Face–Heel Turn

From a nice prince to an ice prince.

"Yo, the superheroes have turned evil! Most uncool."

— Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate, Futurama

A good guy turns bad, the opposite of the Heel–Face Turn. The ways in which this happens are many:

• They have become a Rival Turned Evil.
• They have lost perspective, becoming a Well-Intentioned Extremist or Knight Templar.
• Something horrible has happened that shattered their faith in good, and they have become a Fallen Hero.
• Lust for power and fortune at any cost has brought out their worst.
• Love has turned into a dangerously out-of-control obsession.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Too many of their good deeds having come back to bite them convinces them that being a hero is no longer worth it.
• Their allies have made life too difficult or out-and-out betrayed them.
• They've snapped after one too many rounds of being put through hell.
• Getting no thanks for their work or even a bad reputation instead pushes them into a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
• Revenge has twisted them into something as bad as, if not worse than, their original enemy.
• They have gone Drunk with Power.
• They made a Deal with the Devil and did something truly heinous to cement their allegiance to their new master, turning on their former friends.
• They fell prey to The Corrupter/The Corruption, which brought out the worst in them.
• They spent too long in the villain's headspace or among villains, leading to Becoming the Mask.
• One or more villains made a convincing argument (and may actually be right).
• They committed a small act of evil, leading to more and bigger acts as the hero started Slowly Slipping Into Evil.
• Their Morality Chain was killed or seriously harmed. Or was abandoned or betrayed them.
• The other heroes collectively went through any combination of the above (while remaining protagonists), and they did not.

This is the Evil Counterpart to the more common Heel–Face Turn and is generally found in a story with Black-and-White Morality. The many reasons and the probability for a turn are listed in the Sorting Algorithm of Face-Heel Turning.

In a world full of Brainwashed victims, they may be the one who appears to be but really is Not Brainwashed.

The term "Face Heel Turn" comes from Professional Wrestling, in which a "good" wrestler (a face) is occasionally tempted by The Dark Side, or just gets fed up, and becomes a "bad" wrestler (a heel). Magazines and other promotional material from the various wrestling "leagues" frequently comment on various wrestlers' changes in "alignment" (in wrestling's fictional plotline known as kayfabe) nearly as frequently as they actually cover events in the ring themselves. (They even use phrases like "Face Heel Turn", though the shorter "Heel Turn" is more common.)

A wrestler's heel turn is often a sign that they are about to see their popularity skyrocket. Indeed, it is very common, once they have turned, to remain heels for their entire careers. Heels that become really popular may end up "naturally" becoming faces again, but it is just as likely for heels to be beloved because they are heels. In fact, as paradoxical as it might seem, a heel turn can help an otherwise despised wrestler become likable: fans may well resent a face character, and may be better able to relate to a character who is profoundly flawed in one way or another. (After all, that's what satire is all about.)

In the religious and/or philosophical context, since Heel–Face Turn indicates redemption, this trope alone can be closely linked to damnation, or the matter of becoming disgraced. Any subject who fell into this may also have a chance to be aware about this, whether they like it or not.

Note that a Face-Heel Turn is harder to pull off than a Heel–Face Turn — at least convincingly. If a character is introduced as likable and heroic, it takes some good writing to properly take them through the Character Development required to become a villain. Simply Foreshadowing that a character could turn evil is not enough. The work has to be put in to get the character to that destination; there are plenty of wrestling examples where this hasn't been done, or the reasons for the turn are so badly thought out that the fans reject it, and the wrestler turns back face shortly after.

Contrast:

• The Mole: The Mole was always working for the Big Bad from the beginning, whereas a character making a Face Heel Turn was a genuine good guy until their change of heart.
• Forced into Evil, whereas the character was still a genuinely good guy, but had his own reasons to be on the bad guys' side while still maintaining a good heart, whereas a character who did a Face Heel Turn is a character who not only goes to the bad guys' side, but also become a genuine bad guy at heart. A character Forced Into Evil can be said to be about halfway froom doing a full Heel Turn, but not a full turn yet like the ones in this page (given time, however, they may make a full turn in the future).
• Face–Monster Turn, which has many subtropes. The character really has no choice about becoming evil, because they are Brainwashed, literally turned into monsters, are possessed, or some other reason.
• Fake Defector, where someone on the side of good infiltrates the villains' side by pretending to do such a turn.
• Evil All Along, in which the character is revealed to be a baddie from the beginning, but not necessarily working for the villain, like The Mole.

Compare Protagonist Journey to Villain, a plot which utilizes this trope as the entire character and story arc. Big Bad Slippage, where the Big Bad does this over the course of the story, is a Sub-Trope.

See also Heel–Face Revolving Door, Neutral No Longer, Deal with the Devil, We Used to Be Friends, Start of Darkness and Et Tu, Brute?. If the turn takes place extremely abruptly, it may include Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. If after the turn, there are still past rivalries with their new potential allies they can't overcome, see Personal Hate Before Common Goals.

This trope describes a legitimate hero going to the dark side, not a Double Agent. Though, in certain cases, this trope alone can be a root cause for someone to later display that other trope.

In Real Life, the nature of Heel–Face Turn and Face-Heel Turn is subjective (one person's "heartless betrayal" is another person's "seeing the light", depending on what group the individual is going to or leaving). Therefore, No Real Life Examples, Please!

noreallife

As this is a Betrayal Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

• Fan Works
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Professional Wrestling
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Anime & Manga

• Attack on Titan: The protagonist Eren Yeager after the 4-year time skip in Season 4 has a major change of character after finding out the past and future events thanks to the activation of his Attack Titan unique ability. As a result, he develops a serious disregard towards people's feelings and lives around him, even his own close friends. In the finale, he resorts to unleashing every one of the Titans of the Walls of Paradis upon the world in an event called the Rumbling in order to commit mass genocide towards every foreign nation, believing it's a necessary evil to ensure his homeland Paradis's safety, as well as a form of vengeance for his deceased mom.
• Avesta of Black and White: With its incredibly heavy focus on moral absolutes, this trope actually has its own name with it being referred to as Tentsui. It is something so rare that most think of it as a mere fairy-tale, but should it occur then it will change someone's very Avesta (i.e. alignment) from good to evil. Despite how rare it is it still doesn't stop some, like Magsarion, from slaughtering whole villages of good aligned people just to make sure it doesn't happen. It is eventually revealed that the cause of Tentsui is that someone violates their Commandment, a set of restrictions they have to abide by, and that it can happen to an entire universe should one side prove victorious, eternally perpetuating the war between good and evil.
• We know that Griffith from Berserk is a bad guy at the start of the series, but most of us wouldn't know this from the idealistic mercenary leader that we meet at the start of the Golden Age arc, who is about as close to a Messianic Archetype as one can get in a series like Berserk. The Golden Age arc follows Griffith's rise as one of the greatest warriors of his age, but the big turning point comes when Guts leaves him due to wishing to pursue his own dream, a Tragic Mistake which leads to Griffith suffering a downward spiral, boinking Princess Charlotte, pissing off the King and getting put to the torture for a year, and by the time he is rescued by Guts, Casca and the rest of the Hawks, he has grown to hate Guts. This, among other contributing factors, ultimately leads Griffith over the Despair Event Horizon at the fatal moment that a certain Behelit he always carries returns to him, and during the ensuing events of the Eclipse, Griffith betrays everyone he's ever led, offering them all as sacrifice and condemning them to be eaten alive by demons in exchange for one last shot at his dream and ascension as the fifth member of the God Hand, Femto.
• Heppokomaru/Gasser in the manga sequel of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. He comes around eventually, though. This fact is made more infuriating when everyone discovers that the reason he betrayed Bo-bobo and his group was in order to save his sister, who joined the empire of the Big Bad on her own, and is rather unpleasant in the personality department.
• In Brave10, it turns out Anastasia is actually working for Hanzo as The Mole.
• Code Geass has enough Face-Heel Turn and Heel–Face Turn to drive one mad. By the end of the series everyone has switched to someplace at least once and some have done it two or three times do really screw your list over. Practically the only character never to change sides is C.C., who was on her own side from Day 1 and just followed Lelouch out of obligation.
  • There isn't much of an other way you can describe the Black Knights selling out Lelouch to Schneizel in exchange for Japan's freedom, since it involved them abandoning their obligation to fight against Britannia and later inadvertently aiding Schneizel in his own Totalitarian Utilitarian plans.
  • This ironically leads to Lelouch going off the deep end himself, using his Geass to usurp the Britannian throne and become The Emperor to implement a plan of questionable effectiveness to unite the world by becoming the worst tyrant in history.
• A very nasty one occurs in the penultimate episode of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, when the combined psychological stress and guilt causes Ryota Mitarai to betray the remaining heroes to go and enact a worldwide Brainwashing for the Greater Good. Thankfully, he is talked out of it.
• Destiny of the Shrine Maiden: Chikane switches to the bad guys' side towards the end of the series, but it's really a gambit so she will die instead of Himeko.
• Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z, who was admittedly already a Heel–Face Turn and technically just returning to his original alignment, went through yet another Heel–Face Turn after the showdown of rivals. The whole arc also has the bonus of being a mid-life crisis as well as being a Not Brainwashed moment. Come to think of it, he is probably the one character in the entire series to do as many alignment changes as a pro wrestler. It could be argued that he never switched sides at all, as he's always been on the same side: his own. Trusting him is the fault of the heroes.
• Laxus in Fairy Tail, though how much of a Face he was to start with is debatable.
  • The entire reason Oración Seis seeks Nirvana is the ability to cause these at will in whoever they want.
  • Gray in the anime exclusive arc, though he's more of a Fake Defector. It turns out that Natsu forgot a promise to the villager that was sealed by Daphne and he kind of wanted him to destroy Daphne's artificial dragon.
• Megumi in Gate Keepers, after her envy towards Ruriko reaches its peak.
• Guilty Crown: Shu has one of these after Hare is killed, abandoning his faith in being a kind leader and becoming harsh and brutal to never let such a tragedy happen again. It´s later revealed to be a mask he puts on to help the efficiency of the trapped school, and he abandons it after most of the selfish students get murdered by Gai.
• Debatably happens in Gunsmith Cats when Misty Brown chooses to give up on Rally and instead go and live happily ever after with Psycho Lesbian Goldie, aka the woman who earlier brainwashed and implicitly raped her. Debatably because we don't know if she is doing so voluntarily or due to still being brainwashed.
• Hellsing: Walter C. Dornez, loyal aide to Integra Hellsing, first seems to do a Face-Heel Turn against his will after been brainwashed by the villains, but is later revealed to have been a willing traitor since WWII. However, he later did a Heel–Face Turn by killing Doc, complete with Redemption Equals Death.
• I'm Gonna Be an Angel!: Mikael does a Face Heel Turn in the last episodes of the series which ends in an epic breakdown. He gets better.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: Straizo turns himself into a vampire, inspired by Dio's eternal beauty and power.
  • Steel Ball Run: Sandman joined the race to win and use the prize money to liberate/defend his tribe. He later becomes one of Funny Valentine's subordinates in order to defend this interest.
• Kill la Kill: Ryuko is brainwashed by the Life Fibers into thinking that Ragyo was a loving parent, puts on Junketsu (then has it sewn onto her body so she can't take it off), and starts going after Satsuki. Luckily, the combined efforts of all the remaining good guys help her snap out of it.
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004): Subverted with Vio. He pretends to join Shadow Link's side, hoping to find a way to disable his army from within. It doesn't go well for him when Shadow realizes the deception, though Vio did get confirmation about Ganon and how the Links will need to rescue Zelda to confront him.
• In Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Felicia Mitsuki initially starts off as a magical girl mercenary who decides to work with Iroha's group upon first meeting her. But when the Wings of Magius tempt her with the offer to eradicate all wishes, as Felicia wants to destroy all witches due to a personal reason, she readily accepts... or so it seems. It's explained later that Yachiyo hired her to spy on them, but for a short while, Felicia actually stays with them because they offered her a better deal. She eventually comes back around to Iroha's side, though.
• Naruto
  • The defection from Konoha wasn't really an alignment change, but Sasuke swan dived off the slippery slope after finding about Itachi's real motives. On the other hand, Itachi was just a Fake Defector all along.
  • Tobi, member of the terrorist organization Akatsuki, is indirectly responsible for almost everything bad that happens to Naruto, including the death of his parents and turning Naruto into a jinchūriki. He was once Obito Uchiha, assumed to have died in the Third Shinobi World War... and was Kakashi's best friend.
• PandoraHearts: Leo pulls one after Elliot's death.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: In classic Gainax fashion, Stocking slices Panty up into 666 pieces and reveals that she is a demon about a minute before the end of the last episode (whether of the whole series or just the first season is yet to be known).
• During chapter 4 of Pocket Monsters BW: The Heroes of Fire and Thunder, this is done by Alder, who seemingly reveals to Shin that he disappeared from the Elite Four as a decoy to take Reshiram for himself so that he can remain when N succeeds in his plans. This is subverted after Shin’s Emboar defeats Alder’s Volcarona, where Alder reveals that N knew that Shin was The Only One Allowed To Defeat Him, and thus sent Alder to make sure Reshiram accepts Shin as the Hero of Fire.
• Sasame in Prétear later joins the Big Bad to become her servant because he was in love with her and couldn't bear to fight her. The Big Bad herself also face heel turned due to love. Later they both undo this with a Heel–Face Turn to once again join the heroes.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, every witch apart from ex-familiars counts as this due to how magic works in the general universe, the most prominent in-series example being Sayaka becoming Oktavia Von Seckendorff after her Soul Gem darkened completely and turned into a Grief Seed.
  • While Witches can be given a pass in that they really have no say in whether they become evil or not, we get a straighter example in Rebellion, in which Homura friggin' Akemi pulls one, hijacking Madoka's powers to give her a normal life. While whether Madoka WANTS a normal life or not is debatable, what with her her losing her memories of the nightmare she had endured during the series and saying she DOES, the fact remains that Homura is now a self-proclaimed 'demon'.
• Soul Eater: Kim and Jackie do an unwilling Face Heel Turn under the influence of Arachnaphobia's insanity manipulation machine. The actions of Justin Law, however, appear to be genuine: killing BJ and framing Stein for the murder (though Medusa almost certainly had a hand in it), trying to kill Maka Albarn as her soul perception might uncover Asura for Shinigami. He also seems to enjoy taunting the imprisoned Death the Kid, and listens in when Gopher is beating the boy up.
  • Death the Kid apparently cracked under all of the pressure and torture and pulled a Face-Heel Turn of his own. Thankfully it was a very brief one; he got better thanks to Black Star snapping him out of it.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lord Genome, as shown in Parallel Works Eight. When he snaps, he snaps hard.
  • Post-Time Skip Rossiu, previously a good guy, jumps off the slippery slope following The Reveal by setting Simon up as a scapegoat for the problems caused by the Anti-Spirals and takes over the government — and his plan to survive the Anti-Spiral attacks involves leaving a large portion of the world's population to die.
  • The real Face-Heel Turn award doesn't go to Lord Genome, but to his daughter Nia, who was the unwilling messenger of the Anti-Spirals. The worst part? She had just gotten engaged to Simon.
• In Umi Monogatari, Urin becomes possessed by Sedna halfway through the series.
• Ushio and Tora: Nagare Akiba sides with Hakumen no Mono, after it reveals his most secret desire to fight someone strong such as Tora.
• The Vision of Escaflowne: Folken does this to begin with, followed by another Heel–Face Turn near the end of the story, leading to his extremely bizarre "fated" death.
• X1999: An unavoidable fate of Kamui and Fuuma. If Kamui chooses either side (Dragons of Heaven or Dragons of Earth), one of them would immediately turn evil and kills Kotori. In every media, it's Fuuma who turns evil, but there are what-if scenarios that it Kamui would have turn out as bad as Fuuma did, while Fuuma would stay good.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: MANY Characters do this, from Dartz's three henchmen, to Arkana, to Crump, to Pegasus, to Marik Ishtar and Odion Ishtar. Kaiba Can be considered this too, considering he was just a normal person prior to having a heart filled with rage and resentment. They're all Tragic Villain characters to varying degrees. While hero's too strong a word to describe most of these characters, going from well intentioned people wishing to create games, entertainment and being protective older siblings etc to ruthless people with darker traits and intents makes them fit this.
  • Even Yami Yugi fits this initially. He was a noble pharaoh who gave his life to save the world. Upon reawakening, while he doesn't go evil, he's much more willing to harm and even slay people for what he views as the greater good. Yugi's kindness however makes him much less prone to darker tendencies, which temporarily reawaken when Yugi loses his soul as a result of a Heroic BSoD.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Kaiser Ryo following a Freak Out!. The dub even has Judai/Jaden compare this to, "when a pro-wrestler suddenly starts dressing in black and throwing chairs in the ring." Judai, like his predecessor in Yu-Gi-Oh!, also temporarily turns to The Dark Side after promptly murdering Brron, The Mad King of Dark World for sacrificing four of his friends (hey, Superpowered Evil Sides take some getting used to).
  • Adrian's not too pleasant a guy to start, but once Viper's presumed dead, he grows into a much darker person. Gecko disappears for a long time prior to finally getting seen with Yubel's power and uses Exodius to complete Exodia, slaying Echo and Aster in the process. He's the one screaming when Yubel defeats him.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: The Dark Signers, although whether Rudger — their leader — was ever on the side of good to begin with is questionable.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Shark turns out to be Nasch, the leader of the Seven Barian Emperors, but was killed by Vector in his past life. After Durbe shows him his past memories, he transforms back into Nasch and opposes Yuma to protect the Barian world.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: GO Onizuka/The Gore, who invokes this trope and its inverse as part of his wrestling persona. When he plays Gouki Dark Mask he also declares he takes a heel turn, switching to a more brutal play style. By Season 2 of the anime, he ends up playing this straight by joining the Bounty Hunters aligned against Playmaker. Season 3 has Ai become the Big Bad and vaguely stating that he intends to follow Lightning's will, but its actually for a different agenda.
• Yu Gi Oh Go Rush: After certain events in the show's Season 2 finale, it is revealed that Yuamu was not only the Dark Meister, but also the creator of the Darkmen. She essentially attempts to become the next Otes in order to ensure that Yuga Ohdo, her descendant from the future, and his future will live on. She succeeds in saving the future, but Yuhi, Yuamu's twin brother, is the one who becomes Otes instead.
• Shinobu Sensui in YuYu Hakusho, following an EPIC Freak Out! when he stumbled upon humans torturing demons For the Evulz. Incidentally, Koenma (who sent Sensui on the mission that caused his alignment change) considers this his greatest failure.
• Zatch Bell!: Wonrei joins the Faudo revival cult when his bookkeeper is placed under a curse that will kill her if Faudo is not revived. However, this Face Heel Turn is fairly temporary, as expected given the nature of the series.

Asian Animation

• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Mighty Little Defenders, General Wolf/Chapper used to be a friendly wolf who supported peace between goats and wolves with the help of his goat friend Gogoa. After he got shot with a laser gun, he thought Gogoa was the one who shot him (Gogoa was actually framed for it). A month later, Chapper woke up to find out that the wolf tribe had lost and the leader had died. Chapper found out that Gogoa had left Goats' Village and Chapper was not welcome in the village. These events turned General Wolf against Gogoa and the other goats and he became determined to get revenge.

Comic Books

• The DCU
• Marvel Universe

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• In All Fall Down, Pronto undergoes this in exchange for new legs as fast as his old ones.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Riley appears to be doing this by working with the Twilight Group, but it turns out he's a mole.
• Irredeemable is based on this concept with the Plutonian, a Superman-esque character, snapping due to the pressure and becoming the ultimate villain.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW): Rarity, who is kidnapped and subjected to More than Mind Control and Demonic Possession to become Nightmare Moon's successor.
• Negation: Javi goes through this after Charon brought him back from the dead and convinced him that his conquest of the Negation-verse and his pending invasion of the main CrossGen universe was a good and necessary thing. Javi, a religious man who had questioned his faith even before his abduction to the Negation-verse, came to look upon Charon as a god, one in whom he could place his whole trust in, without question. He becomes a Knight Templar as a result.
• In Sonic the Comic, Nack the Weasel is introduced as a member of the heroic Chaotix — but by the end of their introductory story he's sold them out to the Brotherhood of Metallix, an army of spectacularly evil robotic copies of Sonic. Admittedly a loose example, as a) he'd clearly already turned before the story started and b) the character was always a villain in the Sonic games, so seeing him as a hero first is the unexpected bit.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the most notable thus far was Fiona, who turned against the Freedom Fighters in #172 and joined Anti-Sonic/Scourge in Moebius (formerly Anti-Mobius).
  • Naturally, anybody who was roboticised also pulled this, though typically not of their own free will.
  • Espio turned against the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix to join the Iron Dominion, but returned. It turned out to be a ruse, but it wasn't exactly a harmless one.
  • And before either of those two... Drago Wolf and Sleuth Dog.
  • #178-179, though it could just be a political debate in which both sides use violence instead of words.
  • Geoffrey St. John appeared to have one in issues 219-220, but this is actually a subversion, as it was soon after retconed that he'd actually been working for Ixis Naugus since before either of them were even introduced, making him The Mole instead.
  • While alluded to in Sonic Universe's Fractured Mirror Arc, the dual prologue/epilogue Dark Mobius - Knuckles' Descent, hosted on Archie Comics' blog, makes it clear that Dark Morbius' version of Knuckles had devolved into a political extremist responsible for murdering Dr. Robotnik. His transformation into Enerjak is depicted as completely willing here, drawing a deliberate contrast to Knuckles' unwilling corruption into Enerjak in the Enerjak: Reborn Arc.
• Wizards of Mickey: More like Brainwashed and Crazy, granted, but this happens to Mickey, of all people, in The Dark Age. The incredible burden of becoming the Supreme Sorcerer slowly turns him reclusive and paranoid, which the Phantom Blot takes advantage of to turn him against his friends and into a tyrannical king. Word of God is that they made him evil for the hell of it, although the process is reversed by the end of the series.

Film — Animated

• In The Incredibles, Buddy Pine's career as Incredi-Boy is short-lived when he is rejected by his idol, Mr. Incredible. But Mr. Incredible learns the hard way that some people are Not Good with Rejection when he goes up against Syndrome, who is actually Buddy all grown up and out for revenge.
• The Princess and the Frog: Lawrence starts out as the loyal butler of Prince Naveen, who despite his rather stuffy demeanor just wants what he thinks is best for his liege. But a combination of Naveen’s dismissive and teasing attitude towards him and Dr. Facilier promising his hearts desire drives him to betray the prince, from then on acting as Facilier’s main lackey in his scheme to take over New Orleans.
• In Toy Story 3, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear was once a kind-hearted toy who dearly loved his owner Daisy. Then he was accidentally abandoned by her, and this made him into an abusive, nihilistic tyrant.
• Transformers One: As this is the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, it was inevitable that D-16 would undergo this. Specifically, discovering that Sentinel Prime is actually a False Prime who sold his entire species out to the Quintessons and that the entire system they've been living under was a lie of his design causes D-16 to become consumed by revenge until he's willing to even turn on Orion just to tear everything that Sentinel built apart.

Film — Live-Action

• Baahubali: Queen Mother Sivagami starts off as a kindly queen protecting her people and her sons, but she evolves into a cruel and capricious woman due to Bhallaladeva's manipulations and her hatred of Amarendra's wife Devasena. She does have a Heel Realization after having Amarendra killed and sacrifices herself to save his son.
• Kid Culprit in Beyond the Lights. In the beginning, he's kind of annoying and not exactly Mr. Sensitivity (he sexts his girlfriend right after she tries to take her own life, for one). But he's basically all right. After Noni breaks up with him (because she's started to fall for Kaz and realizes that he's the one she wants to be with), however, he basically sexually assaults her on stage during their BET Awards performance (doing everything from shoving her head into his crotch to literally trying to rip her clothes off), practically brags that he's been cheating on her, claims he dumped her and calls her a bitch, a freak and his "sloppy seconds" (as he grabs his crotch), all on national TV.
• BloodRayne (2005): Katarin betrays Brimstone after Rayne's accepted in their ranks, whom she distrusts. She murders other Brimstone members, seeking the Heart for her father, a vampire, whom Katarin thinks can be the lesser evil versus Kagan.
• Harvey "Two-Face" Dent in The Dark Knight.
• Emperor (2020): Downplayed. A preacher gives Shields refuge and treats his wounds despite how he's obviously one of John Brown's men, but he does acknowledge that Shields is hiding in the church when McCabe and Grady show up and offer him a choice between part of the reward or getting killed if he resists them. Since they already know Shields is hiding there, the preacher's acquiescence doesn't mean too much and may not be too wholehearted, but he doesn't make a Heroic Sacrifice rather than aid the slave catchers either.
• Dr. Weir from Event Horizon. Played With in the fact he may be possessed by the ship itself.
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Queenie Goldstein defects to Gellert Grindelwald's side because she is swayed by his promise of being able to create a world where she and Jacob Kowalski can openly pursue a relationship.
• The Fast and the Furious:
  • Dominic Toretto's girlfriend, Letty Ortiz, sides with the villains in Fast & Furious 6, because she lost her memories and latched on to the people who saved her from her near-death experience. However, she eventually switches sides not because her memories have come back but because she is disgusted by Owen Shaw's cruelties and nonchalance about his team's well-being.
  • Riley in Fast & Furious 6 is a straight example, defecting from the heroes to the villains. Actually, she was never on their side; she was The Mole planted by Owen to spy on the team.
  • Dom supposedly betrays his team in The Fate of the Furious. Turns out he never betrayed the team. He was blackmailed to protect his infant son's life.
• Alec Trevelyan of GoldenEye seems to be like this during the reveal of him being Janus, but as it turns out, he's been plotting revenge against the British government from the beginning for the betrayal of his family, who were Lienz Cossacks that the British sent back to Stalin at the end of World War II.
• Terri in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. Feeling betrayed by everyone, Terri chooses to join Pinhead, and becomes a Cenobite.
• The Velociraptor pack in Jurassic World have been trained and raised by Owen Grady as something like hunting dogs, hunting down the Indominus rex. However, since the hybrid has raptor DNA, she convinces the raptors to turn on their alpha and the humans in general. They do, however, switch sides only for Charlie to get blown up, and Delta and Echo get killed by the I. rex herself.
• Kingsman: The Secret Service:
  • Arthur became The Mole for Valentine sometime prior to the film taking place.
  • After being kicked out of the Kingsmen training program, Charlie and his family join Valentine's plan, being some of the chosen few who will be spared from the upcoming genocide.
• Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Whiskey is working against Statesman and Kingsman's efforts to get the antidote to Poppy's tainted drugs. Not because he's working with her (he's not), but because he happens to hate drug users enough to want them all dead for personal reasons.
• When Vic makes his first appearance in The Man from Laramie, he seems like a fairly reasonable guy despite being on the side of the tyrannical Waggomans. By the end of the film, he's responsible for at least one murder, another attempted murder, and we even find out he's ultimately (indirectly) responsible for the death of the protagonist's brother which basically kickstarted the whole thing.
• Over the course of Mean Girls, the friendly and good-hearted Cady usurps Regina's position and becomes the mean-spirited Alpha Bitch of the school. She goes through a subsequent Heel–Face Turn when she's confronted with her actions. Also, Jo in the sequel.
• MonsterVerse: Emma Russell in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). It looks like Godzilla has turned against humanity in Godzilla vs. Kong, but it turns out he was Good All Along. Both those films' novelizations have also featured a couple of Monarch's operatives aligning themselves with either film's human villains (one due to agreeing with Emma Russell that the Titans should be free, the other for money) respectively.
• The trope image gets lampshaded in Muppets from Space where Rizzo the Rat tries to plead with Hulk Hogan by saying "What will your fans think?" The response: "Hey, I'm a bad guy now."
• The Omega Code: Cassandra chooses to take Stone's side in the final confrontation.
• Theodora in Oz the Great and Powerful starts off on the side of Oz, believing him to be the prophesied wizard, but due to the machinations of her sister Evanora, she ends up becoming a Wicked Witch.
• In Pixels, Pac-Man, good guy in the games, turns into one of the antagonists the heroes must face.
• David "Rooster" Fisk in Righteous Kill, who lost his faith in legal justice due to a child killer getting Off on a Technicality thanks to Turk's actions, leading Rooster to become a vigilante Serial Killer.
• Rise: Blood Hunter: After becoming a vampire, Tricia becomes evil. It's left unclear exactly why, but a combination of the transformation affecting her, mental trauma due to what she undergoes, or having a sense of belonging with the head vampire Bishop all seem possible.
• Scrappy in Scooby-Doo (2002). He went all evil because the gang kicked him out years ago and wanted revenge by taking over the Earth with demons — though the flashback to him marking his territory on Daphne seems to indicate he was always a Jerkass, and we just didn't know it.
• Part of the backstory of Mother Malkin in Seventh Son (2015). She was a good witch until Master Gregory married another woman, driving her to submit to the forces of darkness and become queen of the evil witches.
• Anakin Skywalker of the Star Wars saga, who turned his back on the Jedi to become the ruthless Darth Vader.
  • A lesser-known occurrence is when Count Dooku left the Jedi Order and became a Sith. Also, many Jedi in the pre-Disney Star Wars Legends Expanded Universe.
  • In Return of the Jedi, Palpatine tries to get Luke Skywalker to do this, to give in to the rage he's feeling towards Vader and become his apprentice on the Dark Side. It doesn't work out.
  • In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren was Luke's pupil and nephew, formerly called Ben Solo, in the new Jedi Order, but he gave in to the Dark Side and exterminated the new Jedi, driving Luke into hiding as the last known Jedi Knight.
• In the fifth Terminator film, Genisys, John Connor is turned into a Terminator and is sent to kill both his mother Sarah Connor and his father Kyle Reese.
• While Kevin Flynn remains a protagonist throughout the entire TRON franchise, his program Clu turns HARD in TRON: Legacy. The comic book, however, makes it arguable as to whether Clu was ever a Face to begin with.
• Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. He takes this up a notch by seizing Megatron's position as the new leader of the Decepticons.
• In Undercover Brother the title character turns his back on the Brotherhood after he falls in lust with Penelope Snow. Luckily, Sista Girl brings him back to his senses.
• Elysia in Warriors of Virtue. Prior to the movie's events, her brother was killed by Yun, which led to her developing a grudge towards him and her turning to Komodo. During the movie, though, she does develop a soft spot for him and thinks of him as a brother. It's this that leads to a near Heel–Face Turn, changing her back to what she was before. Unfortunately, her decision to protect Ryan ends in Redemption Equals Death.
• The Yakuza (1974): Tanner eventually turns on Kilmer and puts out a hit on him in exchange for Tono sparing his life.

Music

• No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice Cooper. A Take That! against Moral Guardians who ostracised him and his family from their church because they thought his stage act promoted satanism.
• Roger Martinez, the former lead singer of the Christian thrash metal band Vengeance Rising, has since denounced his former religion and joined the Church of Satan.
• The song "Heel Turn 2" by the Mountain Goats is named after this trope, from the wrestling-centric album Beat The Champ. The first verse portrays the narrator as "an upstanding, well-loved man about town," but he realizes "I don't want to die in here" and in the second verse is willing to do anything to win: "I'm walking out of here in one piece / Don't care what comes after," describing his fanclub's president in tears and the trash raining down on him from the rafters.

Mythology and Religion

• In Christianity, Lucifer was an Angel who led a rebellion against God — in some versions he wanted to take God's place, in others, he refused to acknowledge humans as God's beloved creations, among numerous other reasons — and was, together with all other rebel Angels, sent to hell, where they all become demons. Which makes this trope Older Than Feudalism. This betrayal has been captured in Alexandre Cabanel's The Fallen Angel (1847).
• Islam's story is slightly different from Christianity's: Satan (called "Iblis" in Arabic) was never an angel, but a Djinn near God. He fell because of his pride, and not acknowledging that humans now were in a higher position with God than he used to be. He did not challenge God Himself, but His influence on mankind, saying he'll sway humanity to corruption, and will show humans are no better. Unlike Christianity, he will not become a demon; he'll just be sentenced to eternity in Hell.
• The Bible:
  • There's Cain killing his brother Abel.
  • The once-wise Solomon becomes corrupt.
  • Judas Iscariot, whose betrayal led to Jesus's capture and crucifixion by the Romans. Though in a few Alternative Character Interpretations , most notably Gnosticism, Judas actually betrayed Jesus on request in order to ensure Jesus was captured, killed, and resurrected as planned.
• Norse Mythology: Loki was a trickster god, but he was Odin's brother-in-arms, and although he often caused trouble, he also helped the gods. He then conspired to kill Balder out of jealousy (since he was loved by everyone), and he made sure that Balder stayed dead. Shortly later, Loki kills another god's servant during a feast because everyone were praising his good work, and he is kicked out of the hall. Loki, though, goes back into the hall, reminding Odin he promised they would always drink beer together, and begins insulting the gods in their faces, until Thor kicks him out again. In retaliation for his insults and Baldur's murder, Loki is bound naked to some boulders with the entrails of his own son while a snake drips venom into his face. When Loki gets free, he will orchestrate the end of the world in retaliation.
• Egyptian Mythology: Set, the god of foreigners. He was known for protecting Egypt with the desert and the sun god Ra by fighting the God of Evil Apep. Then he became overcome by envy and murdered his brother Osiris, which eventually led to his downfall at the hands of Osiris's son Horus and the goddess Bast taking over his Apep fighting job.
• In Guatuso Mythology, the Gods sent four prophets to warn humanity that the world would be destroyed if they didn't change their wicked ways. The first one, Tíyeúnhe, gave in to temptation and joined them, because of this, the second and third prophets killed him through sorcery.

Roleplay

• In The Gamer's Alliance, Abel makes this very clear by adapting the name Cain once he's turned to the dark side. The heroes are oblivious to his new, treacherous nature and think he's only acting emo because of his embarrassing encounter with a lustful mage earlier in the story. Refan and Ronove also make a Face-Heel Turn later on when they side with demons.
• Any time a previous non-player starts to actively participate in the 'game' in Survival of the Fittest. As you might imagine, this tends to happen a lot.

Scripts

• C0DA, written by former The Elder Scrolls series writer/designer Michael Kirkbride, takes place in the far distant future of TES universe. It includes several characters who have appeared in the series previously. In particular, Yagrum Bagarn, the last living Dwemer who greatly assists the Player Character in Morrowind, is now the Arc Villain "The Intellective". He is trying to invade the reality of the work by spreading his "Videoverse" into it. The introduction of the "Pseudo-6th-House" (essentially a super team of Physical Gods) has them working to stop him.

Tabletop Games

• Arkham Horror 3rd Edition: In one scenario from "Secrets of the Order", the investigators may be offered the choice to seal away the Ancient One in the usual way or improvise their own method by studying from dark powers. The latter ending strongly implies that the investigators have become pawns of Yog-Sothoth and specifically excludes from the victory anyone who hasn't made a Dark Pact.
• Betrayal at House on the Hill has this as its main mechanic: the players start out exploring the haunted mansion together, but once the Haunt is triggered, one of them turns Traitor and tries to complete their evil mission before the others can stop them or escape.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • The worst kind of Blackguard, and by far the most powerful and feared, is one who was once a paladin. A fallen paladin who becomes a Blackguard gains extra abilities, and the more levels of paladin they had, the more powerful they become as Blackguards, and if a particularly high-level paladin goes bad this way, he or she can trade in ten levels of their former paladin class to become a fully-powered Blackguard with all abilities, as well as extra abilities based on how many levels of paladin they have left after the Face-Heel Turn.
  • Asmodeus is generally recognized as having started as a force for good before becoming He Who Fights Monsters, appropriate considering he's the single straightest analogue for Satan in D&D. On the other hand, having a Multiple-Choice Past and all, a few origin stories state that not only was he always evil, he is in fact one of the original, primal forces of evil from the beginning of the universe.
  • The Archmage Rary became known as "Rary the Traitor" after he tried to kill the Circle of Eight at the signing of the Treaty of Greyhawk after judging them to be too quarrelsome to be effective in their goals. This led to the deaths of Tenser and Otiluke and Rary having to flee to the Bright Desert with his co-conspirator Robilar.
  • In 5th Edition, there's a special class called "Oathbreaker" that serves to reflect a Paladin who has broken their sacred oath.
• Magic: The Gathering:
  • Crovax and Ertai of the Weatherlight crew turned in two completely different ways. Crovax did so through a vampiric curse triggered through his own slaying of his Guardian Angel, Selenia, and completed the turn by killing Mirri and assuming the Rathi evincar-ship in Volrath's absence. Ertai, meanwhile, was systematically broken during the Nemesis storyline, going fully under Crovax's sway on the realization that his crewmates had abandoned him to his fate.
  • Urza dedicated himself to fighting against the forces of Phyrexia and spent millennia taking steps to defeat them. Once he actually found himself in Phyrexia however, the Mad Scientist in him couldn't help but admire the sheer genius of its design. He eventually turned on his fellow planeswalkers and pledged himself to Yawgmoth because he couldn't bear to destroy a plane that embodied everything he had sought.
• Pathfinder:
  • Asmodeus and most of his archdevils used to be members of the forces of Heaven, before a rather pointed disagreement on the concept of free will led to them either marching out of Heaven or getting kicked out (accounts differ depending on who's telling the story) and winding up in Hell. The Queens of the Night Eiseth, Ardad Lili and Doloras likewise used to be angels before becoming devils — Ardad Lili left during the devils' original exodus, Eiseth fell after murdering her commander and Doloras found she was no longer welcome in Heaven after a thoroughly unnecessarily sadistic campaign against demons.
  • Zon-Kuthon, the god of sadism and torture, used to be a kind and benevolent deity named Dou-Bral. This lasted until he went exploring beyond the reaches of the multiverse, where he met... something that changed him into the monster he is now.
  • There are rumors that Nocticula, the demon lord of lust, succubi and assassins, used to be a powerful celestial being who fell and fell hard.
• A Touch of Evil: Whenever you select a Town Elder who has an Evil Secret for your Hunting Party.
• Warhammer 40,000: A major part of the backstory is Horus's fall to Chaos, which tears the Imperium of Mankind apart. A rather more minor part of the backstory is the Face-Heel Turn of the Eldar Phoenix Lord Arhra. With The Corruption a constant threat in the game universe, Face-Heel Turns are a constant threat to all the greyer factions.
  • Chaos is made up mostly of deserters from the main protagonist faction, the Imperium of Man (almost everyone in the forces of Chaos is either an ex-Imperial or a daemon); that treachery began when The Paragon Horus betrayed the God-Emperor of Mankind.
  • The Dark Eldar are the result of a whole civilisation, the ancient Eldar empire, turning into evil hedonists full of crime-loving "pleasure cults", and accidentally creating a dark god; the Craftworld Eldar turned their back on it became good guys (well, comparatively good, anyway) but the Dark Eldar went on with the whole pleasure-cult stuff and they're now the most evil faction in the setting. The Dark Eldar Incubi (who are essentially a dark reflection of Eldar Aspect Warriors who follow Arhra's teachings) have a slightly different take on Arhra's Face-Heel Turn: both versions of the story agree that he was corrupted by the forces of Chaos, but in their version he soul remained uncorrupted, at least long enough for him to order his disciples to fight and slay him. The Incubi are still evil though, but unlike other Dark Eldar they at least follow a strict if merciless code of honor.

Theatre

• In the back story of Euripides' Hecuba, Achilles, hero of The Iliad, defected to Troy after falling in love with Trojan princess Polyxena. And then his would-be brother-in-law Paris shot him in his Achilles' Heel at the wedding, and everything went pear-shaped for the Trojans.
• Invoked by Pulitzer in Newsies, by threatening to have the Newsies arrested if Jack doesn't agree to end the strike. In exchange, Jack tries to argue against his own cause at the rally he organized, despite protests from Spot and Davey. Luckily, Katherine talks him down, and he relents.
• This is essentially the entire plot of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as the protagonist begins a sympathetic Anti-Hero, progresses into Anti-Villain territory over the length of the first act, and finally crosses the Moral Event Horizon with gusto by intermission, largely due to Sanity Slippage.
• Westeros: An American Musical: What is seen of Theon Greyjoy's story in the play can be summed up as this. When first seen, Theon is fighting alongside Robb and trying to petition his father Balon, an old enemy of Robb's family, to fight alongside Robb. Balon unfortunately decides he'd rather have a second round against Robb's family instead. Last Theon is heard of, he's reported to have captured Robb's hometown for Balon.
• Elphaba from Wicked fits this trope, after having everything she tries spectacularly backfire on her, and having everyone she loves die all around her, she snaps during the song 'No Good Deed' dedicating herself to a lifetime of evil. Almost immediately subverted when she is shown to be just very, very pissed off, but not actually evil a mere song later.
  • Nessarose, her sister, goes from a bratty but well-meaning child to the Wicked Witch of the East who, unlike is closer to the the film's portrayal of her than Elphaba. She is named governor of Munchkinland and uses the position to strip away their power in order to keep her husband Boq from leaving her, and when he tries, she removes his heart, turns him into the Tin Man, and blames it on Elphaba. Likewise, Boq goes from a shy boy with a crush on Galinda to a far more murderous version of the Tin Man, who declares "for once I'm glad I'm heartless — I'll be heartless killing her!".

Visual Novels

• Discussed in Double Homework. According to Marco, this is what happened to Dennis after he’d been fixing his classmates’ computers for no apparent reward.

Web Animation

• Gridiron Heights: Patrick Mahomes initially starts off as the new, likeable, and in some respects, silly main character after dethroning Tom Brady and the Patriots dynasty, however, after winning three Super Bowls, including back-to-back titles in Seasons 7 and 8, he and the Kansas City Chiefs take control over Gridiron Heights, and in turn lampshades this by saying "I'm a villain now". In the Season 9 premiere, Mahomes takes it one step further by parodying Anakin Skywalker's infamous "Killing Younglings" scene when he draws a lightsaber against the rookie quarterbacks.
• The Most Epic Story Ever Told in All of Human History: Epic Robot Guy is a good guy in episode three, "The Most Epic Superhero Origin Story Ever", who becomes a villain by the time of episode five, "The Most Epic Crime-Stopping Mission Ever". This is Lampshaded In-Universe with the text “he became a bad guy! Dun dun dunnn!” written next to him when he appears.
• The Reapers Series: In episode 96, we find out that Reaper was once a human named Caylan Theo Storm. One day, he brings home an evil book called the Crimson Necronomicon, reads a forbidden spell from the book, gets cursed by it, disowned by his Abusive Parents, where they call him a "mistake", causing him to adopt the name Reaper in place of his former name, and even sought getting revenge on the people who viewed him as a freak. What's even worse is that his monstrous transformation into becoming a monarch of the Demonoids is quite tragic.
• Red vs. Blue: After one too many betrayals and being imprisoned after all his efforts to bring down the Director, Agent Washington snaps and decides to capture Epsilon for the Chairman so he'll finally be allowed to leave Project Freelancer and the UNSC behind, even if it means he'll have to kill the Reds and Blues to do it. Getting double-crossed by the Meta and having the Reds and Blues save him once more causes Wash to change his mind and realign with the heroes against the Director.
• RWBY:
  • According to Ozpin, Lionheart was a different person before joining Salem and he seemed just as loyal as Team RWBY appears to be in the present. The second season of RWBY The Grimm Campaign, which depicts the Kuchinashi incident and takes place two years before the beginning of the main series ends with him sending Huntsmen reinforcements to help deal with the Wave crime syndicate that's left in Kuchinashi after their leader is killed. By the start of the main series, he begins feeding Salem the locations of every Huntsman in the kingdom to have them all killed, and he enrolls Cinder's team into Haven Academy with forged transcripts so that they can sabotage Beacon Academy from within. During the Battle of Haven, he learns Oscar's identity and contemplates capturing him for Salem, hoping he can finally be freed from the torment of working for her. By then, he's become a person that Ozpin no longer recognises.
  • Ironwood first appears as one of Ozpin's most trusted allies and someone who desperately wants to protect the world from Salem. The events of Volume 3 leave him traumatised from the way the villains exploit him and his army to harm Vale; he becomes increasingly authoritarian and controlling, such as closing the Atlesian borders and imposing curfews. Four volumes later, the heroes become increasingly concerned about his decisions until he finally snaps from a combination of learning that Salem can't be killed and the villains pressing his Trauma Button one too many times. Pushed over the edge into villainy, he fulfills Oscar's prediction of becoming as dangerous as Salem by temporarily replacing the Big Bad as Volume 8's Arc Villain.
• Paper Puppets: Ukulele falls to this trope when Slipper gives her a makeover to look edgy and emo.
• Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: Enzo. He used to be a friendly guy and was being nice to other people until in "Birthday Freakout", after Mario ruins his birthday party. From then on he becomes a villain and is determined to kill Mario and the rest of the main cast. He is also actually revealed to be the shady black figure in "The Visitor" (2014).
• Trick Moon: Prior to the events of the short, Mage trapped Prince in the Moonstone and left the group to join Dr. Bleak.
• Reynold, of Homestar Runner's Show Within a Show The Cheat Commandos, recently went over to work for the evil forces of Blue Laser. All things considered, it was surprisingly plausible.
• After Tissue's elimination in Object Overload, we can see him reading a photo album called "Memories, looking at how Lighter betrayed him, as well as burning a hole through him and wadding him up, causing his current appearance. Lighter continues to bully Tissue after the incident.

Webcomics

• White Mage from 8-Bit Theater, she gave Red Mage a kick in the shin, decided it wasn't for her and turned good again.
• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dr. McNinja is having trouble battling the evil Frans Rayner, because all the McNinja clones (long story) are triggering Conservation of Ninjutsu. So the Genre Savvy doctor does the only thing he can — team up with Frans and start taking the clones out himself. Yes, Face-Heel Turn as a fighting tactic. The clones were going to die either way, and Doc would have died with them if he hadn't changed sides. Besides, he went back to Face when there were no more clones, because Conservation of Ninjutsu was no longer in effect (and Rainer would have killed him had he stood quiet).
• Sometimes discussed in pro wrestling comic Botched Spot, which also parodies it with its "Great Moments for a Heel Turn" series. Examples include a dentist turning heel by using a gas canister labeled "You'll feel everything" during a tooth extraction, a Shark Week host turning heel by luring in an orca to eat a great white, a Stock Slasher turning heel by refusing to kill his victim, and even a tree turning heel by covering some hapless people with pollen. The new heel invariably flexes after their turn in each comic.
• Panther in Dead of Summer does this in a very scary scene, first by tearing out Dr Light's eyes and killing him, then by declaring Doug Fetterman will be the new leader, Though not really, as it's an evil clone of him as part of Fetterman's Evil Plan.
• Ellen of El Goonish Shive shortly after her creation. Fortunately Dan scrapped the idea of her staying evil.
• Homestuck:
  • Eridan from does this after deciding that the fight against Jack Noir is completely hopeless and as the "Prince of Hope" he believes he is the most qualified to determine if all hope is lost. He figures the only chance for survival is to pledge his loyalty to Jack. He then proceeds to K.O. Sollux, kill Feferi, and finally kill Kanaya (while destroying the key to restoring the Troll race) when they try to stop him before he escapes.
  • And then, not long after, Gamzee runs out of sopor slime pies and goes insane (or sane, considering that sopor slime pies are a troll drug), which causes him to remember his destiny as a murderous Subjugglator, and is later seen working for Caliborn/Lord English.
  • Much later on, Aranea turns from a helpful Ms. Exposition to a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Hooky: Subverted with Dani. After the time skip, when she thinks Dorian has died, she becomes incredibly detached from the world and is the cause for a lot of death. However, it turns out she's an empty shell that's been listening to her mother and the evil spirit.
• Synn from the The Law of Purple performed one of these before the start of the comic. It didn't take very well, tho, since it took little more than a few words from his old best friend before Heel Face Turning back.
• Ménage à 3:
  • Roxy, a semi-pro wrestler, executes a classic in-ring Turn, attacking her own tag team partner from behind.
  • For the first couple of volumes or so, DiDi is, if not heroic, at least well-meaning and genuinely naive. However, her increasingly desperate quest for an orgasm isn’t good for her personality, and she actually becomes worse after that quest succeeds; by the tenth and final volume, she’s become a monster of casually manipulative ego.
• MSF High: The biggest example would be Gestell, due to his split personality issues, being revealed as the villain of one arc. It's not The Mole, as he had shifted away from hanging out with the players, and did not sabatoge their efforts using this.
• Corrick does this unwillingly in Plume, as he must protect whoever's wearing his amulet and Dom manages to get ahold of it, forcing Cor to turn against Vesper.
• Romantically Apocalyptic: After Pilot is reconnected to ANNET, he's restored to his original personality as a ruthless assassin and sent to kill Snippy. He's eventually restored to normal when Snippy breaks his neural interface, but not before he impales him with a katana.
• Sailor Moon Cosmos Arc:
  • Hotaru ends up on the side of evil when she's possessed by Chaos's final avatar, Servant Chaos.
  • You know how in the canon Sailor Moon Chibi Chibi really pushed Usagi into destroying the Galaxy Cauldron in order to stop the cycle of good of evil? Chibi Chibi is none other than a reincarnated Usagi, who decides that she can't bear to be in a world where evil can't be completely eradicated.
• Sandra on the Rocks: While Sandra is back in Canada for a year, the combination of the manipulative Eva's machinations and some personal issues send Sandra's good-hearted young friend Marie into a spiral of hard partying, broken friendships, and increasingly bad attitudes. By the time Sandra returns to Paris, Marie is regularly behaving pretty horribly.
• In Sidekicks
  • Olivia, who was a top student in Justice College but ended up in the Under Corps anyway, turned to the side of evil when Metheos gave her Phantom's Mind Control superpower. She then took on the name "Iblis".
  • Gale does so too after being dismissed as a sidekick.
• Ruby of Sticky Dilly Buns is moralistic to the point of sanctimoniousness when she first appears, and as a result acts as The Conscience to title character Dillon once or twice. Unfortunately, she then develops an obsession with yaoi, and starts trying to make her Guy on Guy fantasies happen in real life — usually by exploiting Dillon's trust. However, her own conscience doesn't entirely disappear.
• In To Prevent World Peace, Kendra's future would have involved becoming a Dark Magical Girl. She decides to prevent this by choosing a Face-Heel Turn instead. This was not precisely what the future-seer intended when she warned Kendra about it...
• In Zebra Girl, Sandra turns evil after being dragged into hell by Professor Broadshoulders. She's having fun now.

Websites

• In the Springhole article Changing Alignments, Allegiances And Loyalties More Believably, Syera suggests having a hero that later becomes a villain subtly become meaner.
  • How Good People And Well-Intentioned Groups Can Go Bad lists ways heroic characters can slowly become bad people.

Web Videos

• Escape the Night: Matt starts as an Insufferable Genius with No Social Skills who is a great asset to the team but has trouble making alliances. Then he accidentally murders Sierra during an exorcism. After this, Matt turns into a complete Jerkass who happily insults his teammates stupidity and rubs Sierra's death in their faces.
• Julia van Helden does this in KateModern in response all the traumatic experiences she suffers while helping the K-Team, and out of misplaced love for a villain.
• Alex of Marble Hornets does this somewhere between Seasons 1 and 2 by appearing to work/cooperate with the Operator, though it's made explicitly clear in Season 2's finale that he's no longer any friend to Jay and Jessica. Of course, certain circumstances may have led him to that end.
• My Dad's Tapes: Melissa, after giving Chris important information about his father and acting as a friend, willingly joins up with donotcontinue thanks to an interest in his work.
• Corey from Three in the Afternoon does this not once, but twice, taking full advantage of his more idealistic friends the second time around.
• Ma-Ti and the Cinema Snob in To Boldly Flee. Temporarily Nostalgia Chick and Todd when they're assimilated by Mecha-kara.

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