Basic Trope: Doing a deed so good it proves you are good.
- Straight: After years of wickedness, Dr. Imperius uses his accumulated scientific knowledge to prevent a massive disaster from destroying Paradigm City.
- Exaggerated: Imperius gives up his life to save the entire world while being universally villified by a populace who thinks he caused the problem to begin with.
- Downplayed: While saving the day one time isn't nearly enough to convince Imperius' many detractors of his newfound goodness, and Imperius still isn't exactly heroic himself, his act nonetheless lays the groundwork for a decisive shift towards becoming a better person.
- Justified: Imperius sincerely wants to make amends for what he's done, and caps it off by doing a truly heroic deed.
- Inverted: Imperius commits forswears his humanity once and for all by wiping Paradigm City off the map for no reason, forever cementing his name as one of the vilest people in history.
- Subverted: Despite desperate efforts, Imperius is simply too far gone to come back from his villainy. He can't change himself, and others won't let him change, leaving him no options but to remain as he is.
- The disaster was contrived by Imperius himself to earn brownie points with a naive public.
- Parodied: After saving the city, it seems as if Imperius is about to make a leap to the good guys' team... but he reneges at the last second by burning down an orphanage for kittens with his ultra-laser.
- Zig Zagged: Despite Imperius' good deed, he's still haughty, superior and condescending to almost everyone, albeit somewhat less so than before. The fact that he's still acrimonious towards other heroes and still in touch with his unrepentantly evil former collegues doesn't help.
- Averted: Imperius goes on being evil with no indication that he'll ever change his ways.
- Enforced: Imperius isn't getting any younger, and going good is the supervillain equivalent of a retirement package.
- Lampshaded: The suddenness of Imperius' turn is commented on by several parties, to the extent that almost no one buys it at first.
- Invoked: By now, Imperius knows how the villain game usually ends, and is willing to step away from it entirely to stay alive. "Breaking good" is the best way to do that.
- Exploited: Goodness has its advantages. Imperius is content to kiss babies, donate money to charity, and remain a villain under the table if it means the do-gooder community will be off his back.
- Defied: Imperius pointedly refuses to do even tangentially good deeds because he's going to be considered evil no matter what.
- Discussed: Captain Resolute warmly lauds Imperius' turn, claiming he knew the doctor had it in him all along.
- Conversed: Imperius has a very long and epiphanic talk with himself about why he's saving people before doing the deed.
- Implied: The outcome of Imperius' actions ultimately isn't shown, but saving a bunch of lives has to count for something, right?
- Deconstructed: Despite Imperius' seeming new angle on life, the cynical, self-righteous superhero Hardluck is unconvinced, and does everything in his power to get Imperius to confess whatever game he's playing.
- Public opinion remains strongly against Imperius, largely because of his many prior victims who believe he merits nothing but execution for his crimes, regardless of any "new leaf".
- Imperius' altruism was a spur-of-the-moment gesture, and he knows it can't change anything he's done or make him into a hero. He's stooped far too low for that.
- Imperius has spent so much time dawdling on both sides of the morality fence that even he isn't sure what his motives are anymore.
- Reconstructed: No matter what his colleagues, enemies or the public thinks, Imperius knows the real score. He did good for the sake of being good, and that's all that matters.
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