The Troublemaker

And those are her childhood friends saying that.

Haruhi: Geez, you're always mad at me for something!
Ryoko: That's because you're always doing things to make me mad!

— The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan

The Troublemaker is a character archetype common in fiction. They're often the ones who get the plot rolling by doing something or saying something that causes problems. They are the catalyst that gets an adventure, caper, or activity started.

Often they'll be the ones who Jumped at the Call. If they even waited for The Call to come calling in the first place.

Typically, a Troublemaker isn't acting out of malice. They just saw the Idiot Ball and the Conflict Ball lying on the ground and decided to do a Fusion Dance with them to see what would happen, and aren't necessarily displeased by the results. In many cases, It Amused Me and For the Lulz are in play.

Many characters can be a Troublemaker from time to time. The Kidanova. A Pretty Freeloader. A Well-Intentioned Extremist. A Soapbox Sadie. An Upper-Class Twit who is Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense. Sometimes they're also either The Shameless or the Comedic Sociopath. Light-hearted works may also include The Gadfly. In extreme circumstances they'll become the Unwitting Instigator of Doom.

The Troublemaker is often a cheerful sort, and typically charismatic, though occasionally they will be The Friend Nobody Likes, or end up that way after causing repeated strife. The key is that they are usually always present in the group.

Unlike The Klutz, a Troublemaker doesn't cause problems by accidentally stumbling into trouble. Instead, it's merely that they either didn't think about potential consequences before they acted, or, barring that, they considered the consequences to be an acceptable risk. May or may not be constantly engaged in Zany Schemes.

They'll often trigger the snarkiest of remarks from a Deadpan Snarker or The Stoic.

It is possible to spot and stop their schemes if they display Mischievous Body Language, but unfortunately for the other characters, the audience is usually the only one to see it and realize Here We Go Again!.

This character may only stick around because The Hero is an All-Loving Hero who's too nice to tell them to leave or call them out for the problems they cause. Compare The Load and My Friends... and Zoidberg. See Not Me This Time if the group gets blamed/in trouble for something that wasn't this character's fault.

Usually with Team Kids, there's at least one Troublemaker, and the role can even change hands Depending on the Writer.

A supertrope to The Millstone, who tends to be a more detrimental version of the Troublemaker.

In some cases, it will turn out that they were a Trickster Mentor who was trying to teach them An Aesop.

See also Spanner in the Works, for when someone's troublemaking undermines someone else's set plans.

A bit of precaution is also called for when dealing with a Troublemaker. Never mistake their penchant for causing problems as incompetence. They may then prove that they're a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and declare Let's Get Dangerous!.

Compare Doom Magnet, where the character involuntarily attracts problems for the rest of the cast.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Azumanga Daioh: Tomo makes a lot of trouble for everyone, accidentally and on purpose. This includes challenging them to various, often pointless, contests like trying to race Sakaki, or telling her classmates that the illness Yomi suffered that kept her from coming on an outing was because she slept naked (she didn't, but Tomo was happy to spread the story, anyway). The best (worst) example is when the group takes a trip to Chiyo's summer home. Chiyo comments how it would be terrible if she lost the house's only key. Cue Tomo grabbing the key and tossing it into the forest, just for a laugh.
  Tomo: I did it!
  Koyomi: BUT WHAT THE HELL FOR??!!
• BanG Dream!: Seven bands at five members each, there's a few troublemakers to be found.
  • Moca Aoba of Afterglow is a downplayed example…usually. She is mostly looking for ways to get the others to help her fill out her point cards to get more free food, pokes at Himari's Weight Woe, or engages in Romantic Ribbing with Ran.
  • Kokoro of Hello Happy World is Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense, and also Spoiled Sweet. She just wants to make the whole world smile. And the lengths she'll go to for that know no bounds, such as transforming Misaki's Michelle costume into a fully functional flight suit that Tony Stark would be proud of.
  • Hina is a verifiable genius. Give her any problem, she WILL find a solution. The practicality of that solution, however, is less important to her than how "fun" it is. Like when she showed up unexpectedly at Hanasakagawa Girl's School proposing a joint culture fest with her own Haneoka Girls' School just so she could spend time with her sister, Sayo.
  • One time, the girls were planning a trip to China Town for Lisa. Moca roped in Kokoro and Hina in order to figure out the logistics and finance it. Her bandmates in Afterglow compare her to an evil chancellor.
• The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan: Ryoko outright calls Haruhi a “troublemaker”, squashing her face in anger as she discovered that Haruhi has been tricking Nagato into filling out forms to form a joint literary club between East High and Koyouen Academy, putting Haruhi in charge.
• One Piece: Luffy may be The Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, but a lot of their problems start because of his impulsive behaviour, causing his crewmates no small amount of distress by simply existing. Between eating so much that they have to spend most of their money feeding him, recklessly damaging his own ship, wandering off where he's not permitted to precisely because it's forbidden and picking fights for the pettiest of reasons, it's a miracle that they remain loyal to him.

Comic Strips

• Peanuts: Snoopy tends to cause a good deal of trouble for the neighborhood, often prompting Charlie Brown to ask, "Why can't I have a normal dog, like everybody else?!"
  • He frequently attempts to steal Linus's signature Security Blanket. If Linus sees him coming, he will caution him that the attempt will earn him a punch in the nose.
  • He's frequently being chided by Lucy for whatever cause she seems to be justified in at that given moment, such as lecturing him for dancing when there was so much trouble in the world. Snoopy's response is usually to ignore her or to give her a very unwanted smooch.
  • Schroeder has caught him dancing atop his piano from time to time and usually manages to send him packing with a Death Glare. He probably wishes he could do the same with Lucy.

Fan Works

• Duran And Kiyohime's Omake Theater: A My-HiME fanfic set during the aftermath of the series, Natsuki and Shizuru find that their Childs, the eponymous Duran and Kiyohime are frequently causing them trouble. Kiyohime has a love of burrowing, and has caused Natsuki to fall face-first into the snow when coming across hidden burrows she was unaware of. And Duran has to constantly be reminded that not every black sedan belongs to a group of Illuminati, and he can't just shoot out their tires or spend all night barking at them.
• Implied in the Turning Red fic The Great Red Panda Rescue: When the 4*Townies get called to the principal's office, Miriam, Priya, and Tyler instantly ask Abby what she did. When she asks why they're blaming her, they respond, "It's always you." They backtrack when they learn that they were called there because Mei's been kidnapped.
• Scarlet Lady: Chloe/Scarlet Lady (though she refuses to believe it) is this in both her civilian and hero identities. Chloe is a spoiled Alpha Bitch who uses her money or her father's position as mayor to get/get away with whatever she wants, while Scarlet Lady is a Nominal Hero who only does any hero work for praise and attention. As either identity, she's often the one to screw everything up for everyone else by being either an oblivious idiot or being rude/vandalizing something for her own pleasure. Her classmates despise her but put up with her in class and at class events because Ms. Bustier wants everyone to feel included. Chat Noir (and later Marigold) detest Scarlet Lady (and eventually so does the rest of Paris), but they put up with her because her Lucky Charm and Miraculous Ladybug are necessary to help in fights and repair any damage done by akumas. By the end of Queen Wasp, however, she's forced to face how much she's Hated by All after her Miraculous is taken away and no one stands up for her.

Films — Live-Action

• Michael: The titular Angel, Michael, is deliberately stirring up trouble during a road trip from an Iowa farm to Chicago, but mostly because he's trying to act as The Defroster to the emotionally closed-off Quinlan. In the course of a few days, he causes the group to have a flat tire, he gets them arrested for a bar room brawl, and various other hijinks. But, as Hewey points out, whatever trouble he gets them into, he also invariably gets them out of as well.

Literature

• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: Lady Catarina is not only the main character, she is, as her own mother refers to her, something of a troublemaker. She has a habit of roping her friends from royalty and nobility into doing domestic chores and farmwork, has somehow earned the romantic affections of all those around her, regardless of gender, while remaining oblivious to their attraction, and has been known to invoke a "three-second rule" for food that has fallen on the floor, to her mother's eternal dismay. All that being said, she is perhaps the most beloved character in-universe, despite, or perhaps even because of the trouble that her whimsy and disregard for social status tends to create.

Live-Action TV

• Castle (2009): Richard Castle, famed mystery writer, is revealed to be a Troublemaker early on in the pilot episode. Beckett is interviewing him on a series of murders that follow the style of his novels. She cites his rap sheet of having once stolen a police horse, among other things. Then, in the course of the investigation, he steals files from her to see if he can't crack the case himself, and does prove instrumental in helping. Then he cements his status as the Troublemaker when he sets up the premise of the show; he will shadow Beckett and her investigations as inspiration for his novels, which the mayor and police commissioner agree to with an eye to putting the NYPD in a positive light. Though a Troublemaker, Beckett grows to like his presence, even if it can be troublesome, saying once, "I've kinda gotten used to you pulling my pigtails."
• Leverage: Parker and Hardison have alternated as the Troublemaker in various episodes, as part of their role as the Team Kids.
  • Hardison is frequently on the receiving end of someone saying "Damn it, Hardison!" when he's caused trouble. Hardison's troublemaking is usually due to his more easygoing nature in the team. In "The Carnival Job", when attempting to clear out a carnival to hunt for an abducted girl, Hardison tells Eliot to grab a list of chemicals, throw them in the hottest non-water liquid he can find, and "run like hell." When a cloud of toxic smoke puffs up in Eliot's face, he replies with the standard "Damn it, Hardison!" But Hardison counters with, "What did you think 'Run like hell' meant?"
  • Parker's troublemaking comes from her impulsive nature. She once stabbed a man with a fork for making light of the plight of orphans (and Parker, as a former orphan, was NOT amused). She once accidentally warned a mark that trouble was coming because she was trying to get a young girl out of a car theft ring, which Sophie actually defended her on, "She was trying to do the right thing, which meant she was actually thinking about doing the right thing." And once, when a mark lifted her wallet, which Nate informed her they needed him to do, she took it as a personal slight to her abilities as a thief, and lifted his wallet in return, stealing his credit card and using it to purchase a large number of computers later. She also once hit Eliot in the head with a crowbar trying to toss him a weapon, earning a stern "Parker, you don't throw crowbars at people!"

Myths & Religion

• The Bible: The Serpent falls into this role in the Book of Genesis (it wasn't until much later that he'd be identified as Satan). He tempts Eve into eating the (literal) Forbidden Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge with no real justification beyond making mischief.
• Classical Mythology: Eris, being a Goddess of Chaos, rather naturally falls into the role of the Troublemaker (a trait common to chaos deities across many myths and religions). Her most famous troublemaking occurred when the gods of Olympus threw a party and deliberately left her off the guest list; she crashed the event anyway and claimed she wasn't angry, even offering a gift — a golden apple labeled "To the Fairest." Eris then "accidentally" dropped the apple on the floor in front of Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, knowing full well that each goddess would make a claim for it and start arguing. The eventual consequences of that argument? A little incident we now know as The Trojan War.

Video Games

• Genshin Impact: Arataki Itto, leader of the Arataki Gang, is infamous for this. He isn't malicious or the like, but his ego, silliness, and (almost literal) bull-headedness often land him and his gang in hot water. His deputy Shinobu often has to rein him in or bail him out of the local jail.
• Budi from Troublemaker used to be one, being a school dropout who frequently went in and out of juvie due to frequently partaking in street fights, much to his single mother's chagrin. But he eventually reached a tipping point after crippling a street gang, and was enrolled into Jakarta's Sekolah Menengah Cipta Wiyata where fighting in school is encouraged.
• Ys IX: Monstrum Nox: In contrast to his fellow Monstrums, Hawk goes out of his way to cause trouble across Balduq, especially among the Hieroglyph Knights, usually by getting into fights with them. Ironically, he is later revealed to be a member of the Hieroglyph Knights in his civilian identity.

Western Animation

• Dexter's Laboratory: Dee Dee is constantly sneaking into his brother's secret laboratory, annoying him and disrupting his experiments, as well as destroying his equipment with her rambunctiousness.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • Eddy is the biggest troublemaker on the cast. He drives the plot of most episodes through his attempts to scam the other kids out of their money, which usually results in pain and humiliation for him, the other Eds, or the kids. When he's not scamming, Eddy will often play pranks on others to amuse himself; his Establishing Character Moment in the pilot is driving Edd crazy by playing Ding Dong Ditch.
  • Ed is the other big troublemaker, often spoiling Eddy's schemes through his clumsiness, overeagerness, and overactive imagination. For example, in "The Day the Ed Stood Still", giving him a monster costume made Ed think he is a monster, and so he procedes to wreak havoc in the Cul de Sac and kidnap the kids as he acts out a monster movie plot.
  • The Kanker Sisters, Distaff Counterparts to the Eds, are often going after their "boyfriends" to give them unsolicited kisses (in one episode, they trap them in an abandoned house to make them their "husbands"), but they are not above harassing the rest of the Cul de Sac.
  • Jerk Jock Kevin usually keeps to himself, but will often go after the Eds (or "dorks", as he often calls them) as payback for one of their scams. In "Ed, Ed and Away", he's the one responsible for sending the Eds on a wild goose chase after a balloon, just to watch them fall over themselves trying to catch it.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander Jonny 2X4 is a troublemaker of the unwitting variety, his eccentric antics often driving the other kids crazy. One episode has Eddy encourage Jonny to annoy others so he can charge them to get rid of Jonny.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Blooregard "Bloo" Q. Kazoo is Mac's imaginary friend and the one who causes the most trouble among the main quartet of himself, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo. Best exemplified in "Setting a President", when Bloo nominates himself as a candidate for the President of Foster's in the election against Frankie and Mr. Herriman, Mac brings up many of the bad things that Bloo has done in the past, all of which were the plots of previous episodes. These include destroying Madame Foster's bust, opening the secret door that housed the Scribbles, uploading an embarrassing video of Mr. Herriman to the internet, flooding the house, throwing a wild party against Madame Foster's wishes, sabotaging Frankie's date, destroying a beloved elephant squeak toy, ruining Mac's reputation at school, and blowing the roof off the house.
• Megas XLR: Coop is the Troublemaker for his group, as well as a Destructive Savior. Typically, the plot of any given episode is kicked off by Coop doing something and eventually resolved by him using Megas to "Smash" the problem.
  • Coop accidentally freed the R.E.G.I.S. Mark V by smacking into a cloaked prison ship while testing Megas's speed. He defeats it by putting out a ton of exhaust, causing the sunlight to Jersey City to be cut off for a few months, effectively causing a nuclear winter and depowering the solar-powered menace.
  • After proving to the S-Force that he wasn't a Big Bad, Coop's "hero lessons" left the team a group of lazy slobs that allowed their Arch-Nemesis to capture them. But Coop also saved them when he demonstrated Achievements in Ignorance by escaping a singularity simply because he didn't know he couldn't.
  • Coop souped up a satellite trying to fix his own TV, drawing the attention of a massive planet-eating monstrosity. He defeats the thing by accidentally launching a "torpedo" that he'd converted into a mini fridge that he was storing pop-rocks and soda in, and the effects of the urban legend are that the mixture blows up the planet eater. Then it's revealed that Coop's TV wasn't working in the first place because he'd forgotten to pay his cable bill.
  • According to Word of God, an unproduced story was going to reveal that Coop was responsible for creating his arch-enemies, The Glorf, and that the whole thing was a Stable Time Loop.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Pinkie Pie and Discord split the difference on this one.
  • Pinkie Pie's habit of being Innocently Insensitive often has her able to exacerbate any social anxiety Fluttershy might be feeling, such as reminding her of the huge crowds before a singing performance. She once thought it a good idea to use a magic pool to make copies of herself to spend more time with her friends. She discovered quickly though that she didn't get the enjoyment of doing those things, and now Ponyville had been overrun with dozens of Pinkie Pies.
  • Discord has been known to troll Twilight on her paranoia of him spending time with her friends because "It Amused Me", and once, he pretended to be sick when Twilight was trying to spend time with her sister-in-law, Cadence, by having her care for him in his time of need (complete with Musical Number). He does get karmic payback at the end when he becomes sick for real.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • While the titular characters are always happy to do something to help their friends (which usually results in them creating an enormous project that defies a few laws of science), any problems they face in an episode will usually be caused by either Buford touching something he shouldn't or Candace Flynn trying to interfere. The boys always forgive them.
  • From Candace's perspective, it is Phineas and Ferb who are the Troublemakers, constantly doing things that could be disorderly at best, and outright dangerous at worst. It isn't that Candace hates or even dislikes her brothers; she simply feels that they're doing things they ought not to do, and thus she tries to have them busted for it, even if for her, Failure Is the Only Option.
• The Simpsons: Bart Simpson is a natural troublemaker infamous amongst his family and the town for causing mischief, with many episode conflicts tracing back to him. This long list includes hiding the head of the Town Founder's statue, ramming his school's superintendent with a tractor, burning down the family's Christmas tree and spinning a tale about a burglar to cover his tracks, and causing a sonic boom that rattles the whole town with megaphones.

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