TV’s Redeem Team: 17 best villains gone good
From Game Of Thrones' Jaime to Lost's Ben, these are the small screen's greatest baddie redemption arcs
TV Lists Ginnifer Goodwin
Television has provided some heavy hitters for the pantheon of great villains, but it has also arguably cornered the market of a particular kind of villain: The Bad Guy Gone Good. The serialized nature of TV storytelling is fertile ground for taking a villainous character and turning them into a hero. The medium has the space to explore what makes a villain so bad in the first place and put them on a journey to redemption. Sometimes it takes a few seasons for a baddie to earn forgiveness; sometimes it’s takes only a few episodes. And sometimes a character walks the line between good and bad throughout a show’s entire run. Here, The A.V. Club has created a look at our favorite villain redemption arcs, in chronological order, spotlighting character about-faces on shows ranging from Twin Peaks and Avatar: The Last Airbender to Game Of Thrones and The Good Place.
80 Comments
ummmm missing the biggest ones:
Indeed.
Seriously. At least Vegeta (although Piccolo comes close).
No Vegeta? Literally the #1 example in my mind.
Making us actively root for that asshole who shot Ziyal in cold blood was amazing. Truly highlights how fucked up war is in making terrible people heroes.
Seconded. It’s so satisfying to watch because we saw Damar slowly realizing what he had to do over several previous episodes. And now we’re rooting for the Cardassians, some of them, at least.
“Yeah Damar, what kind of people would do that?”
That one line summed up Kirs’s complete character arc.
At first, she wants to hurt him, badly. And she does. This is the old Kira, the angry survivor.
Then, a moment later, she regrets it. She understands his pain. This is the new Kira, one who has learned to forgive.DS9 was superb.
I literally just watched this episode a few days ago, and this is a spectacular moment that is incredibly well-earned.And to think he started out as one of the background characters on Gul Dukat’s Bird of Prey…
I’m in the middle of a DS9 rewatch and got up to Damar’s first episode a week or so ago. I don’t remember much (or, really, anything) of Damar’s later arc, other than that there is one and it’s pretty great, but it was nevertheless pretty funny that his first appearance is like 2 lines deep in the background of a Dukat episode. But he did get an actual name in the episode instead of “miscellaneous crewman” or whatever, so clearly the writers had some plans for him from the start.
It’s been a long time since I visited DS9, and I’d forgotten how awesome Jeffrey Combs is as Weyoun in every scene. I’m currently in S4 of my second Enterprise watch and while it’s mostly been a slog, Combs’ appearances as Shran have elevated each episode . It’s no Weyoun but he still injects enough energy and charisma to offset the regular cast’s complete lack of chemistry.
Michael’s transformation is so good. Especially how he goes from helping since he goes from basically hating Team Cockroach, to helping them to save himself to actually caring about them and wanting to save them.
In as much as anyone on TWD can be considered “good”, I’d think Negan would have made this list.
I love Tatiana Maslany as Helena on Orphan Black so much. She stayed in character on set as whatever clone sister she was playing that day. One of the directors complained to the showrunner that Helena was impossible to direct
I liked the way the other characters reacted to Helena changing as well. Felix goes from being terrified of her to just being mildly frustrated that she keeps setting things on fire.
Helena and Art was a particularly good duo. He was a patient man & plied her with food. Smart
I remember thinking when Helena was pretending to be Alison with Donnie and the police that how could the police be fooled because they were nothing alike, not even in appearance. Tatiana Maslany was *so* good at delineating each clone from each other, wasn’t she?
Good lord she was fantastic. On the forums we used to joke about how the actresses playing the different clone sisters probably didn’t get along, especially Allison and Helena
Has Maslany ever stated which was her favorite clone to play? It’s got to be Helena, right?
I think she really enjoyed playing Krystal, who started out as an on-set joke? Apparently hands down the favorite clone on set was Cosima, who was super-fun to be around
I oscillated between which was my favourite a lot but ultimately it settled on Krystal because I really liked how she kept settling on the just about right answer despite every deductive step being just that bit wonky.
Krystal was so much more interesting than she initially seemed to be
Helena and Donnie were my favorite pairing, particularly during Helena-as-Alison scenes.
I never really warmed to Donnie until he started having scenes with Helena
Logan never stopped being a privileged racist little rich boy, I don’t care how much his dad spanked him.His “great love story” with Veronica was never earned, and just makes her look worse.
Thank you. I’ve really tried to look at things from Logan’s fans’ point of view, but I just can’t. This is this only way I see it.
Yeah, I never understand that pairing or the love for that pairing. I’m glad they killed him off in season 4.
Being male with a predominantly female family, I can’t get my head around why the females in my family were so Team Logan. He’s a knob.
Roni was big enough – in all ways – as a fully rounded personality within her own world, that she didn’t need to be attached to someone bigger. She probably thought she did. But we know she didn’t.
I think he definitely had stopped being that prior to Season 4.
Theon is a masterful work of a character. Arrogant, insecure, daddy issues galore, and grows up a well-cared for hostage. He commits betrayal, but I think we can agree he is punished sufficiently. His regret and pain when he realizes Ned Stark was the only father figure who treated him kindly is devastating.
One of my favorite, underlooked scenes is when he’s at Dragonstone and comes face-to-face with Jon for the first time. He’s clearly terrified and wants to run, but he stands and waits for whatever Jon is going to do to him. Just a masterclass from Alfie.
As for Jaime, the whining about him leaving Brienne forgets one thing. This is an addict. He is addicted to whatever toxic love-hate he and Cersei have. Addicts sometimes fall even if – especially if – they find happiness.
He was always destined to die with her. I assumed it would be him finally snapping and strangling her and he manages to slip a knife in his ribs as she dies.
Well said.
Jaime never should have been with Brienne at all. Felt like pure fan service.
does that happen in the books?
We’ll never know!
oh, i guess it happened when the writers diverged from them.
Not diverged, passed. The show ran out of book material to adapt after season 5. They had already diverged in many ways by the end of that season, but everything from seasons 6 through 8 covers events Martin hasn’t written yet (and probably never will). We know that the show runners had inside knowledge of some stuff Martin is planning to reveal, but no one knows how much, and Martin has said that a lot of things that happened in the show won’t happen in the books (and I suspect that no matter what he says about it, his plans for the books have been affected by the way people responded to things that happened in the show).
No, her getting withwould’ve been pure fan service.
Yeah, the addiction aspect makes the funeral-rape both hard to watch (as, yes, we’ve been rooting for him) and sadly not out of character. Whatever he said to Brienne before he left (I assumed) was something so horrible that it shocked her as to break her heart, but also was so cruel that the producers didn’t want the audience to hear it. If they charted out the 20 best ways Jamie could have gone out at the end of GoT, the way they chose probably would only chart at around #11. His end with Cersei wasn’t completely satisfying for so many on a gut level, but the counterargument might be: what addict’s end ever is?
I genuinely can’t believe Alfie Allen never won an Emmy or Golden Globe for his performance. He really sold that character arch in a way no other actor could.
“…sci-fi-epic-disguised-as-a-boring-procedural Person Of Interest…”Great description of the show. It started out as a case-of-the-week show with a superhero-like agent stopping some bad guys and helping people one by one. The fact that it morphed into a crazy, sci-fi AI story with basically two Skynets fighting for the world was so unexpected. And it’s definitely underrated and overlooked. And despite the guy’s obvious issues in real life, Jim Caviezel is great in it as kind of a less lethal John Wick. Also includes Amy Acker and Sarah Shahi in a frustrating almost-lesbian-relationship.
Such a great show. Still stands up well.All these years later and I still mourn Joss Carter. Taraji P Henson portrayed her so very well. All the women were great: Joss, Root, Shah. I just finished a full series re-watch and only occasionally does Caviel’s batshit-crazy-in-real-life get in the way (moreso on this last rewatch, TBH). Rico Colantoni was also brilliant as Elias.They could’ve included Lionel Fusco in their villians gone good list too. One year at Comicon (I think, or some such con), right after all the various gov’t-authorized surveillance programs became known, they sponsored hotel room keys:
Fusco attributes his redemption arc to his partner, Carter
Great show only 3 things ever rubbed wrong John in love with Carter {Hun ? out of left field..and why? Can Men and woman who work well together ever not be in a relationship ?}Spin off with other group episode was dumb .John as a cop having a Police Shrink girlfriend was great ,ending it was dumb .
Want a reunion movie !/mini series ! John is not dead no body was found !
No Crowely from Supernatural? From like season 11 till his death he was more a good guy than a villian. And he was the best thing on those shows.
You could also say that Cas goes through two redemptions, first when he goes against his superiors to help the Winchesters prevent Armageddon, and then after all the stuff with the leviathans.
Impressive in a perverse sort of way how they managed to incinerate all the years of character development of Jaime Lannister with just one line, wasn’t it?
Captain Cold in the Arrowverse.
I think it was a testament to how good James Marsters was in the role of Spike that a character who otherwise narratively hung around far past his expiry date didn’t feel like it thanks to his performance.
Outside of episodes like “Fool for Love” I don’t think they gave Spike a lot of great material, post-Drucilla, but Marsters really could make anything work.
I mean, it felt like it. But what were they gonna do, NOT have Spike on the show?
Marsters breathed life into Angel season 5. Usually when a show goes south as hard as season 4 did there’s no coming back. But Spike really saved the final season
The parents of the kids Theon killed might say his punishment wasnt disproportionate at all. Did he deserve to get his dick cut off? I cant say. But i know 2 kids didnt deserve to be burned to death. (Or however he killed em.)
Feels like Spike’s entry is underplaying things a bit. “We can never forgive him for hitting Buffy”; he didn’t just hit Buffy, he attempted to rape her. Granted that it was pre-soul and all, but still.
Plus, the soul thing is pretty inconsistent. Vampires seem to retain their personalities and connections after being turned. Spike is still a dork who loves his mom after he becomes a vampire, he makes a conscious choice to become the way he is later. Angel even says that the vampire and human selves aren’t sperate entities.
Yes. The whole “soul” business in both Buffy and Angel seemed always a matter of convenience and plotting but then Whedon walked into those rough waters himself. He calls god a “Sky Bully,” etc. I’m fine with that opinion, but it doesn’t really give him much of a solid grounding for managing the philosphical matters of good and evil – at least in terms of collective attitudes about a soul, attitudes which generally view the soul as something consitent even if nothing else about us is.
The entire *point* of Angel’s curse was that he remembered all his crimes and had to feel ensouled guilt and remorse for them. And that having a soul didn’t stop him desiring evil things– it just inhibited him from actually doing them.
And then the shows decided ‘no, it’s a submerged schizoid personality and to dig up any pre-soul memories we’re going to have to take that soul out again’ and mucked everything up.
Yeah but souled-Angel had the conscience that de-souled Angel did not. The show played fast and loose by having him even go by a different name when de-souled to establish a clear moral delineation, and as a result audiences seemed far more willing to forgive Angelus’ behavior when Angel was souled than they were to forgive Spike’s no-more-repugnant behavior up until he got himself a soul. Maybe if he’d gotten a handy name change as well!
Thought you might go with Sylar from Heroes, but HRG is the better call. The funny thing about Ben Linus on Lost, was I personally still never trusted him. Damon on The Vampire Diaries was always a challenge because they never want him to lose what makes him dangerous. And yes, Avatar the Last Airbender’s Zuko is the gold standard. I’m surprised how many of these redemption arcs I’ve watched. They even got a shout out to Jane the Virgin. Pretty good list today.I’d only add Steve from Stranger Things. Don’t forget he was the a-hole bully at the start of the show. It’s in season 2 (unfairly maligned imo) that his character really becomes likeable thanks to a smart pairing with Dustin.
Steve’s a dweeb. Team Billy all the way.
He was only a minor villain at the start but I liked Andy’s arc in Parks & Recreation.
They discovered the easiest way to turn an unlikable character into a likable one was to just turn him into a big dumb guy. I love it.
Probably a very niche one for Brits of a certain age, but Robert Lindsay as Michael Murray in GBH is a great example.
No Scorpius? or Crais ? Lack of Farscape here is disturbing.
Look, I can’t pitch Farscape into every single one of our TV lists or my co-workers will start blocking me on Slack.
Also, I would argue that at no point is Scorpius ever redeemed, because he never actually changes – Crichton just gets better at creating situations where their interests are aligned, which is all that Scorpy ever wants anyway.
:)Ok Scorpy (or Harvey ) mightn’t get a pass , but Bialar Crais definitely is worth being blocked in Slack for , the peace and quiet will give you more time to rewatch the show again !
I wonder if Stringer Bell counts for this list?
No Scorpius, no deal.
Nice call on Regina from OUAT.
so we’re just not gonna talk about Harley Quinn?
Harley Quinn kind of shirks the hero label though despite flirting with it
A lot of good suggestions here, but I am surprised no one is pointing out Loki.
Gaius Baltar. Where the hell is Mr Nice Gaius?
Genuinely can’t wait for the new Spike audible series with James Marsters (and other cast members) coming back.
What, no Cylon love? No love for the Sixes – all played by Tricia Helfer (who somehow managed to make each iteration – even the background-Sixes – her own person) and especially not even for everyone’s seductive genocidal fembot, aka Caprica Six? For shame, millennial author, for shame (though, you can keep your tatty cartoons, LOL)
Missy from Dcotor Who? She doesn’t truly get a chance to “be good”, but at the end of the Thirtheenth’s run, there is certainly a turn from the good ol’ Anthony Ainley days.
For all its faults and mishaps, of which there were many and some were especially egregious, I personally think it succeeded at giving fairly interesting character work to its core cast. With Regina, I’d go as far as to say that she became the true protagonist of the series. Yes, Emma was the savior and still the main character (and a very good one, I think), but Regina became the more interesting character. I think it’s a pretty great achievement that a show about modernized fairy tales was able to craft a villain, redeem her in a way that was earned, that was done almost entirely on her own merit.And, unlike Rumple, her story of redemption was actually consistently stuck to by the writers. A few moments of wavering here and there, but it all built on her character and perspective. Rumple unfortunately suffered from the showrunners needing a more overarching villain and he was just dicked back and forth constantly, whether he was the Dark One or not and so on. Granted, it provided some compelling character work, but the ways through which the writers continued to make him evil or evil-er again became convoluted, which in this show’s context is saying a lot.
“But no one deserves to have their personhood tortured out of them by a sadistic sociopath like he did.”I wouldn’t say “no one.” If Theon was still a dick after all this happened I doubt you’d be saying that. We only think he didn’t deserve it because he turned out nice.(He did turn out nice, though, I agree. It’s just that he never would have if all that other stuff hadn’t happened to him.)
Jaime’s character arc is far more complicated than that. He is a cynical bastard who doesn’t value being a knight and his relationship with Cersei is marred by mutual contempt masquerading as lust (which is also why that scene where Jaime forces himself upon Cersei is very much necessary). Brienne teaches Jaime not just how to love, but how to truly value the role of a knight.
It is for this reason that Jaime realizes that his ultimate duty is not to stay with Brienne, but to protect his queen and show her the love she, like him, never had in her life due to losing their mother and being raised by an abusive father. The thing is, Brienne knows this and understands this. She is not crying because she is jilted, she is crying because she knows what a knightly duty is and knows it will get Jaime killed.
So Jaime goes to Cersei and for the first time in his life looks at her with true understanding, compassion, forgiveness and, most importantly, love. It is the first time Cersei truly breaks down and we finally see her b*tch shield crack and we see the scared little girl behind it. She asks Jaime if he’s hurt, the FIRST TIME she has demonstrated genuine care for anyone other than herself (compare that with the contempt she expressed for Jaime when he lost his arm).
It is alas, too late for Cersei and she dies crying the bitter tears of regret knowing things could have been so very different. Meanwhile, Jamie, the kingslayer, dies protecting his queen.