Warning: As this trope deals with attempted Heel-Face Turns - more specifically with those meeting resistance and the natural consequences thereof - spoilers naturally abound.
Characters who struggle to be accepted while making a sincere effort to reform in Literature.
- The Black Arrow: When Captain Arblaster -whose ship had previously been stolen by the protagonist to carry one of his plans out- gets captured and nearly executed in the aftermath of the Battle of Shoreby, Dick successfully pleads with Richard Plantagenet to save his life, at the cost of falling out of favor with the Yorkist leader. Arblaster does not care about Dick saving him or regretting his actions, though, and he tells Dick to get out of his sight after pointing out that his ship's theft caused this situation (and his first mate Tom's death) in the first place.
- Bloodline: In the sequel, Reckoning, Quincey Harker—undergoing a crisis of conscience—attempts to redeem himself, including abstaining from human blood. Unfortunately, when he reaches out to his former enemy, Mary Seward, for help, she flatly rejects his sincerity. While she does reluctantly agree to help him, she spends the bulk of the book constantly suspicious and distrustful of his motives.
- The Cloak Society:
- In Jeramey Kraatz's novel Villains Rising, downplayed — but Amp still grumbles that they can't trust the former Cloak Society members.
- In Fall of Heroes, Carla argues more seriously than you can't trust the kids who were just working for Cloak a month ago.
- In A Clockwork Orange, the sociopathic protagonist Alex is released into society after having been subjected to a treatment which acts as a Restraining Bolt; though still evil at heart, he is incapable of committing violent acts and is therefore considered by the state to be reformed, subverting the idea of true reformation. He is turned away from his parents' house, gets attacked by his former victims and subjected to police brutality, unable to defend himself.
- Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files often finds himself in this boat with the White Council. He tries his best to live as an honest, if somewhat unusual, wizard but the Council is constantly watching him for a slip-up. They even term it the "Doom of Damocles"; one more mistake and they'll have him eliminated. He's freed of this at the end of the first book in the series; it's just that most members of the White Council of Wizards still think he's a ticking time bomb. And in Proven Guilty, the eighth book in the series, Harry does come under the Doom of Damocles again, indirectly. He takes an apprentice, Molly Carpenter, who is a warlock in the judgment of the White Council, and she is under the Doom; if she again commits an act of black magic, she dies, and Harry dies with her for failing to keep her on the straight and narrow.
- Xanth, from The Edge Chronicles is an example of someone who actually was that bad before his Heel–Face Turn, but still isn't accepted by anyone except Rook (The Hero) and Magda. They do form a solid Nakama, however.
- In The Guardians of Time Trilogy by Marianne Curley, Marduke's trusted helper, Rochelle, suffers this big-time. Only trusted by Arkarian initially, eventually everybody by Ethan comes around, until the end, where he does too, getting together with her as his soulmate—only to be thwarted immediately by a Heroic Sacrifice on her part, and go momentarily bloodthirsty...only to let it go and decide to let the curse placed on anyone who kills her turn the murderer to stone at sunset. The only solace depressed readers have in the face of this possibly Bittersweet Ending-making even, as the trilogy ends right after it, is that at least they can be together in the heavenly realm after he lives out his mortal life.
- Vanessa in Fablehaven is distrusted strongly enough by the main characters, partially for their actions as The Mole and partially because their means of doing so was quite insidious. Thus, when they claim to have changed (at least, when allowed out of their absolutely safe prison), including being genuine friends with one of the characters, no one believes them and most of the crew refuses to take them back. Eventually, they do so out of sheer desperation.
- In Left Behind, once characters have accepted the Mark of the Beast, they are forever damned to Hell regardless of whether or not they genuinely reform. This leads to characters such as Krystall or Vasily Medvedev, whom our POV characters meet and interact with and are highly regretful, but have already taken the mark and thus cannot be saved.
- Much of the main plot of Les Misérables is bound up with Jean Valjean's attempts to re-enter society after spending time in prison after stealing a loaf of bread. Inspector Javert chases after him every step of the way. Eventually, Valjean is able to prove himself a decent — even heroic — individual, causing Javert to commit suicide because he simply can't deal with this concept.
- Subverted in The Scarlet Letter. Shunned by the Puritans for her adultery, Hester is forced to bear an "A" on her dress. She continues to dwell near the community out on the outskirts to bear responsibility for her actions (and wait for her lover). The community later commends Hester for her charity work and resuming kindness in the face of her past sin. Double subverted in that Hester does not accept being accepted, loathes the idea that the magistrates consider having her remove her A, and looks to cope with her sin on her own. Considering it has plenty to do with the Defiled Forever trope, that's quite impressive.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, Jaime "Kingslayer" Lannister is first seen as a true villain who attempts to murder an eight-year-old boy in his very first scene. Through Character Development over the course of the next three books, however, he is revealed as more a deeply bitter and disillusioned man than a truly evil one. An encounter with a female knight, plus a personal tragedy, causes him to start re-evaluating his life and his actions, and he begins to try to reclaim the knightly ideals he abandoned as a teenager. His efforts to this point have been met with nothing but jeers and open disbelief on the part of everyone he meets, and whether or not he will succeed in reforming remains to be seen, but his intentions toward that end are genuine.
- It doesn't help that although he shows signs of trying to act more honorable, he's still working on behalf of the regime that terrorized the kingdom. Edmure and Brynden Tully are somewhat astounded that he's trying to act repentant, considering that he's trying to get them to give up their castle and surrender to the family that committed unparalleled atrocities in the region, and under Cersei's rule is showing no signs of improving.
- Star Wars:
- Star Wars Expanded Universe: For many years Leia refuses to forgive Anakin for his actions as Darth Vader, even though Luke tried to encourage her to do so. After her parentage is revealed in the novel "Bloodline" she remains steadfast in refusing to forgive Anakin, and tells a fellow Senator that she wants nothing to do with Anakin and considers Bail Organa her real father.
- Happened a lot in Star Wars Legends:
- Leia refuses to accept Anakin's Heroic Sacrifice as anything other than ten minutes of contrition that doesn't excuse two decades of atrocities.
- Almost no one other than Cade Skywalker believes that the Yuuzhan Vong are capable of reform.
- Although Ben's erstwhile girlfriend Vestara and the rest of the Lost Tribe have done a pretty good job showing us that darksiders can be rational, and are not necessarily always outright Axe-Crazy evil villains. Though in true Sith fashion, they will do whatever it takes to get power.
- In one of the St Clare's books, new girl Mirabel is angry at being sent away to school, so she pulls every prank she can to annoy the teachers and hopes that the other girls will enjoy the pranks... which they don't, since she's simply making a nuisance of herself and holding up the classes (and occasionally gets them all punished). Finally, Mirabel realises what an idiot she was and tells the principal, Ms Theobald, that she intends to turn over a new leaf since she was tired of being silly. Ms Theobald gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that goes, "Oh, I see. You haven't really realised the errors of your ways at all, have you? No, you just got tired of having everyone think you're an idiot, so you've decided to play it nice. I really thought you had something more than this in you, but now I see that you're just a total cow, and you're not worth putting any effort into," in response, and Mirabel never gets to explain what she meant.
- Tales From Alcatraz: Piper is a Little Miss Con Artist for most of the series, and is secure in the knowledge that being the warden's daughter lets her get away with a lot. In Al Capone Throws Me a Curve, Moose spends the next several chapters being adamant that Piper's up to no good when she befriends Natalie right when tension between their fathers is at an all-time high. However, Piper really does get along with Natalie and helps stop an attempt to use her to make Mr. Flanagan look bad.
- In There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, Bradley starts off as the most feared bully in the school. After a few sessions with Carla, the school psychologist who is the only person to have faith in him being a good person, Bradley vows to turn over a new leaf and be a better person. Unfortunately, his genuine but clumsy attempts to be kinder to his family and peers were chalked up as either more tricks or sarcasm at first. Fortunately everyone eventually accepts that he really is being a nicer person.
- In This Is Not a Werewolf Story, Vincent, due to both misunderstandings and petty revenge, betrays Raul to the villain and gets him Shapeshifter Mode Locked; it's a couple of months before his guilt finally becomes so overwhelming that he confesses and helps Raul get back to normal. Raul admits that he wants to forgive him but finds it hard, as he still has nightmares about the experience.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- In James Swallow's Deus Sanguinius, the Blood Angels decide at the end to execute all those who had followed Arkio. Some even argued for it for Rafen, who had served as their champion against him. Rafen gets their lives as his reward, though they will be subjected to rites of purification. (Mephiston warns him that many will not survive the rites; Rafen says that they will survive.)
- In Red Fury, Ajir cannot comprehend how Rafen accepted two of these "penitents" into his company, and when one goes to help him, he bitterly rejects it.
