Favorites - 11 Villainous Characters Gone Good

“Everyone loves a good redemption story.”

I don’t know who said the quote, but it's a true one. While we sometimes like seeing folk be bad, we also like seeing them go good. You can look everywhere for this common trope as well. This list was actually what started the whole thing. I didn’t have to think hard about which heroic figures have gone evil, though. I did have to put a little more thought into this one. While some names popped into my head easily, others took a minute. These aren't necessarily my favorite characters and it’s not in any order, so let’s start off with someone really random.

1. Sami Brady (Days of Our Lives)

I know you’re looking at me weird, so let me explain. When I was younger, my grandmother was an avid watcher of Days of Our Lives. Guess what we more or less had to watch at about 2pm? We didn’t have another TV, so I had to do something with that time! If you’re wondering, no, I’m not a DOOL fan. I haven’t watched the show in years. I do glance at it at the YMCA if it's showing, though. Even though I’m not a fan, I can say I got fond memories of it. Sami wasn’t necessarily one of them.

To put it nicely, she was one… witch. She was usually scheming to get some dude. I think one of them was named Austin. Even when she got the dude, she’d screw it up somehow. She was pretty much the jealous sister of the show. After some time, I do remember her becoming less of a witch and turning into a somewhat nice person. I guess the writers or actress got tired of that constant role of villainess. I don’t know if she stayed that way since soap operas are a lot like comic books. I can say that Alison Sweeney did a good job with that role. The fact that I remember her says something. 

2. Vegeta (Dragonball Z)

I think it’s time to swerve away from the odd and look at “The Prince of all Saiyans!” When Vegeta came onto the scene, he was a straight-up bad guy. No one can doubt that. I don’t think anyone can forget what happened to poor Nappa, aka “Mr. Clean with a ‘Stache.” Even after his time on Namek where he allied with the heroes, he wasn’t a good dude. Vegeta was obsessed with being better than Goku and he even did some really stupid things because of his Sayian pride. When you let the evil android get stronger instead of taking him out earlier, you’re not exactly good, are you?

Even when Goku returned for the World Tournament years later, he was still a douche. He let himself be taken over by Babadi (some green thing?) and went on a rampage. It wasn’t until his own son was in danger that he actually began to look heroic. He sacrificed himself to take out Majin Buu and even though that Pepto Bismal-looking thing didn’t die, it was a noble sacrifice. Like all characters in the DBZ universe, he did come back but he came back different. He even put an end to his rivalry with Goku.

3. Magneto (X-Men franchise)

Next up is the Master of Magnetism. When Magneto first popped on the scene in 1960’s, he was pretty much the stereotypical bad guy. He fought for mutant supremacy and that’s about it. He even got turned into a baby, and no, I’m not explaining that! It wasn’t until the Claremont years where he was greatly expanded on. During a battle where he almost kills Kitty Pryde, he starts to re-assess what he’s been doing. He fought alongside the X-Men in God Loves, Man Kills and even during the Secret Wars crossover.

After some time, He even joined the X-Men for a time. When Xavier had to leave Earth for a while, Magnus was the headmaster at the school and led the New Mutants. Of course, he was made back into the villain in the 90’s since Marvel wanted their main mutant villain back. Since then, he’s been straddling the lines between good and evil. For the last few years, he’s been with the X-Men again. That probably had to do with the fact that Cyclops started to take some pages from Magneto. Whether he’s good or bad, Magneto will still stick for mutants everywhere.

4. Ken Ichijogi (Digimon Season 2)

Next up is a character from the world of Digimon: Ken Ichigoji, formerly known as the Digimon Emperor. When he first met Ken, he was a smart kid who was splitting time between being gifted in the real world and being a dictator in the DigiWorld. What we didn’t know until later was that he was actually being manipulated into being evil. The New Digidestined faced off against him multiple times. It was them and the death of his Digimon, Wormmon, that brought him to the good side. When Wormmon was reborn, Ken went on the path of redemption and joined the good guys. He was one of the bright spots for that season.

5. Piccolo (Dragonball Z)

The Dragonball universe has it down when it comes to bad guys going good. Another character is the Namekian known as Piccolo. Let’s forget James Masters’ unfortunate portrayal in that live-action thing, shall we? He was known as King Piccolo and fought for world domination until young Goku pretty much killed him. He was reborn in the Piccolo we now know but he was still evil. He’d be a reluctant ally to Goku later when Raditz came to attack Earth. After he found out that more Sayians were coming, he kidnapped Gohan in order to train him. This is where he began to soften and become good. Then, you add the fact that he absorbed other heroic Namekians like Nail and Kami when more threats came around.

6. Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Even though he was the son of Firelord Ozai, Prince Zuko wasn’t an evil dude. If anything, he was misguided and had a really short temper. His upbringing and the fact that he was exiled didn’t help. He also was willing to do anything to get back on his father’s good side like capture the Avatar. It took a lot of things to get him away from his father’s influence. Even when he finally got his father’s approval, he knew he didn’t want it that way. While his uncle, Iroh, and others may have guided him in showing a better way, Zuko ultimately came to the good side on his own.

7. Ebenezer Scrooge (The Christmas Carol)

Yeah, I’m going old-school on this! Everyone more or less knows the story of The Christmas Carol. We’ve seen it with Scrooge McDuck, Kermit the Frog, Captain Picard, Peter Venkman, and even Vanessa L. Williams. The story is always the same, though. Ebenezer Scrooge is a horrible person at the beginning. During the story, we saw that he wasn’t always like that.  Through the help of the Ghosts of Christmas, he realizes that he needs to change or his future will be pretty bleak one. It may be an oldie, but it is still a good, timeless story.

8. Lex Luthor (Current DC Comics)

Yep, he’s on this list too. Currently, Lex Luthor is actually living up to the hero name in the comics. During the DC event, Forever Evil, The Justice Leagues were taken out of commission and that left the Crime Syndicate to take over. Lex (along with Batman) led a rag-tag group of powerful villains against the Syndicate. Afterwards, Lex decided to go really go into the hero business and join the Justice League. Even though he was pompous and egotistic as ever, Forever Evil kind of changed him. Even though I’m liking this version of Lex, I know that he’ll be embracing his dark side again one day.

9. The T-800 (The Terminator franchise)

Next up is “Da Governata” himself. The T-800, a cybernetic organism, was the primary villain from The Terminator. It was sent back to 1984 in order to kill Sarah Connor and prevent the Human Resistance from destroying Skynet. Luckily it failed.  For Terminator 2: Judgement Day, it was decided to make the T-800 a hero probably because Schwarzenegger was pretty popular at the time.  It was reprogramed by the Resistance in the future and sent back to the past to protect the Connors from other evil Terminators. It was pretty cool and interesting to see the heroic version of the T-800 do his thing.


10. The Green Ranger (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers)

While Power Rangers has had many Rangers on the side of evil during its runtime, the first time is usually the best. During the 5-part story arc, "Green with Evil," Rita Repulsa brainwashed Tommy (a new student) and made him into her evil Green Ranger. The dude pretty much decimated the Rangers until they found out who he was. Jason was able to free him from his mind control and Tommy joined the team. While the show did little with Tommy's conversion, Boom's current MMPR comic series has done some pretty interesting stuff post-Evil Tommy. He's considered to be one of the best Rangers, and this is one reason why.

11. Darth Vader (Star Wars)

I might as well finish off this list with the person who started the previous list. When we last left him, Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and helped Palpatine tighten his grip with the Empire. He’s pretty much the nightmare we knew him to be for the next 20-ish years. I don't think there was a good bone in him at that time. Then, a new player came onto the scene: Luke Skywalker, Anakin’s son.

Even though Luke knew the truth about his father, he still held on to hope that there was still good in him. All of that came to a head in Return of the Jedi where Palpatine tried to kill Luke. Vader stops Palpatine at the by risking his own, already fleeing life. Even though Vader had done so much evil in his time, he wasn’t going to stand by and watch another family member die. This noble sacrifice was what redeemed him in the end. Now, if someone could switch out Hayden Christensen with that old dude at the end of ROTJ, I’d be happy.

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Well, I think I’ll stop the list here. There are plenty other converts to heroism out there, but I gotta stop it somewhere. If you have any favorite villains-turned-heroes, let me know. Well, if you excuse me, I’m going to get ready for September. It’s Superman Month and I got a small theme that’s kind of related to these lists. I’ll be centering on Superman’s villains by looking at stories that featured them. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and watch yourself out there.