Heel–Face Reincarnation

From a thief king in one life to a noble duelist in the next.

Reincarnation is the concept of a dead person's soul being reborn in a new body. With a new life comes new experiences, and sometimes, even a new sense of morality.

A Heel-Face Reincarnation occurs when a villainous, or at least amoral character, is reincarnated as a hero. Often, the memories of their misdeeds in their past life will be a source of regret and turmoil for them. They may also be The Atoner. The evil past self may manifest as a Split Personality or Superpowered Evil Side. In more tragic examples of this trope, they might be permanently overcome by their past selves and become villains again.

Can result in I Hate Past Me and Anti Anti Christ. Compare Amnesiac Dissonance, where a character loses their personality to amnesia and develops a completely different one as a result. Can overlap with Redeeming Replacement in some cases. Can be the result of Raise Him Right This Time. If the past incarnation's victims take revenge on the current one, see Alternate Personality Punishment.

WARNING: Due to the villain's death being part of the trope, some of the examples below will contain unmarked spoilers.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bastard!! (1988): The evil sorcerer Dark Schneider was reincarnated into an innocent boy named Lucien. A kiss from a virgin allows Schneider to take over.
• Bleach plays with this. One of two primary duties of a Soul Reaper's is to destroy Hollows, Ghastly Ghosts that eat the souls of the living. A Soul Reaper's sword is able to purge the stain of sin from a Hollow and let them pass on to the afterlife and the cycle of reincarnation. However, as Ichigo discovers when he encounters a Hollow that had been a Serial Killer in life, the zanpakutou only purges a Hollow's post-mortem sins: those that committed heinous crimes in life are Dragged Off to Hell.
• Chainsaw Man:
  • The devils and fiends serving as Public Safety devil hunters are a complicated example. In hell, they were followers of the original Chainsaw Man—who turns out to be the series Greater-Scope Paragon, but they may have simply worshiped his power instead of sharing his morality. Then they died and were reincarnated on Earth, which lead to them being mind controlled by the Big Bad. However, they all end up fighting and dying to protect humans from devils, including Denji (the new Chainsaw Man), with Power in particular becoming his surrogate sister. In short, their reincarnation leaded a change in alignment, but the moral component is debatable and unclear.
  • Makima is the latest incarnation of the Control Devil. She is responsible for a number of tragedies that befall Denji and is the main villain of the Public Safety Saga. After Denji kills Makima, the Control Devil is reincarnated as a little girl named Nayuta whom Kishibe leaves in Denji's care so she doesn't follow the same path as Makima.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Piccolo Jr. is the son/reincarnation of Great Demon King Piccolo, a major villain in the original Dragon Ball saga. Initially, Piccolo continued his father/past life's enmity with Goku and campaign to conquer the world. However, he became an ally of convenience during the Saiyan Arc where he sacrificed himself to save Goku's son Gohan. Following his resurrection, Piccolo underwent a Heel–Face Turn in earnest and has been a staunch friend and ally to Goku since.
    • Filler material produced for the anime also depict Piccolo showing signs he wasn't as monstrously evil as his past self even before he fully turns good. When he's attacked by wolves as a child, he knocks them out rather than kill them, and the first thing we see him do as an adult is save a mother and her son from a falling clock tower. At the time, it seemed like his beef was with Goku alone, and not humanity as a whole.
  • A soul that is cleansed of their evil in Hell can be reborn as a different, potentially good person. Piccolo states that this is what would have happened to Vegeta after he sacrificed himself to stop Majin Buu but Vegeta was resurrected before this could be done to stop Buu who survived Vegeta's sacrifice attack. Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn introduces a machine that helps with the soul-cleansing process.
  • Majin Buu is the final villain of the Z saga of Dragon Ball. After destroying him, Goku wishes for Buu to be reincarnated as a good person so he could fight him under friendlier circumstances, having come to see Buu as a Worthy Opponent. Buu was reincarnated as Uub, who became Goku's third student. This wasn't a wish on the Dragon Balls, just something Goku thought of when he killed Buu. But since King Yemma is Goku's friend, he arranged for this to happen as a favor and made sure despite being reincarnated as a human, Uub would still have his previous incarnation's supernatural powers.
• Shaman King: Hao is an interesting case in that he was reincarnated into two beings; one is The Hero Yoh, the other is Yoh's evil brother who is also named Hao.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Ryou Bakura is the reincarnation of Thief King Bakura, enemy of the Pharaoh Atem. While Bakura is a kind and compassionate person, the Thief King is anything but and frequently possesses poor Bakura to attack his friends.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: The protagonist, Yuya Sakaki, is one of four reincarnations of Zarc, the Devil Duelist who fused with his four dragons to become a being of invincible power and nearly destroyed the Original Dimension. However, Yuya truly believes in peace and desires to make everyone happy, enemies included, and thus rejects his previous incarnation's evil path. Two of the other reincarnations also have good intentions, but unfortunately what they want doesn't matter that much as Zarc can possess all his reincarnations and force them to bend to his will.
• Zatch Bell!: This happens to the Big Bad Clear Note in the finale. Using the ultimate attack, Shin Beruwan Baou Zakeruga, Zatch kills Clear Note and then remakes him as an innocent, harmless child with no memories of his past life.

Comic Books

• Doctor Who Annual: 2006: Some Vandosians kidnap an innocent human named Phil Tyson, believing him to be the reincarnation of a vicious Vandosian criminal named Shogalath, whom they seek to punish. However, this turns out to be a Subverted Trope; after saving Phil, the Ninth Doctor reveals that Shogalath actually led a peaceful revolt that inspired billions and is nothing like the monster Phil's captors believed him to be.
• Irredeemable: The Plutonian is a Fallen Hero and the main villain of the story. After his body is destroyed in the final issue, Qubit decides to redeem him by transporting his essence to another universe where he will hopefully be reborn as someone good. The final pages imply he is reborn as Superman.
• The Sandman (1989):
  • Daniel Hall/Dream II is a heroic reincarnation for his past Anti-Hero self Morpheus, being more approachable and forgiving.
  • The second Corinthian, recreated by Morpheus after the first one became a leader figure of serial killers, is a considerable more heroic character and pivotal in the rescue of Lyta's child.
  • Matthew the Raven is an inter-series example, as it's revealed that he was Abby Arcane's husband Matthew Cable in his previous life. In working for Dream he's atoning for his previous abuse of Abby and for helping Anton Arcane to come back into the world.
• The Mighty Thor: Loki was originally a fearsome enemy to his brother Thor. After being killed by the Void in Siege, Loki was reincarnated into Kid Loki, who swore to not follow the same evil path as his past self. Given Loki's nature, however, this was easier said than done, not helped by his previous selves deliberately trying to corrupt him.
• Wonder Woman (2011): The story's climax reveals that the baby Zeke is not merely Zeus's child but Zeus himself who, having grown tired of all the pain and sorrow he had caused, chose to reincarnate himself into a new form, with his daughter Athena serving as his mother in her human guise Zola. Diana implores Athena to remain as a mortal so Zeus can be raised by the mother he was denied in the previous life.

Fan Works

• A Different Lesson: The ending implies that Heian Chao is reincarnated to be given another chance to be a good person.
• Goddess Reborn Chronicle: Isa Gardner is the reincarnation of Lilith, who had become a component soul of Lucifer. Isa is more interested in exploring the world with her friend than being part of Lucifer or Lilith's plans.
• Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower: Maria Cainhurst, the penultimate boss from Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, is incarnated into Maria Campbell, the All-Loving Hero and intended heroine of Fortune Lover (if Katarina didn't make the plot Off the Rails). Part of the story involves Maria becoming a Workaholic owing to her Guilt Complex over her past life.
• The Owl House fanfic The Blood Moon reveals King to be the reincarnation of Bill Cipher and has the titular Blood Moon cause him to have nightmares of his past actions.
• Past Sins: Played with. Nightmare Moon is reincarnated as Nyx, a cute but powerful alicorn filly which Twilight Sparkle decides to look after. Unlike Nightmare Moon, who wanted eternal darkness, Nyx is good and loves Twilight, to the point that when she recovers some of her memories, she is deeply disturbed by them. Later on, the cultists who started the reincarnation finish the spell, causing Nyx to revert to her past evil self. However, Nightmare Moon now finds that Being Evil Sucks, and that she is happier being kind to ponies.
• Yang Yin: Seraphimon is a villain in this fanfic. After being destroyed by having his own attack reflected back on him, he is reborn as the innocent and harmless Patamon.
• Infinity Train: Blossomverse: It turns out passengers who die on the Infinity Train are subjected to this, being recreated into Denizens to finish their journeys while also helping others. The clearest example of this is Grace Monroe who went from the cult leader whose actions caused Chloe Cerise to die to the small music note Warbler who becomes Goh's partner.
• JoJo New Universe: After his death, Yoshikage Kira is reborn as his biological son Kengo Yamashita, who was conceived the day he was born. Kengo remembers his past life, and vows to use his new life to protect the people of Morioh alongside his True Companions.
• The Persona 5 fanfic ''The Grail's Desire has this for Yaldaboth's fate after Igor and the Velvet Room Attendants defeat him before the events of the game. Rather than outright destroying him, Igor chooses to have the God of Control see there is more to humanity than the sins he watches. He does this by turning him into Morgana. Morgana's experience with the Phantom Thieves gave him a more positive view of humanity and their desire for change. So by the time they reach the bottom of Mementos and he regains his memories, he remains firmly on the side of humanity.
• The Murder of Lila Rossi: Invoked at the end of story with the titular character. The Dragon Witch tells Lila's ghost that, with the latter's consent, she will have her reborn with a spell reminding her of her past guilt and keep her from making the same mistakes that lead to her death. When Lila is reborn as Layla Voss, she finds herself hurting if she ever told a lie.

Live-Action TV

• Charmed (1998): This applies to both Phoebe (Season 2, "Pardon My Past") and Paige (Season 4, "A Knight to Remember"), who were wicked witches in previous lives but good witches in the present. In both episodes, they had to deal with their past lives coming back to haunt them.
• Criminal Minds: Played with in the episode "Perennials." The unsub believes himself to be the reincarnation of serial killer Russel Smith, due to having been born in the next bed at the emergency room as Smith died from his injuries in a police shootout. All his life, the unsub has had an inexplicable urge to do bad things, but he believes reincarnation is his chance to be a better person, so he doesn't act on these impulses. Then one day, the brakes on his car fail, and he believes the reincarnation of one of Smith's victims is responsible. The unsub sets about locating the people who were born after the deaths of the victims so that he can kill them to stop them from coming after him again, "forcing" them to reincarnate into harmless maggots. By the end of the episode, he apparently no longer believes in this trope, since he plans to commit suicide in a maternity ward so he can reincarnate to finish his work, rather than continue to atone for it.
• Doctor Who: Zigzagged with the War Doctor. For background, after the Eighth Doctor died, he asked to regenerate into "a warrior" to fight the Time War that was tearing the universe apart and ultimately save more lives. While living as the War Doctor, he reportedly committed atrocities in the name of the greater good that he would never have been able to do otherwise, including the attempted double genocide of both Time Lord and Dalek alike in order to end the Time War. While he ultimately took took a third option with the help of two future incarnations, the Doctor couldn't remember any of this due to a Timey-Wimey Ball. Thus, when he regenerated into the Ninth Doctor, it played out as a straight example of this trope for several seasons before the Stable Time Loop restored his memories, turning it into a subversion.
• Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena's Arch-Enemy Callisto is reincarnated as Xena's daughter Eve as a way to make up for all the things that they had taken out of each other's lives.

Manhwa

• The Scholars Reincarnation: The story begins with a nameless warrior who on his quest for revenge slaughters anyone who gets in his way. He is killed in a suicide attack by a Buddhist monk and is reincarnated as Hwang Jung-Woo, a kind and learned noble's son.

Mythology & Religion

• Some believe that reincarnation is an opportunity for a bad person to return and be a better person.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted: Swan is a zigzagged example of this trope. The "shard" that gives an Exalt power isn't the same thing as their personality, but it gives them memories of previous holders and a specific emotional connection — the Lunar Bond — that can't be erased. (In flavor text, all Solars experiencing such memories describe themselves as the person who made that memory, both during and after the flashback.) So even though Swan is a genuinely Nice Guy, he has to deal with Desus' abused wife, who is still alive, very much wants revenge and is unwilling to take no for an answer.

Video Games

• Asura's Wrath: The Seven Deities are the main villains of the game and all die, most of them by Asura's hand. The epilogue which takes place 870 million years later shows them reincarnated as humans with none of the evil traits they displayed in their past lives.
• BlazBlue: Ragna the Bloodedge is the reincarnation of the Black Beast, a monster that nearly destroyed the world almost a century earlier in the setting, with its remains being used as his new replacement right arm. The second game reveals his destiny to be the harbinger of destruction and the catalyst to revive the beast to destroy the world, making him the enemy of almost the entire cast. While Ragna starts off as a vengeance-fueled Anti-Hero, some Character Development pushes him toward being a more straightforward hero and by the end of the fourth game, he has successfully averted an apocalypse and restored the world to a more prosperous state.
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Soma Cruz is the reincarnation of Dracula, the main villain of the franchise. Despite this, he is unambiguously heroic, though with the seeming need for there to be a Dark Lord, he has an uphill battle to keep himself from succumbing to darkness.
• Destiny 2: When Guardians are first risen by their Ghosts, they lose all memories of their past lives, and many Guardians are noted in the lore to have changed drastically from their past selves, by those who knew them. In the Beyond Light expansion, this turns out to be especially true in the case of the Crow, the resurrected Uldren Sov, the main villain from the Forsaken expansion. The Crow has to deal with a lot of hate and distrust because of his past life, without really knowing why, though he does note to the Young Wolf that he knows his past self did something terrible, but that he also does not want to know what it was, because he's not that person anymore. When the Crow is later confronted further by his past, he notes again to the Young Wolf of their concerns that his old self will re-emerge because of it, confiding that he's scared of that possibility as well.
• Dust: An Elysian Tail: Dust is the reincarnation of Cassius, Gaius's old friend and ally, along with a boy named Jin, who had killed him for murdering his family of Moonblood sympathizers.
• The Granstream Saga: Eon is a reincarnation of Mah Oh, the setting's equivalent of Satan. However, being adopted by the Old Hermit, he grows up good and just, and defeats the current "Mah Oh".
• Finding Light: Phoenix is the ruler of Arcadia, and was influenced into believing that humanity is a threat to the world just like Typhus and Morgoth. When the party defeats him, he immediately reincarnates, but without any memories of those ideals, turning him back into a benevolent ruler.
• Hell Night: The main protagonist is a nebbish salaryman who discovers that he is the reincarnation of a royal prince whose alien race is invading the planet. The monster which has been chasing him for the entirety of the game is actually his reanimated original body which has been seeking to reunite with its spirit. The salaryman turns his back on his former existence as the Dark Messiah, and chooses to continue living as a human, even if it does mean remaining a "weak, pathetic, chaotic, and meaningless being".
• Infinity Blade: It is implied that TEL uses the Redeemer to cause Ausar the Vile, a ruthless warlord who was killed by Raidriar, to be reborn as Siris. Siris becomes the hero for the rest of the series.
• Kirby:
  • The Greater-Scope Villain of Kirby Star Allies, Void Termina, is stated to be the reincarnation of Void, a primordial entity that exists in good or evil forms across all dimensions depending on the positive or negative energy gathered around it. While Void Termina is an evil, destructive being formed from the darkness and hatred gathered by Lord Hyness and his followers, there are indications that following his defeat his next life may be as something more benevolent. It's even implied through some of its behavior and mannerisms that Void may have already once reincarnated into a peaceful, kind and heroic form— that form being none other than Kirby himself.
    Description for the Void Soul Optional Boss: "No telling if it's true, but according to the ancient scrolls, Void Termina may rise again in other forms depending on whether positive or negative energy is gathered. It seems this being of darkness will wander the galaxy until one day he is reborn into a new existence. When he returns, hopefully it will be as... a friend."
  • In the Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, it's stated that the True Final Boss Chaos Elfilis was reborn into a patch of light upon its defeat, which its former component Elfilin absorbs into himself.
• Misao: The goal of the "Truth" route is to help the victims of Misao's revenge spree find their peace and move on to the next life, where they are reincarnated as babies and cared for by Miss Library in the hopes of them turning over a new leaf. The route also shows just what they had done to Misao to anger her so fiercely.
  • Yoshino and her gang of friends bullied Misao relentlessly, culminating in her locking Misao in the girls' bathroom and goading another student into raping her.
  • Otome posted a mushy and heartfelt poem Misao wrote for Tohma for all the school to see, embarrassing her and worsening Yoshino's bullying.
  • Kudoh was Misao's childhood friend, but they grew apart in their teen years. When Yoshino started bullying Misao, he did nothing to help her.
  • Misao looked up to Mr. Sohta, and after being raped, went to him for comfort. Mr. Sohta then attempted to force himself onto her, and when she rejected him, he murdered her and kept parts of her body in his desk. Notably, while Yoshino, Otome, and Kudoh were reincarnated into human babies, Mr. Sohta was reincarnated as a cat due to his especially heinous actions.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Starter Villain Tartuccio is reincarnated by a mischievous fey into the body of a kobold, after having spent much of the early game disguised as one in order to fool a tribe of kobolds. As a kobold, Tartuk is a considerably humbler and more idealistic being, who despite still being Chaotic Evil is willing to trust the Player Character should they spare him and his nascent nation. He will even become an 11th-Hour Ranger in the endgame and rally his new tribe against the Lantern King if he's made into an ally.
• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: Futomimi was once a brutal delinquent and serial killer. However, after meeting a girl who told him how nice it was to be loved, Futomimi found himself wanting to be the kind of person who could be loved by anyone. Then the Conception occurred which destroyed most of mankind leaving remnants of mankind's emotions to be reborn as Manikins, and Futomimi was born from the positive emotions of his previous life.
• Zigzagged with recurring character Asakim Down from the Super Robot Wars Z saga, who is seemingly designed as a Darker and Edgier version of Masaki Andoh, the oldest Original Generation in the Super Robot Wars franchise, down to sharing the same voice actor; even the name "Asakim" is a Sdrawkcab Name for Masaki. While the latter is an upbeat Idiot Hero who, for the most part, is normal, Asakim is an immortal vampiric-like being who's manipulative, cruel and frequently exclaims about sin and despair. In the ending of the Z saga, Asakim succeeds at his ultimate goal of finding a way to die, giving a peaceful smile for the first time and states "The wind is calling me. That voice I heard once before...", which so happens to be the opening lyrics to Masaki's Leitmotif "Neppu! Shippu! Cybuster!", thus implying that Asakim will become Masaki in subsequent iterations of the universe (i.e. the Alternate Continuities of other Super Robot Wars games). The Moon Dwellers even teases at this connection - Masaki is forced to replace his mecha's power source with a Black Magic one, with the Big Bad of this game telling Masaki, in particular, when warning the heroes that Past-Life Memories can drive a person mad.
• Tales of Innocence:
  • Ricardo is the reincarnation of Hypnos, the leader of the Ratio who opposed Asura and the Sensus. Reincarnated, he is the group's "Traitor" figure Eventually getting the party locked up on an island prison, but he doesn't do it out of maliciousness and bears no ill will towards anyone in the group - even helping them out.
  • This is revealed to be the case of Inanna and Durandal - who were reincarnated as Iria and Spada, respectively. Not only were they members of Ratio along with Hypnos, they were sent specifically to kill Asura, and their betrayal of Asura was so strong that Asura split into two reincarnations - Luca and Mathias.

Webcomics

• Jack (David Hopkins): It is possible for souls damned to Hell or Purgatory to be reborn as good people and be given another chance at getting into Heaven.
• Kaiten Mutenmaru: Jagan, Astar, and Trishna, three of the primary villains of Season 2, reincarnate in the epilogue and extra material after their defeats. Sister Meer takes Jagan in at the request of Eryth and Ritol while Astar and Trishna work alongside Tetsujin in Corale.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: Yabalchoath was a tyrannical ebon devil who was killed by the angels and her own abused slaves. She is reincarnated as Cio, a cynical but heroic blue devil who despises her past self to the point that she refuses to regain the powers of her original incarnation.
• The Sanity Circus: The Scarecrows going on a murderous spree across the city cannot be killed by normal means, as they always revive in a new body after death. Attley, the protagonist of the comic, is unknowingly a Scarecrow who Came Back Wrong as a little girl with complete amnesia and was raised as a normal child before The Reveal caught up to her.

Web Videos

• What if Frieza Was Reincarnated? by Salad Saiyan: Taking inspiration from Buu's reincarnation as Uub in GT, the video is an examination of how Frieza being reincarnated as a good guy would play out.
  • The same youtuber did a similar idea with Cell being reincarnated as a heroic Namekian.

Western Animation

• The Secret Saturdays: Much of the conflict revolves around the fact that the plucky Kid Hero Zak is actually the reincarnation of Kur, an ancient cryptid worshiped as an evil deity that many want to control. Kur is said to have destroyed entire civilizations and is destined to do it again, starting with humanity. Zak's not too happy about this and strives to avoid becoming Kur again. Not helping is that some of Kur's worshipers are still around and want to force him to become Kur.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): The Ultimate Ninja was an adversary of the Turtles from his first appearance in Season 2. In the Season 3 two-parter episode "The Real World", the Ultimate Ninja is killed in battle alongside Drako. Lord Simultaneous uses his Time Scepter to resurrect the Ultimate Ninja as his child self when he was more innocent. The Ultimate Ninja's next few appearances have him befriending the Turtles, and he even attends April and Casey's wedding.

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