I was just randomly having thoughts, as you do, and thought about a character that I really enjoyed, mostly for how his transition from bad guy, to good guy was handled.
The show was an old Sci Fi one from the 90s, called First Wave. Not the best of shows, but I enjoyed the villain turned ally they presented in the show.
Short synopsis:
Protagonist is a scam/con artist salesman/thief, who starts having crazy visions of horrible things in his everyday life. He thinks he's going crazy, turns out he's actually being experimented on by an advanced component of an alien invasion force from elsewhere in the galaxy. He's subject....117 I think? Basically the 117th person they tested. The point of the test is to determine how much of a threat humans would pose to the aliens if they did a full invasion. He proceeds to shake off the mental manipulation, and thwart alien attempts at human conquest through deception, episode after episode. The weekly setup was pretty "alien conspiracy of the week", and he would go to a new town, encounter another alien corruption job (because they look just like humans), and stops it.
The aliens eventually send a Hunter to kill 117, and thus the semi-main villain/lancer of the badguys is introduced. He proceeds to hunt 117, always one step behind, never catching him directly, but coming close enough to be a threat, and also seeing the things his people are doing. He begins to be presented as something of a conflicted character, as he doesn't seem entirely on board with the methodology of his people's various plans for conquest. But he's still a loyal servant of the empire, so he will do his duty.
And then a season+ of this goes on, and he sees 117 constantly overcoming their plans. He starts to present his findings that he thinks the aliens maybe shouldn't try and conquer Earth, that it might destroy them. The various aliens in power, scoff at the idea, dismissing 117 as "just one human."
And this is where, at least for the rationale of the Hunter, that made me love this turn. He basically turns their own test against them and says. "You did that test to determine how much of a threat humans would be. 117 has consistently overcome every obstacle and attempt at his life, AND destroyed countless projects that took years to put in place. There are over 6 BILLION people on this planet. What if every 1/117 humans is like him? They will fucking WRECK us. I don't want to see the empire I love, be destroyed because you all are too arrogant to see the danger." They further scoff him, and he eventually just says "ok fuck it....I truly believe that trying to conquer this planet will destroy my people, as it will use up too many resources and make us destroy ourselves. So I'm going to HELP 117 stop the invasion. Not because I LIKE him, but because I love my people, and don't want them to commit species suicide via human assistance."
And thus, he joins the good guys. At first it's a reluctant kind of ally, but I seem to recall by the end, he starts to really like humans. But at first at least, that was his reason, and I enjoyed it.
What kind of Heel/Face turns do you love?
The show was an old Sci Fi one from the 90s, called First Wave. Not the best of shows, but I enjoyed the villain turned ally they presented in the show.
Short synopsis:
Protagonist is a scam/con artist salesman/thief, who starts having crazy visions of horrible things in his everyday life. He thinks he's going crazy, turns out he's actually being experimented on by an advanced component of an alien invasion force from elsewhere in the galaxy. He's subject....117 I think? Basically the 117th person they tested. The point of the test is to determine how much of a threat humans would pose to the aliens if they did a full invasion. He proceeds to shake off the mental manipulation, and thwart alien attempts at human conquest through deception, episode after episode. The weekly setup was pretty "alien conspiracy of the week", and he would go to a new town, encounter another alien corruption job (because they look just like humans), and stops it.
The aliens eventually send a Hunter to kill 117, and thus the semi-main villain/lancer of the badguys is introduced. He proceeds to hunt 117, always one step behind, never catching him directly, but coming close enough to be a threat, and also seeing the things his people are doing. He begins to be presented as something of a conflicted character, as he doesn't seem entirely on board with the methodology of his people's various plans for conquest. But he's still a loyal servant of the empire, so he will do his duty.
And then a season+ of this goes on, and he sees 117 constantly overcoming their plans. He starts to present his findings that he thinks the aliens maybe shouldn't try and conquer Earth, that it might destroy them. The various aliens in power, scoff at the idea, dismissing 117 as "just one human."
And this is where, at least for the rationale of the Hunter, that made me love this turn. He basically turns their own test against them and says. "You did that test to determine how much of a threat humans would be. 117 has consistently overcome every obstacle and attempt at his life, AND destroyed countless projects that took years to put in place. There are over 6 BILLION people on this planet. What if every 1/117 humans is like him? They will fucking WRECK us. I don't want to see the empire I love, be destroyed because you all are too arrogant to see the danger." They further scoff him, and he eventually just says "ok fuck it....I truly believe that trying to conquer this planet will destroy my people, as it will use up too many resources and make us destroy ourselves. So I'm going to HELP 117 stop the invasion. Not because I LIKE him, but because I love my people, and don't want them to commit species suicide via human assistance."
And thus, he joins the good guys. At first it's a reluctant kind of ally, but I seem to recall by the end, he starts to really like humans. But at first at least, that was his reason, and I enjoyed it.
What kind of Heel/Face turns do you love?
