History Main / PredatorTurnedProtector

* Gabu from ''Literature/ArashiNoYoruNi'' is a wolf and his best friend, Mei, is a goat. They form an OddFriendship and end up running off together to avoid their families, and societies, disdain. For much of the series they're being tracked by Gabu's pack [[spoiler:and Gabu does protect Mei from them in his BigDamnHeroes moment]]

** Destroyah, when she originally encountered [[CheerfulChild the Cutie Mark Crusaders]], intended to kill them, only to instead kill the timberwolves they were hunting. This is results in the fillies loving her. Eventually, she develops genuine fondness for them and become their guardian.

-->'''Nigel:''' ''(to Nemo)'' Sorry if I ever took a snap at you. Fish gotta swim; [[PredationIsNatural birds gotta eat]].

[[folder: Web Comics]]

* Soviet animated short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSKLZhwWC4Q "Wolf and calf"]]. A wolf steals a baby calf but finds him to scrawny to eat and decides to first fatten him up. This soon evolves into becoming an adopted father for the calf, up to protecting him from his carnivorous neighbours eager to "share" the calf.

* Frequently happens in many old chaser cartoons like WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry and TweetyBird, where they might help a dog that beats ups the cat in return.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{TazMania}}'': A variation occurs between Taz and Wendell T. Wolf. After Taz eats and then spits out Wendell, Wendell decides that Taz should become his protector, only for Taz to want nothing to do with Wendell.

* Season 5 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Samurai Jack}}'': Ashi was raised as a cold-blooded assassin to kill Jack, but instead ends up protecting him and keeping him alive throughout the season to the point [[HesBack where it even brings him back to his original confident self from the earlier seasons]].

* Heart the ''TyrannosaurusRex'', the protagonist of ''Anime/YouAreUmasou'', is saddled with this role after the titular baby ''Ankylosaurus'' imprints on him. He still considers eating Umasou even after this point, but chooses to regard him as family rather than food in the end.

* In ''Manga/OwariNoSeraph'', Mikaela is constantly visibly fighting the urge to drink human blood (while all other vampires couldn't care less). Despite this instinct, he still avoids killing humans as much as possible, and protects his (human) childhood friend [[HeterosexualLifePartner Yuuichirou]] with his life. He's also seen aiding other humans at times, especially children.

* ''Film/SchindlersList'': An extreme example heavily based on real events during WWII. Oskar Schindler started as a businessman and Nazi Party who used Jewish laborers as virtual slaves to manufacture war materials. His original goal was to make money for himself and support the Nazi war machine. When he discovered that his Jewish employees were slated for death, he did everything in his power to save as many as he could. At the end of the movie, what should have been his moment of triumph for saving more than 1000 Jews instead saw him breaking down in sorrow and shame that he didn't save more, that he still had anything (money or possessions) to his name (by which he could have saved more).

* ''Videogame/MetroidFusion'': The [[spoiler: SA-X]], which had spent the entire game hunting Samus, shows up at the last second to defend her from [[spoiler:a very aggressive Omega Metroid]].

* [[http://creation.com/echoes-of-eden A lioness adopted not one but two oryx calves.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Alex the lion's friendship with Marty the zebra is threatened when Alex's HorrorHunger kicks in after they arrive into the wild. However, when Marty is attacked by a pack of fossa (Madagascar's native predators), Alex comes to his rescue in a BigDamnHeroes moment.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': the Nine Tailed Fox is originally a gigantic beast that is hostile to human society, but after he's sealed in Naruto's body, he's forced to protect Naruto from within and give him support in dire needs, because if Naruto dies so will he. [[spoiler: Eventually Naruto's kindness towards the other tailed beasts, and a mutual hatred of Madara, earns the fox's friendship. He tells Naruto his real name, Kurama, and fights alongside him.]]

* In ''Manga/OwariNoSeraph'', Mikaela is constantly visibly fighting the urge to drink human blood (while all other vampires couldn't care less). Despite this instinct, he still avoids killing humans as much as possible, and protects his (human) childhood friend [[HeterosexualLifePartner Yuuichirou]] with his life. He's also seen aiding other humans at times, especially children.

** In later seasons of ''Buffy'', Spike develops a crush on Buffy, who is the natural predator of his species. As a result, he stops rooting for her death and starts protecting her, oftentimes against her will. He also starts acting as something of an older brother to Buffy's sister, to the point where Buffy drops her off at Spike's when she needs a babysitter - because the evil monster that lives on human blood will protect her.

* In ''Creator/TerryPratchett'''s ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' the Tooth Fairy protects children by making sure that bad wizards can't get their teeth, which would give them the power to control the children through magic. However, originally [[spoiler:the Tooth Fairy was *The* Boogeyman, who came to care about the children he frightened]].

* One somewhat common plot in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' fanfics is a savage Nick (a red fox) becoming very protective of Judy (a rabbit), for reasons ranging from previous scent markings to HeroicWillpower while his rational mind is not quite gone yet. Typically, this ensues when [[spoiler:the pellet-for-blueberry swap plan]] doesn't work.

* In ''Disney/TheLionKing'', Simba the lion fiercely protects his surrogate parents, Pumbaa the warthog and Timon the meerkat, from the hungry lioness Nala. In fact Timon, initially reluctant to adopt the orphaned Simba due to him being a predator, changes his mind after he realizes he can [[ExploitedTrope exploit]] this trope.

* In the Disney short ''Disney/LambertTheSheepishLion'', Lambert the lion cub is raised by a ewe. At the end of the short, when the ewe is attacked by a wolf, Lambert [[LetsGetDangerous gets dangerous]] and rescues his surrogate mother from the predator.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': the Nine Tailed Fox is originally a gigantic beast that is hostile to human society, but after he's sealed in Naruto's body, he's forced to protect Naruto from within and give him support in dire needs, because if Naruto dies so will he.

* In ''Creator/TerryPratchett'''s ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'' the Tooth Fairy protects children by making sure that bad wizard's can't get their teeth, which would give them the power to control the children through magic. However, originally [[spoiler:the Tooth Fairy was *The* Boogeyman, who came to care about the children he frightened]].

* In ''Creator/TerryPratchett'''s ''Literature/TheHogfather'' the Tooth Fairy protects children by making sure that bad wizard's can't get their teeth, which would give them the power to control the children through magic. However, originally[[spoiler: the Tooth Fairy was *The* Boogeyman, who came to care about the children he frightened.]]

* When young Hogarth encounters Creator/BradBird's ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', he finds the robot to be docile and childlike; this is suggested to be the result of a dent in its head upon landing on Earth. However, once the robot goes into PapaWolf mode, it deploys enough advanced weaponry to eradicate a battalion with frightening ease. The director's commentary mentions that the robot was meant to be a military strike probe, designed to eradicate or decimate resistance as a precursor to an AlienInvasion. Fortunately for everyone, ThePowerOfFriendship restores the robot to its GentleGiant mode, whereupon it makes a HeroicSacrifice to save the townsfolk.

* Sheepdogs are trained to be this to their herd of sheep.

** While Venom's characterization largely depends on who the host is, for much of its history the symbiote was characterized as a ravenous predator that couldn't care less about guilt or innocence and seeks to corrupt its host. However, in Brian Michael Bendis' ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' it's cleansed of its bloodlust and becomes fully heroic; and in ''ComicBook/VenomSpaceKnight'', ''ComicBook/MikeCostasVenom'', and ''ComicBook/DonnyCatesVenom'' it struggles to suppress its recurring dark urges to protect the innocent.

* ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}:

%%Hiding the picture because it's not very fitting; gorillas are not predators nor any kind of natural enemies to humans.
%%[[quoteright:350:[[http://dailym.ai/1nmskwW https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gorillaprotect.jpg]]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', The Bird start off as antagonist who eats Flik and the circus bugs. Flik tells the circus bugs about Hopper was fear of birds. at the near end she eventually kept Flik from Hopper and catches him by feed to her chicks but that case she can eat one of the insects that are evil.

* Orphaned litters of domestic mice or hamsters can be fostered to nursing mother rats in a pinch. Rats normally kill and eat smaller rodents. Can become a subversion if the non-rat pups aren't separated from their foster mother as soon as weaning is possible, as mother rats also cull and eat pups that fail to grow as large as their siblings.

* [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3406830/I-m-forever-thankful-Jambo-gone-one-two-ways-Man-protected-huge-gorilla-fell-enclosure-boy-relives-dramatic-moment-30-years-says-t-wait-kids-there.html The page picture is a screenshot from a video shot when Levan Merrit, who was three years old at the time, fell and lost consciousness in a Gorilla enclosure.]] The silverback, Jabo, kept the rest of troupe away from the boy, when he started to cry, Jabo led the others to their house, and Levitt was rescued.

Supertrope to AndroclesLion, sister trope to FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire. Expect HitmanWithAHeart to do this a lot. When applied to hostage situations, this becomes LimaSyndrome. Animal examples will frequently overlap with CarnivoreConfusion. Compare BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork where the bad guys saved the good guys from having to ShootTheDog, often without meaning to help in the first place. Compare also InLoveWithTheMark when the would-be killer falls in love with the target and DefendsAgainstTheirOwnKind where a member of group X protects a member of group Y from other members of group X.