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Heel Realization: Difference between revisions
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Few things are [[Villainous BSOD|more crushing]] than realizing [[Obliviously Evil|that you're one of the bad guys.]] You exclaim "[[My God, What Have I Done?]]?" and perhaps shed [[Tears of Remorse]]. Or in some cases, you realise you're even worse than you thought you were. Either way, it's the moment you know you're in the wrong.
It may lead to [[The Atoner]], a [[Redemption Quest]], or [[Redemption Equals Death]], or, if the author is feeling particularly vindictive, to [[
Common when [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget]] or when [[Big Brother Is Employing You]].
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** Lelouch has one in the first season after he's forced to [[Shoot the Dog]] {{spoiler|and kill his sister Euphemia}}. Although upset over his actions, Lelouch realizes [[Ignored Epiphany|he's gone too far to turn back.]]
* 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]]s.
* {{spoiler|Sadakiyo}} from ''[[
** Also hilariously averted by Yanbo and Mabo: they never realized they were bullies to start with, and yet they manage to {{spoiler|realize a [[Heel Face Turn]]}} without noticing.
* [[Suzumiya Haruhi]] in ''Sigh'', when she finally gets called out by Kyon on her treatment of Mikuru. Directly after this is one of her biggest [[Pet the Dog]] moments, and she becomes much nicer after this. Made more obvious in the anime rendition, where she looks away from Kyon as he calls her out and it's clear [[Cry Cute|that she's at the verge of tears]].
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* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Most of these moments are in flashbacks, as soldiers in Ishval realize they're acting as [[Punch Clock Villain]]s and become [[The Atoner]]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 ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam]]'', both Master Asia and Dr. Mikamura get them. For Master Asia, it was the fact that humanity was a part of the Earth as nature was and wiping them all out wouldn't solve a thing. For Dr. Mikamura, it was the realization that his own jealousy towards Dr. Kasshu lead them to the point where his own daughter was now the core of the Devil Gundam. Both of them suffer [[Tear Jerker]]-worthy [[Redemption Equals Death]] moments to atone.
** In [[Turn A Gundam
* The comedy series ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'', surprisingly, has a few examples.
** [[Played for Laughs]]: This trope is the entire point of ''High School Boys and Panties'' — peeping at a girl's panties does not make a guy feel good, but guilty and depressed... especially when you tricked a [[Ditz]] into unwittingly flaunting her panties. Motoharu slipped into a [[Heroic BSOD]] so hard ''he skipped school for three days''.
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** 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]].
*** This is especially poignant, as earlier in the series the character somewhat identified with blacks (though in a way that only made him dislike them more). He himself was of Mexican descent, and commented more than once that in the eyes of most Confederates, he was at most only one step away from blacks.
* 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—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
* Reverend Hale in ''[[The Crucible]]'' has one of these and spends the rest of the play trying to make amends - by encouraging victims of the witch-hunt to confess and live rather than die for continuing to deny witchcraft.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Gaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Traitor General'', {{spoiler|Sturm}}, his memory partially recovered, regards himself as deeply injured by his treatment at the hands of the Imperial forces. However, as he recovers, he realizes that [[Amnesiac Dissonance|he had forgot his acts that inspired it]], and that he [[Redemption Equals Death|deserves to die]]. (Which is more than he realized, with all his memories, at the end of ''Necropolis''.)
* ''[[Atonement]]'' gives one to Briony, the ''narrator'', upon the realization that her actions sent an innocent man to prison.
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer
** In [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Fulgrim'', Fulgrim realizes how great his betrayal is when he is fighting {{spoiler|Ferrus Manus; his [[Evil Weapon|sword]] gets him to kill Ferrus Manus anyway, saying he will kill him otherwise, and then, when Fulgrim says "[[What Have I Done]]", it lets him realize the depths of his crime, and that his view of Ferrus Manus had been formed by spiteful misinterpretation of his deeds.}}
** While we're on this, Sarpedon of the ''[[Soul Drinkers]]'' (another [[Ben Counter]] work) comes to the terrifying realisation at the end of ''Soul Drinker'', upon finding out that his Chapter have essentially become Chaos Marines (although, had it not been for Chaos mind-befuddling, the mutations would have provided a pretty damn big clue). Having realised this, Sarpedon hauls himself and his Chapter back from the brink of Chaos just in time, and kills the Daemon responsible.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
* In the novelization of the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' story ''Urza's Saga'', we have the [[Knight Templar]] archangel Radiant, whose last words are the startled "''I'm'' the mad one!"
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' novel examples:
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* This is how the [[Talking the Monster to Death]] solution to the [[Big Bad]] works in the original ''[[Fallout]]''. Once you prove to him that his plan could not work and [[Utopia Justifies the Means|the Utopia that would Justify The Means can't exist]], he realizes that he's simply been doing evil and is [[Driven to Suicide]] by the revelation.
* Also in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', Joshua Graham, co-founder of [[The Horde|Caesar's Legion]] underwent this after his attempted execution. After he [[Implacable Man|survived]], he became a Mormon once again (albeit very [[Kill'Em All|militant]]) and rejoined his church.
** One way of [[Talking the Monster to Death]] in ''Fallout 3'' is to confront [[President Evil|President]] [[
{{quote|'''Eden:''' Perhaps...Perhaps there ''is'' a problem. I--I am unsure how to proceed.}}
* If you spare {{spoiler|Loghain}} in ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' and increase his approval, he will eventually go through one of these. His last words {{spoiler|if you allow him to slay the Archdemon}} make it clear that he knows his past actions are unforgivable, and all he wants is a chance to atone for them.
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