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Anakin: Now, go, my son. Leave me.
Luke: No, you're coming with me. I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you.
Anakin: You already… have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister… you were right.
~ Anakin Skywalker's last words to his son and ultimate redemption.
Ian: It's tempting to blame Dave. I know. I've been there. I wish I could get back all those years I spent plotting my revenge. All that time and energy, wasted. All those pizzas I had delivered to his house, wasted.
Dave: That was you?
Ian: Not now, Dave! All right? You could let Dave fall to his death and I could go back to the raft and the chipmunks, become their manager again and make tons of money. So, really, I'm good either way. But let me tell you something. Hate, Anger, Regret, those aren't just members of a girl group I once signed. They're what consumed me. And they're consuming you. It's not too late to do the right thing.
~ Ian Hawke's redemption when he lets go of his old grudge against Dave, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes by explaining to Zoe that revenge is not the best solution, also preventing her from pushing Dave into the chasm at the same time.
I know what it's like to lead by fear and intimidation! And I know what it's like to want everypony to do what you say! But I was wrong. A real leader doesn't force her subjects to deny who they are! She celebrates what makes them unique and listens when one of them finds a better way!
~ Starlight Glimmer explains her redemption to Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings.
I was born having three parents: My Mother, the Cursed Spirit that impregnated my Mother, and The Man who mixed his blood into the affair... The one one who toyed with my Mother, the loathsome...
Kenjaku: So you finally figure it out?
Indeed, I have... Noritoshi Kamo!!!
How dare you...how dare you...make me try...try to kill my little brother: Yuji Itadori?!?!
~ Choso redeeming himself after he realized Yuji Itadori his younger half-brother while turning on Kenjaku for manipulating for him into committing fratricide.

Many villains walk a thin line between good and evil; indeed, many villains have been redeemed into remorse, sympathy or even empathy, and once arrogant villains ascend further into the path of good, often protecting or fighting alongside people they once fought against, they begin to turn away from their old ways.

Originally villains, these characters 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 (perhaps a successful love story), recognizing their own inner goodness and capacity for good, betrayal or any other unresolved traumatic experience in which they question whether or not the dark side is worth fighting for. However, some villains may turn for more satisfying reasons.

A redeemed villain, otherwise known as a villain turned to the good side or former villain, is usually the end result of a villain exposed to a Purely Good hero, a Messiah, a Hope Bringer, and occasionally a Charismatic Hero. They are the exact inverted opposite of Fallen Heroes.

Some of these characters committed villainous acts at the time the story takes place in, but some have redeemed themselves prior to the events of the story.

There are various scenarios why these individuals turned to the good side, though the said individual often redeems into multiple scenarios altogether:

  • From Possessed/Brainwashed to Freedom: Snapping out of a possessed or brainwashed state and deciding to aid the hero who freed them. The villains are hypnotized, brainwashed or possessed pawns who do 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, Sindel, and Koragg (in Power Rangers: Mystic Force) are very good examples.
  • Righteousness: Being exposed to the Messiah, role model 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 Sasuke Uchiha are two prime examples of this.
  • From Abandoning Evil to Good Honor: Choosing honor before evil. Honorable villains 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, Phoebus from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption II.
  • Hostility turned Friendship: 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 builds a friendship with 2 other members, Roxas and Xion and decided he was happier being with them rather than plotting with Saïx, with Saïx himself eventually atoning for his past mistreatment of the afromentioned by reviving Roxas and Xion with the help of Vexen and secretly assisting the others in defeating Xehanort. 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 and El Tigre, who learns that friendship is more important than hurting people. Vegeta, despite being envious of Goku due to him surpassing the former at every opportunity despite being a supposed lower-class warrior, eventually turned good after realizing Goku truly wishes to be friends with him and accepted the power-gap between the two.
  • Deciding the Good Family for Care: 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. Three memorable examples are Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader), Nikki Pimvaire (aka Necrolai), John Marston, and Choso.
  • Snapping out the memory-wiped/brainwashed: 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 Pure Evil 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.
  • Betrayal of the Dark Side: Betrayed by their fellow villainous allies/bosses, which made them choose to transfer to the good side. After they were tasked to antagonize the hero and they were successful, their allies/bosses throw them under the bus or try to kill them straight away (in either way). Having see their errors (and in the worst case, hunted down by the Big Bad or their former ally), they choose to work for the good side by joining forces with heroes. Anakin Skywalker, Bad Cop/Good Cop, Discord, May Day, Other Father, and Owen Shaw are good examples.
  • Retirement of Being Evil: Retiring from being a villain and realizing that living as a good guy is better than their previous lives as evil-doers. Deckard Shaw, Gru, Karone (aka Astronema), Megamind, Nebula and Scarlet Witch (in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) are good examples.
  • Decide to Move On Forward: Some of them move on forwards, without going back; one memorable example is The Timekeeper from Spy Kids 4: All Time In The World.
  • Remorseful Correction: Learning the lesson of being evil from another villain (Usually a Necessary Evil, a Monger or in the worst of the cases a villain who is pure evil), in other words having a case of "taste of your own medicine", which leads them to understand that they are doing the very bad thing the other villain is doing and feel very horrified, disgusted and terribly bad for the actions of the latter villain and try to redeem themselves and fight against them (Similar but somewhat different to a case Evil Vs. Evil), in the end of the battle (Usually in the end of the very battle/episode/movie or in sequels) they try to join the heroes and search for pardon from everyone they had become enemies to. Zuko, Obito Uchiha, Sasha Waybright, Shadow the Hedgehog and Riku are good examples.
  • Simply Stopped Being Evil: There are rare cases where, though they have no real reason, a villain can just decide to stop being evil. Perhaps they tire of it or have successfully completed their goals and have no reason to antagonize anyone anymore. Some of these villains may not be remorseful like other redeemed villains, and instead are proud of what they have done but simply have "retired" from villainy. An example is James Earl Cash.
  • In the best cases, some former villains turned to the good side can even become Pure Good to add drama as they are willing to be good without any despair, corruption, or negative qualities at all (e.g. The Puppet, Sunset Shimmer, Mario, Robert E. O. Speedwagon, Doctor Octopus, Wiz, Sae Niijima, Mika Misono, She-Ra, The Collector, Android 16, Edge, Iroh, Big Man, Minion, Thorax, and AAARRRGGHH!!!). However, these are rare since redeemed villains tend to keep some of their corrupting qualities.

Notes[]

Please note that a character has to have been established as a villain before turning good.

If the hero is currently in an On & Off status, they are NOT redeemed unless they stayed good right up to the very end of the story.

  • Also, do not create pages based on this category, as villains who redeem themselves, but merely become average civilians or aren't remembered as heroes that much do not count.

Note that this category is meant for heroes who used to actively work for the dark side. Also, this kind of villain is the polar opposite of Pure Evil Villains that are completely irredeemable.

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