History Main / NotAlwaysEvil

* {{WesternAnimation/Danny Phantom}}, ghosts are portrayed as {{always chaotic evil}} until the episode Bitter Reunions wherein [[sooiler: The Ghost of the Dairy King]] frees Danny Fenton and tells him “Not all ghosts are evil, you know, some just like to be left alone”.

* They are [[BattleThralls pressed into the ranks]] -- EvilOverlord may simply [[IControlMyMinionsThrough coerce them with threats]] or for their own protection against an outside threat.

* Their boss knows something you don't and they're fighting for a greater good that [[WellIntentionedExtremist also involves killing you]]. Or alternatively they may believe UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans (and the BigBad just so happens to have lied to them about the "utopia" part). Could be GullibleLemmings whose only crime is believing the VillainWithGoodPublicity.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' plays this one for laughs. Earlier seasons have all demons as CardCarryingVillain [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]] who would go on a rampage then be killed by the heroes. In later seasons there are short glances into demon "society" where we meet "civilian" demons who are, well, maybe not "''good''", but are at least portrayed as merely working schlubs like you or me who are just trying to mind their own business and who don't seem to require human as part of their dietary intake. Not to be confused with the ''many'' Banality of Evil villains in ''Angel'', who really are evil but in an unglamorous PunchClockVillain way.

* ''Everyone'' in the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series, which just loves to deconstruct its parent series, contains large numbers of nice [[TheGoomba goombas]], koopas and other enemies.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

** In later episodes we have Thorax, a good-natured Changeling who defected from the hive after being inspired by the main character's friendship and becomes good friends with Spike. He later helps Starlight, Trixie and Discord foil the Changeling's second invasion attempt by encouraging the other Changelings to share love instead of stealing it, which cures their HorrorHunger and transforms them into nicer-looking creatures. Most of the Changelings were just evil because they were following Queen Chrysalis, and after she leaves and Thorax takes over as their new leader they become more peaceful.

* TheHeartless of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fame are mostly mindless creatures with an instinctive drive to eat hearts and are always evil in the storyline. In ''gameplay'' however, we have the White Mushroom, a harmless encounter that just wants to play charades and hand out prizes. Their cousins, the Rare Truffles, are equally harmless and want to be juggled. The worst thing either will do is vanish in a huff if you mess up their games.

* While there are plenty of malevolent and deadly spirits in ''VideoGame/YomawariNightAlone'', there are few that will not harm the little girl. Some are simply minding their own business while others simply want to play around with her, though their definition of "playing around" usually means scaring the living daylights out of her.

* Hyenas have been presented as antagonists since the first ''Disney/TheLionKing'' film. In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' Simba's son Kion learns that not all hyenas are jerks and learns to deal with his FantasticRacism towards them. [[{{Retcon}} It actually establishes that most hyenas are in fact good.]] The fact that all the hyenas seen have been evil except Jasiri is just a coincidence.

** Then there is [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0707.html this page]], where LaResistance finds a hobgoblin among the freed prisoners, who says he is GoodAllAlong because he hates (regular) goblins, including Redcloak. Subverted though, as the elves are GenreSavvy enough to assume he is a FakeDefector, and just kill him. We will never know what the truth is, but, especially in light of more recent events, we can assume that he was.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'': the Gajalakas are a tribe of Lynians that attack the player on sight, and generally make pests of themsekves during High Rank hunts. However, completing one sidequest leads to the Lynian researcher deciphering their language and assisting in making friends with one sub-tribe, allowing you to gain their help as Tailriders. Other Gajalaka will still attack you, though.
Completing an extra mission in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' crossover event results in more Gajalaka tribes agreeing to ally with the Hunters.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[spoiler:Legion, the geth who saves your life aboard the dead Reaper, explains to you that the Reaper-worshipping geth whom you've been slaughtering for the past two games are actually just [[VocalMinority a small percentage of the whole geth population]] and are considered to be "heretics," and have split from the main geth population. Besides the heretics, [[HeroicNeutral the geth just want to be left alone]]]].

* The mooks encountered are actually a rebel faction of a larger, more heterogeneous culture/species.
* They are [[BattleThralls pressed into the ranks]] -- EvilOverlord may simply [[IControlMyMinionsThrough coerce them with threats]].

* Their boss knows something you don't and they're fighting for a greater good that [[WellIntentionedExtremist also involves killing you]].
* [[DarkIsNotEvil They are dark but not evil]], and are being forced to ally with the villain for protection,

* They're all GullibleLemmings whose only crime is believing the VillainWithGoodPublicity.
* At worst, they're {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who believe UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans (and the BigBad just so happens to have lied to them about the "utopia" part).
* They're similar to humans in the regard that they have both saints and criminals; the ones you happen to meet are the latter.

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 HeelRaceTurn, where a races ends up changing from evil to good, and FantasticRacism, when a species is stereotype as being always evil is do to prejudice.

This trope should not be confused with GoodAllAlong, which applies to a character who was thought to be a bad guy, but is revealed to have always been good.

* 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 Hades's vision. He kills them, but you feel somewhat sorry for them.

* In the '80s animated film ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'' there's a race of [[FrazettaMan Neanderthal-like humanoids]]. They do the bidding of the evil sorceress and her son, and are pretty brutal about their business. However towards the middle of the movie one them gets injured a hell of a lot, while pursuing the escaped beautiful princess, and is literally limping towards her out of sheer willpower. While she kills it, you can't help but feel sorry for him, trying so hard and through such pain (then again, the sorceress is [[YouHaveFailedMe pretty brutal)]]. After the sorceress and her son are beaten, the hero wants to kill a random survivor Neanderthal but the same princess stops him. She tells him now it's time to forgive them, since without the sorceress they're basically harmless.
* In ''WesternAnimation/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 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.

* Film/{{Thor}}: Thor gets banished at the beginning of the film because he thinks nothing of breaking a thousand year old treaty with an enemy race, seemingly because he thinks of the Frost Giants as {{always chaotic evil}} and therefore doesn’t see any problem with [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar trying to wipe them all out.]] While Odin seems more upset about how the war Thor provoked would affect other Asgardians, he also most likely doesn’t share Thor’s views that Frost Giants are always evil, considering that, if he had, he most likely wouldn’t have [[ObliviousAdoption adopted Loki]] from that race.

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': A running theme of the Ender-centered books. Of the two intelligent alien species humanity meets, both perform actions that humanity perceives as evil, but later find out that said aliens are no more evil on average than a given human, it's biological and social differences that prompted their actions. The Formics mass-murdered humans because they didn't understand that humans were ''individually'' sentient, as opposed to their own HiveMind, while the Pequeninos in ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' ritually vivisected some human scientists in a misguided attempt to ''honor'' them (the vivisection would not have killed a Pequenino, and is in fact necessary for a Pequenino's maturation). Once both sides figure out each others' customs and biology, co-existence is not only possible, but even easy.

* In Indian mythology, there are a whole lot of rakshasa villains (Literature/{{Ramayana}} comes to mind[[note]]Lanka is practically a kingdom full of them, and Ravana and his ilk features heavily as antagonists[[/note]]), but there are some rakshasa firmly choosing the side of good[[note]]taking Ramayana as an example, Rama is aided by Ravana's younger brother Vibishana, who is pious and noble[[/note]].

* 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.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', FantasticRacism sets [[HalfHumanHybrid half-elves]] up this way at first: humans view half-elves as cruel, greedy oppressors, because the most prominent group of them - the Desians - is exactly that. However, it's gradually revealed that a) most half-elves join the Desians because [[FreudianExcuse humans have a tendency to do things like burn their villages and slaughter their families]], and the Desians are their chance to fight back and gain the upper hand, and b) there are a number of half-elves who disagree with the Desians, and are really just trying to live peaceful lives, hampered by racism from the humans. And that's ''before'' the [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle fake ending]] and subsequent plot twists...

** The AlwaysChaoticEvil orcs from ''Warcraft'' and ''Warcraft II'' were afterwards {{retcon}}ned 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 {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}}.

* In the ''VideoGame/UFOAfterblank'' series, it's revealed that the aliens that nearly destroyed humanity in ''[[VideoGame/UFOAftermath Aftermath]]'' 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 ''VideoGame/UFOAfterlight'', 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.

* TheHeartless of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fame are mostly mindless creatures with an instinctive drive to eat hearts, and are always evil in the storyline. In ''gameplay'' however, we have the White Mushroom, a harmless encounter that just wants to play charades and hand out prizes. Their cousins, the Rare Truffles, are equally harmless and want to be juggled. The worst thing either will do is vanish in a huff if you mess up their games.
* The smaller factions of the beastmen tribes in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are this compared to their evil counterparts. Beastmen in general are considered enemies by the spoken races because beastmen summon primals when threatened and summoning primals drains aether, which is the planet's life force. What also didn't help was some of the beast tribes became hostile because [[HumansAreBastards the spoken races did some unsavory things to them first]]. There are other factions of beastmen of the same species that are not hostile and either want to be left alone or are willing to work with the spoken races for peace between them.

** ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'' and ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' star characters that try to live up to the demonic ideal but then find that they're better people than they thought they were. ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', which is not a ''Disgaea'' game but is set in the same setting, has something similar. It also shows that high-level demons are willing to look out for each other, [[FriendlyEnemy even though they may also be rivals]]. ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'' stars the noblest of {{Noble Demon}}s, a characters who is just a few steps shy of being an actual hero. Finally, one of the characters in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 5}}'' is shocked to find that his demonic allies genuinely care about each other and other people. The character is [[spoiler: secretly an angel that was framed as a spy by other angels. The fact that demons can be better people than angels throws him for a loop.]]

* In ''VideoGame/NieR'' you spend most of the game killing Shades left and right. Then you find out that Shades are actually [[spoiler:the real humans, [[TomatoInTheMirror unlike]] [[PlayerCharacter you]] and most of them were completely innocent, only attacking you in self-defence.]]

** 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 ''TabletopGame/{{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).

* 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.]]

** Even Sozin was not purely evil. [[MightyWhitey He originally wanted to share the greatness of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world]], and this unfortunately led to him leaving his former best friend to die, committing genocide against the Air Nomads, and starting the one hundred year long war. He died deeply regretting the horrible actions he committed and the man he became, with no way to fix it. Unfortunately, his descendants were worse, until Iroh and Zuko came along.

** In later episodes we have Thorax, a good-natured Changeling who defected from the hive after being inspired by the main character's friendship and becomes good friends with Spike. He later helps Starlight, Trixie and Discord foil the Changeling's second invasion attempt by encouraging the other Changelings to share love instead of steal it, which cures their HorrorHunger and transforms them into nicer-looking creatures. Most of the Changelings were just evil because they were following Queen Chrysalis, and after she leaves and Thorax takes over as their new leader they become more peaceful.

* Film/{{Thor}}: Thor gets banished at the beginning of the film because he thinks nothing of breaking a thousand year old treaty with an enemy race, seemingly because he thinks of the Frost Giants as {{always chaotic evil}} and therefore doesn’t see any problem with [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar trying to wipe them all out.]] While Odin seems more upset about how the war Thor provoked would affect other Asgardians, he also most likely doesn’t share Thor’s views that Frost Giants are always evil, considering he [[ObliviousAdoption adopted Loki]] from that race.
** Played with in Loki’s case. While he is a villain in his first two cinematic appearances, so he could be considered an example of an evil Frost Giant, he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope only jumps off the slippery slope after finding out he’s a Frost Giant]], and {{used to be a sweet kid}}. It is implied that it is [[GoMadFromTheRevelation the revelation]] that he is [[FantasticRacism part of a species he was taught to hate]] that affects his behavior, not an inborn evil nature due to his species.

It's a common literary conceit to have {{Mooks}} that are so [[TheUsualAdversaries persistently evil]] that heroes can [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar 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!]]

* The mooks encountered are actually a rebel faction of a larger, more heterogeneous culture/species
* They are [[BattleThralls pressed into the ranks]] -- EvilOverlord may simply [[IControlMyMinionsThrough coerce them with threats,]] or
* They may be under a VillainOverride as a species, making them an evil HiveMind,
* Their boss knows something you don't and they're fighting for a greater good that [[WellIntentionedExtremist also involves killing you]],

* They are well-meaning, but either party had the first contact GoneHorriblyWrong due to being too [[AndCallHimGeorge clumsy]] or [[StarfishAliens alien]] for another,
* They're all GullibleLemmings whose only crime is believing the VillainWithGoodPublicity,

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 HeelRaceTurn, where a races ends up changing from evil to good.

* In ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' Seerdomin is an all around decent human being towards [[spoiler: Toc during his imprisonment with the Matron]]: conversing with him to alleviate the torture the latter has to endure, taking him outside to view the sea and carrying him when he grows too weak to walk himself. All this despite holding the highest military rank in an army of cannibalistic fanatics.