Redemption Promotion: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'''s [[Terrible Trio|Team Rocket trio]] is one of the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|quintessential inept villain teams]], but they've often tried to help out the hero on occasions, in which case their skills go way up. This often showcases that being on the side of good is probably the best thing for them, but for some reason they [[Card-Carrying Villain|insist on causing trouble anyway]].

** If you look at their pre-anime timeline flashback episodes, Jessie and James are pretty serious. Even when they became goofier/more open toward each other and friendlier toward each other, they were good criminals. Though, soon after they met Ash...they became the "lovable losers" that they are today.

* Grandis, Hanson, and Sanson from the ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]'' started out as a [[Goldfish Poop Gang|highly]] [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|inept]] [[Terrible Trio]] who always lost to Nadia. Yet after making a permanent [[Heel Face Turn]], they're powers and skills proved to be extremely essential. Hanson was able to shine as a [[Gadgeteer Genius]], even smarter then the [[Kid Hero]] protagonist in that area, Sanson's [[Charles Atlas Superpower|super strength]] saved the gang dozens of times, and Grandis showed herself as a capable leader

* Viral in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is a quintessential example. Prior to his [[Heel Face Turn]] he was a permanent victim of [[Villain Decay]], each vow of new determination to avenge his slain allies or regain his honor only making the next beatdown even more painfully abrupt. But once he {{spoiler|joins Simon to save the Earth}} he demonstrates his masterful skill as a brilliant copilot whose sole handicap is his relative lack of Spiral energy. (And even that may be [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann/WMG|debatable]].)

* Fate Testarossa of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' got stronger after her [[Heel Face Turn]] (getting proper training from Chrono [[All There in the Manual|in-between seasons]] helped). Same with Signum and Vita in the third season. Also played straight in StrikerS; when {{spoiler|Ginga Nakajima}} is brainwashed, she cannot use anything but her Inherent Skills.

** It's suggested in the manga that the Wolkenritter were holding back while fighting the heroes (possibly in order to not kill them), as each one has at least one ability they do not display until the final battle.

* Yusuke comments on this fact in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', talking about how Hiei is doing a lot better fighting for him than when he used to fight against him.

** The key difference is that the victory-or-death scenarios he faces with Yusuke force him to do desperate things to reinvent himself. He gains massive power by mastering the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, which most demons would never even attempt, because it's just as likely to kill them as their opponents.

*** [[Power of Love|"I've never felt this kind of power before...!"]]

 

* Happens a lot in [[Professional Wrestling]]. Standard booking is that the faces have to win matches cleanly and only lose due to cheating in order to keep the fans support and sympathy while heels almost never win cleanly so that the fans want to see them get beaten. Mix the two with a [[Heel Face Turn]] and you have this.

* [[Christian|Christian Cage]] is probably the ultimate example of this trope. After turning his back on the fans he simply got more and more pathetic, and boring to the point in 2003 it seemed like he couldn't win a match clean if his life depended on it, even against 150 pound Spike Dudley. After returning to ECW many new fans were shocked to see he could actually escape from an arm bar and with the crowds behind him tag teams have to cheat to beat Christian in two on one matches.

* Alex Riley may be the best example of this trope. As [[The Miz]]'s apprentice, he was of little competence except when he needed to take a beating in lieu of his teacher. Once Miz lost the title, he began to berate his protege until he lost one rematch too many and he fired Riley in the ring. [[The Dog Bites Back|Riley would turn on his former leader]] and immediately gain new found in-ring competence as he would defeat Miz several times and find himself in almost immediate title contention despite being portrayed as a mere rookie months earlier on NXT.

* [[Sheamus]] is another fine example. He had been suffering from ''severe'' [[Badass Decay]] for months and was [[Demoted to Extra]]. The [[Mark Henry]] goes on the warpath, destroying everything in his path to the point everyone was afraid to face him. Sheamus steps up to the plate to challenge him ''fearless'', performing a [[Heel Face Turn]] in the process. Cue Sheamus being the first one to defeat the Great Khali in recent months by ''forcing his way out of the Khali Vicegrip with sheer brute strength!''

** To be fair, part of the reason Johnny often appears so disastrously inept is because he's an everyman amidst supermen. It's explained in the latter part of MGS4 that he {{spoiler|has a serious phobia of needles, which keeps him from getting the nanomachine injections that endows the rest of the military with elite capabilities. As a result, not only does he lack some of the basic technical structures (such as the internal radar), he also gets hurt/sick easier and more often than his teammates, and his PTSD isn't psychologically suppressed.}} Johnny isn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he's not ''completely'' incompetent.

* This happens with [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] in a few games. Usually, this is because the player can control him so he doesn't [[What an Idiot!|get tricked into stuff like jumping to let enemies pass]], [[What an Idiot!|smashing through the floor into a]] [[Bottomless Pit]], [[Idiot Ball|charging at an enemy known for jumping ability]] [[What an Idiot!|that would let him grab his tail and throw him into a bomb]], etc.

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars|Super Robot Wars Original Generations 2]]'' bad guy Arado had stats worse than your average mook when he fights you, but instantly becomes much more capable after he joins you. This is especially notable because he goes through a lot of training, and figuring out what skills his best at.

** She doesn't play it completely straight, though. When she turns, she has to relearn her Fiery Jinx spell by leveling up - though when she does relearn it, it's still several times stronger.

** Possibly justified in that she was unhappy working with her sisters, and thus never fought at full strength along with her sisters because she didn't have any emotion behind it. When she joins Mario, she feels relived and is able to work better now that she has a reason.

*** [[Justified Trope|By way of explanation]], the Vorts' more godlike powers are fueled by an extract which they procure from antlions. Presumably, their former masters took no interest in their animal husbandry.

* Not exactly "evil" so much as doing his job, in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]: Justice For All'' when Detective Gumshoe {{spoiler|is fired}} and helps Phoenix briefly, he shows shades of significant competence.

* Subverted in ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] 7''. Bass was one of Mega Man's most intimidating foes in the first game he appeared in and had two [[Best Boss Ever]] fights. He also matches Mega Man's strength in the [[Classic Cheat Code|secret two-player mode]]. However, it's played completely straight in all later games when he became a [[Suicidal Overconfidence|a weak robot who just had to battle Mega Man despite him having zero chances of defeating him]] in Mega Man 8 as opposed to being a very impressive and powerful robot who is successful at what he does in the games where he is fighting against evil rather than Mega Man. In Mega Man and Bass, Bass underwent his heaviest [[Divergent Character Evolution]] and arguably became a [[Game Breaker]].

* In ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]]'', whatever faction you are using, the player is a ''lot'' smarter than the AI. So you could be fighting against utterly ineffective clone troopers one battle, then the next be using a hyper-competent one.

* Subverted in ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' when Mojo Jojo shows power he never had before when he teams with the Girls to beat down an alien bent on the destruction of Townsville, but this isn't because he found good inside himself, but because the girls said they found something more evil than him.

* Zim, from ''[[Invader Zim]]''. His job is to conquer humanity, but he's actually more successful in defending it.

* Occurs at various points in ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' with the Brotherhood, who tend to be less than intimidating when they're playing antagonists. But whenever they need to team up, they all get a nice promotion- even Toad, the series' resident smart-assed coward, was able to help out against Magneto and an evolved Sabretooth. Their best moment as a team may be the series finale, where they arrive late to cover Kitty Pryde's team after they've been wiped by an upgraded Magneto (mind-controlled by Apocalypse), and manage to hold out own against him without losing a single member (with the other teams fighting Apocalypse's horsemen all suffering some defeats).

* Proves to be the case for {{spoiler|the title character}} in [[Megamind]].

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Goodness Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Player Party]]