History Main / DevilinPlainSight

* From ''VideoGame/CustomRobo'' for the Gamecube, there is Evil, a flamboyantly overdressed nemesis to the player and the Steel Hearts...he seems more like a SmugSnake who exists to beat the Steel Hearts to all the good jobs, at first. While it stuns the cast when he declares his true intentions, it's no surprise to the player when he [[spoiler: defects to the Z Syndicate with a Robo that will ''destroy the world'' to try and gain favor with the Z-twins]]. [[LoveMakesYouEvil Love Makes You]] StupidEvil.

** Subverted with Sayoko, the other Devil Arcana representative in {{Persona 4}}. You meet her in a hospital at night, she openly flirts with and tries to seduce the protagonist, and creepy music is played whenever she's around, but it turns out she isn't that bad after all.

** And then there's Gendo Ikari, the TropeCodifier for ScaryShinyGlasses and ClaspYourHandsIfYouDecieve.

* [[ManipulativeBastard Izaya]] [[{{Troll}} Orihara]] from ''Durarara'' is the ultimate DiabolicalMastermind of [[CityOfAdventure Ikebukuro]] who loves nothing more than to [[ForTheEvulz screw with people]], to the point where he started a city-wide war between three different mob gangs, a MadScientist facility and six former Members of the {{Mafiya}}, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters to name a few parties]]. Nobody sees that a certain KnowledgeBroker might be behind this. Well... except for the guy who's TooDumbToFool who happens to be [[WorldsStrongestMan Shizuo]] [[PersonOfMassDestruction Heiwajima]].

-->-- Dexter Morgan, ''{{Series/Dexter}}''

-->-- Dexter Morgan, ''Dexter''

* ZigZagged in the season two finale of WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic. Twilight Sparkle assumes Princess Cadence is evil, namely because she didn't respond to her SecretHandshake, and how she (Cadence) mistreats her friends. She tries to warn her friends, but they simply wave it off, and her last attempt causes them to leave her in disgust. [[spoiler:It isn't until Twilight arrives with the real Cadence that she is sorta proven right. But by then, the Changeling impersonating Cadence had already become too powerful to stop. Her quote at the top of the page pretty much points out how everyone but Twilight screwed up big time.]]

->''"[[LampshadeHanging It's funny, really.]] [[TheHero Twilight]] here was suspicious of my behavior all along. [[WhatTheHellHero Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize the suspicions were correct!]]"''
-->-- '''[[spoiler:Queen Chrysalis]]''', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''

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* ''WhatsHappening'' : Dee, Raj's younger sister.

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* Zim in ''{{Invader ZIM}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'':Spider-man had no idea that Norman Osborn is the one who put a price on his head and is obsessed in capturing. In which case there were some [[FlashbackCut Flashback Cuts]] showing him to busy hanging out with Harry, and is oblivious to Norman destroying pictures of Spidey who is right in front of him.

* Megan on ''DrakeAndJosh'', to the point where it's not funny anymore.

*** The best example on Southpark, which is brilliantly lampshaded, is the episode "Cartman's Incredible Gift". In the episode, Cartman pretends to have psychic powers and the police blindly listen to whatever he says, ignoring important evidence. Kyle suspects a disturbed man to be a vicious serial killer (he is) and tries to tell the police about him but they are completely blind to the killer's suspicious behavior and mannerisms and make no attempt to bring him in for questioning.

* ''TheDeadZone'': A large part of the premise of Stephen King's novel.

** Played straight with Draco Malfoy in HalfBloodPrince. That is, nobody thinks he's a good guy, but everybody except Harry stubbornly refuse to believe that a son of the enemy second-in-command might've actually followed in his daddy's steps.

* The [[TooGoodToLast one-season wonder]] '80s sitcom ''It's Your Move'' featured Jason Bateman as a manipulative [[HighSchoolHustler teenaged con artist]] whose single mom was (initially, at least) blissfully unaware of his intrigues. The first dozen or so episodes dealt with his efforts to prevent the mother's equally devious boyfriend from exposing him. When she finally got wise to him, the show's whole comedic premise was effectively {{retool}}ed (and, arguably, ruined).

* To Nina, seeing [[Anime/{{Monster}} Johan]] is like seeing pure evil. To everyone else, it's just seeing a blond pretty boy.
** At least until they see the [[LightIsNotGood light]]...

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Tom Riddle comes across as completely creepy and obviously sinister in both Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince, but he's completely trusted and well-liked by the teachers, especially by Slughorn. His creepiness in the films contrasts with the books, where he's stated and shown to be very charming as a young man and very good at presenting himself well.

* Patricia in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''- At least when she becomes a sinner. She tricked the others into believing the sinner was KT, while her [[OOCAlert out of character attitude]] should have suggested otherwise.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' has [[EvilIsHammy Ricardio The Heart Guy]]. Finn can automatically tell that he's evil due to his appearance, but [[YouHaveToBelieveMe no one believes him]].

* Smerdyakov in ''TheBrothersKaramazov'' is really just thought of as a scullion who has airs of intellectualism about him, and who carries [[NietzscheWannabe blasphemous notions about religion.]] He's also thought of as pathetic to others because he suffers from epileptic seizures. [[spoiler:The idea of him being the murderer is absurd to everyone in town for these reasons, yet he is.]] Only the protagonist seems to have any deep misgivings about him. I mean come on, he even flashes [[PsychoticSmirk Psychotic Smirks]] whenever given the chance.

* The Mystery Wanderer in StationeryVoyagers. Nobody can figure out that he's [[spoiler: Melchar.]] And yet, he at best only plays the role of an anti-hero. Never a true good guy. But no matter how much he creeps everyone out, they keep giving him a free pass.

* ''{{Dexter}}'' works in the homicide department of the Miami police department by day, and kills by night; despite this, he stays well under everyone else's "something's not right with him" radar, except for Doakes. Dexter comments at one point about being in a room full of police officers and Doakes being the only one who has any sort of sense of something wrong about him.

* Subverted and parodied in the ''{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' episode "General Hospital"; a German spy has infiltrated a nearby field hospital and Blackadder is assigned to find out who it is. In the field hospital, he meets a wounded man with a German accent so thick it could be spread on bread ("My name... eeeees Meeeiiiister... Smeeeeth.") who's always skulking around acting suspicious. Turns out he is a spy... a ''British'' spy, who's been undercover in Germany so long he's picked up "a teensy bit of an accent". Blackadder even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] how ludicrous it would be for the Germans to place in a British field hospital a spy with a thick German accent. This doesn't stop Darling from humiliating himself by trying to arrest him, however, or George from blithely asking him whether he had seen any spies in the hospital (and this was not George being clever enough to realise that the man with a strong accent couldn't be a spy, he was simply too thick to notice it).