Good Costume Switch



Bob has decided to give up his evil ways. Perhaps he met a special person, found a few True Companions (after all, Loners Are Evil), or became a pacifist. In order to show that his old self is gone for good, he decides to change his outward appearance. Bob gives himself an Important Haircut, puts on a new suit, gets rid of his evil tattoos, and so forth.

Popular changes include going from generic evil colors like red and black to generic good ones like white and gold, shaving the Beard of Evil, growing your hair out from the Bald of Evil, and covering up evil scars.

Contrast Evil Costume Switch. Sometimes caused by Defeat Means Friendship.

Anime and Manga

 * Used in Afro Samurai: Resurrection - Toward the end of the movie, half of Kuma's mask is knocked off, around the same time he begins thinking about his actions. Later, when he decides to try and protect Afro, he tears the other half off (in the process, showing that Cybernetics DON'T Eat Your Soul). That said, Afro being the Anti-Hero bordering Villain Protagonist he is, and the show having such Gray and Grey Morality, it's debatable whether this is a good or evil costume switch...
 * The first Reinforce of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, who loses the red Facial Markings and red belts after she's cleansed of her berzerked defense program.
 * Averted, however, with Fate Testarossa. Even under the white Badass Longcoat from the third season she is still in Black Leather.
 * in Vi Vid and Force has a new and less revealing barrier jacket that looks somewhat like the one Signum wears. Similarly, are shown wearing barrier jackets that are slightly different from their previous ones.
 * Used in Fruits Basket as  stops wearing the manly kimono of evil and starts wearing cuter clothing.
 * Juvia gets a new costume after she joins Fairy Tail, though this doesn't happen until at least 40 chapters after her Heel Face Turn.
 * Similarly late, Bixlow loses the skulls on his shoulders and gains a tuft on his hood, making him look like a knight.
 * Fresh Pretty Cure example:
 * On a less spoilery note, Setsuna gets a full makeover when she does her Heel Face Turn, trading in her black dress and silver hair for a red dress and pink hair with a winged tiara.
 * Digimon Tamers has a subtle way of going about this. While not necessarily a villain, Rika initally wears a shirt with a broken heart, but after she starts to recognize the Power of Friendship and realize that she can't do everything herself, this shirt is exchanged for one with a normal, non-broken heart on it.
 * Ellen/Siren in Suite Pretty Cure changes her casual outfit to have brighter colors and a new music note styled hairpiece when she officially becomes a good guy.
 * Hisashi Mitsui in Slam Dunk. He starts as a Jerkass street thug full of rage, with Japanese thugs clothing (large trousers, etc...), long hair and a missing tooth (two missing teeth, after he meets Sakuragi). After he sees the light, and asks Anzai to accept him back in the team, he shows up at the gym with a sportsman attire, shaven hair and his "new teeth".
 * Gaara, Kankuro and Temari have new outfits when they reappear to help the Leaf Ninja in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, explicitly meant to symbolize their new alliance with Konoha.
 * Access from Akazukin Chacha.
 * Sailor Moon villains are often turned good by Sailor Moon and her posse. They usually appear later in new outfits. Most notable are the Black Moon Sisters and Sailor Galaxia.
 * Played with in Tin Nayanko's case. Sailor Moon's attack hits her bracelet purifying HALF of her from Galaxia's influence, turning half her costume white. Sadly Galaxia will have none of it and offs her.
 * Livio the Double Fang from Trigun Maximum cuts his hair after his face heel turn, and later gets a cape and hat.
 * Zolf in Slayers is first seen covered in full-body bandages, thanks to a Flare Arrow from Lina Inverse. His burns heal at the same times as his Heel Face Turn.
 * Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Grandis is the first villain of the series and wears a military uniform. When she announces her Heel Face Turn she's wearing a dress and it becomes her standard outfit (unless she's going into battle).
 * Though he was never explicitly evil  of Sacred Seven gets some new, white and blue armor from   when he goes to assist Alma in taking down  . A radically different look from his normally dark Sacred Seven armor.

Comics

 * (pictured above) According to the Star Wars Expanded Universe Infinities comic book series (a series of What If versions of the original trilogy), this is what would've happened to the redeemed Darth Vader had he survived the battle on the second Death Star. Good Vader dons a head to toe white attire...While keeping his entire previous Evil Overlord look, providing one of the few examples of Paint It Black being done in reverse.
 * Canon at that point said he designed it himself, so he was probably just proud of his handiwork.
 * Shortly before becoming headmaster of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, back in the 1980s, erstwhile Big Bad Magneto discarded his usual outfit of red body armor with purple trunks, gloves, cape and boots in favor of a costume which consisted of a magenta body stocking with a large, off-center "M," and a light-purple cape. He also doffed his famous, and face-obscuring, helmet.
 * Subverted later - whenever Magneto ends on the good side of the Heel Face Revolving Door he mostly keeps his "evil" costume.
 * In fact, during the Genosha Excalibur series, in which Mags' role was purely as a good guy (though one you didn't want to screw with, of course), he wore a black version of his usual costume (albeit without the helmet.) When he found out Wanda was in danger and he was ready to kick ass, he donned the latest version of his traditional outfit.
 * In the indie comic Thieves & Kings, Soracia the Queen of Halves'... epic ... Heel Face Turn culminates with the cutting off of her black beribboned evil black cloak. It then forms up into a dummy shape of her and cries that it loves her. After that she wanders around in a fairly average cloak and skirt combo that still manages a certain amount of flair and swirl when she swings her longswords, but doesn't reek of black magic.
 * Anti-Venom so much so, that right now he's the third most popular character (behind Deadpool and Wolverine), and went from hoodlum-whacking-vigilante into a crusader tasking himself with a single mission:
 * Squadron Supreme had their arch enemies, The Institute of Evil, brainwashed into their team and many of them changed their costumes. The most obvious one is Foxfire who wore a punk outfit and after her change she wore a white outfit that covered more.

Film

 * In Kung Fu Hustle, right after Sing gets his ass handed to him by The Beast, and unlocks his true potential, he changes to a traditional martial arts uniform.
 * In The Good the Bad And The Ugly, Blondie borders on Chaotic Evil for most of the movie, but after he cements his goodness by selflessly comforting a dying soldier rather than choosing to pursue the gold, he changes to the poncho from the first two movies in which he's more caring and heroic.
 * Happens to Megamind after he stops  from destroying the city and permanently giving up his evil ways.
 * Chunk from Toy Story 3 (a toy monster with an interchangeable face) normally displays an angry face throughout the entire movie (he only smiles to deceive other toys), but after Lotso is finally disposed of, he starts to show off more of his happy face.
 * In Equilibrium, Preston dons an all white suit before the Final Battle.

Literature

 * Kingdom Keepers gives us.

Live Action TV

 * In Power Rangers Mystic Force, when Koragg the Knight-Wolf is freed from The Master's control and becomes Leanbow, the Wolf Warrior, his armor changes from purple to crimson. (Eventually. He's good but still purple for quite a few episodes, and is red upon fully joining the team. It's theorized, but not stated in either version, that it had something to do with the blast he protected the Rangers from by absorbing.)
 * Likewise for Wolzard / Isamu in Mahou Sentai Magiranger.
 * Similarly, the head of the Predazord (aka Gao Hunter) in Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger transforms into a friendlier version with a more humanoid face once its pilot gets de-possessed. (And it happens to Stratoforce and Centaurus in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, once they throw off the villain's remote control. That series, too, had sentient Zords.)
 * When Spike gets his soul in the final Buffy season he dumps the black for a blue sweater and lets his traditional punk crewcut grow out. But later he says it "didn't work" and reverts.
 * ... to his old image, but not his old ways. Just to be clear.
 * In Legend of the Seeker, when Cara joined the main cast, her costume change? Her Mord-Sith uniform now shows her cleavage.

Professional Wrestling

 * While this happens regularly, with or without a gimmick change attached, the most direct example is Hulk Hogan. When he's playing the Heel, he dons a black and white outfit, including his signature tearaway shirt, feather boa, weight belt, and bandanna. Immediately upon turning Face, which happens often, the black and white disappears in favor of his classic red and yellow costume.

Video Games

 * Used in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, as the story is about redemption. As the story progresses, Starkiller gradually changes from a very menacing set of Sith robes to a set of white, yet still badass Assassin's Creed-esque robes. Of course, this is the canonical version. The player can choose to change their costume throughout the game.
 * In Final Fantasy IV, Cecil's transformation from Dark Knight to Paladin (though he was Dark Is Not Evil to begin with), the switch being symbolic of his redemption.
 * The same happens to Kain in Final Fantasy IV the After Years, though by that point, Gray!Kain is wearing rags instead of his Dark!Kain armor, but then becomes Light!Kain, wearing light blue and white, and what appears to be a crocodile skull for a helmet (It isn't one. It just appears to be one.)
 * Something like this comes up near the end of Knights of the Old Republic. The Sith Lord Darth Revan used to wear an intimidating, downright Ringwraith-esque black outfit complete with a mask. There also exists a lighter-coloured version of the same robe that may have been worn by . Unfortunately, without the black color and hooded cape, it loses the coolness factor entirely.
 * When you recruit an enemy unit in Fire Emblem, their sprite changes from red to blue.
 * In Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Pete has a combination of this and Evil Costume Switch in that he assumes the Paper Thin Disguises of Captain Justice and Captain Dark so that he could get votes for the local popularity contest. No one's fooled and he's utterly useless as Captain Justice.
 * All of your squadmates in Mass Effect 2 get a new costume after their loyalty mission, but depending on your character's choices it might be an Evil Costume Switch.
 * Also, all of the costume changes are from their individual costumes to a black-and-gold scheme intended to show their growing cohesion as a team, Miranda actually goes from a white Spy Catsuit to a black one.
 * And black and gold are originally Cerberus colors, so the destinction between this trope and Evil Costume Switch gets murky.
 * in Mabinogi. While spoiler:she is on the side of the fomors :she wears her normal clothes, but when she switches sides she starts wearing.

Web Original

 * Germaine of Neurotically Yours makes one, starting in "Germaine Returns", following her giving up her whorish ways. She elaborates further on it in "Clothes Donations" saying that she's going to stop wearing black because it reminds her of the dark years she's trying to forget.

Webcomics

 * Belkar Bitterleaf, the psychopathic halfling from Order of the Stick gets a temporary costume change in strip #58.
 * Ellen of El Goonish Shive, switches from a suit to casual clothes after her Heel Face Turn.

Western Animation

 * Used in Avatar: The Last Airbender. For all of Season 1, Zuko wore fairly standard villain wear for the show - lots of militaristic red, Shoulders of Doom - the whole enchilada. In Season 2, he was neutral, and wore green and brown, nondescript Earth Kingdom clothes, which both heroes and villains wore. After his  in the season finale, we saw him wear the full black-and-red military garb of Fire Nation royalty. After his  he gets a red-and-gold set of robes that isn't nearly as intimidating.
 * He also invokes a second part of this trope, by cutting off his villain ponytail at the end of season one and growing out his hair, presumably kept shaved before.
 * Re Boot did this in season 4 to  to complete the Heel Face Turn. Complete with white and gold color scheme.
 * The Tick's Big Shot wears a turquoise turtleneck sweater in all post-therapy appearances.
 * Subverted in Young Justice, Superboy's original costume while controlled by the evil "Light" is a standard superhero bodysuit and pure white except his logo, when he's freed from their control, he changes to a militant looking black T-shirt and combat jeans.
 * Happens quite a bit in Beast Wars, particularly when Black Arachnia turns from Predacon to Maximal in season 3 (justified due to the Transmetal driver).