Guile Heroes in Literature.
- The scale of his manipulation is not as grand as some others listed here, but Aloysius Pendergast from the Preston/Child novels never hesitates to blackmail anyone into doing his bidding. For the greater good, of course.
- In the Age of Fire series, all three of the sibling protagonists qualify as this, especially RuGaard, who uses his wits to make up for the number of crippling injuries he's gained over his life.
- Alex Verus from the series of the same name generally counts. He uses his divination magic for precognition and quick thinking to stay alive in a setting full of magical beings and other mages with much more directly dangerous magically abilities.
- Amaranthine Saga: Argent, true to his fox nature, relies on misdirection and deception rather than brute strength to defeat his enemies
- The main character Anargrin of The Angaran Chronicles is this. The best example of him doing this is in the short story An Ulterior Motive
where he uses an infected with lycanthropy Emilia to lead a pack of werewolves to attack a Church of Jaroai convoy which is travelling to destroy a village they've deemed heretical. Both the werewolves and priests and the soldiers accompanying them, almost wipe each other out before Anargrin steps in and finishes off the three remaining werewolves himself. Effectively stopping the attack on the village and making sure the werewolves are gone for good. - Animorphs has a few:
- Marco fills this role. Later, we see it runs in the family.
- Cassie as well. Many, many times throughout the series, she uses her innate understanding of people for the good of the team, if not necessarily for the good of herself, or the person. The main victim of her manipulations was Visser Three (mainly because the Visser was an evil ego-driven son of a bitch). She also (reluctantly) used her understanding of people to trap a traitor of the group in the body of a rat. Beware the Nice Ones, indeed.
- Once he takes off the kid gloves at the end of the series, Jake outdoes them all, ending the war for good (albeit while going into What the Hell, Hero? territory).
- Scheherazade from Arabian Nights. To save her own life and stop the Sultan from killing more concubines, she worms her way into his heart with her beauty, her smarts, and her breath-taking stories.
- Most heroes of the Arabian Nights are a combination of Guile Hero and Action Hero. (Some even include Science Hero, considering how technologically advanced medieval Arabia actually was.)
- Brilliant young Artemis Fowl has more faith in his prodigious mind than his scrawny stature.
- The Art of War basically spends thirteen chapters explaining how to be this and how important it is for generals and tacticians to do so. Its central ethos can be summed up in one quote: "the Way of War is a Way of Deception". Flank attacks, proxy conflicts, fake peace talks to buy time, striking unexpected targets, feints, false indicators of ambushes, double agents, bribed enemy officials — to Sun Tzu, these were as important to a general as a hammer and saw to a carpenter.
- Sage/ King Jaron in Jennifer A. Nielsen's the Ascendance Series.
- Isaac Asimov:
- "The Foundation of S.F. Success": (Conversational Troping) This poem advises that the main character (male, of course) be thinking about politics and dirty tricks, as well as scheming with psychohistory.
- Foundation Series:
- "The Encyclopedists": The internal narration from Mayor Hardin tells the audience that he didn't technically own the Terminus City Journal, he had oblique control over sixty percent of the public shares invested in the newspaper, granting him indirect ability to manipulate public opinion without any obvious/blatant mechanisms. It was, in fact, part of how he gained the title Mayor.
- "The Mayors": Knowing that Terminus couldn't defeat any of the local galactic kingdoms in military combat, Mayor Hardin has been arranging a thirty-year scheme. He began this scheme by having each of the Four Kingdoms pledge to protect Terminus from the other three. He then offered the scientific and technological expertise of the planet freely, in the guise of a religious faith. He kept each of the Four Kingdoms militarily balanced against each other for thirty years, but when an ancient Imperial Battlecruiser, whose mass outweighed any Navy in the Four Kingdoms, he freely gifted it to Anacreon because by now, their religion effectively controls their population. After Prince Regent Wienis tries to kill him, he gives a Kirk Summation, causing the regent to commit suicide. Back on Terminus, Seldon's Vault opens to reveal all the events have gone exactly as Seldon predicted, causing Hardin's enemies to end their impeachment efforts.
- "The Traders": Limmar Ponyets is a trader for the Foundation, so he has to have a good eye for potential customers and salesmanship to persuade them to buy his stuff. In this story, he has to use these traits to Blackmail a government official and rescue a Foundation spy from a foreign government. Decades later, Askone has been effectively absorbed into the Foundation, their head of state is as bound by the Religion of Science as the Four Kingdoms are.
- "The General (Foundation)": Lathan Devers allows himself to be captured by General Riose in order to spy on events from the Empire's side. There are a couple of instances where he makes use of blasters and shields, but he spends most of his time trying to convince people to see things the way he wants them to. He convinces General Riose that he's a mercenary merchant without patriotism, he convinces Privy Secretary Brodrig that Riose is chasing the secrets of cheap transmutation, and he bribes the guards into giving him extra information.
- "Search by the Foundation": Arkady demonstrates, from the very first chapter, an astute ability to deduce from behaviour and to manipulate adults through dramatics and lies. She obtains the voice-to-text printer by wheedling her father, she bluffs Anthor twice in a row and convinces both of them not to be skulking around obviously trying to hide a secret. Her only flaw in manipulating is the way she wants to use storytelling rules and expectations.
- "Mother Earth": Luiz Moreno represents the Pacific Project for the audience, acting as Earth's Ambassador to Aurora at first until they dismiss him because Earth illegally arrested Ernest Keilin. He's promoted to Secretary without Portfolio and goes on air with Mr Keilin to answer questions and announce that Earth's government has recently captured five smugglers from the Outer Worlds. He ends the story as Earth's President pro tem, explaining to Mr Keilin his machinations up until this point, and to announce that Mr Keilin will be elected President of the next version of Earth's government.
- Mina Davis of Asshole Yakuza Boyfriend and Hungover and Handcuffed is one of these, relying mostly on her ability to out-think or out-talk much more physically dangerous enemies. She's yet to win a fair fight in two books.
- The title characters of the Aubrey-Maturin series have absolutely no problems lying as much as they can without breaking the law and provoking internation incidents. Aubrey himself will lie like a rug in his personal life, and Maturin is a full-time spy.
- The RCN series is based on A-M, and since the heroes are often out at the tip of the spear, so to speak, they will lie like crazy in order to complete their mission. It helps that they face a lot of idiots.
- Banished from the Hero's Party: When he was in the Hero's Party, Gideon was The Social Expert and The Smart Guy of the party, who usually leave the combat planning and communications with local citizens and nobility to him. His people smarts and amicable personality also made it easier for him to gain allies and gather information. One of the many reasons the party runs into problems upon Gideon being expelled is the person who took over his duties, Ares, is an arrogant snob and Horrible Judge of Character who can't do the same tasks half as well as Gideon could.
- Silk, a.k.a. Prince Kheldar a.k.a. The Guide a.k.a. The Rat a.k.a. Radek of Boktor a.k.a. Ambar of Kotu from the Belgariad and Malloreon. There isn't a chapter he's in where he doesn't make some witty comment, scam the crap out of someone, pull off some incredible stunt, or show a depth of character, knowledge, or experience that's downright amazing.
- Brenish in Below is a Consummate Liar first and foremost. He's also spent so much of his life learning tales of the underground ruins that his approach to fighting is highly strategic. His antagonist (and boss) Gareth distrusts him to the point of grabbing a hostage to keep him in line, and even makes sure the two men stand watch together because he doesn't trust Brenish not to compromise the loyalty of one of his henchmen in two hours.
- In A Brother's Price Jerin is one of those whenever heroism is necessary. In the first chapter, he gets his sister to feed the baby by claiming that his younger brother (who she says should do it) is occupied with making butter, a task she dislikes even more. He later uses his intellect against the villains, too.
- Bruce Coville's Book of... Ghosts II: The title character in The Tenant Who Frightened a Ghost is a human woman who's moving into her first apartment, only to discover that it's haunted by a gentleman. Rather than panic or flee, she instead claims that she is a ghost, too — and an absolutely horrible one, who shrieks and groans and causes all manner of horrible apparitions. The current ghost, terrified at the thought of sharing the space with such a wicked spirit, falls for her lies and promptly leaves, letting the woman happily settle in.
- A Certain Magical Index: Kamijou Touma and Hamazura Shiage, with their limited arsenal and lack of raw firepower, often use their wits, resourcefulness, cunning, knack for improvisation, and Lady Luck's fickle assistance to battle against more powerful enemies.
- City of Bones by Martha Wells: Khat is quite good in a fight but is physically average; most of his success comes from being an unhesitating Combat Pragmatist who stacks the encounter as much in his favour as possible. Contrary to everyone's expectations, he excels in complex logic and interpersonal pursuits more than physical ones.
- Codex Alera
- Tavi is this out of necessity. This, coupled with a hefty dose of Badass Normal, is really the only way to survive as the one Muggle in a world where everyone has Elemental Powers.
- Ehren, too. He barely has any crafting powers, but still becomes a skilled liar and spy for the Crown. He also is guilty of something few can claim to have done. He tricks High Lord Aquitaine, an Archmage-tier power and political enemy of Tavi's, to go into battle so he would be killed and there is no evidence pointing to him at all. Lampshaded by Max, who calls the two of them "sneaky little gits."
- Nasaug, an 8ft tall wolfman, and leader of the warrior caste of Cane who are invading Alera shows a lot of this. In his first time against Tavi, where Tavi must lead some few thousand inexperienced soldiers against Nasaug's 60,000 strong, the two try and play each other for victory. In the end, Nasaug wins because while Tavi successfully held the line and forced the Cane to retreat, Tavi's efforts slaughtered the leader of the Ritualists and many of his fellows, who were leading the invasion before. With the civilian Cane no longer supporting the Ritualists, Nasaug, a far more competent and dangerous enemy, is now in charge.
- Coraline Jones is a classic example. After she figures out that the Other Mother kidnapped her real parents, she spectacularly trounces the Other Mother through her wits.
- Hoemei maran-Kaiel in Courtship Rite. In a clan where status derives from making accurate predictions, and clan members are encouraged to manipulate events to make their predictions come true, Hoemei is the second-best predictor/manipulator.
- Deeplight: Being on the puny side, Hark relies on wits, manipulation, and running away in the right direction. He is introduced scamming a wealthy visitor, then talks his way out of being sold as to a Slave Galley and into Dr. Vyne's employ. His skill at reading people and understanding what they want to hear also proves useful when caring for the elderly priests on Sanctuary. The more experienced staff quickly start turning to Hark for help.
- Dirk Pitt from the Dirk Pitt Adventures.
- Most heroic characters in Discworld qualify. Boxed Crook Con Man Moist von Lipwig is a great example.
- Granny Weatherwax has her Headology, which amounts to decades of witching having taught her how to be very, very good at reading people and manipulating them into what she needs them to do. This can involve Reverse Psychology, Lies to Children (one scene has her prescribing "sucrose and aqua" as a backache cure and then "accidentally" tripping and cracking her patient's spine back into the right spot as she grabs him for support), and being willing to bluff without any metaphorical cards in her hand.
- Vimes has a certain amount of this. He knows how to be a good copper and how to play people and situations to come out on top. He lampshades it by referring to himself as a bastard, a suspicious bastard, or a really suspicious bastard. Night Watch Discworld may be his crowning glory in this field. Knocked back into the past, stripped of all authority, and instantly arrested, Vimes quickly becomes sergeant-at-arms over his old watchouse and by employing some deft psychology to defuse the neighborhood's suspicion of the Watch, becomes the most effective and accidental leader of the revolution.
- Vetinari is the morally-grey version. It says a lot about him that he is listed both here and on the Magnificent Bastard page. Famously, he will wind Vimes up until Vimes "unwinds all at once", running half the conspiracies to depose him, and putting any bothersome civic officials onto committees while he gets on with running the city. He also turned Ankh-Morpork from a Hive Of Scum And Villainy into... still that, but an incredibly efficient one that is the dominant power in the region, all while appearing not to do anything much.
- Lampshade Hanging (bordering on Deconstruction) in the introduction of the Disc's version of Odysseus, which says:
It's funny how people have always respected the kind of commander who comes up with strategies like "
I want fifty thousand of you chappies to rush at the enemy," whereas the more thoughtful commanders who say things like "Why don't we build a
damn great wooden horse and then nip in at the back gate while they're all around the thing waiting for us to come out" are considered only one step above common oiks and not the kind of person you'd lend money to. This is because most of the first type of commander are
brave men, whereas
cowards make far better strategists.
- Which is why Rincewind belongs on this list. He doesn't want to be a hero at all and would rather stay where it's safe. However, because he's usually not allowed to, and he's terrible at magic, and he's found that a half-brick in a sock only really works as a last-ditch solution, whenever running away doesn't work he starts using deception to survive instead. In Interesting Times he wreaks havoc on the morale of the Agatean lords' army by spreading a rumour about invisible vampire ghosts, mostly by getting people to tell the soldiers it wasn't true or beg the soldiers to tell them it wasn't true and letting the steady process of anxiety and compounding misinformation build until even the braver soldiers were visiting the lavatory multiple times per hour.
Rincewind had always relied on running away. But sometimes, perhaps, you had to stand and fight, if only because there was nowhere left to run.
But he was no good at all with weapons.
At least, the normal sort.
- Hex develops into this over the course of the three The Science of Discworld novels, building upon his invention of Lies-To-People.
- Moist von Lipwig starts with "Guile" down pat, and eventually adds the "Hero" through Character Development. While he demonstrates some ability to fight in Raising Steam, he does the most good in the first two books with cunning; his battle with Reacher Gilt features neither of them drawing a weapon, Moist isn't even in the room when it's won, and the whole thing is built on Moist's familiarity with swindling and con tricks.
I'll kill you, Mr. Gilt. I'll kill you in our own special way, the way of the weasel and cheat and liar. I'll take away everything but your life. I'll take away your money, your reputation, and your friends. I'll spin words around you until you're cocooned in them. I'll leave you with nothing, not even hope...
- The Divine Comedy: Virgil gets through the Inferno in one piece by flattering most menaces he comes across, while subtly threatening them with God's wrath. This helps him get the help of undead ferrymen, centaurs, flying scorpions, and giants on the journey, but straight up demons are too evil to keep a deal and the holy people Virgil meets in Purgatory are too good to be swayed by a silver tongue.
- Pulp heroine The Domino Lady was just as likely to use her allure and quick wit as her pistol and knockout serum to defeat the bad guys.
- Dragaera series:
- In The Phoenix Guards, Pel gets his True Companions and himself out of prison by tricking a guard into propositioning his (Pel's) lover, who then almost kills the guard in a duel. Then she asks the poor guy who put him up to it, he tells her, and she pulls some strings to get Pel and the others out.
- Vlad Taltos also invokes this trope a lot; he has to be smart and sneaky to last as long as he has, first in an extremely dangerous profession and later on the run from the entire Jhereg.
- Although Harry Dresden from the The Dresden Files is best known as a magical brawler with a tendency to burn down buildings, it's only because very few realize that he achieves his most impressive victories with wits alone (and he is not eager to enlighten them). For instance, in Blood Rites, he manipulates Lara Raith into doing what he wanted, and political intrigue is her lifestyle.
- This is the result of Character Development over the series. In the first few books, he was just an Occult Detective, and much more inclined to fight than outmaneuver his opponents. It wasn't until his failure to plan (and deal with his feelings better) led to His Greatest Failure in Grave Peril that he started thinking and asking questions first.
- This is also the result of how magic, and especially the magic of wizards, works. Harry's only real strong inherent talents are his magical tracking ability and a particular gift with fire and wind (though mainly fire). It's so strong that in the earlier books, he has tools he uses specifically to avoid burning down everything when he does it. By his own account, he's a magical thug with the subtlety of a sledgehammer — though he develops his skills considerably over the series. However, a lot of Wizardry is about using some external power source or applying leverage carefully, or of storing a spell or power in advance in a potion or device. The best wizards aren't the strongest, because they are still human levels of squishy and most monsters are very much not, but the ones most quick-witted and capable of taking advantage of a situation, such as in Dead Beat where the villains had summoned a giant typhoon of necromantic energy well-suited to raising the dead, and it occurred to him that older bodies were more powerful if you had the energy just lying around, only necromancy on humans was illegal, and the local museum had a dinosaur exhibit...
- Mahlia of The Drowned Cities is a little bit better educated and a whole lot smarter than most of the people around her, including the soldier boys who more or less destroyed her home. Through a combination of wits, planning, and talking very fast she manages to screw over the United Patriotic Front a time or two, earning herself the hatred of Lieutenant Sayle and the respect of Sergeant Ocho. Not bad for a one-handed girl.
- Dragon Bones has Ward, who survived to adulthood by pretending to have severe brain damage after his father nearly killed him in a particularly violent beating. He can use a sword, too, and does so frequently, but he's also a good actor and uses this talent whenever he faces a situation where brute force is not enough. Among other things, he is good at pretending to be obsessed with reclaiming castle Hurog, to the point of being happy to work together with the people who tortured his brother if they can give him his birthright back. He actually does want the castle very much, it's his home and the magic there calls for him, but he wouldn't kill his relatives over it.
- The Dollars from Durarara!! as a collective whole are a decentralized version of this. This partially stems from their decentralized nature (they have no concrete organization, mostly rely on cellphones and the Internet for communications, and the only form of 'hierarchy' is that the founder is The Leader but he's usually a hand-offs kind of guy) and it's partially because the vast majority of members are rank and file civilians of all ages, so many have to help using whatever means they have at hand, even if it's not in a direct fighting capacity, which Episode 22 of the anime shows in great detail.
- In Firebird, we're told that Ilya is a more than competent warrior; he gets beaten only because his brothers gang up on him and they gang up on him because they can't take him one on one. However, apart from his brothers, he never encounters an enemy he can beat in a fight. The boar, the rusalka, the winter, the demons, the dragon, and the Katschei all have to be beaten with his wits, or just fled from.
- In Forging Divinity, Jonan uses his cunning and charisma to manipulate both his enemies and his allies to his own ends. Lydia fits this to some extent as well, although she's more like the Great Detective to Jonan being The Chessmaster Con Man.
- Locke Lamora of Gentleman Bastard is a Guile Antihero, solving — or at least attempting to solve — his problems with cunning and charisma instead of brute force. Anticipating people's actions is how he survives, and even when he gets it wrong, he has a knack for improvising a plan to get out of trouble. Even when he's being relatively honest towards the end of The Lies of Locke Lamora, he still uses deception and manipulation to get at least some of what he wants; he manipulates the city authorities into sinking the Big Bad's loot as a death-offering to his murdered friends, and manages to kill said Big Bad by tricking him into thinking that Locke had backup.
- Ghost In the Noonday Sun: Jack o' Lantern, the Token Good Teammate of the pirates, is pretty clever and sneaky. When Scratch has him marooned, he bribes three other pirates into marooning a scarecrow in his place and hiding him aboard the ship. He uses various methods of trickery to fake ghost sightings, and he tricks Scratch into thinking that he's died and turned into a ghost.
- Alaric from the Warhammer 40,000 Grey Knights novels was already a Genius Bruiser, but he becomes one of this with his plan to take down the Chaos lords of Drakaasi, even if he does not think such a plan to be right.
- The Hands of the Emperor: Cliopher is one of those - as an experienced bureaucrat in the imperial service he is an expert negotiator who uses his wits, experience, in-detail-knowledge of the world and state apparatus to bring on chance. Other than many other examples, he does not browbeat and rarely swindles people - instead he uses his doggedness, patience and the fact that he has a longterm plan when others only see the next moment.
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore is a kindly-looking and a little kooky Eccentric Mentor. He's also a master manipulator and extremely powerful wizard who nevertheless devotes himself to battling Voldemort and regrets lots of his unavoidable yet harsh decisions. His friend Severus Snape, who simultaneously stays loyal to Dumbledore and appear to be Voldemort's most loyal servant.
- Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya eventually becomes this. He achieves some truly impressive feats on this front as well, such as blackmailing the Data Integration Thought Entity to keep it from taking Yuki away by threatening that he can convince Haruhi to use her Reality Warper powers to do all kinds of horrible things with only a single phrase.
- Tocohl Susumo, the protagonist of Hellspark, has been extensively trained in cultural understanding and adaptation, so as to be able to speak to people with not only the right words but also the right gestures, customs, etc. to put them at ease. On top of this, she adds her own ingenuity to become a great diplomat, tricking people into doing the right thing. It's a common trait for Hellspark traders; a Hellspark of past centuries, Veschke, is worshiped in parts of the galaxy as the patron saint of thieves, conmen, traders, and other people who make their living from a fast brain and a fast mouth.
- Lyra from His Dark Materials. She is so good at this she earns the title "Lyra Silvertongue".
- Honor Harrington, the Recycled In Space counterpart to Hornblower, is very straightforward. She can be deceptive militarily but isn't a very good liar otherwise.
- On the other hand, Victor Cachat, agent of Haven, is a godlike figure when it comes to these sorts of tactics. Although very capable of personal violence when necessary, most of the things he's pulled off have relied on cunning manipulation of his opponents, his piece de résistance in the short story "The Fanatic" being the delivery of an entire sector of the People's Republic of Haven to the reformed Republic of Haven intact, without widespread violence except for losses to the State Security forces who didn't realize he was manipulating them at the hands of the regular Navy forces, who also hadn't realized he was manipulating them.
- Horatio Hornblower is a highly intelligent man and relies on his wits far more often than the raw strength of his ship to win the day. Of particular note is Lieutenant Hornblower. Even though he's the fifth lieutenant out of five, Hornblower adroitly maneuvers his seniors when the tyrannical captain is debilitated by a fall and adopts a course of action to avert legal suspicion, then persuades the dithering first lieutenant to mount a daring expedition to destroy a Spanish privateer nest, and then successfully implements a plan to gain their unconditional surrender and triumphant return to British authorities (marred only by a prisoner uprising… which he also manages to quell, although that by force).
- Two of the main characters from How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom fall neatly into this trope:
- King Souma is a Non-Action Guy, but he has a strong grasp on history and politics, which combined with his cunning Prime Minister lets him manipulate just about anyone, constantly winning in situations where he should be at a clear disadvantage.
- Princess Roroa proves herself as even more capable at this than Souma, managing to completely outmaneuver both him and her own brother after the war between their two countries was seemingly over: she exploited the Amidonians' dissatisfaction with the restoration of Prince Julius and organized a revolt that asked for Elfrieden to annex the whole country, then betrothed herself to Souma to further legitimize it.
- Peeta Mellark from The Hunger Games. He's the Non-Action Guy to Katniss's Action Girl, but knows how to manipulate the Capitol audience and knows the right lies to use (like when he claims that Katniss is pregnant). He also figures out the setup of the Quarter Quell, interpreting Wiress's Cloudcuckoolander message in Catching Fire
- In The Invisible Library, Irene often uses such tactics. In the first chapter, she has just spent weeks establishing her Harmless Lady Disguise as a servant in a school, a task which included cleaning floors and eating porridge for breakfast every day. She hopes that her next assignment will enable her to live in a luxury hotel with her undercover identity.
- George Smiley, in the novels of John le Carré. He's one of the most respected spies in British intelligence, despite being (by all appearances) nothing more than a pudgy, bespectacled British office worker with an unfaithful wife. In his entire career, the guy hardly ever leaves his desk in London and undertakes almost no truly dangerous field missions. But despite all of that, he has the analytical mind necessary to piece together disparate clues to deduce Mother Russia's most intimate secrets from half a world away. His weapon is information, and he wields it like a broadsword.
- Journey to Chaos:
- As Eric's confidence grows so does his wiliness. He does not defeat older and more experienced mages by overpowering them but by outsmarting them. In this sense, he's not so different from Trickster God Tasio.
- Including deceit and slight of hand in combat is part of Tiza's training, such as exploiting someone's expectations to set up A Handful for an Eye.
- Kim by Rudyard Kipling had the eponymous Street Urchin taking to this so well, he later only needed to be taught cartography and a few things about security to make a Teen Superspy.
- Kindling Ashes: Giselle relies on out-smarting enemies to stay out of their reach because they are usually professional raiders or bred dragon-slayers.
- KonoSuba: This is why Kazuma is The Leader (aside from also being the Only Sane Man); he doesn't come close to the level of ability of his insanely over-powered but also overspecialized team mates, but he knows how to use what low-level abilites he does have in creative and unorthodox ways to get the most use out of them. Even more than that, he frequently comes up with clever gambits on the fly that make allow his allies to use their abilities to their maximum capacity. It also helps that he was Born Lucky.
- Leia, Princess of Alderaan has a young Princess Leia moving in this direction. She has some power, but not enough to just give orders and have her will be done, so she starts picking at loopholes and third options. Eager to help her parents with the Rebel Alliance, she realizes that in order to be of use she'll have to learn how to lie comfortably and fluidly. The climax of the book starts when Grand Moff Tarkin, pretending friendliness, name drops the location of the Rebel fleet to see if she'll flinch. Leia does not flinch and pretends innocence, and is able to get the fleet evacuated.
- Legacy of the Dragokin: Downplayed with Benji as he's too much of an Idiot Hero to make proper use of it but he shows potential:
- Zarracka is impressed by the deviousness of his plan to escape a city.
- He wins his fight with Kthonia by outsmarting her instead of overpowering her.
- Gavin Guile of The Lightbringer Series is worthy of his name (and then there's his other name... it's complicated), and his family are just as tricky (do not let his father even notice you exist). Bonus points for the name itself of course, but consider the level of Badass Boast in a family taking a name that warns their enemies "I'm going to trick you" and still pulling it off. For centuries.
- The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf to some degree. He's forbidden by the cosmic higher-ups from attempting to combat evil by simple force — they learned their lesson when their battle with the previous Big Bad broke half the world — and mostly limits himself to using diplomacy to cajole the forces of good into taking action. He does take a certain pleasure in being the smartest guy in the room, especially in The Hobbit, as when he tricks the notoriously misanthropic Beorn into playing host for thirteen dwarves and one hobbit.
- Chilean novelist Alberto Blest Gana was pretty fond of this type of hero, and his two most famous leads are these: Martin from Martin Rivas and Carlos Diaz aka el "Nato" from "El Loco Estero". Both young men are kind-hearted, honest, and suffering of Unrequited Love (for Leonor and Deidamia, respectively), and their deviousness and manipulation skills will help them go forth with their goals.
- The Magic Pudding: Bunyip Bluegum is the most calm, rational member of the trio, and tends to be the cleverest as well. Bunyip is the one who sorts things out when trapped in a Kangaroo Court; by claiming that Albert was poisoned, which sends the judge into such a panic (he and the Usher having been gorging on the pudding through the trial) that he goes wild and starts attacking everyone with a bottle of port. He then snatches the pudding and gets out of there with his friends.
- The Mental State has Zack State. He has a talent for turning criminal gangs against themselves and luring his enemies into traps. His status as a 'Hero' is questionable to say the least, but his schemes tend to have positive consequences for others (except his opponents).
- The Cosmere:
- Mistborn: The Original Trilogy: Kelsier straddles the line between this and Magnificent Bastard. He's unambiguously on the good guys' side, but often comes perilously close towards slipping into Well-Intentioned Extremist or even Knight Templar territory. He's also a brilliant revolutionary who takes down an Empire ruled by a Physical God... and he does it posthumously.
- The Stormlight Archive: Shallan slowly evolves into this over the course of the second and third books, learning how to use her Lightweaving powers, plus various social manipulations like fake accents and effectively lying to get things done through relatively subtle means. She still blushes when confronted, though.
- Warbreaker: Vasher is a subversion. He's trying to be a guile hero, but he's absolutely terrible at it. He has awful social skills, no political connections or subtlety, and just plain doesn't like people. In fact, he's so bad at it that everyone initially mistakes him for a villain. The truth is he's basically the magical equivalent of a Science Hero with a great grasp of Awakening and how to use it in a fight, but few other skills to speak of. Notably, he ultimately saves the day not with any clever manipulations, but by unleashing an unstoppable army that he helped create.
- Aahz, the powerless demon in Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures novels, is one of the all-time great guile heroes. His catchphrase is "Ah, therein lies the story…"
- Skeeve, his former apprentice and current partner, has learned a lot from Aahz, and at times is even better than him at this.
- In Nobody's Girl (and its anime adaptation, The Story of Perrine), the titular Perrine is a 13-year-old All-Loving Hero at first but must turn herself into this in the second part of the story. Under the fake name "Aurelie", she becomes the near-blind millionaire Vulfran Pandavoine's guide, interpreter and secretary... but she realises that her weary and sad Grumpy Old Man of a boss is surrounded by ambitious and greedy smug snakes (like his nephews/potential heirs Casimir and Theodore, each young man's scheming mothers, and the executive Talouel). From then one Perrine evolves into a pre-teen version of the trope to fend these selfish people off, protect Vulfran's interests, and avert becoming anyone's pawn in the upcoming Succession Crisis. And all the time, she must also hide her identity as none other than Vulfran's granddaughter and the rightful heiress, since letting such a huge secret leak would put her in even more danger.
- Poison: The title character uses strategy, trickery, and intellect to fight rather than brute force. This is also true for many other characters in the story, including villains.
- Nicolas van Rijn, from Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories, is large and fat — though strong and fast — and he takes great joy in outthinking and outwitting his enemies.
- Gen and Attolia from Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief books definitely. However, any descriptions as to why would require excessive use of spoiler tags.
- Lydia of Carol Berg's Rai Kirah series turns out to be rather good at this. Seyonne occasionally engages in it as well, though since he several times does it by making use of his position or appearance as a slave this also tends to be combined with drawing some amount of torture on himself.
- In the Rainbow Magic series, Trixie the Halloween Fairy and Addison the April Fool's Day Fairy are fond of pranks and tricking people.
- Mustang definitely qualifies as this trope in the Red Rising trilogy. Darrow, the series' protagonist, would qualify, but he's terrible at playing politics.
- Rachel and Kirsty are able to trick and manipulate the goblins, and sometimes Jack Frost. They often use this to succeed.
- Rebuild World:
- Sheryl is this as a Foil to the protagonist Akira, serving as a Supporting Leader leading their gang and generally being the brains to his brawn. Sheryl has a specialty in charming men to do her bidding in a Honey Trap, which terrifies Akira who has a Trauma Button about that, but her skills as a guile hero repeatedly impress him despite how badly he treats her at first.
- As a product of Reina’s Character Development, she turns into one of these, coming up with a Batman Gambit and generally being excellent at negotiations.
- Nova of Renegades has powers that require her to be really up close and personal to use, and when she's Insomnia, she can't use them at all, so she gets by with wit, some acting, and manipulating people around her (though she's still a Guile Hero in training, so she's not always successful).
- Most of the fun of Re:Zero comes from the fact that Subaru has nothing on his side but immortality and guile. In each of the arcs, his ability to resolve it instead of dying horribly comes from his ability to figure out how to recruit or manipulate the various antagonists into doing his job for him.
- In the Sandokan series, Yanez. While Sandokan is no idiot, it's Yanez who does most of the thinking and deals with outsmarting enemies.
- Dirk Provin from Jennifer Fallon's Second Sons trilogy. He's a brilliant political genius with nerves of steel and any more would give away the plot of the last two books.
- Secret Santa (2004): Erik's Secret Santa Marcy, who drives Erik crazy with taunting secret Santa gifts, causing Erik to retaliate against the person she's tricked him into thinking is responsible with an Excrement Statement. Marcy then arranges for the whole office to witness this so their boss can see Erik for the sleaze ball he is. She also makes her last gift to Erik an innocent one, so he'll look crazy when he opens the present to try and explain himself. It's also implied that Marcy's primary motivation wasn't to get revenge against Erik for being a Mean Boss but to keep him from getting Nice Guy Sandberg fired.
- Sherlock Holmes is probably the Trope Codifier regarding modern guile heroes, as a "consultant detective" who solves even the hardest to clear crimes using his sharp mind, his witty tongue, his Master of Disguise skills, his contacts within the police and Londoner society, etc. i.e., The Hound of the Baskervilles has him apparently disappearing to solve another case and sending his companion Watson to investigate in his place... but actually using him as a "decoy" of sorts while he quietly investigates, then shows up exactly when he's needed.
- Mike Stearns and Gretchen Richter in Eric Flint's 1632. The former of whom has stated outright that he's trying to be a better chessmaster than Otto von Bismarck.
- Lina Inverse from Slayers, who mixes this and Black Magician Girl. When she can't solve her problems by blowing them up, she uses cunning.
- Ruth from Someone Else's War. In the Five-Man Band, she's The Smart Guy rather than The Hero, but her smarts are usually what make up for Matteo's lack of foresight.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Tyrion Lannister, if you consider him a hero, though it certainly help that he's one of the least villainous members of his family. In the first novel, he walks into the Vale of Arryn in chains and facing a near-certain death sentence, and walks out at the head of an army of tribesmen, thanks to a quick wit, a silver tongue, and the promise of lots and lots of gold.
- Arya Stark has had to rely on her wits to survive just as often — if not more — than swords. While she doesn't make the best immediate decisions, in Book 2 she cleverly cornered a man who owed her a debt into helping her liberate Harrenhal from the Lannisters. While she's not as cunning as Tyrion, keep in mind that she's only twelve by now.
- Varys, again depending on how heroic you consider him. A distrusted foreign eunuch with no lands, incomes, titles, connections, or armies, he parlayed a quick wit and a talent for thievery and mummery as a youth into a peerless spy network and immense behind-the-scenes political power. As for his "heroic" credentials, well, he claims to serve the realm… and he might even be sincere.
- In the backstory, most of the Great Houses trace their lineage back to a great warrior ancestor, conqueror, or folk hero (or, in the somewhat odd case of the Starks, a talented architect). All except the Lannisters, whose semi-fabled progenitor is known as Lann the Clever. His claim to fame isn't fighting battles or leading armies, but swindling the Casterlys out of their castle with his wits.
- Lawrence, the main character of the anime Spice and Wolf is the economic type. When Holo is kidnapped and used as leverage in a covert deal, he uses economic wizardry and manipulation to arrange for her release. This pisses her off to no end since she'd hoped to see him rescue her personally, all Prince Charming style. Every once in a while, he gets himself into deep enough trouble that Holo has to bail him out, but he's still quite the savvy trader.
- All three main protagonists in Spinning Silver.
- Miryem takes over her father's collecting duties when her mother falls ill during a hard winter, forcing the townspeople to actually pay what's owed in either money, goods, or labor, which takes her family from poverty to comfort in the space of a few months. When this gets the attention of the Staryk King, she manages to keep her feet and adapt to the customs of their fey society to escape death and free herself.
- Wanda, a poor peasant girl under the thumb of an abusive father, becomes housekeeper for Miryem's family to Work Off the Debt. She quickly recognizes the chance for escape and squirrels away her extra earnings, making sure not to buy new clothes or food (which her father would notice) so that she can save enough for her and her two brothers to leave him.
- Irina, finally, is married to a literal demon bound to the human body of the tsar. She figures out how to survive the first few nights and then convinces him and his host to cooperate with her. Meanwhile, she plots to kill him and restore stability to the country through plain old political footwork. Together with Miryem, she hatches a plot to get rid of Chernabog and bring an end to the Staryk King's winter at the same time, saving the country from two dooms.
- Star Wars Expanded Universe
- Wedge Antilles is a consummate Guile Hero, and his cunning is probably his second-most important talent (directly behind his Improbable Piloting Skills). He is a master of everything from simple misdirections and lies to grand-scale feints. He can run rings around officers who are supposed to be his superiors. On Adumar, he hatches several plans to disorient the enemy: attacking at dawn to rouse the hard-living pilots from their bunks before they're ready, reprogramming his fleets' transponders to lie about their unit composition, ordering some of his low-ranking pilots' fighters to identify themselves as champions, and vice versa. On Borleias, he encourages one of his allies to claim to be a Yuuzhan Vong goddess and lays plans for a galaxy-wide La Résistance against his own government (a government that he browbeat into giving him the resources he needed for his plans). A choice quote from Starfighters of Adumar sums him up nicely:
Iella:
So this is the cockpit Wedge. The one the enemy has boxed in, when suddenly he breaks off in a whole new direction, changes all the rules. - Wakatake of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note. Kozuka lampshaded this trait in the first episode. Aya actually missed this trait at The School's Urban Legends Knows when he's on a 10-Minute Retirement — the rest of the boys wants to threaten a girl who sees him as Living Emotional Crutch to break off with him, to Aya's own disdain.
- Alianne of Pirate's Swoop, the protagonist of the Tortall Universe series Trickster's Duet. Alianne of Pirates Swoop. She's a spy, chosen by a Trickster God, and she can't let her allies know her true identity. She lives entirely off her wits.
- U.S.S. Cunningham Quintet: Amanda Garrett's forte is her tactician genius when it comes to naval battles. Even when severely disadvantaged, she manages to scrape victories by exploiting stuff like the Weapon Running Time of maritime projectiles, calculated trajectories, and bluffs.
- Present in military thriller Victoria. Between his maneuver warfare military trickster tactics and shady political manipulations, protagonist John Rumford soundly qualifies. His somewhat morally ambiguous mentor William Kraft takes it a step further into out-and-out Chessmaster territory.
- Vorkosigan Saga:
- Mowry from Wasp (1957): He is an Agent Provocateur first and foremost, and mostly makes use of his wits and his ability to manipulate people and act unsuspicious. He can fight hand-to-hand and use a gun, but he takes care to avoid ever needing to do that.
- El-ahrairah, star of the Watership Down Mythopoeia. He's like a cross between Bugs Bunny and Beowulf. Or even Odysseus: they are even linked in the book, where the human is accused of stealing tricks from the rabbit.
- The Wheel of Time:
- Thom Merrilin. He's handy with knives when he has to be, but what he really brings to the table is an intuitive knack for politics that lets him play the protagonists' opponents off against each other without anyone suspecting that he's responsible, and a gift for sifting through rumour and gossip to see larger patterns.
- Mat Cauthon, being something of a protégé to Thom. He learned the fine art of horse-trading at his father's knee, and when his natural quick wit is coupled with supernatural luck and a few thousand years' worth of battle tactics dumped into his head, watch out.
- Egwene al'Vere also becomes a Guile Hero, as the Amyrlin Seat. The Aes Sedai thought she'd become a puppet… hoo boy, did they turn out to be mistaken when Egwene owned them all, just like that.
