High Heel Face Turn

When the Heel Face Turn meets The Smurfette Principle - if there is a lone female among the cast of villains, she is overwhelmingly likely to be the one who betrays them and perform a High Heel Face Turn.

It isn't always because she falls in love with The Hero, although this is the most frequent version. Wouldn't Hit a Girl may come into play as well; the simple fact that she isn't mown down like all the other Mooks may help her make up her mind that the side of good isn't so terrible after all. In other cases she's Good All Along but was initially attracted by the villain's charms before getting in over her head.

Compare and contrast Females Are More Innocent - that trope is about males being held responsible for getting a female villain into her life of evil (consider the old phrase "Behind every bitch, there's a bastard who made her that way"), while this trope is about resonspibility falling on a man to bring a female villain out of her life of evil. The Smurfette Principle factor is also really important here, because on her own, she would simply be an example of a sympathetic character making the right choice. But when she's surrounded by male minions and only male minions, that's when the Unfortunate Implications start to arise because it raises the question of why the male minions aren't also offered a shot at redemption. The only real answer to that question comes from the idea that men don't (or shouldn't) have feelings aside from fury and urges to kill, so our hero doesn't have to bother with them, while the female minions are exceptional since they're seen as emotional creatures by default.

See also Sorting Algorithm of Face Heel Turning, Dating Catwoman, Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter, Dark Magical Girl, the Dark Chick, the Femme Fatale, the Capulet Counterpart, Sex Face Turn (the hero's usual technique), Deliver Us From Evil, and Men Are the Expendable Gender. Contrast Daddy's Little Villain (who is usually too evil to be redeemed) and In Love with the Mark (a gender flipped version).

'''Note: This trope is not just for any Heel Face Turn that happens to involve a woman. The female villain HAS to be amongst male villains in order to count.'''

Anime and Manga

 * Oh, Gundam. Where do we even start.
 * Alright, the original series has Miharu Ratokie, rookie spy, sell out our heroes before falling in love with Kai.
 * Lalah has the misfortune of falling in love with the main protagonist AND antagonist.
 * Zeta has Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam fall in love with Kamille, Reccoa falling in love with the villain, and Sarah falling in love with Katz AND the villain. Note, none of them actually switch sides but Reccoa.
 * Sizer of Violinist of Hameln probably counts.
 * Chane Laforet of the Lemures, in Baccano!. Of course, her comrades were planning to kill her in the end, and it could be argued that she remained true to the groups original purpose (protecting her father)...
 * Heck, she was three quarters of the way through turning before the show even started, and her whole team knew it.
 * Perona in One Piece was the only one of Moriah's minions who was female and fighting for him by her own free will. After some initial difficulties Perona ended up helping Zoro and post time skip she fought off Marines that were trying to catch the Strawhats.
 * In GetBackers, a lot of the female villainesses are this.
 * , one of the few major female filler antagonists in Naruto, does a High Heel Face Turn after . Unfortunately,
 * So did.
 * Fresh Pretty Cure: Setsuna Higashi goes from the sole female member of an evil organization (Eas) to Fourth Ranger to the Cures (Cure Passion) in episode 23. This helps her in episode 25 when she has to battle an impersonator of her former self.
 * However, then said organization has another female member take Eas' place. This time the trope is subverted, as this female stays evil to her demise, and the two males make Heel Face Turns.
 * Suite Pretty Cure: Siren, the villains' second-in-command, exits the Heel Face Revolving Door in episode 22 and becomes Cure Beat. Unlike Setsuna, Siren used to be a good person and had spent a few episodes Brainwashed, making her turn to heroism even more inevitable.
 * In the Utawarerumono anime, Touka of the Evenkuruga tribe is the only woman fighting on the side of Kucca Kecca, and the only one to later join the protagonist.
 * Renee in Innocent Venus when she rediscovers her feelings for an old flame.
 * Pixie of the Big Bad Four in Monster Rancher.
 * from Mahou Sensei Negima. In a subversion, it comes with a heap of, and she was not the only girl in her band, but a member of an Amazon Brigade. Forget magic, Negi's superpower is making out with girls and being a chick magnet.
 * In a subversion, she still loves and cares for her boss, Fate Averruncus.
 * Inverted in the original manga of the Hentai manga series Bondage Fairies, where
 * Averted by Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist, where she's pretty much a Complete Monster Dark Action Girl. In fact,  Not to mention that while all of the other Homonculi's deaths/defeats make the viewer either sympathetic, remorseful, or at least slightly understanding, her death lacks any remorse whatsoever.
 * However, it's played straight in the 2003 anime version, where her growing Pinocchio Syndrome makes her decide to cooperate with the Elrics.
 * Gatomon in Digimon Adventure, rare non-romantic version.
 * In Kikaider during the four part OVA series, Bijinder decides to join up with the good guys after seeing how she actually cares about them.
 * Viro in Elemental Gelade has lived her entire life as a worthless Sting Raid, and is willing to do anything to become a real Edel Raid. She's sent undercover to spy on Coud, earn his trust, and if possible, separate him from his partner, Ren. Of course, Coud is the first person to treat her kindly, and she ends up falling in love.
 * Subverted in Bleach, as it seemed that  would pull this as she was the most reluctant member of her group and had somewhat of a crush on , however
 * Subverted in Bleach, as it seemed that  would pull this as she was the most reluctant member of her group and had somewhat of a crush on , however

Comic Books

 * In the Green Lantern/Green Arrow teamup "Hard-Traveling Heroes II", Crackshot does this with barely a thought. Her boss is kind of weirding her out, Green Arrow's really hot, what's to consider?
 * In Batman #4, Queenie, a member of the Joker's gang, became the first criminal to deduce that Bruce Wayne was Batman and ended up falling for him. She later took a bullet intended for the crime fighter.
 * Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) was sent by the Serpent Society to help capture Captain America. Though she did not immediately abandon her mercenary ways, she fell in love with Cap and helped him escape. They later formed a romantic relationship. The other three female members of the Society - Asp, Black Mamba, and Anaconda - are still criminals, but far more likely to side with Cap and the Avengers if it's a choice between that and their crueler enemies like the Red Skull.
 * In a feminist variation, Golden Age Wonder Woman stories often had her make extra effort to redeem female opponents, far more effort than she would extend to a male baddie. And she often succeeded. Even Paula Von Gunther, a Nazi and one of Diana's main archnemeses at the time, saw the light eventually.
 * Very few female X-Men villains stay villains. The Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Marrow, Emma Frost, Sage, Danger, Frenzy, and Callisto were all X-Men or X Factor villains who became good guys. Mystique and Lady Mastermind were also X-Men villains who became X-Men, although it didn't take (though Mystique is usually portrayed as redeemable and willing to do what she thinks is the right thing). The X-Men have had male villains change sides - Quicksilver turned hero when his twin sister the Scarlet Witch did, though she's always portrayed as the more heroic of the two (unless she's having mental problems, in which case it's portrayed as not her fault) - but not as many. And when you consider that they have more male villains but fewer male villains-turned-hero, you can see this trope in full effect.

Film
"Bond: I certanly wouldn't have killed you before."
 * Happens in many of the James Bond films:
 * Goldfinger: Pussy Galore. Bond's Epic Goods turn her straight (or at least bi)]], apparently!
 * Lampshaded and subverted in Thunderball with SPECTRE's "Black Widow" Fiona Volpe, who warns Bond not to expect that from her. Bond, probably because he's a bed-hopping bastard, actually shrugs this off with "Well, you can't win them all". Volpe is actually the first Bond girl this doesn't work on, but it turned out he wasn't actually trying it on her in the first place.
 * Inverted in Live and Let Die where Bond sleeps with inept CIA agent Rosie Carver... then pulls a gun on her, revealing he knows she's actually The Mole for Big Bad Kananga. He threatens to kill her if she doesn't spill what she knows; when she says he wouldn't do that after they've just made love, he replies:


 * Live and Let Die: while Kananga's men are loyal to the death, his female fortune teller Solitaire is won over by Bond's charms, even going so far as to lose her virginity - and with it her ability to predict the future! - to him.
 * Mayday from A View to a Kill. She arguably has a Heel Face Turn late in the movie, but it's not because of Bond - it's because Zorin betrayed her and killed her friends.
 * Inverted in Die Another Day when Frost tries to kill 007 after they spend the night together.


 * The Fast and the Furious:
 * Gisele in the fourth movie.
 * Zig-zagged in the fifth movie with.
 * Happens with Galaxy agent Gila in the James Bond parody Our Man Flint.
 * Eve Teschmacher in the 1978 Superman movie. Granted, Lex Luthor is so horrible to both of his henchpeople throughout the movie that the only reason Otis didn't betray him too was because he was too stupid to realize just how much Lex hated him. The last straw for Miss Teschmacher, meanwhile, involved siccing a missile on her mother's hometown of Hackensack, NJ - this led her to save Superman's life in exchange for his stopping that missile.
 * Kitty Kowalski in Superman Returns.
 * Mirage in The Incredibles is another example where the villain pushes her too far.
 * Lyranna from Beastmaster 2.
 * Subverted in Creature from Haunted Sea: the main character repeatedly tries to get the girl to turn good, but she's not interested.
 * Sala, in The Movie of The Phantom. Little explanation is given, it seems to happen purely because the Laws of Trope demand it. Though she does seem awfully protective of her female companion.
 * Eve Kendall in North by Northwest.
 * in the 2009 live action G.I. Joe the Rise of Cobra,
 * Averted in the Straight-to-DVD release Green Lantern First Flight, where, despite Boodika not being anywhere near as evil as the Big Bad Sinestro who she has allied herself with, she still ends up dying via impalement when Hal tricks her into shooting an energy rod to make it explode.
 * In the last of The Naked Gun films, Tanya Peters (Anna Nicole Smith) is the moll for a gang of terrorist assassins. After spending some time with the film's hero, Lieutenant Frank Drebin (who has gone undercover as an extra member of the gang), she apparently has a change of heart. She reveals where the gang leader has planted a bomb to Frank....and then suffers from Redemption Equals Suck when.
 * In Disney's Condorman, KGB spy Natalia is a Defector From Commie Land, but she insists on doing so only to the titular "top secret agent", who is actually a bumbling comic book writer. Hilarity Ensues when he's forced to actually do all the spy stuff he dreams of in order to rescue her, but it's his naive charm that won Natalia's heart in the first place and helped prompt her defection.
 * from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. One thing for sure is that she's not evil to begin with.
 * Inverted in Spy Kids.
 * Trudy Chacon in Avatar is the only one of the soldiers who does a Heel Face Turn: the other characters who turn are either scientists or Jake Sully who (very literally) Go Native, but Trudy is simply one grunt amongst hundreds. While she does spend more time with the main cast getting Aesops and stuff, it certainly comes off as this.
 * Yelena in XXX, though it's later played with, as the Genre Savvy villain knew the whole time. (But didn't do anything about it.) Of course, it turns out that she was.

Literature

 * in the Sword of Truth series, though.
 * Michael Stackpole of the X Wing Series books and comics is good at subverting this. All of his villains are more or less equally evil, including Ysanne Isard, Leona Tavira, and The Mole, Erisi Dlart. Isard is the Big Bad, but she's not insane in the main series, just ruthless and calculating. Several people pull Heel Face Turns, but while there's a couple women among them they turn because Defeat Equals Friendship and because they were helped, like the men.
 * The Star Wars EU also had a minor case in the Witches of Dathomir, it's shown that the form of the dark side used by the witches leaves them disfigured. It overloads their bodies and causes blood vessels near the skin to burst, so any of the witches that are less disfigured, and prettier, would theoretically be easier to return from the dark side. This of course leads to Unfortunate Implications like Beauty Equals Goodness.
 * And let's not forget about Mara Jade, either (at least her falling for Luke seems to have happened a few years after her turn).
 * Happens rather frequently in Leslie Charteris' The Saint novels.
 * In the Fablehaven series, is one of the only villains to do a Heel Face Turn.
 * Zig-Zagged with Diana from Gone (novel). Throughout the series, she's probably the least outwardly loyal Coates kid, sometimes to the point of sabotaging their plans, but is the only one that actually cares about Caine. She stays even after Heel Face Turns but is still openly critical of how things are being done. Finally, in Plague, she . But she remains on her own side the whole time, so there's no technical change.
 * In John Carter of Mars, Phaidor is the only named female Thern, and also the only named Thern to do a Heel Face Turn..

Live Action TV

 * This happens nearly Once an Episode in The Wild Wild West.
 * Utterly averted in The Movie, though.
 * The writers of Star Trek: The Original Series seemed incapable of thinking women could be evil. Even villainesses tended to get the soft-focused-cheesy-musiced-hey-it's-a-hot-girl treatment. Women who did do bad things were typically portrayed as naive and/or misguided and therefore more deserving of pity than blame. Prime examples of this are Lt. Marla McGivers and Dr. Janice Lester. Due to Values Dissonance, modern-day viewers tend to take rather less kindly to these characters than was intended.
 * What about Sylvia in "Catspaw"? Not only is she an unmitigated villainess, she dies—along with her more sympathetic male partner.
 * Notably, the episode "Friday's Child" was originally scripted with Eleen handing her own newborn child over to the bad guys in an effort to save herself and then getting killed anyway as they only wanted the baby in the first place. Roddenberry vetoed this because he believed all women would be maternal. Note the writer of this episode was a woman, so apparently he thought he knew her own sex better than she did.
 * Female villains in Power Rangers generally need to take a One-Winged Angel form in order to be destroyed. Notable aversions include Vypra, Miratrix, and...yeah, especially since Miratrix was just trapped in a crystal, much like Kamdor prior to PROO. Notable examples of being played straight include Itassis and Necrolai/, both of whom were redeemed at the end. The same applies to their counterparts in Mahou Sentai Magiranger.
 * Let's not forget about Nadira, who was not only The Dragon (of sorts), but eventually her Heel Face Turn lead to a Love Redeems moment where the Big Bad himself surrendered himself to the good guys. Apparently her good behavior got her Parole after only 1 year of imprisonment.
 * Another example from Power Rangers: . This abides by both parts of the trope,
 * More like
 * You can also add in Elsa from Power Rangers Dino Thunder, who had her powers stripped by the Big Bad and returned to human form and was now good.
 * Camille from Power Rangers Jungle Fury was redeemed by The Power of Love for Jarrod.
 * Tenaya 7 from Power Rangers RPM was pretty much a repeat of the Astronema arc.
 * To a lesser degree were Mara and Kapri from Power Rangers Ninja Storm. They were really more spoiled than evil.
 * This even applies to Rita Repulsa the very first Big Bad of the franchise. While both she and Lord Zedd were purged of evil in "Countdown to Destruction", she was the only one who seemed to do anything later, Power Rangers Mystic Force, where she appeared as the leader of the Mystic Ones. She also gave the Rangers their link to the Morphing Grid, along with other important aid from time to time.
 * In Robin Hood the Sheriff sends a spy into Bonchurch in order to get information on Robin from the newly appointed Earl: Much. Tellingly called Eve, she ends up falling for Much and admitting everything.
 * This often (but not always) happens in the 1966 Batman.
 * Sometimes it would occur at the very end of an episode (just after the final commercial break) as a seeming sort of Aesop, as in "See, not all of these criminals are really bad people." This is exactly how the redemption of "Zelda the Great" came out (doubly notable since she was the villain of the show, not just a moll).
 * Maid Marilyn (the trashy blonde moll for the Robin Hood-themed villain Archer) switched over to the good guys.
 * Ultimately subverted (or is that averted?) in the "Minstrel's Shakedown" episode: The Minstrel's moll initially surrenders to Batman and Robin, but they admire her courage and seemingly let her go. However, it was all a ruse to bug the girl's purse so that the Dynamic Duo can listen in on Minstrel's plot. After she learns this, the girl turns evil again.
 * Veronica Palmer in Better Off Ted, described in one episode as being the only female in upper management at the evil organization Veridian Dynamics, uses her position in several episodes to subvert company plans, either directly or by manipulating one of her underlings. And, although clearly sociopathic if not a bit insane, Veronica is consistently depicted as the far lesser of the evils in the rare occasion that upper management is seen.
 * Ros Myers was in the inner circle of the Collingwood Cabal from the two-part premiere of Spooks series five, alongside her MI 6 boss Collingwood, her father Sir Jocelyn (the financier of the group's attempted coup d'etat), and newspaper mogul Paul Millington, who's been skewing his headlines to ensure maximum panic (and by extension, support for the "antiterrorism" measures upon which their planned police state will be built). She's quite appalled after Collingwood decides to pull the trigger on an assassination of the Home Minister and a staged airplane collision over London despite a presumed negotiation with Harry Pearce and his supporters, where he promised a short truce. Ros promptly texts Adam Carter to warn him of the assassination attempt, and spends the second part of the premiere passing intel of the Cabal's actions to Section D, before quitting Six and joining MI 5 at the end of the episode.
 * In Doctor Who, much like the Doctor himself, the Master has had many incarnations over the years, and the one that came the closest to truly reforming was Missy, the Master's first - and to date only - female incarnation. Missy was the only one who seemed legitimately helpful and interested in redemption, but sadly was killed by her predecessor before succeeding, with the Doctor never even knowing she had wanted to help - leading to the next incarnation being just as evil as all the others.
 * In Doctor Who, much like the Doctor himself, the Master has had many incarnations over the years, and the one that came the closest to truly reforming was Missy, the Master's first - and to date only - female incarnation. Missy was the only one who seemed legitimately helpful and interested in redemption, but sadly was killed by her predecessor before succeeding, with the Doctor never even knowing she had wanted to help - leading to the next incarnation being just as evil as all the others.

Theatre

 * In Camus' L'État de siège (The State of Siege), Death (a female) betrays her master, Plague, to aid the male protagonist.

Video Games

 * Cerl in Breath of Fire. Unfortunately,.
 * She recovered somehow with time travel though.
 * In The Neo Geo Arcade game Magician Lord, the female miniboss is the only enemy character who doesn't visibly explode, instead slumping over in defeat. Odd as her female bodyguards and the mooks die in firey explosions like everything else.
 * The female second-in-command of the Korriban Academy can be given one in Knights of the Old Republic if you help her kill Uhtar Wynn, then defeat her.
 * ... And also if you make her question the Sith philosophy beforehand.
 * In Final Fantasy II, Leila does a Heel Face Turn after the party defeats her crew, and joins them.
 * In Final Fantasy VI, Celes is the first of the Empire's generals to turn against the war. While it mainly had to do with her personal morality, her crush on Locke certainly helped.
 * In Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core, all of the Turks eventually turn to Zack's side, but Cissnei is the first to do so.
 * In Mega Man X Command Mission, although it's more of a Strange Bedfellows scenario, Ferham, one of the last members of the Rebellion, helps her enemies (X and his allies) defeat the Big Bad . In the end, Ferham,.
 * It can be difficult to actually characterize the rebels in that game as outright evil; all of them seem to be genuinely dedicated to their ideals, and given the depiction of the federation government in that game its hard to condemn them.
 * Averted in the Dark Forces Saga; in Jedi Knight, the Dark Jedi who gets a Heel Face Turn is the teenage boy. The female Dark Jedi is The Dragon and is killed just before you face the Big Bad. Desann's apprentice Tavion is spared by Kyle in Jedi Outcast, but she just comes back even more pissed off as the new Big Bad in Jedi Academy.
 * Knights of the Old Republic: One scary male leader of the Sith academy. One treacherous but hot female underling. Guess which one you have a chance to turn towards the light?
 * Also with one rather hot Sith apprentice and her nasty-looking master with a massive chunk cut out of the front of his face. One of them you can save, the other always dies
 * Mara Jade, anybody?
 * Neverwinter Nights: Identical to the above example, there's one hot female elf, one insane bald male human, and one ancient and really ugly lizardwoman. Guess which you can redeem?
 * The Shadows of Undrentide-Hordes of the Underdark campaign arc mostly averts this. No Heel Face Turns of any type occur in the entire series (unless you count the end of Aribeth's Heel Face Revolving Door and Nathyrra's backstory), despite having at least two female villains who might have made a good story to have redeemed them.
 * In the second of the Baten Kaitos series, Baelheit's little girl, straight out defies him when the trio finally faces off against him in is floating empire. She pretty much confesses her love for Sagi in her sidequest just before this boss battle.
 * Indicators are that the City of Heroes update, Going Rogue, will have an example of this in demon-summoner Desdemona's background. She seems to be the likely contact for Villains seeking to turn Hero.
 * Belleza of Skies of Arcadia pulls this because she finds Vyse attractive.
 * To be fair, she was never all that evil to begin with.  It wasn't just that she thinks Vyse is hot and she was in love with Galcian.
 * Kurow Kirishima of Project Justice sets himself up with two henchwomen - his sister Yurika, and admirer Momo. By the end of the game they've both betrayed him for the friends they've gained... although Kurow probably brought it on himself by treating Yurika like crap  and considering Momo as nothing more than a pawn so Shouma rescues and then recruits her.
 * Averted in Dragon Age Origins by . She serves out of loyalty and honour, but questions several of his decisions. It's possible  for a Warden PC with high Coercion and Persuasion to talk her into walking away, but otherwise you're forced to kill her for her loyalty to a misguided tyrant. Seduction is not an option either way.
 * is basically a walking subversion. A romance will cause her to soften considerably, but her plan to  goes on as planned, regardless.
 * Trish in the first Devil May Cry.
 * Vivian in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door decides to leave her sisters and join Mario after figuring that her sister Beldam is just too damn mean. It should be noted that she is the only one of her sisters who is even remotely attractive... and is actually male in Japan.
 * As it would seem, in BlazBlue
 * As found out in Assassin's Creed II,.
 * Surprisingly, gender flipped in the second half of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu. The brothers Johan and Johalva are both in love with Lakche (or her Expy Radney) and one of them can be persuaded to pull this by her and join the heroes. The other will go man scorned and she'll have to kill him.
 * And in the first generation there's Prince Jamuka, who has feelings for Adean the Priestess and she can convince him to join sides... and later he can marry either her or her twin sister Briggid.
 * Also, it's more often than not averted in its original form. More than once you'll have a Dark Magical Girl Anti-Villain with an Undying Loyalty to an enemy, but she won't be likely to switch sides for the heroes's love or friendship.  is an especially tragic case; she is shown as a sympathetic My Country, Right or Wrong type, but still dies by your hand, and the two generals who actually Heel Face Turn are male.
 * in Fire Emblem Blazing Sword. The bad guys consist of the Big Bad, two Anti-Villain brothers who only serve their organisation out of the loyalty they had before it was corrupted, a seemingly Complete Monster male assassin who kills, a Manipulative Bitch, said woman's loyal female underling, and a powerful female Morph who believes her only purpose is to serve the Big Bad. Who gets redemption?
 * Possibly played straight in Fire Emblem Sword of Seals with, but only . She was , anyway.
 * In the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre, you can go ahead and make
 * The same way could apply to Ravness Loxaerion, the new girl. When Duke Ronwey turned Heel, Denam/Catiua/Vyce's turn of Face/Heel depends on the player's actions. Leonar always turns Heel, Ravness ALWAYS TURNS FACE.
 * The third Timesplitters game. The time traveling hero helps out a seventies super-agent stop a world threatening conspiracy. Many of the female mooks can be overheard desiring the super-agent in many sexy ways. Gamewise, here is no choice but to shoot the mooks. The super-agent? More interested in dressing up like a lady and flirting with the men in the game.
 * in Dead Rising.

Web Original

 * The eponymous supervillain Leather, of the Interviewing Leather journalfic by Eric Burns, vents her spleen about the sexism of this trope at length in part 7 of the series. Interestingly, Leather herself is the result of a Face Heel Turn, as she was originally the superheroine Dynamo Girl.

Webcomics

 * In Sinfest, Fuchsia is executing one against the devil himself. Unusually, it is not the manliness of Criminy who occasioned this change, but rather the fact that he treated her like a decent person.
 * Mosp in Sluggy Freelance, although Isp and Osp disagree..

Western Animation

 * In the The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron television movie Operation: Jet Fusion, Jet Fusion tries to invoke this trope on Beautiful Gorgeous, Prof. Calamitous's daughter. It seems to work eventually, as the two are later set to get married - except it turns out Jet's being mind controlled, and Beautiful Gorgeous is still unwilling to change.
 * In Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Pete's lieutenant Clarebelle Cow betrays him when she falls in love with Goofy... in SONG no less! The song "Chains of Love" can be viewed here.
 * Jinx from Teen Titans, the sole female of the HIVE Five group, ends up joining the Titans in the end.
 * X-Men: Evolution:
 * Rogue was only on the bad guys' side because she thought the X-Men wanted her dead, so this is pretty justified.
 * Inverted and then played straight with Tabitha/Boom-Boom, who leaves the Xavier Institute and moves in with the Brotherhood, though she does this out of convenience (in one episode staying with the Brotherhood, while fighting crime with the girls of the X-Men). She then leaves them when, and works with the X-Men a few times after that. Mystique and Wanda/Scarlet Witch are aversions.
 * Blackarachnia from Beast Wars once she gets involved with Silverbolt (although Megatron trying to create a future in which she didn't exist didn't help any, either).
 * Averted in Kim Possible with Shego, who massively subverts the trope at the end of at least two episodes which look like they're heading in this direction. However, that doesn't stop her from taking part in numerous Enemy Mines, particularly in the finale.
 * Not to mention it's revealed she had done a Face Heel Turn in her background, inverting this trope, since she was the only female in her heroic Sibling Team.
 * Megara from |Hercules, anyone? To her credit, she was never really evil in the first place.
 * Mai and Ty Lee, part of Azula's Quirky Miniboss Squad in Avatar: The Last Airbender, have a Heel Face Turn some episodes before the finale. Azula on the other hand, stays evil all the way to the end, and though she shows a human side in the Grand Finale, it's not a pretty one.
 * In Wolverine and the X-Men, . This trope is averted by the Inner Circle's other female member, Selene, however; she's portrayed as an entirely unrepentent sadist and schemer throughout.
 * Parodied in American Dad when one of Stan's partner of the week invokes this to get them out of imprisonment with nothing more than a short song. He apparently sexed his way through 200 miles of jungles. Though to be fair... he did have an enticing voice.
 * in Huntik Secrets and Seekers.
 * In Generator Rex,
 * In the Justice League episode "Injustice for All (part 2)", Batman convinces Cheetah to sell out the Injustice Gang to the Justice League, which earns her a Redemption Equals Death (though she gets better). Subverted when it turns out she didn't, and the real traitor was Ultra Humanite, who didn't want to be there in the first place.
 * The League of Flesh and Blood in Defenders of the Earth were three androids - two male and one female - with bad cases of Pinocchio Syndrome. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone, Ming offered to help them become human, a process that required stealing the bodies of Rick, Jedda, and Kshin. The android gal was the one who came to her senses and turned against her comrades, eventually making a Heroic Sacrifice to save the three teens.