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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm adding my two cents to the answer of Rasdashan:

## It can be refreshing, but you have to do it well

The main issue is that such a unexpected change has to be foreshadowed. If the story progressed **exactly** as you described, it would feel awful for the reader.

Imagine the classic setup:

> Hero goes to villain -\> gets captured -\> Villain does villain talk -\> Hero has change of heart

The first three steps are a well known, widely used tropes. If you add the last step without any warning signals, it will be too sudden and readers will be dissatisfied. In other words, you can't do it just for the sake of subverting a trope; you have to justify it and foreshadow it.

Make the whole contrast between good and evil be less black and white, and more in a moral grey area, where the villain is surely questionable, but the good guys are also. Make the hero skeptical about some things happening on his side. Make the villain convincing, and give him some pretty good proofs that he's not doing evil per se, but his evil acts are the result of necessary sacrifices in a conflict.

A fervent paladin of light won't turn to evil over a talk. The seeds for his turning, and hence the plot twist, must be planted way before the actual twist. Your hero must stop and consider his actions, the actions of his enemy, and doubt the very nature of the conflict. Make the villain clear his doubts. Make the villain answer some of those pesky questions. Make the villain show "good faith", e.g. releasing the hero, making him see firsthand that his armies are, maybe, just badly portrayed, and that nobody in his city is drinking mulled wine from the skulls of young children.

Adding more on foreshadowing, feel free to see this question: [Writing SE](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35664/should-foreshadowing-be-close-to-the-main-event)I remember Brandon Sanderson saying, in an episode of the first season of the podcast writing excuses, that twists must be foreshadowed at least thrice. So, consider that.

**TL,DR** : place your conflict in a moral grey area. Foreshadow.

The villain doesn't have to convince only the hero. The readers must be convinced too, or at least convinced that the whole situation is believable.

Original score: 9