When villains convert to good or pretend to

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Corinne G

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What are some episodes where villains claim that they've turned good?

When has a villain claimed to turn good and was actually telling the truth?

When has a villain genuinely turned good, but then reverted back because they were treated badly?


The Penguin has claimed to turn good in two Batman cartoons. In the 70s cartoon he only pretended to turn good. In TNBA he genuinely turned over a new leaf, but couldn't keep it up.

Count Spankulot tried to help the Kids Next Door in order to make up for accidentally spanking an innocent kid. But then Sector V get sick of his interference and set him up so that he spanks the judge that sentenced him for spanking the kid, as well as the judge's wife. Count Spankulot reverts back to villainy when Numbuh 3 lets it slip out that they set him up both times.
 
To answer the third question.Vegeta from dragon ball z was a good guy for a while up until they met babidi and he turned to majin vegeta and went hell bent on killing goku again.Of course by the end of the series he mellowed out again and accepted goku as the better fighter.
 
Also on Kids Next Door, Numbuh 2's grandma was only a true villian in one episode and then became more like an anti-hero.
 
Here's a few that I know:

Villains who were good, but still bad:

Stewie(Family Guy) - When Family Guy first came to FOX, he was one psychotic,diabolical baby on wanting to kill Lois, until after its cancellation they soften him until than one episode he was still evil on bashing on Brian for wanting his money.

Ren Hoek(R & S) - He was the biggest jerk on always bashing on Stimpy until on some episodes he had a heart and cared about Stimpy in that Stinky episode, but further on was still bad sometimes.

Prince Zuko(Avatar) - He was an interesting villain throughout season 1, and on season 2, he was kind of good as an anti-hero when Azula took over and on the end of season 2, he went to join Azula's side.

Dinobot(Beast Wars) - He was one of Megatron's Predacons until when he joined the good side and while on the good side I'd hope he'd bashed on that annoying Rattrap(I've always hated him!), but then he died and after his death, Megatron ressurected him and turned him into a new/improved killing machine.

Cyril Sneer(The Raccoons) - He's my favorite villain in one of my favorite shows, which he was evil & ruthless, but further on on some episodes he developed a soft spot at times, but further on was still the bad guy mostly.

Villains that turned good:

Xanatos(Gargoyles)
Terra/Jinx(Teen Titans)
Amazo(JLU)- don't know if he counts since Lex Luthor used him.
Amanda Waller/The Trickster(JLU)
The Hunter Lions(Samurai Jack)
Rubberband Man/Aquamaria(Static Shock)
Bart Simpson/Loogie/Damien(South Park)
Nethlite/Ann & Alan/Negamoon Sisters(Sailormoon)
Ken/Digimon Emperor,BlackWargreymon(Digimon)
Pixie/Big Blue/Tainted Cat Brothers/Centaur(Monster Rancher)
Pegasus/Marik/Noa/Dartz/Dr.Crowler/Prof.Banner/Kagemaru/Bonaparte/Sartorious(YGO!/GX)
Checkmate/Sunshine/Jeager/Skullduggery/El Nino/Barrier Freeman/Ricardo(Ultimate Muscle)
Jelly Jiggler/Softon/Dengakuman/Torpedo Girl/Suzu(Bobobo-bo Bo-Bobo)
Zabuza/Haku/Kiba
Gaara/Kankuro/Temari
(Naruto)
 
Black Arachnia from Beast Wars. She tended to flip flop a lot. I guess you could say Dinobot since he was bad for a few episodes.
Then there was that main bad guy on Gargoyles who turned good.
 
Sideshow Bob (The Simpsons) - he actully turned good, and helped throught his brother's Cecil's plan on making a cheap dam, and the idiot Cheif Wiggem puts him in jail anyway, and the Simpsons don't do a things to help him.
 
King Koopa (Super Mario Bros. 3 Show) - He had only did this once. Sadly though, it was pathetic how it was very easy to tell that he was fooling around with the concept.
 
Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown was shown to be on the good side about three times.

The first time, he tried to trick the monks into thinking that he was on their side. Then, IIRC, it turned out that part of him actually WANTED to be a good guy, but the damage had been done. (I can't remember which episode this was...)

The second time was once his good and evil side had been separated due to the Ying-Yang Yo-Yo. His good side joined the monks temporarally until he was forced to switch back to his evil side. A few episodes later, they eventually merged back. ("Judging Omi" through "The Life and Times of Hannibal Roy Bean")

The third time was in an alternate universe where the events above happened differently, so Jack Spicer's good side was still part of what was left of the monks. Eventually, this was fixed when the two universes combined into one, and Jack was back to being evil. ("Time After Time Part 2")
 
The Abominable Snow Monster from Rudolph and the initial villain from season two of Digimon qualify. I find these conversions more believable when they actually defeat the bad guy first - not many people are going to give up a life of crime while it's still working for them.
 
When he said he was throwing in the towel and handing his entire kingdom over to Princess Toadstool, I remember that. I still can't believe they fell for it.
 
AoStH - After accidentally turning Tails into a giant, Dr. Robotnik takes this as an opportunity to play hero. He brainwashes the people into believing he's the hero and Sonic's the villain by giving them gifts. All the damage Tails accidentally caused didn't help either.
 
Optimatus in the finale of Loonatics Unleashed Season 2 is an example of a villain turning to good.

It was one of the worst conversions I've ever experienced.
 
Jynx (sp?)-Teen Titans: Met up with Kid Flash, became a heroine in Titans Together.

The Evil Legendary Warriors - Digimon Frontier: Villians in the first half of the season, turned good in Royal Knights/Lucemon arc.

Koichi- Digimon Frontier: Once Duskmon until the Legendary Warriors purified him
 
Technically, as one point nearly every Z-Fighter (Goku's allies) were bad guys. At the start of DBZ, Piccolo was considered to be the earth's biggest threat before the arrival of Goku's brother Raditz. In all, Yamcha, Tien and Choazu, Piccolo, Vegeta, Andriod 16, Android 18 (and 17 to some extent, though he became evil again in GT, but there are some who don't consider GT canonn), Dabura, and Majin Buu, and Kid Buu. I might have missed a few, as I know of a few more villians that became good buys during the series Dragonball run.

Also, many of Kenshin's adversaries in Rurouni Kenshin became his allies, most notably Siato and Aoshi. Even Sano had his run in with Kenshin before he started wandering with him. Many of Shishio's men found work within the government as well.

Avalanche once joined the X-Men in Evolution, but it was short lived. It was also rumored that Colossus left the Acolytes to join with the X-Men during the series finale and Rogue had been a member of the Brotherhood the first half of the first season.

In the original Transformers series, one of the new triple changers, I think it was Sandstorm, left the Decepticons to join the Autobots. Also, in the first season, Jetfire (or Skyfire) also left the Decepticons to join the Autobots.

In G.I. Joe, one of Sgt. Slaughter's Roughnecks (I believe they were called that) was an ex-Cobra Viper, and Stormshadow joined the Joes in the series second run in the early 90's.
 
Several episodes of Darkwing Duck had villians team up with DW to face a common foe.

Darkwing teamed up with Bushroot in Twin Beaks and worked together with Quackerjack in The Haunting of Mr. Bananabrain. Quackerjack and Megavolt both worked together with Gosalyn and Launchpad in Time and Punishment and Stressed to Kill. Darkwing also teamed up with Bushroot, Quackerjack, Megavolt and Liquidator to take down Negaduck in Jail Bird. Finally, Darkwing teamed up with Megavolt in The Frequency Fiends, Negaduck and Twitching Channels. Morgana also started out as a villain as well, as did Neptunia and Stegmutt.
 
The "villain says they turned good but were only pretending" is a very old cartoon cliche...

Recall in "Garfield and Friends", Orson's brother Gort claimed to have turned good (Orson noting he must be sincere since he went to the trouble of bringing the show's band for his "I'm good now" song), but of course, it was all just a plot to steal the farm's vegetables...

For villains turning good and staying that way:

Does it count if this turning-good happened before the start of the series? If so, guess I'd count Digit on "Cyberchase", who (before the series' first episode/per his backstory) used to work for the Hacker until he decided to defect to Mother Board, having been turned off by seeing how evil Hacker could be...

-B.
 
The Sun Riders in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! The first episode I saw with them had them as a villain team. It was later followed by a follow-up episode where Chiro and the other monkeys had to work together with them, and Chiro doesn't believe the Sun Riders' claim they had reformed from their evil ways. A good follow-up episode to what could have been a one-time only appearance by the Sun Riders.
 
The part involving Rogue is not surprising, since she was originally a villainess in the comics, with change of sides (in both the comics and the original cartoon) being the result of
her seeking Prof. X's help after she used her mutant power on Ms. Marvel and, along with gaining Ms. Marvel's powers, also began to be driven insane by Ms. Marvel's psyche conflicting with her personality).

EDIT: One more "bad guy to good guy" thing worth mentioning (although this one appears in the manga version of said title only, as the character doesn't appear in the anime version): Kotarou Inugami from Negima. Originally,
Kotarou was one of the mercenaries that was hired to prevent Negi from delivering a message to the head of the Kansai Magic Association (and in the kidnapping of Konoka). However, despite being on the villains' side, he's actually isn't that evil (i.e. he tried to avoid harming females, he doesn't harm "innocents"). Hence, later, when he breaks out of prison in hopes of fighting with Negi again, Kotarou becomes one of the "good guys" when he helps Negi defeat a demon that was responsible for turning almost all the people in Negi's village into stone.
 
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