History Main / HorribleJudgeOfCharacter

* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': Creator/SethRogen and the others believe Creator/JonahHill a perfect saint, despite Creator/JayBaruchel warning them that he isn't. Jay turns out to right when Jonah prays to God for his death.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind genuinely believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake, though, once Hal starts terrorizing Metro City after being turned down by Roxanne.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake, though, once Hal starts terrorizing Metro City after being turned down by Roxanne.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake once Hal starts terrorizing Metro City after he gets turned down by Roxanne.

It usually takes a [[DidYouActuallyBelieve point blank]] [[EvilGloating Evil Monologue]] from their "friend" over the [[TrueCompanions True Companion's]] corpse to even ''faze'' them into considering the possibility they might not be as hug-tastic a friend as they thought. If it doesn't [[BreakTheCutie break them]], then they'll just turn right back around and [[LoveMartyr follow their "friend" around]], say he [[EasilyForgiven forgives them for killing off thousands]] and [[BetrayalTropes betraying him completely]], and insist the PowerOfTrust and [[ThePowerOfFriendship Friendship]] will [[LoveRedeems redeem them]].

-->'''Megamind:''' ''([[ItMakesSenseInContext as Hal is unconscious with a goofy face]])'' Just look at him.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake once Hal begins terrorizing Metro City after he gets turned down by Roxanne.
-->'''Megamind:''' Just look at him.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake when Hal begins terrorizing Metro City after getting turned down by Roxanne.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, despite the fact that the latter is an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. When Hal reveals to Megamind he never really cared about being a hero and only wanted to get Roxanne's attention and then goes on a rampage through Metro City, Megamind realizes his mistake.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Taken UpToEleven with the Emperor Xin of ancient Thassilon. While he wasn't a bad guy himself (his official alignment is LawfulNeutral), ''all'' of the people he hired to be [[SorcerousOverlord Runelords]], who were supposed to represent the SevenHeavenlyVirtues, instead all turned out the be evil pricks and quickly started to embody the Seven Deadly Sins instead.

* In ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'', Dr. Light has problems with this in the ''Mega Man 3'' story arc, completely ignoring every obvious sign that Wily doesn't have the amnesia he claims to have, taking the problem in the actual game and turning it way, way UpToEleven. Then subverts it at the end when it is revealed he deliberately gave Dr. Wily faulty power crystals, which caused Gamma to fail.

* The entire faculty of Bumblebane's in ''Webcomic/WizardSchool'', with the exception of [[ObviouslyEvil Prof. Evilmore]]. It doesn't help that GoodIsDumb is in UpToEleven levels in the comic's universe. And probably all the students in Dragonbane House, with the exception of Celeste, who has [[FakeUltimateHero Graham]] pegged for the utter asshole he is but has been instructed to help train him, and What The Faculty Says Goes.

'''Iago:''' Oh, excellent judge, yeah, sure... ''[[{{Not}} not]]''

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Anime/{{Gankutsuou}}'', Albert is a Horrible Judge of Character. He ignores the strange coincidences when the count arrives in Paris, the horrible turns of events, the letters to his father. Even when his childhood best friend pleads with him that he be careful around the count, all he gets are ''tantrums''. The count, being a {{Magnificent|Bastard}} and ManipulativeBastard counted on this, and systematically destroys Albert's remaining confidence in him by slowly spelling out how he was a piece in his schemes for revenge… and does so precisely in the most heartless manner possible to get him to challenge him to a duel and get a legal excuse to kill him as revenge against his parents.
* Laios from ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' as part of his characterization as TheDitz. He falls for Kabru's charm offensive very quickly and considers him a sweet NiceGuy even as Kabru is considering ''killing him'' for offering him food made of monsters.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** Goku frequently underestimates just how evil some people can be, and is all too willing to assume they aren't lying to him when he has them at his mercy. He is shocked that Raditz was lying after he pleas for his life, claiming that he will leave Earth peacefully if his life is spared. The moment Goku let go of his tail, Raditz kicks him, crushes his ribs, and calls him an idiot for believing him. He also spares Frieza's life on two separate occasions (in ''Z'' and ''Resurrection 'F''') out of a misguided act of mercy, and both times Frieza took advantage of it. Finally, in ''Super'', he completely misreads Zamasu, seeing him as a good Kai and not believing he has anything to do with [[EvilTwin Goku Black]], despite Zamasu showing open hostilities towards him during their visit and even trying to attack Goku after losing a sparring match. It isn't until [[spoiler: Goku sees Future Zamasu helping Black that he realizes what a scumbag Zamasu will become]].
** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Raditz apparently believed that Nappa and Vegeta would revive him after they got to Earth, as he says that his only regret is that he won't be back in time to see them kill the people of Earth. On the contrary, while Nappa does indeed suggest reviving Raditz, Vegeta shoots the idea down, stating that reviving a weakling like Raditz would be a waste and they should use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality instead. Nappa does not argue against this and quickly agrees.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' has Gowasu, the [[TopGod Supreme Kai]] of Universe 10. While his apprentice Zamasu is firmly convinced that mortals are AlwaysChaoticEvil and [[TheGodsMustBeLazy the gods' inaction in their affairs]] is a sin, Gowasu is willing to look past this and teach him because, in his words, Zamasu is [[PureIsNotGood pure-hearted with a strong sense of justice]]. Even after Zamasu cuts down an inhabitant of Planet Babari rather than just walking away, this being ''right after'' Zamasu openly suggested that they [[FinalSolution just wipe out all of the Babarians and be done with it]], Gowasu is still willing to believe the best in him and believes that after their visit and his [[WhatTheHellHero subsequent lecture over the Babarian's death]], Zamasu has finally learned his lesson. It's only when [[spoiler: Goku, Beerus, and Whis save him from being murdered by Zamasu and expose his plans to [[KillAllHumans wipe out all mortal life]] that Gowasu is forced to acknowledge just how evil Zamasu really is.]] Even then, he genuinely believes that [[spoiler: going to the future to scold Zamasu and give him a LastSecondChance will actually work; one would think that after everything he's heard about the atrocities Zamasu has committed in the future and even seeing the results with his own eyes, Gowasu would know that Zamasu is beyond reason.]] Once the crisis is resolved in Episode 67, Beerus advises Gowasu to choose his disciples more carefully in the future. For this reason, Gowasu refuses to personally choose any fighters for the Tournament of Power, fearing he may end up choosing someone as insane as Zamasu.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** [[TheFederation the Earth Federation]] from [[Franchise/{{Gundam}} the UC]] is this.
*** In [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory 0083]], they give total power over the colonies to Jamitov Hymen and Bosque Ohm, who at the very least [[spoiler:failed miserably to stop [[ColonyDrop Operation Stardust]] and at worst ACTUALLY ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN]].
*** Jamitov himself is one of these in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]''. He chooses Bosque as his [[TheDragon Dragon]], Jerid Messa as his disciple, and recruits Paptimus Scirocco from the Jupiter Energy Fleet, giving him the best ship in the fleet and allowing him to accumulate a great deal of power under him. The thing is, [[InsaneAdmiral Bosque]] doesn't care about Jamitov's agenda and just wants to kill every Spacenoid he can catch, [[DeceptiveDisciple Jerid]] plans to eventually supplant Jamitov, and [[DarkMessiah Scirocco]] plans to supplant Jamitov [[TheStarscream without the 'eventually']].
*** By ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's Counterattack]]'' they show no signs of improvement in spite of all this. The deal they cut with [[FallenHero Char]] basically amounts to: "In return for not dropping your space rocks on us, we'd like to give you [[spoiler:a giant space rock! And as an extra bonus, it's loaded with nukes!]]"
*** Really, after a certain point it stops being humorous and becomes worrying. One has to wonder if the Earth Federation has a [[MonsterProtectionRacket terrorism insurance policy]] on the planet Earth and is desperately trying to cash in on it.
*** To the above question, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn" says '''YES'''. According to various Zeon scholars, more Terrorists = more defense funding for various Federation bureaucrats, which gives them an incentive to secretly fund various terrorist cells into making a bloody fuss and restarting the war on small scales, all so the Military Complex can justify its ridiculous budget. And in nearly every situation, the Federation conspirators underestimate just how bitter and ruthless the Zeon 'strawmen' can become with 'scraps' when they have suffered numerous nation-wide defeats and institutionalized racism.
*** This eventually comes to a resolution in ''[[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam Crossbone Gundam]]'', where it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Jupiter Energy Fleet has been manipulating both the Federation and the various incarnations of Zeon, with their stated goal under Fonse Kagatie being to weaken the Feds enough to where they can eventually overthrow them and establish total hegemony over the Earth Sphere]].
** In ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'', there's Chairman ([[spoiler:later Prime Minister]]) Karato. Though that could be somewhat explained by how much of a [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative]] ''and'' MagnificentBastard his TreacherousAdvisor [[spoiler:Urube]] is.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': One of the last chapters of the manga penned by Gosaku Ota introduces Yumiko Shiozai--TheHero Kouji's grandmother. She met Hell in college when she was a student, and she thought despite his quirkiness he was a good person. ''[[MadScientist Dr]]. [[BigBad HELL]].'' His sanity was already slipping, he was beginning to look ObviouslyEvil and he was troubled and paranoiac and prone to KickTheDog. Oh, and [[StalkerWithACrush he stalked her]]. Obsessively.
* From ''Manga/{{Doubt}}'', we have Yuu. A NiceGuy who is stuck with his friends in an abandoned place and one of them is killing the others. And despite one of their members being a delinquent with a HairTriggerTemper who was willing to ''beat him up'' after Yuu accidentally bumped into him and another is an aloof, mysterious guy who seems to know more than he lets on, he still thinks it's all an outside job. Though he eventually does wonder in later chapters whether one of them ''did'' kill everyone in their group.
* Lithuania from ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''. His boss Russia is a male {{Yandere}}, his crush Belarus is Russia's sister ''and'' a Yandere as well, his best friend is the often selfish Poland (though in Poland's defense, he ''does'' attempt to help him with Russia more than once, and clearly stands up to Russia in ''Meeting of the World''). However, this trope only applies to his one-sided crush on Belarus, as he expresses frustration in dealing with Russia and Poland, and deals with them because he has to, and he makes the best of a bad situation.
* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'' Kirei Kotomine seems to simply inspire trust. Risei trusts him unconditionally (though this is kind of justified as Kirei is Risei's son) and Tokiomi Tohsaka notes that he seems more nihilistic than faithful or religious… yet he also trusts him immensely and it never occurs to him that Kirei might not be the most loyal person on earth. Even Assassin believes that Archer (aka Gilgamesh) is no problem at all when Assassins are implied to ''never'' get into direct fights. Bazett also trusts Kotomine a bit too much.
** Tokiomi eventually takes this to ridiculous extremes by [[TooDumbToLive writing what is essentially his will, which says Kirei gets everything (including his daughter)]], [[TooDumbToLive giving him a]] ''[[TooDumbToLive knife]]'' [[TooDumbToLive as a parting gift, then walking away from him with his back turned]]. You can guess how well ''that'' ended. He also gave his youngest daughter to Zouken Matou, with [[AbusiveParents predictable]] [[RapeAsBackstory results]].
* Tsuna from ''Manga/Reborn2004'' is this, somewhat. He ''does'' realize that the villains aren't the nicest people on earth, but is very naive about wishing to believe the best in people (namely, Rokudo Mukuro). It's lampshaded by several characters in the series (yes, even by the villains themselves).
* In one episode of ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'', Whispy Woods took the word of [[CardCarryingVillain King Dedede]] that someone is out to destroy his forest, and assumed that [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Kirby]] and the gang were the ones out to destroy it because they happened to put a fire next to Whispy while they were camping out. If Kirby hadn't eaten one of the apples Whispy was dropping on the gang, then his judge of character would've [[NearVillainVictory caused his woods to be destroyed forever, replaced by Dedede's golf course]].
* For most of ''Literature/TheTwelveKingdoms''' first StoryArc, [[spoiler:Yuka Sugimoto]] swears complete loyalty to the King of Kou despite several indications that he is simply using her and cares for nothing but himself. Even after being [[spoiler:abandoned on a remote, barren farm]], she makes up an excuse for it herself and remains eager to do his bidding. Sure, the girl ''is'' [[IJustWantToBeSpecial desperate to be the heroine]], but ''still''!
* Prince Diamond of season 2 of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' refuses to hear anyone question the motives of his adviser Wiseman. A skeleton with glowing hands and eyes. Who wears a BlackCloak. Who had previously appeared before them very suddenly offering them his wisdom and the power of the [[ObviouslyEvil Evil Black Poison Crystal]]. In his defense, he's also the ruler of a planet of people exiled by the kingdom of Crystal Tokyo, so he's not stable. This all only applies to the anime, because in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]], the Black Moon Clan were evil and Demand was pure evil, so nobody really cared much about Wiseman since they were all after the same goal.
** In the same storyline and also in the anime, Cooan is revealed [[LoveMartyr to be in love with Rubius]], who is completely evil and clearly using her. Learning the obvious is what leads her and the other three Ayakashi Sisters to their HeelFaceTurn.
* A cynic could very well consider Akane Tendo of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' to be one of these. She is convinced that Ryoga Hibiki is a sweet, gentle, kind-hearted person and her best friend. While he ''does'' make some good character growth, Ryoga is very flawed as well: petty, melancholic, obsessive, childish, and obsessed with wooing her, and her blindness to his romantic intentions is one of the things that upsets him the most. She blatantly ignores things like the fact he was once part of a plot to kidnap her because he does things like choke down her [[LethalChef repulsive food]] and lie that it tastes delicious, immediately leaps to assault Ranma when Akane gets angry or upset, and otherwise goes out of his way to stroke her ego. In fact, it's possible that ''this'' is the keystone behind her apparent inability to realise he is really her pet pig P-chan: she thinks so highly of him that she can't conceive he would abuse her trust and stain her honor the way that pretending to be an animal so he can, among other things, sleep in her bed.
** Given her trust levels for Ranma, the same could be applied there. While Ranma is hardly a model citizen, Akane is generally willing to accuse Ranma of all sorts of immoral actions that he would never take, or has shown any sign of taking. Most notably is her insistence that Ranma is a pervert, despite the fact that Ranma never shows any kind of lust and never abuses his GenderBender curse to go peeping. Ranma is guilty of many things, but he is all but immune to lust.
* Elmer C. Albatross and Graham Spectre from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. Elmer is thoroughly convinced that even the biggest monster secretly has a heart of gold and happens to be [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friends]] with MadScientist/terrorist Huey Laforet. As for Graham? Well, he {{Hero Worship|per}}s ''[[AxCrazy Ladd]] [[ChaoticEvil Russo]]''.
** Though in Graham's case, he [[AxCrazy isn't that different from Ladd]] personality-wise. It's just as likely that Graham is well aware of what kind of man Ladd is, but is so violently insane himself that he likes it!
* Catherine Gregory from the manhwa ''Manhwa/BurningHell''. Okay, so she led a sheltered life and can't understand Korean or Japanese, but the two guys she's stuck with are AxCrazy and make no bones about it and look her in the eyes with {{Slasher Smile}}s, and she even compared their fighting a common foe to a two-headed demon; and she '''still''' considers them to be kind-hearted saviors! When you think that about a guy who wants to [[IAmAHumanitarian eat you]] and another who considers you prime material for a [[MadDoctor Body Works-type]] "[[MadArtist work of art]]," you're getting pretty close to TooDumbToLive.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'':
** Kaito may not have ''completely'' trusted his father, Dr. Faker, but the fact that he believed him at all or that any of what he was telling him was the truth was likely Kaito's biggest fault.
** Of course, [[spoiler:Dr. Faker himself was an even bigger example. Believing Vector's promises to help Haruto--which were obviously lies--caused him to commit numerous atrocities that may have made him an accomplice to genocide. (And technically still might, unless the heroes are victorious.)]]
* Bear Walken of ''VideoGame/{{Gungrave}}'' trusted Harry [=McDowell=] with both the fate of Millenion ''and'' his ''daughter''. Bear Walken was a good Mafia boss but apparently terrible with people.
* In ''Anime/WeissKreuz'', Ken Hidaka is quite convinced that his childhood friend [[JerkAss Kouichiro Kase]] can't possibly know what his evil boss is up to. One murder and an attempt on Ken's own life later, he wises up to Kase's conniving ways, but it takes ''another'' attempt on Ken's life before he actually does anything about it--which, for those of you playing along at home, would be the ''third'' time Kase's tried, and failed, to kill him.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** May thinks [[DirtyCoward Yoki]] and [[AxCrazy Scar]] are good guys long before CharacterDevelopment hits either of them. She also mistrusts the ''Elric brothers'' for a while, probably because she thought Ed had "lied" to her about being tall and handsome as opposed to short (in reality, she just [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} thought this up herself]] and took her disappointment out on him). There's also the fact that they were Scar's enemies... Things don't work out so well for her when she decides to trust Envy, though.
* ''Manga/SakuraGari'': Masataka. Honestly, there are all these horrible rumors about Souma, Souma himself acts really weird, strange events keep occurring, and... he just thinks Souma is a nice master. Right.
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', there are a few cases of this:
** The main character himself is a rare justified example. He's rather clueless regarding normal human interactions due to his isolation by the villagers and peers until he became a ninja, so he tended to trust people who showed an outward facade of friendliness (he was very starved for positive attention). His former teacher Mizuki, appeared to be the nice teacher to Umino Iruka's SternTeacher, tricked Naruto into stealing the Forbidden Scroll and then planned to kill him, and Kabuto, who was an agent for Orochimaru for years and only pretended to be a friendly upperclassman. Ironically, Sasuke was the only one from Team 7 who realized there was something off about Kabuto before his second encounter with his brother.
** The biggest example, however, would be [[spoiler:the Third Hokage, who actually allowed Shimura Danzo to reform ROOT after the Fourth Hokage had disbanded the shadow group because he felt he needed someone to take care of the dirty deeds that couldn't be linked to the village. The Fourth ended up being right in not trusting ROOT; Danzo schemed for years to oust Sarutobi to become Hokage himself, going as far as seeking assistance from foreign powers to do so, enabling Orochimaru's experiments and even forced the Uchiha coup to be unable to resolve peacefully by removing the eye of Uchiha Shisui, who planned to use it to pacify his clan, only to transplant it to himself so he could use its superior hypnotic capabilities to get his way.]]
* Ayase of ''Manga/OkaneGaNai'': his cousin ''sold him to the Yakuza'' and he thinks it was just a "misunderstanding." This is also the guy who surrounds himself with "friends" who - without exception - are trying to get in his pants. And he keeps thinking that it's also just a "misunderstanding" when one of his "best friends" tries to rape him. Twice. And then chain him to a bedpost in his room. Aaaand he lives with the loan shark who ''bought him'' from said cousin. For more details just look in the TooDumbToLive entry. He's there too.
* Araki of ''Hana to Ryuu'' (prequel to ''Manga/{{Kizuna}}'') doesn't seem to notice that his most trusted employee has all the qualifications of psychopath, rapist, murderer, and torturer, despite the fact that he tried to drive his boyfriend to suicide, is constantly trying to kill him, and [[spoiler:murdered Araki's wife who was ''pregnant with his unborn child'']]. Yeah, he's [[SarcasmMode just a great guy]].
* Asuna's father Shouzou in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' thinks Sugou is a friendly, bright little protege, and arranges a marriage between the two without noticing that his daughter hates the evil bastard. Later, after it becomes clear that Sugou [[spoiler: is the reason Asuna and a hundred others stayed in their comas a few extra months, and that Sugou was planning on brainwashing/raping her]], [[MyGreatestFailure he resigns from his position as CEO, and Asuna is only barely able to convince him not to retire outright]]. Of course, Sugou made sure to act like an honest, kind man to his boss, and only let the facade drop in front of Kirito, whom he believed wouldn't be able to do anything about the marriage.
** Asuna's mother Kyouko is just as bad about it as her husband, since according to Asuna herself, the ArrangedMarriage between Asuna and Sugou was ''her'' idea in the first place; of course, when Asuna points this out to her, Kyouko [[NeverMyFault quickly tries to deflect the blame onto her husband]].
* Like the game it's based off, the XY arc of ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' has Professor Sycamore praising Lysandre despite the fact that Lysandre is obviously '''insane'''. What makes it worse here is that ''everyone else'' can see it and reacts accordingly, whether it being with fear or suspicion, while Sycamore continues to defend him with light and sparkles in the background.
* When the ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' gang first meets Barry, he admires Ash's rival Paul, and consider Ash (and Dawn) inferior trainers compared to Paul. Barry cast this opinion after watching the Hearthome Tag Battle TournamentArc on TV, the very same competition where Paul blatantly quits in the middle of a battle for petty reasons[[note]]his Chimchar couldn't fight properly, not just because of its phobia of Zangoose (which the opponent was using), but also because Paul didn't let the chimp rest after putting it through TrainingFromHell the previous night[[/note]] leaving his tag-team partner, Ash, to win the fight for their team on his own.
** In the Kalos arc, Alain is this to Lysandre. Lysandre gets Alain to help his goals to use Mega Evolution for peaceful purposes when in reality he's been the mastermind behind almost everything that happens in the Mega Evolution specials and eventually the main series once Team Flare makes their appearance.
* ''Anime/SonicX'': Despite being sworn enemies with Eggman, Knuckles is always fully prepared to believe his latest lie about [[FalselyReformedVillain wanting to change his ways]] and help him out, and no matter how many times he realizes that Eggman lied to him, he'll ''always'' fall for it again. It's even lampshaded in the Season 2 episode "An Enemy in Need," where the others flat-out call him out on falling for Eggman's latest claim that he'll reform if they give him the Chaos Emerald; even then, Knuckles adamantly refuses to even consider the possibility that Eggman is lying until Decoe and Bocoe show up and Eggman himself lets it slip that Knuckles fell for it.
* ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'': Both [[WideEyedIdealist Subaru]] and his twin sister [[ShipperOnDeck Hokuto]] could use some help in the voice of reason department when it comes to trusting certain people.
* Ryuji Takasu of ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' is generally just bad at reading people, but it really comes to the fore when Taiga's dad tries to re-enter her life. Despite all of the red flags Mr. Aisaka throws up (including what little Taiga told him about their previous relationship), Ryuji thinks that his re-entry into Taiga's life would be nothing but positive. It bites Taiga ''hard'' during the Cultural Festival. In Ryuji's case, his [[FriendlessBackground previous problems in socializing]] due to [[FaceOfAThug his delinquent-like appearance]] suggests that he's just inexperienced in reading people.
* A lot of the tragedy in ''Anime/CodeGeass'''s second season comes from ''a lot'' of this. Why anyone would trust [[DevilInPlainSight Schneizel]] is a question that is never properly answered. This lack of good judgement bites everyone in the ass ''horribly'' as this ends up [[spoiler: being the incident that sends AntiHero Lelouch off the deep end after a TraumaCongaLine and makes him think up the [[ZeroApprovalGambit Zero]] [[ThanatosGambit Requiem]] as the only way to build a better world.]]
** The CompilationMovie [[AdaptationExpansion seems to clarify that]] no, they didn't believe him ''that'' easily. They still wanted to hear from [[spoiler: Lelouch]] first, who [[spoiler: still tries putting on the act when they're begging him to just tell the truth]]. This time, [[spoiler: Schneizel's men try firing on him anyway without the Black Knights' approval]], leading to [[spoiler: Lelouch still having to be rescued]] for everything else afterwards to stay the same.
** A specific, recurring example from all the way back in season 1 is [[AcePilot Suzaku]], who takes IdiotHero to new levels by siding with the ''conquering empire'' that took over his country and reduced all its citizens to second-class citizens ''at best'' and is run by a SocialDarwinist and flat out ''racist'' philosophy, and yet insists on being an InternalReformist when an "Eleven" like him has no real chance of doing so. [[spoiler: Of course, it's implied this is mostly a lie to conceal his [[DeathSeeker real motive]] for becoming a soldier.]] At the same time, he manages to be the only one consistently able to see through [[ConsummateLiar Lelouch]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Pinocchio in ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'' is far too trusting in people he shouldn't. This is most notable with the Fox and the Cat, who are really interested in stealing the money Mangiafuoco gave to Pinocchio. Before they do the theft, there are too many clues that they are not the good guys they pretend to be: they clearly keep feigning handicaps, call Pinocchio in a pretty suspicious way, tell Pinocchio that school is the reason for their handicaps, kill a blackbird that tries to warn Pinocchio, leave Pinocchio to pay for all the food they ate, arrange a meeting in midnight and almost kill him (they were disguised, but Pinocchio managed to bite off the Cat's paw and could have discovered all). But Pinocchio still believes their lies until the theft. Later, Pinocchio trusts the worst students in his class, even if his teacher and the Fairy advised him not to. For that, those students trick him to skip school and when one of them gets hit and faints, the rest scapegoat Pinocchio.
* The elder princesses of the country where ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' takes place seem to have been this. They and the husband they chose are already dead at the beginning of the novel, but the trauma caused by said husband is still very alive. Because of the polygyny practiced in their culture, all their sisters suffered from their bad taste in men.
* 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...
* In the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' The Lords of Revelstone gave a seat on their council to the being that would later become known to them as Lord Foul the Despiser (Also [[IHaveManyNames Satansheart and Soulcrusher, Corruption, the Gray Slayer, etc, etc]]). They did give him gifts they thought should have revealed any ill intent but he was too powerful for them to work. Still a horrendously bad judgment on their part.
* ''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]].
* From ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Snape in regards to Harry. Snape views Harry as arrogant, attention-seeking, and selfish, whereas nothing could be further from the truth. That being said, it's all but stated he's projecting James onto Harry, [[spoiler:and only because he can't stand the fact that the woman he loved chose another man over him (with Harry being the living reminder of that)]].
** Cornelius Fudge in regards to Lucius Malfoy. Bribery might be involved.
** Percy Weasley - if calling ''Dolores Umbridge'' a "delightful woman" in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' doesn't make him a Horrible Judge Of Character, it's hard to imagine what does. Buying into the Ministry's anti-Harry propaganda and advising Ron to cut his ties with his best mate doesn't help him at all.
** The Sorting Hat is a good judge of character but lets itself be swayed by students who have a strong preference for a house other than the one the Hat would have chosen. We see this expressly with Harry, but it's hinted with Snape (on the train to Hogwarts he expressed a strong preference for Slytherin, even though he had a lot of Gryffindor traits, to the point that Dumbledore wonders whether the Hat might have placed him differently if it were given the chance to reconsider). And it doesn't take too much WildMassGuessing to imagine the Hat also considered James Potter ([[JerkJock arrogant]] [[InsufferableGenius rulebreaking prodigy]] that he was as a youth) in Ravenclaw, but granted him his strong wish (also expressed on the train) to be in Gryffindor. And putting ''[[DirtyCoward Peter Pettigrew]]'' in Gryffindor as well? (It's worth mentioning that while the Hat stood by its earlier opinion that Harry would have done admirably in Slytherin, Dumbledore disagreed completely in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'', claiming that only a student who [[BigGood Godric Gryffindor]] himself had favored could have drawn his sword out of the Hat.)
** Albus Dumbledore is normally an ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter, with one exception in his youth: Gellert Grindelwald, who was the love of his life before becoming Wizard Hitler and his ArchEnemy. He also exploited Dumbledore's love for him in hopes of Dumbledore joining him to achieve those goals, until Ariana's death snapped Dumbledore out of it. It's implied that this bad experience with Grindelwald is why Dumbledore was able to peg the true nature of Tom Riddle (the future Lord Voldemort) years later.
* ''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/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.
** [[spoiler:Eve's mother]] in ''New York to Dallas'' proves to be this. Both Eve and Melinda Jones try to warn her that Isaac [=McQueen=] is just using her and will kill her off like so many of his "partners". She doesn't listen. Guess what happens to her later on.
** Roarke in ''Innocent in Death'', believe it or not. Usually, he is anything except this trope. However, an old lover named Magdalana comes back and has him fooled. It took considerable effort on Eve and Summerset's part to get Roarke to see that Magdalana was just a BitchInSheepsClothing.
* 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.
* George Denbrough, the first victim of the MonsterClown in Stephen King's ''Literature/{{IT}}''. Yes, he's six years old, but you'd think he'd still sense something not right about a clown who suddenly appears in a sewer grate.
* Julia Valerian of ''Literature/TheMarkOfTheLion'' series is this in regards to her romantic relationships, consistently choosing partners who are [[DomesticAbuse abusive]], [[AllTakeAndNoGive invariably selfish]], or who don’t love her back and are merely playing her like a fiddle for their own ends, only to drop her when she is no longer of use. Given her romantic WideEyedIdealist nature at the beginning of the series and where this vicious cycle eventually [[RichesToRags lands]] [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed her]], this is a little bit heartbreaking.
* 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/{{Pharaoh}}'' - Ramesses is a bit of a loose cannon, but quite easily manipulated. Partially due to being so changeable.
* ''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.
* Brambleclaw in the second ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series believed that [[BigBad Tigerstar]] was trying to redeem himself for his evil ways and that [[TheDragon Hawkfrost]] wasn't evil. He was wrong.
* 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.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* All of Team Free Will struggles with this mightily in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. In season 4, Sam trusts Ruby, a demon, and she gets him hooked on demon blood and uses him to free Lucifer. In season 6, Castiel and Crowley team up behind the Winchesters' backs, and after a series of double-crosses, they end up unleashing the Leviathan, hyper-intelligent, primordial beings that feed primarily on humans, but will eat ''any'' species in a pinch. In season 10, Dean trusts Crowley, the King of Hell, and Cain, the father of murder, and ends up with the Mark of Cain, a supernatural mark that slowly corrupts his soul through violent murder and eventually turns him into a demon. There are many more examples, but this really could be its own page.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In "[[Recap/AngelS03E07Offspring Offspring]]", when Darla shows up pregnant with Angel's child, Cordelia readily defends her from Angel and tries to keep her comfortable, which comes back to bite her (literally) when Darla attacks her. After Angel comes in and saves her, Cordelia even acknowledges that she blew it.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** In spite of all his other mistakes, Eddard Stark could have succeeded if he had not trusted one particular person despite that person hating him for marrying their childhood crush (and that's not even going into their whole duel with his eldest brother which humiliated them). WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong This comes partially from his wife's equally horrible misjudgment of the same character precisely because he was her UnluckyChildhoodFriend. But of course, unlike the audience, neither of them were privy to his {{Sexposition}} InfoDump on his motivations.
** Sansa is this at first. This may be a family trait; "I trust her, even though she tells me not to" could almost be the words of House Stark. She completely fails to see the parts of people she doesn't want to see, especially with regard to Joffrey. While the life in the court makes her a bit warier and she becomes disillusioned about Joffrey, it remains to be seen if her trust in Shae, and Tyrion by extension, is a good call. This trait has pretty much vanished by Season 5 — such as the way she interacts with Myranda, not fooled for a second by the latter's BitchInSheepsClothing act and she is also one of the few people who always seems uncomfortable around Littlefinger and sees the inner good in the Hound. Although she, and Littlefinger apparently, ''seriously'' misjudge how crazy Ramsay is and Sansa only sees his MaskOfSanity crack just before the wedding.
** Catelyn is actually quite astute, warning Robb about crossing the Greyjoys (she turns out to be absolutely right about Theon) and the Freys. But she makes several terrible errors of judgment with dangerous consequences (usually, in her defense, not without some good reasons).
*** She fails to see Tyrion as the TokenGoodTeammate of House Lannister at least partially because she completely trusts Littlefinger, which is an even greater mistake.
*** Speaking of Littlefinger (the aforementioned UnluckyChildhoodFriend) she has absolute trust in him, but he is behind pretty much everything bad that happens in the series. She vouches for him before her skeptical husband, leading directly to Ned's capture and execution.
*** Even though she doesn't fully trust Walder Frey, she has absolute faith that Walder Frey would never let any harm come to her. However, breaking SacredHospitality is practically unheard of in Westeros so it's not unreasonable that she would never dream that he would stoop that low, though her book counterpart is fully aware of his sneakiness.
*** Also of her sister. Catelyn seemed to trust in her absolutely when she blamed the Lannisters for Jon Arryn's death and believed that Tyrion would receive a fair trial if brought to her. In her defense, she hadn't seen her in quite some time. It's not until they meet again does she realize how crazy her sister has become.
** Notably averted with Arya, despite it being her family's FatalFlaw early in the series. In contrast to her father, mother and older brother and sister who all trust the wrong people (Ned and Catelyn - Littlefinger, Sansa - Joffrey and Cersei, Robb - Theon and to a lesser extent the Freys) Arya is savvy from the get-go and immediately dislikes the Lannisters, particularly Joffrey. She's also suitably guarded while surviving on her own, the only person she does trust with her identity — Gendry — is one of the rare good people in Westeros and her suspicions of people like Melisandre are quickly justified.
** Grand Maester Pycelle invokes this trope for any eavesdroppers in "Fire and Blood" when he describes Joffrey as the most promising king he's served. He also did this in the backstory when he advised Aerys II to open the gates for his true master's CavalryBetrayal.
** Cersei, to a fair extent. Like her father, she'll never see anything positive about Tyrion, even if it's dancing in front of her, which often makes her vastly underestimate him, even as she fears him by distorting what he's capable of, as well. She started to wise-up about Joffrey, but had been in denial for years about how unstable he actually was (answer: VERY) — this very denial caused ''soooooo'' many problems, it's unreal. And, then there's her tendency to belittle anybody who has faith in anything other than power or gold, which caused her to massively misread the High Sparrow, for one. Listen to her tone when she says she has nothing to fear from him because "he's a religious man". It screams "an idiot I can use because he's religious" in subtext. Rather badly judged, there, Queenie. Almost as bad as deciding that you've managed to cow a tail-tucked Lady Olenna Tyrell...
** Joffrey appoints his grandfather Tywin to the position of Hand of the King, apparently without realizing that Tywin Lannister is ''not'' the sort of man who will put up with Joffrey's StupidEvil antics. Joffrey also seems to enjoy Littlefinger, seemingly unaware that Littlefinger is not a man to be enjoyed or remotely trusted (this is a global mistake, in all fairness). He is also, unlike his mother, completely unaware that Margaery is playing him like a fiddle.
* In ''Series/HappyEndings'', this is slightly inverted and played with — Jane states she has pretty solid "bitch-dar" and then quietly remarks to herself "You are not fooling me one-armed surfer girl."
* Liz Lemon of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has this in spades. There's her long list of horrible dates and instances of trusting the wrong men. There's the fact she counts Jenna as a friend despite the fact the woman is a hopeless narcissist. There's continuing to fail to realize the depths of Tracy's stupidity and insanity until it causes trouble. And there's her failure to realize that yes, Jack really is that amazingly selfish and shallow sometimes. Most notably, Liz is a horrible judge of her ''own'' character. She talked in high school of being the picked-on nerd only to discover she was the horrible bully putting everyone down. For example, she constantly talked to a "friend" about his being gay but he saw this as horrible insults. When she says at the reunion she just wanted to give him the courage to come out, he asks "come out of what?" and introduces his wife. To be fair to Liz he is implied nonetheless to be gay as he introduces that wife "...with whom I've raised three beautiful dogs. ... I'm so mad all I can do is Dance!" So whether the judgment is poor is in question in this case.
* ''Series/AllMyChildren'':
** Lily Montgomery. Out of four crushes she's had in the last two years, two were murderers and a third was a pedophile. (The fourth was just really whiny; she dumped him for a murderer.)
** Dixie Cooney, whose insistence on believing the best about everyone led to her being one of daytime's most frequently stalked, kidnapped, and terrorized heroines--her own husband referred to her as a "walking psycho-magnet".
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Penny. She's gotten better, but for the first two seasons, the list of how many jerks she fell for was pretty long. Penny knew they were jerks but just didn't care; it was only after dating Leonard that she couldn't put up with them anymore. [[NeverMyFault She then blamed]] ''Leonard'' for this, accusing him of "ruining dumb guys" for her.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Genevieve thinks that Roden actually cares for her.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'':
** Most characters on the show except Doakes and the title character. And this is not a good thing, considering their job as detectives in the Police Department. Dexter seems much more competent than them and actively sabotages police investigations when he finds out the killer. They don't even realize that a SerialKiller is working with them for the police. Very few people see Dexter for who he really is, including his girlfriend (later wife) who sees him as the perfect man.
** Dexter is normally one of few characters who averts this trope but in season 4 he is way too willing to trust people like Trinity if he thinks he could learn something about coping from them.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Tenth Doctor is unrelentingly idealistic towards his enemies, no matter how blatantly evil they are. This is especially true regarding the Master, whom the Doctor once said was beautiful and said he'd be honored if he were to travel with him ... this same guy who has tried to take over or destroy whole planets (or even the universe), not to mention trying to kill the Doctor in horrific fashion over and over again. [[spoiler:For whatever it's worth, the Doctor and the Master were pretty close in their youth in Gallifrey, and the Master did appear to be generally pleasant if a bit shy as a child... before he gazed into the Untempered Schism and was turned by the Time Lords into the lunatic we all know and fear.]]
* ''Series/GossipGirl'': Serena van der Woodsen judges a person's character based on one very simple criteria: Whether or not they like Serena. If somebody claims to like her she is convinced they must be a genuine, nice person even if they've admitted to [[spoiler: purposely seducing her to con her mother and her mother's friends out of a lot of money]]. People she has previously hated, like Carter Baizen, are suddenly wonderful people once they show interest in Serena. This way of judging the world does come back to bite her in the rear on more than one occasion.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** Dr. Mohinder Suresh possesses the uncanny ability to always somehow manage to make the absolutely worst possible choice in any given situation, a talent that has him repeatedly end up siding with and helping the bad guys (frequently without even realizing it). There's an [[EpilepticTrees increasingly popular Fan Wank]] that says this ability is his ''real'' Hero Power.
** Sandra Bennett gets a moment like this when first meeting Sylar. This a man who is creepy, with the eyes of a killer, made all the creepier when he adopts a southern accent. Even when he's being sweet he's still creepy. What does Sandra say to him? "Well, aren't you sweet!"
** Peter Petrelli also counts. He trusts almost everyone he shouldn't, whether it be [[ManipulativeBastard Nathan, Adam, his mother]], whoever. It's usually because he naively thinks people are good, but it gets a bit ridiculous.
** Maya may be worst of all, though: she is flat out ''told'' that Sylar killed his own mother, but continues road tripping/making out with him anyway. Later, when she finds out Sylar has murdered her brother, she's completely shocked and devastated.
*** In her defense, he was the only person aside from her brother who treated her nicely since discovering her ability. And when he's called on it and admits it, he words that situation to appear that it was an accident, and makes no mention of the rest of the body count he's racked up. While it doesn't sound convincing to the audience, Sylar's good enough at lying for her to buy it as well as making his situation similar enough to her own. She does eventually wise up to his true intentions in "Powerless" after he threatens her.
* ''Series/ICarly'': Carly, Sam, and Freddie all suffer from this, falling for or befriending jerky guys and manipulative girls.
* In ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', a woman helps a serial killer escape prison because she's convinced he's innocent. Then, after she gets OffOnATechnicality on those charges, she does it ''again'' with a different serial killer, this time because she believes he's a "changed man" and is just too fragile to be in prison. That serial killer also ends up taking another, much more dangerous serial killer with him in his escape.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': John Locke is so frequently blinded by his [[IJustWantToBeSpecial need to be special]] and needed that he ends up getting duped both off-island and on by [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife anyone who tells him]] that he is important.
* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'': A genetic trait for Pendragons, apparently. Uther and Arthur are completely clueless that Morgana is plotting against them in season three, despite the fact that [[TraitorShot sinister smirking]] has become her default facial expression. Happens to Arthur again in season four when his uncle Agravaine becomes his most trusted adviser, despite the fact that Agravaine is VERY ObviouslyEvil.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': Kate suffered from this to an extent; it only happened a few times, but it is especially notable in her case both because it was the negative side of her trusting nature, and because it was probably her FatalFlaw. [[spoiler:Since she was unable to shoot the man who would later kill her because of his 'kind eyes']].
* ''Series/TheOC'': Marissa, in the Oliver story-line of Season One. Her later dalliance with [[spoiler: Volchok]] doesn't count because she is fully aware he is bad for her. She is aware that he is "bad" by most people's standards but actively defends him as misunderstood to everyone, until [[spoiler:he cheats on her, humiliates her, and uses her to steal money]].
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': Michael Scott has two means of judging a person's character: by their appearance, [=and/or=] their willingness to be his friend (or even have lunch with him).
* ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'': Norg the Yeti. One of the bad guys barges in and takes over his arctic home, and Norg is just so happy to meet a new friend and would you like a snow cone? This dynamic lasts all season until the villain finally orders his {{Mooks}} to "take care of" both Norg and a DistressedDamsel - said damsel has to spell out the TroubleEntendre to Norg before he gets it.
* In the ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'' episode of ''Series/RetroGameMaster'', Arino says that Dr. Wily seems like a nice guy.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': [[CreatorsPet Lana Lang]]. Even the usually savvy Chloe Sullivan does this on occasion towards [[spoiler:Ian and Davis Bloome]]. Maybe LoveMakesYouDumb.
* [[Series/{{White Collar}} Neal Caffrey]], so much so. He prides himself on being good with people, and for the most part, he ''is'', but sometimes he makes really stupid decisions about who he should trust. This is the man who [[spoiler:fell for the woman he conned, lied to her in order to get information, told her the truth, entered a serious relationship with her, and worked with her to find a legendary diamond, only to find out that she had been playing him the entire time]].
-->'''Mozzie:''' You, women, and business do not mix well!
* ''Series/YoungDracula'': In one episode, a friend of Vlad's grows into a full vampire and undergoes a FaceHeelTurn that causes Count Dracula to say EvenEvilHasStandards. Vlad is completely oblivious to this, even after an [[EvilGloating Evil Monologue]] or two. He has his reasons since he's very worried about turning evil when he becomes a full vampire and desperately wanted to believe that his friend had gone through the transformation without any personality change.
* Sharona Fleming in ''Series/{{Monk}}'', to the point where she willfully ignores evidence of the person in question's bad character. In the first episode alone, she went on a date with a guy who was pretending to be a lawyer, until Monk deduced that he was lying, ''and she got mad at Monk''. She's of the opinion that lying about yourself is the normal way to start a relationship, which might explain why she's a single mother.
* [[FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling Real and Chance's]] mother during ''every'' appearance on Creator/VH1's ''Series/{{Celebreality}}'' series to the extent that you'd lose a liver in a drinking game over it. Liked "[[SassyBlackWoman New]] [[TheDreaded York]]" because she was [[DistractedByTheSexy pretty]], liked [[AloofAlly Rabbit]] because she was [[PuritySue Christian]], [[RightForTheWrongReasons was wary of]] [[MrsRobinson MILF]] ''not'' because she [[DysfunctionJunction had a laundry list of emotional baggage she'd bring into a new relationship]], but because she was [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt White... until finding out she has a half-Black son]]. About the ''only'' good advice she ever gave during her TV time was [[BrosBeforeHoes warning her sons not to let a woman come between them]].
* Chakotay in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has this problem. He laments that he had not one but ''two'' double-agents on his Maquis ship (one being Tuvok and the other Seska, a deep-cover Cardassian spy), and while Seska had duped Tuvok as well, Chakotay still acts out unwisely over his inability to detect her. Later on, he shows a general propensity to trust aliens that he ought not to, being too optimistic that rational conversation can bring the adversary of the week over to his side. This happens with the dreamer aliens that trap the crew and later with Annorax, a time-erasing villain who tries to make Chakotay his apprentice.
* Weyoun on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Despite claiming to be TheProfiler, he repeatedly misreads TheFederation in general and The Sisko in particular. This includes underestimating the fact that HumansAreWarriors.
* Possible inversion in ''Series/XCompany'' as Franz Farber thinks that Forst is trying to undermine his position as commander. It's hard to tell if Forst is trying to be his friend and is just spectacularly bad at it, or if Forst is actually trying to sabotage him. [[spoiler: In the mind of a Nazi, arranging to have your commanding officer's child sent to a camp for defectives would actually be an act of kindness, not malice. Which is chilling, to say the least.]]
* ''Series/TheDefenders2017'':
** ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
*** Matt Murdock has a shade of this when it comes to Elektra Natchios. Matt nearly ruined his future because of how much of a bad influence Elektra was on him, with her trying to make Matt a killer by presenting him with Roscoe Sweeney, the man who ordered his father's death. Matt broke it off then, and when she returns seeking for Matt to help her and Stick fight the Hand, she proves to be as negative of an influence as before, causing Matt to self-destruct his firm and strain his friendships with Foggy and Karen. Foggy is aware of how Elektra was a negative influence on Matt. As a result, when Matt and Foggy are offered Karen's case in the season 1 premiere, and Matt insists Karen is innocent (because he can read her heartbeat) despite the orgy of evidence against her, Foggy worries that Karen is going to turn out just like Elektra.
--->'''Foggy Nelson:''' All right, I'm just gonna say this once, and we can move on. [[DistractedByTheSexy You don't necessarily show the best judgment when beautiful women are involved, Matt.]]\\
'''Matt Murdock:''' [[BlindJustice How would I even know if she's a beautiful woman?]]\\
'''Foggy Nelson:''' I don't know. It's kinda spooky, actually! All I know is that if there's a stunning woman of questionable morality in the room, [[TheCasanova Matt Murdock]] is going to find her, and [[ThirdPersonPerson Foggy Nelson]] is going to suffer.
*** This even continues in ''The Defenders'', where Matt continuously tries to believe that he can snap Elektra out of whatever brainwashing the Hand has subjected her to and turn her against them, only to find out too late that she has no regrets for anything she did, not even killing Stick; she just regrets that she was doing it on someone else's orders.
*** A misjudgment of character is what gets James Wesley killed. After the whole fiasco with Union Allied, Wesley makes the mistake of thinking that Karen can be silenced by bribery. [[BribeBackfire It instead further motivates her into going after Fisk.]] When Wesley finds out about Karen's visit to Fisk's mother, he drugs her, takes her to a warehouse, and threatens her with a loaded gun that he leaves on a table between them. While he keeps the gun closer to him than to her, he focuses on her friends and family rather than the immediate risk of her killing him. He also makes the mistake of thinking that like everyone else he's ever strong-armed into doing something, she's afraid of Fisk, which she isn't. He's also completely oblivious to the fact she's been drinking so heavily recently, as alcoholics are more resistant to sedatives, and Wesley is relying on Karen's diminished state to protect himself. When Wesley is distracted by the sound of his phone ringing, Karen grabs his gun from the table and points it at him. Despite knowing the gun is loaded, Wesley maintains his poker face because he thinks Karen is a scared little girl who's too afraid to pull the trigger, his research apparently having overlooked that she was taught by her drug-dealing ex-boyfriend how to use a gun, and more importantly, she shot him with it in defense of her brother.
--->'''James Wesley:''' [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner Come on.]] [[TooDumbToLive Do you really think I would put a loaded gun on the table where you could reach it?]]\\
'''Karen Page:''' I don't know. ''[pulls back the hammer]'' [[PreMortemOneLiner Do you really think this is the first time I've shot someone?]]\\
'''James Wesley:''' [[KilledMidSentence Miss Page—]] ''[Karen calls Wesley's bluff and shoots him in the right shoulder. He stares at her with a look of "What the fuck?" just in time for Karen to empty six more rounds into his chest, killing him instantly]''
*** The whole reason Karen takes an interest in Frank Castle during the second half of season 2 is that she's trying to convince herself that she was justified in killing Wesley. She believes that deep down, Frank was a good man, albeit heavily troubled and traumatized, despite everyone — Matt, Foggy, even Frank himself — telling her that he legitimately ENJOYS killing people. Her reaction to witnessing Frank using her as bait to lure two of the Blacksmith's men to a diner [[DinerBrawl so he can brutally kill them]] is the realization that she's horribly wrong about her assumption that Frank is a person capable of redemption.
*** Leland Owlsley believes that Wilson Fisk's attachment to Vanessa Marianna is clouding his judgment and distracting him, causing him to act illogically. Later, after trying to have Vanessa killed by poisoning, he approaches Fisk trying to blackmail him. Leland's ploy relies on the same questionable judgment; Fisk reacts logically to being blackmailed... Right after Fisk notices his tells and pokes holes in his excuse using logic, [[DestinationDefenestration it all ends with Fisk throwing him down an elevator shaft]].
*** Nelson & Murdock gets a case of this as a whole in the start of season 2 when they run into Grotto, a low-level Kitchen Irish grunt who just escaped a Punisher attack. Grotto greatly downplays his role and convinces them all that he's little more than a low-level thug who simply does some delivery work. He does it so well in fact, that Matt's lie detector abilities fail him. Matt is appropriately horrified when Frank Castle makes Grotto admit he has murdered under orders from his superiors and killed an old woman when she wouldn't keep quiet.
*** In season 3, Ray Nadeem is a down on his luck FBI agent who is deeply in debt and desperate for a promotion to pay for his sister-in-law's cancer treatments. By luck, he is assigned to make a milk run to Rikers to collect information from Wilson Fisk. Fisk offers Nadeem information on an Albanian syndicate in exchange for Vanessa getting leniency, appealing to Nadeem being a family man who does anything for his loved ones. The information turns out to be reliable, which is all part of Fisk's plan to gain Nadeem's trust. Nadeem has no idea that Fisk is manipulating his trust, and in fact has been doing so for several years, having cut off his family's health insurance years ago to drive him into debt, and make him desperate enough to make the informant deal work that he won't notice obvious red flags that Fisk has malicious intentions. With his credibility established to Nadeem, Fisk [[FalseFlagOperation pays Jasper Evans to shank him]], crafting a fiction that he's been branded as a snitch within the prison walls, and convincing Nadeem to vouch for him to be moved to a penthouse suite in the Presidential Hotel. (A coincidental attack on his motorcade by the Albanians, which is foiled by Dex, conveniently furthers the narrative.) By episode 5, Nadeem has enough trust in Fisk that Fisk is able to convince him that Matt was an accomplice of his and that Nelson & Murdock did dirty work for Fisk, and Nadeem doesn't consider how unlikely it would be that Matt, who was part of the firm that took down Fisk in the first place, was secretly working for Fisk this whole time; nor does he consider the possibility that Matt is someone Fisk might have a personal vendetta against. It's only when Matt and Karen track down Jasper Evans, and Evans is subsequently killed by Dex in an attack on the ''Bulletin'' on Fisk's orders, that Nadeem starts to realize that Fisk is playing him.
*** Nadeem's efforts to break out from under Fisk's grasp only cause him to make another misjudgment of character. After finding out that the ''Bulletin'' attacker is Dex, he breaks into Dex's apartment with Matt to look for evidence. The infiltration goes awry when Dex comes early and shoots at them, and Nadeem is wounded. Nadeem decides to go with OPR Agent Winn to his boss, SAC Tammy Hattley, with his suspicions about Dex. However, he fails to consider the fact that where there's one dirty cop, there's probably more that come with him. Sure enough, Hattley turns out to have been in Fisk's pocket this whole time. She kills Winn with Nadeem's gun, and then Felix Manning turns up to threaten Nadeem into doing dirty work for Fisk under the threat of being framed for Winn's murder. Nadeem thus finds himself having to spend a day doing grunt work with Dex, rounding up other criminals Fisk is extorting protection money from, and then serving as Dex's getaway driver when Dex is dispatched by Fisk to kill Karen to avenge the death of James Wesley.
** ''Series/LukeCage2016'':
*** Before Luke Cage was framed, he had no idea whatsoever that Willis "Diamondback" Stryker was his half-brother. Nor did he know that Willis resented him so badly that he would eventually ruin his life. He also didn't know that Reva was a willing participant in everything that went on at Seagate, and pleaded with her to escape before she got dragged into his problems. Everything with Willis leads to him having trust issues after escaping, and everything to do with Reva makes him realize it is time to move on with his life.
*** Mama Mabel Stokes allowed her brother-in-law "Pistol" Pete in her household and didn't realize he was betraying the family and sexually abusing Mariah until it was too late.
*** Misty Knight has complete and utter faith in her partner Rafael Scarfe and doesn't believe he's a DirtyCop until it's too late to save him. She also jumps to the worst conclusions as far as Luke is concerned (although this is somewhat understandable given that the first she knew of Luke was that he worked as a bartender at Cottonmouth's nightclub, and as a result may have thought he worked for Cottonmouth). She only accepts that Luke is a good guy after she learns who Willis Stryker is. After roughing up Claire in custody, her commanding officer makes her sit down with a therapist to talk her problems out, and he calls her on her misjudgments:
--->'''Misty Knight''': I apply foot to ass. And match lead for lead. I put murderers in handcuffs. I don't just seek justice. I stalk it. And that much should go in my record!\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': With your resume, you could have been downtown years ago. Hell, you could've been a Fed! You chose to stay in Harlem.\\
'''Misty Knight''': I know this place. I know the players, and I can make a difference here.\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': Or use some of those old-school connections to make a little money on the side, like your partner.\\
'''Misty Knight''': I didn't know anything about Scarfe, or anything he was doing. He didn't buy new clothes, no new watch, no new girlfriend, no loose cock, nothing!\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': But he'd been working for Cottonmouth for years.\\
'''Misty Knight''': And I trusted him! So I didn't see it, and neither did anybody else in this damn department! So why do I get singled out for it?\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': Because you're the closest to him. ''[Misty shakes her head]'' It's written all over your face. Not seeing it bothered you, didn't it?\\
'''Misty Knight''': 'Cause seeing is my thing, right? That's what made me such a good point guard. 'Cause I could see everything in my head. I knew exactly where people were gonna be, so I put the ball right where it needed to go.\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': But you couldn't see Scarfe for what he was? Or were you blinded by your emotions?\\
'''Misty Knight''': ''[scoffs]'' [[DoubleStandard You wouldn't say that if I was a man!]]\\
'''Dr. Gabe Krasner''': Oh, that is not true.\\
'''Misty Knight''': Bullshit! Male cops can screw cop groupies in the back of their unmarked RMP, and you guys cheer. They get drunk, they fight each other in the parking lot and it's called "blowing off steam." There's ''always'' a double standard.
*** Mariah Dillard initially goes into business with Diamondback by rationalizing that as Luke is their common enemy, they'll make good partners. She quickly gets buyer's remorse as Diamondback shows a habit of using bloodthirsty tactics that lead to unnecessary carnage. After Diamondback kills a police officer and then improvises a HostageSituation when trying to kill Luke and Misty at Harlem's Paradise, Mariah and Shades decide that he is out of control, and turn against him.
** ''Series/IronFist2017'':
*** Danny has utter faith and trust in Harold Meachum from the moment he finds out Harold is alive. However, Ward cautions Danny to be careful as Harold only cares about himself. And sure enough, after Danny helps drive The Hand out of Rand Enterprises, Harold has Danny framed up for their activities to get him out of the way.
*** Colleen Wing is under the impression that the Hand are a force of good, who provide a safe place for runaway and orphaned minority kids to live and helps them get good jobs in society. For a while, she tries to convince Danny that what he's learned about the Hand in K'un-L'un should not be seen as fact. She is devastated when Bakuto proves Danny's suspicions right and has her own students attempt to kill her.
** ''Series/ThePunisher2017'':
*** Frank Castle considers the Marines who served alongside him as his second family, even going so far to admit to David that there were indeed times he thought he'd rather be fighting with them out there on the battlefield rather than being with his own children. Which is why his relationship with Billy Russo deteriorates as badly as it does when Frank discovers Russo is allied with the people who killed his family.
* Patricia, from ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'', proved to be one after she teamed up with Rufus Zeno to find Joy. This was after she saw him watching through the window and after he broke into her bedroom while everyone was asleep. She trusted him to the point of smuggling him out of a hospital after Victor made him catatonic. She was repaid by getting kidnapped.
* Kerry Mucklowe from ''Series/ThisCountry''. She idolises her uncle, Steve "Nugget" Nuggins, for being "such a laugh" while everyone else recognises his japes as the actions of a [[ComedicSociopathy sociopath]]. She attends a talk by "an inspirational local businesswoman" and signs up to her money-making scheme, blissfully unaware that it's a [[{{Ponzi}} pyramid selling scam]]. Most sadly of all, she is fiercely loyal to her father and so desperate to believe that he loves her that she is in complete denial over his obvious disdain for her. She also dearly wants to believe he's a good, honest man, to the point where she's the only one person who fails to notice his obvious [[FellOffTheBackOfATruck criminal]] [[ThePeepingTom tendencies]].
* Let's just say ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'''s unique lifestyle makes them prone to constantly trusting the wrong people (and looking at the okay ones as 'weird'). Of course, they're also badass-creepy enough to shrug off anything their guests try to do to them.
* King Louis from ''Series/TheMusketeers'', oh so very much. While his trust in the Cardinal in Season 1 isn't too bad since the Cardinal does care for him and does have what he believes is the [[YourMilesMayVary greater good for France]], he doesn't listen to any of the Musketeers warnings about Milady possibly being a criminal, even though he met her working for the slavers that kidnapped him! He later considers Rocheforte the only person he can trust, when Rocheforte is the one secretly responsible for the recent assassinations at court, poisoning Louis and is trying to usurp his throne and steal his wife. He also considers appointing his brothers (one of which he knows has committed treason against him) as his son's guardians, despite both brothers actively undermining him and planning a war to take the crown after Louis' death and have no qualms having said son killed as soon as it's convenient. Basically if there's clearly the wrong way to judge a person or situation, Louis will do so.
* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'' has a unique case with Galvanax who favors treacherous Madam Odius over his right-hand man Ripcon, who suspects that Odius is working behind Galvanax's back. When one of Odius's plans is exposed, she manages to frame Ripcon for it simply by telling Galvanax it was his plan, with Galvanax believing her over Ripcon and having him sent to his death against the rangers. Not only did this cost Galvanax his most loyal subordinate, but it allowed Odius to continue her treachery undetected.
* ''Series/{{Ghostwriter}}'': From the "Just in Time" story arc, Mrs. O'Boyle, the Canellans' housekeeper in 1928. She's convinced that Frank must be guilty of a silver theft and that "Millard Fillmore Smith" is just a salesman trying to earn a living and can't possibly be the thief. Wrong on both counts. Even finding out that the latter ripped her off does nothing to change her opinion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* From Myth/GreekMythology, Aphrodite. Seriously, her husband Hephaestus may not have been a prize catch, but falling for Ares, the homicidal god of war? The fact that she was likely the ''only'' one who even ''liked'' him should have tipped her off that he was bad news. She ''really'' could have done better. Though depending on the myth, Aphrodite [[BitchInSheepsClothing might not be any better than Ares]]. AllGirlsWantBadBoys, plus "All's fair in ''love'' and ''war''."
* Another example would be most of the city of Troy; it was pretty obvious that the Trojan Horse was a trap. In fact, some residents of the city were ''not'' fooled. Possibly the dissenter who could have had the best chance of making them reconsider was the Trojan priest Laocoön (the phrase, "I fear Greeks, even those bringing gifts" can be attributed to him), but after he and his sons were attacked and strangled by serpents, the Trojans paid his warning no heed. (Depending on the version, the serpents were sent either by Poseidon or Apollo, who both held grudges against Laocoön.) Helen also guessed the plot and tried to expose it by mimicking the voices of the wives of some Greeks she suspected were inside the device to convince them to come out. (And Anticlus almost fell for it; the plan would have failed if Odysseus had not covered his mouth with his hand.) King Priam's daughter Cassandra, the soothsayer of Troy (the TropeNamer for CassandraTruth) predicted the Horse would be the doom of the city and its royal family. But all these warnings went ignored.
* In [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Esther]], Ahasuerus didn't realize that his vizier Haman is an EvilChancellor, even when he tried to wipe out all the Jews in Persia, until Ahasuerus realized that this would also include his wife, the titular Esther. He trusted Haman so much that all Haman had to say was "let me take care of this group of non-law-abiders", and he got ''the king's signet ring to use''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'': Riku trusts the ObviouslyEvil Maleficent, believing her words that Sora has abandoned him and Kairi for Donald, Goofy, and the Keyblade, and believing that Maleficent would let him rescue Kairi and leave.
** Played with in regards to Terra in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''. While he seems to be extremely bad at telling who is a bad guy from a good guy, this isn't really because he is extremely gullible and instead comes from his mindset of taking things slow and coming to a conclusion. In almost every case where Terra seems to be trusting a villain, he usually comes to the conclusion they aren't trustworthy after spending time listening to them or investigating their claims. The only time he ever truly trusts a villain is for justified reasons such as Jumbah, and Hook. This is likely because of Eraqus' teachings, making him adopt a HeroicNeutral stance when interacting with people.
** Played straight with Master Eraqus in regards to Master Xehanort. The two lifelong friends had fought when Eraqus confronted Xehanort about his insane plan to create the χ-blade, with Xehanort winning and scarring Eraqus in the process. After several years of avoiding each other, Xehanort claimed to be repentant and Eraqus believed him. Then, during the Mark of Mastery exam, when Xehanort sabotages the balls of light, he doesn't for a second suspect that it was him, despite the fact he was sitting ''right next to him''. It isn't until Ven approaches him and mentions Xehanort's plans for the χ-blade that Eraqus finally gets the hint.
* Seere in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' (a small child) willfully invites himself into a party consisting of a [[WouldHurtAChild child-killer]], a [[PedophilePriest child molester]], and a [[ChildEater child eater]]. He's got a stone golem to protect him, but ''still''.
* Luke fon Fabre from ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', the poor bastard. Trusting [[spoiler:his mentor Van]] has severe consequences when [[spoiler:following his plan that will supposedly cleanse Akzeriuth of the miasma actually ends up destroying the city and advancing Van's plans]]. Though his trusting nature and idolization of Van come about from his ''extremely'' sheltered upbringing and his [[YoungerThanTheyLook overall]] [[CloningBlues many other issues]].
* Proving that {{Evil Overlord}}s, too, can fall prey, Emperor Gestahl of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' gets stabbed in the back by two out of three of his most trusted subordinates, with Celes doing a HeelFaceTurn and Kefka out-and-out murdering him before going into full-on OmnicidalManiac mode. On the flip side, the third subordinate, General Leo, falls under this as well, as he actually ''trusts'' Emperor Gestahl despite his mad plans for world domination and the enslavement of the Espers used for magicite research as well as the mind-controlling of Terra...he still believes him right up until Gestahl decides [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he's outlived his purpose]] and has Kefka wipe him out. There's a lot of it to go around.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'': Fenthick's horrible judgment and political ineptness in trusting Desther conspire to get him executed at the end of the first chapter of the main campaign. [[spoiler:It's okay, as his only reason for existing in the first place was to give Aribeth something to angst about before her FaceHeelTurn]].
* Lucrecia in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' had a romantic relationship with Hojo, who could not be more of an evil depraved MadScientist if he tried. It's even worse that ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'' shows that he makes ''no effort'' to disguise what an awful person he is even right from the start. "Ah, so you have come to your senses and chosen me." [[spoiler:The reason she didn't choose Vincent was her lingering guilt over her part in his father's accidental death. Starting a relationship with Hojo was her way of ''punishing'' herself]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', how did Sheriff Simms not see the evil in Mr. Burke, between his voice, voice suit, and just plain weirdness? Also, Three Dog's radio broadcasts portray Roy Phillips as a champion of ghouls fighting against FantasticRacism, when Roy is really a thug who hates all humans and exploits feral ghouls like animals. Three Dog only sees Roy for what he really is if [[spoiler:he's let in Tenpenny Tower and pointlessly slaughters all the residents.]]
** Caesar from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. Even if the Courier had good karma, was an NCR loyalist, and had killed hundreds of Caesar's mean, Caesar will still try to earn your assistance, invite you to his fort, and put some trust in your actions.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim:''
** Jarl Laila Law-Giver of [[WretchedHive Riften]]. She wants to clean up Riften's streets and trusts her good friend [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Maven Black-Briar]], the crime queenpin of Riften who has both the ThievesGuild and the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] in her pocket, to help her in this endeavor. Literally everybody in Riften except the Jarl knows about Maven's corruption, and she doesn't realize it herself until Maven steals her position right out from under her if the [[TheEmpire Imperials]] gain control of the city, and even then she thinks that Maven revealed herself to be a spineless moronic wimp who sold out to the empire and will lose control in about a year, which is the ''exact opposite'' of what Maven is practically boasting she actually is!
** Delphine believes that the Greybeards would rather have [[PlayerCharacter the Dragonborn]] meditate with them up on High Hrothgar, instead of letting them save the world. While she may have a point about the Greybeards only using their powers to worship the gods rather than solve worldly affairs, she's completely wrong about them wanting to impede the Dragonborn's destiny; Arngeir will generally allow the Dragonborn to do as they please, and will actively help them in their quest, albeit reluctantly on certain occasions. And if the Dragonborn offers to follow the Greybeards' pacifistic, non-violent philosophy, Arngeir will gently rebuke them, pointing out that they have their power for a different reason than the Greybeards do.
* Duchess Anna Henrietta from the ''Blood & Wine'' expansion of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt''. She cared more about harboring [[spoiler: her sister Syanna]], a SerialKiller whose actions led to a vampire invasion of her capital city and the deaths of possibly thousands, than the lives of her citizens. To make matters worse, [[spoiler: if Geralt sacrificed Syanna to save Toussaint then the Duchess refuses to believe that she was next on her sister's hit-list despite having the evidence handed to her. And if Geralt doesn't sacrifice Syanna but also doesn't succeed in convincing her to forgive her sister, then the Duchess goes to hug her at her trial and gets [[TooDumbToLive stabbed in the neck]] as a result.]]
* Otacon of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is shown to be attracted to the murderous Sniper Wolf, whom he claims is really a nice person [[HeroesLoveDogs since she likes dogs]]. Snake actually lampshades this by claiming that Otacon has StockholmSyndrome (hostage attraction to one's captors).
** Also from those games, Naked Snake [[spoiler:or Big Boss]] has this big time, in fact, it's probably his single greatest character flaw. Probably the most notable example of this is how he trusted EVA during [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Operation Snake Eater]] even though she didn't know the pass phrase when they first met: even though she does help him complete the operation, [[spoiler:it turns out at the end that she was all along a Chinese agent who was using him all along to complete her own mission to steal the Philosopher's Legacy, and in fact, if she hadn't fallen InLoveWithTheMark, she would've killed him there]].
* Mori Ranmaru in ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' is a kid who knows nothing except that UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga is the coolest guy ever. And let's see what Nobunaga's portfolio contains... CardCarryingVillain, ObviouslyEvil, EvilOverlord, TakeOverTheWorld? Er... kid? You may want to reconsider --
-->'''Ranmaru''': How dare you in insult Nobunaga-sama! [[ThirdPersonPerson Ranmaru]]'ll kill you!
** Motochika Chosokabe is another example in the third game. In Motonari's blue path, Motochika believes that Ieyasu was the man behind the attack on Shikoku. And THIS is despite that they were on friendly terms. He also thinks that Motonari and Mitsunari are on good terms with each other, which leads to his surprise reaction to Mitsunari's death by Motonari's hand. When Motonari confronts Motochika, he lampshades the latter's terrible judge of character in his [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech speech]] to him.
* Dr. Light from ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' seems curiously willing to trust Dr. Wily when he claims to have gone straight (''[[VideoGame/MegaMan3 3]]''), to have his lab ransacked by a renegade robot (''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass''), or to be searching for the cure to a mysterious robot virus (''[[VideoGame/MegaMan10 10]]'').
** Arguably justified, as Light has been skeptical of Wily before (particularly in ''10'', when Mega Man expresses disbelief that Wily is being the good guy, Light wholeheartedly agrees with Mega Man's plan to investigate the Wily connection behind Wily's back), but, in defense of Wily's plan, he actually ''did'' have a cure for the robot virus (which it is implied he did ''not'' create), he was just planning on charging obscene amounts of cash for it.
* Although it's not a theme throughout the whole series, in ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork6CybeastGregarAndCybeastFalzar'' Lan shows an incredible ineptitude at differentiating friend and foe. He looks up to and almost idolizes [[spoiler:''two'' members of the quirky miniboss]], and is indifferent to a third, only correctly identifying one villain before he strikes for the entire game (and that villain is the one who thinks it is shameful to try to hide your villainy and chastises the others for being discreet). He also only learns that [[spoiler:the mayor]] is a villain by walking in on a conversation while going to ask him for help. Meanwhile, he is instantly suspicious of two figures who turn out to be [[spoiler:Chaud and Protoman, his longtime allies throughout the entire series]], nor does he connect the two even after the first reveals himself. The writers never seem to notice this trend.
* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'': Ness is the only person in Onett who will willingly hang out with Porky Mitch, who is described as "the worst person in the neighbourhood". When Porky begins to escalate FromNobodyToNightmare and repeatedly insults and fights Ness, Ness ''still'' considers Porky to be one of his good friends. [[spoiler:''Videogame/Mother3'' reveals that in his own warped way, Porky ''did'' reciprocate Ness' friendship.]]
* Chatot from ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' has a major problem with this. When he ''finally'' learns that the TerribleTrio he's repeatedly lauded as some of the finest Pokemon he's ever had the privilege of working with are actually -- {{GASP}}! -- ''evil'', he does ''not'' take it well.
** It's worth noting that the first clue he gets that [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Team Skull]] aren't the exemplar of Pokemon-hood he thought they were is when they start sounding less refined. In the original Japanese, this would mean that they had just downshifted their speech to a less respectful level. In other words, all they had to do to gull Chatot was ''use the {{Keigo}} he assumed he merited''. He was taken in by his own overblown self-image!
* Prince Pelleas from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' sees absolutely no problems with trusting Izuka to be his primary strategist. Izuka, for the record, is a stunted, cackling, yellow-eyed little troll of a man who invented a drug that turns people outside of his race into rampaging psychopaths for use as pawns in battle and ''openly brags about this invention''. And to top things off, he's not even a very good strategist! It should come as no surprise that this inexplicable trust comes back to bite Pelleas's entire ''country'' in a big way as the game progresses.
** Astrid from the same game, who sees [[TheSlacker Makalov]] as a KnightInShiningArmor.
** On the villainous side we have Levail, a young, idealistic general who believes that General Zelgius [[spoiler:(aka the BlackKnight)]] is "[[KnightInShiningArmor the last true knight]]" and plans to [[MyMasterRightOrWrong die for him]]. Now, Zelgius is undoubtedly [[EvilIsCool cool]]. However, he is also a crazed BloodKnight who brutally cut down his teacher just to see if he had surpassed him, and is currently TheDragon to [[spoiler:Sephiran]] a MisanthropeSupreme who plans to [[TakenForGranite turn the entire world to stone]]. His definition of "true knight" must be rather different from normal standards.
* Xander from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates''. In the ''Revelation'' route, he's the very last of the Avatar's siblings to come around, as he's thoroughly convinced that [[EvilOverlord Garon]] isn't evil. Also justified, as [[spoiler: Garon was in all respects a model parent for Xander before the in-fighting and assassination occurred as a consequence of Garon's womanizing ways, and is fighting the war because he believes that Garon will return to who he was if they manage to conquer Hoshido, and is, like most Nohrians, LockedOutOfTheLoop in terms of Garon's passing and return as a corpse-familiar of Anankos. He will only go directly against "Garon" if he gets undeniable proof that the real Garon's gone: In the ''Conquest'' route, it happens in the second to last level, when he sees "Garon" as a slime monster, and on the ''Revelation'' route, he, alongside Leo, defects to the Avatar's side when they visit Corpse-Garon, who says to them that he wants to destroy not only Hoshido but also Nohr, something that would be unthinkable for Garon in his pre-corpse-familar life]].
** It's also partly reflected in regards to his retainers. Despite his faith and confidence in Laslow, he seemed initially unaware of the latter's womanizing ways (or at least if the way he reacted in their C Support is any indicator). And with [[CuteAndPsycho Peri]], he picked her purely because of her immense potential to excel in fighting and seems to ignore her bloodthirsty nature and casual murdering of her own servants (though as the Prince and her boss, he might have learned about her past and feel sympathy for her). Even with Charlotte, it was less that he could see through her act and more that he seemed to honestly believe her a complete flirt.
** However, he easily can tell that the ObviouslyEvil Hans is someone not to trust, is unsurprised by Iago's acts of cruelty, could tell Kaze in their supports had gained a stronger conviction by looking at him and, like the other siblings, was rightfully put off by [[spoiler:Zola disguised as Izana in ''Conquest'' - although it turned out the real Izana was just as flamboyant.]] Therefore, it could be argued that in the case of Garon, Xander is more blinded by family obligation and loyalty rather than being unable to tell his father is a monster.
* Knuckles the Echidna from the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series is so gullible that it's become a joke in the series itself. He's such a bad judge of character that, even though he's been fully aware for ''years'' that Dr. Eggman doesn't say anything that won't get him closer to the Chaos Emeralds and world domination, he still takes everything the corpulent madman says at face value and follows up on things Eggman says better than things that people he ''trusts with his own life'' tell him. The other characters have been riding him about it for years; if he does something even subjectively stupid, the knee-jerk assumption is that he's been talking to Eggman again. ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic The Hedgehog 3]]'' was the only time Knuckles completely believed him since it was their first meeting. In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' Eggman only makes Knuckles confused and suspicious about Sonic's actions (and considering the Master Emerald was destroyed, Knuckles probably wasn't in the best frame of mind at the time). In ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy Sonic Advance 2]]'', Knuckles ends up being tricked somehow by Eggman into fighting Sonic with the Egg Saucer, which, after Sonic destroys it, Knuckles chased him covered in soot. The cutscene afterwards reveals that he was tricked by Eggman once again, with Knuckles being upset at this revelation, and Sonic deciding to leave him to sulk until Knuckles decides to get his act together.
* Bianca of ''Videogame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon''. Like Knuckles, she's basically a good character working for the BigBad because she assumes that the villain has good intentions. Unlike Knuckles, she still believes her employer is trustworthy in spite of how The Sorceress [[BadBoss bullies and browbeats her at every turn]], and repeatedly sacrifices her hapless, unwilling minions to create mutant abominations to send after the heroes. Bianca only figures out she's on the wrong side once The Sorceress reveals her plan to kill the baby dragons they've been kidnapping, and she pulls a HeelFaceTurn immediately afterward.
* ''The Urbz: Sims in the City'' has a minor character, Lily Gates, who apparently means well but is a terrible judge of character. Considering that she works for the main antagonist of the game Daddy Bigbucks and doesn't see anything wrong with his actions throughout the game, [[spoiler: even after he knocks the player character out and throws them into the river...]]
* According to Nathan Drake of ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'', Sully is this when it comes to women.
* ''VideoGame/InThe1stDegree'': Poor Zachary Barnes. He truly believed that James Tobin was a good guy, despite him making mistakes. Too bad he didn't realize until he got shot in the throat that his business partner was a greedy, jealous {{Jerkass}} with no redeeming qualities, who had threatened Barnes with bodily harm several times and had threatened to kill him a week before the murder.
* Conrad Marburg from ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' is apparently so bad at judging character that his dossier feels justified in devoting a paragraph to it. His boss, Leland, also mentions it. In-game, it takes a very short time to learn how to manipulate Marburg, as he responds consistently positive to one attitude and consistently negative to the other two.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'':
** Luisa Fortuna, a relatively bright but naive Mexican peasant girl who is a fanatical follower of local RebelLeader Abraham Reyes. In her eyes, Reyes fights for the people and loves her just as she loves him. In the eyes of John Marston and the player, however, Reyes is an egomaniac with a talent for getting peasants to listen to him whose only concern is personal glory and can barely remember Luisa's name. Similarly, Luisa has problems seeing that John [[NotInThisForYourRevolution cares nothing for the fate of Mexico]] and helps her and the rebels only because he's got a soft spot for her and that they're a means to an end.
** Marston himself in most of the side missions.
** The undoing of the Van der Linde gang from the [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 game's sequel (And prequel)]], is Dutch's complete boneheaded trust in [[{{Jerkass}} Micah]] [[TheSociopath Bell]]. Anyone who talks to Micah once can tell he's a boorish, uncaring lunatic who is a complete cancer on the group. But Dutch trusts him wholeheartedly, despite knowing him for a scant few months compared to those who have been riding with him for ''decades''.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** The player character will accept quests from ''anyone'' with shiny punctuation over their head, including crazy, skeevy-looking old men hiding in a shack in the haunted, zombie-infested woods, with mysterious bloodstains all over the shack and a pile of cadaver innards out back. And then the player's all ''surprised'' when the old man unleashes onto the town the abomination that you helped him build. Normally, we'd say that Player Characters just don't care, but given that you have to fight Stitches at the end of the questline, you unquestionably made it worse for yourself there.
** Another example exists in the night elf starting zone where the player can slaughter animals for a [[ObviouslyEvil demon named Zenn]] [[MeaningfulName Foulhoof]].
** This is Thrall's biggest character flaw. [[{{Necromancer}} Sylvanas]], [[BadBoss Gallywix]], and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Garrosh]] have all joined the Horde because of him. While Gallywix hasn't done anything post-joining (though he was pretty awful beforehand), Sylvanas and the Forsaken have developed biological warfare and disgust everyone else by raising undead, and Garrosh was a raging patriot and warmonger, [[SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome who in the Pandaria expansion turned into]] an EvilOverlord.
* ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' can play it straight or put an unusual twist on it. A surprising amount of people seem to think that the impeccably polite young warrior who radiates unearthly calm and has a halo of heavenly light around their head is the ''perfect'' person to approach with offers of criminal collaboration.
* ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' we find that Keira has a crush on Erol, Commander of the Krimzon Guard and the man who [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] Jak for two years with Dark Eco experiments. When informed that he's a bad person, she refuses to believe it.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinSuperRobotWars'', Shakti explains that she was in the Angel Halo because she had to be put into the machine in place of her mother the queen. Londo Bell fills her in on how Char deceived her into thinking she could stop the fighting and put her mother at ease. Amuro kindly tells her that she need not apologize for cooperating with an apparatus intended to brainwash mankind - it's all Char's fault for leading her into it.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Bryce Cousland considers Rendon Howe to be his best friend. ''Nearly everybody else'' in Ferelden thinks Rendon's a terrible human being, and they are right. Bryce's misplaced trust in Howe gets him and his entire family (except for the Human Noble Warden if that origin is chosen) killed.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Lamar according to Franklin. Franklin calls him out on this and mentions that he's always had to bail Lamar out of trouble for as long as he's known him [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration (Sometimes when switching to Franklin, you see him stop a fight between Lamar and someone else)]]. Reaches TooDumbToLive levels when after [[spoiler: Franklin travels all the way to Blaine County to save him from Stretch's plan to kill Lamar, Franklin pulls a SherlockScan on Lamar explaining the entire situation with Lamar happily holding the IdiotBall, still believing that Stretch is "His nigga" much to Franklin's anger and exasperation]].
** Patricia Madrazo seems genuine when she tells Trevor she thinks he's a good man, much to Michael's disbelief. To put it in perspective, she says this while Trevor is holding her hostage to exert leverage over her husband, and had just told her that however much he hopes it doesn't come to it, he might have to end up cutting her into pieces.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has Professor Sycamore, who after listening to Lysandre's speech of [[ObviouslyEvil how the world must be cleansed of those he considers filth]] praises the man for his passion. Subverted in that he later admits that he had an idea on how far Lysandre would go, but was never able to confront him about it, making his earlier praise look more like denial than being oblivious.
* ''VideoGame/TouhouKishinjouDoubleDealingCharacter'' kicked off when Shinmyoumaru Sukuna heeded her friend Seija Kijin's plan to place the weak on top of the strong. The fact Shinmyoumaru trusted Seija ''while knowing full well'' that she's an amanojaku, a {{youkai}} species of pathological liars and scammers, should tell you all you need to know about her.
* Prior to the start of ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsBX'', [[Anime/MacrossFrontier Ranka Lee]] falls out of an airlock off-screen and is magically rescued by the Vagans, even though this takes place in outer space (the [[Anime/MacrossFrontier Battle Frontier]] is on [[Anime/PanzerWorldGalient Arst]]). Ranka essentially becomes a Vagan sympathizer for having been rescued by them.
* The bouncer of the Tasteful Club in ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'' will let you and your crew inside the club, noting that you "seem like class acts". Never mind that you're a group of criminals topping the FBI's Most Wanted list, here on business (read: robbery), armed to the teeth with weapons, and possibly clad in ''highly-visible military-grade body armor''. Zero points for guessing what happens next.
* ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'''s first act is a history lesson on why King Leoric the Okay became Skeleton King the Genocidally Insane through this trope. On the basis of TheFundamentalist alone, Leoric trusted Archbishop Lazarus more than anyone, even his wife, his sons, and himself. Lazarus was completely enthralled to Diablo and was able to bring about the apocalypse because the king wouldn't even have a stray thought that Lazarus might have been behind every single terrible thing that happened to him and that his mass-murdering ways cheered on by an archbishop may not have been credible against the now-hateful entire kingdom. It didn't help things that Leoric was also dealing with an active attempt at possession by Diablo himself.
* The King of Hyrule in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', who completely trusts [[BigBad Ganondorf]] despite him being a seven-foot-tall CardCarryingVillain dressed in all black clothing. Improves in one timeline branch though, where after Link and Zelda go back to the past, they manage to convince him of Ganon's treacherous and the king has him arrested.
** A villain variant is true in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'', where [[spoiler:Princess Hilda]] thinks the ObviouslyEvil Yuga is a trusty choice for [[spoiler:TheDragon]]. He's not, and ends up [[spoiler:taking the BigBad role [[TheStarscream for himself]]]].
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'': The Witch/[[spoiler:Freya]] seems physically incapable of understanding or caring how her son [[spoiler:Baldur]] really feels; [[spoiler:when he confronts her in the climax, she begs him to not run away when he’s clearly doing nothing of the sort (which even earns her a DoubleTake from Baldur) and adamantly insists that she can reason with him, even as he tells her directly that he intends to kill her.]] Their entire situation came about when [[spoiler:Freya became convinced that her powerful warrior hero of a son who can battle Kratos on even footing ''needed her protection'', placing a curse on him that rendered invulnerable... while also [[SenseLossSadness taking away his ability to feel any sort of sensation]], causing the poor man to understandably [[SanitySlippage lose his mind]].]] She’s almost as bad as reading other people’s feelings; [[spoiler:she begs Atreus to stop Kratos from killing Baldur as if she genuinely doesn’t understand that Atreus is ''helping'' Kratos do so.]]
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': [[spoiler:Dunban turns out to have chosen really bad friends; Mumkhar fled like a coward the moment things got bad in the Battle of Sword Valley, turned into Metal Face, and nearly killed Fiora, all because he was jealous of Dunban being the hero. Dickson, on the other hand, is secretly TheDragon to Zanza, the true BigBad, and gleefully shoots Shulk in the back]].
* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' Seemingly ''everyone'' working at UAC (with the exception of Elizabeth [=McNeil=] and Elliot Swan), as despite looking rather like Hannibal Lecter, having a name that's German for "Deceiver", and generally reeking of evil most of the other people don't seem to suspect that Dr.Betruger might be a bad guy.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': Foster Addison has a bizarre blind spot with her NumberTwo William Spender. Despite knowing he's an incompetent fuck-up, she lets him keep his job because he's apparently the only one who takes hard jobs... despite being an incompetent fuck-up who is actually endangering everyone's lives through his stupidity. When presented incontrovertible proof of his misdeeds, she admits she'd been looking the other way the whole time.
* In ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', a pair of minor characters, Ma and Pa Honeywell, refer to the Children of the Vault (an AxCrazy {{Cult}} of cannibals and psychopaths worshipping a pair of insane "livescreamers" who commit torture and other atrocities live on air for their own amusement) as "rascals", and ask you to talk politely to them to get back some equipment they stole. [[spoiler:Subverted once their defense grid is back up and running. The firepower they bring to bear on the Children of the Vault makes it clear that "talk politely" was always a DeadlyEuphemism, and referring to them as "rascals" was more about the lack of threat they posed than an underestimation of their depravity.]]
* The backstory for the ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' games has the Lombax race almost wiped out in a genocide by [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Tachyon]] and the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Dropets]] using stolen Lombax technology. Tachyon got access to it because one Lombax, Alister Azimuth, granted him access, believing that Tachyon would put it to good use. This was in spite of Tachyon being [[TheHeartless a Cragmite]], ObviouslyEvil, and showcasing weapons, with even the other Lombaxes suspicious of him, and Azimuth's best friend Kaiden trying to stop him. For his part in the genocide, Azimuth was exiled in disgrace.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Even though [[NervousWreck Dylan]] of WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatianStreet fame is [[FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling more mature and responsible than his stepsister Dolly]], he is prone to befriending characters such as [[AxCrazy Bessie the Cornish Cow]] and [[EnfantTerrible Hunter De Vil]] without realizing [[FauxAffablyEvil their true intentions]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'': King Spartos of Tarkon had a really bad habit of trusting advisers that told him what he wanted to hear, despite his daughter's objections and knowledge of the wider galaxy. It's only towards the end (and with the use of some AppliedPhlebotinum from the Heart of Tarkon) that he's able to see his daughter and the Rangers are correct.
* Sparky's mother on ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty''. She tends to date supervillains a lot, even the show's BigBad on one occasion.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The Earth King unflinchingly trusts his slimy advisor Long Feng. It helps that he's voiced by Creator/ClancyBrown and has insinuated himself into the court since the King was a child, but the Earth Kingdom is pretty much a police state thanks to the King's blind trust.
*** To the Earth King's credit, he does defy this trope in that he is willing to listen to evidence and openly states that he hopes the gang are lying because the implications of their statements (not just his advisor's betrayal, but being the head of state in a 100-year war and being the last person to hear that such a war is going on) are very troubling thoughts. And while the first offered piece of evidence (a bite mark on Long Feng's leg from Appa, despite the claim that he's never seen a Sky bison) doesn't flat out convince the Earth King, the King is willing to admit that the gang's story does [[IncrediblyLamePun have some leg to it]].
*** And then Zigzagged when the King expresses his grief over being the victim of this trope to the Kyoshi Warriors... who at this point have been infiltrated by Azula and her friends.
** Most people who trust [[MagnificentBastard Azula]]. This includes Zuko, who really should know better, but she's ''really'' good at telling lies he really wants to hear, and occasionally mixing just enough truth into it).
*** Toph, LivingLieDetector that she is, would have believed Azula if her lie wasn't {{Blatant Lie|s}} UpToEleven.
*** Of course, once Ty Lee and Mai betray Azula, she falls victim to a version of this trope, seeing everyone as out to get her and banishing them, from an innocent handmaid who held the bowl that contained to a cherry that had the pit Azula almost swallowed, to the Dai Li agents (whose loyalty was very fluid), to her Advisors Lo but not Li (while pointing to Li when declaring them banished, leaving everyone confused as to who she was banishing).
* Prock in ''WesternAnimation/TheAwesomes'' is this when it comes to women he's interested in. Mostly relevant because of his blindness to [[spoiler: Hotwire's]] fairly obvious double agent role, but it also shows three of his earlier dates: A normal looking girl who, on being introduced to his father, sprouted flames and attacked him. A woman with green skin and hair who, on being introduced to his father, turned into a LizardFolk and attacked him. And a robot with buzz-saw hands and rocket launcher shoulders wearing crudely applied lipstick and a wig.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': "It soon became obvious to me that The Joker, so often described as a raving homicidal madman, was actually a tortured soul crying out for love and acceptance..." Doctor Harleen Quinzel (aka [[VillainousHarlequin Harley Quinn]]), welcome to the list.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'':
** The title characters. Even when they get their asses kicked by Todd, they still think he's cool and aspires to join his gang. In fact, every single hoodlum, criminal, and {{Jerkass}} they meet is "cool" by their standards. Then again, when you consider their priorities and interests, it's not that surprising. Hell, in one episode they even "befriend" an escaped serial killer who is clearly deranged, is more or less openly planning on murdering them... and has the word "Killer" tattooed on his forehead (because they're both nearly illiterate, they read it as "Kyle-er" and think it's just his name).
** Most of the citizens of Highland are horrible judges of character; otherwise, the show wouldn't find itself repeatedly using the SeeminglyProfoundFool plot.
** Mr. Van Dreissen seems to be on an eternal, hopeless quest to bring out the "good" he claims to see in B & B. He sees everyone in that way, so his horrible judgment is pretty severe.
* Linda of ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' is entirely too trusting of total strangers. Her innate desire to make friends with just about everyone she meets blinds her to some pretty awful, incompetent, or manipulative people.
** In one instance, Linda's easily swayed by the "Deuce of Diamond's" promotional video for baseball training to help Gene. The video's poorly shot and edited, and it's clear the Deuce is a scammer who has no clue about baseball. Linda ''never'' realizes he's a con artist and continue to sings his praises as Gene's only hope to become better at baseball.
* Dave from ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'' constantly insists in a single episode that a princess [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast named Evil Princess]] is not evil despite the fact she "[[ObviouslyEvil says she's an evil princess, looks like an evil princess and has]] [[TooDumbToLive 'Evil Princess' stitched on her hankies]]."
* Lois displays this in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' when she learns that she has a brother, Patrick, who was committed to a mental hospital and has him released, and shortly afterwards a serial killer nicknamed "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E17TheFatGuyStrangler The Fat Guy Strangler]]" begins targeting Quahog's obese citizens. She's reluctant to consider the possibility that Patrick may be connected to the killings even though he plasters his bedroom walls with photos of himself strangling fat guys, and he has the corpse of a fat guy under his bed, next to a half-dead fat guy who claims Patrick tried to kill him.
-->'''Lois:''' So he has a lot of pictures of himself strangling fat guys, that doesn't make him the Fat Guy Strangler!\\
'''Brian:''' Oh yeah? What about the dead fat guy under his bed?\\
'''Lois:''' Coincidence?\\
'''Brian:''' What about the half-dead fat guy in the corner?\\
'''Fat guy:''' Patrick tried to kill me.\\
'''Lois:''' Maybe it's a different Patrick.\\
'''Brian:''' ''LOIS!''\\
'''Lois:''' Okay, okay!
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} with [[IdiotHero Fry]]'s friendship with [[HeroicComedicSociopath Bender]] in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** Fry knows [[RoboticPsychopath Bender's]] [[CardCarryingVillain deal]] and loves him anyway—and to be fair, [[MoralityPet it's very mutual]]. That doesn't stop Fry's personal fondness for Bender from skewing what little judgment he has, as evidenced by "The Lesser of Two Evils," in which he somewhat paradoxically insists that a bending unit who acts almost identically to Bender is the "[[EvilTwin evil Bender]]". (It's also played pretty straight in a WhatIf segment where Fry tries to convince Earth's army that a HumongousMecha version of Bender is NotEvilJustMisunderstood as the latter gleefully tramples New New York under his feet.)
--->'''Fry:''' Whoa, whoa, wait a second. You mean ''Bender'' is the ''evil'' Bender? I am shocked. ''Shocked!'' ...[[ShrugTake Well, not]] ''[[ShrugTake that]]'' [[ShrugTake shocked]].
** PlayedForLaughs when earth was fighting the Decapodians[[note]]Zoidberg's people[[/note]]. After obtaining the planet's military defense codes, Zapp Brannigan believed that his sidekick Kif was too suspicious to be given the codes and ended up trusting them to a Decapodian in an obvious PaperThinDisguise as a soldier.
--->'''Zapp:''' You, ensign, what's your name?
--->'''Decapodian:''' HughMann, sir!
--->'''Zapp:''' Hugh Mann. Now that's a name I can trust. Run down to the central battle computer and enter these codes. Chop-chop.
--->'''Kif:''' Sir, there's something about that ensign that's—
--->'''Zapp:''' You're damn right there is. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint That strapping young lad's gunning for your job. And he just might get it.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': The eponymous town seems to have made it a ''habit'' of celebrating [[VillainWithGoodPublicity the wrong kind of people]].
** Lil' Gideon is fawned over as an adorable child and a brilliant psychic. In reality he is a [[AxCrazy completely insane]], [[spoiler: attacking Dipper with ''[[DisproportionateRetribution lamb shears]]'' for "getting between" [[{{Yandere}} him and Mabel]] ]], and later summoned a ''demon'' so he could steal Stan's deed to the shack. [[spoiler: The townspeople finally learn the truth when Stan exposes his illegal surveillance cameras, and cart him off to jail]].
** The Northwest family is the idolized founding family of Gravity Falls but is pretty condescending toward regular people. [[spoiler: And as turns out, they never founded the town, and have been scamming and screwing the residents for a ''century and a half'']].
* Harley Quinn herself in [[WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019 her titular series]] has this in spades. Because of her horrible relationship with the Joker, she believes all men in a relationship with women act like him. This leads her to [[spoiler:try to free Nora Fries when she finds her in suspended animation, thinking a lot of what she's put in is degrading, forcing Mr. Freeze to perform a HeroicSuicide to save her life.]]
* In nearly every episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', if not every episode, Gadget confuses [[ObviouslyEvil obvious MAD agents]] for normal, law-abiding citizens and kindly offers them his assistance with whatever they need, while at the same time confusing ''his own dog'' in a PaperThinDisguise for a (very short) MAD agent and chases after him relentlessly. He [[UpToEleven took it to eleven]] in the Christmas special when he thought Dr. Claw was SantaClaus and arrested the real Santa. Luckily for the good guys, Gadget is such a WalkingDisasterArea that he is more liable to thwart the bad guys when trying to help them than he is when actually trying to thwart them.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The [[AllLovingHero eponymous character]] has some of the show's villains judged horribly. There's [[CatsAreMean Mr. Cat]], an AxeCrazy psychopathic {{jerkass}} who Kaeloo thinks is nice (unless he tries to be nice to her for real, in which case she thinks he's being mean). Then there's [[RobotMaster Olaf]], a MadScientist who wants to TakeOverTheWorld. She thinks he's a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold when in reality he ''is'' insane and evil.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', a good third of the series' episodes start off with the characters taking anything and everything a complete stranger tells them at face value, while simultaneously refusing to believe anything people they've been friends with/married to/the parents of for decades say. Some episodes give a reasonable excuse for this[[labelnote:Example:]]"Peggy's Fan Fair" concerns the title character learning that Music/RandyTravis recorded a song using lyrics she had mailed to him, without giving her credit; everybody sides with Travis over her, because she has a reputation for [[SmallNameBigEgo having a massive ego]] and taking credit for things she had no hand in[[/labelnote]]... but most don't.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'': In "Can't Wait to Be Queen", Kiara is left temporary queen of the Pridelands while Simba and Nala are away on business. During that time, she's approached by Janja's vulture minion Mzingo, who claims that Janja wants to discuss peace with her. Janja is a big-time {{Jerkass}} who regularly breaks into the Pridelands to cause chaos ForTheEvulz, but Kiara decides to go anyway, brushing off Kion's warnings due to their SiblingRivalry. It's not until she shows up that she realizes that Kion was right; Janja planned to kidnap her in order to blackmail Simba into letting him take whatever he wants from the Pridelands.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'', this trope is usually restricted to Arnold's view on his [[BigSisterBully cousin]] [[ManipulativeBitch Janet]]. However, the rest of the class joins in the butterfly episode where they think [[NiceGirl Pho]][[ShrinkingViolet ebe]] ''must'' be sabotaging them by suggesting they make the school mascot a butterfly because the team they'll be facing is from Phoebe's old school on Janet's word alone.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': A side effect of the titular boys' status as [[InnocentProdigy Innocent Prodigies]]. It's especially pronounced with Phineas, who never realizes that his older sister Candace is trying to get him in trouble, or that [[CannotSpitItOut Isabella]] is trying to flirt with him.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'':
** In one episode in which the Gangreen Gang are forced to attend Pokey Oaks by a truant officer, Ms. Keane accepts them with open arms, and when the Powerpuff Girls counter their antics and attempts to torment the kids, Ms. Keane ''only'' sees the Girls assault them and punishes the girls while letting the Gangreen Gang get away with it. It's only when they brutally injure the other kids in a game of dodgeball that Ms. Keane realizes that the PPG were right about the Gangreen Gang all along.
** Ironically, the Girls themselves fall into this in a later episode when they hand over a beaker of Chemical X to the Professor's old college roommate, Dick Hardly, not realizing that he is up to no good (even though they clearly heard him call them "things" earlier and that he suggested using them to make a gold mine).
*** The Professor himself back in college as he always thought of Dick as a friend despite all the times he leeched off of him in work, and only realized Dick's true motives when he came for a visit in the present day.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the book ''Angelica Button and the Dragon King's Trundle Bed'', the snake Lord Evilton is the minister of niceness.
** Zig-zagged with Lisa in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E7LisasDateWithDensity Lisa's Date with Density]]" where she gets a crush on Nelson Muntz. (Even Bart thinks this is crazy, telling her, "I'll probably never say this to you again, but you can do better!") It's not that Lisa doesn't know that Nelson is a rotten kid, she just honestly believes that he might have a sensitive side, and she might be able to change him. By the end of the episode, however, she realizes that Nelson is rotten through and through, and they break up. Although, in a subsequent episode, she does a favor for him, and when asked why, she shrugs and says, "Well, we used to date."
** In "The Trouble with Trillions," the entire U.S. government during the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII era considered rich people, including [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Burns]], to be AlwaysLawfulGood. This ended up biting them in the butt when Mr. Burns stole the trillion-dollar bill meant to pay for the rebuilding of Europe after the war.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** Cartman's mom seems to think he's a "little angel" to the point where she doesn't even question his story about why he has a picture of him with Butter's penis in his mouth in "Cartman Sucks". She also lets him get away with murder and always takes his side, with the exception of more recent episodes ("[[Recap/SouthParkS10E7Tsst Tsst]]", "[[Recap/SouthParkS14E11Coon2Hindsight Coon 2: Hindsight]]" and "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E1HumancentiPad HumancentiPad]]").
*** The members of the Creator/MelGibson fan club in "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E3ThePassionOfTheJew The Passion of the Jew]]", who are unaware that Cartman wants to restart the Holocaust and instead think that he just wants to promote Christianity, even mistaking his German speech for Aramaic.
** PlayedForLaughs in "[[Recap/SouthParkS6E9FreeHat Free Hat]]". The episode's titular character, Hat [=McCollough=], is a serial murderer of 23 babies, but a protest group wants him freed from jail, claiming he killed the babies in self-defence.
*** Or maybe it ''really was'' self-defence...
* A minor running gag in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1981'' contrasted J. Jonah Jameson's blind hatred of Spider-Man by having him genuinely believe that supervillain Doctor Doom is a good guy. How the name didn't tip Jameson off is anyone's guess.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick, due to their optimistic innocence, frequently fall into this trope. [=SpongeBob=] in particular fails to notice Squidward's obvious dislike of him. Other notable examples are when the pair releases the ObviouslyEvil Man Ray just because he says "please" [[spoiler:though in this case, Man Ray eventually decides to turn good after all]], and when [=SpongeBob=] is chased by a criminal and hires that criminal in a PaperThinDisguise as his bodyguard.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SquirrelBoy'' episode "Islands in the Street", when Andy teams up with the local {{jerkass}} Kyle to find Rodney and Salty Mike, Bob sees Kyle criticize his car's cup holder before throwing it out in disgust and declares "He seems nice."
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsResistance'': Tam Ryvora believes that, because her grandfather once worked in an Imperial factory, the ObviouslyEvil First Order isn't really a problem and can be reasoned with. She learns the hard way that blowing off Kaz and Yeager's warnings about them was a ''bad'' idea.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' Padmé's Separatist friend Senator Bonteri of Onderon served Count Dooku due to believing that the Republic was too corrupt to be effective and that Dooku was a good man, despite Padmé's warnings otherwise. Her naivety ends up getting her killed, as [[DeathByIrony Dooku ends up having her assassinated]] due to her [[WideEyedIdealist attempts at ending the war]] obstructing the Sith plan to use it to wipe out the Jedi.
* ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'': In the episode "[[VerySpecialEpisode Jimmy]]," the entire school is this to [[TheBully Nick Connor]], having voted him "Best Personality". Virgil himself notes [[LampshadeHanging there should have been a recount]], and he's proven right when Nick relentlessly bullies and torments the titular character Jimmy Osgood to the point he snaps and steals his father's gun with full intent of killing him, which he's barely talked down from doing. By the end of the episode, everyone has been made aware of Nick's true colors, with Virgil remarking that the only good thing about the whole mess is that at least he won't be winning any more popularity contests.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' had its fair share of examples. Arguably the worst case happens in "Megatron's Master Plan", which revolves around the Decepticons' plan to make the people of Earth (or at least Central City) believe that they were, in fact, the good guys all along... after how many very obvious instances they are not? And everybody actually believed it! Then when they were proven complete morons, the enslaved humans all blamed Shawn Berger, who while not having a great reason to help the Decepticons at least had the most reason to trust them, as the second main cause of their misery.
** "Enter the Nightbird" might be another case, depending on how much sentience/sapience one reads in the titular character. Giant robot ninja armed with more weapons and powers than you can shake a stick at? Truly she is going to "benefit mankind, and not harm it".
** Orion Pax was one of these in his backstory. He was a ''Megatron fanboy'' who thought old Megs had Cybertron's best interests at heart. That ended when Megatron nearly killed him and his girlfriend after duping them into helping him. Orion's a somewhat better judge of character as the OlderAndWiser Optimus Prime.
** Megatron insists on keeping [[TheStarscream the original Starscream]] around, despite the endless plotting to overthrow him - most of it [[LargeHam clearly audible from a long way off]], and some of it ''to his face''. Lampshaded in the Generation 2 comics:
--->'''Megatron:''' ''Why?'' [[WhatWereYouThinking That's what they all asked me.]] Why ''him''...why ''Starscream''? Why, of all the Decepticons, did I choose to revitalise the one whose [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder record of deceit and betrayal]] is ''legend''? Because I'm an ''idiot'', that's why!
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'':
** When talking about the Elite Guard the [[Wiki/TFWikiDotNet Transformers Wiki]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Autoboot_Camp noted that:]] "Sentinel Prime, the biggest jerk in Transformer history, and [[spoiler:Longarm Prime, a double-agent]], are both high-ranking members of the Elite Guard, while Optimus Prime, a true hero, [[AlmightyJanitor is a washout and space bridge repairbot]]. Either Optimus Prime did one major screw-up, or Ultra Magnus is the single worst judge of character ever." Since Optimus Prime's screwup was taking the blame for Elita's death on a planet they shouldn't have been on in the first place, Magnus does have a tiny bit of leeway. No excuse for making Sentinel Prime practically his right-hand-mech, though. Apparently, once washed out, you can't be brought back in, at least according to Magnus himself when talking to Optimus. And he probably keeps Sentinel Prime at his right hand [[KickedUpstairs so he can babysit him]]. We've all seen what happens when he's not around to keep the glitch-head out of trouble.
** Megatron doesn't get off scot-free. [[TheStarscream Starscream]] was a high-ranking member of the Decepticon forces for eons, and has been trying to off Megatron for a good deal of them. But Megatron seemed genuinely surprised when he found out it was Starscream who planted the bomb on him. He learned his lesson after that, showing that, unlike most other Megatrons, he's not at all forgiving. Starscream shows up, and once he has his gun back, the first thing ol' Megs does is blast Starscream square in the face. He proceeds to wash, rinse, and repeat as necessary whenever the guy shows his face.
* The eponymous Wander of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' often falls into this. Due to his overly exaggerant optimism and carefree behavior, he seems to be unaware of dangerous threats, especially Lord Hater, which bothers him to the max. The only one who sees through this is his partner Sylvia, who is more rational and level-headed.
[[/folder]]

* Seere in ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' (a small child) willfully invites himself into a party consisting of a child-killer, a child molester, and a child eater. He's got a stone golem to protect him, but ''still''.

** This is Thrall's biggest character flaw. [[TheNecromancer Sylvanas]], [[BadBoss Gallywix]], and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Garrosh]] have all joined the Horde because of him. While Gallywix hasn't done anything post-joining (though he was pretty awful beforehand), Sylvanas and the Forsaken have developed biological warfare and disgust everyone else by raising undead, and Garrosh was a raging patriot and warmonger, [[SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome who in the Pandaria expansion turned into]] an EvilOverlord.

* For most of ''LightNovel/TheTwelveKingdoms''' first StoryArc, [[spoiler:Yuka Sugimoto]] swears complete loyalty to the King of Kou despite several indications that he is simply using her and cares for nothing but himself. Even after being [[spoiler:abandoned on a remote, barren farm]], she makes up an excuse for it herself and remains eager to do his bidding. Sure, the girl ''is'' [[IJustWantToBeSpecial desperate to be the heroine]], but ''still''!

** Even after watching him try to brainwash the Council of Acorn into his brainwashed servants, [[spoiler:Geoffrey]] ''still'' believes there's some good, moral side to [[EvilSorcerer Ixis Naugus]] that he can appeal to. [[spoiler:Needless to say, [[GrandTheftMe this backfires horribly]]]].

** Later on, [[spoiler: during their alliance]], we learn that Vale also misjudges Obsidian by thinking that, as a well-trained and strong Career, he must not have any problems, while he is simultaneously [[spoiler: plagued with constant questions about the morality of his actions, as well as the fear that he is NotSoDifferent from Amber and the other Careers]]. Obsidian also misjudges Vale by mistakenly assuming that she is a PuritySue type who could never hurt anyone and therefore lacks the kind of worries that consume him.

'''Sultan:''' Nonsense! One thing I pride myself on, Jafar...I'm an excellent judge of character.\\

'''Iago:''' Oh, excellent judge, yeah, sure...''[[{{Not}} not]]!''

'''Iago:''' Oh, excellent judge, yeah, sure...''not!''

* In [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Esther]], Ahasuerus didn't realize that his vizier Haman is an EvilChancellor, even when he tried to wipe out all the Jews in Persia until Ahasuerus realized that this would also include his wife, the titular Esther. He trusted Haman so much that all Haman had to say was "let me take care of this group of non-law-abiders", and he got ''the king's signet ring to use''.

* In [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Esther]], Ahasuerus didn't realize that his vizier Haman is an EvilChancellor, even when he tried to wipe out all the Jews in Persia until Ahasuerus realized that this would also include his wife, the titular Esther. He trusted Haman so much that all Haman had to say was "let me take care of this group of non-law-abiders", and he got ''the king's signet ring to use''.

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': Jillie Djinn, [[BeleaguredAssistant Beetle]]'s BadBoss. She arbitrarily fires him and hires [[Jerkass Merrin]] [[UngratefulBastard Meredith]] to replace him.

* 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 Pevenisies 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.

** The title characters. Even when they get their asses kicked by Todd, they still think he's cool and aspires to join his gang. In fact, every single hoodlum, criminal, and {{Jerkass}} they meet is "cool" by their standards. Then again, when you consider their priorities and interests, it's not that surprising.
** In one episode they even "befriend" an escaped serial killer who is clearly deranged, is more or less openly planning on murdering them... and has the word "Killer" tattooed on his forehead (because they're both nearly illiterate, they read it as "Kyle-er" and think it's just his name).