These video game baddies surprisingly turned good

Everyone loves a good redemption story, a story where the protagonist’s once evil foe has a change of heart and either takes on life as a newly reformed villain or goes the extra mile and ends up as an ally on their ex-rival’s journeys. 

Of course, gaming has no shortage of redemption stories of villains seeing the light, redeeming themselves through heroic actions, or just taking a break from totally evil deeds to have some light-hearted fun with their adversary.

King Dedede — Kirby

If you’re a long-time Kirby fan, you likely remember the days before King Dedede went from a worthy adversary against everyone’s favorite bottomless pit to comic relief. Before turning to the other side in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shard, this pudgy penguin armed with a massive hammer was almost exclusively against Kirby, but has since mostly turned the other cheek.

Greed does sometimes get the best of him, with him appearing in future games as the final boss, he hasn’t ruled helping his ex-nemesis out here and there when the time comes.

Alucard — Castlvania 3

Debuting all the way back in 1986, the Castlevania series has been a long-standing staple of the gaming market, but one character in all of its lore has a change of heart — Alucard. Having been born from Dracula and a human woman, he was always uneasy by his father’s motivations, and as such, was put under a spell to follow orders put in place by his father. 

Lucky for us, though, once beating him in Castlevania III, he comes to and joins the Bellmonts on their journey to eradicate the evil entity, though, he does struggle with staving off the temptation to join the dark side once more, leading him to slumber between battles, Alucard’s struggles only deepen his character.

Siegfried — Soul Edge, Soul Calibur

Siegfried was introduced to us in the original Soul Edge as a villain in denial, unable to come to terms that he was, indeed, the one who slain his father after falling into the wrong crowd, leading him to seek Soul Edge to exact revenge on his father’s killer, when eventually finding it, he was cursed and brought to life Nightmare, leading to a large-scale massacre.

Lucky for him, Kilik, Xianghua, and later Raphael would come to the rescue and slay this monster. The war isn’t over, though, and Siegfried seeks to right the wrongs of his life and destroy the cursed blade once and for all.

GLaDOS — Portal

In 2011’s Portal 2, Chell is put in a situation to rekindle a sour relationship with the former antagonist of Portal, GLaDOS, who was usurped by fellow AI, Wheatley. What’s more, she’s had her consciousness placed inside a potato giving her that extra sense of humiliation as her former adversary gazes at her starchy redemption.

 It’s a weird way to redeem a villain, after all, one minute GLaDOS is singing Still Alive carefree and the next she’s stuffed in a potato by a small, wisecracking sphere. How the mighty have fallen.

Jimmy Hopkins — Bully

Okay, while Jimmy Hopkins isn’t entirely an antagonist, we can’t ignore the fact that at the beginning, you were encouraged to bully the weaker and more frail children at Bullworth Academy in Rockstar Games’ 2001 cult hit, Bully. 

Sure, Hopkins can be a good boy, but where’s the fun in that? That is until the wrong crowd you’ve fallen into start turning on you and you have to fight back, and that very well might mean fostering a friendship with the very people you were bullying in the first place.

Axel — Kingdom Hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts has a very complicated story spanning many different console generations and even console brands, but one thing is for sure, Kingdom Hearts 2’s Axel isn’t a force to be reckoned with, especially after redemption and bestowed a keyblade.

Now, he’s inside the Hundred Acre Woods alongside Kairi, learning how to use his Darkness slaying blade for good. All we can really say is “got it memorized?” 

Knuckles — Sonic & Knuckles

In the mid-’90s, 2D Sonic was at its peak, introducing Tails and Knuckles, the latter of which was played up as a villain to our speedster hero. But, with the introduction of Sonic & Knuckles in 1994, we got to see both sides of the story and learn that who we thought was the villain wasn’t such a bad guy, but rather manipulated by Eggman.

In the end, Knuckles rises to the ranks of friends with the Blue Blur, and just like that, the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, all with their own special abilities, was born and remains a mainstay to this day.

Bowser — Super Mario RPG

There are a handful of villains that are simply icons, and Bowser is one of them. It might be hard to even think that he would ever see the light and help his nemesis, but outside of absurd spin-offs like Mario Kart and sports games, Super Mario RPG stands out like a sore thumb, as not only is he not hostile, but he actually joins the party to vanquish the new threat to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Old habits die hard, though, and Bowser is right back to his old, princess steal ways in no time, but that moment of righteousness will always permeate his history as “not such a bad guy.”  

What video game baddie do you have a soft spot for? Have they redeemed themselves or are they still on the “dark side?” Let us know in the comments or on our social media!