History Main / NotAlwaysEvil

* The Cylons in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''. As the show progresses, both the humans and the viewers begin seeing that the Cylons aren't merely soulless machines, but complex sentient beings.

** The Tarrasque is actually a border-line example in the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons source material]]: the Tarrasque isn't ''evil'' as usually encountered (it is neither made of evil nor intelligent enough to hold any malice), but it is suggested in {{Spelljammer}} that in their natural habitat, they are docile lithovores (with the solitary aggressive consume-everythings of other worlds being a result of something in the atmospheres).

* Mike Chilton in ''{{WesternAnimation/Motorcity}}'' used to work for [=KaneCo=] but was never a villain and had good intentions all along. He just wasn't aware that Kane will willing to harm innocent people in their line of work.

* In ''Series/{{Alias}}'' the people working for the BigBad thought they were a secret section of the CIA. TheReveal to that came in the 1st episode though, so it might qualify. The reveal then came with Sydney alone, who continued to have to work with the members of SD6 who genuinely thought they were good guys. The reveal for ''them'' didn't come until partway through the second season.

*** Robert realize this, and that's the reason why he took the suicide pill.

* In the ''VideoGame/UFOAfterblank'' series, it's revealed that the aliens that nearly destroyed humanity in the first game are actually a rebellious faction of the Reticulan race. They wanted to try creating a gigantic supercomputer brain, and the rest of their species said no. The rebellious Reticulans then split from their race and destroyed Earth. This is all just interesting backstory until the ''UFO Afterlight'', when the non-evil Reticulans show up and propose an alliance with the remnants of humanity in an attempt to tame Mars. Of course, they will ''still'' try to screw you over, taking some of the most resource rich territories on planet, but attempting to kill them is much more difficult due to their significantly more powerful technology.

It's a common literary conceit to have {{Mooks}} that are so [[TheUsualAdversaries persistently evil]] that heroes can [[KillEmAll freely slaughter them]]. Subversions are usually on a [[DefectorFromDecadence case]]-by-[[AscendedDemon case]] basis, and rarely justify recategorizing the race as a whole as neutral. That means it's time for a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction!]]

[[folder:Film]]

* The alternate ending of the 2007 ''Film/IAmLegend'' movie had Robert Neville discover the ghouls were people despite being victims of a ViralTransformation. The lead ghoul not only learned to adopt Robert's tactics against him, but was only attacking him because he had kidnapped his girlfriend/wife/mate to try and see if his newest cure was working. The revelation causes a near HeroicBSOD as he looks at the wall of ghouls he'd killed trying to "cure" them. This is similar to the ending of the book and first film, in which a good many vampires/zombies were still fully sentient, just nocturnal, so Robert had been murdering innocent people along with the mindless zombies.
** In fact, it was the whole point: they executed him at the end, because to their society he'd become this terrible, daywalking monster that slaughters people with ruthless efficiency. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Legendary.]]
*** Robert realize this, and that's the reason why he took the suicide pill.
* The armed band of natives in ''Film/TheRuins''. From the point of view of the protagonists, they're murderous villains; but in the big picture, the protagonists really ''shouldn't'' be allowed to leave the ruins alive.

* The other toys in Sunnyside Daycare (such as [[{{Franchise/Barbie}} Ken]]) in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. The real reason why they were all evil in the first place is they were all afraid of [[spoiler: Lotso.]]

* The vampires in ''Anime/TrinityBlood.'' They get fleshed out throughout the anime as being just like humans, except with different dietary needs and a longer lifespan, and it's revealed that the Rosencruez vampires are terrorists who are trying to instigate an all-out war between humans and vampires, with no concern for the massive casualties that would befall both sides.

** Also in ''The Curse of Peladon'', the Ice Warriors turn out to be among the good guys. In previous stories, they had been the villains.

* The Hades chapter of ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' revealed the previously completely evil [[{{mooks}} Spectres]] were lied to, and they thought Hades, lord of the dead, would [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans end the world to bring about a paradise]] where everyone was immortal and there was no suffering. As it turns out, Hades has this sort of vaguely defined distaste and loathing for the living in general and humans in particular, and wants to freeze the world to death just because. It's unclear whether his Spectres would have survived or if he had any loyalty towards his minions to begin with. In the end, the last six or so Spectres rush one of the heroes, Ikki, saying they'll fight him to help Lord Hade's vision. He kills them, but you feel somewhat sorry for them.

In short, this trope is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of AlwaysChaoticEvil, since it turns out that these {{Mooks}} or {{Mooks}} in general are ''not [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin always]] evil''.

* Beastmen in ''GurrenLagann'' are introduced as an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, but after their evil overlord is defeated by the heroes, they're revealed to be perfectly capable of peaceful co-existence with humans.
* The Hades chapter of ''SaintSeiya'' revealed the previously completely evil [[{{mooks}} Spectres]] were lied to, and they thought Hades, lord of the dead, would [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans end the world to bring about a paradise]] where everyone was immortal and there was no suffering. As it turns out, Hades has this sort of vaguely defined distaste and loathing for the living in general and humans in particular, and wants to freeze the world to death just because. It's unclear whether his Spectres would have survived or if he had any loyalty towards his minions to begin with. In the end, the last six or so Spectres rush one of the heroes, Ikki, saying they'll fight him to help Lord Hade's vision. He kills them, but you feel somewhat sorry for them.

* The vampires in ''TrinityBlood.'' They get fleshed out throughout the anime as being just like humans, except with different dietary needs and a longer lifespan, and it's revealed that the Rosencruez vampires are terrorists who are trying to instigate an all-out war between humans and vampires, with no concern for the massive casualties that would befall both sides.
* Yukimi from ''NabariNoOu'' looked like a typical {{Mook}} in his first appearance. Boy, [[PetTheDog were]] [[PapaWolf we]] [[HeelFaceTurn wrong]]...

* In ''ElEternauta'', we discover that [[spoiler: "Los manos" ("the hands") and the attack-bugs are both very noble creatures (and pretty smart and sensitive, in the case of "los manos"). They only serve TheBigBad (only known as "Ellos" ("They")) because they are forced to do so]]

* The armed band of natives in ''TheRuins''. From the point of view of the protagonists, they're murderous villains; but in the big picture, the protagonists really ''shouldn't'' be allowed to leave the ruins alive.
* In ''Film/HowToTrainYourDragon'', dragons aren't evil, but are being controlled by the Green Death, a giant dragon that's essentially their HiveQueen. They have to bring back food or they get eaten. Once the Green Death is killed, the Vikings of Berk can coexist with the dragons.

* The Buggers in ''EndersGame''.

* Noghri in ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse were first introduced as evil mooks serving TheEmpire Remnant. When Leia found out that they were, in fact, manipulated by Palpatine into serving him, they reject their former allegiance and join the good guys.
** To an extent, the [[NewJediOrder Yuuzhan Vong]]. They're introduced as AlwaysChaoticEvil fanatics, but it gradually turns out that the fanaticism is deliberately instilled in them by their corrupt (and largely insane) leadership to create more pliant minions [[spoiler: and their religion is essentially a massively flanderized and corrupted version of its original self]]. Once this starts coming out, a lot of Vong start turning against their leaders. Then there were the Shamed Ones, who were little more than oppressed slaves and were treated sympathetically from their introduction.

* In ''[[TheChroniclesOfNarnia The Silver Chair]]'', the creatures dwelling in the Underland seem like terrifying monsters, but they've been bewitched by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. Once she's dead, they're horrified by the notion that they might have invaded the frigid, exposed surface world and happily go back down to their magma tunnels.

* In ''Series/{{Alias}}'' the people working for the BigBad thought they were a secret section of the CIA. TheReveal to that came in the 1st episode though, so I'm not sure if it would qualify.
** The reveal then came with Sydney alone, who continued to have to work with the members of SD6 who genuinely thought they were good guys. The reveal for ''them'' didn't come until partway through the second season.

* The Others in ''Series/{{Lost}}''. For the first three seasons, they're the show's main antagonists and seem pure evil. In Season 4, they team up with the survivors to battle a greater threat. By the end of the series, it's clear that they should never have been the enemy in the first place, had they had more contact with their leader, Jacob. He himself was built up to be the [[BigBad Big Bad]], turns out he was the [[BigGood Big Good]] the whole time.

* In Islam, the Djinns, direct descendants of The Devil, are not always evil-- they are even capable of going to Heaven, since they are also judged just like humans. However, humans are advised against socializing with them, since they have [[BlueAndOrangeMorality vastly different common sense]] from that of humans'.

** Bastok's conflict with the Quadav is because Bastok keeps taking over, mining, polluting, and outright keeps destroying the Quadav's homes, leading to the Quadav going all out to protect their home. Of course, the players themselves know from the get-go that Bastok needs it's mining to stay a solid nation, and with both sides having people that don't know the meaning of the words "peace and compromise", it's one of the [[GrayAndGrayMorality Grayest]] conflicts in the entire game.
* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' Series, which just loves to deconstruct its parent series, contains large numbers of nice [[TheGoomba goombas]], koopas and other enemies.

* ''Everyone'' in the VideoGame/{{Touhou}} series.
* The Liberation Front in VideoGame/DeusEx were revealed to be the good guys less than half-way through the story, vindicating the players who stuck with non-lethal force to fight them. Of course there's still recurring examples of how good the people of the original organization were, so the Triads and MJ12 were introduced for the player to spend their live ammo on guilt-free.

* The demon world of Formido Heim from ''[[EndlessFrontier Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier]]''. They started a bloody war with a neighboring world ten years ago, and appear to be up to no good again when their [[QuirkyMinibossSquad elite task force]] starts showing up in other worlds. [[spoiler:It turns out that the war was started by the [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Einst]], who killed and impersonated their king. Their ''ridiculously'' evil-looking commander actually killed the imposter and ended the war, and has spent the past ten years rebuilding his devastated world and secretly ensuring that the Einst wouldn't be able to harm the rest of the multiverse.]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This doesn't stop the random encounters with Formido Heim's denizens]], possibly because they didn't actually ''know'' that they were GoodAllAlong.

** The AlwaysChaoticEvil orcs from ''Warcraft'' and ''Warcraft II'' were afterwards {{retconned}} to have been under the control of [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide demonic magic]] after their leaders made a DealWithTheDevil. Thus they were not originally inherently evil as a species after all, and after the demonic influence wore off, were left as a much more human ProudWarriorRace.

** In the first game, you run across a [[spoiler:rachni queen who tells you that the rachni that the Citadel fought against two thousand years prior were [[BrainwashedAndCrazy driven insane]] by an external influence (Reaper indoctrination), and that rachni are actually a peaceful race. Letting her go and loading the save in VideoGame/MassEffect2 reveals that the rachni remnants live on uncharted planets on the edge of known space, repopulating their species, [[ChekhovsArmy apparently to aid Shepard in the final battle against the Reapers]]]].
* Amazingly enough, it turns out, in [[StarCraft Starcraft II]] that [[spoiler: the zerg Overmind was not evil, it had just been compelled by a biological ObstructiveCodeOfConduct implanted by the [[AbusivePrecursors Xel'naga]] to destroy the Protoss. Seeing no other option, the Overmind executed a ThanatosGambit to create a new being, free of the Xel'naga directive, and put it in command of the zerg swarm by attacking the Protoss homeworld, which was effectively suicide.]]
** That's one AlternateCharacterInterpretation, anyway. With what little information was given so far, it could just as easily have been that [[spoiler:the Overmind was still evil, but it had a vendetta against a rogue Xel'naga who had the nerve to claim to be EvilerThanThou.]]
* In the ''UFOAfterblank'' series, it's revealed that the aliens that nearly destroyed humanity in the first game are actually a rebellious faction of the Reticulan race. They wanted to try creating a gigantic supercomputer brain, and the rest of their species said no. The rebellious Reticulans then split from their race and destroyed Earth. This is all just interesting backstory until the ''UFO Afterlight'', when the non-evil Reticulans show up and propose an alliance with the remnants of humanity in an attempt to tame Mars. Of course, they will ''still'' try to screw you over, taking some of the most resource rich territories on planet, but attempting to kill them is much more difficult due to their significantly more powerful technology.
* Ash Crimson from KingOfFighters series. Watch the ending of KOF XIII.

* The Vortigaunts are enemies in the original ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life|1}}'', but at the end of that game you free them from their mind control and they become allies to humanity.
* VideoGame/KingsQuestIV: Edgar may look like a deformed little green hunchback [[spoiler: though that isn't his true form]], but he does plead with Lolotte to spare Rosella, gives her the means to escape (attached to a red rose), and doesn't grieve overmuch after Rosella kills Lolotte with a love arrow. It's just easy to miss as the poor fellow's too shy to speak up for himself.
* In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic II: The Sith Lords'', you will meet a man named [[spoiler:Zherron]] in Dantooine, speaking with a deep, grave voice, having dark features and is involved with the mercenaries who is harrassing the settlement. It turns out that he was spying against the mercenaries.
* In Bungie's ''Marathon'' series, the S'pht, an alien cyborg race, fight alongside the real bad guys, the Pfhor, because they are under control. After a mission in which they are freed, they become fantastic allies, mowing wave after wave of Pfhor.

* ''PennyArcade'' plays with this [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/19 here]].

* An episode of WesternAnimation/AdventureTime has Finn trying to convince Flame Princess she is this, even though all fire elementals are supposedly evil. [[spoiler: the jury is still out on whether he was right or not. Although Flame Princess is definitely capable of caring about others, it also seems that fire elmementals have a very strong inborn desire to [[KillItWithFire wantonly burn and destroy things]]. This is consistent with an earlier episode where she tried to burn down a goblin village just because [[BlueAndOrangeMorality "it needed more fire"]], and Finn had to stop her.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Most Fire Nation civilians. It's the Fire Lords of the Sozin dynasty - and a few fanatically loyal and self-aggrandizing military commanders - who are the really evil ones.
** Even the military firebenders with their skull-faced helmets, parties to genocide, are carefully shown to be basically just guys. [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Our heroes have killed a lot of them]], though never face to face.

* In one ''TomAndJerryKids'' short, the duo encounter an evil witch and her Frankenstein monster henchman. After chasing them outside, the monster tells Tom and Jerry he's really a good guy and has been trying to get out of the witch's castle for a long time. The episode ends with the three of them walking off.

----

* Colossus in ''XMenEvolution'' was a member of Magneto's Acolytes. In his second appearance, it was revealed during a confrontation between him and Wolverine that he was a reluctant member of the group and Magneto had blackmailed him into joining. In subsequent appearances, Colossus was consistently portrayed as the most sympathetic member of the Acolytes and was the first to abandon the group after Magneto was seemingly killed by Apocalypse. He later helped the X-Men in their final battle against Apocalypse and was shown in the DistantFinale to become a full-fledged member of the X-Men following Apocalypse's defeat.

** A lot of fans believe that [[spoiler:Saturos and Menardi were so because they knew of Alex's master plan, the whole of it, and wanted their share of the Golden Sun's power. Much unlike Karst and Agatio, who were in solely to save their homeland, which was dangling in the edge of a [[WaterfallIntoTheAbyss world abyss]]. Though it could simply be so because Alex didn't told them of the Golden Sun phenomenon this time, seeing how the previous BattleCouple went way too adamant in their mission thanks to a chance to reach godliness.]]

* VideoGame/KingsQuestIV: Edgar may look like a deformed little green hunchback [[spoiler: though that isn't his true form]], but he does plead with Lolotte to [[PleaseSpareHimMyLeige spare Rosella]], gives her the means to escape (attached to a red rose), and doesn't grieve overmuch after Rosella kills Lolotte with a love arrow. It's just easy to miss as the poor fellow's too shy to speak up for himself.

* The other toys in Sunnyside Daycare (such as [[{{Barbie}} Ken]]) in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. The real reason why they were all evil in the first place is they were all afraid of [[spoiler: Lotso.]]

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'' the [[LaResistance resistance]] [[IDidWhatIHadToDo slaughters fellow human beings left and right]]. While it may be justified when dealing with Agent-possessed people, there's no excuse for gunning down dozens of security officers or such reckless driving as we witness.
** Morpheus makes this very clear in the first film: anyone who is not part of the resistance is a part of the Matrix, and as such, is a danger. Both on their own and because they can potentially become Agents.

Related to MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch, where, it turns out the PlanetOfHats has a lot more ''diversity'' than it first seemed to. See also MinionWithAnFInEvil, MookFaceTurn, and TheManBehindTheMonsters. Compare RaceHeelTurn, where a races ends up changing from evil to good.

It's a common literary conceit to have {{Mooks}} that are so [[TheUsualAdversaries persistently evil]] that heroes can [[KillEmAll freely slaughter them]]. Subversions are usually on a [[DefectorFromDecadence case]]-by-[[AscendedDemon case]] basis, and rarely justify recategorizing the race as a whole as neutral. That means it's time for a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction!]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[/folder]]

* The demon world of Formido Heim from ''[[EndlessFrontier Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier]]''. They started a bloody war with a neighboring world ten years ago, and appear to be up to no good again when their [[QuirkyMinibossSquad elite task force]] starts showing up in other worlds. [[spoiler:It turns out that the war was started by the [[SuperRobotWarsCompact2 Einst]], who killed and impersonated their king. Their ''ridiculously'' evil-looking commander actually killed the imposter and ended the war, and has spent the past ten years rebuilding his devastated world and secretly ensuring that the Einst wouldn't be able to harm the rest of the multiverse.]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This doesn't stop the random encounters with Formido Heim's denizens]], possibly because they didn't actually ''know'' that they were GoodAllAlong.

Related to MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch, where, it turns out the PlanetOfHats has a lot more ''diversity'' than it first seemed to. See also MinionWithAnFInEvil, MookFaceTurn, and TheManBehindTheMonsters.