History Main / InformedKindness

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* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': After the [[PlayerCharacter Chosen Undead]] slugs their way through [[EverythingTryingToKillYou the Painted World of Ariamis]], they encounter [[WomanInWhite Crossbreed Priscilla]] who insists that "This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind."

* Franchise/Batman’s status as being one of the purest, most compassionate superheroes of the DC universe and one of it’s moral centers. A lot of heroes(and writers) often tend to exaggerate and gush on and on about how he’s apparently one of the most heroic, purest and uncorruptible superheroes to ever exist...despite the fact that even at his campiest and goofiest, he has quite a few moments of Jerkassery under his belt and that he tends to act like an asshole towards everyone, even his closest allies(which often leads to him getting berated by said allies). And that’s not even getting into the universes(like Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin), where he’s at his most ruthless and cruel(made even more jarring by the fact that Frank himself called Batman pure, good and just, yet tends to write Batman as a major dick). Or all the times when one of his plans ends up backfiring on him and almost kills his allies because he refused to trust them out of stubborness and paranoia(Tower Of Babel or Brother Eye, for example). Or the way he treated the rest of the Bat-family(especially Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain) in the past. Or that he almost never listens to what his friends tell him, even when they try to warn him about something, because he tends to think that he’s always right about everything and that he knows better than everyone else(like that time when he got tricked by Barbatos into releasing him from the Dark Multiverse and he didn’t listen to any of his teammates when they tried to warn him that what he was doing was a horrible idea). We’re gonna stop here, because if we start listing all the times Batman was an asshole or all of the reasons why he’s an asshole, we’d be here until midnight. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that Batman isn’t a hero. What we’re saying is that while Batman is a hero, calling him one of the purest, most heroic and uncorruptible heroes in the DCU might be a bit of a stretch, considering all the terrible things he did.

Contrast BewareTheNiceOnes. See also HorribleJudgeOfCharacter for those mistakenly believing this. Compare BitchInSheepsClothing. Can be a form of CharacterShilling. Can be TruthInTelevision.

* Franchise/WonderWoman comes off as this DependingOnTheWriter. She was originally intended to be [[WomenAreWiser the most compassionate and understanding member]] of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, and for a fairly long time she lived up to it. Than ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' happened. In that story, Diana was depicted as having become more violent and bitter as a result of her struggles, taking up a sword and being much more willing to kill enemies. This was intended to just be an element of the BadFuture, but ''Kingdom Come'' ended up being [[MainstreamObscurity a lot of readers' first real impression of Wonder Woman]] and the "warrior" imagery caught on. Ever since than, writers have tried to portray both interpretations at the same time with predictably confusing and [[{{Narm}} Narmful]] results; narration praising Wonder Woman for her kind and peaceful ways will be juxtaposed with her breaking necks or stabbing bad guys.

* Hester Crane, mother of Frasier and Niles Crane, is often talked up by Frasier, Niles and Martin as a loving, remarkable woman. But what the audience is shown of her paints her in a much different light. In her appearance on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', she threatened to kill Diane Chambers behind Frasier's back and even after apologizing, Hester tried to bribe Sam Malone to take Diane back. Then on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' after she has passed away, it's revealed that she cheated on Martin in the past and it has been implied that her method of raising Frasier and Niles was ultimately damaging. Then there's Frasier's mental manifestation of Hester in "Don Juan in Hell" portraying her as clingy with her son and outright cruel to Frasier's manifestations of his main love interests (Lilith, Diane and Nanny G), implying that even Frasier knew deep down that his mother wasn't the warmest person. Though, it's possible that NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead was in play.

* ''{{Series/Charmed}}'':

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': We're told over and over that Ender is a good person, extremely empathic, and loves even his enemies. The reason we know this? Because he always feels bad after he brutally murders someone (which is damn near every other scene). His guilt is never strong enough to make him show even the slightest bit of restraint in the next confrontation, though. Just enough to mope about it for a bit and then keep doing exactly the same thing.

* ''Film/TheRoom'''s protagonist, Johnny, is ostensibly an emotionally fragile NiceGuy. This shilling is kind of undermined by his laughing at domestic abuse that landed someone in the hospital, his covert taping of Lisa to determine whether or not she was having an affair instead of coming out and asking her about it, and destructive meltdown toward the end of the movie.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In "Sanctuary," Faith remarks that Buffy was the only person in Sunnydale who was there for her and tried to be her friend. As shown throughout ''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'' Season 3, even before the events of "Bad Girls" and "Consequences," Buffy generally treated Faith more like a commodity than an actual friend, picking a fight with Faith on their very first patrol together, having to be talked into including Faith on several different gatherings, and dumping all of her responsibility for Alan Finch's death onto Faith, all of which contributed to Faith's FaceHeelTurn.

* Advertising/SegataSanshiro is described in-universe as being a "great hero". All he does is beat people who aren't playing Sega Saturn within an inch of their lives.

* In ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'', Hiro running back to 02 after she strangled him, screaming vitriol about how he was "fodder" who should just die, was considered romantic by the narrative for some reason. Many viewers considered it Stockholm Syndrome. [[EasilyForgiven And an episode later they're cuddling in bed whispering sweet nothings.]]

A form of ShowDontTell. This can be a way to best describe a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, a character with a SugarAndIcePersonality, a GoodIsNotNice character, or other characters who can be socially unapproachable at times. Often a NaiveNewcomer will become confused as to why people keep calling this {{Jerkass}} teammate "nice". This can be shown how the character is a JerkSue if the other characters ignore his/her mean qualities. Compare VillainWithGoodPublicity for another meaning of "informed kindness".

* ''Film/TheRoom'''s protagonist, Johnny, is ostensibly an emotionally fragile NiceGuy. This shilling is kind of undermined by his laughing at spousal abuse that landed someone in the hospital and destructive meltdown toward the end of the movie.

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* {{Parodied|Trope}} early on in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'': The yakuza loan-sharks bent on enslaving Hayate as settlement for his parents' debt are redundantly, near-exclusively and emphatically being referred to as "Exceptionally kind people".

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* In ''Comicbook/TheSandman'', the Furies are not to be referred as such, it's better to call them the Kindly Ones: a [[TheHecateSisters Hecate Trio]] of witches who swore to get revenge on Orpheus for making them cry, which they achieved by having him killed by his father.

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* ''Film/TheRoom'''s protagonist, Johnny, is ostensibly an emotionally fragile NiceGuy. This shilling is kind of undermined by his laughing at spousal abuse that landed someone in the hospital and destructive meltdown toward the end of the movie.
* Played for laughs in ''Film/TheDeparted'': after Staff Sergeant Dignam gives an extremely rude briefing, his colleague, Ellerby unconvincingly says: "Normally, he's a very, uh... nice guy. Don't judge him from this meeting alone". Dignam isn't nice by any stretch of the imagination, but he's honest and dutiful.

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* Played with in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Nanny Ogg will insist that her ''incredibly mean and evil'' cat Greebo (which once raped a ''she-bear''), is "a big softie, really". Only once did she confess "between you and me, he's a fiend from Hell".
* Subverted with Raymond Shaw in ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate''. The novel repeatedly states "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Keep in mind that this is because his squad has been brainwashed into saying this anytime they're asked about him. In point of fact, he's something of a cold jerk and NoHeroToHisValet.

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* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'': The bounty hunter Ghor is said to be nice most of the time, [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul but turns more violent when in his mecha suit]]. While he certainly does sound mean while in it, the "normal" Ghor doesn't really act that nice, sounding irritated when going through security screenings and referring to a killed Berserker Knight as having "stopped bothering us". Admittedly, we don't get to see him much outside of combat [[spoiler:before he's infected by Phazon and turns evil.]]

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', Dijonay reunites with her old friend Lacieniga for the first time in years. Dijonay tells her current best friend Penny that Lacieniga is the best person ever, but Lacieniga only proceeds to do nothing but selfishly disrespect Penny. Penny calls Dijonay out on her judgement saying that it's possible her old friend has changed, but Dijonay doesn't see any of it.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode, "Giant Squidward", the townspeople ask Squidward if he is a friendly giant like the one in a little boy's storybook. When [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick tell them that he is and ask him to name instances, Squidward yells at them.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''
** In a "A Bad Day for Sir Handel". Peter Sam and Sir Handel arrive to the Skarloey Railway with Sir Handel complaining about leaving the railway they previously worked at and insults Skarloey. Peter Sam rebukes him and tells Skarloey that he's a nice person, he's only a bit homesick. The narration then states that Skarloey felt sorry for Peter Sam.
** Peter Sam says the same about Duncan in "Home At Last" supposing that he probably does mean well, but is rather rude and careless. While we do see shades of his softer side in the following episode, the current story has Duncan act like a thoroughly arrogant JerkAss.
** In the episode "Kevin's Cranky Friend", Salty reminds Kevin that despite Cranky's nature, he has a heart of gold, and he was good as his word when Cranky took the blame for causing Kevin to fall off the sea.

* Daenerys in GameofThrones has this at least InUniverse: Missandei, Grey Worm and, to a degree, even Varys constantly tell people that she is a great queen with a sense for justice, Jorah Mormont more than once states she has a "gentle heart". Except [[spoiler: this is the very same queen who feeds men to her dragons, commenting that they very well "could all be innocent" of the crime she accuses them of, brings hundreds of thousands of raping and killing warriors into her native land so that they may raid the country and people and burns defeated enemies alive because they refuse to bow to her. [[YouAreWhatYouHate Daenerys]] even has this on herself, as she keeps telling that she will "break the wheel", meaning the social structure that suppresses many people in favor of few others, but at the same time she conquers lands, destroys fleets and ground and kills hundreds of people in order to become queen - thus, their superior.]]

* The cast page for ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook'' lauds Brie/[[SuddenNameChange Plausibell]] and Legua for their gentleness and compassion (and, in Brie's case, patience). In practice, however, the behavior of both ranges from "smugly dogmatic" to "downright violent." Even their [[TakeOurWordForIt supposed]] TenderTears (over the fact that [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence the whole world hasn't gone vegan yet]]) go [[CrocodileTears nowhere]] towards supporting their stated characterization.

* The cast page for ''VeganArtbook'' lauds Brie/[[SuddenNameChange Plausibell]] and Legua for their gentleness and compassion (and, in Brie's case, patience). In practice, however, the behavior of both ranges from "smugly dogmatic" to "downright violent." Even their [[TakeOurWordForIt supposed]] TenderTears (over the fact that [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence the whole world hasn't gone vegan yet]]) go [[CrocodileTears nowhere]] towards supporting their stated characterization.

* The cast page for ''VeganArtbook'' lauds Brie and Legua for their gentleness and compassion (and, in Brie's case, patience). In practice, however, the behavior of both ranges from "smugly dogmatic" to "downright violent." Even their [[TakeOurWordForIt supposed]] TenderTears (over the fact that [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence the whole world hasn't gone vegan yet]]) go [[CrocodileTears nowhere]] towards supporting their stated characterization.

* ''Film/TheRoom'''s protagonist, Johnny, is ostensibly an emotionally fragile NiceGuy. This shilling is kind of undermined by his laughing at spousal abuse that landed someone in the hospital, his covert taping of Lisa to determine whether or not she was having an affair instead of coming out and asking her about it, and destructive meltdown toward the end of the movie.

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* In ''Film/Godzilla1998'' the other characters frequently talk up Audrey as being 'too nice'. This is despite the fact that she rejected Nick's proposal in favor of furthering her own career, and also steals top secret information from him to give to the press, throwing him under the bus. While is remorseful that her actions got him fired, it doesn't come across as the OutOfCharacterMoment it's meant to be.