History Main / HeelRaceTurn

* The SlaveRace Jaffa of ''StargateSG1'' desert their evil alien masters en masse in the later seasons.

HeelFaceTurn on an ethnic scale. A faction allied with the enemy joins the heroes' team. A neutral people becomes convinced it has to side with the villains to survive. Truth in Television, as an ethnic group's character is most engineered by its leaders. Argentinians don't wonder where family members went unless General Videla says they disappeared. Russians aren't losing sleep over fear that neighbors will report them without Russia's secret police (however, they start losing sleep over fear that TheMafiya will come to their door, Chechen terrorists will blow up their home, their money will become [[FunnyMoney funny]], their children will become drug addicts and they will not be able to buy a loaf of bread. At least you can keep the secret police at bay by being good little citizens. It's [[TheNewRussia that kind of country]]). Germans aren't stuffing Jews in chimneys without Hitler's influence.

HeelFaceTurn on an ethnic scale. A faction allied with the enemy joins the heroes' team. A neutral people becomes convinced it has to side with the villains to survive. Truth in Television, as an ethnic group's character is most engineered by its leaders. Argentinians don't wonder where family members went unless General Videla says they disappeared. Russians aren't losing sleep over fear that neighbors will report them without Russia's secret police (however, they start losing sleep over fear that TheMafiya will come to their door, Chechen terrorists will blow up their home, their money will become [[FunnyMoney funny]], their children will become drug addicts and they will not be able to buy a loaf of bread. It's [[TheNewRussia that kind of country]]). Germans aren't stuffing Jews in chimneys without Hitler's influence.

HeelFaceTurn on an ethnic scale. A faction allied with the enemy joins the heroes' team. A neutral people becomes convinced it has to side with the villains to survive. Truth in Television, as an ethnic group's character is most engineered by its leaders. Argentinians don't wonder where family members went unless General Videla says they disappeared. Russians aren't losing sleep over fear that neighbors will report them without Russia's secret police (however, they start losing sleep over fear that TheMafiya will come to their door, their money will become [[FunnyMoney funny]], their children will become drug addicts and they will not be able to buy a loaf of bread. It's [[TheNewRussia that kind of country]]). Germans aren't stuffing Jews in chimneys without Hitler's influence.

HeelFaceTurn on an ethnic scale. A faction allied with the enemy joins the heroes' team. A neutral people becomes convinced it has to side with the villains to survive. Truth in Television, as an ethnic group's character is most engineered by its leaders. Argentinians don't wonder where family members went unless General Videla says they disappeared. Russians aren't losing sleep over fear that neighbors will report them without Russia's secret police. Germans aren't stuffing Jews in chimneys without Hitler's influence.

** And in ''DeepSpaceNine'', we have the Cardassians, longtime enemies of the Federation and allied to the Dominion, suddenly switching sides - ''in the middle of a major space battle'' - due to the Dominion having just informed the Cardassians they had destroyed a city and killed its two millions inhabitants as reprisal for an act of the [[LaResistance Cardassian Resistence]].

* In ''StarTrekEnterprise'', the [[PlanetOfHats Xindi's hat]] is that their "race" consists of several sentient species which did evolve on the same planet. At the beginning of the [[StoryArc Xindi arc]], the crew of the Enterprise considers all Xindi to be their enemies. But by and by, Archer and co. manage to convince three of the five living Xindi species to do a HeelRaceTurn. They help the humans defeating the other two species and preventing the planned EarthShatteringKaboom.

** And in ''DeepSpaceNine'', we have the Cardassians, longtime enemies of the Federation and allied to the Dominion, suddenly switching sides - ''in the middle of a major space battle''!
*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact the Dominion had just informed the Cardassians they had destroyed a city and killed its two millions inhabitants as reprisal for an act of the [[LaResistance Cardassian Resistence]]. The Cardassians [[PuttingItMildly did not appreciate this]].

*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact the Dominion had just informed the Cardassians they had destroyed a city and killed its two millions inhabitants as reprisal for an act of the [[LaResistance Cardassian Resistence]]. The Cardassians [[Understatement did not appreciate]].

* The [[TheEmpire Arcadian Empire]] in ''FinalFantasyXII''. At least in the ending.

* ''{{Artesia}}'': Each faction in the setting has had previous alliances and works with whoever its current ruler thinks best serves the faction's interest.

* At the end of ''StarshipTroopers'' , it has been revealed that the "Skinnies", the race shown as one of the enemies in the very first combat scene of the book, have allied with Humans against the Bugs. The raid, in fact, was a scare tactic/warning by humans to convince the Skinnies to ditch the bugs.

This trope is more often used in settings with realistic settings where there's gray morality, wars are good vs. good, and alignments aren't ethnically based. Settings where this trope won't be seen are where a culture is AlwaysChaoticEvil or otherwise demonic. Some sultry succubus or burly half-human warrior might have a HeelFaceTurn but these characters are [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch rare exceptions]].

** And in ''DeepSpaceNine'', we have the Cardassians, longtime enemies of the Federation and allied to the Dominion, switching sides - ''in mid-battle''!

This trope is more often used in settings with realistic settings where there's gray morality, wars are good vs. good, and alignments aren't ethnically based. Settings where this trope won't be seen are where a culture is AlwaysChaoticEvil or otherwise demonic. Some sultry succubus or burly half-human warrior might have a HeelFaceTurn but the race these characters are rare exceptions.

[[AC:Live-Action Television]]
* The SlaveRace Jaffa of ''StargateSG1'' desert their evil alien masters en masse in the later seasons.
* In ''StarTrekEnterprise'', the [[PlanetOfHats Xindi's hat]] is that their "race" consists of several sentient species which did evolve on the same planet. At the beginning of the [[StoryArc Xindi arc]], the crew of the Enterprise considers all Xindi to be their enemies. But by and by, Archer and co. manage to convince three of the five living Xindi species to do a HeelRaceTurn. They help the humans defeating the other two species and preventing the planned EarthShatteringKaboom.

* The Zentran / Meltran in SuperDimensionFortressMacross pretty much split. Some stay with Bodolza, while a large chunk [[HeelRaceTurn side with the humans.]]

* {{Artesia}}: Each faction in the setting has had previous alliances and works with whoever its current ruler thinks best serves the faction's interest.

* In StarTrekEnterprise, the [[PlanetOfHats Xindi's hat]] is that their "race" consists of several sentient species which did evolve on the same planet. At the beginning of the [[StoryArc Xindi arc]], the crew of the Enterprise considers all Xindi to be their enemies. But by and by, Archer and co. manage to convince three of the five living Xindi species to do a HeelRaceTurn. They help the humans defeating the other two species and preventing the planned EarthShatteringKaboom.

* At the end of StarshipTroopers , it has been revealed that the "Skinnies", the race shown as one of the enemies in the very first combat scene of the book, have allied with Humans against the Bugs. The raid, in fact, was a scare tactic/warning by humans to convince the Skinnies to ditch the bugs.

* In TheInheritanceCycle, the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Urgals]] go from fighting in the evil king's armies to joining the side of [[LaResistance The Varden]].

* [[spoiler: The Elites]] in {{Halo}} switch sides around the end of the second game.
* [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] in Warcraft3.
* All that's known about the Vortigants in the first {{HalfLife}} is that they're invading aliens. In the second game it's revealed that they were confused and enthralled, and are now grateful for the destruction of their puppet leader. By the third, they gather en mass to support Gordon specifically.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* In AvatarTheLastAirbender, this presumably happened to [[spoiler: the Fire Nation, when Ozai and Azula were defeated in the series finale, and Zuko became a new, benevolent Firelord.]] This didn't come out of the blue, though, as [[spoiler: throughout Season 3 it had been shown that Fire Nation citizens weren't inherently evil. Most of them merely believed in the war propaganda promulgated by the governments of Ozai and his predecessors.]]

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* At the end of StarshipTroopers , it has been revealed that the "Skinnies", the race shown as one of the enemies in the very first combat scene of the book, have allied with Humans against the Bugs.

* The StarWarsExpandedUniverse has the Noghri, who were saved by Darth Vader [[spoiler:from Palpatine]] and collectively owed him a debt and became his personal assassins. Then he gave them to Thrawn. Then Thrawn [[IdiotBall sent them after Leia]]. The Noghri can tell your bloodline by your scent. Yeah, that went over well.