Category:Redeemed Villains

"I did a lot of evil things when I was Astronema. I wanted to do something good for a change."

- Karone explains to the rangers how bad she was before and wants to redeem herself "Leia: Man, it's sure is weird to be travelling with Gaius and Muzét this time. Milla: Indeed. We were mortal enemies only a year ago."

- Leia Rolando and Milla Maxwell reflect on their antagonistic past with King Gaius and Muzet Many villains walk a thin line between good and evil; indeed, many villains have redeemed into remorse, sympathy or even empathy, and once arrogant villains ascend further into the path of good, often fighting alongside or protecting people they fought against, they begin to turn away from their old ways.

Originally antagonists or somewhat bad guys, these heroes turn good due to events in their lives, such as an idealism or encouragement from another hero, their positive change of heart, a good relationship with others, recognizing their own inner goodness and capacity for good, betrayal from the dark side to the good side or any other unresolved traumatic experience in which they question whether or not the dark side is worth fighting for.

A Redeemed Villain is usually the end result of an antagonist exposed to The Messiah, Passively Empathetic, Hope Bringer and occasionally a Charismatic Hero. Some villains turned to the good side can even become pure of heart to add drama as they are willing to be good without despair, fall, corruption, or negative qualities after all. Best example is Max Damage from Irredeemable comics. However, some of them can still Fall themselves and be evil again such as Shadow the Hedgehog, Ryu, and Ice King.

There are several ways a villain can redeem themselves including:


 * Snapping out of a possessed or brainwashed state and deciding to aid the hero who freed them. The villain is a hypnotized, brainwashed or possessed pawn who does not know they are being controlled until they are free. Grateful to whatever hero freed them, they ally with them. Baroness (in the 2009 film, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra), Cyrax, Hawkeye (in the 2012 film, The Avengers) and Koragg (in Power Rangers: Mystic Force) are very good examples.
 * Being exposed to the Messiah or incorruptible type of hero that helps them to see their errors. Usually done with delusional, honorable or insecure characters (the villain can also have all those traits) who believe they are doing right, or just want to be loved. The hero reveals to them that their actions are actually causing harm, or tries to comfort them. The individual chooses their desire for righteousness over what they have done, and/or decides the hero had helped them see what they were doing was wrong, and becomes a full-time hero. Gaara and Prince Zuko are two prime examples of this.
 * Choosing honor before evil. An honorable villain decides that their own honor, or the honor of something or someone else is more important than what they are doing and decide to abandon their evil actions. Often done with supporting antagonists who value the lives of innocent people over working with their evil/cruel masters such as Jeanne from the first Bayonetta game and Phoebus from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
 * Becoming friends with someone and decide to help them over being evil, such as Axel. He had planned on betraying Organization XIII with Saïx, but over time he build a friendship with 2 other members, Roxas and Xion and decided he was happier being with them rather then plotting with Saïx. Also Pupa (in the 2014 film, Let's Be Cops), he explains to Justin Miller and Ryan O'Malley (the fake police officers) that he hates Mossi Kasic and his thugs; he explains to them that he doesn't know about what's inside those crates at Mossi's party, he decides to forget about being bad and wants to be a good friend of Justin and Ryan.
 * Choosing their family over evil. Done with villains who have families and to care for them. They realize that their actions are actually hurting their spouses, children, siblings or any other members in their family. Two memorable examples are Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) and Necrolai.
 * Being memory-wiped or brainwashed into becoming a hero and deciding that they like their new personality and life better then their old ones when they inevitably learn the truth. This is the rarest and most controversial form of a villain redeeming themselves since they did not turn good by their own free will and essentially had to be programmed into being good. Reserved only for villains who would normally be a Complete Monster under their circumstances, the audience or reader meets them as a hero first, not knowing they are brainwashed or have fake memories. The "hero" does not know this either and is just as horrified as the viewer when they learn the truth about the horrible things they have done or regain their real memories. But they have spent so much time as a hero and living with an artificial good personality that they choose their new life over their former one and become true heroes. One famous example is Darth Revan.
 * Betrayed by their fellow villainous allies/bosses, which made them choose to turned to the good side. After they tasked to antagonized hero and their deed success, their allies/bosses dump them away or tries to kill them straight away, in either way, the said villain escape. Having see their errors (and in the worst case, hunted down by the Big Bad or their former ally), they choose to turned to the good side by joining forces with heroes. Bad Cop/Good Cop, Discord and Letty Ortiz are good examples.
 * Retiring from being a villain and realizing that living as a good guy is more better than their previous lives as evil-doers, Deckard Shaw, Gru, Karone (aka Astronema), Megamind and Scarlet Witch (in the 2015 film, Avengers: Age of Ultron) are good examples.
 * Learning the lesson of being evil from other villain (Usually a Necessary Evil, a Monger or in the worst of the cases a Complete Monster), in other words lead in a case of "Taste of your own Medicine", which leading to understand that they are doing a very the bad thing and feel very horrified, disgusted and terribly bad for the actions of the latter villain and try to redeem herself/himself and fight against her/him (Similar but somewhat different to a case Evil Vs. Evil), in the end of the battle (Usually in the end the very battle/episode/movie or in sequels) he/she try to join the heroes and search for the pardon to everyone they had become enemies. Selina and Shadow the Hedgehog are good examples.

'EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: If the character is currently in an On &amp; Off status, do not add them unless'' they stayed good right up the very end of the story. Do not include villains who have done a few honorable/heroic actions, then gone back to their villainous ways afterwards. Also, this kind of villain is the polar opposite of Complete Monsters that are absolutely irredeemable.'''

You know the saying: "If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em!"