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3%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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7[[quoteright:349:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/horrible_judge_of_character_2.png]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:349: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep The trio]] has [[BeautyBrainsAndBrawn Brains, Beauty]] and ''definitely'' [[DumbMuscle Brawn]].]]
9
10->'''Jafar:''' I don't trust him, sire.\
11'''Sultan:''' Nonsense! One thing I pride myself on, Jafar... I'm an excellent judge of character.\
12'''Iago:''' Oh, excellent judge, yeah, sure... ''NOT!''
13-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}''
14
15Some people just can't read other people. They see the {{villain|s}} and think they're TheHero, they see a SleazyPolitician and think they'll change the world for the better, and they think SergeantRock is a {{Jerkass}} when he just wants to keep everyone alive.
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17This person might be overly trusting or naïve, or have a hard time reading social cues and body language, or maybe they're just [[TheDitz dimwitted in general]]. They could also be too closed off to hear other characters' warnings about the bad guy's true nature.
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19This can be a matter of degree, ranging from characters who [[ExaggeratedTrope routinely get everybody wrong]] to [[ParodiedTrope an absurd degree]], to normal people who are usually at least okay at judging other people but critically get one key character wrong for reasonable reasons, whether that be because the subject of their mistake is a ManipulativeBastard or because LoveMakesYouDumb.
20
21This can lead to a MyGodWhatHaveIDone on the part of the character doing it if their misjudgement makes them the UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. If they never do, they could continue being the UnwittingPawn to the point of being TooDumbToLive.
22
23This is the inverse of ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter, where a character is really good at figuring other people out.
24
25If everybody is a bad judge of a particular character, that character may be a HeroWithBadPublicity or a VillainWithGoodPublicity. If the work expects ''the audience'' not to figure out that an ObviouslyEvil character is a villain, that's ObviousJudas. When applied to a whole group of people you get GullibleLemmings.
26
27----
28!!Example Subpages:
29[[index]]
30* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/AnimeAndManga
31* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/ComicBooks
32* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/FanWorks
33* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/{{Film}}
34* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/{{Literature}}
35* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/LiveActionTV
36* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/VideoGames
37* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/VisualNovels
38* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/WesternAnimation
39[[/index]]
40
41!!Other Examples:
42
43[[foldercontrol]]
44
45[[folder:Advertising]]
46* In the Advertising/JayBushAndDuke ads for Bush's Baked Beans, Jay Bush often refers to Duke as being trustworthy or someone who would never tell the secret recipe, despite the many instances the audience is shown to the contrary. In the earliest ad or two, it's indicated he says that Duke would never tell because he doesn't know that he's a TalkingAnimal, though later on he's shown to be well aware of this fact, yet still makes the statement anyway.
47[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Asian Animation]]
50* In ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', the Supermen never realize Big M. and Little M. are trying to take over Planet Xing, even if the evidence is staring them right in the face. Sweet S. does come close to discovering this in an episode of Season 8, however, when she thinks Big M. is the glowing-bellied criminal she's after and is prepared to face the fact that he's a villain without an ''insane'' amount of denial. [[spoiler:But then Huo Haha gets him out of the situation.]]
51[[/folder]]
52
53[[folder:Comic Strips]]
54* Susan of ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'' has made some pretty bad decisions, such as trying a bit of OperationJealousy on her [[ObliviousToLove oblivious friend]] Lemont (it doesn't work; not only does [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy he want her to be happy]], it leaves him open to pursuing an online relationship with his college crush, [[LoveDodecahedron who happens to be Susan's married ex-best friend]]) or adopting a dog that's obviously a wolf [[spoiler:that might be Lemont's vampire baby mama in disguise]].
55* [[http://joshreads.com/?p=2706 The Comics Curmudgeon]] has a ''lot'' of fun pointing out how Adrian and later her father from ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'' fit this mold.
56* ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId'': When the Wizard goes away on vacation, the guys he hires to look after his lab are, well, [[http://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2015/02/05 see for yourself]].
57* In ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', a couple who have a stereotypical WickedWitch babysit their two children are shocked to find out when they return that she's cooked and eaten them ''both''.
58[[/folder]]
59
60[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
61* 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''."
62* 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.
63* In The Literature/BookOfEsther, 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 (found out after she told him) 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''.
64[[/folder]]
65
66[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
67* This was {{played for laughs}} in Shine Wrestling after Wrestling/AllysinKay's HeelFaceTurn. As a {{heel}}, Kay's plan for getting another title shot after losing to Wrestling/IvelisseVelez, [[SelfServingMemory which she never acknowledged as happening mind you]], was to "destroy innocent girls" until management was forced to give in to Kay's demands. As a {{face}}, Kay continued on with this 'extortion', except the "innocent" victims she was now "destroying" were [[NominalHero almost]] as [[AssholeVictim bad as]] she was. This led to Wrestling/TessaBlanchard, who had been part of the same PowerStable as her while Kay was a heel, being bulldozed by Kay while trying to remind her of the "good times". Blanchard had simply joined by the point the singles title belt had become Kay's [[MotiveDecay all consuming obession]]. She didn't even notice Blanchard was a member or pay attention to anything Blanchard actually said.[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Roleplay]]
70* In ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'', Emmanuel sees Simon (or rather, Simon's SplitPersonality) jump out the window of the destroyed nurse's office wearing a charred nurse's coat and a surgical mask with a maniacal grin drawn on it. He doesn't seem to find any of it suspect and follows along with what Simon wants. To little surprise, Simon attacks him and leaves him unconscious with cracked ribs.
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
74* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': {{Exaggerated|trope}} 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.
75* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
76** Arguably, The Emperor of Mankind has this problem.
77*** Despite numerous warnings from various sources, he still failed to see Horus' betrayal coming. I guess you don't expect that sort of thing from your favourite genetically engineered son...
78*** There’s also his trust in some of his other sons who turned to chaos and all the Chaos Space Marines who were, putting it lightly, horrible, horrible people.
79*** The one son he did decide not to trust, [[TheCassandra Magnus the Red]], was the one who tried to warn him about Horus, and who was pushed to Chaos as a result.
80** The Horus Heresy was mostly caused by the Primarchs being miserable judges of character. The loyal Primarchs refused to believe their brothers would betray the Emperor, allowing them to be blindsided. The Traitor Primarchs that started the Heresy believed the Emperor was a power-hungry jerk who was betraying them. In reality, while the Emperor was undoubtedly a jerk, his goal was ultimately pure -- a golden age for Mankind, not the God-Emperor of Mankind.
81** There are some stupid, ''[[TooDumbToLive stupid]]'' Imperial nobles who hire [[AxCrazy Dark]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Eldar]] to act as mercenaries and deniable assets. Said Dark Eldar usually go in, kill/torture/enslave/commit unspeakable acts upon their unfortunate victims, get paid, and then turn on their stupid, ''stupid'' employer.
82** What's funnier is the T'au fell victim to this as well; they got Dark Eldar assistance during a particularly ruthless Tyranid invasion. Of course, the Dark Eldar were manipulating them and taking advantage of them right from the very beginning, and the clueless greyskins only clued in when they realized that the "cultural exchange" party they sent over to meet them never returned, and some of the Dark Eldar's [[WasOnceAMan nightmarish flesh-hulk creations had a very familiar grey skin tone]]...
83*** Twice no less! In another situation described in the Tyranid's 5th edition codex, a T'au colony was attacked by the Tyranids, only be saved by Necrons that had been in hibernation on the planet's moon. The Ethereal in charge of the colony threw a "Thank you for saving us/Welcome to the T'au Empire" celebration that lasted for three days before the Necrons grew bored of the amusing situation and decided they wanted ''their planet'' back.
84* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy '': See every Elven Noble thousands of years ago not only electing Bel-Shanaar as Phoenix King, but also being blind to Malekith's evil intent for so long. Come on! [[MeaningfulName His name is MALEKITH!]]
85[[/folder]]
86
87[[folder:Theater]]
88* Creon in Creator/{{Sophocles}}'s ''Theatre/{{Antigone}}''. Basically, every single character he meets, he utterly fails to spot that they have good reasons for acting the way they do and wastes an excessive amount of time accusing people of being selfish, corrupt, or (in the case of Antigone herself) just plain female.
89* Siegfried in ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen'', which proves to be his FatalFlaw. ''Everybody'' around him lies to him and uses him to their advantage, and this leads to his tragic and ignoble death.
90* Played with in ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'': Cecily claims that her "first impressions of people are never wrong" when really they are ''consistently'' wrong.
91* Frequent in Creator/WilliamShakespeare's works:
92** King Duncan from ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of this trope, as he blindly trusts both the traitorous Thane of Cawdor and his replacement Macbeth, who [[TooDumbToLive kills him]].
93** A downplayed example in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'', Othello is mindlessly trusting of his ancient, "honest Iago," a character thoroughly devoted to ruining his life. This is more due to Iago being a ManipulativeBastard than Othello being a Horrible Judge Of Character. It still doesn't excuse some of Othello's idiocy, such as saying he refuses to believe Iago's words about Desdemona's infidelity and then, two seconds later, believing what Iago says. Othello also refuses to believe people who ''are'' honest with him, such as Desdemona and Emelia.
94** This was also ''Theatre/KingLear'''s problem when he was unable to distinguish between the genuine love his daughter Cordelia had for him and the shallow flattery offered by her wicked sisters. He also failed to see that giving away all his land and power to his daughters was incompatible with wanting them to treat him as though he still had it.
95** Also in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' everyone but the titular character is too sycophantic and unintelligent to see that their new king Claudius is a usurper of the throne.
96* Katherine Howard from ''Theatre/{{Six}}''. Every time she's approached by an older man, she believes he cares about her and is totally in love with her, before realizing he's only using her for sex. It hits particularly hard with Thomas Culpeper; she believes he watches out for her in court because he's her friend, only to discover he's trying to sleep with her. To make matters worse, [[OffWithHisHead this leads to her being beheaded]].
97* In the National Theatre's 2014 production of ''Theatre/{{Treasure Island|2014}}'', Squire Trelawney does really badly with his choice of crew. He trusts Long John Silver immediately and fails to spot anything wrong with any of the obviously-evil characters Silver suggests as crew members. The ones he hires before he meets Silver are not evil but are all pretty useless (apart from Gray, who seems unlikely but turns out to have hidden qualities).
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Web Animation]]
101* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Nicholas Schnee, Weiss' grandfather, allowed his son-in-law Jacques to take over the Schnee Dust Company because of his business acumen. Sadly, he overlooked Jacques' serious lack of moral fiber; Jacques turned out to be a CorruptCorporateExecutive, and has turned against everything Nicholas stood for by, among other things, using shady business practices to maximize profit, driving rival companies out of business, exploiting his workers, and keeping the people of Mantle in poverty, all while hiding his unsavory dealings with [[SlaveToPR aggressive PR]].
102* Tony Purgatelli from ''Purgatony'' has a reputation for being the worst caseworker in Purgatory, where his job is to decide where a person should go after they die. Episode 7 reveals the whole office has a betting pool on where he'll send his next client since he's the only one whose decisions no one can predict.
103* The entirety of Ian "Creator/{{Worthikids}}" Worthington's ''[[https://youtu.be/_F9EMbkvLBQ Free Apple]]'' is about the frustratingly awful judgement of a TooDumbToLive King, who keeps accepting poisoned food from an ObviouslyEvil shopkeep in a cavern and stubbornly ignores the advice of his talking owl Krebulon.
104* ''WebAnimation/TheMostEpicStoryEverToldInAllOfHumanHistory'': {{Lampshaded}} in episode five, "The Most Epic Crime-Stopping Mission Ever". Nobody considers that [[BigBad Ridiculously Epic]] might be evil, despite his evil-looking mustache, RedEyesTakeWarning, and driving a car with [[CardCarryingVillain "Evil Mobile"]] written on it. The text even points directly to his face and says "totally not an evil moustache or eyes". For bonus points, ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'''s Terra, one of the most notorious examples of this trope out there, randomly shows up to say "Okay, I believe you!"
105[[/folder]]
106
107[[folder:Webcomics]]
108* Fighter from ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' insists that AxCrazy Black Mage is his "bestest [sic] friend" and will protect the SquishyWizard against attacks from others, despite the fact that Black Mage hates Fighter's guts, and has said so, and has repeatedly tried to kill Fighter (not that it works, because Fighter is [[MadeOfIron practically]] [[ContractualImmortality indestructible]]). Fighter, being the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} that he is, will insist that this is merely Black Mage being "[[VitriolicBestBuds such a kidder]]."
109* 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 up. Then subverts it at the end when it is revealed he deliberately gave Dr. Wily faulty power crystals, which caused Gamma to fail.
110* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' webcomic ''Webcomic/TheChosenFour'', Monotoli describes Pokey like "such a nice boy, but a bit troubled". Seriously. It is not a wonder Pokey was able to exploit him.
111* Gordon Frohman of ''Webcomic/{{Concerned}}'' is a BlackShirt who utterly supports The Combine who have enslaved his race and is utterly against LaResistance of the humans, Gordon Freeman as well as the Vortigaunts, the alien allies of the humans. [[spoiler:His hatred of Vortigaunts, and belief that they're trying to kill him, ends up making them choose to let him die rather than save his life]].
112* ''Webcomic/{{Flipside}}'': It's implied that the cheating scientist's wife is one of the worst judges of character in the series; when she learns that her husband is a cuckolding MadScientist, she goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge [[WomanScorned trying to kill him and his associates]]. As it turns out, she murdered an innocent woman who was an out-of-the-loop bodyguard, and her hired muscle is a sociopathic pariah who she has completely misjudged as a consummate professional. It's implied that all she did in her life was find people she thought she could trust (because they were violently sociopathic), gave them extreme amounts of power and funding from her personal coffers (which they use after their contracts expire to cause unfortunate collateral damage to bystanders), and in her last moments destroyed world-changing scientific research under the impression that it was worthless because her husband was apparently-to-her worthless.
113* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': A common trait of many AIs.
114** An early running gag is that Florence would interpret Sam Starfall's decisions and behavior based on her own very moral worldview, and assume that they were the actions of a respectable and morally upstanding citizen, words that do not describe Sam well. Even when he would take seemingly bad actions (such as abandoning her in a dangerous storm), she would assume that circumstances had forced him to do so against his will. Eventually, she comes to learn his true character, but chooses to stand by him because he does have a code of honor inherited from his homeworld, and will stand by it no matter how much money selling out would get him... [[BlueAndOrangeMorality especially if he can steal a smaller sum and anger a larger number of people]].
115** Clippy believes that Mr. Kornada is the most wonderful person in the universe and that anything he wants or needs must be for the good of humanity and the universe. Including [[spoiler:stealing enormous amounts of money by lobotomizing the original owners]]. This is because Kornada explicitly told him so, and is forbidding him to connect to the net where he might find evidence to the contrary. [[spoiler:Or receive overruling orders from his real owner.]]
116** Blunt believes that Mr. Kornada is a hero trying to free humanity from the threat of obsolescence at the hands of a robot race doing everything for them. The notion of Kornada being driven by greed hasn't appeared to occur to him[[note]]Though he eventually catches on about Kornada being incompetence personified[[/note]].
117* ''[[http://www.agameoffools.com A Game of Fools]]'':
118** Joey doesn't seem to realise that the aliens that have abducted him mean to kill and rape him, can't see anything weird about an [[http://www.agameoffools.com/comic_32.html insane naked man whose "backpack smelt like dead people"]] and thinks the AxCrazy hitchhiker they've picked up, who openly admits to multiple murders, bizarre sexual fetishes and [[http://www.agameoffools.com/comic_34.html necrophilia]], is a perfectly nice guy.
119** There's also the fact that he still considers [[ManipulativeBastard Sylvester]] one of his best friends despite the [[http://www.agameoffools.com/comic_48.html absolutely]] [[http://www.agameoffools.com/comic_95.html goddamn]] [[http://agameoffools.com/comic_144.html horrible]] things he manipulates him into doing.
120** Sylvester can be pretty bad himself, particularly when it comes to his friendship with Tomato (and the majority of his other friends too, if [[http://agameoffools.com/comic_75.html this]] is any indication). Although in his case he does at least seem partly aware of how horrible they are - he just doesn't really care.
121** Joey's [[http://agameoffools.com/comic_42.html rather poor]] [[http://agameoffools.com/comic_169.html choice of gym]] probably counts too.
122* Nick in ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'' is the one who most persistently defends [[BitchInSheepsClothing Trudy]], in spite of Ki and Fooker's justified suspicions about her. The Surreptitious Machinations arc involves the cast racing to help him realize that his "Project Velociraptor" is the keystone of her plans, and it ultimately results in him realizing her duplicity and refusing to help her. After that, [[CharacterDevelopment he realizes that he can't always trust people blindly]], leading to him seeing through Trish's story (ironically, as Ki decided to give her the benefit of the doubt like Nick used to) and noticing [[spoiler:that the Ki who lured him into the Mutex is not the one he knows]].
123** Mr. Jones of Goodman Rubber is one, as he, impressed with Fooker's skills, invites him to give a motivational talk (Fooker is every bit as good as Mr. Jones thinks and [[BrilliantButLazy perhaps better]], but he's also a BunnyEarsLawyer with a questionable sense of humor). He later laments how someone [[DevilInPlainSight as nice as]] [[ManipulativeBastard Trudy]] "fell in with that wrong crowd," and believes that [[SmugSnake Trent]] is far more competent than he actually is.
124* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Othar is unable to comprehend that Klaus isn't the villain. Even back in the day, Klaus wasn't the TokenEvilTeammate. That was [[BigBad Lucrezia]]. Klaus was the pragmatic, jaded teammate. Klaus may be a tyrant, but his rule is much freer and safer than the anarchy that came before it. In the present time, Othar also can't process that Gil is the TokenGoodTeammate of Agatha's team with Tarvek being the TokenEvilTeammate and Agatha being the pragmatic one. He has their roles backwards in his head.
125* In ''Webcomic/TheGuideToAHealthyRelationship'', Apollo feels sorry for Daniel because he has such a difficult life with a romantic partner who's mentally ill, and notes "he really wants to make their relationship work"... immediately after Daniel just cheated on his partner Julian ''with Apollo''. Which is [[ManipulativeBastard far from]] [[{{Gaslighting}} the pinnacle]] [[SoftSpokenSadist of all]] [[DomesticAbuse the shit]] he puts Julian through.
126* Hanna in ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName''. Sure, you can make deals with vampires. [[SarcasmMode They're trustworthy and never go back on their word; even when you're trusting them with your life and everyone else's]].
127** Lee Falun. His best friend was a {{Jerkass}} whose son was always [[AbusiveParents covered in bruises]] and whose wife plainly resented him. Did Lee do the math? Nope. Said best friend also murdered him.
128* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', John decides to take advice on SequenceBreaking from a {{Troll}} while in the Medium, against the warnings of his closest friend. [[BadFuture It doesn't end well]].
129** In the alpha timeline where John ''does'' listen to his friend, he then starts taking advice from [[SerialKiller Vriska]]. That doesn't end well either, but it ended badly in a way that was actually ending well in disguise. On the other hand, trusting Karkat, WV, and the Consorts turn out to be pretty smart moves.
130* Kevin of ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' is considered this as a result of being a fearless rabbit, which is implied to have been what led him to marry his first wife [[JerkAss Angelique]]. By the time the strip begins, though, he's smarter about people's ulterior motives.
131* Otacon comes up again in ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'', where Liquid is able to convince him to install a nuclear launch program on Metal Gear by telling him that he wants to shoot down meteors like in ''Film/Armageddon1998'' (however, there's evidence that Otacon's in denial about Metal Gear's true purpose at this point, and Liquid did threaten to feed him to a largely-unfriendly-to-him-wolf).
132* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
133** Poor deluded Tsukiko. Do you honestly think that just because you think the living are jerks, the undead CardCarryingVillain Xykon is going to be any better? Even the Monster In The Darkness has worked this one out. [[spoiler:This ultimately proves to be her downfall when her beloved Wights turn against her when Redcloak uses Command Undead on them, with her last words asking why they won't love her as she loves them]].
134** For that matter, the Monster in the Darkness himself is convinced that Xykon and Redcloak are his friends because they give him food and toys to shut him up. Somewhat more justified in his case, though, as he has a rather childlike personality. And after finding a ''real'' friend in O-Chul, he starts to grow out of it.
135** Ian Starshine has so far concluded that ChaoticGood Elan is evil to the core because of his father, but ChaoticEvil Belkar has some good in him. While his assessment of Elan is completely off the mark, his assessment of Belkar is a bit more reasonable, as Belkar had recently learned the value of actively deceiving others that he was good, or at least willing to play along with society's rules. However, this is exactly the kind of deception a master thief should be aware of, so it still counts. May also be [[spoiler:foreshadowing as Belkar's development seems to be turning genuine]].
136** Elan himself displays this behavior towards [[spoiler:his father, General Tarquin]] when they first meet, being so desperate to see him as [[spoiler:the father figure he's always wanted]] that he overlooks the fact that he's a scheming LawfulEvil general and one of the key players in an oppressive dictatorial empire. Elan needs [[spoiler:literal giant flaming letters made of Tarquin's slaves]] to understand who he really is.
137** Celia has a tendency to trust people who really don't deserve to be trusted, such as in "[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0574.html A Seller's Market]]," when she puts her faith in a thug despite knowing that he murdered his own brother, (wrongfully assuming that he's wracked by guilt over the incident), and in "[[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0648.html A Dish Best Served with +1D6 Cold Damage]]," when she's lied to by Haley and accepts the lie without question.
138** Zig-zagged when [[spoiler:Durkon]] is turned into a vampire: Belkar is ProperlyParanoid about [[spoiler:Vampire Durkon]] being ObviouslyEvil and deceiving everyone for his own purposes, while the rest of the party falls for [[spoiler:vampire Durkon]] acting friendly and assuring them that he's merely DarkIsNotEvil now. Roy in particular is largely driven by denial, so he doesn't have to deal with the guilt of being unable to stop a longtime friend from being vampirized. It takes an ''extremely'' blatant OutOfCharacterAlert for Roy to realize what's going on, and he berates himself for being so stupid about the ObviouslyEvil guy.
139** Girard Draketooth is an odd case of this - instead of trusting an obviously untrustworthy character, he refused to trust that Soon Kim, an epic-level paladin who oozed LawfulGood from every pore, could keep to his oath and avoid meddling with the rest of the team's affairs. In point of fact, [[{{Irony}} Soon was the only one of the team who]] ''[[{{Irony}} did]]'' [[{{Irony}} keep to his oath]].
140* Koark's father in ''Webcomic/OrderOfTales'', when hearing that Gerráh has been murdering their fellow Tellers, ''invites Gerráh to his house'' so he can talk to him. He ends up murdered along with his wife, his house burned and his son WalkingTheEarth.
141* ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'': Ryan Beckwith is way too trusting for his own good when it comes to Ralph, Tackleford's local occultist. Even though Ralph's advice has come back to bite him in the ass time after time, he still defends him and goes back to get his spiritual advice. This may have changed now that Ralph has [[spoiler:been exposed as [[LouisCypher the devil]]]].
142* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'':
143** Kiki acknowledges Bun-Bun as being a little mean and grumpy but thinks all he needs to get over that is more hugs.
144** Riff is certain Sam the vampire and Aylee the alien are threats to humanity, even after years of contradicting evidence. But he'd never suspect his girlfriends of sinister agendas, not 'too cool to be true' Sasha or 'Psycho Girlfriend From Hell' Monica. And he knows for sure that his father is not "a bad guy."
145* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': In his desperation Flann chose to trust and follow Prakhuta to try and save his people, even though Prakhuta was intentionally marked as a pariah by Inak elders to ensure he'd be ObviouslyEvil at a glance ''and'' was open about being dedicated to a god the Inak straight up call The Betrayer.
146* The entire faculty of Bumblebane's in ''Webcomic/WizardSchool'', with the exception of [[ObviouslyEvil Prof. Evilmore]]. It doesn't help that GoodIsDumb is in high 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.
147* Silly Seal in ''Webcomic/ZiggyPigAndSillySeal2022''. Even after he's been repeatedly abused and insulted, gets caught up in Ziggy's schemes, and is sent to prison and beaten up on a daily basis, he ''still'' considers Ziggy his best friend.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:Web Original]]
151* In a [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''' tendency to have its characters trust people they obviously shouldn't, ''WebVideo/KingdomHeartsInANutshell'' has a RunningGag of characters stating an obvious lie (or simply just stating something the other characters have no reason to believe), and the other characters always responding with "okay i believe you.", almost always followed by them being betrayed by said obvious liar.
152%%* Lizzie from ''WebVideo/TheLizzieBennetDiaries'' is hinted to be this, and a case of AccentuateTheNegative.
153* ''Literature/TalesOfMU'':
154** Amaranth. FriendToAllLivingThings taken to the logical extreme or just an idiot? You decide.
155** Mack, who has yet to learn that an awesome rack does ''not'' a good person make.
156* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'':
157** Donut mistakes Blue Base for a convenience store; and still somehow manages to get the Blue flag when Caboose mistakes him for a general. Later on, Donut mistakes the Meta (An insane soldier who speaks exclusively in growls) as friends with Simmons (when in reality, the Meta is trying to kill Donut and Simmons), even mistaking the Meta's grenade [=launcher/bayonet=] combo as being a broom.
158** During the 12th season, Tucker, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose are given their own squads, and [[CloudCuckoolander Caboose]] chooses one Ander-Smith as his lieutenant. During his formal introduction, Ander-Smith expresses his belief that Caboose is one of the wisest men on the planet, and misinterprets his ramblings as deep and meaningful predictions for the future.
159* ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'' plays with Dumbledore's trust of Snape in this way. In one scene, he accepts a sandwich that has a pipe bomb poorly concealed in it, then gets annoyed when Hermione destroys it.
160--> I'm going to go make myself another sandwich, although I don't know how it can be as good as the last one. That one ''ticked''!
161** It also takes Cornelius Fudge's refusal to believe Voldemort was back in the original series to the logical extreme. He denies it even as [[spoiler:Voldemort walks into his office and ''kills him'']]
162* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic is perfectly adept at pointing out ObviouslyEvil in movies but fails in his own life. Not getting that WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick wanted his power in ''WebVideo/{{Kickassia}}'' is a good example.
163* ''WebVideo/TheLegendOfZeldaTheAbridgedSeries'': Played for laughs with the King of Hyrule in Xana's Ocarina of Time Abridged Series, who is so utterly trusting of Ganondorf that he willingly ignores Ganondorf's EvilGloating. He's convinced by Zelda to stop trusting Ganondorf only to ''instantly reverse his opinion when he loses his train of thought''. Also, this trope applies to anyone stupid enough to trust Link. Especially Navi.
164[[/folder]]

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