History Main / HeelFaceDoorSlam

** Before it even happened' in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', Dumbledore states that Harry sparing Pettigrew's life would give Pettigrew a chance to do the same later on; [[WildMassGuessing so it should be clear that Pettigrew was willing to let his EvilHand kill him before he did anything foolish]]. Of course, {{YMMV}} as to whether it's this trope or a mercifully quick RedemptionEqualsDeath nonetheless.
*** Well, maybe. Dumbledore was damn wise, but that doesn't mean he was a [[Seers precog]].

** {{Jossed}} before it even happened: in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'', Dumbledore states that Harry sparing Pettigrew's life would give Pettigrew a chance to do the same later on; so it should be clear that Pettigrew was willing to let his EvilHand kill him before he did anything foolish. Of course, {{YMMV}} as to whether it's this trope or a mercifully quick RedemptionEqualsDeath nonetheless.

* ''{{Dollhouse}}'' has this happen to Bennett. She's made the choice to help the team at the LA Dollhouse, if only because Echo has promised to help her get all the revenge she wants on Caroline and she's in love with Topher. Then Saunders shoots Bennett in the head.

* In ''{{Bleach}}'', [[spoiler:Tosen is defeated and near death, and actually seems to be leaning toward repenting in his final moments. Then he explodes for an uncertain reason. Komamura is ready to blame Aizen for it, though.]]
** [[spoiler:It is very possible that Aizen used kido to destroy Tousen's body. In fact, that's the only explanation that makes any sense unless Kubo pulls some other reason out of his ass later on.]]

** It should be noted, however, that at no point did Diabolico indicate that he was actually turning ''good,'' he was just turning against the Queen.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', on the rare occasions Team Rocket attempt to go straight Team Twerp blast them into the sky anyway, sometimes completely by accident.

** Wormtongue appears to have one of these in the penultimate chapter. You can sense that he really does want to leave Saruman, but as he's hesistating Saruman mocks him. This drives him to kill Saruman, for which the hobbits kill him.

The much more vindictive brother of RedemptionEqualsDeath, where you have a villainous character who is [[HelpFaceTurn beginning to realize]] that the way of evil is not the way, and is attempting or planning to [[HeelFaceTurn redeem themselves]], but is killed or otherwise brutally rebuffed, either by karma, the heroes, or even [[YouHaveFailedMe their boss]] (the latter who most often crosses the MoralEventHorizon in doing so) before they can carry out their plans.

*** Though this is EXACTLY how Saruman dies in the books, albeit significantly later in the time-line. The difference is that Wormtongue is then arrested for murder instead of dying outright.
*** Either this troper has a weird version of the book, or Tolkien begs to differ: "Before Frodo could recover or speak a word, three hobbit-bows twanged and Wormtongue fell dead."

*** Of course, the shock moments effect is limited by the fact that everybody who's ever seen a zombie movie knows that standing with your back to a window is a surefire way to get eaten.

* In ''{{The Wheel of Time}}'', RobertJordan never told us exactly who killed [[spoiler:Asmodean]], but he did confirm that the man was trying to genuinely switch sides--if only for lack of options--when he was killed.
** WordOfGod (well, Word of [[AuthorExistenceFailure Replacement]] God, anyway) says that not only does an answer to that question exist, but that it will be revealed in the posthumously published final chapter(s) of the series. Countless Jordan fans sighed in relief upon hearing that.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' Mac Gargan, a.k.a. the Scorpion, ends up wandering the sewers at one point, depressed but with a clearer head than he had had for a long time. Eventually, his sanity starts to return, and he is about to make a HeelFaceTurn when Spider-Man [[spoiler: having depression issues of his own, finds Gargan and attacks him savagely in self-defense, ignoring Gargan's pleas that he had changed. Gargan then goes crazy again to save himself and continues his life of super-villain debauchery, first as Scorpion, and later as a new Venom]].