, Haku does a Heroic Sacrifice to save Zabuza, and the rogue ninja's guilt over his abuse of his dead partner causes him to Freak Out; Zabuza switches sides, killing Gato before getting killed himself.]
- Twice in the "Land of Waves" arc, but far more frequently later. How could anyone forget Hyuuga Neji, who is half-inspired by Naruto's (an obvious The Messiah) victory into rethinking his fatalistic Jerk Ass -itude and goes on to claim that Naruto saved him? Or Sabaku no Gaara, who is so stunned by Naruto's empathy and suckerpunch, that he stops living to kill people and begins living to help people, enough to become the Kazekage!
Almost every villain who is not a Big Bad (most of the time) on Dragonball Z. This is literally personified in the villain Dabura. This is mostly to show off The Power Of Friendship.
- Vegeta's constant alignment switching might even be a Lampshade Hanging on the whole phenomena as most, if not all, of Goku's allies are former enemies with Vegeta being the most conflicted of them all as well as his Great Rival.
Ayaka Steiger in Kurau Phantom Memory turns from the main bad chasing the protagonists to their biggest ally after discovering that her boss ordered the murder of her father.
Nearly every villain in Kero Kero Chime. In fact, in a bizarre and random musical sequence in the last episode, Demon King Bao, the Sealed Evil In A Can who turns out to be the true reason most of the Hebizoku and Kaeruzoku disappeared 10 years ago, as he took them with him upon being banished, reveals that he's completely reformed, and he and his former enemies like being Trapped In Another World, as it's allowed them to become such great friends.
Practically every sympathetic villain Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha does this. To put it in perspective, the only non-new good guy that got screen time in the third Season who didn't start out as a villain in one way or another is Nanoha herself.
- A case could be made for Chrono, Lindy and Yuuno, but they barely appear.
Princess Tutu has several characters who follow this trope. In the first season, it's Fakir (sort of) and Edel. And towards the end of the series Rue discovers that the Raven is not her true father, and risks her life to save Mytho.
Skyers 5 or perhaps its sequel Shin Skyers 5, I am not certain]] did use this trope to good effect.
Rokudo Mukuro in Katekyo Hitman Reborn, but it only half counts because his Heel Face Turn coincides with his possession of Chrome Dokuro's body
In D Gray-Man, General Cross can turn Akuma good. This isn't perfect; they have trouble rejecting explicit orders from the Millenuim Earl. To compensate, Cross has these Akuma rigged to self-destruct instead of killing people.
Pixy Misa in Magical Project S. Considering her concept, it was pretty much inevitable.
The Big Bad of Mahoromatic's first season becomes a reluctant hanger-on in the second.
In Fate Stay Night, Ilya is the main threat for the first half of the series, but she becomes an ally when her monstrous Servant Berserker is killed. (She couldn't keep fighting at that point, but that didn't mean she had to join the nakama.) In the Heaven's Feel scenario, she goes so far as to sacrifice herself for Shirou in the Good End.
Code Geass, One word: Orange.
- Finally done by Kururugi Suzaku, at the end of episode 21, where he showed up alongside Emperor Lelouch. Of course this being Geass this could be a Face Heel Turn depending on how if you believe the new Britannian emperor is an Anti-Hero or an Anti Villain. Really after Shirley's death their are no good side or bad side, just a bad side, and an even worse side.
Scar and Lust both have one in the Full Metal Alchemist anime, however in both cases Redemption Equals Death. Scar and Greed have one in the manga, with both surviving so far, but chances are good both survive.
Sesshomarou in Inu Yasha went from a human hating emotionless jerk who wanted to kill his own brother to a feircely protective sibling and mentor after taking in a (very cute) orphaned human girl and having to rely on Inu Yasha's help after she's kidnapped, proving to Sesshomarou that he was wrong about Inu Yasha and joining his team.
Bad Bird in Samurai Pizza Cats who joins up with the good guys after a speech from Speedy saying that if Bad Bird helps Cheese win, everyone in Little Tokyo dies, including Bad Bird's girlfriend.

Comic Books

Batman villainess Catwoman has since reformed and become more of a hero than a villain, often teaming up with Batman on his missions. While this is not a problem as such (many considered it a natural evolution of the character and were happy with it), it was more the sudden retcon that explained WHY she changed people didn't like: she was mindwiped by Zatanna. Because truly no-one is capable of seeing their faults and trying to make up for it, and only brainwashing will do.
- The Catwoman of Earth-Two, an alternate universe in The DCU, also turned over a new leaf when she recovered from Amnesia. Horrified she was willing to go to jail for the crimes she had committed. When Batman sprung her from jail to help him, she revealed that she had lied; she had actually chosen to be a villain and then chosen to reform because she realized that it was her only chance for a normal life. (Whereupon they fell in love, got married, and had a daughter, Huntress.)
Flash villains the Pied Piper and the Trickster both reformed. The Pied Piper had always been the sort of villain who had stolen money for orphanages. The Trickster had pulled off a Deal With The Devil and escaped, and reformed because he couldn't do anything to top that, and didn't want to go to Hell when he died, after his trick. A recent apparent Face Heel Turn was actually an attempt to pull off a Fake Defector trick — which turned tragic when they appeared to be in on the death of Bart Allen, the Flash. The Trickster is now dead, but the Pied Piper is facing Reformed But Rejected,

Web Comics

In Girl Genius, Lucretia decided to reform when Bill Heterodyne asked her to marry him. She knew she could do it because she was in love and there had to be a reason why they always won.[1]
El Goonish Shive. After she was created Ellen tried to be a villain but wasn't very good at it. She eventually became a Hero.
Angel Moxie: Tristan. She (yes, she) turned good because the Big Bad screwed her over, and in an unusual turn, it's revealed she was one of the Legendary Good Guys from the start.

Film

The James Bond movies have a few: May Day in A View To A Kill, Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. Kutze in Thunderball and Jaws in Moonraker.
- And so examples also appear in the Bond parodies/knockoffs Our Man Flint and In Like Flint.
Darth Vader. In Return of the Jedi. If the troper has to explain this one you've been living under a rock the last 30 years.
Godzilla went from city-destroying villain to world-saving hero during the 1960s-1970s. His Heel Face Turn occured when Mothra convinced him and Rodan to fight King Ghidorah in the 1964 film Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster
- Likewise, there's Battra, who, sadly Redemption Equals Death ends up dying while trying to stop Godzilla.
Blazing Saddles.
- Lili Von Shtupp (Hedley Lamaar's henchwoman). Ordered to "seduce and abandon the sheriff of Rock Ridge", instead she falls for him and goes over to his side.
- Mongo (Taggart's henchman) turns to the side of Good after Sheriff Bart blows him up with a Candygram bomb. ("Sheriff first man ever whip Mongo! Mongo impressed!")
An example of a Heel Face Turn already accomplished by the time of the story is that of the convict in The Dark Knight who threw the detonator out the porthole.
Terminator 2: The reprogrammed T-101

Literature

The Grinch at the end of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Dolokhov in War And Peace goes from being a Manipulative Bastard of a Humphrey, something of a minor antagonist, to the trusted lieutenant of Vaska Denisov as the Russians chase the retreating French.
In Fred Saberhagen's trilogy Empire of the East, Lord Chup served the evil Empire of the title faithfully ... until one of its warlords demanded: "You must be for once not brave, but cowardly.... It will be difficult only once. You must learn to cause pain, for the sake of nothing but causing pain. Only thus will you be bound to us entirely." Then he killed off a major demon, turning the tide of a critical battle.
Harry Dresden refers this as the 'Vader Effect'. He is accused of it himself on several occasions, most notably when he joins the Wardens, the quasi-military magical police who have been on his back since his youth despite not actually changing sides.
Angelina is the brilliant, beautiful, and totally psychopathic villainess of The Stainless Steel Rat. After she is captured and the psych-techs have worked on her, she marries the hero and becomes an agent of the Special Corp who doesn't enjoy killing. As much.

Western Animation

Raimundo in Xiaolin Showdown, though that's after he did a Face Heel Turn. He actually does suffer some consequences and trust issues afterwards because of it.
Brilliantly subverted in Avatar The Last Airbender: Prince Zuko is given tons of reasons to change sides in the second season finale, including the "encounter with The Messiah," Katara, after being put through hell all season:... and then doesn't. Wham! The results of that decision prompt him into a genuine Heel Face Turn half a season later in "Day of the Black Sun," and Zuko being Zuko, he takes the time for Calling The Old Man Out before he leaves. So a Double Subversion, all in all.
- Mai and Ty Lee follow suit in "Boiling Rock". Mai's especially was epic, showing up like a Big Damn Hero and pulling off a Crowning Moment Of Awesome, while Ty Lee's just came straight from behind a tree (though disabling Azula is still awesome).
- In a minor case, by the time that Gondor Calls For Aid, The Boulder and The Hippo had decided to quit working for Xin Fu and join the army. What weird is it's a Heel Face Turn from two heels that played faces in their worlds equivalent of Professional Wrestling.
Teen Titans has Terra in season two, but this is after a Face Heel Turn, then returning to be The Mole to totally screw over the Titans and help Slade achieve near victory. Heck, she's the one who ends up killing Slade, but ends up performing a Heroic Sacrifice proving that Redemption Equals Death (or Redemption Equals Turning To Stone...it is a children/family show, after all). Jinx also performs a Heel Face Turn towards the end of season five, thanks to being thrown into a Dating Catwoman-ish scenario with Kid Flash.
Transformers: Beast Wars has a number of examples. Dinobot and Silverbolt spent relatively little screen time as heels, but Dinobot was a pretty slagging well-done heel. More literal examples are: In the third season, Blackarachnia, and, near the end of the series finale, Dinobot's Transmetal 2 clone.
Iago from Disney's Aladdin. Not that he's all heroic, but his conscience does get the better of him on a number of occasions. He grumbles over it a lot.
Tohru and Viper in Jackie Chan Adventures.
Kevin Levin in Ben 10, at the beginning of the Alien Force sequel series.
Kronk, the Punch Clock Villain in The Emperors New Groove switches sides after his boss Yzma's irate You Have Failed Me speech culminates with an attack on his beloved spinach-puff recipe.
Rogue in X Men Evolution. The episode where she does this is one long Crowning Moment Of Awesome for her.
Subverted with Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, who after finally hearing his father-figure tell him he's proud of him, and he's sorry, very clearly wavers before rejecting the overture and remaining unrepentant. This probably also counts as his What An Idiot moment, since it proves he has still learned nothing, although this editor actually found it all the more tragic and painful because of it.
In The Raccoons, this trope is at the soul of the Character Development of Cyril Sneer who gradually evolves from a Corrupt Corporate Executive to largely a nice guy.

Video Games

You can talk the villain in Chrono Trigger, Magus, into joining you. However, this is completely optional. It should also be noted that this particular Heel Face Turn doesn't come about because of a change of heart on Magus' part, but the realization that he could achieve his goals by working with the heroes. By the time the option to have him join comes about, his intent and motivation have been revealed and he's more of an Anti Villain than a full-fledged villain.
- In its sequel, Chrono Cross, many characters you can eventually play are former bosses. One will even apologize for fighting you earlier in the game.
In Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Hawke and Lash come to the Allied Nation's aid after being saved by them.
Alma from the Xbox remake of Ninja Gaiden fights Ryu twice, proving to be a difficult foe both times. However, when Doku, the Dragon, attempts to sacrifice Alma's twin sister Rachel, Alma has a change of heart and throws herself in the way of Doku's blade.
The good character Faust from Guilty Gear X onward is incredibly strongly implied, but not yet directly stated, to be the villainous character Dr. Baldhead from the first game in the series, after undergoing a Heel Face Turn and taking a new identity.
The Arbiter in Halo 2 initially works against the humans to atone himself in the eyes of the Covenant Prophets. When the AI 343 Guilty Spark reveals to him the truth about the Great Journey they want to bring about, namely that it will destroy all life on a galactic scale, he reluctantly sides with the humans.
Vivian, one of the Shadow Sirens working for the Big Bad in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, joins up with Mario after he's kind to her.
- Count Bleck, O'Chunks, Mimi, and Nastasia in Super Paper Mario.
Magnus Armstrong, one of the antagonists from No One Lives Forever is convinced to join the good guys in the sequel, No One Lives Forever: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way.
Happens all the time in Super Robot Wars, if a character has the least bit of sympathy he will usually do a Heel Face Turn. This is so common that in Original Generation 2 they start Lampshading it by mentioning that they can except a recent convert by mentioning all the other people who have done it.
- In Destiny, some could only join if they were convinced Glacies, Wintos, Margue, Chronicle, Katajina, Roze, Gabil
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl The Ancient Minister is thought to be the remorseless leader of the Subspace Army, but actually regrets his actions. In truth he isn't the true mastermind, and thus lost control of of his R.O.B. Squad when Ganondorf stepped in to complete the job of destroying the world with Subspace Bombs. The Ancient Minister then interferes, only to be attacked. It is then his true form is revealed, a R.O.B. From there is only referred to as such and becomes playable.
- To be fair, the villains in the Subspace Emissary mode who are also playable characters do join up to fight the last boss. It doesn't help that the Big Bad pulled a 'You are of no more use to me' on them all.
Sparda in Devil May Cry, who "awoke to justice."
Raiden, a cruel, gigantic wrestler from the Fatal Fury series of fighting games (and Capcom vs. SNK 2), eventually underwent a literal Heel Face Turn, taking off his mask and becoming the benevolent Big Bear. The fact that wrestling is fake has become a little too real for him
"First you gimme some lame special op and make me snipe my friends, and now you gonna pick on a defenseless Player?! Don't you Reapers have any honor?! Maybe the Composer's down widdat, BUT I AIN'T HIM!"
- This one is a Heel Face Revolving Door of sorts, because Beat starts as a player, becomes a Reaper and a villain, but then performs the Heel Face Turn for the last Game.
After royally kicking your ass several times in Final Fantasy IX, General Beatrix joins your party for a couple fights.
Happens in every Fire Emblem game, sometimes more frequently than others. Usually you have to talk to the recruitable enemy with a certain character, but sometimes a former villain will automatically join your side. (FE6 had Miledy and Douglas, and FE9 had Jill, Muarim, and Ena.)
Achenar in Myst IV Revelation

Web Original

Sonia and Dr. Hart in lonelygirl15.
Fair numbers of this happen in Survival Of The Fittest. Mostly, it is the result of a 'player' stopping killing their fellows, usually due to a guilty conscience.
- Hawley Faust of the first game, although he was semi-convinced instead of spontaneously deciding to quit.
- Julie Mikan in V3. She set out to actively play, but after killing Owen Fontaine realised she didn't have what it takes and became a heroic character instead.
- Dominica Sharpiro, also of V3. A less conventional example in that she made the switch purely on the chance the escape plan of the group she joined would succeed.
- Sharon Kulikov, similarly to Julie, originally decides to play indiscriminately, but upon realizing that she can't bring herself to do that she resolves to only target other players.
Protectors Of The Plot Continuum: Tinco Division in the Enforcers of the Plot Continuum consisted of Mary Sues and Gary Stus who had mended. Well, except for The Mole.

Real Life

Actually happens, sometimes, in Real Life. See the story of John Newton, the slave-trader who turned abolitionist after a religious conversion — author of "Amazing Grace"; biopicted in the 2006 film of that name. See also John Perkins, author of the tell-all Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
- And then there's Stephen Douglas, who died early into the Civil War but who, between Lincoln's election and his own death, did all he could to be The Atoner for the Union side.
Bartoleme de las Casas, who had been your standard New World settler and landowner who became disgusted with the brutal treatment of the natives, became a priest and spent decades writing and lobbying as an opponent of Spanish Colonialism, and ad advocate of native rights. Much of the Black Legend of the Spanish colonials was the result of his works being translated and adapted by Spain's enemies.

Sometimes this happens with an entire group, or even a race:

A significant portion of Britai's Zentraedi fleet in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, in response to being exposed to Idol Singer music. Britai himself, along with Kamjin and Lap'lamiz form an alliance of convenience with Earth because they know Bodolza will assume they are tainted and kill them without asking questons.
The Klingons in Star Trek started out as nasty, sneaky villains, but eventually became proud warrior race guys closely allied with the Federation.
As mentioned above, the Elites, in the span of time between Halo 2 and Halo 3.
The entire Sand Village in Naruto
Transformers Armada: the series ends with Megatron/Galvatron dying and the Decepticons all give up to live mostly peaceful lives with the Autobots until he came back.