History Main / HorribleJudgeOfCharacter

* The entirety of Ian "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.

*** 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.

* ''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]]]].
* Joey from ''[[http://www.agameoffools.com A Game of Fools]]'', who 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.

* Kiki towards Bun-Bun in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''. She acknowledges him as being a little mean and grumpy but thinks all he needs to get over that is more hugs.

* 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]].
** 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.
* 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.
* 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]].
** 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.
* 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]].
** 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.
* 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.

* ''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.
* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': A common trait of many AIs.
** 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]].
** 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.]]
** 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]].
* ''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.
* 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.

If 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.

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

** Ozpin suffers an even worse version of this in many ways. While he is the BigGood trying his best to fight against the dangerous Salem in the name of [[MissionFromGod his mission to redeem humanity in the eyes of the Gods]], his actual choices for those who serve as his inner circle are severely lacking in many qualities. His contact in Mistral, Leo Lionheart is a formerly decent man turned coward who is also subjected to FantasticRacism due to his heritage as a Faunus in the deeply racist Mistral [[spoiler: who had changed sides to Salem at some point due to cowardice]]. His contact in Atlas, James Ironwood is a military authoritarian ControlFreak who ends up causing him no shortage of problems due to his insubordination [[spoiler: and eventual betrayal out of sheer paranoia and egotistic distrust of everyone who didn't obey his commands]]. And his contact in Vacuo, Theodore, while outwardly saner by comparison, is a SocialDarwinist who is currently struggling in the aftermath of a CivilWar between his own people. This ties into Ozpin's biggest flaw; that he's so focused on trying to deal with the bigger picture against Salem that he ignores the very real dangers that the smaller problems (like the questionable quality of his allies) could pose to his ForeverWar...and this is strongly implied to be something he's been having issues with for ''millennia''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' 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.

* In [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Esther]], Ahasuerus didn't realize that his vizier Haman is an EvilChancellor, even when he tried to wipe out all the Jews in Persia, until Ahasuerus realized (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''.

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16684877960.89468900 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

This 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 character's warnings about the bad guy's true nature.

This is the inverse of ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter, where a character is really good figuring other people out.

* 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 lead 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]]

* 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 inordinate amount of time accusing people of being selfish, corrupt, or (in the case of Antigone herself) just plain female.

* The entirety of Ian "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 advices of his talking owl Krebulon.
* ''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 moustache, 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!"

* ''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 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.

RealLife [[ManipulativeBastard manipulators]] appear convincing and interested in your own good and soothe one in by being nice, kind, getting your sympathy and if that doesn't suffice for them to get everything they want, they begin pushing buttons as they lie whenever they can get away with it. All of that is so subtle that it usually escapes the people who it is happening to.

But in fiction, manipulation is usually just the result of the victim carrying an IdiotBall. Everyone else, especially the audience, can and will immediately identify the manipulator as evil, but the manipulated is simply a Horrible Judge of Character. Compare to when only the protagonists see through the manipulator and everyone else holds him in high regard, in that case, it's a DevilInPlainSight. Compare to The AlphaBitch who is quite often also transparently mean, abusive, and treacherous to everyone (who doesn't have the authority to punish her for it), yet inside her clique (read: "popular" and/or upper-class people), magically everyone likes her.

When the plot requires for these Horrible Judges Of Character to regularly make [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying Villains]] their most intimate confidants, they're [[TheIngenue Ingenues]] -- or TooDumbToLive. Innocence and helplessness may attract guardians and friends, but will also make them vulnerable targets to get romantically involved with TroubledButCute or TheVamp.

On the extreme end, the [[FriendToAllLivingThings Friends to All Living Things]] will also be intensely [[TrueCompanions loyal to their friends]], so they'll [[SelectiveObliviousness ignore all evidence]] that the Manipulator means them harm. When true friends try to point them to suspicious behavior or even show outright damning evidence, they will get a pouty "[[YoureJustJealous You're just jealous of our friendship]]!" and be blown off as TheCassandra, probably earning an earful about how [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Baron Bloodlust]] is a wonderful human being [[ImplausibleDeniability who just happens to be around whenever]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent someone's bloodless corpse is found]].

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

This [[HeelFaceTurn may]] or [[TheFarmerAndTheViper may not]] work.

HeroWithBadPublicity is the reverse of this, where a character who is considered evil is actually good. If it's romantic, expect a LoveMartyr, LoveMakesYouDumb or MadLove. If the "friend" is a {{Chessmaster}}, then they're an UnwittingPawn. If the horrible judges of character cause a horrible plot development by doing this, they are an UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. Related is PacifismBackfire, where someone chooses not to act violently against someone else; one reason is that he still believes that someone is still good. Contrast EvilCannotComprehendGood and ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter. In larger numbers, expect to get GullibleLemmings.

Just be ready for some serious trouble once this chump connects the dots and stops being a chump.

If the work expects the ''audience'' to not figure out that an ObviouslyEvil character will turn out to be the villain, that's ObviousJudas (with a side of ViewersAreMorons).

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter/Film

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* The Sultan from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' is the only one who doesn't see the ObviouslyEvil Jafar for what he really is, and considers him his most trusted advisor until Aladdin smashes Jafar's snake staff and exposes his treachery. The movie even lampshades this when the Sultan prides himself to be an excellent judge of character, and Iago grumbles his sarcastic "NOT!"
* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'':
** The villagers qualify, no doubt. Even though Gaston clearly made no effort to hide his {{Jerkass}} nature, such as lusting after Belle despite clearly knowing she isn't into him or trying to blackmail her into marrying him by threatening to send her father Maurice to an asylum, they still love him.
** Even Maurice, Belle's father, initially thinks that Gaston is a decent enough guy only [[BeautyEqualsGoodness because of his good looks]]. He even suggested Belle spending time with him. Of course, that was the beginning of the movie.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'': After Cinderella's biological mother passed away, her father thought marrying Lady Tremaine would offer Cinderella a positive mother figure. [[WickedStepmother Let's just say he was wrong]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': [[ItsAllAboutMe Emperor Kuzco]] not only agrees to have dinner with Yzma after he both fired and flat-out insulted her, kicking off her scheme of killing and usurping him for control over the empire, but he also believes that she and Kronk are trying to locate and bring him home rather than kill him, as Pacha attempted to warn him. Also, it never seems to occur to him that Yzma could be the one behind his transformation into a llama, even when he knows full well that she has a "secret" laboratory where she would be able to create a potion that could change him into a different creature. It takes him overhearing Yzma berate Kronk for botching the poison attempt to realize how evil Yzma truly is despite all the clear indicators that should have tipped him off. Of course, before character development set in, Kuzco was an arrogant, selfish jerk. It's likely he was just so full of himself that he couldn't conceive of Yzma betraying him because of his ego.
* ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. Goofy is convinced that his {{Toxic Friend|Influence}} Pete is "good with kids," despite Pete more-or-less [[AbusiveParents mentally abusing his son]] for '''[[WesternAnimation/GoofTroop years]]'''. When Pete hears of Max's aloofness, he presents as a concerning issue that Max may end up becoming a criminal. Goofy initially shrugs it off, but the notion returns when he is called by the very neurotic principal over the stunt Max pulled. The principal rants in extreme hyperbole, leading to Goofy taking Max on the fishing trip. Later Pete convinces Goofy that the way to keep your kids good is to "keep 'em under your thumb", despite him doing that to PJ only demonstrating that all that does is [[KickTheDog make your kids miserable]]. Overall, it fails as Goofy tries to be more assertive. This leads to even more problems when Pete overhears Max telling PJ about editing the road trip map.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'': Quasimodo. Especially when it comes to Frollo's true evil nature (until the climax, at least). Justified due to being raised by Frollo and kept in isolation for his entire life.
-->'''Esmeralda:''' How could such a cruel man have raised someone like you?\\
'''Quasimodo:''' Cruel?!? Oh, no. He saved my life. He took me in when no one else would. I am a monster, you know.
* Aunt Sarah from ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'' is this to an extreme degree. Throughout her scenes, she's constantly mean to Lady and considers her a danger to the baby. Things don't get better in the climax where [[spoiler:the rat gets into the baby's open window and Tramp is able to kill it before it hurts the baby. She assumes that Tramp tried to hurt the baby, locked him in the closet until the pound arrived and threw Lady in the basement]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'': Both Mufasa and [[ChildrenAreInnocent Simba]] seem to trust the ObviouslyEvil uncle Scar. In Mufasa's case, he always put up with Scar's constant envy and discontent, but he just never expected his brother to be really evil enough to betray him. By the time Mufasa realizes who Scar truly is, it's too late for him as Scar tosses him to his demise.
* In WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout film "Dougal and the Blue Cat", Florence and everyone except for Dougal takes a liking to Buxton the blue cat when he arrives in the garden. They trust Buxton and shower him with attention, completely unaware that the cat was really hatching an evil plan to take over the garden. The only one who correctly suspects Buxton is up to no good is Dougal. It doesn't help that they don't believe Dougal when he tries to tell them that Buxton is evil upon seeing the cat shedding CrocodileTears. They do realise their mistake after they were captured and imprisoned by Buxton's army.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind genuinely believes Hal Stewart is the perfect candidate for Metro Man's replacement, even though Hal is an immature creep whose only motivation is to get Roxanne's attention. Megamind does realize his mistake, though, once Hal starts terrorizing Metro City after being turned down by Roxanne.
-->'''Megamind:''' Just look at him.\\
'''Minion:''' [[LampshadeHanging No, he doesn't look quite the hero-type to me.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'': This was Judge Hopkins' FatalFlaw. {{Pun}} aside, he believed [[spoiler:Agatha]] to be a WickedWitch without noticing she was innocent. {{Justified}} because he was scared of her [[ISeeDeadPeople powers to talk to the dead]]. As such, this is {{Averted}} after he had a HeelRealization.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension'', this seems to be an unfortunate side-effect of Phineas and Ferb's eternal optimism as they didn't realize that ''either'' of the two Doofenshmirtzes was evil until they were flat-out told about it.
** Although the trope may be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in how they judged [[AffablyEvil Do]][[HarmlessVillain of]][[AntiVillain -1]] since he was very nice and polite with them.
** While they have dodged many adults throughout the series, they never encountered one who would [[spoiler: hurt them just to expose Perry's secret identity.]]
** Same can be said for Phineas thinking that Perry kept his secret identity because he never cared for them as a family. If only he had read the pamphlet.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', both in the Disney film, and in the Creator/{{Filmation}} unofficial sequel, ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight''. He seems to think he can trust ''absolutely everyone'' he comes across. Worse yet, he often trusts people that ''[[TooDumbToLive he's well aware have double-crossed him before]]''. In the latter, he willingly makes deals with a boatman with [[RedEyesTakeWarning glowing red eyes]] aboard a ship referred to as "The Empire of the Night."
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'': The entire plot is kicked off when Prince Naveen is easily duped by the ObviouslyEvil [[BigBad Dr. Facilier]] and turned into a frog. Tiana even lampshades how stupid Naveen was to trust him:
-->'''Tiana''': You mean to tell me this all happened because you were messin' with the Shadow Man?!\\
'''Naveen''': [''defensively''] He was [[FauxAffablyEvil very charismatic]]!
* In ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'', Chas Finster proves to be one, failing to see that Chuckie is terrified of [[BigBad Coco LaBouche]]. This is justified as Coco is rather good at flirting with men despite her contempt of children. He does realize his mistake at the end though.
* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': This is the FatalFlaw of [[TheIngenue Snow White]]. She completely trusts a creepy hag and thinks she's just a nice "poor old lady", which shows just how [[IncorruptiblePurePureness tragically good and pure she is ]] -- even her animal friends who immediately realize something is up can't convince her not to help.
* In Plucky and Hamton's sub-plot of ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'', Hamton's family picks up Mr. Hitcher, [[HostileHitchhiker a dangerous hitchhiker]], on their way to the [=HappyWorldLand=] amusement park. Unlike Plucky, who has listened to a news report describing Mr. Hitcher as an escaped dangerous criminal, the Pig family don't seem to see him that way, despite his obvious hints, such as his HockeyMaskAndChainsaw. Even worse is that Hamton gives Mr. Hitcher Plucky's address, rather than his own, much to the latter's horror.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In the mystery film ''Film/AfterTheThinMan'', Nora Charles's cousin Selma chooses one man over another to marry. The "winner" proves to be a [[spoiler: cold-hearted philanderer]] while the "loser" is [[spoiler: finally revealed to be a raving madman]]. Selma's mother: "You sure can pick 'em!"
* In ''Film/{{Byzantium}}'', NiceGuy Darvell thinking [[spoiler:Ruthven]] might be a good, noble recruit for the Brethren, [[spoiler: even though Ruthven raped Clara and abandoned Darvell, robbed his corpse, and stole his estate]]
* John Bishop from the first ''Film/ChildsPlay'' film takes this to TooDumbToLive levels. Despite having the nickname of "Dr. Death", he's as principled a practitioner of HollywoodVoodoo as any you could hope to find -- and he pegs none other than Charles Lee Ray, the future Chucky, to be his student. Not content with ''that'' monumental lapse of judgment, he decides Ray is trustworthy enough to let in on the secret place where he keeps the VoodooDoll he has made '''of himself'''. Literally no one but him is surprised by how he meets his end.
* In ''Film/DumbAndDumber'', Harry and Lloyd don't usually pick up hitchhikers but they make an exception to a guy who is trying to kill them.
* All of the other candidates in ''Film/{{Exam}}'', for trusting [[spoiler:White]] who is a ManipulativeBastard.
* In ''Film/{{Fallen Angel|1945}}'', June Mills is an intelligent woman, but she still falls in love with and marries a man who she knows conned her hometown of Walton.
* ''Film/GuestHouseParadiso'': Gina Carbonara thinks the pervy, condescending Richie is a sweet man and believes she can trust Eddie with her identity, only moments after meeting him. (Compared to her [[DomsesticAbuser boyfriend]], however, those two are saints).
* Alan Garner from ''Film/TheHangover'' is dumbfounded when he finds out that he was sold roofies instead of ecstasy because the drug dealer "seemed like a real straight shooter". [[spoiler:It later turns out the dealer did intend to sell him ecstasy but accidentally got the bags mixed up.]] He also remains friends with Leslie Chow in the sequels, despite knowing full well that he's an international criminal.
* The live-action ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' embellishes Cindy Lou Who's encounter with the [[PaperThinDisguise Santa-disguised Grinch]] as he's stealing her home's Christmas trappings. She tells him that the Grinch isn't a bad person, just lonely. The Grinch remarks to himself that she's a "nice kid", but a "baaad judge of character". Given his later [[ItWasHisSled change of heart]], it turns out she was spot-on after all, and it's actually he who falls into this trope.
* Mick in ''Idiot Box'' looks up to his friend Kev, unaware that Kev is a sociopath. He remains unaware even as he starts to move beyond Kev's influence and realize he can make more of his life than Kev ever could.
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' is notoriously betrayed at least once in almost every movie. The amount of people who haven't betrayed him on his adventures are in the single digits.
* ''Film/TheInterview'': Dave very easily fell for Kim Jung-Un's {{Nice Guy}} act at first.
* ''Film/JamesBond'':
** ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' has Professor Dr. Metz, who builds the diamond-encrusted satellite for [[BigBad Blofeld]] out of the insanely stupid belief that SPECTRE's dedicated to global disarmament, rather than the blackmail-for-profit schemes they'd committed in all the previous films up until now.
** Frederick Gray, the British Minister of Defense from ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' to ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'' pretty much embodies this trope throughout the Bond films. Pretty much all of his appearances has him doubting the film's BigBad is anything other than an ally of Britain or an HonestCorporateExecutive, only to be proven wrong by Bond's subsequent investigation into them. Special mention has to be given to his final appearance in which not only he, but also M and practically all of [=MI6=] except for Bond, believe that the film's BigBad is a genuine KGB defector, rather than a fraud seeking to play the British and Soviets against each other while he uses the distraction to accomplish his own agenda.
** ''Film/LicenceToKill'' gives us a rare villainous example in Latin American drug lord Franz Sanchez. Because he believes that Bond saved him from a botched assassination attempt by Hong Kong narcotics (really, it was the other way around), he believes Bond's (false) suggestions that his henchmen are in fact, plotting against him, prompting Sanchez to go BadBoss on his loyal employees.
** Pretty much all the good guys get hit with this trope at least once in ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': Bond and M believe that [[spoiler:Elektra King is the grieving daughter of an old friend of theirs, rather than the mastermind behind her father's death]], Russian mobster Valentin Zukovsky from ''Film/{{Goldeneye}}'' has his bodyguard The Bull turn out to be in the employ of TheDragon Renard, and Colonel Akakievich mistakenly believes Bond is behind the plot to steal a bomb from the nuclear test site he's overseeing, allowing Renard to take control of the situation, a move that ultimately costs the Colonel his life.
* In ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1962'', Professor Petrie trusts the publication of his music to [[AristocratsAreEvil Lord D'Arcy]], apparently never suspecting (in spite of D'Arcy being dismissive, rude, and overall a total {{Jerkass}}) that he might not be on the up and up. And naturally he isn't - he steals Petrie's music and claims it as his own work.
* [[InMediasRes Before the beginning]] of ''Film/{{Sanjuro}}'', a group of young samurai incorrectly identify the corrupt official in the clan, and plan to root him out. This would have played out perfectly for the actual corrupt official if a certain [[NoNameGiven nameless ronin]] hadn't been eavesdropping.
* Caliph Pahn in ''Film/SinbadOfTheSevenSeas'' completely trusts his [[EvilChancellor vizier]] Jaffar, who of course betrays him at the first opportunity.
* Much like his portrayal in the source material, Knuckles of ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'' blindly trusts Robotnik and sincerely believes the ObviouslyEvil doctor to be his friend. His gullibility is somewhat downplayed from the game series, in that he had a reason to hate Sonic without Robotnik needing to pit them against each other, and he's perceptive enough to note that Sonic forgoing a critical PlotCoupon in favor of rescuing Tails isn't something a bad guy would do.
* Ralphie, a five year old kid from ''Series/StormOfTheCentury'', who insists that Andre [[SignificantAnagram Linoge]], who has been responsible for five deaths so far and is heavily implied to be ''TheDevil'', isn't a bad guy because he gave Ralphie a present, and "bad guys don't give kids presents."
* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'': Creator/SethRogen and the others believe Creator/JonahHill is [[DevilInPlainSight a perfect saint]], despite Creator/JayBaruchel warning them that he isn't. Jay turns out to right when Jonah prays to God for his death.
-->'''Jay:''' Nobody's that nice.\\
'''Seth:''' Jonah is that nice.\\
'''Jay:''' ''Serial killers'' are that nice.
* During his brief appearance in ''Film/VanHelsing'', Victor Frankenstein acts shocked, ''shocked!'' that Count {{Dracula}} had ulterior motives in financing his [[ForScience scientific experiments]] other than for the science of it... even as said patron uses horror movie teleportation to saunter calmly around his laboratory as peasants with TorchesAndPitchforks [[StormingTheCastle storm the castle]]. The film's novelization justifies it by having Dracula mesmerize Frankenstein into helping him.

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

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* 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 lead 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]]

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]

* 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/{{Armageddon}}'' (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).

[[caption-width-right:349: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Side note:]] [[HeroicNeutral He's actually smarter than this]].]]

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'':

When the plot requires for these Horrible Judges Of Character to regularly make {{Card Carrying Villain}}s their most intimate confidants, they're [[TheIngenue Ingenues]] -- or TooDumbToLive. Innocence and helplessness may attract guardians and friends, but will also make them vulnerable targets to get romantically involved with TroubledButCute or TheVamp.

[[caption-width-right:349: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Side note:]] [[HeroicNeutral He's acutally smarter than this]].]]

[[caption-width-right:349: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Side note:]] [[ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter He's acutally smarter than this]].]]

[[caption-width-right:349: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep The trio]] has [[BeautyBrainsAndBrawn Brains, Beauty]] and ''definitely'' [[DumbMuscle Brawn]].]]