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Horrible Judge Of Character / Video Games

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Horrible Judges of Character in Video Games.

  • Absinthia: Freya believes Lilith will stick to routine in her raids as part of their agreement. She failed to realize that Lilith is too bored and whimsical to care about keeping her word, or that Lilith prioritizes her own amusement above their relationship. This leads to Lilith attacking Katti off-schedule, causing Ethel Kattis to die of a heart attack.
  • Conrad Marburg from Alpha Protocol is apparently so bad at judging character that his dossier feels justified in devoting a paragraph to it. His boss, Leland, also mentions it. In-game, it takes a very short time to learn how to manipulate Marburg, as he responds consistently positive to one attitude and consistently negative to the other two.
  • ANNO: Mutationem: Prior to the start of the story, Ryan received a Mysterious Note from someone called 'The Holy Grail' (later revealed via Story Breadcrumbs to be The Prophet), who tells him of a clue on where he can locate the cure-all medicine N540. Despite having initial doubts about this individual, after Ryan verified the clue was true, he immediately drops all suspicious and asks more information on where he needs to go in order to find the N540, which led to him getting captured by C, who perpetrated the scheme to have his main target Lured into a Trap.
  • In Baldur's Gate III, in the third act Da Chief Counselor Florrick turns on Lawful Good Folk Hero Wyll at the behest of Mizora if he chooses to not accept her Deal with the Devil to save his father, believing he's had a Face–Heel Turn. If the Player Character passes a History check, they can win her back on their side by pointing out how stupid she is for trusting a demonic minion of the archdevil who almost got her boss killed once before over a man she's known for years. Even before that, she like everyone else in the city believed Villain with Good Publicity Lord Gortash just wanted to help people with his killer robot army which lands her in a cell.
  • Bloodborne: Minor NPC the Suspicious Man is defined by this. He distrusts you merely because he's an outsider and will go to the opposite safehouse that you tell him of, and if he's reverse-psychologied into going to the Odeon Chapel, he'll occasionally offer you his advice about the other survivors. Absolutely everything he says is wrong; the Chapel Dweller he doesn't trust is truly altruistic, and Adella is jealous of Arianna, not the other way around.
  • In Borderlands 3, a pair of minor characters, Ma and Pa Honeywell, refer to the Children of the Vault (an Ax-Crazy Cult of cannibals and psychopaths worshipping a pair of insane "livescreamers" who commit torture and other atrocities live on air for their own amusement) as "rascals", and ask you to talk politely to them to get back some equipment they stole. Subverted once their defense grid is back up and running. The firepower they bring to bear on the Children of the Vault makes it clear that "talk politely" was always a Deadly Euphemism, and referring to them as "rascals" was more about the lack of threat they posed than an underestimation of their depravity.
  • Diablo III's first act is a history lesson on why King Leoric the Okay became Skeleton King the Genocidally Insane through this trope. On the basis of The Fundamentalist alone, Leoric trusted Archbishop Lazarus more than anyone, even his wife, his sons, and himself. Lazarus was completely enthralled to Diablo and was able to bring about the apocalypse because the king wouldn't even have a stray thought that Lazarus might have been behind every single terrible thing that happened to him and that his mass-murdering ways cheered on by an archbishop may not have been credible against the now-hateful entire kingdom. It didn't help things that Leoric was also dealing with an active attempt at possession by Diablo himself.
    • Played for Laughs with Leoric's intro trailer for Heroes of the Storm. He announces that he'll only choose allies that will never betray him, however his choice of allies shows that he hasn't gotten better at evaluating people: Kerrigan (who played the Terrans and Protoss like fiddles before proclaiming herself the Queen Bitch of the Universe and then backstabbing them), Zagara (a Bastard Understudy to Kerrigan who is very clear that she intends to take over the Zerg Swarm from her once she's learned enough, by betrayal if she must), Arthas (betrayed a group of mercenaries on his quest for vengeance, betrayed his own kingdom by murdering his own father King Terenas, then became the Lich King), and Illidan (whose title is literally The Betrayer). The latter two exchange a glance behind his back as if going "Is this guy serious?"
  • Doom³ Seemingly everyone working at UAC (with the exception of Elizabeth McNeil and Elliot Swan), as despite looking rather like Hannibal Lecter, having a name that's German for "Deceiver", and generally reeking of evil, most of the other people don't seem to suspect that Dr. Betruger might be a bad guy.
  • Dragon Age:
    • In Dragon Age: Origins, Bryce Cousland considers Rendon Howe to be his best friend. Nearly everybody else in Ferelden thinks Rendon's a terrible human being, and they're all right. Bryce's misplaced trust in Howe gets him and his entire family (except for the Human Noble Warden if that origin is chosen) killed.
    • Dragon Age: Inquisition:
      • The Grey Warden Commander Clarel de Chanson trusts Livius Erimond, a walking evil Tevinter mage stereotype, when he claims that completing a morally dodgy ritual will end the Blights. Surprise surprise, Erimond is working for the Big Bad and Clarel just killed dozens of her own men and tarnished the Grey Wardens' good name for basically nothing. And to make things worse, Erimond rubs it in that he never had to resort to mind control; he just took advantage of the false Calling (that Clarel never bothered to doubt was the real thing) to suggest that summoning armies of demons was a great idea and would totally not go wrong, and she believed him.
      • Downplayed with Grand Enchantress Fiona, who is similarly played for a fool by a Magister. But in Fiona's case, said Magister used Save Scumming (a form of magic supposed to be impossible) to carefully isolate her from all other allies and plant agents in her side to manipulate her, so it's possible and indeed likely that Fiona did reject his offer, repeatedly, but he just went back and tried again until he knew and could perfectly hit all of her buttons.
  • Seere in Drakengard (a small child) willfully invites himself into a party consisting of a child-killer, a child molester, and a child eater. He's got a stone golem to protect him, but still.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
    • Jarl Laila Law-Giver of Riften. She wants to clean up Riften's streets and trusts her good friend Maven Black-Briar, the crime queenpin of Riften who has both the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood in her pocket, to help her in this endeavor. Literally everybody in Riften except the Jarl knows about Maven's corruption, and she doesn't realize it herself until Maven steals her position right out from under her if the Imperials gain control of the city, and even then she thinks that Maven revealed herself to be a spineless moronic wimp who sold out to the empire and will lose control in about a year, which is the exact opposite of what Maven is practically boasting she actually is!
    • Delphine believes that the Greybeards would rather have the Dragonborn meditate with them up on High Hrothgar, instead of letting them save the world. While she may have a point about the Greybeards only using their powers to worship the gods rather than solve worldly affairs, she's completely wrong about them wanting to impede the Dragonborn's destiny; Arngeir will generally allow the Dragonborn to do as they please, and will actively help them in their quest, albeit reluctantly on certain occasions. And if the Dragonborn offers to follow the Greybeards' pacifistic, non-violent philosophy, Arngeir will gently rebuke them, pointing out that they have their power for a different reason than the Greybeards do.
  • EarthBound: Ness is the only person in Onett who will willingly hang out with Porky Mitch, who is described as "the worst person in the neighbourhood". When Porky begins to escalate From Nobody to Nightmare and repeatedly insults and fights Ness, Ness still considers Porky to be one of his good friends. Mother 3 reveals that in his own warped way, Porky did reciprocate Ness' friendship.
  • Fallout:
    • In Fallout 3, how did Sheriff Simms not see the evil in Mr. Burke, between his voice, voice suit, and just plain weirdness? Also, Three Dog's radio broadcasts portray Roy Phillips as a champion of ghouls fighting against Fantastic Racism, when Roy is really a thug who hates all humans and exploits feral ghouls like animals. Three Dog only sees Roy for what he really is if he's let in Tenpenny Tower and pointlessly slaughters all the residents.
    • Caesar from Fallout: New Vegas. Even if the Courier had good karma, was an NCR loyalist, and had killed hundreds of Caesar's mean, Caesar will still try to earn your assistance, invite you to his fort, and put some trust in your actions.
    • Robert House as well. Most of his subordinates are at best ignoring his orders and at worst trying to dethrone him, and he seems to think they’ll be loyal because he gave them money. He doesn’t seem to get that now that he gave them a taste of power, they want more.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Proving that Evil Overlords, too, can fall prey, Emperor Gestahl of Final Fantasy VI gets stabbed in the back by two out of three of his most trusted subordinates, with Celes doing a Heel–Face Turn and Kefka out-and-out murdering him before going into full-on Omnicidal Maniac mode. On the flip side, the third subordinate, General Leo, falls under this as well, as he actually trusts Emperor Gestahl despite his mad plans for world domination and the enslavement of the Espers used for magicite research as well as the mind-controlling of Terra...he still believes him right up until Gestahl decides he's outlived his purpose and has Kefka wipe him out. There's a lot of it to go around.
    • Lucrecia in Final Fantasy VII had a romantic relationship with Hojo, who could not be more of an evil depraved Mad Scientist if he tried. It's even worse that Dirge of Cerberus shows that he makes no effort to disguise what an awful person he is even right from the start. The reason she didn't choose Vincent was her lingering guilt over her part in his father's accidental death. Starting a relationship with Hojo was her way of punishing herself.
    • You, the Warrior of Light, is this in Final Fantasy XIV. During the 2.x MSQ storyline, the WoL recruits Laurentius, a Wood Wailer from Gridania who willingly sold out his men to the Garlean Empire for coin, to join Alphinaud's Crystal Braves. He's one of many who betray everyone at the end of said questline.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Xander from Fire Emblem Fates.
      • In the Revelation route, he's the very last of the Avatar's siblings to come around, as he's thoroughly convinced that Garon isn't evil. Also justified, as Garon was in all respects a model parent for Xander before the in-fighting and assassination occurred as a consequence of Garon's womanizing ways, and is fighting the war because he believes that Garon will return to who he was if they manage to conquer Hoshido, and is, like most Nohrians, Locked Out of the Loop in terms of Garon's passing and return as a corpse-familiar of Anankos. He will only go directly against "Garon" if he gets undeniable proof that the real Garon's gone: In the Conquest route, it happens in the second to last level, when he sees "Garon" as a slime monster, and on the Revelation route, he, alongside Leo, defects to the Avatar's side when they visit Corpse-Garon, who says to them that he wants to destroy not only Hoshido but also Nohr, something that would be unthinkable for Garon in his pre-corpse-familar life.
      • It's also partly reflected in regards to his retainers. Despite his faith and confidence in Laslow, he seemed initially unaware of the latter's womanizing ways (or at least if the way he reacted in their C Support is any indicator). And with Peri, he picked her purely because of her immense potential to excel in fighting and seems to ignore her bloodthirsty nature and casual murdering of her own servants (though as the Prince and her boss, he might have learned about her past and feel sympathy for her). Even with Charlotte, it was less that he could see through her act and more that he seemed to honestly believe her a complete flirt.
      • However, he easily can tell that the Obviously Evil Hans is someone not to trust, is unsurprised by Iago's acts of cruelty, could tell Kaze in their supports had gained a stronger conviction by looking at him and, like the other siblings, was rightfully put off by Zola disguised as Izana in Conquest - although it turned out the real Izana was just as flamboyant. Therefore, it could be argued that in the case of Garon, Xander is more blinded by family obligation and loyalty rather than being unable to tell his father is a monster.
    • Prince Pelleas from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn sees absolutely no problems with trusting Izuka to be his primary strategist. Izuka, for the record, is a stunted, cackling, yellow-eyed little troll of a man who invented a drug that turns people outside of his race into rampaging psychopaths for use as pawns in battle and openly brags about this invention. And to top things off, he's not even a very good strategist! It should come as no surprise that this inexplicable trust comes back to bite Pelleas's entire country in a big way as the game progresses.
  • God of War:
    • God of War (PS4): The Witch/Freya seems physically incapable of understanding or caring how her son Baldur really feels; when he confronts her in the climax, she begs him to not run away when he’s clearly doing nothing of the sort (which even earns her a Double Take from Baldur) and adamantly insists that she can reason with him, even as he tells her directly that he intends to kill her. Their entire situation came about when Freya became convinced that her powerful warrior hero of a son who can battle Kratos on even footing needed her protection, placing a curse on him that rendered invulnerable... while also taking away his ability to feel any sort of sensation, causing the poor man to understandably lose his mind. She’s almost as bad as reading other people’s feelings; she begs Atreus to stop Kratos from killing Baldur as if she genuinely doesn’t understand that Atreus is helping Kratos do so.
    • God of War Ragnarök finds a case of this trope in Thrud Thorsdottir, Thor's youngest- and now only- child. She's lived in Asgard her whole life, which unfortunately means that Odin has had her full life to manipulate her with his propaganda, so she genuinely believes that he wants the best for the Nine Realms and feels that those who oppose him are misguided. She does have a point that from her point of view it's a he-said-she-said situation and she doesn't know Atreus well enough to trust him, but being so young she doesn't know Odin well enough to know that he cannot be trusted ever. Mimir and Atreus can later have a conversation about this, where Mimir advises Atreus that people can have blind spots, especially regarding family, and guesses that it'll take Odin doing something terrible and unjustifiably cruel in front of her for her to come around. As usual, he's right. Even after her mother confirms to her that Odin doesn't care about anyone but himself, she still holds onto some of her faith in him until Odin murders her father Thor for standing up to him, lies to her about it as he's still stabbing Thor, and then tosses her away with Mjolnir.
  • Grand Theft Auto V:
    • Lamar according to Franklin. Franklin calls him out on this and mentions that he's always had to bail Lamar out of trouble for as long as he's known him (Sometimes when switching to Franklin, you see him stop a fight between Lamar and someone else). Reaches Too Dumb to Live levels when after Franklin travels all the way to Blaine County to save him from Stretch's plan to kill Lamar, Franklin pulls a Sherlock Scan on Lamar explaining the entire situation with Lamar happily holding the Idiot Ball, still believing that Stretch is "His nigga" much to Franklin's anger and exasperation.
    • Patricia Madrazo seems genuine when she tells Trevor she thinks he's a good man, much to Michael's disbelief. To put it in perspective, she says this while Trevor is holding her hostage to exert leverage over her husband, and had just told her that however much he hopes it doesn't come to it, he might have to end up cutting her into pieces.
  • Hidden City: Ironically, Mr. Black. Despite being very suspicious in nature, the few people he does explicitly claim to trust end up working against him. First, there is Kira, whom he "trusts almost as much as [he] trust [himself]", even though she's secretly colluding with his enemy, the Scavengers, to steal the city's last remaining anti-fog crystals behind his back (although Kira at least has good intentions to save the City, and she feels forced to betray her leader because of his refusal to listen to others). Then there's Violet, whom he formerly appointed as his assistant despite knowing her sadistic streak. She ends up defecting to the Cult of Shadows and runs an underground printing press to spread lies and propaganda about him in her bid to seize control over the City.
  • In the 1st Degree: Poor Zachary Barnes. He truly believed that James Tobin was a good guy, despite him making mistakes. Too bad he didn't realize until he got shot in the throat that his business partner was a greedy, jealous Jerkass with no redeeming qualities, who had threatened Barnes with bodily harm several times and had threatened to kill him a week before the murder.
  • Jade Empire can play it straight or put an unusual twist on it. A surprising amount of people seem to think that the impeccably polite young warrior who radiates unearthly calm and has a halo of heavenly light around their head is the perfect person to approach with offers of criminal collaboration.
  • Jak II: Renegade we find that Keira has a crush on Erol, Commander of the Krimzon Guard and the man who tortured Jak for two years with Dark Eco experiments. When informed that he's a bad person, she refuses to believe it.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts: Downplayed with Riku. Though he openly distrusts the Obviously Evil Maleficent, he nonetheless believes her when she tels him that Sora had abandoned him and Kairi for Donald, Goofy, and the Keyblade.
    • Played with in regards to Terra in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. While he seems to be extremely bad at telling who is a bad guy from a good guy, this isn't really because he is extremely gullible and instead comes from his mindset of taking things slow and coming to a conclusion. In almost every case where Terra seems to be trusting a villain, he usually comes to the conclusion they aren't trustworthy after spending time listening to them or investigating their claims. The only time he ever truly trusts a villain is for justified reasons such as Jumbah, and Hook. This is likely because of Eraqus' teachings, making him adopt a Heroic Neutral stance when interacting with people.
    • Played straight with Master Eraqus in regards to Master Xehanort. The two lifelong friends had fought when Eraqus confronted Xehanort about his insane plan to create the χ-blade, with Xehanort winning and scarring Eraqus in the process. After several years of avoiding each other, Xehanort claimed to be repentant and Eraqus believed him, with the apology letter itself never technically offering an apology. Then, during the Mark of Mastery exam, when Xehanort sabotages the balls of light, he doesn't for a second suspect that it was him, despite the fact he was sitting right next to him. It doesn't help that between their fight and his "apology", Xehanort dumps a comatose and amnesiac Ven with a half torn heart of pure Light on Eraqus lap for care and training, claiming he had a "training accident". It isn't until Ven approaches him and mentions Xehanort's plans for the χ-blade that Eraqus finally gets the hint.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: Foster Addison has a bizarre blind spot with her Number Two William Spender. Despite knowing he's an incompetent fuck-up, she lets him keep his job because he's apparently the only one who takes hard jobs... despite being an incompetent fuck-up who is actually endangering everyone's lives through his stupidity. When presented incontrovertible proof of his misdeeds, she admits she'd been looking the other way the whole time.
  • Mega Man:
    • Dr. Light from Mega Man (Classic) seems curiously willing to trust Dr. Wily when he claims to have gone straight (3), to have his lab ransacked by a renegade robot (Mega Man & Bass), or to be searching for the cure to a mysterious robot virus (10). Arguably justified, as Light has been skeptical of Wily before (particularly in 10, when Mega Man expresses disbelief that Wily is being the good guy, Light wholeheartedly agrees with Mega Man's plan to investigate the Wily connection behind Wily's back), but, in defense of Wily's plan, he actually did have a cure for the robot virus (which it is implied he did not create), he was just planning on charging obscene amounts of cash for it.
    • Although it's not a theme throughout the whole series, in Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Falzar, Lan shows an incredible ineptitude at differentiating friend and foe. He looks up to and almost idolizes two members of the quirky miniboss, and is indifferent to a third, only correctly identifying one villain before he strikes for the entire game (and that villain is the one who thinks it is shameful to try to hide your villainy and chastises the others for being discreet). He also only learns that the mayor is a villain by walking in on a conversation while going to ask him for help. Meanwhile, he is instantly suspicious of two figures who turn out to be Chaud and Protoman, his longtime allies throughout the entire series, nor does he connect the two even after the first reveals himself. The writers never seem to notice this trend.
  • Metal Gear:
  • Neverwinter Nights: Fenthick's horrible judgment and political ineptness in trusting Desther conspire to get him executed at the end of the first chapter of the main campaign. It's okay, as his only reason for existing in the first place was to give Aribeth something to angst about before her Face–Heel Turn.
  • In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Sosiel decries Daeran for lacking an inner beauty to match his outer, while believing that Camellia's harsh tongue conceals a good heart. Swap which character he's talking about and those descriptions are right on track, because Daeran prevents anyone from getting close to him for fear the Eldritch Abomination he hosts will kill them, while Camellia is an unrepentant Serial Killer.
  • The bouncer of the Tasteful Club in PAYDAY 2 will let you and your crew inside the club, noting that you "seem like class acts". Never mind that you're a group of criminals topping the FBI's Most Wanted list, here on business (read: robbery), armed to the teeth with weapons, and possibly clad in highly-visible military-grade body armor. Zero points for guessing what happens next.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon X and Y has Professor Sycamore, who after listening to Lysandre's speech of how the world must be cleansed of those he considers filth praises the man for his passion. Subverted in that he later admits that he had an idea on how far Lysandre would go, but was never able to confront him about it, making his earlier praise look more like denial than being oblivious.
    • Chatot from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has a major problem with this. When he finally learns that the Terrible Trio he's repeatedly lauded as some of the finest Pokemon he's ever had the privilege of working with are actually — Gasp!! — evil, he does not take it well. It's worth noting that the first clue he gets that Team Skull aren't the exemplar of Pokemon-hood he thought they were is when they start sounding less refined. In the original Japanese, this would mean that they had just downshifted their speech to a less respectful level. In other words, all they had to do to gull Chatot was use the keigo he assumed he merited. He was taken in by his own overblown self-image!
  • When you first take control of Raz in Psychonauts, Crystal says that Coach Oleander is "so nice!" Coach Oleander is an ill-tempered Drill Sergeant Nasty. And that's not even getting into how he's the man behind the Brain Thefts...
  • The backstory for the Ratchet & Clank games has the Lombax race almost wiped out in a genocide by Tachyon and the Dropets using stolen Lombax technology. Tachyon got access to it because one Lombax, Alister Azimuth, granted him access, believing that Tachyon would put it to good use. This was in spite of Tachyon being a Cragmite, Obviously Evil, and showcasing weapons, with even the other Lombaxes suspicious of him, and Azimuth's best friend Kaiden warning him beforehand. For his part in the genocide, Azimuth was exiled in disgrace.
  • Red Dead Redemption:
    • Luisa Fortuna, a relatively bright but naive Mexican peasant girl who is a fanatical follower of local Rebel Leader Abraham Reyes. In her eyes, Reyes fights for the people and loves her just as she loves him. In the eyes of John Marston and the player, however, Reyes is an egomaniac with a talent for getting peasants to listen to him whose only concern is personal glory and can barely remember Luisa's name. Similarly, Luisa has problems seeing that John cares nothing for the fate of Mexico and helps her and the rebels only because he's got a soft spot for her and that they're a means to an end.
    • Marston himself in most of the side missions.
    • The undoing of the Van der Linde gang from the game's sequel (And prequel), is Dutch's complete boneheaded trust in Micah Bell III. Anyone who talks to Micah once can tell he's a boorish, uncaring lunatic who is a complete cancer on the group. But Dutch trusts him wholeheartedly, despite knowing him for a scant few months compared to those who have been riding with him for decades, even after basically everything Micah is involved in goes wrong. And Micah's the one betraying the group to the Pinkertons.
  • Mori Ranmaru in Sengoku Basara is a kid who knows nothing except that Oda Nobunaga is the coolest guy ever. And let's see what Nobunaga's portfolio contains... Card-Carrying Villain, Obviously Evil, Evil Overlord, Take Over the World? Er... kid? You may want to reconsider —
    Ranmaru: How dare you in insult Nobunaga-sama! Ranmaru'll kill you!
    • Motochika Chosokabe is another example in the third game. In Motonari's blue path, Motochika believes that Ieyasu was the man behind the attack on Shikoku. And THIS is despite that they were on friendly terms. He also thinks that Motonari and Mitsunari are on good terms with each other, which leads to his surprise reaction to Mitsunari's death by Motonari's hand. When Motonari confronts Motochika, he lampshades the latter's terrible judge of character in his speech to him.
  • In Shin Super Robot Wars, Shakti explains that she was in the Angel Halo because she had to be put into the machine in place of her mother the queen. Londo Bell fills her in on how Char deceived her into thinking she could stop the fighting and put her mother at ease. Amuro kindly tells her that she need not apologize for cooperating with an apparatus intended to brainwash mankind - it's all Char's fault for leading her into it.
  • Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog series is so gullible that it's become a joke in the series itself. He's such a bad judge of character that, even though he's been fully aware for years that Dr. Eggman doesn't say anything that won't get him closer to the Chaos Emeralds and world domination, he still takes everything the corpulent madman says at face value and follows up on things Eggman says better than things that people he trusts with his own life tell him. The other characters have been riding him about it for years; if he does something even subjectively stupid, the knee-jerk assumption is that he's been talking to Eggman again. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 was the only time Knuckles completely believed him since it was their first meeting. In Sonic Adventure Eggman only makes Knuckles confused and suspicious about Sonic's actions (and considering the Master Emerald was destroyed, Knuckles probably wasn't in the best frame of mind at the time). In Sonic Advance 2, Knuckles ends up being tricked somehow by Eggman into fighting Sonic with the Egg Saucer, which, after Sonic destroys it, Knuckles chased him covered in soot. The cutscene afterwards reveals that he was tricked by Eggman once again, with Knuckles being upset at this revelation, and Sonic deciding to leave him to sulk until Knuckles decides to get his act together.
  • Bianca of Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Like Knuckles, she's basically a good character working for the Big Bad because she assumes that the villain has good intentions. Unlike Knuckles, she still believes her employer is trustworthy in spite of how The Sorceress bullies and browbeats her at every turn, and repeatedly sacrifices her hapless, unwilling minions to create mutant abominations to send after the heroes. Bianca only figures out she's on the wrong side once The Sorceress reveals her plan to kill the baby dragons they've been kidnapping, and she pulls a Heel–Face Turn immediately afterward.
  • Star Wars:
  • Prior to the start of Super Robot Wars BX, Ranka Lee falls out of an airlock off-screen and is magically rescued by the Vagans, even though this takes place in outer space (the Battle Frontier is on Arst). Ranka essentially becomes a Vagan sympathizer for having been rescued by them.
  • Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss, the poor bastard. Trusting his mentor Van has severe consequences when following his plan that will supposedly cleanse Akzeriuth of the miasma actually ends up destroying the city and advancing Van's plans. Though his trusting nature and idolization of Van come about from his extremely sheltered upbringing and his overall many other issues.
  • Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character kicked off when Shinmyoumaru Sukuna heeded her friend Seija Kijin's plan to place the weak on top of the strong. The fact Shinmyoumaru trusted Seija while knowing full well that she's an amanojaku, a youkai species of pathological liars and scammers, should tell you all you need to know about her.
  • According to Nathan Drake of Uncharted, Sully is this when it comes to women.
  • The Urbz: Sims in the City has a minor character, Lily Gates, who apparently means well but is a terrible judge of character. Considering that she works for the main antagonist of the game Daddy Bigbucks and doesn't see anything wrong with his actions throughout the game, even after he knocks the player character out and throws them into the river...
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt:
    • Keira Metz seems to believe that she can buy the favor of The Caligula King Radovid by sharing some research into a magical cure for the Catriona plague with him - completely underestimating his hatred of magic in general and the Lodge of Sorceresses in particular. It results in her Cruel and Unusual Death if Geralt won't talk her out of it.
    • Duchess Anna Henrietta from the Blood & Wine expansion. She cared more about harboring her sister Syanna, a Serial Killer whose actions led to a vampire invasion of her capital city and the deaths of possibly thousands, than the lives of her citizens. To make matters worse, if Geralt sacrificed Syanna to save Toussaint then the Duchess refuses to believe that she was next on her sister's hit-list despite having the evidence handed to her. And if Geralt doesn't sacrifice Syanna but also doesn't succeed in convincing her to forgive her sister, then the Duchess goes to hug her at her trial and gets stabbed in the neck as a result.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • The player character will accept quests from anyone with shiny punctuation over their head, including crazy, skeevy-looking old men hiding in a shack in the haunted, zombie-infested woods, with mysterious bloodstains all over the shack and a pile of cadaver innards out back. And then the player's all surprised when the old man unleashes onto the town the abomination that you helped him build. Normally, we'd say that Player Characters just don't care, but given that you have to fight Stitches at the end of the questline, you unquestionably made it worse for yourself there.
    • Another example exists in the night elf starting zone where the player can slaughter animals for a demon named Zenn Foulhoof.
    • This is Thrall's biggest character flaw. Sylvanas, Gallywix, and Garrosh have all joined the Horde because of him. While Gallywix hasn't done anything post-joining (though he was pretty awful beforehand), Sylvanas and the Forsaken have developed biological warfare and disgust everyone else by raising undead, and Garrosh was a raging patriot and warmonger, who in the Pandaria expansion turned into an Evil Overlord.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Dunban turns out to have chosen really bad friends; Mumkhar fled like a coward the moment things got bad in the Battle of Sword Valley, turned into Metal Face, and nearly killed Fiora, all because he was jealous of Dunban being the hero. Dickson, on the other hand, is secretly The Dragon to Zanza, the true Big Bad, and gleefully shoots Shulk in the back.

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