Can Soap Villains Ever Be Completely Reformed?

Greedy Fagin and Artful Dodger sing in Oliver, “Can a villain be a villain all his life?” If you ask Days Of Our Lives (DOOL) Stefano, General Hospital’s (GH) Faison, The Young and the Restless (YR) and The Bold and the Beautiful’s (BB) Sheila, the answer would undoubtedly be yes.

But then there are your borderline cases like GH’s Franco, Y&R’s Victor, B&B’s Bill, and DAYS’ Andre. They have their moments of not utter villainy, and there are moments where it seems like they might actually possess redemption potential. Do you buy it, though? Here’s what almost 4,000 viewers had to say.

Where There’s Life, There’s Hope
You’ve seen bad guys turn a new leaf. Look at Y&R’s Lauren (Tracey Bregman) and Michael (Christian J. LeBlanc). Look at B&B’s Sally (Courtney Hope). Look at GH’s Liz (Rebecca Herbst) or DAYS’ Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes).

So 83% of you believe there is always a chance that this — this! — time Y&R’s Victor (Eric Braeden) will actually learn his lesson about manipulating people’s lives, or GH’s Sonny (Maurice Benard) will figure out that the reason his friends and family end up in so many comas is because of him.

Once a Villain You’re a Villain To the End!
But then there’s DAYS’ Sami (Allison Sweeney), who would rather scheme than breathe, or B&B’s Quinn (Rena Sofer) who, when all else fails, goes for the jugular — literally.

Sing show-tunes all you like, 16% are never going to believe a soap leopard can change their spots.

Make It Work
For 1%, though, it all depends on the circumstances and how well the writers did their jobs of convincing you the about-face makes sense.

For instance, GH did a much better job of showing how mobster tool and rapist Luke (Anthony Geary) became a romantic leading man, devoted husband and father, then they did, later, turning him into a guy who claimed he’d never been into any of that.

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