Heel Face Revolving Door: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Elizabeth''': Whose side is Jack on?

 

When a villain is sufficiently sympathetic with the audience, they have a tendency to do a [[Heel Face Turn]]. And such characters have a tendency to do [[Face Heel Turn]]s when it's realized that they [[Redemption Demotion|really worked better as a villain]]. But, even though the character works better as a villain, he's still so sympathetic that the powers that be will often give him further temporary Heel Face Turns because they are uncomfortable with their audience [[Rooting for the Empire]].

 

Compare [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] (which, in some cases, is the [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] of this trope), [[Wild Card]] (where the character isn't strongly on anybody's side ever), [[Unscrupulous Hero]] (a character who is unambiguously on the heroic side but commits villainous acts on the side), and the [[Double Reverse Quadruple Agent]] (he never changes sides, but no one is sure what side he's really on).

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* A character in the anime version of the ''[[Mushiking]]'' arcade, called Soma. He is at first suspicious, but becomes good, then becomes a baddie to {{spoiler|be with his mother, who's one of them}}, and then becomes good again when everyone but [[The Dragon]] sees how ludicrous the [[Big Bad]]'s plan is. Really, this guy gets the Revolving Door award.

* [[Catwoman (comics)|Catwoman]].

* [[Magneto]] of ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''. Takes [[The Messiah|wider]] [[Complete Monster|swings]] across the spectrum than pretty much any character in comics [[Doctor Doom|(maybe)]].

** Since her "current goals" have been both heroic and villainous, and she's been a [[Card-Carrying Villain]], federal agent, terrorist, spy and full-fledged X-Man at various times, she pretty much counts. It's not as if the other examples of this trope spend a lot of time working ''contrary'' to their "current goals."

* [[Deadpool]] wavers between mercenary, good guy, or doing merc work for the bad guy of the week. This is due in large part to the fact that he's insane.

* [[Sub-Mariner|Namor the Sub-Mariner]] deals with this so often that the trope may as well be named The Namor. He fought the original Human Torch (that's bad) and allied with him against the Axis in World War II (that's good) then swore revenge against humanity when he thought they'd destroyed Atlantis (that's bad) then swore to defend Atlantis once it was discovered again (that's good), and [[The Simpsons (animation)|the frogurt is also cursed (that's bad)]]. To put it another way: Marvel currently has two "ruling councils" of good guys and bad guys. Namor is on both of them.

* This Trope could also be named The [[Black Adam]]. He started out as a champion of his people in ancient times named Mighty Adam (that's good) then became a brutal dictator and conqueror when his family was killed by a supervillain (that's bad) then millennia later attempted to reform and even joined the [[Justice Society of America]] (that's good) then became a not-so-brutal dictator of his country again (NOT the bad part) and later joined a Society of Villains to ensure their safety (that's bad). After said Society betrayed him, he later fought against them when they tried to take over Metropolis (that's good) then went back to being a harsh dictator with plans to form a new Axis Powers coalition (that's bad). When he gained a new family he tried to go back to his old heroic ways and traveled the world fighting evil alongside them (that's good). When this family was killed by supervillains he went on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], ''murdered an entire country'', and fought every superhero on Earth (that's bad, but awesome). Most recently, his wife [[Came Back Wrong]] and started turning his people into dirt and he tried to defend them {{spoiler|leading to a truly bizarre situation with ''Black Adam'' defending innocents from the ''corrupted [[Captain Marvel]] and Mary Marvel''}} (that's good.) Then he got turned into a statue alongside his wife for his troubles {{spoiler|and an oh so ominous shadowy figure wants to make them his champions...(that's bad)}}. At least there's a free choice of toppings (that's good)...that contain potassium benzoate (...that's bad). By the Power of Shazam, that is one busy revolving door.

** In addition to having similar personalities and histories of jumping back and forth between good and evil, Namor and Black Adam even ''look like they could be twins''.

* Geoffrey St. John from the [[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic The Hedgehog comics]] is a prime example of one of these. It's even Lampshaded in one issues' off-panel strip.

** Also the same case for The shrek version of Rumpelstiltskin between 3 and 4.

* [[Godzilla]] goes through this pretty much every other movie. He was undoubtedly an unstoppable menace in the first few installments, but as the original series continued to drag on, it slowly turned him from Villain to [[Anti-Hero]] to outright Hero. This was reset in ''Godzilla 1985'', where he was a villainous monster once again, and ever since he has been more consistent as either a Villain or Anti Hero.

 

== Literature ==

* Jeb Batchelder of the ''[[Maximum Ride]]'' books. Went from [[Mad Scientist]] to helpful parental figure {{spoiler|back to mad scientist, and he's been attempting to play the father figure again lately.}}

** It's arguable that he's {{spoiler|been good the whole time}} and that {{spoiler|his daughter}} Max refuses to let go of her hatred and accept that.

* Computer Jack from [[Gone (novel)]]. He starts out the series as part of Caine's group, mostly out of fear. He seems to be considering a [[Heel Face Turn]] for a while, but Diana has to threaten him to get him to go tell Sam, the hero, how to survive his fifteenth birthday, saying that it's "time to do the right thing, even if it is for the wrong reason." He spends the first half of book 2 obviously on Sam's side, until Diana shows up and convinces him to pull a [[Face Heel Turn]] and help Caine again. She does this by promising him "the ultimate technological challenge". He spends all of a few chapters on Caine's side, turns off the power permanently, and helps Caine remove uranium from the nuclear power plant. He's already wondering why he came back. He seems to disappear for a few scenes so that Sam and Caine can experience [[Enemy Mine]] and team up against Drake, and then he's back on Sam's side. He stays on Sam's side through the entire third book, but he is also sick and not really in on the action at all. And there are still 3 more books to come.

* In ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'''s [[Novelization]], Anakin Skywalker veers between Palpatine and the Jedi in a way that's much less sudden than how it seems in the movie, even leaning several times back towards the Light Side. [[It Was His Sled|We all know where he ended up]], obviously, but the pull of doing what Obi-Wan - who wants him to defend and protect people - and Padme - who wants to love and be loved - want are as strong as doing what Palpatine wants. It's just that Palpatine knew there was a contest going on and worked to throw it, though there were some tricky moments. Notably, after waking up on the slab and hearing that he's killed his wife, Anakin ''immediately'' tries to kill Palpatine with the Force - but he's so much weaker than he used to be that he can't, and then he doesn't want to anymore. Palpatine's the only thing remotely like an ally he has.

** The next episode has a [[Sinister Suit]] conduct an [[Sinister Surveillance|thorough]] investigation into the team, noting that ''"Teal'c changes sides more often than I change the oil in my car."''.

* Kiba Yuuji from ''[[Kamen Rider 555]]'' switches back and forth between helping and hating humankind several times during the story.

** It's mentioned several times by other Cylon models that this is a characteristic of the Eights, in that they're easily swayed. Even Athena calls them on it. In fact Athena's fanatical devotion to the Colonial cause may be an attempt to compensate for this perceived weakness in herself. That and the fact that the slightest indication of treachery would get her thrown out an airlock.

** Gaius Baltar was even worse. The plot kept jerking him around from [[The Atoner]] to [[Les Collaborateurs]]. Not entirely his fault, since he had a phantom cylon in his head for most of the series, but still, would it have killed him to show some backbone once in a while? Signaled by his recurrent [[Beard of Evil]]: clean-shaven, he was [[The Atoner]], sometimes even [[The Woobie]]. With stubble, he was a [[Dirty Coward]], and usually a [[Smug Snake]] as well. On rare occassions when he actually ''groomed'' his beard, [[Manipulative Bastard|watch out]].

* [[Kurt Angle]] is also notorious for turning about once a year. The problem with him is that he is most effective playing a heel, but his immense wrestling talent, the gold medal, and all around [[Badass]] qualities sometimes result in Face reactions even when playing a heel, thus resulting in the bookers [[Heel Face Turn|turning him face]]. Then he does his [[All-American Face|bland face routine]] until his crowd reactions wane, and [[Face Heel Turn|then he turns heel again]]. This effect was [[Lampshaded]] during an interview [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ydZDLLtp8Y where he denounced all black people and Jesus, and still got cheered.]

* Back in the old days, before the bookers developed extreme Attention Deficit Disorder, Lex Luger was the absolute king of this, occasionally doing multiple rounds in the revolving door during the same title reign.

* In fact it's pretty rare, especially in the last few decades, for any notable wrestler to ''not'' go through at least a couple of [[Heel Face Turn]]s and [[Face Heel Turn]]s over the course of his career. The main exceptions in modern professional wrestling are people whose careers simply didn't last long enough to turn from heel to face or vice versa.

** Averted by Ricky Steamboat, who never once [[Face Heel Turn|turned heel]] during his career, due to being such a natural face. To give an idea of how good of a face he was (or how horrible of a heel he would have been), Steamboat's real name is [[Awesome McCoolname|Richard Blood]], and yet he had to use a different name because that was a heel's name.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

== Music ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[City of Heroes]] Going Rogue'' allows you to ''live'' this Trope. You can go from being a Hero into a Villain back into a Hero, Wash Rinse Repeat. Ditto villains.

* Oh [[Metal Gear Solid|Naomi!]] Do you even have a side?

* Theoretically ''you'' can take a spin in the Heel Face Revolving Door in just about any RPG with a morality system. Just alternate good choices and evil choices and voila.

* Cole McGrath in ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' due to the fact he has to decide on acting good or evil in outcomes.

* [[EarthBound|Porky]] uses this one every time you meet him; he'll claim he's willing to repent of his misdeeds until he gets an opening to make a getaway, and then he's right back to plotting against Ness. In the original Japanese it's implied that (at least the first time) he really was willing to make amends, but he took [[Heroic Mime|Ness' silence]] to mean he wasn't willing to forgive.

 

== Webcomics ==

** Now it appears it MAY be a more sincere [[Face Heel Turn]] and he genuinely wants to help Agatha. For now.

** Gil's manservant [[Battle Butler|Wooster]] may have changed allegiences from his {{spoiler|British spymasters}} to Gil and then possibly from Gil to Agatha—or he never abandoned his first loyalties. Given the way Sparks influence non-Sparks, it's not entirely clear.

** [[Not So Harmless|Prior to Dr. Schlock's]] {{spoiler|takeover of Hertit-Corp}}, he tended to change sides quite often, although it was almost always based entirely on who was pointing a gun at his head at the time.

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Galatea is an emotional basket case who will switch sides with very little provocation. It's probably safe to describe her as [[Chaotic Neutral]].

*** Making it worse is that a video was actually put up solely to explain how various actions we'd seen Sarah taking over the past weeks were signs of her villainy. It couldn't be more obvious that all the footage in it is from the spinoff, for the simple reason that there's no freaking way to incorporate the majority of her scenes in the original show into the new story.

* Happens with Julie Mikan in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''. She undergoes a [[Face Heel Turn]] at the very start whilst deciding to play, killing Owen Fontaine gives her a [[Heel Face Turn]] and a [[Heroic BSOD]], before a few days later, she once again decides to play, becoming a 'heel' for the second time.

** In ''Pavlov's Checkmate'', Cale finally gets over this, refusing to switch sides when the antagonist gives him the offer.

* Everyone in the YWC (Youtube Wrestling Community) seems to switch sides so much that they seem to live inside this door.