# Villains helping the good guys? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2006, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297 "2006-05-26T09:15:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/41 "2006-05-27T01:24:20Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Itchy & Scratchy teamed up to fight Bart & Lisa in a Treehouse of Horror segment. As well as against the squirrelized Marge. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/42 "2006-05-27T02:07:45Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > Was it his daughter? I thought it was his sister and there was some romantic tenson between Mac and her. Is that the episode where they teach us that snakes are repelled by the smell of gasoline? Maybe it was his sister, I’m not entirely sure. It was a woman younger than and with some relation to Murdoch, at any rate. Yes, it’s the snakepit show. We also learn about motion-activated tommy guns and candy-filled coffins. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/43 "2006-05-27T02:41:12Z")
Hey, are we allowed to include real life villains? OK, then how about Lucky Luciano - a villain if there ever was one - helping the US Government (the very same folks who put him in the slammer) [fight the Nazis in WWII](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luciano#World_War_II)? Sure, he arranged a nice _quid pro quo_, but it’s still a nice example of a villain helping the good guys IRL. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/44 "2006-05-27T05:00:57Z")
What about situations where the villain switches sides? (Either if they want to turn over a new leaf, or it just serves their interests to turn against their old employer?) I can think of two such defections in the Transformers _Beast Wars_ series—one, Dinobot, in the pilot, and one Blackarachnia, later on, after she fell for one of the good transformers. I wouldn’t say they “turned good,” really, but they were pretty “lawful evil.” That, and at least one episode of _Codename Kids Next Door_. I think the KND and their rogue’s gallery were fighting each other for possession of the last box of a particular cereal, when it was taken by a villain who wanted to _destroy_ it, rather than eating it. The KND and the rogues, who’d all wanted to eat the stuff, called a truce to recover and share it, rather than let it go to waste. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/45 "2006-05-27T06:32:26Z")
Star Trek TNG in an early episode the Romulans made a truce with the Federation when an unknown ememy was destroying outposts. Later in DS9 the Romulans and the Federation allied in the war against the Founders. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/46 "2006-05-27T07:28:20Z")
_Assault on Precinct 13_. I’ve only seen the new one. In it, Lawrence Fishburne’s mob boss character and the other jail inmates have to help the cops trapped inside the jail. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/47 "2006-05-27T08:11:26Z")
In _Star Trek Insurrection_, Ru’afo’s lackey decides to help Picard so he doesn’t have to listen to the captain speechifying at him. I’m not joking… One lecture from Picard and that sucker switches sides like it’s going out of style. On _Angel_, the ancient demon-god Illyria was trying to kill team Angel when first resurrected. It gave up trying after figuring out it needed more info on the current state of the world before going conquering. Illyria then joined the team and helped them kick ass. Not sure if it’s strictly in the spirit of the OP or not but in _Alien3_ the alien killed the prison director and the doctor to protect Ripley. The Borg teamed up with Captain Janeway to help Voyager defeat Species 8472 (on _Voyager_ of course) Shran on _Enterprise_ started out as a bad guy but ended up being one of Captain Archer’s closest allies. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/48 "2006-05-27T11:22:27Z")
Godzilla was bent on destroying Tokyo. But in later films didn’t he team up to protect Tokyo from other monsters? It’s been a while since I’ve seen any Godzilla action. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/49 "2006-05-27T13:05:39Z")
prison break ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/50 "2006-05-27T13:29:45Z")
Let’s not forget that Firefly is a show where the main characters are villains to a certain extent. Scorpius helps John Crichton a lot on Farscape eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297/51 "2006-05-27T14:15:28Z")
Invader Zim and Dib had to team up a few times. Zim also single-handedly saved the Earth from the Planet Jackers. Afterall, it was _his_ “mission” to destroy the Earth and he wasn’t letting someone else do it instead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/villains-helping-the-good-guys/358297.md?page=2)