This is why you don't want to take the Atoner for granite.
"Long is the way, and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light."
Once, there was a major villain named Bob. He committed every crime one could think of, and he did it with a song in his heart and a skip in his step. Then, something happened to make him see the horror of what he was doing. He realized how much pain he had caused, and he set out on a Redemption Quest to try to make it right.
The Atoner is an evil character who has realized the error of his ways, possibly wants to make amends, and has decided that they will do so via heroic deeds. Simple imprisonment won't do, because it does nothing to make recompense for what he's done wrong. Besides, he still has all these amazing skills and resources from the Bad Old Days — wouldn't it be better to use them for good?
The problem is, Bob often has to wrestle with the temptation to return to his old ways, along with the massive guilt built up over years of carefree evil. Also, said previous villain skills usually involve killing people in very messy ways, which can result in karmically harmful situations. Other times Bob's evil side won't go down without a fight, and manifests itself as an Enemy Within. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that morality isn't a book that can be balanced — no amount of babies saved now will bring Bob's past victims back to life. The Atoner usually realizes that "Redemption is the path, not the destination" thanks to The Redeemer and continues for the rest of his life.
Sometimes 'the rest of his life' is short because Redemption Equals Death. Generally the only Atoners who avoid this are main characters who are already in the atoning stage by the series' start. Atoners often end up as Knights in Sour Armor. Those who believe redemption inherently equals death may well become Death Seekers.
A subtrope of this is "Assassin Wants to Quit". Stories involving them allow us to cheer on the assassin as they battle their former employers using the same murderous skills they honed during their previous career. Atoners sometimes go on a Redemption Quest in order to atone. If their deed of atonement is especially painful, it may overlap with The Penance.
Would-be Atoners who are not sincere are trying to Buy Them Off. Not to be confused with The Aloner, though they can both coincide if the character is trying to atone for killing off everyone else on the planet. And especially not to be confused with The Stoner (unless they turned to drugs to cope with their guilt). The Atoner may face rejection and hatred from those who don't believe he's reformed, which is Reformed, but Rejected, and more importantly, he must be careful not to run into the Heel–Face Door-Slam. In some instances, however, there are characters who will acknowledge The Atoner's change of heart, but do so in a grudging manner. The Atoner must also beware of one character who actively seeks to end his path to redemption.
The success rate of atoners depends on where the work sits on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. In more idealistic works, or at least ones that posit that people can change for the better, atoners may have a greater chance of success, as proof that no matter what one's actions may have been in the past, it's always possible to change for the better and do good.
Genuine atoners have a high chance of becoming The Woobie, especially if they were an Anti-Villain in the first place. See also, Be All My Sins Remembered, where they continue to suffer a guilt complex over their past misdeeds. Contrast with My Greatest Failure — instead of a formerly evil character turning from their past, a good character feels the need to atone for not preventing a bad outcome (regardless of whether they could have changed anything), and Retired Monster — a villain who has retired from their villainy but hasn't shown any regret or remorse for their misdeeds nor has made any attempt to redeem themselves. The Atoner may have experienced Go and Sin No More, and may enact a Self-Punishment Over Failure or have a Guilt-Induced Nightmare. Often a reason why they don't mind a beating and why the Killer Incapacitates Instead. See also Apology Tour, where we see them go make amends to everyone on their list. The Atoner is often quick to offer forgiveness to others who have strayed.
Compare and contrast White Sheep, when the misdeeds the Atoner is trying to make amends for were committed by their family rather than themselves.
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Music
- "The Man Who Would be King" (named, but not based by book-movie) by Iron Maiden.
Destiny, no good to hide away/Penance now will be his only way/Understand, no good to run away/Penance now will be his saving grace
- "The Noose" by A Perfect Circle.
I'm more than just a little curious/How you're planning on going about making your amends/To the dead
- "What I've Done" by Linkin Park
I'll face myself/To cross out what I've become/Erase myself/And let go of what I've done
- "Working My Way Back To You" by The Four Seasons, about an abusive ex-boyfriend who sees the error of his ways too late and is now trying to win the girl back, unsuccessfully to date.
- "Awoken"
by H8_Seed and Glaze.
I've stoked the fire, seen more pain than you can know/The tears of the broken have washed away my soul/Pushed by desire to change the way my stream will flow/Now I've awoken, and I'm taking back control - The song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin focuses on a father who is far too busy with his work to connect with his son. By the time the father has the time (i.e. the son has grown up), he tries to reach out to his son and atone, but by then, his son is, like his father, far too busy.
- "I'll Be Good" by Jaymes Young is about a man who wishes to atone for his bad behavior in the past.
I never meant to start a fire
I never meant to make you bleed
I'll be a better man... today
I'll be good, I'll be good. - "Oshrad Bonebreaker", a fantasy-inspired ballad by Clamavi de Profundis, details the story of the titular orc, an infamous warlord, who changed his ways after seeing the other orcs torturing a dwarf prisoner.
Mythology
- Classical Mythology: Heracles did this a lot. Because he didn't know his own strength, he was always accidentally killing or severely maiming people. At one point this got so bad that the citizens of Athens refused to accept him into the city until his buddy/cousin Theseus vouched for him. Hercules, however, kept trying to convince his friend that the citizens were right. In fact his famous twelve labors were atonement for when he killed his wife and children (though to be fair it was because Hera cursed him with temporary insanity). Another time he was forced to work as a man-servant for a woman for several years. While wearing a dress.
Podcasts
- In In Strange Woods, during the Final, Peregrine makes it her mission to find and help her friends as atonement for getting them into the life-threatening situation to begin with.
- Malevolent gives us the Entity/John, who mentions in episode 3 that he has to "hope that any creature can be redeemed", and later it's revealed he is actually a fractured piece of the King in Yellow, and after being separated and bound to a book, killed at least two people. His character arc revolves around his desire to become a person independent from The King, and he is trying to be a better person.
Professional Wrestling
- Antonio Banks turned Montel Vontavious Porter. His wrestling career is atonement, as he was arranged to enter the sport by his corrections officer in an attempt to keep him from going back to prison. It worked, and while it's still real, this element of his on set persona virtually disappeared when he was hired by WWE, up until the Miz decided to mock him for it out of the blue. Up until then the most he ever got accused of being was "New Money."
- ODB and Jacqueline, in their quest to get their TNA contracts back, though ODB was always a face in TNA, even when she wasn't supposed to be. They were contrasted by Traci Brooks, who said they should just accept TNA has moved on and wasn't going to use them, like she had.
- Money hungry Steve Corino and railroad spike wielding fiend Jimmy Jacobs willingly spent 2011 trying to atone for their sins and strove to be good from now on. Then Kevin Steen had to come and ruin it.
- Jeff Hardy was this in late 2011 in TNA. After being completely stoned off his guard in the Victory Road 2011 main event a few months earlier, he came back to apologize to the fans and was asking for forgiveness from the other wrestlers for this. His road to redemption was completed as he defeats Austin Aries for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in Bound For Glory 2012.
Roleplays
- In Campus Life, Mewtwo is revealed to have abandoned the family of cloned Pokemon he created when threatened by Team Rocket. He now spends time developing inventions to improve the lives of people in third-world countries, and has a bad case of Chronic Hero Syndrome.
- Several characters in Dino Attack RPG:
- Amanda Remous used to be a ruthless assassin and mercenary who was nearly borderline terrorist. After reuniting with her brother, she began to regret the things she did and joined Dino Attack Team, striving to redeem herself of the crimes she committed.
- General George Ogel used to be the ruthless general to Evil Ogel's Skeleton Done armies. However, when he reunited with Talia Kaahs, he had a Heel Realization and decided to make it his goal to redeem himself.
- George Brown was a young man who got caught in the wrong side of the realist-idealist feud, and later provided information on Cam O'Cozy and volunteered for a campaign in the hopes of redeeming himself.
- Blaire Darkling tried to do this, leaving behind his life as the dangerous criminal Matthew Vherestorm and tried to redeem himself by working for Paradox, an organization devoted to researching the Maelstrom to help Nexus Force defeat it. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out, as this ultimately landed him in another organization, XERRD, which went on to create the Dino Attack apocalypse.
- In The Gamer's Alliance, Omaroch becomes this after he breaks free from the dark god Mardük's control. He sees it as his fault that his sons ended up on a dark path, and he was partially responsible for the birth of the Godslayer who shattered the world's continents. He wants to atone for his past actions and hopes to be able to set things right again even if it means sacrificing himself to achieve that goal.
- Superhero Hype RPGS: Sinestro is this in the World of Heroes roleplay, with interesting consequences.
- JJ Sturn from Survival of the Fittest version four, although he wasn't quite as extreme as many examples listed here: He was a giant asshole especially towards women, although he did have his own share of more unpleasant actions.
Tabletop Games
- Arkham Horror's "Dunwich Horror" expansion adds Diana Stanley as a playable character. She joined the city's exclusive Silver Twilight Lodge and learned to her horror that they plan to awaken an Eldritch Abomination into the world. Diana is now the mole in the cult planning on thwarting them—granting her bonuses the closer they get to succeeding.
- Every player character in Demon: The Fallen is a demon, one of those who fought against God and the angels in the War of Wrath. In modern times, there's a faction called the Reconcilers, who have asked themselves, "What if we really were the bad guys?" They work to either undo their sins and return to Heaven, or, if that's impossible, to at least fix the damage they did to the world all those years ago.
- The Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook Fiendish Codex II introduces the Hellbred, former evildoers who repented of their actions before they were condemned to Hell, but too late to gain entry to the heavens. The good deities reincarnate them into fiendish-looking bodies to give them one last chance to prove their search for redemption is genuine, and since only the greatest of heroic deeds will free their souls from damnation, the Hellbred throw themselves into their quests with zeal and desperation.
- One of the two main paths for Abyssal Exalted is to become this, make up for their dark deeds in the service of the Void and work their asses off to avoid spontaneously combusting from Resonance. If they can pull it off, they become Solars, without the Great Curse that messed up so very much of the First Age. The potential impact of this remains to be seen.
- In Fabula Ultima, the Repentant Enforcer quirk represents a character who had previously worked for a villainous organization, only to turn their back on the group once they realized the full extent of its evil. The character now seeks to make things right by helping to bring their former organization down, with the quirk granting mechanical benefits for thwarting the organization's activities or redressing its wrongs.
- The Loyalists of Thule in Hunter: The Vigil have an Ancient Conspiracy-wide Guilt Complex, and it rubs off on its members. Why? Oh, nothing, they just helped the Nazis in World War II and they largely believe themselves responsible for the Holocaust as a result. Yeah, they have issues.
- In the world of In Nomine (an ongoing War between Heaven and Hell), it is possible for a demon to redeem and join the ranks of the angels, fighting to undo the evil they once supported. Just remember that old habits can be hard to break...
- In the world of The Lost Citadel, many humans of the Surinzan and Venmir are wracked with guilt over the Dirty Business of their ancestors. The Surinzan in particular have to all practical effects split into two factions; those who believe their race needs to find some way to make amends for their sins, and those who doing everything they can to deny that they did anything wrong in the first place.
- This is the background of Magic: The Gathering Legends card Pavel Maliki.
- There's a similar effect with Repentant Vampire.
- There's a similar effect with Repentant Vampire
- The Apok class from the Wormwood setting from Palladium Books centers on people who were thoroughly evil, but who realized the depths of their evil and felt a powerful urge to repent, immersing themselves in a Lifeforce Cauldron to cement this recantation of their sins. As a result, they are among the most powerful agents of good on Wormwood, completely immune to supernatural corruption and feeling no fear at horrific sights. Their devotion to good is unquestionable, but they usually work alone, as they know people still remember their evil days and are probably not in a rush to forgive them.
- Pathfinder:
- Here's a canonical tale: Some years before the setting's current time, a fourteen-year-old Street Urchin named Seelah stole a paladin's helm, intending to pawn it for food money. The paladin, Acemi, was so kind she let Seelah get away with it, thinking the girl's poverty was such that she needed the helm more than Acemi. Of course, Acemi was there as part of a force fighting to save Seelah's home town from gnolls; Acemi died in the fighting from blow to the head. Seelah, consumed with guilt, returned the helm with the intent to commit suicide on the paladin's funeral pyre. Instead, she was taken in by the order and became the iconic paladin.
- The Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path features a succubus called Arueshalae who decided to peek in a dying priestess of Desna's dreams and got caught red-handed by Desna, who decided to give her a chance and awakened her soul, and ever since she's been struggling to change her nature to become a force of good - her first action was to save a child that found themselves in the Worldwound, and which might eventually become one of the AP's heroes. When the PCs find her, Arueshalae is a few tasks away from full redemption.
- The Asilos of Splinter (2012) are an entire race of atoners. They're incapable of letting go of their past and are primarily driven by the desire to repent for their sins by doing good.
- Some Dwarfs in Warhammer may find themselves unable to fulfill an oath, and so to assuage their honor join the Slayer cult, dyeing their hair red, eschewing armor, grabbing an axe, and throwing themselves at the worst monster they can find to either kill it or be killed by it. (Un)successful ones may graduate from Troll Slayers to become Giant Slayers, Dragon Slayer, or even Daemon Slayers.
- In Warhammer 40,000:
- The Dark Angels are a Space Marines chapter that refers to themselves as the Unforgiven, because during the Horus Heresy a portion of their force turned traitor out of pride or confusion. This being 40k, their method of atonement is to hunt down these Fallen Angels and "redeem" them by torturing them to death, and it's hinted that perhaps the original Dark Angels were traitors themselves who were sitting out the Horus Heresy until a winner emerged.
- Cypher, one of the Fallen, seems to be seeking redemption and may or may not be the key to the salvation of the Dark Angels, if not the Imperium as a whole. Naturally, the Dark Angels are intent on putting him down.
- Inquisitors can add Penitent Witches to their retinues, as psychic lightning rods that can absorb psychic attacks that would otherwise hit the Inquisitor.
- The Sisters of Battle field units of Sisters Repentia, who have decided to atone for some real or imagined failure by stripping down to a few strategic scraps of prayer-inscribed parchment, grabbing a two-handed chainsword, and charging at the enemy.
- The planet Krieg went through a rebellion that resulted in five hundred years of civil war and the self-inflicted atomic cleansing of its surface. To atone for this lapse in loyalty, the Death Korps of Krieg now commits to the bloodiest sieges and most horrific meat grinders in the galaxy.
- The ancient Eldar empire became so decadent and depraved that it created the Chaos God Slaanesh, so the Craftworld Eldar who survived it live extremely regimented and spartan lives to avoid the mistakes of the past. The Dark Eldar for the most part continue the old traditions, but some will have a Heel Realization and leave Commorragh for new lives among Exodite societies, Harlequin troupes, or simply as hermits, mercenaries and corsairs. This may not sound like much, but considering what kind of stuff the Dark Eldar do, it's a really big improvement.
- Uriah Olathaire, the last Christian priest on Terra during the Unification Wars, was a spoiled drunkard, womanizer and hired gun before his vision of "God" after surviving a one-sided battle against the Emperor's Thunder Warriors. He argues with a mysterious man named "Revelation" about the merits of religion, saying that his "superstitions" have allowed him to let go of his past and pursue a life of charity.
- The tale of Gagagigo, one of the very few instances of continuity within the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, shows the tale of a lizard warrior who once hungered for power, and, after the Marauding Captain takes an attack for him, becomes this. Unfortunately, he would ultimately lose his morality after becoming a cyborg.
Theatre
- Miss Saigon: After the war, John learns to atone for his (and his country's) actions by participating in charities for Vietnam's abandoned bụi đời children.
- In Pokémon Live!, Delia tries to be this to protect Ash from knowing her troubled past with Team Rocket.
Toys
- In BIONICLE, Brutaka is treated as one: sent to the highest security prison in this verse, sent to a suicide mission as probation, then welcomed back in the Hero Secret Service. The big surprise is that his best friend Axonn, who had to stop him when he betrayed, is another, according to the Atlas.
Visual Novels
- Yanagi in Canvas 2 after stealing the main character's painting five years ago.
- Deconstructed with Valerian Trifa from Dies Irae. Back when he was just a kindly priest, he attempted to run away from the madness of the Longinus Dreizehn Orden alongside the orphan children he cared for. Unfortunately, Reinhard found him and as punishment forced Trifa to pick ten of the children to be executed right in front of him. This lead to him blaming himself for their deaths due to being weak and unable to protect them in the face of adversity and vows to make amends. This vow however becomes an obsession and ends up making him blind to just how wicked he has become by the start of the story and to how flawed and nonsensical his idea of atonement really is.
- Downplayed with the protagonist of Double Homework. He killed 12 people by starting an avalanche, but that was an accident. And he made enemies of many jealous classmates, but not because he intended to be mean. And he has plenty of opportunities for self-gratification during his atonement.
- Fragment's Note: In the second game, this is what inspires Yukitsuki to go into psychology and to a lesser extent help Kyoichi with his own psychological problems.
- The Fruit of Grisaia:
- Yuuyi has quite a few things that haunts him from his past, and it's obvious he has done things he regrets to this day. Throughout the novell he wonders numerous times whether he even deserves a peaceful life, let alone happiness.
- Amane feels this especially towards Yuuji. She has this in general, living with survivors guilt as the sole survivor of a terrible accident. However when the same person's brother shows up in her school, whom she was force to leave behind, that feeling quadruples.
- Yumiko's father Michiaki becomes this after being defeated, wondering where his life went utterly wrong and realising that he can no longer feel empathy for the people he hurt.
- In Hatoful Boyfriend, Sakazaki Yuuya is midway between this point and My Greatest Failure. When he was very young someone killed his father to marry his mother, and would have killed his unhatched brother. Yuuya hung on to it and switched it with his new half-brother's egg so his brother would survive, then smashed the new egg. This action weighs heavily on him years later and is something he's unable to ever forget, though he's fully accepted it and what it means, and so he tries endlessly to do good and save people.
- Higurashi: When They Cry:
- In the appropriately-named "Atonement Chapter" ("Tsumihoroboshi-hen"), Keiichi is briefly able to break through the "Groundhog Day" Loop and is allowed to clearly see his actions in the first arc, in which the Hate Plague drove him to isolate himself from his friends and murder Rena and Mion. He becomes The Atoner as a result and redoubles his efforts to try and save Rena, who is now in the same boat as he was. Also, before he moved to Hinamizawa, he was a nihilistic loner who got his kicks by shooting at little kids with a pellet gun. When he severely injures a little kid (as opposed to the bruises it usually caused) he realized how horrible his actions were and turned over a new leaf.
- Shion goes from Satoko's persecutor in Meakashi-hen to her loving big sister who's willing to sacrifice her life for in the final arcs, "Minagoroshi-hen" and "Matsuribayashi-hen".
- In Kiss of Revenge, Issei Sezaki is haunted by a mistake he made during a during a routine operation which led to the death of his patient. He's spent the more than ten years since the incident devoting himself to the patients of his hospital and doing everything humanly possible to give them and their families the best of care; the nurses are used to seeing him pulling all-night research sessions when not on call, and he keeps a notebook filled with the details of every patient he fails to save, keeping the guilt fresh. When confronted by the daughter of the patient he accidentally killed, he takes it even further, making a public confession of the mistake and deciding to quit medicine entirely, and going so far as to offer to kill himself if that's what it will take to make amends.
- Little Busters!: Mio holds a huge guilt complex for forgetting Midori, her imaginary friend turned real from childhood, after her parents sent her to therapy and gave her medication. Her route even involves her giving up her entire existence so that Midori can live instead of her. It's even sadder in that in the real world, Midori doesn't actually exist—she only appears in the game because that's part of the world Mio had the boys create.
- Love Bakudan has Ayame Tokugawa. Ayame is implied to have done many terrible things to people when she was growing up, before she (presumably) hit a point in her life that made her stop. It's unclear what the catalyst for this was, but she now spends her life trying to make amends for the things she caused.
- Monster Prom: Coach took his job as a PE teacher and coach at a high school to break with his father, who earned a fortune as a spokesman for nutritionally-bankrupt breakfast cereal.
- This is a running theme in the Parascientific Escape series. The villain of each game realizes their evil and attempts to make up for it. In fact, the villains of the first two games turn themselves in to jail and do go on trial! Misaki, villain of the first game, is found Not Guilty due to coercion and is allowed to go free. Tsukiko, villain of the second, is guilty but is eventually allowed to live under house arrest on the grounds she serves as a spy for Yukiya.
- Piofiore: Fated Memories As an otome game about the mafia, this trope is rampant.
- Henri Lambert struggles greatly over the murders he has committed and the implication of what it means for him to continue to live. He does not believe he can ever be forgiven for his crimes and believes he should continue to suffer because of what he has done in the past. He does feel great guilt over subjecting the heroine to a life with him, and this serves as one of the main reasons he tries to push the heroine away from him romantically.
- Orlok, though he has only killed on the Church's orders (for most of the first game, depending on the ending) he believes he will never go to Heaven. He believes the murders he has committed in the past were necessary and he continues to believe in his role as a Disciple of the Church, but also believes that he can never be forgiven.
- Dante Falzone, as the capo of the Falzone family, has committed many crimes and does not believe he will find salvation. However, he does not believe he should change the way he lives.
- Mamiya Shinzo in The Shell. He went insane and turned his lover into a model for a fresco by cutting off all her limbs and putting her into a large black egg. When he regained his sanity, he absolutely repented and felt the fresco was a horrible horrible thing, but by then it was too late and worse, there was no real way to atone for it.
- SHUFFLE!: After discovering that it was not Rin's fault that her beloved mother died, after mistakenly believing it was because Rin willingly took the blame to prevent her from dying out of despair, Kaede Fuyou makes her purpose in life "to serve Rin-kun" — so she can make up to him for all the tremendous abuse she piled up on him.
- Umineko: When They Cry:
- In Episode 7, we learn that he was responsible for the maintenance of Beatrice II's Gilded Cage. Unable to forgive himself for allowing her to be abused by her father, and terrified that Kinzo would inflict the same suffering on Sayo, he faked Sayo's death and passed the child off as an orphan. Alas, making Sayo work as a servant in the Ushiromiya estate just in the hope that she and Kinzo could be reunited one day was yet another mistake—one that, according to "Confession of the Golden Witch", he was willing to atone for by knowingly assisting Sayo in her murder-suicide plot.
- In the end, it turns out Kinzō is all too aware of the tragic extent of his failings towards his entirely family. It turns out the whole deal with the epitaph was actually his wild gamble to establish contact with Sayo, grant her the headship, and try to somehow make up for what he did to his daughter Beatrice.
- In EP8, Eva acknowledges her guilt for the suffering of her niece Ange and openly tries to remedy this with the help of Battler who creates a final game where the family can make good memories with Ange. Eva is assigned as Ange's main helper to make up for her failure at amending their relationship during life.
Web Animation
- El Guapo vs The Narco Vampires: Main character El Guapo is a former unrestrained hedonist who attempts to renounce his old ways and free Tijuana from the Narco Vampires in order to atone for his irresponsibility condemning his saintly brother to Hell.
- The Music Freaks: Downplayed with Jake. He used to be part of a Gang of Bullies who were mean to Zander and Hailey, but after joining the Music club, he tries to make it up to them, even getting them support from the entire school.
- Red vs. Blue:
- Agent Washington, formerly of Project Freelancer, becomes this after working with the Meta against the Blood Gulch Crew. Exemplified when Locus tries to give him a "Not So Different" Remark.
Washington: I know I used to be a real piece of shit, but at least I am trying to do something about it.
- Locus also becomes this later on, realizing his actions have made him a monster instead of the soldier he wants to be. Accepting his atrocities, he betrays his partner, Felix, to die, and vows to right his wrongs:
Tucker: Hey, just because you saved us doesn't mean you get to leave, asshole. You killed innocent people!
Locus: I know. And I'm going to make things right. But not from inside a cell.
- Agent Washington, formerly of Project Freelancer, becomes this after working with the Meta against the Blood Gulch Crew. Exemplified when Locus tries to give him a "Not So Different" Remark.
- VCraft Enchanted: Deconstructed with Zealand. He feels deeply remorseful for his time as a battle mage and goes out of his way to help others to make up for the destruction he had wrought in his youth. However, he has never actually moved past his inner rage, but rather suppressed it. Furthermore, Vetruvius II reminds himself far too much of his younger self, due to their similar upbringings, that he could never forgive. This, combined with Vetruvius, Kalvin, and Leo's betrayals, are what lead to him leaving New Witchington for good after they were accepted back into the community.
Webcomics
- By the end of Aisopos both Rikes and Solon become this. And it's heavily implied by the ending and the myth that Aesop in Rikes body said in the beginning of the story that Peisistratos ends up becoming this as well.
- In City of Reality, it's revealed that the Manumitor, who made it his mission to undo the transformations made by the psychotic magical supervillain Hinto Ama, is actually Hinto Ama herself, attempting to undo the damage she has done. Until someone she cares about gets hurt, she absolutely refuses to use her powers, relying on technology instead, and tries to kill one of the heroes who is stuck in a transformed state, feeling that death is better than being trapped in such a form.
- In Crimson Knights, while we never get any details on the specifics, Mot is clearly haunted by something he did in his past and joined the Order of the Black Rose to clear his conscience.
- El Goonish Shive: Abraham is an ancient wizard sworn to kill the creations of the Dewitchery Diamond, an artifact he created to cure victims of transformation curses that had the unintended side effect of creating a permanently-transformed copy of the person that can easily spread the curse. He willingly became a statue after the diamond got his friend killed, only awakening to hunt the monsters he created. That was until Elliot used the diamond to break a Gender Bender curse (not knowing the side-effects), meaning Abraham's next target would have to be an innocent teenage girl. Nanase is able to convince him that his real oath was to protect people, which he accepts and lets Ellen go. Following this, the inscription on his statue changes from "I Rise Only to Reap" to "I Rise Only to Atone For My Sins".
- In Endstone, Jon tackles a Guardian no one has ever survived in search of salvation.
- The main reason the FreakAngels protected Whitechapel was to atone for ending the world.
- General Protection Fault's Trudy goes from relentlessly controlling others to her own ends, even seducing a man to run over romantic rival Ki's father, and almost taking over the world, to relatively normal worker for GPF.
- In Jack, becoming The Atoner is an option for souls imprisoned in Hell and is actually a valid way to eventually escape the confinement and reincarnate on Earth. Even one of the Greater Demons—Jack—is inclined this way. As a punishment for obliterating the human race he was made the Grim Reaper and forced to encounter every death thenceforth. Although, as an additional punishment, he was denied the memory of his sins at his own request just before dying, he still tries his best to give whatever comfort possible to the unfortunate hellbound souls.
- Kaiten Mutenmaru Season 2: Crocell Xylel starts as a Psychopathic Manchild who indulges in toxic and selfish escapism to cope with the reality of his weak body. Anchor Sam eventually saves Crocell's life and gives him a second chance, which frees him from the influence of Abominable Crystals. Crocell reappears in the story as Anchor Gill, a supporting member of Anchor 4, after Azoth Die and Carragee Naga turn Shinobu into a monster by making him wear the Master Diehand suit. Crocell earnestly acknowledges the role of his past misdeeds in Shinobu's present suffering, since the Master Diehand suit is based on Crocell's own Master Megadis suit. Out of guilt and compassion, Crocell cooperates with others to help Shinobu throughout the battle of Leon City.
- An example of "Assassin Wants To Quit" is Marilith. And she wants to quit with her former hostage.
- Rumisiel in Misfile. He wasn't a Big Bad, but it was his screw up and chronic drug/alcohol addiction that caused Ash and Emily's problems. Started off somewhat half heartedly, but has begun to get serious about his role.
- Vash is a much more serious example.
- MSF High: After causing a giant war and nearly taking over the galaxy, the Legion surrendered, apologized, and became these. Exactly why has not yet been explored.
- In Nixvir, Oriel is one. She strives to be compassionate and caring in order to atone for the fact that she indulged in materialism and selfishness. We get hints of this in chapter five, where she remembers being expelled from heaven, but the full ramifications are not explored until chapter nine, where she breaks down crying when confronted with Erik becoming overtaken by "dragon-sickness" (i.e. lust for jewels) when they see the treasure guarded by the kangaroos. When Erik unwittingly tempts her, she bursts out about how she was expelled from heaven, and confides her tragic backstory in Erik, who immediately becomes guilty himself.
- In Not a Villain, the main character Kleya is one. She wants to become a hero to atone for her previous actions as the leader of the hacker group "Deconstruct Me", where she is implied to have been responsible for The End of the World as We Know It.
- The Order of the Stick: Vaarsuvius becomes one after learning the true extent of the Familicide spells effects, extending not only to wiping out an sizeable chunk of all chromatic dragons, but also the entire Draketooth family and everyone they’d seduced, thereby causing a massive amount of collateral damage in lives lost, not to mention wiping out most of the defences of Girards gate.
- This strip suggests that Roy is also one of these after Durkon becomes a vampire.
- This strip
- In Our Little Adventure, Emily claims that Julie is this, to distract from her real quest.
- In Rain, Brother Arthur has a transmasculine brother. He wants to help out Rain and Rudy because of the issues he caused his brother when they were younger.
- Selkie
- Scar is a character we meet at the end of his atonement arc. He's introduced as a scary-looking but friendly sarnothi who uses his skills to help a town full of refugees. However, years beforehand, he was the notorious figure known as "The Farmer" who lied about the dangers of war to use refugees as free labor, and sold many of them to the very government they were fleeing from. It's implied that his redemption arc started when one of his intended victims fought back and gave him the scars that are the source of his nickname.
- Andi's character arc is driven by a desire to atone for one specific act: At the age of 17, she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption and told the girl's father that she had been stillborn. She blames herself for all the consequences of that decision, some rightly (such as the damage to her relationship with the girl's father), and some not so much (it's not her fault that the girl was adopted and returned by an abusive family), and she wants to make things right.
- In Slightly Damned Sakido qualifies. The
Sakido: Iratu and I went on to live in Hell. Darius trusted us to take care of our little brother, but we just threw Buwaro away. If you are reading this and I am no longer around, then I've gotten what I deserved.
- Subverted in Sluggy Freelance: In "That Which Redeems", the talking sword Chaz tells the story of one of his previous owners. This man committed many atrocities, but then had his eyes opened to their evil by a sage. He turned to god for atonement — and what he ended up doing to make amends was to go on a bloody crusade in the name of this god to kill unbelievers. Be careful who you let define "good" for you...
- After his attempts at global domination in ancient Egypt fell apart in a battle against Suras(/Zeus) in Wayward Sons, Kronos escaped, and wound up alone in ancient China, where he was taken in by a family of simple farmers. He would later use his powers to protect them from bandits, and all looked set to begin again... But Kronos had learned from his past failures, and vowed to create an empire of peace this time around.
Huang: What you did to those men... You must be a god!
Kronos: Once I might have let you believe that... But I've learned my lesson. I'm not a god. But I am your friend! - Lamar of We Are The Wyrecats becomes this after K.A. leaves the team.
- Yoon Sung of Welcome to Room #305 is trying to atone with his twin sister Yoona for acting terribly homophobic in high school after learning her secret. Unluckily for him, it's not simple because she is very self hating about her sexuality and in denial of it.
- Zebra Girl: Jack. He blames himself for what happened to Sandra, and for what happened during the Maginet mini-arc. Ever since the Maginet he is doing everything he can to become a better wizard, in the hopes that the tragedies which befell his friends and wizard comrades never happen again.
Websites
- Not Always Right: A man comes to a book store with a list of books he and his wife stole years ago as a prank, that they want to pay back as an example for their young son.
- Some agents in the Protectors of the Plot Continuum are former badfic authors hoping to undo the damage they've done to the multiverse, or ex-DIS who returned to the PPC when given the chance.
- The Wanderer's Library: The main character in the story "Communion". Unfortunately, he's past forgiveness.
Web Videos
- Both the brothers in Aaron, in different ways:
- Adam has been a frequent screw-up for years, and it's implied he drove his parents mad (and Chris by extension) with all his antics. He's now trying to put his life back together.
- Chris was close with his brother but ended up leaving for college in England, and essentially neglecting their friendship. After realising what his brother was going through, he's now trying to make amends.
- Dream SMP: Ever since their betrayal in the Final Control Room, Eret has been driven to make life better for everyone on the server.
- William Griffin of KateModern performed frequent dangerous medical experiments on unwitting girls on behalf of the Order, but then decides to try to bring the Order down.
- The Nostalgia Critic: In his "Top 11 Fucks-Up List", the Critic wearily concedes that he'll die for his sins. In To Boldly Flee, he yearns to atone for the death of Ma-Ti in Suburban Knights and thus sacrifices his own life at the end to allow Ma-Ti's spirit to move on.
- In SynthOrange's Let's Play of Princess Maker 2, after Lizzie ends up dying in a fight with the God of War, Gendo Ikari (who plays the role of the girl's father), in a fit of Heroic BSoD, decides to try and reconcile with his other kid... by playing a Shinji-raising sim game.
Cube: ...and he keeps ending up with Kaoru? Maybe if you sent him for more sports training—
Gendo: NO! He's there too, and that just ends up with them both in the showers!
Western Animation
- Amphibia:
- After two seasons of bad behavior, Sasha Waybright finally becomes this in early season three, when the full consequences of her actions becomes clear (namely, they cost her one of her best friends and nearly got the other one killed, not to mention the fact the former prevented her from stopping a Day of the Jackboot). She decides to become Wartwood's protector and vows to become the sort of person who actually deserves a friend like Anne.
- King Andrias ends the show as this. In "All-In", he realizes that the millenium of pain and suffering he has caused was ultimately all for naught, but thinks he has done too much to ever atone for it, so he lets Anne strike him down. Except that he survives and becomes this trope, first begging Anne to save Marcy, then sending his army of robots to help the girls fight against the Core. In the ending, set nine months after the final battle, Andrias is seen working the fields to mend Amphibia's ecosystem that he ruined.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Prince Zuko in the third season by joining Team Avatar as a firebending instructor.
- Jeong Jeong deserted the Fire Nation navy ten years before the story began.
- Having a career as a Fire Nation general, Iroh counts as well.
- Jet during the second season before his ultimate fate.
- The Fire Nation by the time of The Legend of Korra, to the point of being the only nation to be not involved in any conflict as an antagonist at all.
- By the end of the first season of The Legend of Korra, Tarrlok, a former Smug Snake with a massive Dark and Troubled Past... and the brother of Big Bad Amon/Noatak.
- Since Book 2, Asami Sato has tirelessly worked to restore her family's name and Future Industry's reputation after her father's arrest for his Equalist involvement.
- Another one we have from The Legend of Korra is Wan. Through Wan's story we learn the reason the Avatar exists. Wan, originally an ordinary human, interfered with a battle between the spirits of light (Raava) and dark (Vaatu). The result is Vaatu being released into the world and unleashing darkness and chaos. Wan eventually seals Vaatu after mastering the power of the elements and fusing his spirit with Raava, creating the Avatar Spirit and saving the world. However, there is still darkness in the world. After spending his entire life trying to fix his mistake, Wan expresses guilt in being unable to rid the world of darkness in his lifetime. Raava allows Wan to reincarnate, granting him more time. This begins the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation.
- And it seems that Hiroshi Sato in Season 4 has become one.
- Ben 10:
- In Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix, it's revealed that Tetrax used to work for Vilgax, and gave him a crystal that he used to destroy his homeworld, Petropia, leaving him the only Petrosapien alive. To atone for this, Tetrax has devoted himself to fighting Vilgax, and preventing him from getting the Omnitrix.
- In Ben 10: Alien Force, after Ben's former arch-enemy Kevin Levin makes a Heel–Face Turn and joins Ben's team, he feels remorseful of his past villainy, and views him joining Ben's team as atonement for it.
- The Boondocks: Black hating black man Uncle Ruckus practically lives to atone for the sin of being black. He believes he can accomplish this by idolizing white culture while rebuking his own race at every conceivably opportunity.
- For most of her appearances in Codename: Kids Next Door, Henrietta Von Marzipan is under a curse that both switched her gender and caused her to become a greedy thief who wouldn't hesitate to hurt others in the quest for rare candies. When she finally is restored to her true form, Henrietta immediately sets out to undo the wrongs she had done.
- Count Dracula himself is this in Drak Pack, acting as mentor and boss to the teenage heroes against the forces of O.G.R.E. in order to help make amends for his evil past.
- DuckTales (1987):
- Fenton Crackshell / Gizmoduck. Whenever he screws up, he will frantically do whatever it takes to set things right, although he often makes it worse until he ultimately succeeds.
- Two examples occur in the episode "Hero for Hire":
- When Scrooge sees Launchpad's photo in the paper as "the Webbed Wonder", he blames himself for sending his former pilot off the rails and makes up his mind to get to him before the police can lock him up.
- After realizing he's been duped and other people will suffer for it, Launchpad goes after the Beagle Boys to get back the money they tricked him into stealing and to rescue Doofus.
- Both Ingrid and the titular protagonist of Fillmore! were delinquents. Now they're respected members of their school's Safety Patrol. The series treats them similarly to ex-criminals who became police officers.
- In Gargoyles, the Magus trapped Goliath's clan in stone form after he mistakenly believed their attack got Katherine killed. The guilt he felt would dominate the rest of his life. He devoted himself to protecting the clan's next generation and never made his feelings for Katherine known as she fell in love with Tom. Goliath himself bears no grudge against him and is simply grateful that the Magus protected his clan's children.
- Hazbin Hotel:
- "Storyteller" reveals that part of what motivated Sir Pentious to sacrifice himself to save his friends in the previous season was the guilt he carried for bearing witness to the murders of Jack the Ripper and never reporting him to the police out of fear, and his determination to never repeat that mistake. The Speaker of God acknowledges that his actions were driven by selflessness and determines that his sin has been forgiven, which brings Sir Pentious to tears.
Sir Pentious: I had to do something. This time... I would do something.
- For her part, Sera is crushed by the realization that authorizing the yearly Exterminations was a completely pointless act that denied redemption to countless souls before they could even choose to atone, and similarly asks the Speaker of God to advise her on how she can redeem herself. The Speaker responds that Sera can only earn forgiveness by coming to terms with her mistake and looking within for answers. Sir Pentious later offers his own two cents and tells Sera that the first step to being forgiven is to apologize sincerely, which Sera actually attempts...with less than positive results (thanks in no small part to Vox repeatedly spinning the narrative in his own favor but also how incredibly insensitive Sera's apology was despite her best intentions). Eventually Sera determines that the only way to stop the war with Hell before it can start is by giving the Sinners a chance to stand down peacefully instead of retaliating or striking preemptively, and chooses to trust Charlie and Emily to help make it happen. Her faith pays off when Charlie and her friends successfully put a stop to Vox's schemes, after which Heaven as a whole becomes more open to the idea that Sinners can be redeemed.
- "Storyteller" reveals that part of what motivated Sir Pentious to sacrifice himself to save his friends in the previous season was the guilt he carried for bearing witness to the murders of Jack the Ripper and never reporting him to the police out of fear, and his determination to never repeat that mistake. The Speaker of God acknowledges that his actions were driven by selflessness and determines that his sin has been forgiven, which brings Sir Pentious to tears.
- Infinity Train: Amelia, the first season's Big Bad, is revealed in Book 3 to have spent her time in the train since then fixing the messes she made working as an underling to One-One.
- A woulda-been third Jungle Book film would have actually turned Shere Khan from a Knight of Cerebus in the second to this.
- In King of the Hill, Luanne's Fetishized Abuser Buckley was an emotionally abusive Lazy Bum and treated Luanne like crap through most of the relationship. However, after his death his spirit visits Luanne and helps her deal with her grief and get into community college to make up for being such a jerk to her in life. The episode ends with his spirit having earned his halo and walking into the horizon.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Princess Luna is definitely one, trying to live down her 1000-year legacy as Big Bad Nightmare Moon. Mind you, her public relations need a lot of coaching from Twilight Sparkle, but she makes a real breakthrough. "Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep" reveals she went so far as to create a monster called The Tantabus, which is essentially a small ghostly G-Rated Freddy Krueger, to punish her with horrific nightmares every single time she slept. This particular act of self-punishment takes more work from Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but they get Luna to forgive herself.
- Trixie starts out as an insufferable blowhard and rival for Twilight Sparkle who later turning to the dark side after acquiring the corruptive Alicorn Amulet. Once Twilight frees her from the amulet's spell, Trixie becomes apologetic (albeit still a pompous Jerkass) and leaves her with a fireworks display to start her atonement.
- Discord—the manipulative trickster, of all characters—manages to pull a Heel–Face Turn after becoming friends with Fluttershy, and swears to use his powers for good... most of the time. He makes good on his word by settling into a sort of Trickster Mentor role for the Mane Six, giving underhanded assistance while remaining as mischievous and obnoxious as ever. He pulls a Face–Heel Turn when Tirek convinces Discord to defect to his side with the promise of being chaos uninhibited as he had once been. Discord backstabs the entire pony race, but then he himself gets backstabbed by Tirek, who calls him a fool for actually believing he would share power with him. The trickster found out the hard way what a huge mistake he's made, and after Twilight sacrifice her powers to save her friends, him included (even though she had every right to abandon him for what he's done), Discord sincerely apologizes for the mess he's made and helps Twilight and her frieds to unlock the power needed to defeat Tirek.
- Starlight Glimmer, the twisted Cutie Mark hating-dictator and Big Bad of Season 5, pulls a Heel–Face Turn when Princess Twilight Sparkle offers her hoof in friendship and makes Starlight her own student. Starlight's first act of atonement was returning to Our Town from the Season 5 premiere to make things up with the townsponies.
- In Ninjago, Garmadon falls into this role after he is redeemed by his son. Post-redemption, he opens a monastery where he teaches how to fight without weapons; an approach partially rooted in his fear that using excessive violence or just simple weapons may cause him to fall back into darkness. He even reacts with disgust and mild fear when seeing the Techno Blades because of his past. His redemption arc reaches a tragic peak in Season 4 when Garmadon sacrifices himself to banish Chen's Anacondrai army. Even Wu and Misako, who were angry that Garmadon had stolen Misako away, come to forgive him. He is even given a place in the Corridor of Elders to honour his memory as a hero.
- Subverted in an episode of The Simpsons. Mr. Burns, after losing his fortune and learning about ecology from Lisa, is determined to turn his life around and rebuild his fortune doing good works. Unfortunately, Mr. Burn's idea of "doing good" involves raping and pillaging the environment in an even worse way than he had as the CEO of a pollution-causing nuclear power plant (which says a lot considering that nuclear power is one of the cleaner forms of energy, and he managed to corrupt even that without causing a meltdown). Lisa then is forced to admit that Mr. Burns is just naturally evil—and when he tries to be good, his twisted sense of morality makes him even more evil.
Mr. Burns: I don't understand. Pigs need food. Engines need coolant. Dynamiters need dynamite. I provide it to them at a tidy profit: and best of all, not a single sea creature was wasted. You inspired it all, Li'l Lisa.
- South Park reveals that Freddy Krueger is this, since apparently he murdered all those teenagers in the 1980s because the U.S. Government told him it would help with the Cold War and is now ashamed of having been a government lapdog. He even has a wife and kids now, but reluctantly decides to help save Stan and Mr. Mackey when they get trapped in a dream.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Walking Small", after learning Plankton taught him to be aggressive in order to drive everyone away from Goo Lagoon for land development, SpongeBob becomes "aggressively nice" and sets out to fix the mistakes he made and bring everyone back.
- Steven Universe: The Crystal Gems themselves are atoners for their entire species. In "The Return", Greg says that their leader, Rose Quartz, led a rebellion against her own kind to drive them off Earth for doing something horrible to it, and that the surviving rebel Gems have dedicated themselves to atone for what their people have done, but they just can't seem to forgive themselves.
- Dinobot, in Transformers: Beast Wars. Only a little, but more and more as it gets further into the second season, culminating in his Redemption Equals Death.
- Wander Over Yonder: Major Threat was once a feared galactic overlord, but thanks to a Heel–Face Turn by "Tumbleweed", he now dedicates his life to setting right all of the wrongs he had done, and bringing out the good in other villains.
- Raimundo of Xiaolin Showdown spends some time as this after temporarily defecting to the Heylin side, resurrecting Wuya, and even winning... then sealing her all over again. While he definitely goes out of his way to make up for this, it takes Call Backs all the way to Season 3 before he finally becomes Shoku Leader in the finale.