History Main / HighHeelFaceTurn

*** [[spoiler: Konan averts this, actually. It was ''Pein'' who was convinced to pull a HeelFaceTurn, not her. Konan was only ever loyal to Pein, so ''she'' never actually switched sides.]]

Another possible reason is the audience discomfort in seeing a male hero fight a woman to the death. Even if--like May Day from ''Film/AViewToAKill''--she physically outclasses him by a great deal, a heroic character committing violence against a woman is something of a taboo no matter how powerful she is, especially in older works. Having her turn good is one of many options for dealing with a female antagonist without the hero directly harming her.

* ''Series/IronFist2017'': ComicBook/ColleenWing is revealed partway through the first season to have been raised by the Hand, Danny's sworn enemies, and mentored by Bakuto, one of the Hand's founders. Bakuto has tasked her with convincing Danny to join them while being convinced herself that the organization is a benevolent charity that gives troubled kids in New York City a new purpose in life. Despite Danny being furious by the betrayal, Colleen discreetly helps him and Davos escape from Bakuto's compound. Her aiding Danny in escaping causes Bakuto to try to have her killed, at which point she finally learns that the Hand really is as evil as Danny and Claire have been telling her, and becomes deadset on destroying the Hand.

* Shira from ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift'' started out as a firmly loyal minion to [[BigBad Captain Gutt]]'s crew. Diego reaching out to her, coupled with [[BadBoss Gutt's atrocious treatment of her]], sparked her to turn against him and aid the heroes in their quest, culminating in her fighting alongside them in the climax.

* Female villains in ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' due to usually being humans in supervillain outfits as opposed to [[PeopleInRubberSuits Rubber suit monsters]] generally need to take a OneWingedAngel form in order to be destroyed.

*** Speaking of ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', in ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'', [[spoiler: Candelila ([[AmbiguousGender assuming Luckyuro is male, at least]]) went through a series of {{Heel Realization}}s and epiphanies (with major key factors like Nobuharu/Kyoryu Blue having faith in her and Aigaron TakingTheBullet for her) towards the end of the series]].
*** Miratrix's counterpart, Shizuka in ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'', skirted the trope by not becoming necessarily good at the end of her series, but she stopped being an active hindrance to the heroes after Yaiba betrayed the Dark Shadow. He paid for what he did; she and Gekkou didn't. They're implied to have made the full turn by the time ''Film/KaizokuSentaiGokaigerVsSpaceSheriffGavanTheMovie'' rolls around since they are imprisoned along with an entire host of reformed Sentai villains.

* Viro in ''Manga/ElementalGelade'' has lived her entire life as a worthless [[MixedAncestry Sting Raid]], and is willing to do anything to become a real Edel Raid. She's sent undercover to spy on Coud, earn his trust, and if possible, separate him from his partner, Ren. Of course, Coud is the first person to treat her kindly, and she ends up falling in love. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, RedemptionEqualsDeath.]]

* ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul, daughter of ComicBook/RasAlGhul, frequently betrayed her father out of her love for his enemy, Franchise/{{Batman}}. Though in her case, it's more of a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor[=/=]DependingOnTheWriter, as she was always torn between her attraction to Batman and her loyalty to her father. During the "Death and the Maiden" arc, she turned against both men, having been betrayed by her father and sick of being used as a pawn by Batman to take Ra's down. By the time Creator/GrantMorrison started using her in his Batman Inc. storylines, she has become as evil as her father ever was.

* ''Franchise/PrettyCure'':

It isn't always because she [[InLoveWithTheMark falls in love]] with TheHero, although this is the most frequent version. WouldntHitAGirl may come into play as well; the simple fact that [[MenAreTheExpendableGender she isn't mown down]] [[WhatMeasureIsAMook like all the other]] {{Mooks}} may help her make up her mind that the side of good isn't so terrible after all. In other cases she's GoodAllAlong but was initially attracted by the villain's charms before she realized she was getting in over her head and/or her [[AllAbusersAreMale male superiors]] decided it would be a great idea to [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal abuse her in some way]].

The most common reason as to why this trope exists is a combination of BeautyEqualsGoodness plus the DoubleStandard that women [[FemalesAreMoreInnocent cannot be truly evil]]. For the same reason, a female villain typically has to go above and beyond her male counterparts before the audience will accept her as irredeemable. The flipside to this is the UnfortunateImplications of [[TheUnfairSex the male sex being more evil than that of the female]], or viewed as stronger in mind or body, since the woman is too weak to be evil or easily swayed by a handsome hero. Either way, it's very sexist.

* Oh, ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''. Where do we even start.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' has a... strange variation of this. Lacus Clyne starts off on the side of ZAFT, but is more neutral than actually evil (mostly due to her naivéte regarding the actual nature of the conflict). She comes to realize that not only is ZAFT bad, but also the Earth Alliance. So she decides to start her own heroic faction.
* Chane Laforet of the Lemures, in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. Of course, her comrades were planning to kill her in the end, and it could be argued that she remained true to the groups ''original'' purpose (protecting her father)...
** Heck, she was three quarters of the way through turning before the show even started, and her whole team knew it.
* Perona in ''Manga/OnePiece'' was the only one of Gecko Moria's minions who was female and fighting for him by her own free will. After some initial difficulties, Perona ended up helping Zoro during the timeskip, and post time skip she helped fight off Marines that were trying to capture the Straw Hats.

* In ''Series/{{Kikaider}}'' during the four part OVA series, Bijinder decides to join up with the good guys after seeing how she actually cares about them.

** Coco from Edolas counts, even though she is the only one of her group who doesn't have a bad bone in her body. On top of that, none of the Edolas villains [[AntiVillain can really be called such]] because all they want is to ensure the survival of their realm, even if it means [[WellIntentionedExtremist killing much of the residents of Magnolia]]; Coco defects because their plan also entails the sacrifice of Lily, her closest friend.

* In ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'', Konan is a straighter example than in canon. After Nagato/Pain performs his RedemptionEqualsDeath, she turns herself in to Konoha, and later joins the Shinobi Allied Forces against Akatsuki during the Fourth Ninja War.

* In ''Film/{{Spies}}'', a silent film that plays like a James Bond flick 30 years before the first James Bond flick, the lady spy from the NebulousEvilOrganisation falls in love with the good guy spy that she was supposed to be a HoneyPot for. She refuses to betray him to her evil boss, and eventually helps to bring the evil boss down.

* Eve Teschmacher in the 1978 ''Film/{{Superman}}'' movie and Kitty Kowalski in ''Film/SupermanReturns''. Miss Teschmacher's betrayal was really Lex's own fault -- [[BadBoss he's so horrible to both of his henchpeople throughout the movie]] that the only reason Otis didn't betray him too was because he was [[LethallyStupid too stupid to realize just how much Lex hated him]]. The last straw for Miss Teschmacher involved [[EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes siccing a missile on her mother's hometown]]. That [[HeelFaceTurn led her to save Superman's life in exchange for his stopping that missile]] which was headed for Hackensack, NJ.

* [[spoiler: TheBaroness]] in the 2009 live action ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', [[spoiler: fighting her way free of the nanomites to help Duke. Stays good until the end, though the nanomites are still there, and could be [[BrainwashedAndCrazy subverted]] if her brother had a second control device to drag her back]].

* Yelena in ''Film/XXx'', though its later played with as the villain knew the whole time. ([[BondVillainStupidity But didn't do anything about it]].) Of course, it turns out that she was [[spoiler:undercover for the FSB the whole time]].
* ''Film/{{Kapo}}'': Nicole is a Jewish teenaged girl who is sent to Auschwitz during UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust. She manages to assume the identity of a deceased Gentile prisoner, and thus is sent to a different Nazi slave labor camp instead of being gassed. She throws her lot in with the Germans, becoming a cruel, vicious "kapo" (a trusty charged with guarding the other slaves). But when she falls in love with Sasha, a handsome Russian soldier interned in the camp, she undergoes a high-heel face turn and helps the prisoners in staging a mass breakout.

* Keela from ''Literature/ChantersOfTremaris'' betrays her half-brother to join the heroes, due to some handy magical rehardwiring of her personality.

** ''Series/GekisouSentaiCarranger'' has Zonette, the lone female among the badguys, turn good due to falling for the Red Ranger. However unusually for this trope, she convinces her male boss, and comrades to turn good as well. They all [[RedemptionEqualsLife survive]] and live HappilyEverAfter.

*** Miratrix's counterpart, Shizuka in ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'', skirted the trope by not becoming necessarily good at the end of her series, but she stopped being an active hindrance to the heroes after Yaiba betrayed the Dark Shadow. He paid for what he did; she and Gekkou didn't. They're implied to have made the full turn by the time ''Film/KaizokuSentaiGokaigerVsSpaceSheriffGavanTheMovie'' rolls around, since they are imprisoned along with an entire host of reformed Sentai villains.

* Ros Myers was in the inner circle of the Collingwood Cabal from the two-part premiere of ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' series five, alongside her [=MI6=] boss Collingwood, her father Sir Jocelyn (the financier of the group's attempted coup d'etat), and newspaper mogul Paul Millington, who's been skewing his headlines to ensure maximum panic (and by extension, support for the "antiterrorism" measures upon which their planned police state will be built). She's quite appalled after Collingwood decides to pull the trigger on an assassination of the Home Minister and a staged airplane collision over London despite a presumed negotiation with Harry Pearce and his supporters, where he promised a short truce. Ros promptly texts Adam Carter to warn him of the assassination attempt, and spends the second part of the premiere passing intel of the Cabal's actions to Section D, before quitting Six and joining MI5 at the end of the episode.

** Every named villain in the serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" is either clearly male, or a [[NoBiologicalSex genderless alien played by a male actor]], with the exception of TheAce Sara Kingdom. Guess which character ends up becoming a temporary companion.

** Litchi Faye-Ling: Goaded into joining the NOL by Hazama with promises of aid in curing Arakune. [[spoiler:She didn't get the villains' end of the bargain, but thanks to Bang, Ragna, Noel, Tsubaki, Makoto and Valkenhayn, Relius was left a broken man, and she and Carl now pull his strings, so he may be beholden to his colleague's deal. Things got reset afterwards, and afterwards, she just disassociated herself with the bad guys anymore.]]
** Tsubaki Yayoi: Forcibly {{brainwashed}} by Hazama and Phantom. [[spoiler:Escaped with aid from Jin, Noel and Makoto, with Kagura and Kokonoe on technical support.]]

*** General Beatrix starts out as a loyal servant of the villainous Queen Brahne, but turns against her ruler once the party force her to realize her queen has gone mad. She briefly joins the party herself, despite having been a difficult boss fight earlier.

** Played straight in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' where [[spoiler:Aversa]] is the only female member depicted in the [[spoiler:Grimleal]], and is a manipulative BadBoss. Yet the DLC content reveals Aversa to have survived and to have been magically brainwashed by a male Villain against her will all along. She then joins the party as a playable character, and can be romanced by the Male custom character. The other members of the [[spoiler:Grimleal]], all of whom are ugly males, are just said to be evil with no explanation on why.
** Surprisingly, ''gender flipped'' in the second half of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' The brothers Iuchar and Iucharba are both in love with Larcei (or her {{expy}} Creidne, if you screwed up badly enough in part 1 to prevent Larcei from being born) and one of them can be persuaded to pull this by her and join the heroes. The other will go [[WomanScorned man scorned]] and she'll have to kill him.

* Erim the Goddess of Death from ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'' is a lone female in a group of four mad Sinistrals. She falls for the local Maxim. After Maxim defeats the Sinistrals (including her), she decides to reincanate into a straight up heroine in the sequels and ScrewDestiny.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'', although it's more of a EnemyMine scenario, Ferham, one of the last members of the Rebellion, helps her enemies (X and his allies) defeat the BigBad [[spoiler:Redips/[[SdrawkcabAlias Spider]] by removing the AppliedPhlebotinum that made him nearly invincible, allowing the heroes to ultimately defeat him]]. In the end, Ferham, [[spoiler:like most other examples involving both this trope and AppliedPhlebotinum, pulls off a RedemptionEqualsDeath to destroy the AppliedPhlebotinum so that it will not fall into the wrong hands ever again]].

* Kurow Kirishima of ''[[VideoGame/RivalSchools Project Justice]]'' sets himself up with two henchwomen - his sister Yurika, and admirer Momo. By the end of the game they've both betrayed him [[ThePowerOfFriendship for the friends they've gained]]... although Kurow probably brought it on himself by treating Yurika like crap [[spoiler: and sending her to Seijyun, where she'd find Akira and bond with her in a rare prospect LesYay example of this]] and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness considering Momo as nothing more than a pawn]] [[RescueRomance so Shouma rescues and then recruits her]].

* ''VideoGame/TimeSplittersFuturePerfect''. The time traveling hero helps out a seventies super-agent stop a world threatening conspiracy. Many of the female mooks can be overheard desiring the super-agent in many sexy ways. Gamewise, here is no choice but to shoot the mooks. The super-agent? More interested in dressing up like a lady and flirting with the men in the game.

** Zigzagged with Tabitha/Boom-Boom who leaves the Xavier Institute and moves in with the Brotherhood. She then leaves them when [[spoiler: Mystique returns]] and works with the X-Men a few times after that. From then onwards she just seems to go with whichever groups suits her at the time: in one episode, she's staying with the Brotherhood while fighting crime with the female X-Men.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' with Shego, who massively subverts the trope at the end of at least two episodes which look like they're heading in this direction. However, that doesn't stop her from taking part in numerous {{Enemy Mine}}s, particularly in the finale. Not to mention it's revealed she had done a {{Face Heel Turn}} in her background, inverting this trope, since she was the only female in her heroic SiblingTeam.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' when one of Stan's partner of the week invokes this to get them out of imprisonment with nothing more than a short song. He apparently sexed his way through 200 miles of jungles. Though to be fair... [[StupidSexyFlanders he did have an enticing voice]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'': Asazi, at the end of the series, is the only member of the Council of Doom to defect to the good guys, while all of her male colleagues are either depowered or permanently dispatched in some other way. Although it's questionable if she will really quit being evil, since her only motivation for helping Alex was that [[EvilVersusOblivion Dr. X's plan to destroy all of humanity would be bad for her business]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', [[spoiler: Emma Frost betrays the Inner Circle out of a combination of her love for Cyclops and the fact that hanging around with the X-Men has caused her to grow a conscience, and, of course, the practical reason that the Inner Circle kept switching up their plans without telling her, making her feel like a betrayal was coming]]. This trope is averted by the Inner Circle's ''other'' female member, Selene, however; she's portrayed as an entirely unrepentant sadist and schemer throughout.

* Shira from ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift''started out as a firmly loyal minion to [[BigBad Captain Gutt]]'s crew. Diego reaching out to her, coupled with [[BadBoss Gutt's atrocious treatment of her]], sparked her to turn against him and aid the heroes in their quest, culminating in her fighting alongside them in the climax.

%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Shira in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift''.

** What about Sylvia in "Catspaw"? Not only is she an unmitigated villainess, she dies -- along with her more sympathetic male partner. [[spoiler: It probably helps that "her" undisguised form looked like it was made out of pipe cleaners.]]

** Ultimately subverted (or is that averted?) in the "Minstrel's Shakedown" episode: The Minstrel's moll initially surrenders to Batman and Robin, but they admire her courage and seemingly let her go. However, it was all a ruse to bug the girl's purse so that the Dynamic Duo can listen in on Minstrel's plot. After she learns this, the girl turns evil again.

* ''Series/BodyguardUK2018'': Julia starts off as an antagonistic CorruptPolitician especially to her bodyguard, David. When they sleep together, she falls quickly in love with him and becomes much softer and less corrupt, seemingly overnight.

'''Note: This trope is not just for any HeelFaceTurn that happens to involve a female. The female villain HAS to be amongst male villains in order to count. (Ex: a ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fic where Bellatrix Lestrange decides to stop being a Death Eater and becomes a member of the Order of the Phoenix.)'''

** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08ThMSTeam The 08th MS Team]]'' has Aina Sahaku, who fell in love with protagonist Shiro Amada, pretty much flips off her brother and joins Shiro's side at the end. [[spoiler:Unlike the others, she ''doesn't'' die.]]
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' has a... strange variation of this. Lacus Clyne starts off on the side of ZAFT, but is more neutral than actually evil. She comes to realize that not only is ZAFT bad, but also the Earth Alliance. So she decides to start her own heroic faction.

* Talia, daughter of ComicBook/RasAlGhul, frequently betrayed her father out of her love for his enemy, Franchise/{{Batman}}. Though in her case, it's more of a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor[=/=]DependingOnTheWriter, as she was always torn between her attraction to Batman and her loyalty to her father. During the "Death and the Maiden" arc, she turned against both men, having been betrayed by her father and sick of being used as a pawn by Batman to take Ra's down. By the time Creator/GrantMorrison started using her in his Batman Inc. storylines, she has become as evil as her father ever was.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. The [[EvilOverlord Fire Lord Ozai]] has a son, Zuko and a daughter, Azula. Azula supports him to the end, but his son eventually betrays him to [[MessianicArchetype Avatar]] [[TheHero Aang]].

** Of the five female members of the Donquixote Pirates, the only one who had a HeelFaceTurn (barring the one who was a ReverseMole) defected because she fell in love with her opponent.

* Eve Kendall in ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''. [[spoiler: Although it turns out that she was a ReverseMole all along.]]

* In the made-for-tv movie ''Operation: Jet Fusion'' for ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Jet Fusion tries to invoke this trope on Beautiful Gorgeous, Prof. Calamitous' daughter. It fails though. Later, it seems that it's worked and the two are set to get married. But then it turns out that it's actually an evil plot to control Jet's mind, and Beautiful Gorgeous is ''still'' unwilling to change.

* Indicators are that the ''VideoGame/{{City of Heroes}}'' update, ''Going Rogue'', will have an example of this in demon-summoner Desdemona's background. She seems to be the likely contact for Villains seeking to turn Hero.

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'': Asazi, at the end of the series, is the only member of the Council of Doom to defect to the good guys, while all of her male colleagues are either depowered or permanently dispatched in some other way. Although it's questionable if she will really quit being evil, since her only motivation for helping Alex was that Dr. X's plan to destroy all of humanity would be bad for her business.

* Megara from ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''. To her credit though, she was [[TokenGoodTeammate never really evil in the first place]].

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