39,327
edits
Civilian Villain: Difference between revisions
update links
m (Mass update links) |
(update links) |
||
| (6 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 12:
In particularly tragic instances of this, the villain really does reform, but the [[Reformed but Rejected|mistrust from their environment]] (and possibly the hero in particular) convinces them it's not worth it, and they go back to villainy.
Compare [[Heel Face Turn]], where the villain becomes an out-and-out hero. Likewise compare [[Chronic Villainy]] for when a villain sincerely attempts to reform but cannot get over his old obsessions. Also compare [[Reformed but Rejected]], where the villain really does give up his evil
{{examples}}
==
* Subverted in [[Kurt Busiek]]'s ''[[Astro City]]'' during the ''Tarnished Angel'' arc. Steeljack, former supervillain, does indeed try to go straight. No one believes him, and about the only work he can find is people who want to hire him to do criminal jobs for them. Then he discovers an actual evil conspiracy...only none of the good guys will believe a thing he says because of his past reputation. He does {{spoiler|manage to go straight}} in the end, although he has to {{spoiler|almost die before any of the heroes are willing to listen to him}}.
* [[Batman]] gets this one a lot, since his theme is "justice, not vengeance" and he's contractually obligated to give people a chance, even if he doesn't believe it himself.
** In the "Going Sane" story in ''Legends of the Dark Knight'', after the Joker thinks Batman has died, he gets plastic surgery and goes on a regime of prescription drugs to make himself look normal. In a short while, he [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|forgets all about his life as the Joker]] and turns into a shy, kindly eccentric. (Amnesia of this kind can [very rarely] happen in the [[Real Life]]. Psychologists call this "fugue".) Needless to say, this all falls apart when the Batman re-appears.
** In one especially screwy story, an overly-suspicious Batman broke into Penguin's factory, realized Penguin wasn't doing anything wrong, and got him on a parole violation
*** Batman storms out of the parole board hearing, after failing to convince them that the Penguin's heart was in the right place, complaining that they won't listen. (Ironically, [[Book Ends|the story began]] with Batman storming out of the original parole hearing because they let the Penguin out in the first place.)
** ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'' has ''two'' instances of this:
*** Harvey Dent (AKA Two-Face) gets plastic surgery to fix his mutilated face, but it doesn't actually cure his insanity, despite a promising start. Batman really hoped it would work (especially since Bruce and Harvey were friends).
*** The Joker claims to have changed after decades in Arkham, and is released after his evaluation by a [[Strawman Political|strawman liberal]] psychiatrist. He goes on a talkshow to prove he just wants to make people smile... and then kills everybody. And somehow, some people are surprised.
**** Ironically he used some [[Reverse Psychology]] on his psychiatrist, claiming to have been cured, but also that he doesn't deserve to ever walk free because of the horrible things he has done, and should just be locked up and forgotten for good. The psychiatrist sees this as a good enough reason to put him in a talkshow.
** The Harvey Dent example later showed up in current DCU continuity when he received plastic surgery as part of the "Hush" conspiracy, but in an example of petard-hoisting, the surgery put Two-Face out of control, giving Dent his sanity back. [[It Got Worse|He got worse]].
** Shockingly averted by the Penguin, who had been happily running a nightclub frequented by supervillains while doing nothing more criminal than overcharging for tee shirts in the gift shop for years, before eventually running for mayor of Gotham City... all above board, to the shock of both Batman and readers.
*** Not entirely. The Penguin did fence stolen property and arrange early paroles on the side (Batman tolerated it because the Penguin made a great stool pigeon when necessary), but he seems to have put even that behind him now.
** More recently, the Riddler is making an honest try at being a private detective, and it mostly looks like he'll join the Penguin in averting the trope. Even Batman (as Bruce Wayne) hired him once.
** Harley Quinn got this one, with a weird start. She was rejected parole(Bruce Wayne is on Arkham's board of directors), but then she was broken out of Arkham on the way back to her cell by Scarface. While she does play along with Scarface's scheme, she takes her first oppurtunity to call GCPD and get Batman to help attempt capture of the crooks and to escort her back to Arkham. Bruce Wayne called for a rehearing to reverse his vote and if what this troper has heard is correct, she has since gone on to reform.
*** She's still nuttier than a Snickers bar, but is no longer a serious threat to the society...although a friendly encounter with Mr J might change that at any time.
* [[Lex Luthor]] and the Joker team up with this gambit in ''World's Finest Comics'' #88. In the classic [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]] tradition, the nigh-indestructible industrial robots they were manufacturing as a front would have made them fabulously rich.
** Of course, the Joker is insane. And Luthor is quite capable of making as much money as he feels like whenever he feels like it, but he's absolutely convinced that Superman is holding back Humanity from it's true potential. Neither of them are in it for the money, so cutting them a check won't work.
*** Also, it was the Silver Age.
* Moloch from ''[[Watchmen]]''. Unfortunately for him, Rorschach never forgives a former villain, and even breaks Moloch's finger when he tries to defend himself from Ror's unjustified home invasion.
* A [[Pre Crisis]] Superman story had Luthor reforming after falling in love and deciding to marry. He even allowed Superman to scan his mind with a device to confirm it. Except it turned out to be a convoluted scheme even Luthor himself wasn't aware of ''[[Memory Gambit|since erasing his own memories was part of the plan]]''
* Among others, Captain Cold in ''[[The Flash]]'' has done this several times. On at least one occasion he even fought crime alongside the vocally suspicious Flash on the encouragement of his then-girlfriend. Then it turned out that at night she was using his equipment and costume to commit burglaries so that he would take the blame if she was ever spotted. He promptly attempted murder-suicide.
* At one point, [[Superman|the Cyborg Superman]] attempted this, creating a new identity as a schoolteacher and befriending a high school student who, co-incidentally, was involved in a few of Superman's adventures, mostly those in the original post-Crisis Kandar. When his identity was revealed, he snapped and attacked, only to escape once more.
== Films ==
Line 50 ⟶ 49:
== Literature ==
* In the backstory to ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Sauron, after the events of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', promised to abandon the ways of his former [[Evil Overlord]] and master Morgoth. Then he went and made [[Artifact of Doom|the One Ring]]?
** Things went in a bit different order; Sauron was implied to have genuinely regret his decision of siding with Morgoth after the first time he fell, if for no other reason than that it
*** I heard somewhere that in addition to his pride, Sauron realized that with Morgoth defeated and the Valar returning to Valinor, ''he'' was now the most powerful being in Middle-Earth, and he decided to take advantage of it.
** Of course this brings up the topic of Morgoth, who was let out from imprisonment and seemed to be an allright guy? Until he destroyed the trees, stole the Silmarils, and murdered Fëanor's father.
*** Not really. Morgoth is Tolkien's analogue for [[Satan]]: he is the incarnation of evil; he never reformed and never will. Morgoth's brother [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|Manwë]], the guy who released him, simply failed to understand why anybody would want to be evil. When I think of it, remind me why Eru Ilúvatar put Manwë in charge of the world…
* Count Olaf pulls this trope multiple times over the course of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''.
* In the [[Tortall Universe]], Duke Roger is one of these for the last two books of the Lioness quartet. Before he died the first time, he ''tried to kill the crown prince as well as the queen'', among others. After he came [[Back
** The belief was that having died had changed him, and it had - before he'd just been trying to gain the throne, but after being brought back he wanted to destroy everything.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': After Voldemort was defeated trying to murder baby Harry, some Death Eaters claimed to have been bewitched or unwilling participants and tried to go back to living a normal life. This was most successful in conjunction with ministry connections and large bribes. Of course, in most cases it was only a lie to keep them out of Azkaban.
Line 69 ⟶ 68:
** In ''The Curse of Peladon'', where [[Proud Warrior Race]] the Ice Warriors claim to want to have given up their militaristic ways, which the Doctor does not believe. In fact, they have. Though as the next story, ''The Monster of Peladon'', as with humans and Time Lords, you can trust some Ice Warriors but not others.
** The first Second Doctor episode, ''The Power of the Daleks''. ''I AM YOUR SER-VANT!''
** They do it again in the new series episode "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31
Line 75 ⟶ 74:
* Eggman of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' does this from time to time. (And in lots of incarnations, whether he's Eggman or Robotnik, not just the games.)
** In ''[[Sonic Chronicles]]: The Dark Brotherhood'', he claims to have "completely reformed". ''Nobody'' believes him, but ''they [[Enemy Mine|work with him]] anyway'' for a good stretch of the game since they legitimately need his tech. No prizes for guessing how ''that'' turned out.
** Also, in ''[[Sonic Colors]]'':
{{quote|
'''Sonic:''' "[[Sarcasm Mode|Well, that's a relief.]]" }}
* The plot to ''[[Mega Man 3]]''. Dr. Wily claims to have reformed, and works with Dr. Light to build a giant "peacekeeping robot" which Mega Man has to go out and get the components for. The components, oddly enough, are guarded by 8 robot masters... and once they've gathered them all, Dr. Wily steals the new robot and plots to use it to take over the world, of course.
Line 87 ⟶ 86:
* In the comic ''[[Bob and George]]'', Dr. Wily does this by faking amnesia to become Dr. Light's assistant again.
** Bob and George is (just loosely enough) based on the actual plot of the games. Thus, this happens only because of association with them.
* ''[[Nodwick]]'' had the recurring villain Count Repugsive... who chose a legitimate (early on, at least) and peaceful way of expansion over conquest [http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2001-05-03 that one time].
== Web Originals ==
Line 102 ⟶ 101:
** In '''Joker's Millions''', the Joker becomes legitimately insanely rich by inheriting the wealth of an old enemy. He gives up crime and takes up things like golf. Unfortunately, the money turns out to be mostly counterfeit, and he goes back to his old ways when he tries to hijack an armored truck filled with cash when faced with the massive inheritance taxes and being the laughingstock of the underworld by being so thoroughly cheated.
** Harley Quinn was once declared fit to re-enter society, and while she was still [[Genki Girl|bubbly as all hell]] and kept giving other people the willies with her pet hyenas, she was well-behaved and did nothing illegal. Then a store clerk forgot to remove an anti-theft widget from a dress she bought, causing a store alarm to go off. [[It Got Worse|Then things got sad,]] [[The Woobie|poor Harley.]] [[Oh Crap|To mention nothing about the crazy general pursuing her on a tank.]]
*** Batman recognizes that Harley is one of his few villains who isn't irredeemable, just sort of misguided and broken. [[Word of God]] is that after the {{spoiler|Joker's timely and well deserved death}}, Harley went straight and started a family.
*** Indeed, ''[[Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker]]'' shows her as a stereotypical Jewish grandmother, and an extremely pissed one due to her granddaughters' fall to delinquency - in a gang called the Jokerz, no less!
** In a short spinoff comic, the Scarecrow starts giving thought to his retirement plans, escapes Arkham, and goes back to teaching under a new identity - this time as an English professor, which has much less opportunity in the line of unethical experimentation. While he dislikes most of his students, he seems to be satisfied with his work otherwise, much to Batman's
* Lex Luthor in the Cadmus story arc of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' does this as part of a [[Xanatos Gambit]] to discredit Superman.
* About half of Sideshow Bob's appearances in ''[[The Simpsons]]''.
** Subversion: In one episode, he really had reformed despite Bart's suspicions, and actually saves his life. In a double subversion, he ends up in jail again anyway because the police didn't believe he wasn't involved in his brother's scheme.
*** Also, when they're in the police car:
{{quote|
'''Cecil:''' Tell them they'll live to regret this.
'''Sideshow Bob:''' You'll live to regret this! Oh, thanks a lot, now I look crazy. }}
** This Subverted ''again'' when the the Simpsons find Bob as the Mayor of a small town in Italy who has once again reformed and started a family. It doesn't stick as Lisa accidentally ruins it, and [[The Family That Slays Together|Bob's new family want in on revenge]].
Line 116 ⟶ 115:
* On ''[[Superfriends]]'', the Legion of Doom pulled this once. Of course since they proceeded to travel into the future because they thought the Superfriends wouldn't find them there, the viewer is left to question why.
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'': Plankton pretends he changed in a convoluted charade to get Mr. Krabs's secret formula.
* There was Gil from ''[[Kim Possible]]''
* In ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Mister Freeze was subjected to this after he was given an honest shot at redemption and a normal life. Few people believed he was willing to change, with the exception of Terry, as a twist (elderly Bruce seems to have witnessed this trope being averted a few too many times to believe in Freeze's reform). Couldn't make good on it though, as the technology used to heal his body...wasn't that good. He was doing fine until {{spoiler|the doctors treating him wanted to [[They Would Cut You Up|vivisect him]] to see why the treatment wasn't permanent.}}
* After being defeated the first time in ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Doctor Octopus pretends to have returned to his original meek personality and asserts that criminal actions were the result of his tentacles forcing him into it. By doing this, it allows him to be kept at an institution under relatively low security and mastermind a break-out for his fellow villains, who, being sane, are kept in maximum security prison.
| |||