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Compare [[Villain Episode]] and [[POV Sequel]]. Contrast with [[In Another Man's Shoes]], [[Only One]], [[The Rashomon]]. See also [[A Lighter Shade of Grey]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* The second season of the ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' anime showed the perspectives of the SWA who were trying to protect Italy and the Padanian terrorists who were trying to free their country from an oppressive government.
* In the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga the near-genocidal Ishval Massacre is told from the point of view of the invading Amestrian soldiers, the Rockbells (heroic war-zone doctors), and an unnamed Ishvalan Warrior Priest (Scar). Nearly all the Amestrian soldiers are shown as disgusted by the orders of the higher-ups, who are mostly [[Complete Monster|remorseless bastards]], to the point where about 20% of the Amestrian officers are killed by subordinates tired of killing innocent people. By the end of the volume everyone except the actual villains are traumatized. In one scene Alex Louis Armstrong, mainly a source for comedy relief, is shown having a nervous breakdown right on the field while cradling a dead Ishvalan child.
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== Film ==
* ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'' does this with Rameses, focusing equally on him and Moses. He's generally shown as a nice guy struggling between responsibility and his own feelings (but with two [[Evil Chancellor
* In ''[[Land of the Dead]]'', the gas station attendant zombie gets peeved at the humans [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|shooting his fellow zombies]]. Because [[Humans Are
* In the movie (well, at least the remake) ''[[The Longest Yard]]'', most of the protaganist's football team are self-confessed scumbags and degenerates. The viewers end up rooting for them because the guards are even nastier.
* ''[[Four Lions]]'' is a black comedy from the POV of four Islamist terrorists who are just young guys who happen to want to blow themselves and other people up.
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== Literature ==
* Notable in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
** The later book ''[[
** And in ''Thud!'' we see the trouble both the ''Times'' and, to a lesser extent, the Post Office are causing from the Watch's point of view.
** Many think that this is Vetinari's doing, since his whole modus operandi for staying in power is that everyone hates him, but hates each other more.
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** '''Cersei''' is actually something of an aversion; while the audience finally gets a look at {{spoiler|the childhood prophecy that's shaped her entire life through fear}}, they also get a look at her utter hostility, such as her silent fury during the marriage of Tommen and Margaery. Even in her own POV, she comes across as rather petty and selfish.
*** '''Theon''' also comes across as a bit of an aversion in the second book. While we see through his eyes his self-pity and the many ways he tries to justify {{spoiler|his betrayal and steadily escalating brutality against the people who were once practically his family}}, his actions kick him seemingly well past the [[Moral Event Horizon]] and none of his angst and self-serving rationalizations can change that. {{spoiler|Yet, against all odds, A Dance with Dragons seems to be intent on dragging him ''back across'' that particular horizon and making him actually sympathetic again.}}
** GRRM pulls a dirty trick with this re: Stannis-- [[The Ghost|throughout the first book]], we're told that he's rigid and unpleasant. Then the prologue to the second book sets him up as a possibly-evil [[Knight Templar]]. ''Then'', for the rest of the series so far, we see Stannis through the eyes of Davos, who is both the most honorable POV character we still have and probably the person who loves Stannis the most in the Seven Kingdoms (including his wife). So after 900 pages of thinking this guy might be the [[Big Bad]], and watching him let his [[Evil Chancellor]] {{spoiler|''kill his brother''}}, we still can't hate the
* ''For Love of Evil'', the sixth book of the series [[Incarnations of Immortality]], which [[POV Sequel|features different protagonists for each volume]], gets told from the POV of Satan, the antagonist of all the previous books, giving him [[Satan Is Good|noble motives]] for all his actions in the previous novels. Turns out Satan wants for good to triumph and all that.
* [[Judy Blume]]'s ''[[Fudge]]'' novels (''Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing'' and its sequels) are written from the perspective of Peter Hatcher, an ordinary pre-teen boy who has to put up with such torments as his goofy kid brother Farley ([[Only Known by Their Nickname|better known to all and sundry]], including his parents, as "Fudge") and his [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]] Sheila Tubman. Blume also wrote a book starring Sheila, ''Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great'', around the time ''Fourth-Grade Nothing'' came out.
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* ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'' takes Dr. Impossible's POV for alternating chapters, and makes him remarkably sympathetic for a [[Super Villain]] on his thirteen attempt to [[Take Over the World]].
* Each [[Women of the Otherworld]] book is written from a different point of view, so the obnoxious little upstart from ''Stolen'' becomes the sincere young woman struggling to fulfill too many varied responsibilities in ''Dime Store Magic'', and the antivillain motivated by greed in ''Bitten'' turns out in ''Personal Demon'' to have good reasons for his trust issues with the world in general and the former protagonists in particular.
* ''[[I, Lucifer]]'' by Glen Duncan is told from the point of view of Lucifer himself, all whilst he is inhabiting a mortal body for a chance at redemption. It details his take on the fall from heaven and many other aspects of his life. It's a surprisingly sympathetic take on the Father of Lies.
* The early chapters of ''Wolf of the Plains'' are mostly told from the view of Temujin, who will grow up to be Genghis Khan, but a few segments take the view of Temuge, his youngest brother. When we look through Temujin's eyes, Temuge comes across as a greedy, whiny brat, but when Temuge tells the story, we see him as a poor kid who constantly suffers the bullying of his four older brothers and cruel father.
* This happens a lot in '[[The Wheel of Time]]'', often from one chapter to the next. This is most noticeable with Rand, who is increasingly insane throughout the books. In chapters that take his perspective, his actions and decisions make some kind of consistent, if twisted, sense. Conversely, with other characters, his behaviour seems dangerously erratic.
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** There is a much better earlier in the game. From Hugo's POV {{spoiler|He comes home to find his village in flames. Than his best freind is cut down right in front of him by a knight.}} From Chris' POV {{spoiler|Her men are attacked at what was surpose to be a peaceful truce meeting and are forced to set a fire and escape though a village. On the way out someone attacks her and she kills him before she notices that he is just a kid.}}
* The game ''[[TIE Fighter]]'' applies this trope to the ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies: [[The Empire]] are the guardians of peace and order, fighting terrorists and Imperial factions.
** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] takes it even further; there are a lot of books where the Imperial characters who don't jump ship to the New Republic are [[Card-Carrying Villain|blatantly evil]], but there are also Imperial [[Worthy Opponent]] characters who support only the non-evil aspects of the Empire. Some of them, as in ''[[Death Star]]'', never even go through a [[Heel Face Turn]] because they were never [[Heel
*** [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tenn_Graneet Tenn Graneet] could be the poster boy for this trope. In ''[[A New Hope]]'', he's the heartless Imperial bastard who push-buttons [[Earthshattering Kaboom|Alderaan into oblivion]]; in ''[[Death Star]]'' [[My God, What Have I Done?|he's]] [[Heroic BSOD|much]] [[Be Careful What You Wish For|more]] [[Doomed by Canon|sympathetic]] [[The Woobie|by far]].
* A campaign of ''[[Age of Empires II]]'' features Saladin vs. the Crusaders. Another, Barbarossa, at a certain point enters the Third Crusade and fights Saladin. And the expansion of the previous game had four campaigns on the [[Ancient Rome|Roman Empire]], and another with Rome's enemies.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
▲[[Category:Sympathetic POV]]
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