Category:Redeemed

This category is for villains who are no longer evil, which can entail joining their former heroic enemies or simply giving up on their evil cause (whatever it may be). Certain villains have died to achieve redemption, or live on as good guys, they'll confess their actions to the heroes and their criminal records will be cleared.

This is usually due to villains feeling sorry for their past actions. However, villains who are already redeemed cannot be Remorseful regardless of the guilt they feel for their past crimes. In the best cases, a redeemed villain can even go on to become a Pure of Heart. However, this very rarely happens as most villains often retain some of their more unpleasant character traits.

There are several ways a villain can redeem themselves including: Also, these kind of Villains are the polar opposite of Fallen Heroes (though sometimes a villain can be both).
 * Snapping out of a possessed or brainwashed state, and deciding to aid the hero who freed them. The villain is a hypnotized, brainwashed or possessed pawn who does not know they are being controlled until they are freed. Grateful to whatever hero freed them, they ally with them.
 * Being exposed to a messiah or pure of heart type of hero who helps them see their errors. Usually done with delusional villains, honorable villains, insecure villains or affable villains (the villain can also have all those traits) who believe they are doing right or just want to be loved. The hero reveals to them that their actions are actually causing harm, or tries to comfort them. The individual chooses their desire for righteousness over what they have done, and/or decides the hero had helped them see what they were doing was wrong, and becomes a hero.
 * Remorseful heroes: in this sub-scenario, usually in more light-hearted media, and if the villains are affable, in love and/or just plain jerks, the HEROES are the ones who apologize to the villain for provoking them into their evil ways, the villains forgive them and stop being evil.
 * Choosing honor before evil. A honorable villain decides that their own honor, or the honor of something or someone else, is more important than what they are doing and decide to abandon their evil actions. Often done with supporting antagonists who value the lives of lower-ranking people in an organization. Note: this does not count villains that betray others for selfish reasons or who lack any honor despite their claims.
 * Becoming friends with someone and decide to help them over being evil.
 * Choosing their family over evil. Done with villains who have families and care for them. They realize that their actions are actually hurting their spouses, children, siblings, or any other relatives in their family.
 * Being memory-wiped or brainwashed into becoming a hero and deciding that they like their new personality and life better than their old one when they inevitably learn the truth. This is the rarest and most controversial form of a villain redeeming themselves since they did not turn good by their own free will and essentially had to be programmed into being good. The audience or reader meets them as a hero first, not knowing they are brainwashed or have fake memories. The "hero" does not know this either and is just as horrified as the viewer when they learn the truth about the horrible things they have done or regain their real memories, but they have spent so much time as a hero and living with an artificial good personality that they choose their new life over their former one and become true heroes. This also includes individuals that happened to be robotic villains that were meant/programmed to be the Big Bad's trump card against the heroes, but due to a certain incident, it ended up being discovered and fixed by the heroes that he/she meant to destroy. The said individual even later befriended the said heroes without either of them or said individual being aware of his/her true goal.
 * Betrayed by their fellow villainous allies/bosses, which made them choose to turn to the good side. After the said villain antagonizes the hero and their deed succeeds, their allies/bosses dump them or try to kill them straightaway; either way, the said villain escapes. Having seen the error of their ways (and in the worst case, hunted down by the Big Bad or their former ally which left them with no option but to join the heroes to survive), they choose to turn to the good side by joining forces with heroes.
 * Retirement of being evil: These villains chose to retire from villainy because they realized that living as a good guy is better than their previous life as evildoers.
 * Learning the lesson of being evil from another villain: Usually a Necessary Evil, a Monger or, in the worst of cases, a Complete Monster; in other words, they experience a case of "getting a taste of your own medicine", which leads them to understand that what they are doing is very bad and they feel horrified, disgusted and terribly bad for the actions of the latter villain and try to redeem himself/herself and fight against him/her (a similar but somewhat different case to Evil Vs. Evil). In the end of the battle (usually in the end of the very battle/episode/movie or in sequels), he or she will try to join the heroes and search for the pardon of everyone they had become enemies to.