Face Heel Turn / Literature

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• In the last Age of Fire book, Rayg has one of these, joining with Infamnia/Red Queen in her plans to decimate and enslave dragonkind. RuGaard thinks the change is just him snapping after spending most of his life enslaved underground, but it's actually strongly implied to be a result of his years of exposure to the sun-shard crystals.
• In James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, FBI Agent Kyle Craig starts out as one of Alex's partners in solving cases. Then he is revealed to be a master criminal and Serial Killer with a vendetta against Alex that plays out over some of the latter books.
• Ward Littell in James Ellroy's American Tabloid. Over the course of the novel, he goes from crusading FBI agent willing to put it all on the line to destroy The Mafia to working as house counsel to the biggest mob bosses in the country. As the book draws to a close, he conceives and orchestrates the JFK assassination and murders his best friend Kemper Boyd to stop him from preventing it.
• David in Animorphs, who is recruited to be the team's Sixth Ranger but quickly snaps and goes Sixth Ranger Traitor.
• The Apprentice Rogue: Falita betrays the Order of Black Knights and her kingdom by stealing Leaoa's necklace and running away. The sequel sample confirms that she's become a criminal.
• In Avalon: Web of Magic's eleventh book, Dark Mage, heroine Emily becomes the dark mage and kills the comic relief Weasel Mascot.
• The main Love Interest from Ursula Vernon's Black Dogs turns out to have been modified by the Big Bad before the novel even started to appear much nicer and gentler and less evil than he would be normally. Towards the end of the novel, the Big Bad reverses these restraints and the Love Interest becomes a major villain.
• Dybbuk from Children of the Lamp, though it was sort-of foreshadowed in that his father just happened to be Iblis, the most evil djinn of the most evil djinn tribe, meaning he was half Always Chaotic Evil. It wouldn't be surprising if he eventually had a change of heart, though.
• The Chronicles of Dorsa: Brother Rennus, one of the good characters, is revealed to be a traitor who'd switched sides and joined the deathless king, believing his land was a utopia which could be extended across the world. He also recruited many other Brothers into his cause.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses: After their time Under The Mountain, Feyre finds Tamlin's efforts to protect her to be controlling and emotionally neglectful. When she rejects him, he then goes so far as to hurt her friends and family trying to get her back.
• In The Dark is Rising Hawkin betrays the Light after his master Merriman Lyon risks his life as part of the security system to protect the Book of Gramarye.
• In The Demonata series, Nadia Moore was one of the disciples who later joined Lord Loss, masquerading as Juni Swan.
• Violete of The Dinosaur Lords becomes a devout follower of Raguel the moment he decries her faction to be wrong and starts converting others.
• An even more "they shoulda seen it coming" example: Raistlin Majere in the original Dragonlance books.
• Brutus in the Emperor series. And indeed any other series ever written about Ancient Rome. Because, well, he's one of the best examples of it in real life.
• Rielle Dardenne from The Empirium Trilogy wanted to become the long awaited Sun Queen, hero to country and crown. However, her overwhelming amount of power attracted Corien, who saw her as a way to return his brethren to their former glory. He dredges up her deepest fears- such as her ability to easily cause destruction, and how once everyone finds out what she is truly capable of, they'll turn against her- in order to further distance her from her loved ones. When these fears seem to be proven true, she ditches Audric, Ludivine, and everyone else and joins Corien.
• In The Fires of Affliction, Prince Jarden and Alorica Durnham, the prince and princess of two rival kingdoms, are both kidnapped by a Mystery Cult. When they try to make a break for it, Jarden holds the cultists off so that Alorica can escape and warn the royal families. In gratitude, Alorica joins a later mission to rescue Jarden — only to find that the cult has already brainwashed him in the meantime, and that he's now one of them, body and soul.
• Telamon, the main antagonist of Gods and Warriors, is initially the best friend of the main protagonist Hylas even though the former is a chieftain's son and the latter is an Outsider. Unfortunately, Telamon's ruthless relatives try to hunt Hylas down for supposedly being prophesied to bring them down, and Telamon is caught between his relatives and best friend for the first two books. At the end of the second book, Telamon chooses to pursue greatness on his relatives' side and becomes Hylas' main adversary for the rest of the series.
• In the Goosebumps book Calling All Creeps!, the whole story ends on this note. After seeing how futile opposing the Creeps is, and wanting revenge against his bullying classmates, the boy who was trying to stop the Creeps decides in the end to become a Creep himself, because he would be their leader.
• The Great Greene Heist: Victor is introduced as a bullying victim and useful Caper Crew recruit, but his selfishness makes him sell out the others. This makes him a minor pariah, and when he realizes that Jackson played him from the start, he resentfully becomes the Big Bad of the sequel.
• Just a couple of examples from Harry Potter.
  • Peter Pettigrew, who everyone thought was James and Lily Potters' friend — until he betrayed them to Lord Voldemort and caused their deaths, which everyone initially blamed on Sirius. And Snape's involvement with that whole issue; he had one when he and Lily were in school, where they had a row and parted ways, leading him to the Death Eaters/Dark Side, although he really always loved Lily.
  • It's hard to imagine that Percy was unaware Umbridge was ordering muggleborns' souls to be removed. A sufficiently dictatorial system CAN compartmentalise to this degree, through threat of violence and/or careful selection of personnel, and the Ministry under Voldemort qualifies. When he turns up for the final battle, Percy says his decision to turn face has been building for some time, so maybe he's been hearing hints and putting two and two together.
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Archdeacon Claude Frollo is a compassionate man in the beginning, but after seeing Esmerelda, he goes mad with lust and slowly becomes evil, desiring to either have her for his own or kill her if she won't become his.
• This is what Katniss believes has happened when Joanna "attacks" her in the second book of The Hunger Games. She then comes to the conclusion that their other ally Finnick must be in on it as well. Katniss was wrong and both Joanna and Finnick were actually trying to keep her and Peeta alive.
• Journey to Chaos: Governor Caffour becomes a bad guy after his introduction by joining Mr.15 as a criminal necrocrafter.
• Knaves on Waves has this coming from Jacques, who ultimately turns on the crew for the sake of their own advancement.
• The main characters in Lammas Night spend most of the novel worried that their mole Dieter may have actually pulled one of these. He didn't.
• In The Lotus Eaters, Legate Pigna, over a case of wounded pride, betrayed the Legion.
• Subverted with Veres in Loyal Enemies. After he finds out who the Big Bad is (his long-lost love whom he believed dead), he seems to be willing to aid her, especially after she outlines him her causes. He's just pretending to get access to Shelena's cell and free her.
• In Memories of Ice, book three of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, High King Kallor betrays the commander of the allied Genebackan armies, Caladan Brood, to the Crippled God for a chance at killing Silverfox.
  High King Kallor: If you call it a sudden reversal of strategy, the sting fades.
• Nightmare Hour: Christopher manages to survive being tickle-tortured by clowns by becoming one of them with the special talent of picking out scared children as future victims.
• Origami Yoda: After having a Heel–Face Turn, Harvey becomes a jerk again to nearly everyone.
• Subverted in Red Seas Under Red Skies, where the first chapter has Jean betraying Locke to a pair of assassins, then it flashes back to the start of the story. When it arrives back at the betrayal scene, we find that Jean was tricking the assassins and Locke just missed the hand signal for "lying."
• Gregory Kawakita at the very end of Relic, whose actions in turn lead Dr. Frock to undergo one in its sequel Reliquary.
• In the Rivers of London books PC Lesley May is the beautiful best friend (and slightly more competent police officer) to the hero Peter. In book four, Broken Homes, she tasers Peter in the back to allow the Big Bad to escape. The reason is that at the conclusion of book one she had her face irreparably torn off by dark magic and the Big Bad has found a way to heal her, but only if she switches teams.
• In The Secret River, Thornhill isn't exactly heroic to start with. But he goes from ambiguous to a villain.
• In Space Marine Battles: Death of Antagonis, captain Toharan and Inquisitor Lettinger. Oddly enough, Lettinger is confident that it's the rest of Black Dragons who has turned to Chaos.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Jacen Solo starts out becoming a Jedi but is manipulated by former Jedi Vergere (an example herself) into becoming Darth Caedus and falling to the Dark Side like his grandfather. Unlike Vader, though, he isn't redeemed.
  • A'Sharad Hett, who was a Jedi in the pre-Empire Order but became a Sith Lord named Darth Krayt by the later stories. He also had a hand in turning Jacen to the dark side.
  • Several Old Republic Jedi like Revan, Exar Kun and Freedon Nadd also. Each ended up fighting the Republic at different times.
• In The Three Musketeers, Aramis is unequivocally One Of The Good Guys, alongside Athos, Porthos and D'Artagnan — although even then, when short of money, we see him accepting expensive gifts from his mistress(es). In 20 Years After, all motives are less certain, Athos and Aramis find themselves (for different reasons) on the opposite side to Porthos and D'Artagnan, it is far less clear which side is In The Right, and it takes much more intricate politics to have them all on the same side again with their disparate interests in agreement: and, in the end, Aramis becomes the true, shadowy villain of The Vicomte de Bragelonne, as the person who wants King Louis replaced by his secret twin brother Philippe, not in pursuit of justice but in pursuit of his personal ambition to be Pope: and, knowing that he could not suborn Athos or D'Artagnan to this scheme, he tricks Porthos into assisting it instead. And yes, here, Aramis is a true villain even when presented in a good light, and the Musketeers' accord is blown apart: because for all King Louis's inadequacies, he is the rightful king, and in the book D'Artagnan recognises this and sides with Louis, conducting the ill-fated Philippe back to jail (though he later refuses to actually open fire on the fort containing his friends, D'Artagnan holds to their compact to stand together even though Aramis has broken it: as a result of which Aramis escapes at the cost of Porthos's life.) It is Louis who remains on the throne and leads France to greatness.
• Time Scout: Skeeter Jackson goes from a Lovable Rogue to a Lovable Rogue on the right side of the law.
• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Fall of Gondolin: Maeglin betrays the Free Peoples and serves Morgoth willingly in exchange for being given the woman he lusts after, as well as his own realm to rule over.
  • The Lord of the Rings: Saruman begins working for Sauron secretly, as plotting ways to replace him.
  • The Silmarillion: Fëanor turns against the Valar after losing his Silmarils, and commits crime after crime as trying -and failing- to get them back.
  • Beren and Lúthien: Gorlim is so desperate to find his missing wife that, believing she has been captured by Morgoth, betrays the location of the Dorthonion's rebels' hideout to the Dark Lord.
  • The Fall of Númenor: The resentment of most of the population of Númenor against the immortality of the Elves and the Ban of the Valar preventing them from visiting the Blessed Realm causes them to gradually fall from friends and helpers of the Men of Middle-earth against the depredations of Sauron, to harsh rulers demanding tribute and resources, to finally slavers and warmongers worshipping darkness via human sacrifices. Those among the Númenoreans who still tried to follow the commands of the Valar and keep friendship with the Elves were outnumbered and essentially powerless to stop any of it, and near the end many of them were burning on the altars beside the slaves.
  • Tolkien has it that this trope is the reason for every single villain and Always Chaotic Evil species in the Legendarium. The idea is that all things are intrinsically good at their beginning — they turn to evil as the result of corrupt influences or for wanting too much power.
• In The Traitor Son Cycle, Ota Qwan starts as a Reasonable Authority Figure, if a bit hot-blooded, and fights his hardest for Sossag's survival. However, Thorn manipulates him into returning to his past life as Kevin Orley, a man with a massive grudge on the Muriens family, thus pulling him over to his side.
• Ultimate Hero has the title hero, Ultimate, deciding to take over the world and make it into an utopia. The catch? He's willing to kill anyone standing in his way.
• Tasha Ozera from Vampire Academy, goes from a political activist urging Moroi to learn self-defense and stop using dhampirs as shields, to a murderess and corrupt political figure.
• In Seanan McGuire's Velveteen vs. the Junior Super Patriots, playing with this is central to the series. In the Back Story, the carefully hushed up secret beginning of the Super Patriots had one.. The Claw appears to be playing it straight, as do the Marionettes from alternate universe. Whether the appearance is the reality, and the extent to which the reality is driven by their treatment is brought up again and again.
• The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor tells the tale of how a guy named Philip Blake eventually became The Governor, slowly showing how this capable but flawed man became one of the most infamous villains of the series. Until, in the end, it turns out that it's actually Philip's reasonable, sweet-natured, weakling older brother Brian who becomes The Governor, taking his brother's name, identity, and personality as his own.
• A certain Imperial general in one of the later Warhammer 40,000: Gaunt's Ghosts is eventually corrupted by Chaos. Surprisingly, he's shown to actually be a decent man when hit by amnesia — even his jailer notes that the general becomes ever more an unlikable bastard as he regains his memory.
• Nimue in The Warlord Chronicles is an interesting example — her motives and methods don't change, but all of the other heroic characters learn to compromise, and she never does.

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