Redemption Earns Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

I turn my head to the East, I don't see nobody by my side.
I turn my head to the West, still nobody in sight.
So I turn my head to the North, swallow that pill that they call pride.

That old me's dead and gone, but the new me'll be alright.
—Dead And Gone

Say your standard Mook or Villain has an actual change of heart and does a Mook Face Turn or Heel Face Turn. Most of the time, it will result in their boss triggering their Cyanide Pill or Villain Override, and it usually turns into a Heroic Sacrifice because Redemption Equals Death. Sometimes, however, the right choice isn't burdened with a great price... but rewarded with life.

While the rest of the enemy army and their evil bosses meet their timely end, those who repented survived. They may get upgraded to Mauve Shirt, put in the teams roster, or just allowed to go on their way and live a normal life. Whatever the case, they've effectively redeemed themselves, done good, and lived to tell about it.

If a villain ever accepts the heroes Last Second Chance, this is likely the result. Also is often what leads to The Atoner. This is no guarantee of surviving in a sequel, however. Contrast Villain's Dying Grace. See also Screw This, I'm Outta Here, which often has similar results while requiring much less of a commitment. See also In Love with the Mark, which can save a hitman and target's life.

NOTE: This trope only applies to characters where the redemption clearly saves their life rather than just "they change sides and live."

Examples of Redemption Earns Life include:

Anime and Manga

  • While Nanoha is known for a low death count, Cinque and the newer cyborg numbers (with the exception of Sette, who has unwavering loyalty to Tre, not her creator) became a part of the Nakajima family or joined the Saint Church after the end of the series. The unrepentant ones? Practically Demoted to Extra, Put on a Bus, or killed off.
  • The anime version of Sailor Moon seems to have an almost even gender split between this trope and Redemption Equals Death. Men who switch sides almost invariably die (Nephrite, Diamond, Sapphire) while women get redeemed (En, The Amazon Quartet, the Ayakashi sisters in the Black Moon arc, Sailor Galaxia). Bucking the trend on male death are Professor Tomoe, Ail, and the Amazon Trio.
    • Note that the Amazon Trio in the manga are very minor villains who get nonchalantly killed by Sailor Senshi almost immediately after their introduction, Ail obviously does not exist there (neither does En), while Nephrite, Diamond, Sapphire, and Tomoe are unrepentant villains or irrevocably Brainwashed and Crazy. Although maybe that's just the manga being Darker and Edgier, as the Ayakashi Sisters are quickly killed extras there as well, and Galaxia is genuinely evil rather than being controlled and her redemption does not earn her life.
  • She never technically fell to begin with, but in Elfen Lied Nana wasn't anywhere near as bloodthirsty as other Diclonii, only snapping occasionally under extreme duress. The only person she makes a conscious effort to kill was Lucy, and that was mostly to stop her psychotic rampages. Even still, events kept preventing Nana from scoring even a single fatality, even when she was trying to cause one. She's rewarded by being the only Diclonius to survive the events of the Manga.
  • In Fushigi Yuugi, the Rival Turned Evil Yui Hongo's final wish before the god Seiryuu consumes her. Notable in that it's an instance where redemption equals death and life, because her wish allows Miaka to summon Suzaku, and Miaka in turn uses her first wish to bring Yui back.
  • Eas of Fresh Pretty Cure! discards her evil identity and is quickly killed for it, but because she changed sides, she receives the Akarun and it restores her to life. This would be a spoiler, but Toei sure doesn't think so.
  • In the Land of the Sea Filler arc in Naruto, Isaribi, a human test subject in an experiment to give people the ability to breathe underwater, works for Amachi, sinking ships for him in exchange for eventually being cured. After Naruto convinces her to see the error of her ways and defeats Amachi, Amachi reveals that he planned to dissect her when he was done with her, and the group takes her back to the village so that Tsunade can return her to normal.
  • In Tenshi ni Narumon after finally letting go and resigning to the worst, Mikael and Silky managed to come out alive.
  • In Macross Frontier, Ranka and Brera are Brainwashed Into serving the Big Bad's plans, but snap out of it and help to defeat said Big Bad. They surely would be discarded once they were no longer needed if they continued being used. In fact, the hero at one point contemplates that he has to kill Ranka but Sheryl convinces him to try and save her instead.
    • Also everybody onboard Battle Galaxy was killed in the end.
    • Generally in Macross, the defectors survive more often than not (Guld being the major exception), but sometimes, non-defectors survive as well.
  • Enforced hardcore in Rurouni Kenshin. The Word of God was very adamant about the theme that if one can make up for their past sins, and most importantly, forgive themselves, one can earn a happy ending where Everybody Lives.
    • It's pretty much shot to hell in the OVAs and movie, though (that they weren't part of the manga first probably explains why).
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Rafael has a duel with Yami Yugi, with Rafael inevitably activating the Seal Of Orichalcos (which steals the soul of the loser). Rafael loses, but does so by resurrecting the Monsters that he turned his back on initially after activating it, in a sense making a Heroic Sacrifice. He redeems himself and as a result, the Seal does not take his soul like it normally does. It seems to be subverted when the building they were duelling on collapses, performing another Heroic Sacrifice by throwing Yami Yugi to safety... only to be double subverted when he's later shown alive, albeit scuffed up.

Comic Books

  • One arc of The Authority had an Avengers Expy team kidnap the newborn Jenny Quantum. Midnighter managed to use a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal on the Iron Man equivalent, even convincing him to help him out of rubble after being badly injured... and this from a team of supers who rarely let their enemies live. Another example in the same arc had them convince a Mad Scientist type in charge of the team to turn good and use his brilliant ideas to help humanity.
  • The White Lantern Corps, full stop. The Entity has chosen 12 people to come back from the dead after Blackest Night to fufill a given task. When fufilled, the life of the individual is returned, otherwise they keep suffering some residual effects of the Black Lantern Corps. The only problem is, the Entity doesn't seem to really care about anyone, and will do whatever it takes to fulfill its goal.

Film

  • In Star Wars, there's Lando Calrissian, who betrays Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and the Droids to Darth Vader and later ends up saving all of them except Han, who he later helps rescue. Word of God has it that it was supposed to be a Redemption Equals Death, but was changed fairly early in the screenwriting process.
  • In the 1995 film version of Village of the Damned, twelve children with Mind Control abilities are born. The one who refuses to use his ability to harm humans survives, the rest get killed.
  • At the climax of The Prestige, Borden has a debate with himself (i.e. his twin, Fallon, who swaps places with him, but the audience doesn't know this yet) about if he should find out how Angier's trick works and break it, or if their cycling revenge has already cost too much and they should pull out. Fallon's curiosity leads him to fall for Angier's bait and gets him executed for his trouble; Borden survives to steal his daughter back from Angier and kill him.
  • A somewhat complicated example: In the film Constantine, the hero (who was never bad, but was locked out of Heaven for committing suicide as a teenager) earns redemption through self-sacrifice and then redemption indirectly saves his life. After discovering he's been redeemed, Satan heals him, Satan's theory being that if Constantine gets to live, he'll eventually screw up and damn himself all over again.
  • A likewise complicated to explain example in All Dogs Go to Heaven. Charlie left Heaven and lost his place there as a result (he only got it because he was a dog and they all go to Heaven), thus if he dies again, he'll go to Hell. Well in the end, he performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Anne-Marie's life and dies. While this would normally be Redemption Equals Death, the act redeems his soul and saves him from an eternity in Hell, thus Redemption Equals After Life.
    • Same happens to Carface in the third film. It's revealed that if he doesn't change his ways, not only will he be dead before next Christmas, he'll be spending eternity in Hell. In the end, he decides to do the right thing and pull a Heel Face Turn, saving his soul and his life.

Live-Action TV

  • During season 8 of Stargate SG-1, the team are captured by a minor system lord while trying to warn him of an impending assassination by one of Anubis' Kull warriors. They convince their guard to free them, because his "god" was either dead or gone and his obedience would only kill them all.
  • Kaitlin in VR Troopers had an Evil Knockoff mirror clone made of her, and due to instability both couldn't exist at the same time. After being found out and imprisoned by the good guys, Ryan managed to convince her to switch sides, and she was reintegrated into the original Kaitlin, even giving her a "Double Me!" attack that created a clone of her.
  • Seems to have happened so far in season six of Lost, to Benjamin Linus. He was almost executed by Ilana for killing Jacob, and when given the opportunity to escape, he instead explains himself to her, telling her how much he regrets what he's done, and she tells him he can stay with her.
  • In Kamen Rider Den-O, Kai's demise took the evil Imagin loyal to him with him due to them being sustained by his memories. The Imagin who performed a Heel Face Turn and joined the Riders were sustained by their memories instead, saving them from that fate.
  • Happens in Power Rangers on occasion;

Literature

  • The wretched inhabitants of Tyr Anwyn (may be misspelling name) in The Endless Knot, final book of Stephen Lawhead's Song of Albion trilogy. Nominally servants of Siawn Hy, some of them side with protagonist Llew shortly before Llew's death unleashes the Series Titular Song, burning through Tyr Anwyn and turning the substance of the land into something higher and purer. Siawn Hy's army gets turned completely into ash; the few who sided with Llew are remade as 'Men and Women of Stature' and described as wearing what amount to royal garments.
  • In The Edge Chronicles book Vox, Xanth breaks Magda out of the Tower of Night, and refuses to abandon her when they are caught. The ultimate result of this is that when the Great Maelstrom comes and destroys the Tower (and all of Undertown) he is safely with the good guys.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • The Bible:
    • Rahab was a prostitute living in the city of Jericho at the time that the Israelites, under the leadership of Joshua, were coming in to conquer it. Joshua sent spies ahead to scout it out; they found refuge in Rahab's house, even though she knew full well what they were up to. (Joshua 2) Because of this, Rahab (and her family) was spared during the eventual judgement. In fact, she is mentioned as one of the ancestors of Jesus. (Matt 1:5)
    • Though in a deeper spiritual sense taking the offer of redemption that Jesus sacrificed his life to give you earns you eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that choosing Jesus is to choose life instead of death. So basically, everybody, ever (depending on to what extent grace applies).

Tabletop Games

Video Games

  • Happens in Mass Effect. Feron eventually does a permanent Heel Face Turn and ultimately commits a Heroic Sacrifice to save Liara and Shepard's body from the Shadow Broker...cut to two years later, where Liara and Shepard go to great lengths to save him from the Shadow Broker because of his heroic sacrifice. Also happens with Wrex, if you talk him down on Virmire.
  • Fujin and Raijin in Final Fantasy VIII. They refused to protect Seifer because they realized he's a pawn of Ultimecia, and tried to talk him out of it. Not only did they survive, but so did Seifer.
  • At the end of Scarface the World Is Yours, after having demolished the army of mooks hanging around and killing Sosa and friends, one last mook shows up and begs for mercy as Tony prepares to leave. He gets offered a job and accepts. A similar scene occurs in the film.
  • This is a staple of the Fire Emblem series. Any Mook that has a face portrait and is not a boss (and even some who are bosses) can usually be recruited for your team by talking to them with the right person. This quite literally saves their life, because your party goes on to slaughter every other mook on the map.
  • Averted in the Victory Bay mission in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, when playing as the Space Marines. As you play, squads of the Imperial Guardsmen you're facing defect from the opposing side and fight for you - likely expecting this would spare their lives. It doesn't - at the culmination of the mission, the Imperial Guardsmen who fought against you get heroes' burials and commendations for following orders even until the bitter end (the surviving loyalists, if there are any, get transport and safe passage home), and the guardsmen who joined your side are executed for treason and cowardice.
    • Given they turn traitor when ANY of the faction knock out the commissar, this is actually reasonable!
  • Ryoto Hikawa, in Super Robot Wars Original Generation, is shown as a reluctant Mook of the Divine Crusaders who doesn't seem to have the heart for fighting, but believes in their cause. Unfortunately for him, the DC doesn't reciprocate this belief and use him as a delivery vector for a bomb to blow up the Hagane. His surrender to the Hagane's crew literally saves his life.
  • This happens to Mr. Big Bad, Lord Wily himself, at the end of the Mega Man Battle Network series. Touched by the Heroic Sacrifice of Iris and Colonel, his creations, he survives the explosion of his base, and then willingly surrenders to the authorities, ready to atone for all his sins. He also sends Lan and Mega Man a letter, thanking them for showing him the error of his ways.
  • Variation. In Devil Survivor if Keisuke doesn't get redeemed, he dies
  • At the end of Fallout 2, a squad of Enclave Elite Mooks can be convinced to help the Chosen One defeat Frank Horrigan, in exchange for a ride off the Enclave Oil Rig (which is about to explode). Those that survive the fight with Horrigan escape along with the heroes, while the rest of the Enclave goes up in a mushroom cloud.
  • In Tales of Vesperia, Raven, or Captain Schwann if you prefer, does this due to the blastia embedded within his chest and a deal he made with Alexei.
    • More specifically, Alexei was planning on burying Raven alive along with the rest of the party. After his figurative change of heart, Raven ends up not only holding the ceiling up long enough for them to escape, but surviving to rejoin them later on.
  • Loghain in Dragon Age can join your party if you spare his life at the landsmeet and induct him into the Grey Wardens, although depending on your choices he may make a Heroic Sacrifice against the final boss.
  • In Traffic Department 2192, General Orlok sincerely wants to reform the Vultures for the sake of peace. Velasquez, weary of fighting, cooperates with him, and Orlok ends up being one of the only characters in the game who doesn't die.

Web Comics

Cecil Harvey: I cannot stress how imperative it is that you renounce your current path. Now. [...] Because your repentance is the only thing that will keep me from ending you.

Western Animation

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