History HorribleJudgeOfCharacter / Literature

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchandtheWardrobe'', Edmund was very easy on trusting that the White Witch would make him King of Narnia rather than kill him and his siblings. He should have figured out from the start that The White Witch is evil from what The Pevensies heard about her from the Beavers or that they found out she imprisoned Tumnus just for helping Lucy. He played the IdiotBall even further by sneaking out to the White Witch's castle and getting himself captured. It wasn't until she berated him for coming alone and he was forced to witness her cruelty that he finally snapped out of this trope. That said, he had eaten too much of the White Witch's enchanted Turkish Delight and it's implied that he was too addicted to the food to care until he was forced to witness her cruelty.

* ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'': Despite being a trained diplomat, Genly's [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero personal biases]] cause some disastrously bad judgements. He dislikes Estraven, the one local who genuinely supports him, due to CultureClash over local etiquette; misses the danger posed by the EvilChancellor Tibe; and fails to realize he's wandered into a PoliceState even after he's violently arrested once.

** Tywin is a strange hybrid of this trope and ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter. The trouble is, he ''knows'' he's a good judge of character, so once he thinks he's got a handle on someone, he assumes he's completely right and never changes his opinion. Ever. The possibility of him having been a little off in the InitialSherlockScan, or being completely right but said person [[CharacterDevelopment having changed since he initially made his assumptions]] simply never registers.

*** Second, Dante can't help but feel pity when he meets his former master, Brunetto Latini, punished for some type of violence. Dante thanks him for teaching him everything about writing and poetry and remembers how Latini taught him that the secret to immortality was to [[GlorySeeker write brilliantly]]. Lattini reaffirms everything Dante says of him, even when Dante says he wouldn't have put Lattini in Hell, apparently not realizing that in life and now in death he lead Dante away from the true secret to immortality: giving one's self entirely in the Love that is God. So in perpetuating Dante's error and leading him away from the Paradise, Lattini continues in death to do Violence against God.

* Olivia in ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' sees the [[BigBad White Queen]] as a benevolent figure. This leads her to join the villains, as she thinks that Kyousuke would be better off reunited with the Queen. Notably, she even maintains this attitude after the Queen [[spoiler:''rips off Kyousuke's arm'' (it was a fake arm, but she didn't know that at the time)]]. This is justified by the fact that she comes from a kingdom that venerates the Queen as a goddess, [[spoiler:because the Queen [[RealityWarper rewrote history]] so that they would see her in this manner]]. [[spoiler:Olivia does realize the Queen's true nature when Kyousuke points out contradictions in her kingdom's history, causing her to pull a HeelFaceTurn]].

* Leia Organa in ''Literature/LeiaPrincessOfAlderaan'' has a pretty understandable one. She takes a liking to Kier, a fellow Alderaanian, who's thoughtful, principled, dislikes TheEmpire, likes ''her'', and helps teach her sharpshooting. He's a personable and genuine young man. However, he's also aware that Alderaanian involvement in any kind of Rebel Alliance will cause incredible suffering and loss of life among their people ''and'' is fatalistic enough to believe that any effort would be futile - so when Leia reveals that her parents are both major figures in the Rebellion, he betrays her trust and attempts to turn them in, believing that this will spare Alderaanians from war and reprisal.

* Tash Arranda, a Force-Sensitive protagonist from ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is very hit or miss when it comes to her friends. Thanks to their shared aptitude for Similarly she's quickly able to sense that Wedge Antilles, Lando Calrissian, Fandomar Nadon, and Dash Rendar are good people. However, the Force ''doesn't'' give her DetectEvil powers unless the people in question [[TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne are also Force-Sensitive]], and she's quite susceptible to [[BitchInSheepsClothing friendliness and flattery]]. Her brother, remembering the times she's picked up on the people who are the most helpful, once assumes that anyone she likes will be similar and it backfires.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchandtheWardrobe'', Edmund was very easy on trusting that the White Witch would make him King of Narnia rather than kill him and his siblings. He should have figured out from the start that The White Witch is evil from what The Pevensies heard about her from the Beavers or that they found out she imprisoned Tumnus just for helping Lucy. He played the IdiotBall even further by sneaking out to the White Witch's castle and getting himself captured. It wasn't until she berated him for coming alone and he was forced to witness her cruelty that he finally snapped out of this trope.

*** First, he faints with despair after an adulterous couple explains why they had no choice but to fall into sin. Their excuse? They heard [[Myth/KingArthur a love poem about Lancelot's affair]] and thought it sounded pretty cool.

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* ''Literature/WutheringHeights''. Lockwood originally describes Heathcliff as "a capital fellow". But then after storytime with Nelly...

** In general, whenever Poe expresses an opinion on someone or something, it's pretty much the opposite of what the Baudelaires (and by extension, the audience) are thinking. Though at times it can be unclear if it's this trope, or he's just trying to put on a brave face.

** Sansa is this at first with regards to Joffrey and Cersei, but she eventually becomes disillusioned. Other than that, though, she's generally a pretty good judge of character -- she's one of the few people who immediately recognized [[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger]] as being a dangerous creep -- and this has only been improving as she acquires JadeColoredGlasses.

* Literature/InDeath series: Peabody sure acted like this in ''Holiday In Death''. Eve had warned her that Brent Halloway was the wrong guy to get attracted to, due to his ItsAllAboutMe attitude. Peabody still got gooey-eyed over the guy, and as a result, got his fingers being stuck into her crotch, and in one of Roarke's bars on a date, no less! At least Peabody gave that pervert a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.

* This is very much true of the character Squire Allworthy in ''Literature/TomJones''. He's supposed to be a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, but throughout the novel, he always makes the wrong judgments, trusting bad characters and assuming the worst about the heroes to the extent that his reasonableness is InformedAbility.
* In both ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'' and ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'' Robert Langdon unwittingly helps the villain achieve his goal while running scared from the guy who is trying to warn him about it.
** Seeing as "the real BigBad is [[BigBadFriend actually the person who has been apparently helping the protagonists the most]] and has no logical reason to ''be'' the Big Bad" is one of the ''[[StrictlyFormula many]]'' common elements to all of Creator/DanBrown's work, this may be a case of GenreBlind instead.
* ''Literature/WutheringHeights''. Lockwood originally describes Heathcliff as "a capital fellow". But then after storytime with Nelly...

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Given how completely blind she is to the villainy of both [[spoiler: her cousin]], and later, [[spoiler: Reynard himself]], the Countess Persephone is an excellent example of this.
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** Mara Jade is typically a decent judge of character, but not necessarily when it comes to the Emperor. In ''[[Literature/StarWarsAllegiance Allegiance]]'', while in his presence Mara thinks of him as a "good and wise man," for all that there are all kinds of little hints that she knows very well that he's not. She ''is'' an Emperor's Hand, a Force-Sensitive agent who can hear his commands from anywhere in the galaxy, and it's not hard to imagine that he messed with her head. [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Five years after his death]], she's angrier at Luke for killing Palpatine because this destroyed her way of life and because his last command still echoes in her head. Not so much because a good man wisely leading the galaxy was killed, and in fact between the evidence and his waning influence she's rather messed up. In ''Literature/SurvivorsQuest'' she finds herself working with the [[BadassCrew Aurek Seven stormtroopers]] and gets a little nostalgic for the Empire until she goes into the storage core of Outbound Flight and sees all of these supplies stacked up, on Palpatine's order, for fifty thousand people he was arranging to kill.
** She wasn't exactly on the ball concerning Jacen either, although the level of her uncharacteristic obliviousness in that series seemed to vary from book to book, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on what the author at the time needed in order to get away with the plot]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Eddard Stark. Littlefinger did warn the man not to trust him...
** Catelyn isn't much better. She takes Littlefinger as a trustworthy sort of guy when he's got a blatant crush on her, thinks her paranoid PsychopathicManchild of a sister will be reasonable, and assumes Jon Snow is just itching for the chance to try and take Winterfell from her children.
** Sansa is this at first with regards to Joffrey and Cersei, but she eventually becomes disillusioned. Other than that, though, she's generally a pretty good judge of character -- she's one of the few people who immediately recognized [[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger]] as being a dangerous creep -- and this has only been improving as she acquires JadeColoredGlasses.
** Cersei Lannister, for all her paranoia and tendency to find threats in every shadow, is remarkably terrible at seeing enemies where they ''actually exist''. The ChurchMilitant that even [[DragonRider the Targaryens]] trod lightly around? The ''perfect'' pawns for a petty scheme. Random dude who looks a bit like Prince Rhaegar? Great choice for an admiral. Anyone who questions her increasingly irrational decisions? Bitter enemies, who must be purged. [[spoiler: It all collapses on her ''spectacularly'' in ''A Feast for Crows''.]]
** Theon Greyjoy. No, Theon, this is not a helpful [[TheIgor Igor]]. This is [[MistakenForServant the master of said Igor]], who wants to give you a FateWorseThanDeath.
* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'': Good Queen Alysanne was normally a pretty good judge of character, but she had a ''massive'' blind spot for her daughter Saera, assuming she was just in need of a little love and affection, even by the point it was clear Saera hated mom and dad and had no intention of ever coming back.
* Creator/DavidSedaris claims in one of his essays that [[SelfDeprecation all his closest friends are horrible judges of character]].
* At the start of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', the young Count himself is a terrible judge of characters, trusting as friends the same men who will completely ruin his life and get him started on the quest for revenge that will occupy the rest of the story. In fact, he will never realize, by himself, the reason for his downfall: only with the help of old Faria will he be able to finally get a clue.
* Cheryl from ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' is a young woman who believes in her author's philosophy of hero-worshiping. As a member of the villainous faction of Looters, [[ManipulativeBastard James Taggart]] believes in a philosophy which is the exact opposite of Cheryl's. And yet, Cheryl manages to misunderstand Taggart so badly that she thinks he's a heroic man who believes in heroism and marries him. [[LoveMartyr Naturally, the marriage goes badly for Cheryl]].

* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Bobby Harcourt in ''Sweet Revenge'' was apparently this with regards to Rosemary Hershey, according to Isabelle Flanders's recounting of past events. Fortunately for Bobby, the lust he felt for her wore off by then, he had come to see Rosemary for what she really was, and decided to divorce her. Roland Sullivan is ''Lethal Justice'' is very much this. He felt such lust for Arden Gillespie that he cheated on his wife, and essentially became Arden's puppet. Even when the consequences finally start hitting him, he refuses to leave Arden. He even figured out at a very late date that Arden had no conscience, and she confirmed it when he asked her. He still did not leave her. This just shows that Roland is a real piece of work!
* Mister Poe in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' has a tendency to fall for Olaf's PaperThinDisguise of the day that's part this, part CaptainOblivious, with maybe a dash of [[ApatheticCitizens not caring]].
** In general, whenever Poe expresses an opinion on someone or something, it's pretty much the opposite of what the Baudelaires (and by extension, the audience) are thinking. Though at times it can be unclear if it's this trope, or he's just trying to put on a brave face.
* In the Young Adult novel ''Literature/{{Rosebush}}'' by Michele Jaffe, this is a ''huge'' factor in the plot, as it's the protagonist Jane who doesn't know which of her friends is the one who tried to kill her.
* Senex in ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'' unwittingly makes a DealWithTheDevil with the evil Wyrm, never realizing who he is actually talking to until it's too late.
* In ''Literature/TheLiontheWitchandtheWardrobe'', Edmund was very easy on trusting that the White Witch would make him King of Narnia rather than kill him and his siblings. He should have figured out from the start that The White Witch is evil from what The Pevensies heard about her from the Beavers or that they found out she imprisoned Tumnus just for helping Lucy. He played the IdiotBall even further by sneaking out to the White Witch's castle and getting himself captured. It wasn't until she berated him for coming alone and he was forced to witness her cruelty that he finally snapped out of this trope.
* Tash Arranda, a Force-Sensitive protagonist from ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is very hit or miss when it comes to her friends. Thanks to their shared aptitude for Similarly she's quickly able to sense that Wedge Antilles, Lando Calrissian, Fandomar Nadon, and Dash Rendar are good people. However, the Force ''doesn't'' give her DetectEvil powers unless the people in question [[TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne are also Force-Sensitive]], and she's quite susceptible to [[BitchInSheepsClothing friendliness and flattery]]. Her brother, remembering the times she's picked up on the people who are the most helpful, once assumes that anyone she likes will be similar and it backfires.
* The title character of Creator/JosephineTey's ''Miss Pym Disposes'' is an amateur psychologist (formerly a teacher of French, now a bestselling author), inclined to be proud of her work in psychology. She spends some days at a women's college and at the start reflects that she's never seen such fine specimens of English women. Well, not only do all sorts of not-so-fine things turn up, but the first woman she'd taken an instant liking to turns out to be a murderer. The book ends with Miss Pym reflecting bitterly that "as a psychologist, she was a pretty good teacher of French" and vowing to stop lecturing on psychology.
* Mr. Boddy in the little-known ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' book series is surprisingly never actually killed, but a lot of attempts are made on his life by the ''same six people he consistently invites over'' either to show off this new tomb he bought to put in the back garden complete with tour, have a nice dinner, afternoon tea... he even {{lampshades}} this. He always escapes, somehow, and talks about it in the next entry.

* Played with in ''Literature/{{Divergent}}''. Four has no problem identifying Marcus as a bad person or Tris as strong or brave, but [[spoiler:becomes the UnwittingPawn to multiple characters in the series]]. In the cases of [[spoiler:Evelyn and Nita]], they try to make it up to him, however.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': One of Katniss's biggest flaws. Quite simply, she has a nasty habit of always assuming the worst of everyone she meets when these people ironically often end up saving her life and or genuinely caring about her. Her trust issues mostly stem from her childhood trauma of never having anyone to be there for her and in turn having to be there for her younger sister.

* Olivia in ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'' sees the [[BigBad White Queen]] as a benevolent figure. This leads her to join the villains, as she thinks that Kyousuke would be better off reunited with the Queen. Notably, she even maintains this attitude after the Queen [[spoiler:''rips off Kyousuke's arm'' (it was a fake arm, but she didn't know that at the time)]]. This is justified by the fact that she comes from a kingdom that venerates the Queen as a goddess, [[spoiler:because the Queen [[RealityWarper rewrote history]] so that they would see her in this manner]]. [[spoiler:Olivia does realize the Queen's true nature when Kyousuke points out contradictions in her kingdom's history, causing her to pull a HeelFaceTurn]].
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'':
** Knowing without a doubt that a [[GodIsGood Perfectly Good]] and [[TheOmniscient All-Knowing]] God had damned them, Dante still falls for the excuses of several characters being punished in Hell.
*** First, he faints with despair after an adulterous couple explains why they had no choice but to fall into sin. Their excuse? They heard [[Myth/KingArthur a love poem about Lancelot's affair]] and thought it sounded pretty cool.
*** Second, Dante can't help but feel pity when he meets his former master, Brunetto Latini, punished for some type of violence. Dante thanks him for teaching him everything about writing and poetry and remembers how Latini taught him that the secret to immortality was to [[GlorySeeker write brilliantly]]. Lattini reaffirms everything Dante says of him, even when Dante says he wouldn't have put Lattini in Hell, apparently not realizing that in life and now in death he lead Dante away from the true secret to immortality: giving one's self entirely in the Love that is God. So in perpetuating Dante's error and leading him away from the Paradise, Lattini continues in death to do Violence against God.
** Thomas Aquinas concludes a dialogue about human wisdom by observing that men are foolish when they casually judge whether another is damned or blessed because to do so would be to "count ears before the corn is ripe." Since that's foolish, Aquinas reminds the ordinary man that he should not assume to be the Mind of the Lord, for even one who appears to be a robber can be saved while the charitable giver may suffer in Inferno.
* In the book ''[[Literature/DeptfordMice The Oaken Throne]]'' by Creator/RobinJarvis, [[BenevolentMageRuler the Starwife]] is totally stunned when her trusted handmaiden [[ObviouslyEvil Morwenna]] betrays her and brings her realm to ruin. This in spite of the fact that the Starwife is ''supposed'' to be [[TheOmniscient all-knowing]].
* A truly bizarre inversion in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novel ''Timewyrm: Exodus,'' where the Doctor intervenes during the Beerhall Putsch and gains ''[[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Adolf frickin' Hitler's]]'' unquestioning faith and trust. This is all part of [[TheChessmaster the Doctor's]] scheme to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong reverse the Timewyrm's interference]] with European history. Hitler never has an inkling that the Doctor isn't one of his oldest friends until The Reveal; it's even strongly implied that the Doctor's betrayal was the last straw leading to Hitler's [[DrivenToSuicide death]].
* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'': Bastian thinks nothing of trusting one of Fantasica's most infamous witches, despite the fact she obviously tries to turn him against Atreyu. She also quite obviously feigned defeat when she kidnapped the knights and Bastian rescued them, as Atreyu points out, but he thinks nothing of it. This can possibly be explained as a result of Bastian gradually losing his memories, and consequently his humanity.
* ''Literature/TreasureIsland'': Squire Trelawney unknowingly hires a bunch of pirates to sail his treasure-hunting vessel. He also mistakes Captain Smollett's plain speaking, sensible caution and firm-but-fair approach to discipline for "unmanly" character, until events prove that Smollett was right (or if anything under-cautious).
* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': Jillie Djinn, [[BeleagueredAssistant Beetle]]'s BadBoss. She arbitrarily fires him and hires [[Jerkass Merrin]] [[UngratefulBastard Meredith]] to replace him.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': Celebrimbor trusts Sauron, the BigBad in Literature/LordOfTheRings, and teaches him what he needs to know to create the One Ring. Sauron used his dead body as a banner.