History Main / BefriendingTheEnemy

* ''Fanfic/MovingOn'': Even though she and Marinette aren't truly enemies anymore (with Lila having taken Chloe's place as Marinette's school bully), Chloe and Marinette start a tenuous friendship after the latter changes schools. This friendship grows stronger when Marinette learns that Chloe's efforts to befriend Marinette and become a better person are genuine (as Chloe tells Ladybug how worried she really is about Marinette after all the bullying/cruelty she faced). By the fic's climax, their friendship is strong enough that [[spoiler:Ladybug trusts her with the Bee Miraculous again]].
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Chloe Cerise starts texting Amelia -- aka the former Conductor whose desire to recreate her life with her deceased fiance, Alrick plunged the Train into 30+ years of chaos and is indirectly responsible for a cult that's killed, tortured and traumatized denizens, along with pillaging and burning multiple cars in prospects of following "her" example -- and slowly becomes friends with the 60+ year old woman. It gest to the point that by Arc 2, Amelia joins Chloe and the other members of the Red Lotus Trio.

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': Due to Guy Gardner's comments about positive connections preventing criminal recidivism, Paragon!OL aims to convince supervillains to reform by helping and encouraging them to more positive or [[CutLexLuthorACheck beneficial]] [[TheSponsor goals]]. He's this to Cheshire, the Terror Twins, Lex Luthor and Abra Kadabra.
** When Cheshire is sent to jail, OL encourages her to keep her nose clean, get a GED and helps her get transferred to a nice prison. He hires Lex Luthor's defense team to get her a reduced sentence.

* In ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' after the events of the seventh books is established in the epilogue that Harry and his [[BigBrotherBully Bully Cousin]] Dudley become somewhat of friends and spend some time together as adults, mostly to make their respective children play with each other as family. In the sequel ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'' Harry and Draco are shown to be friends as adults.

* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'': [[AllLovingHero Gentaro]] regularly does this with the MonsterOfTheWeek, who are usually fellow highschoolers with emotional issues that they vent by transforming into a monster. [[WarriorTherapist Gentaro defeats their monster forms, and also helps them through their underlying issues.]]

* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori repeatedly tries to befriend Jade, despite how the later constantly torments her. In one episode, Jade is [[ExploitedTrope even able to get]] Tori to help her out by suggesting she would consider her a friend. When asked why she does this, Tori explained that she would rather be Jade's friend than constantly fighting her. While Jade refuses to call Tori a friend, she definitely has gotten closer to her than she was at the start of the series.

** Season 2 has Aurora befriending a Nazi officers wife to gain intelligence on her husband. [[spoiler: Aurora ends up genuinely caring about Sabine and tries to turn her. Unfortunately Sabine feels betrayed and attacks Aurora instead]]

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Commander Shepard can pull this with almost any mentally-unstable squadmate, but Jack stands out. Jack is a violent, AxCrazy criminal with a DarkAndTroubledPast and Shepard can help her deal with her demons in a number of ways. Jack goes through several levels of resistance, first warning Shepard that she knows what s/he is trying to do and that it won't work, followed by (if Shepard is male) propositioning for sex (because she thinks that's the only reason a guy would treat her nicely), followed by acting like a {{Tsundere}}. If Shepard takes the time to help Jack work out her issues, [[spoiler: and helps reveal the fact that she wasn't hated by everyone in her childhood, but the beloved crown jewel of an abusive supersoldier project (the scientists tortured her but took extensive measures to ensure her safety)]], she'll undergo serious CharacterDevelopment and become a BadassTeacher instead. If Jack is romanced in that game, [[LoveRedeems it works]].
** The other standout is Miranda Lawson, who starts out as a high-ranking member of [[KnightTemplar Cerberus]], and quite distrustful of Shepard's methods and motivations. She states that she would have liked to have put a [[MindControlDevice control chip]] into Shepard's brain when bringing him/her BackFromTheDead, and would disobey orders if they went against Cerberus interests. The turning point comes when Shepard helps her protect her sister from their [[AbusiveParents father]], without any ulterior motives, something no one else had ever really done before, and the friendship becomes much more genuine. When the time comes to choose between Shepard and Cerberus, she chooses Shepard with very little hesitation. By ''3'', [[CharacterDevelopment she has gone from]] a KnightTemplar IceQueen to [[TookALevelInKindness an extremely]] NiceGirl and TheAtoner, who almost begs Shepard for forgiveness for the control chip that she intended to put in originally and whose only goal is to continue protecting her sister.
** Averted with Morrinth and Zaeed. She's had over three hundred years to be a psychotic serial-killer/bitch, and even Shepard doesn't have the power [[spoiler:or more specifically, time]] to dominate the dominator. Zaeed is more of a AffablyEvil merc.

* ''VideoGame/WildArms2'': Ashley & company develop a friendship this way with Kanon. Kanon, a demon hunter, has made it her mission to assassinate Ashley who [[SuperPoweredEvilSide is possessed by]] the ancient demon Lord Blazer who Kanon's ancestor sealed away thousands of years ago. The team reluctantly fight repeated battles with Kanon, until Ashley manages to convince her that he's a good person, and asks her to join the group plus entrusting her with the responsibility of striking him down (and killing Lord Blazer) if he can't control the demon's influence any longer [[spoiler: when this moment finally does arrive however she can't bring herself to kill Ashley as she's developed feelings of friendship with him and the other members of ARMS.]]

* It happens to both Dani and Jacob halfway through the story of ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol''. Both started the game as enemies and Dani's actions caused Jacob's ship to crash on Callisto, and both Jacob and Dani ended up in prison. Once Dani finds out that [[spoiler:she was wrong about Jacob smuggling the virus that wiped out Europa]], she begins to show more concern for Jacob's wellfare from that point and likewise for Jacob.

* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', Sylvester tries to do this with Mary, who he'd recently defeated by TalkingTheMonsterToDeath and convinced to join the Lambsbridge Gang, and succeeds, primarily by being very obviously bad at it.

* ''Westernanimation/JusticeLeague'': A variant In the episode ''Flash and Substance''. It's shown that this is how Flash deals with at least one of his "enemies" James Jesse "the Trickster" who Flash has pacified by befriending him. When Batman and Orion threaten James in a bar Flash cuts in and stops them to talk things out. He points out to James he's off his meds again, and that he didn't even realize he was wearing his villain costume. James agrees to admit himself back into the hospital after he finishes his drink if The Flash will visit him and play "soft darts", and then tells The Flash about a plan by the other villains to attack him at the grand opening of the new Flash Museum. This is baffling to Orion who is used to using more violent methods to get information.

* This is what happens to Cyril Sneer in ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'''s as the show progresses. He becomes closer and closer with the heroes to the point of practically turning into the TokenEvilTeammate in the final seasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Bart's tried to befriend his bully and antagonist, Nelson Muntz, in some episodes. The first time to become popular, which resulted in Bart being bullied even harder when Nelson found out he was being manipulated. In later seasons however, Bart and Nelson have become friends over time, and Bart even calls him "his other best friend" in one episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. In the episode ''F.U.N.'' Spongebob tries to befriend Plankton and asks him to play with him after seeing how Bikini Bottom treats him badly and calls him "a loser". Plankton decides to go along with it, and use it as an opportunity to steal the Krabby Patty formula. After sharing a FriendshipSong together, Plankton does become his friend for a time, but ultimately chooses to betray Spongebob and steal a Krabby Patty at the end of the episode because [[EvilFeelsGood "evil is just too fun"]]. This kind of scenario has been recycled several times in the show usually with Plankton trying to exploit Spongebob in a new scheme.

* It happens to both Dani and Jacob halfway through the story of ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'', once Dani finds out that [[spoiler:she was wrong about Jacob smuggling the virus that wiped out Europa]], and begin to show more concern for Jacob's wellfare from that point.

* ''Fanfic/SpiderNinja'': [[spoiler:Donatello, after being kidnapped, manages to reboot the AI in Doctor Octopus' tentacles, [[HeelFaceTurn turning him back into Doctor Octavius]]. It's a heck of a gamble, but the doctor has nothing but gratitude for Donnie and horror at himself for what he did as Doc Ock. Donnie [[EasilyForgiven forgives him]] and is the one who fights the hardest for SHIELD to give Doc Ock a chance to redeem himself. This pays off, as the Doc becomes one of the family's strongest allies and remains a friend of Donatello's for the rest of the fic.]]

-->-- '''Sensei Wu''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}''

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has Sisko trying to make peaceful contact with the Dominion. When the Klingons invade Cardassia, Major Kira has to make peace with Dukat. The man who oppressed Bajor. When Dukat joins with the Dominion, Sisko tries to make peace with the Klingons to counter the Dominion.

-> ''"I bet if he had just one friend, he wouldn't be such a meanie."''
-->-- '''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''' thinking about Plankton, "F.U.N."

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

A villain who stays evil after truly befriending a hero may be a TokenEvilTeammate. Compare DefeatMeansFriendship, TastesLikeFriendship, and WeUsedToBeFriends, the last of which being when the bad guy was originally a friend before they turned. Attempting to ''romance'' a villain or antagonist to change them falls under ICanChangeMyBeloved by way of LoveRedeems. See also FriendlyEnemy, where the two sides maintain frequent sympathetic interactions despite still warring. Contrast, FairWeatherFor, when a person pretends to be friends with a former enemy in order to gain something.