Heel Realization: Difference between revisions

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* In ''[[Berserk]]'', Griffith is made to realize at the Eclipse that rather than being the beloved leader that everyone thinks he is (including himself at times), [[Ambition Is Evil|he is an ambitious man]] who will do anything to realize his dream and uses people to that end, even into death on the battlefield. It's his spite for Guts' being the one person he couldn't control that sends him over the mother of all [[Moral Event Horizon|Moral Event Horizons]]s.

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Most of these moments are in flashbacks, as soldiers in Ishval realize they're acting as [[Punch Clock Villain|Punch Clock Villains]]s and become [[The Atoner|The Atoners]]s we know and love. In the timeframe of the story itself, {{spoiler|Scar gets a slower-acting one than usual, apparently beginning when he notices that he's standing menacingly over Ed and Winry in exactly the same way he remembers [[Sociopathic Soldier|Kimblee]] standing over him and [[Dead Little Sister|his brother]]}}.

* In ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'', one of the characters mentioned that she had been working for a long time to try and make the post-[[Gendercide]] world a little easier to deal with--Itwith—It turns out she had been flooding the entire Pacific community with heroin, but figured that it really was not a bad thing since the entire world is circling the drain, and this is just letting people have a bit of happiness before humanity goes extinct. However, the fact of Yorick's existence, which means that extinction is not a guarantee, changed her perception of her role - ''she's'' not [[The Hero]], ''he'' is, and ''she's'' just one of the baddies. [[Redemption Equals Death|Things do not go so well for her after that]].

* ''[[Enemy Ace]]'', a series about an honorable German pilot flying in World War One, had [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/1002136.html a more recent series] where the same pilot, now a gray-haired veteran, flew in World War Two. He was much unhappier about this war. At some point he got shot down and parachuted to safety near Dachau, saw one of the death camps, and underwent a textbook [[Heel Realization]], even telling those under his command that they were fighting for the devil himself. He told them that he would no longer protect the Third Reich, and that he planned to fly to the nearest Allied airbase and surrender, giving them his undamaged fighter, then help them in any way he could.

* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', [[Knight Templar]] Rayek suffers a ''massive'' and acute [[Heel Realization]] just as he's about to kill all of the Wolfriders (for the greater good, he thinks). It's triggered when he meets his daughter Venka for the first time, who was trained her whole life to stop him. She refuses to, telling him that it has to be his own choice.

* A pretty funny example from ''[[Machete]]''. One of the [[Mook|Mooks]]s has an epiphany, telling his coworkers that "I've been watching the boss, and the boss is a real scumbag." That same Mook, when confronted by Machete shortly thereafter, promptly quits his job and gives Machete his gun.

* The audience has one of these in [[Attack of the Clones]]; there is a scene at the end where troops ships are taking off from Coruscant to fight in the Clone Wars--theWars—the music playing in the background is The Imperial March. The audience realizes that for the past hour or so, they've been [[Rooting for the Empire]].

* In [[Ayn Rand]]'s ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', James Taggart is helping to [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture]] {{spoiler|John Galt}}, and admits the latter's refusal to cry out is making him upset. When he realizes the significance of this, that he wants the man to be tortured to death -- evendeath—even though Taggart knows that {{spoiler|Galt's}} the only one that can keep Taggart alive as civilization collapses, it dawns on him that he himself is total evil. At this point, [[Go Mad From the Revelation|he goes insane]].

* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', after {{spoiler|Abaddon and Aximand}} set out to lure {{spoiler|Loken and Torgaddon}} to their deaths, {{spoiler|Torgaddon}} points out to {{spoiler|Aximand}} that he has doubt in his eyes -- whicheyes—which doesn't keep him from killing him, but he [[Tears of Remorse|sobs]] afterwards and speaks of how they had been their brothers. {{spoiler|Abaddon}} thinks he needs to be watched.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene|The Golden Transcedence]]'', Gannis realizes that while he is technically not guilty of any crimes, his behavior has been petty, underhanded, deceitful, and disloyal, and he will bebe—quite -- quite justly -- shunnedjustly—shunned for it.

* Valjean in ''[[Les Misérables]]'' had his [[Heel Realization]] after unthinkingly robbing a small child, right after [[The Messiah|Bishop Myriel]] had given him everything he'd owned, which got him to [[The Atoner|start taking his oath to the bishop seriously]], and, well... [[Doorstopper|you know the rest]]. Much later, Javert has his own [[Heel Realization]] when he sees Valjean's honest intent to save Marius shortly after having himself been spared by him, and realizes that the world isn't as black-and-white as he'd meant to believe; he [[Driven to Suicide|doesn't take it as well]].

* ''[[In Death]]'': There is this one lawyer in ''Ceremony In Death'' who defends one of the Satanic cult leaders that Eve is trying to take down. This lawyer happens to be a cult member himself. When Eve shows crime scene photos of a murdered cult member, the cult leader acts all "Meh", and the lawyer can only sit there and stare at the photos. Eve pretty much tips him off that she knows about his involvement and that he should think long and hard about what to do next. Later, when the lawyer is by himself, he ends up experiencing a [[Heel Realization]], where he realizes that ever since he joined the cult he's been having blackouts...and in one of those blackouts, the cult member in the photos was murdered in a sacrifice! Who knows what else happened in those blackouts? He ends realizing that he is in big trouble, and decides to pull a [[Heel Face Turn]]...only to get murdered shortly afterwards.

** A specific example would be Saul, a notorious persecutor of the earliest Christians, who was knocked to the ground and struck blind by a vision of God on the way to Damascus (''"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?"''). He converted within the week to Christianity and found his sight restored, and "the road to Damascus" would become a popular metaphor for the [[Heel Realization]].

** Another Biblical example -- Davidexample—David, though beloved of the Lord, was rebuked by the prophet Nathan when he had [[Uriah Gambit|Uriah the Hittite put on the front lines so he would be killed]], and David could take his wife Bethsheba for himself. Nathan tells him that the child Bethsheba was currently pregnant with would not live. Indeed, despite David fasting and clothing himself in sackcloth, the baby died after seven days. (And during this time, David wrote the powerfully penitent Psalm 51).

* In [[Ravenloft]], having a [[Heel Realization]] is the only way a darklord can escape his/her [[Ironic Hell]] realm. The sourcebook does note that people actually ''capable'' of having a [[Heel Realization]] would never have become darklords in the first place.

* In ''[[Devil May Cry]]'', Trish is a demon sent to lure Dante to his doom. He shrugs off her attempts to take his life, and even goes so far as to save her from a falling column -- andcolumn—and then calls her a devil and tells her that he only spared her because she looks like his mother. Trish's stricken look at that moment speaks volumes.

* In ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'', Yasha spent the last 12,000 years going along with the plans of the same people who killed his sister and his brother-in-law, enslaved his niece, and regularly slaughter people for their souls. All for the sake of the "cause" -- preventing—preventing the complete destruction of humanity at the hands of the Gohma. He justified it by believing with all his might that it truly was the only way to save humanity in the long run. Confronting Asura again and seeing how much power he's attained ''without'' mass human sacrifice helps Yasha realize that Deus' plan ''isn't'' the only way to save the world. When Asura calls Yasha and the other Deities fools for killing ''seven trillion people'' as part of their plan to "save" the world, Yasha agrees.

** Her [[Heel Realization]] is illustrated by having Sal's hair, which had fallen over her left eye and covered it during her entire [[Dark Action Girl]] phase [[Good Hair, Evil Hair|to illustrate how she wasn't letting herself see everything going on around her]], [[Expository Hairstyle Change|falling away from her face as she sees and recognizes Danny's presence]].

* In the episode "Secret of my Excess" of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' Spike's draconic hoarding instinct triggers and he starts going through dragon puberty, growing to prodigious size and snatching everything he likes the look of. Then Rarity snaps at him when he tries to steal the wrong necklace (one made with a stone he gave her, after painstakingly "ripening" it with intent to ''eat it'' himself) and he realizes that not only does his beloved Rarity literally not recognize him anymore, she hates what he's become, and the [[Heel Realization]] is so powerful it actually ''reverses the puberty'' and he shrinks back down do his familiar size.