Half-Baked Redemptions

A Half-Baked Redemption is when a villain who is portrayed as irredeemably evil or passes the “Moral Event Horizon” suddenly redeems themselves without any hints of redemption prior to this. This kind of redemption is a poor move in terms of writing and teaching mercy and forgiveness in fiction.

Anime

 * Rei Isurugei (Gegege no Kitaro (2018 – 2020)): The anime practically ignored both the fact that he already crossed the Moral Event Horizon more than once with his attacks on Yokai and the fact he refused multiple times to let go of his revenge. Instead, it had the heroes force him to redeem himself because they still didn't want to kill him despite everything he's done (even though Kitaro has been willing to kill if necessary) and used his tragic backstory as an excuse to justify showing mercy, even though he never showed any. All of this, plus the fact that Shōnen manga and anime tend to force redemption and mercy even if the said villain does not deserve it.
 * Mabyo (Gegege no Kitaro (2018 – 2020)): This monster brainwashes an entire city (including Kitaro, Medama Oyaji, Neko Musume and Mana's Auntie Rie), tries to kill Mana and her Uncle Shoji for finding out, and tries to brainwash the entire world into her kingdom. Despite all this, Shoji insists that the yokai forgive because he's "still a Sakaiminato citizen", which a pathetic reason to spare this monster when he should have been taken down by Kitaro's Finger Guns.
 * Julio/Rio Kuroki/Pikario (Kirakira★PreCure a la Mode (2017)):
 * Erisio (Kirakira★PreCure a la Mode (2017)):
 * Orochimaru (Naruto): Arguably the evilest character in the Naruto series, Orochimaru committed a serious number of crimes like killing Hiruzen Sarutobi, attacking Konoha, turning Sasuke against his teammates, joining Akatsuki, killing countless people... and yet he gets pardoned after reviving the four deceased Hokages to fight Obito and Madara Uchiha, ignoring all the atrocities he started. After Naruto becomes Hokage, he regards Orochimaru as one of his best friends and allows him to keep playing God with people's lives without fear of repercussion, with Masashi Kishimoto even revealing in an interview that Orochimaru eventually achieves his dream of becoming immortal.
 * Kabuto Yakushi (Naruto): Despite being Orochimaru's most loyal henchman and his major role in the Fourth Shinobi World War that resulted in the deaths of many people, he does not get punished for his crimes and is allowed to run an orphanage.
 * Toneri Ōtsutsuki (The Last: Naruto the Movie) Despite everything he has done and the two mutually hating each other because they both love Hinata, Naruto still finds it in himself to save Toneri from a painful and excruciating death at the last minute. While he gets easily forgiven by Naruto and Hinata, he has to live with the realization that his actions went completely against his ancestor's wishes. It causes so much guilt and for someone who went on about honoring his ancestor, this is a fate worse than death. Also he's actually much worse off than before, because not only is he blinded again, but the Tenseigan core's destruction renders him powerless with his puppets remaining deactivated, and by staying on the moon he condemns himself with the very thing he was trying to escape.
 * Sarina Shizukume (Magical Girl Site): Her redemption was when Aya teleported her to her empty vandalized desk in order to make her realize her bullying.
 * Kaname Asagiri (Magical Girl Site): Like Sarina, his redemption was when Aya wanted to make him realize his cruel nature by protecting him and trying to get over his father's "grueling" training for gifted students like him.
 * Eren Yeager (Attack on Titan): Depending on your view
 * Yelena (Attack on Titan): Became an irrelevant character after she was forced to help the main heroes stop Eren and his Rumbling.
 * Leo Akaba (Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V)
 * Toru Mutsuki (Tokyo Ghoul:re)
 * Noah Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!): His redemption was when he realized that he'd unknowingly aided Gozuburo Kaiba in getting his revenge from beyond the grave. The problem is that he'd done nothing up until that point to earn it.
 * The Evil Warriors (Digimon Frontier): Depending on your view
 * Bagramon (Digimon Xros Wars Hunters): Depending on your view
 * Katsuki Bakugo (My Hero Academia): He often has moments that make it look like he's actually changed, like revealing that he's not afraid to show weakness, only to immediately negate it seconds later by physically assaulting Izuku Midoriya.
 * Bashvaza (Chillin' in My 30s After Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army (2023)): He fires his adopted brother out of jealousy, which backfiringly causes the Demon Army to fall apart, plans to wipe humanity to stop the war and kill Dariel's loved ones just to spite him. Dariel however just insists on sympathizing with Bashvaza (despite enraging him by pitying his backatory) and sparing him when Dariel should've killed him, which would've been a satisfying end to see Bashvaza's envy be his downfall.

Manga

 * Ayato Kirishima (Tokyo Ghoul)
 * Will of the Abyss (Pandora Hearts)
 * Solid and Nebra Silva (Black Clover)

Western Animations

 * The Diamonds (Steven Universe): These intergalactic dictators colonize planets, have committed kidnapping, murder, trapping humans in a zoo, experimenting on gems (including several Crystal Gems), and genocide, but Steven insists on redeeming then rather than shattering them for their many heinous crimes. This, along with Spinel in the movie, shows how horribly reluctant Rebecca Sugar is to kill villains.
 * Lord Dominator (Wander Over Yonder): She relies on draining planets using her drill just to gain Volcanium X, a substance where her ship needs to not just fuel her robots, but also required repairs, and kidnaps other villains, such as Emperor Awesome and Dr. Screwball Jones (both are Wander's enemies), for petty reasons just because she lacks any personality and emotion. Wander attempts to befriend her by giving her a fruit basket or Lord Hater trying to date her, but she ends up killing or hating them instead, possibly her hateful personality. Worst of all, she hardly befriends Wander and Sylvia (though the latter befriends in The Night Out, the relationship fails as Dominator breaks up with Sylvia), for no good reason.
 * Bebop and Rocksteady (TMNT (2012)): Their redemption was forced as they would change the way they act, not because the Shredder and Kraang were trying to destroy the world, but because they were being mean to Bebop and Rocksteady. It doesn't help that their redemption would occur a few minutes before the series officially ended, not giving them a proper redemption.
 * Baron Draxum (Rise of the TMNT)
 * Catra (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020)): Although Incredible Characters Wiki says she has some good qualities, many fans argue that her redemption was rushed and ignored parts of the acts she committed, with an infamous example being her actions in the two-part season three finale.
 * Light Hope (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020)): While she was programmed to be evil (to which even Light Hope herself knows that), in season 4, Light Hope deletes one of her memories of Mara, and has also manipulated Mara, She-Ra and later on Glimmer into thinking that the Heart of Etheria Project is a machine that can save everyone, only to be used to destroy the world and when the project was activated, it cause pure pain for all of the Princesses and especially Adora/She-Ra, and not to mention, Light Hope would also be the reason as to why Glimmer and Catra will get captured by Horde Prime in the season 4 finale, so Light-Hope's out-of-nowhere redemption when she lowers her power to let Adora/She-Ra destroy the sword and Light Hope herself feels VERY rushed and unsatisfying.
 * Hordak (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018-2020)): Despite his reasons, Hordak has committed mass-genocide of intelligent-life and he was ultimately redeemed without any punishment whatsoever. Like Catra, his redemption arc is also rushed.
 * Goofball McGee (Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends): He caused so much suffering for Frankie, and yet after the "reveal", Frankie felt bad for him and says that she's sorry when it's him who should be saying that.
 * Miss Nettle (Sofia the First (2013-2018))
 * Prisma (Sofia the First (2013-2018))
 * Princess Ivy (Sofia the First (2013-2018))
 * Discord (season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019)): His redemption in season 3's "Keep Calm and Flutter On" was rushed, but in later seasons (most notably season 4's "Twilight's Kingdom"), his redemption is more justified.
 * Chancellor Neighsay (season 8 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019)): Like Discord, his redemption was rushed, but unlike Discord's, his redemption had little-to-no justification other than the show's insistence on including villains when saving "everyone".
 * Quipue (Elena of Avalor (2016-2020))
 * The Enchanter (Rupert (1991-1997)):
 * Colonel Tinker (Rupert (1991-1997)):
 * Big Tex Arkana (Buddy Thunderstruck (2017))
 * Stalyan (Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (2017-2020)): Not only was her redemption forced, but it also created a double standard saying we can never fight and/or imprison women even if they are criminals who have committed terrible things.
 * Most of the humans (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (2020)): While Doag and Greta were passable, everyone else was practically forced to redeem themselves just to avoid having the heroes kill them and insist that communication and mercy are better than violence, despite the fact that they already helped Emilia cure a handful of the major mute characters. This also ruins Kipo's character development, making her never accept that she can't redeem everyone.
 * Chloé Bourgeois (Miraculous Ladybug): One of the worst examples is that the writers wanted Chloe to be irredeemable for petty reasons.
 * Evil-Lyn (Masters of the Universe: Revelation): Same as Hordak from the She-Ra reboot. Was forgiven and told by Teela that she was never evil, even though she destroyed the afterlife out of petty spite.
 * Teela (Masters of the Universe: Revelation)
 * Master Frown (Unikitty!)
 * Pinky (Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart)
 * Mimi (Canimals)
 * Nicole (Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe In Santa)
 * Dave the Mall Guard (Transformers: BotBots)
 * Posey Bloom (My Little Pony: Make Your Mark): She literally ignited a race war between the earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns all because she was jealous and pretty much indirectly almost caused lots of ponies to be swallowed by a void... only to be immediately forgiven. Even worse, she also only redeemed after she got magic, making her look a spoiled child (or pony). This caused Youtuber Star Strike to go on an explosive rant accusing Make Your Mark of teaching selfishness.
 * Harumi (Ninjago (2011-2022)): After supporting the Overlord through the entirety of Season 15, she spontaneously turns on him the moment she finds out that he was responsible for the Great Devourer's existence, which itself was responsible for the deaths of Harumi's parents. While she is on surveillance, she is then immediately forgiven by the heroes and not punished despite her not showing any remorse for her crimes, such as causing the deaths of the royal family, bringing Garmadon back as his evil self and taking over Ninjago with him, assisting the Overlord in his latest scheme which nearly doomed the entire world and almost killing most of the ninja.

Movies

 * Snowball (The Secret Life of Pets):
 * Queen Barb (Trolls: World Tour):
 * Sour Kangaroo (Horton Hears a Who!):
 * Amy (Cuties)
 * Ker (Battlefield Earth)
 * Nyx and the Fairy Scouts (Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast)
 * Maxwell Lord (Wonder Woman 1984)
 * Tess Tyler (Camp Rock):
 * Claire Dearing (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
 * Bucky (Z-O-M-B-I-E-S):
 * Raiden the Moon King (Kubo and the Two Strings)
 * Xian Lang (Mulan (2020))
 * Judge Peckinpah (The Angry Birds Movie)
 * Zeta (The Angry Birds Movie 2)
 * The Dino-Birds (Ice Age: Collision Course)
 * Terence (Tom & Jerry 2021)
 * Mr. Krabs (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water)
 * Plankton and King Poseidon (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run)
 * Abraham van Helsing (Hotel Transylvania 3)
 * Fairytale villains (Shrek the Third)
 * Clark "Kal-el" Kent/Superman (Injustice; 2021 film adaptation)
 * Gene (Wreck-It Ralph):
 * The Spy Girls (UglyDolls):
 * Jack Frost (The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause):
 * Marlon Merlin (Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo):
 * Namaari (Raya and the Last Dragon): Depending on your view.
 * Jithu (Koati)
 * Ava Starr/Ghost (Ant-Man and the Wasp): She spends the whole film trying to kill Janet to save herself and the heroes decide to just help her after saving Janet, instead of killing her or letting her die as a rightful punishment.
 * Lady Vain (Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White - Another Bite @ the Apple)
 * Kane (F the Prom):
 * Great Zamboni (Spooky House):
 * Beverly "Bev" Vane (Hillbilly Elegy):
 * Jesse Justice (Miracle in Toyland):
 * Kimar (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians):
 * Alma Madrigal (Encanto): Depending on your view.
 * Sheila Broflovski (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut): This crazy hypocritical moral guardian tortures kids, unfairly blames Canada for the town's kids' profanity, manipulates the other adults into joining her, murders Terrance and Phillip, and nearly causes an apocalypse for her delusional cause of "make the world a better place for children" and everyone just forgives her when she should either be in prison or executed for the atrocities she caused. It's also clear that they only spared her because she's Kyle's mom, which is a pathetic reason to keep her on the show.
 * Dr. Edwin Armstrong (The Boss Baby: Family Business):
 * Curtis "Curt" Connors/The Lizard (Spider-Man: No Way Home): He was the only villain in the film to have no motivation and didn't having meaningful interaction with anyone besides Electro, even to his own Spider-Man and gets redeemed with no real reason other than to get cured.
 * Darren Cross/Yellowjacket/M.O.D.O.K. (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania): After being defeated by Scott and his family twice, he redeems himself after being told by Cassie to "not be a dick".

Live-Action TV Shows

 * Gai Amatsu (Kamen Rider Zero-One)
 * Galza (Mashin Sentai Kiramager)
 * The Shadow (Odd Squad): Though her backstory is understandable, it still weakens the redeeming trope. She mentions to her sister Opal, that she became a villain because she (Opal) was better than her and this was due to Opal's overprotective nature towards her. Coming from this piece alone, her (The Shadow) significance as a villain looks dumb and wasted in comparison to other villains. She did not talk to Opal about her feelings at the time of her backstory and instead gave her the silent treatment towards her own sister, which made the problem even worse. She made two wrongs here, not talking to Opal about her feelings (as stated before) and being villian just because Opal wasn't good at it. It gets worse and worse as it plays out, cause The Shadow put one wrong over the other which makes things worse, since two wrongs NEVER make a right. The only reason she changed her perspective in the whole matter, was because Opal played her complementary records to satisfy her and that Opal apologized to her. The Shadow even said that it was just great that she regretted her bad actions in a somewhat sarcastic tone. The scenario that happened in her backstory should've been solved earlier, which caused this mess of a significance.
 * Douglas Davenport (Lab Rats (2012-2016)): To be fair, he had a solid build up to his redemption arc though it was only the beginning; from seeing Victor Krane's true intentions against Adam, Bree & Chase's involvement with him (Douglas Davenport) originally to him (Douglas Davenport) saving the trio from Krane himself, even trying to explain to his brother Donald Davenport about the situation, though Donald pushed him away harshly. However in "Which Father Knows Best", he was reluctant to fix Bree's bionic chip and just did it because Leo told him to and that he wanted to be better than brother Donald Davenport, despite Leo telling him not to. Even after he was able to settle out his differences with his brother, being able to fix Bree's chip together, his brother still rejected him. And when he gives in to Bree's persuasion about Douglas' redemption, Donald's actions towards him fell flat on the ground, making the redemption too quick and weak as a result. Though Douglas acted good after that mess of a redemption he still made major mistakes. Yeah, a messy character for the franchise.
 * Damien Darhk (Legends of Tomorrow) Depending on your view
 * Astra Logue (Legends of Tomorrow).
 * Charlie/ Clotho (Legends of Tomorrow)
 * Merle Dixon (The Walking Dead): Depending on your view
 * Victor Strand (Fear The Walking Dead)
 * Gabriel "Sylar" Gray (Heroes): Depending on your view
 * Hawk (Cobra Kai)
 * Eva McCulloch/Mirror Mistress (The Flash): Her redemption was when the Flash and Iris West wanted Eva to realize that creating mirror duplicates and "liberating" a new image of herself will not change anything.
 * Laurel Lance (Arrowverse: Earth-2): After seeing the redemption story they've pushed for Laurel so hard for the past two seasons, it all goes into dust after she was outed by Emiko and framed for Diaz's murder, feeling betrayed by Team Arrow as an arrest warrant is issued to bring her in; she decides to turn back to her life of crime in a matter of seconds. It was frustrating to see her fall back into old habits without any hesitation, and it also felt forced to see her turn back to good so quickly after having Sara talk some sense into her giving up being Black Siren and later becoming the Black Canary, which didn't feel earned one bit.
 * Talia Al Ghul (Arrow): Her redemption was when she and Oliver make up over their vendetta for one another; Oliver killing her father and Talia teaming up with Adrian Chase and indirectly caused Samantha's death. He offered to help her escape while exposing the private activities in Level Two and the psychiatrist Jarrett Parker, which she gladly accepted and helped her escape from Slabside Maximum Security Prison.
 * Irene Alvarez Mangayao (Sahaya):

Video Games

 * Abby Anderson (The Last of Us Part II): She had no reason to have any redemption at all, as she committed serious amount of atrocities, like killing Joel and Jesse, permanently injuring Tommy, and threatening Ellie and Dina. The game tries too hard to make you feel sorry for her after she kills Joel, but only ends up making players hate her even more, and her actions don't justify anything to make her a sympathetic and tragic character. She is also forced to be played as for half of the game, which makes her even less likable, as players wished to continue Joel and Ellie's story. This would've been a lot better if Ellie and Abby came to some sort of understanding between each other, but she instead gets off scot-free and gets forgiven for no real reason.
 * Master Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts series): His redemption is EXTREMELY forced, considered all the actions he has caused since Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and in Kingdom Hearts III, and yet after the battle, they had Sora feel SORRY for him, despite the fact that Master Xehanort, you know... had just murdered Kairi in order to break Sora's will.
 * Beelzebul/Raiden Shogun/Ei (Genshin Impact): Rushed in the main campaign without rhyme nor reason until it made sense in Ei's story quest Imperatrix Umbrosa Act II, which made her grow to understand what her late sister Makoto did for Inazuma and leaving the last of her corrupt self behind, giving more justification and depth into Ei's redemption arc.
 * Void Dark (Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance):
 * Takuto Maruki (Persona 5: Royal):
 * Marx (Kirby Star Allies): Marx was dead in Kirby Super Star/Ultra, but he came back as a playable character as he fought alongside Kirby.
 * Dark Meta Knight (Kirby Star Allies): Same reason as Marx except Dark Meta Knight appeared in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
 * The Boss (Just Shapes and Beats): For some reason, after his defeat and he gets revived, he suddenly gives up on villiany and redeems himself and puts on a DJ set for everyone, even though he is VERY irredeemable. Even his page on the Inconsistenty Heinous Wiki says if he didn't redeem himself, he would be on the Pure Evil Wiki.
 * Chef Saltbaker (Cuphead):
 * Norma Natividad (Psychonauts 2): Despite stealing Razputin's clothing and locking him in closet, encouraging him to mess with Hollis' mental connections, and manipulating her subordinates, she gets promoted a Junior Psychonaut with little to no repercussions for her actions.

Web-Series

 * Smiler (The Emoji Movie: Junior Novelization): Unlike in the movie, here, she all of the sudden redeems herself near the end and stops trying to kill Gene, Hi-5 and Jailbreak.
 * Bob Bobowski (The Bob Arc - SMG4): Depending on your view.
 * Dhar Mann Villains (Dhar Mann): Some of the villains redemptions are forced, one-dimensional and/or flat, especially since some of the villains have already crossed the line or have no signs of redeeming. Not to mention, some are given forgiveness from the protagonist, even they though didn't do anything at all to earn it.
 * Red Circle (Life of a Square)

Why This Happens

 * Many parents and writers are convinced that it is the right way to teach children the importance of mercy and forgiveness.
 * People often confuse the idea of justice with revenge or violence.
 * Some are scared of the very concept of the villain dying and want to avoid it at all costs.
 * Due to the rise of radical feminism propaganda, some female characters ending up being redeemed just to promote an ideology.

Why This Kind of Redemption is Not True

 * 1) These redemptions are often thrown in at the last minute, lack any proper structure, feel forced and are rushed by skipping important steps of a redemption arc.
 * 2) It creates a misguided and false belief that everyone can and will redeem themselves, even though there's plenty of villains out there who didn’t redeem themselves and suffered the consequences of their actions.
 * 3) Many of these examples are villains who have already crossed what is called the Moral Event Horizon, which means they have committed an act so evil or selfish or have crossed so many moral lines that audiences won't want them to be redeemed anymore, meaning these redemptions are forced down audiences' throats.
 * 4) *Also, having a villain commit terrible acts and refuse to give up, only to have the heroes force them to redeem themselves is a waste of suspense.
 * 5) Most of these villains didn't do anything at all to earn redemption, yet they are still easily forgiven and even rewarded.
 * 6) Insisting on this kind of redemption all the time can make audiences annoyed and become tired of the idea of redemption all together.
 * 7) It is extremely limiting to viewers of all ages.
 * 8) While it does succeed in teaching that mercy is possible, it purposely leaves out the fact that it does not always work.
 * 9) Depending on your view, this move means the villain is getting away with the terrible things they did without any punishment whatsoever and they are still a threat, and it's being treated like it's a good thing.
 * 10) Making characters who are supposed to be "heroes" force this kind of redemption and treat it as a good thing turns those characters into one-dimensional, unrealistic, and worst of all... downright flat.
 * 11) If heroes chose to just forgive the villains and disregard the horribly evil things they committed, they will come off as immature, foolish, cowardly, stubborn, and reluctant to accept the reality of the situations.
 * 12) It can look like the story is demonizing characters for having boundaries and being cautious instead of insisting on mercy for "everyone".
 * 13) It is also a bad influence to viewers as anyone, in reality, could be easily killed or have their lives ruined by a bad person or someone evil when and if they do show mercy.

The Only Redeeming Quality

 * 1) While many of these redemptions are forced, some redemptions are at least well-written such as Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Karai from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 and 2012) and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader from Star Wars.

How to Give a Villain a Proper Redemption

 * 1) First of all, redemption is very hard! Meaning you can't just forgive villains instantly because sometimes it angers the fans.
 * 2) If you want to redeem a villain, give them an understandable backstory and their flaws because it's important for a villain to redeem.
 * 3) *However, even if their backstory and flaws are understandable, do not use it as an excuse to redeem them if they cross Moral Event Horizon.
 * 4) Do not ever skip steps of a redemption arc. Even if one part is left out, the redemption will look forced.
 * 5) Do not make a villain irredeemable and then redeem them anyway. This means if they commit anything that is going too far, they cannot be redeemed anymore (we´re looking at you, White Diamond!).
 * 6) Make fans want the villain(s) to be redeemed in the first place. Never redeem a villain whom fans have always hated.
 * 7) If it becomes clear that a villain won't change no matter how many chances of redemption they're given, then do not hesitate to give them their comeuppance (whether it's defeating, imprisoning, humiliating, throwing out, or even killing them).