Heel Realization: Difference between revisions

* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s [[Alternate History]] ''[[Worldwar]]'' series, this happens to [[Those Wacky Nazis|Panzer Commander of the Wehrmacht]] Heinrich Jäger when an old Jewish man shows him the bullet hole in his neck and tells him the story of how he got it. Heinrich had heard the rumors before then, but he hadn't believed in them. The third book sums it up nicely:

{{quote|What Skorzeny didn't get and wouldn't get if he lived to be a hundred - not likely, considering how the SS man lived - was that ''what we were supposed to do'' and ''what our superiors ordered us to do'' weren't necessarily the same thing.

That made for another subtle distinction, but he clung to it. }}

** Another Turtledove book late in his [[Timeline-191]] series features a character who has become a guard at what is basically Auschwitz in the extermination of American Southern blacks, and considers himself doing vital work for the safety of his country. When he eventually realizes, basically through the simple decency of one of the prisoners, that blacks are * people* , [[Driven to Suicide|he is overcome at the evil he has been helping enact and kills himself]].

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had a truly shocking one in "Journey's End", from a frigging '' {{spoiler|[[Complete Monster|Dalek]]}}'' no less.

{{quote|''' {{spoiler|Dalek Caan}}''': "I ''saw'' the {{spoiler|Daleks}}, what [[Moral Event Horizon|we have done]] throughout time and space. ''I saw the truth of us'', creator, and I decreed: No! More!"}}

{{quote|"I've taken lives. And I got worse, I got ''clever''. [[Technical Pacifist|Manipulated people into taking their own]]. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long."}}

** How about this one, from a ''Dalek'' to the ''Doctor''!

* Bob has a small one in [[Zombie Apocalypse|"Re: Your Brains"]] by [[Jonathan Coulton]], which doesn't seem to effect him much.

{{quote|I'm not a monster, Tom

I guess I am. }}

* Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song "The Curse of Milhaven"

* "I Was Wrong" by Social Distortion.

{{quote|When I was young, I was so full of fear

I was wrong, I realise now that I was wrong }}

* Happens in the middle of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQYZUU63QM "Crusade"] by [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]], after the narrator has slain one of the reportedly evil dragons he was crusading against.

* Parodied in ''[[Girl Genius]]''.

{{quote|'''Agatha:''' And ''I'm'' the evil mad girl with the death ray and the freakish ancestors -- and the town full of minions -- and the horde of Jagers -- and the homicidal castle full of sycophantic evil geniuses and fun-sized hunter-killer monster clanks ''and goodness knows what else-''

'''Agatha:''' -And you know what? ''I can work with that!'' }}

** In fact, multiply parodied: Baron Wulfenbach gets a few lovely moments too - mostly in the vein of knowing he's the "bad guy" and being all right with that.

* Not an easy process for Zuko of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', but he eventually gets there: "[[Heel Face Turn|I'm good now]]. I mean, I thought I was good before, but now I realize I was bad..."

* In the film version of ''[[All-Star Superman (film)|All Star Superman]]'', [[Lex Luthor]] has one of his only heel realizations in any continuity after he finally ''gets it''. What is "it"? ''Everything''.

'''Luthor:''' "... you're right." }}

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Crack Baby Athletic Program", Cartman talks Kyle into joining his business of getting crack babies to play basketball which, after some kareoke and bacon pancakes from Denny's, he accepts. He then tells Stan about it and Stan doesn't reply, making Kyle give a monolouge how him and satire target NCAA do good by using players like slaves. Then towards the end of the ep Stan just says he's starting to sound like Cartman and Kyle goes "No I'm not goddammit!" [[My God, What Have I Done?|and cups his mouth in shock.]]