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Treacherous Advisor

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So the heroes consult a mentor when they're battling The Empire, digging up an Ancient Conspiracy, slaying demons, or something of the sort, and have hit a dead end. Surely they’re in a position to be helpful? After all, they’re the scholar/politician/military person/whatever, and just likely to have the information they need. Not to mention they can keep a secret.

Unfortunately, this trusted expert is secretly one of the bad guys. Sometimes they may even be the Big Bad! What makes them different from your average Mole is the degree to which the heroes require their assistance — they’re not a regular part of The Team, but they’re the only person who can give exactly the help needed.

The dead giveaway for this character type is accepting the heroes' theories with a complete lack of skepticism. If it were anyone else, the first thing out of their mouth would be, "Why should I believe you?" If the character says "Have You Told Anyone Else?" or "It's a good thing you came to me", be warned: they're either about to give The Reveal or planning on making some calls and starting a massive cover-up as soon as the hero leaves the room.

Another common trait of Treacherous Advisors is storing the Plot Coupons the heroes are fetching, revealing themselves once they have the last one. In these cases, a common giveaway is their seeming a little too interested in the Plot Coupons, more specifically in the act of taking them. A dead giveaway is if he doesn't let the hero look at the ones he's already collected. The hero will sometimes catch on as he's returning the last one, but never before then.

In a Tournament Arc, the Treacherous Advisor may be the one who helps the hero reach the finals because they (or their Big Bad boss) have a trap waiting in the final round.

They appear to be benevolent Mentors or Reasonable Authority Figure, until their The Reveal shows their true nature. If the hero(es) came to respect and admire the advisor before they turned out to be up to no good, expect a case of Broken Pedestal. On rare occasions, such as in a Conspiracy Thriller, everyone of importance whose help the hero seeks is a mole; the hero's only real allies are the ones with no power or influence.

Not to be confused with the Evil Chancellor, although overlap is not uncommon. Contrast Sarcastic Devotee and Deceptive Disciple. Compare the Big Bad Friend, the Regent for Life, and the Treacherous Quest Giver. Despite its name, the Evil Mentor and this trope rarely overlap as the Evil Mentor will not try to hide their true nature.

As this is a Betrayal Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Bleach: Double Subverted with Kugo Ginjou, who serves as Ichigo's primary mentor of how to use the latter's Fullbring. On the one hand, Ginjou ordered Tsukishima to alter his and all of XCution's memories, so that they forget about their Evil Plan of stealing Ichigo's powers and think of him as a real ally. On the other hand, it's always the plan to train Ichigo, so while Ginjou (and the others) are believing themselves to be good mentors for Ichigo while their memories are still altered, the original intention behind it is still evil, which goes full circle once they all gain their original memories back and successfully steal Ichigo's power (or at least the surface level of it).
  • Code Geass: When Nunnally is appointed as Viceroy of Area 11 in R2, she is appointed Alicia Lohmeyer, a heavily racist Britannian bureaucrat, as her own advisor. While Nunnally attempts to be a reasonable leader of the area she has appointed to, Alicia constantly tries to subvert Nunnally's compassionate ways in favor of cracking down on the Japanese, and becomes incredibly irrational when dealing with compromising situations regarding the Japanese; she reacts to a huge group of "Elevens" trying to secede from Britannia by pulling a gun and trying to initiate a genocide. Lohmeyer also goes behind Nunnally's back numerous times, to the point where eventually Nunnally starts getting sick of her and tries to take initiative instead.
  • In the Devilman Lady anime, Lan Asuka is a member of the Human Alliance and the one who recruits Jun to help them defeat the Devil Beasts who are attacking humanity, but as the final episodes reveal, Asuka wants to dominate humanity and was merely using Jun to get rid of the competition. She proceeds to become the Child of God and abandons Jun, then tries to kill her when she gets in the way.
  • In the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series, Mentor Mascot Kyubey is revealed in the original anime and manga as the true Big Bad and a Hive Mind species who set up the Puella Magi system so contracted magical girls will inevitably become witches, and are fully willing to accept the destruction of humanity to use their energy to power the universe. In almost all installments, they deceive the girls into contracting and get them to make a wish that will almost inevitably backfire (though it should be pointed out they always follow through to the letter, it's the girls who tend to cause their own backfires due to not fully thinking through the consequences of their own wishes), leaving out critical information about being a magical girl and justifying it by saying You Didn't Ask, to intentionally drive the girls to despair, which will turn them into witches. The only exception is Puella Magi Tart Magica, where Cube, the Incubator unit, is completely honest to Jeanne and actually grows to care about her to some extent.
  • Big Bad Albert Maverick from Tiger & Bunny is this to Barnaby. He steers Barnaby to become a highly marketable (and easily-manipulated) corporate-sponsored superhero who works tirelessly for the company and TV channel of which he is the CEO. Barnaby constantly looks to Maverick for guidance (and obviously considers him to be a Parental Substitute) for more than two-thirds of the series.
  • Words Worth: Both Tessio of the Shadow Tribe and Menza of the Light Tribe, who are later revealed to be two halves of the same entity, who is pushing the tribes to remain in a constant state of war to keep the Words Worth Tablet prophecy from being fulfilled.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
    • Subverted with Daitokouji-sensei, Judai's teacher and ally, who was revealed to be The Mole, and then later Reverse Mole for the good guys.
    • Played straight with Edo Phoenix's adoptive father DD. He was a criminal who murdered Edo's true father and stole the Ultimate D card, becoming a vassal of the Light of Ruin in the process; the whole reason he took Edo under his wing was to throw suspicion off of himself. Eventually, he confronted Edo and the truth came out, but Edo defeated him (ironically, using a card that his father designed to defeat the Ulitimate D card) and DD perished in the resulting fire.

    Comic Books 
  • In Bookhunter, after the Library Police finally retrieve the stolen book, Agent Bay realizes that the stolen copy was actually another forgery—because the original book had already been stolen by the Chief of Library Security.
  • Jay Garrick: The Flash retcons the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick's old college mentor Professor Hughes into a deranged supervillain named Doctor Elemental who deliberately engineered the accident that gave Jay his powers.
  • Haazen in Knights of the Old Republic. He manipulates Lucien Draay into doing some truly nasty things — including ordering the deaths of several of his colleagues' apprentices and trying to kill his own — because that was supposed to prevent the return of the Sith. Turns out Haazen was Sith himself, and was aiming to both control the Jedi through Lucien and generally spit on the grave of Barrison Draay, Lucien's father and Haazen's one-time friend-turned-rival.
  • The French series The Quest For The Time Bird: Mara, the old witch-princess who sends the heroes on the quest in the first place, secretly wishes to steal the powers of the God of Evil as opposed to sealing him.
  • Robin (1993): Ali Ben Khadir, the young leader of Dhabar, meets Ulysses Armstrong, otherwise known as "The General", and is impressed by someone near his own age with so much military knowledge. The two become friends while talking strategy and military history and Ali invites Ulysses to come back home with him as a military advisor. After arriving in Dhabar Ulysses gleefully uses his new position to try and start a war even though Ali wants peace.
  • Spider-Man:
    • When NYPD criminologist Carlie Cooper discovers Officer Vin Gonzales is part of a conspiracy to frame Spidey, she goes straight to the precinct sergeant. He turns out to be deeper in it than Vin, and quite prepared to pin the whole thing on Vin and Carlie.
    • Ultimate Spider-Man had Jean De Wolffe. Her regular 616 Marvel universe counterpart was a by the book cop who had a soft spot for Spider-Man, and whose death was a tragedy. Her Ultimate Universe counterpart seemed to be shaping up to be similar, sending Spider-Man to potential bad guys' hideouts but in the end turned out to be working for the Kingpin and unceremoniously shot by The Punisher because he knew she was a bent cop.
    • Then there was Ezekiel. This mysterious man whose powers seemed to be the same as Spidey's (except mystical in nature, not scientific) helped him against Morlun and Shathra, predators of supernatural origin bent on preying on the hero. Ezekiel told Spidey that the spider that had bitten him was not mutated by the radiation, but actually trying to give him its powers before the radiation killed it. This meant that Spider-Man was now part of the supernatural food chain, and had become a target for other totems and beings who feed on totems (Hence why so many of Spider-Man's foes were based on animals; on some level, they 'sensed' that Peter was a true totem while they were merely impostors and were thus driven to destroy him. But it was all lies. It was later revealed that Morlun and Shathra were really after Ezekiel, and Ezekiel attempted to direct the consequences of gaining his powers onto Spider-Man himself, taking Spider-Man to the temple where he had been given his own powers and drawing blood to attract a massive spider that would take the 'false' totem warrior as a sacrifice. At the last moment, however, he realized that he had done nothing but selfish things with his powers, while Peter had selflessly risked his life to save others again and again. With that in mind, he attacked the spider, sacrificing himself to save Peter.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Volume 1: The Amazon council member Antiope manages to convince Hippolyta that she's a trustworthy advisor while at the same time poisoning the rest of the council against the queen, by convincing them that she listens to a new Amazon and thus an outsider over her own people and needs to be replaced.
    • Volume 2: Bruct, who gets elevated into the position after Wonder Woman captured A'iir, tried to kill the emperor of the Sangtee Empire at the first sign that things might go south, clearly stating that it's because she's a woman and he despises her. He apparently missed that bit where she just made it clear traitors will not be suffered to live even if they're betraying one of her enemies to her benefit.
  • More of a rival than anything, but in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Geoffery St. John was recruited by Elias Acorn to be his advisor when he was asked to take over the throne when King Max was incapacitated. However, St. John was heavily biased against the Freedom Fighters and Sonic in particular and had the team disbanded in favor of St. John's Secret Service and Sonic stripped of his knighthood. After a series of humiliations, St. John stepped aside, especially when Elias disappeared in shame.

    Fan Works 
  • Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race has Governor Deacon's adviser, Newkirk, who didn't have well-laid plans. While not outright treacherous, he showed little to no concern for public safety. This got Newkirk fired.
  • Tealove's Steamy Adventure. The story starts when a conversation with Pinkie Pie convinces Tealove to go on a quest to obtain some magic tea leaves. Pinkie even offers some advice for the trip. By the end of the story, Tealove has the magic tea leaves, and she has to keep them out of the hooves of an evil cultist. The cultist is very, very strongly implied to be Pinkie Pie in a disguise. Amusingly, this twist came about completely by accident. The story was a Round Robin with no communication between the different authors—so the guy who wrote Pinkie as the cultist had no idea that she'd appeared earlier as the quest-giver.
  • Lost in Camelot casts Kilgharrah in this role; his actions were always questionable in canon, but here he explicitly reflects that he wants to drive a wedge between Bo, Merlin, and Morgana so that he can be Merlin's only magical ally.
  • The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf quickly takes on this role to Danaerys. Subverted in several respects: the reader already knows the Wolf is Running Both Sides by arranging for Cersei to have War Elephants yet has the Iron Fleet clear out of Blackwater Bay, his advice on taking King's Landing is actually sound if bloodthirsty, and he seems genuinely surprised that she'd sic Drogon on him for trying to steal the Iron Throne.
  • Tarkin's Fist: Grand Moff Tarkin brings together the crews of Tarkin's Fist, ostensibly to create a fleet loyal to him that will be able to protect the Death Star from any attack, be it by the Rebels or Palpatine. The crews are drawn in by their dissatisfaction with Palpatine's rule, and would find Tarkin a far more palatable alternative to lead the Empire, should Tarkin ever try to usurp the throne. In reality, Tarkin has no immediate intentions of launching a coup, and draws the fleets of Tarkin's Fist together as a ruse on the orders of Emperor Palpatine to ferret out and expunge millions of potential traitors in one fell swoop. The fleet's accidental voyage to the Milky Way is the only thing that spares them from destruction upon their intended arrival in the Maw Cluster.

    Films — Animated 
  • Odin in Heavy Metal 2000 reveals himself to be one of the aliens responsible for creating the fountain of youth and to have been seeking its power all along after the death of the primary villain Tyler.
  • When Mike and Sully first uncover Randall's plan in Monsters, Inc., Sulley goes to Mr. Waternoose for help. Five minutes later, he has asked them if anyone else knows about it and has banished them to the human world.
    Mike: Oh, what a great idea going to your old pal Waternoose! Too bad he was in on the whole thing!
  • Captain Korso in Titan A.E. is a rare example who goes to the trouble of searching out the not-yet-hero, convincing him to join their quest if only for a nicer place to live, inspiring him to believe in a cause other than his own self-interest or personal profit... and then revealing himself to have been working for the bad guys all along just for a big check.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In 2001: A Space Odyssey HAL 9000 is supposed to be an omniscient guide for the rest of the Discovery crew, but after Frank Poole's death, it is clear he no longer wants Dave alive.
  • In Another 48 Hours, a Retcon makes Jack Cate's fellow officer and longtime friend Ben the Big Bad whom Reggie Hammond had robbed in the Back Story to the first film, and the one who has been feeding Jack misinformation all along.
  • Aquaman (2018): Vulko is a heroic version. He stands beside Orm and offers just enough genuine assistance to not be dismissed from his service, but he approached and trained Arthur how to use his powers and Atlantean weapons, specifically because he knew Orm would be a problematic king and would need another to take the throne eventually. Orm reveals later on he knew of it, and had Vulko imprisoned for the climax of the film.
  • The B-movies Full Contact (1992), Dragon Fire (1993) and Bloodfist 2050 (2005) all use exactly the same plot: a kickboxer who participates in the underground pit-fighting circuit in order to find the guy who has killed his brother. In each one, it turns out that the killer is the very guy who trained him.
  • Lieutenant Howett in Carry On Jack. He hates being second-in-command to the wimpy Captain Fearless, who turns away from an opportunity to fight the enemy the best that he can. When Howett eventually loses his thread with him, he and the rest of the sailors on their voyage organise a fake mutiny (with "unconscious" sailors covered in jam/blood) to scare the captain away, and he wins. Unfortunately for him, Howett makes everything worse for the voyage, due to his greediness and Blood Knight mentality. Within at least 30 minutes of being in charge, the crew are arrested by the Spanish Armada and forced to work for them, in exchange for public execution.
  • Eraser: John Kruger learns from his mentor, Robert DeGuerin, that there's a mole within WITSEC murdering witnesses. This entry's existence on this page should tell you who The Mole is.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Walter Donovan, the businessman who funded Indiana's search for the Holy Grail, is secretly working for the Nazis and desire immortality for himself.
  • In Jungle, Kurt proves to be nowhere near the seasoned jungle guide he claims to be. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals that he was wanted by the police and that the lost tribe he claimed to know did not exist. His motives for leading Yossi, Marcus, and Kevin into the jungle remains a Riddle for the Ages.
  • Lt. Neil Briggs (Hal Holbrook) in Magnum Force. His dismissal of Harry's Cowboy Cop methods is just him blowing smoke. He's a far more extreme Vigilante Man Killer Cop than Harry himself.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Obadiah Stane from Iron Man. Not a big secret to those who know his history from the comics, but in the film, he founded Stark Industries with Tony's dad and pretends to be Stark's friend and mentor, but when the film begins, he pays to have Tony killed while on a trip showing off some of his new weapons (they don't, because they weren't told who he was). Later, he ends up building his own armor suit. Which he powers with the power source he pulls out of Tony's chest. Which was all that was keeping him alive.
    • Several of the sorcerers at Kamar Taj in Doctor Strange view the Ancient One as this for using forbidden magics (specifically, the Dark Dimension) to fuel her immortality.
    • Captain Marvel: In the Kree military, Amnesiac Hero Carol's commander and mentor Yon-Rogg teaches her how to control her powers and her emotions. In fact, her memories and powers are tied to her emotions. He tries to get her to suppress them because if Carol were to ever learn the truth and discover her full potential, Yon-Rogg (who killed Carol's true mentor, kidnapped Carol, and suppressed her memories to begin with) knows he'd have hell to pay.
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home: Quentin Beck, also known as Mysterio introduces himself as a kind, more experienced superhero. Peter welcomes this father figure into his life, especially on the heels of Tony Stark succumbing to the Mentor Occupational Hazard in Avengers: Endgame. He raises the boy's spirits at critical moments and even gives him advice in asking out his crush MJ. Then as soon as Peter gives him what he wants, Beck shows his true colors as a murderous egomaniac willing to kill hundreds of people, Peter and his classmates included, as part of his Engineered Heroics scheme.
  • Teddy Gammel in Memento. Complicated because his intentions aren't purely evil. While he's manipulating Lenny for his own purposes, he also does it to help Lenny function in daily life, and Lenny is also manipulating himself into killing innocent people just so he has a purpose in life. Teddy is a smug and greedy enabler, while Lenny is a willing Serial Killer... and tragically doesn't even remember it.
  • Now You See It...: Max approaches Danny and convinces him to become his wizard apprentice, promising him that he'll help him gain control over his powers. However, his true motivations are soon revealed to be much more sinister — he wants to kill Danny and forcibly steal his powers. In fact, he killed his own mentor this way.
  • Nizam, the main antagonist in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, who killed his brother the king and plans to kill his nephew for the throne, all while masquerading as a mentor.
  • Scanners: Dr. Paul Ruth presents himself as some sort of benevolent mentor figure who wants to teach Cameron how to harness his psychic abilities for the betterment of his kind, when in fact Ruth is actually a Mad Scientist and Abusive Parent who is simply using Cameron to eliminate an outside threat to his employers.
  • Elijah Price in Unbreakable. Everything Elijah teaches David is so that he can be a great superhero and save people from other villains, but he has ulterior motives for guiding David on his journey. He wants David to be the hero so he has an enemy to fight and justify his role.
  • In Warcraft (2016), when Medivh is fully under fel's influence, he convinces Llane that a rebellion among orcs is in full swing and that three legions will be enough to crush Gul'dan. He also pushes Lothar further into Sanity Slippage with some well-placed comments.
  • Watchmen adds shades of this to the relationship between Dan and Adrian, due to the fact that unlike in the graphic novel, they're close, affectionate friends in this version.
  • In The Witch Files, Jules is the goth girl who introduces the other girls to magic and gets them to form a coven. She is also a 300 year old witch who returns to Brunswick every 17 years, forms a coven, and then drains the life force from the other members to maintain her youth and vitality for another 17 years.

    Literature 
  • In The Dragon Waiting, Gregory uncovers evidence of a conspiracy at the English court and takes it to the Duke of Buckingham — who, unfortunately for Gregory, is in on it.
    "Your Grace." He reached into his bag, produced the translation of Mancini's letter. "We have a great deal of trouble. I hope that these are men you can trust."
    "Yes, Professor, they are absolutely loyal to me," Buckingham said, and signaled for his men to close the door.
  • Chauncy in The Dresden Files. This is also a big part of how the Fallen operate: If you pick up one of the Blackened Denarii you get an ancient, superintelligent and ridiculously powerful Spirit Advisor who'd be happy to show you how to solve any problem you run into — until you're so dependent on its help that it can control you completely. Harry only gets a shade, a massively de powered copy, in his brain, and ends up giving in to temptation to that shade a lot, despite his strictly defined terms. He’s fortunate that the shade can do something the Fallen can never do: change.
  • In Boris Akunin's Fiction, we have Ivan Panteleevich, leader of an elite Soviet sports club. Sergei Dronov, one of the superpowered protagonists, was discovered and saved by him early in the book and has followed "the Sensei's" advice ever since, leaving the life of crime and becoming a sports celebrity and a powerful businessman during the Perestroika. In the end, it turns out that the Sensei was working for the Government Conspiracy all along — and indeed is one of its leaders. What's more, Dronov remains loyal to him and is all too happy to join a secret superhero team for the conspiracy. To this we may add that, under the pseudonym of Alexander Aleksandrovich, he is also the father of another protagonist's daughter (becoming something of an advisor to him as well, though not nearly as trusted as in the first case), and brings that protagonist in as well, though he is more skeptical after being told the truth. Mind you, he's not necessarily evil, inasmuch as he seems to genuinely want to help Dronov and is mostly concerned with fighting off an alien conspiracy that runs counter to the government conspiracy.
  • A Mage's Power: For a good chunk of the story, Eric is a Heroic Host for the spirit of Dengel. He relies on the dead mage's advice and knowledge of magic to get out of scraps and accomplish goals. Then he finds out that Dengel is only bidding his time until he can take over Eric's body.
  • Murder for the Modern Girl: It turns out that Albert, Jeremiah Newhouse's secretary, is one of the people plotting to kill Jeremiah. He specifically wants Jeremiah's occupation of state attorney and ultimately gets it but only because Jeremiah managed to survive and decided to retire.
  • The Oracle of delphi in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is this trope, just as she was in Classical Mythology. Often she gives vague Exact Words style prophesies, or the heroes assume she's talking about one person, when she means another, after all she only speaks in prophesies, so she can't just tell them outright. after she is finally released from her Age Without Youth immortality and allowed to die, Apollo appoints Rachel Elizabeth Dare to be the new oracle. She still holds this position in The Heroes of Olympus.
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms has several, including one who served Liu Bei but was tricked into serving Cao Cao; he refused to give meaningful advice from then on and kept his mouth shut when he saw through the ruse at Chi Bi. More importantly, it's the descendants of Sima Yi, Cao Cao's strategist, who ends up unifying the three kingdoms; one Cao son even gets murdered in broad daylight by the Sima clan.
  • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is this to Eddard Stark during the first A Song of Ice and Fire novel, aiding Eddard in navigating the Deadly Decadent Court out of his friendship for Eddard's wife Catelyn. It eventually turns out he's been playing both Eddard and Cersei at the same time, and openly supports the latter when they come to blows following Robert's death.
  • In The Winter Queen (an earlier Boris Akunin novel), there is Ivan Frantsevich Brilling, hero to and mentor of the protagonist, rookie detective Erast Fandorin. Fandorin is none too pleased to find out that Brilling is part of the evil conspiracy.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Gwendolyn Post (played by Serena Scott Thomas), the dark magician who poses as Faith's new Watcher.
    • "Doc" (played by Joel Grey), seems to be a strange but mostly harmless old sorcerer/demon willing to help Dawn out but turns out to be the closest thing to The Dragon to Glory's Big Bad role in Season 5.
  • In the Doctor Who episode "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", Sarah Jane Smith falls victim to this trope twice. First, the man she sees for help finding the villains' base turns out to be the one who helped them set it up. Then, after she escapes from him, she takes what she knows to the general who is coordinating the state of emergency, not knowing that, while she was away, he had also been revealed as a member of the conspiracy.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Many of Roose Bolton's moves become this in hindsight, such as sending the 500 men to Winterfell to supposedly take it back. They burn Winterfell in order to cover Roose's bases.
    • Grand Maester Pycelle will work for the strongest side, who are House Lannister. Jaime, who used to be a bodyguard of the previous regime, recalls that prior to the Sack of Kings Landing by the Lannister armies, Pycelle advised King Aerys to open the gates to ensure them a victory, whereas Varys advised against it. He tries to do the same sort of scheming when Tyrion is acting as Hand of the King by going to Cersei behind his back. Since Tyrion is much smarter, he devises his own plot to uncover any disloyal advisors in the Small Council and subsequently strips Pycelle of all power and has him thrown in a cell.
  • Heroes: Claire has been hiding from her father the fact that she heals incredibly fast. She finally can't take the pressure anymore and decides to tell him... and he tells her that he already knows and asks her whom else she's told. Subsequently, every person she mentions has their memories of it wiped, and Claire herself is targeted for a wipe. In an ironic twist, though, Mr. Bennet is trying to protect Claire (and the others) by doing this.
  • In Legends of Tomorrow, Rip Hunter is revealed to have absconded with the Waverider against the orders of the Time Masters to try and stop Vandal Savage. His mentor then shows up and tries to convince Rip to go back, so the Time Masters can start repairing the damage to the timeline done by Rip and his team. Mick Rory, who has been listening in on the conversation, immediately tells him that the Time Master plans to betray and kill him, along with the rest of the team. Rip is reluctant to believe him, but he does bring backup during their next meeting. It turns out Mick was right. The Time Master shows up with the Bounty Hunter Chronos, who was paid to kill Rip and the others. Mick and Jax/Stein save him.
  • Merlin has Agravaine as a good example of this. Arthur's uncle and advisor, as well as The Mole. Merlin and the rest eventually figure him out, but Arthur takes the longest to quit trusting him.
  • NUMB3RS: Some episodes have certain advisors, from arson experts and anti-terrorism experts to ordinary comic book experts, helping the FBI with their case, but who turn out to have orchestrated the case themselves for whatever reason.
    • Subverted in "The O.G.". The guns used to orchestrate several shooting chains between gangs turned out to have all come back from a gun buy-back program and all signed off by Lieutenant Gary Walker, who was advising the team up to this point, however as Walker points out, his signature only means they were turned in at his drop-off location, and there were other people involved with the program who would also have had access to the guns.
    • Played with in "Scratch" via a Bait-and-Switch; its initially thought that the lottery expert working with the team is the inside man, but later it turns out that it's the expert's boss that's the inside man.
  • Spooks, Series 7: Bernard Qualtrough, a retired MI5 spycatcher who Sir Harry Pearce calls on in the third episode, after realizing that Operation Sugarhorse, a plan to insert Western moles in high-ranking Russian government positions, is compromised. Harry has several meetings with him about likely suspects inside the Service who could be passing intel to the Russians, and he doesn't find out until the tail-end of episode five that Qualtrough himself is a long-term mole for them. By the next episode, Qualtrough has successfully framed Harry for the leak, in order to protect his real contact on the Grid — Connie James.
  • Subverted in "Aurora", an episode of Stargate Atlantis: When visiting the ruins of a ship that had the crew both in stasis and believing that they were still flying the vessel in a virtual reality setting, the second in command apparently was planning to do something against her boss. However, it's later revealed that the actual second in command was killed long before the events of the episode by a Wraith, and a Wraith (presumably the same one that killed her) was impersonating her.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • At the 2015 Guerra De Reyes, it was revealed all the problems faced by La Artillería Pesada in the World Wrestling League were caused by their manager, El Profe, who revealed this after he betrayed Thunder and Lighting to Jose Chaparro and Legion, handing Kronya and Spectro the tag team title belts.

    Theater 
  • In Pippin, the Lead Player is deliberately guiding Pippin down a path that is supposed to end with Pippin's dramatic suicide.

    Video Games 
  • Alpha Protocol: Many, but the gold medal goes to the entire staff of the eponymous agency. There's one mole; everyone else was complicit in the decision to abandon and kill you in Saudi Arabia.
  • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, in the first case, the eponymous attorney is working under Kristoph Gavin, who serves as his co-counsel in this case. Kristoph turns out to be the murderer. Then in the fourth case he turns out to be the Big Bad of the whole game.
  • From Assassin's Creed Al-Mualim, Mentor of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins and who gave Altaïr his mission, is not only a Templar himself, but the Big Bad.
  • In Asura's Wrath, the Golden Spider offers Asura cryptic advice several times in the game while he is in Naraku to aid him in his battle against the Deities. The Spider is actually behind the rise of the Gohma (and consequently the Deities' villainy as well) which was apparently a test of the Deities' worthiness to wield Mantra, and he's only aiding Asura because he wants to claim Mithra as his vessel and is grooming him to be his heir.
  • In the old C64 game Bard's Tale 2, the goal was to find the pieces of the Destiny Wand in order to defeat the big bad Lagoth Zanta. Every time you found a piece, you needed to get hints to the location of the next one by paying a character known as the sage. Once you assemble the wand, you discover that the sage was in fact Lagoth Zanta all along. Incidentally, you can pay the sage for information about some things other than the pieces, and he does have accurate information for sale on the subject of Lagoth Zanta.
  • In BioShock, your guide throughout most of the game, former revolutionary figurehead Atlas, turns out to be mobster Frank Fontaine, who was thought dead according to the back story. You're a genetically altered and hypnotically conditioned assassin created by Fontaine as part of his scheme to seize control of Rapture from Andrew Ryan, and Atlas's Character Catchphrase "Would you kindly..." was actually the command phrase to make you obey his orders.
  • In the first Bookworm Adventures game, Professor Codex appears to be happy to help Lex the bookworm rescue Cassandra the oracle. However, Lex learns that the Big Bad who kidnapped Cassandra wasn't Dracula, as Codex told him, but Professor Codex himself, who used his imprisonment of Cassandra (and Dracula's apparent kidnapping of him) to maneuver Lex into fighting the books' monsters and unknowingly breaking the chains of fiction that kept them in the books. Thanks to Lex doing such a great job with these monsters, Codex can now control them as his minions. Fortunately, he gets a final boss battle to set things right.
  • In Bunny Must Die, Bunny, upon receiving her curse, meets up with a fat messenger of God (read: Dechronos) who offers to lead her to the Cave of the Seven Devils to remove said curse — and gets gored by a stag shortly upon their arrival. By the time she's slagged all the other devils and beaten Chelsea to a pulp, she finds him, fresh as a daisy, and he tells her that he set the plant to blow once she was near it. All of this just to give her a reason to get him all his power back.
  • In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, General Shepherd, the main US Army commander, is The Chessmaster and ultimate Big Bad, having manipulated the massive invasion of Washington DC and the war between the US and Russia to demonstrate the US's military might as revenge for having 30,000 of his troops nuked in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
  • Castlevania
    • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has Barlowe teaching Shanoa how to use glyphs and such, so she can use the Dominus glyph to destroy an artifact that, when destroyed, will allegedly destroy Dracula. He keeps secret from her two things: that using Dominus will kill the user (you can even use it and die in regular gameplay, once you have all three parts), and that destroying said artifact, in actuality, will bring about the return of Dracula and his castle, which was his goal all along.
      Barlowe: How dare you... even forget... who raised you... you... STUPID DISCIPLE!
    • Zead of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness also qualifies as a Treacherous Advisor. At first, he is seen giving Hector helpful hints and advice in his quest to get revenge on Isaac for killing his wife. Naturally, St. Germain knows what Zead's true purpose is, thus why the two are enemies with one another as Germain himself tries to stop Hector from going after Isaac and therefore playing any more of his role in Zead's plans. Eventually, it is revealed that Zead was using Hector to find a perfect host for the resurrection of Dracula, and that, indeed, Zead was Death, The Dragon to Dracula himself, in disguise.
    • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow had Zobek, not put in spoilers because the cast is ever so small, who else could it be? He turns out to be one of the eponymous Lords of Shadow and heavily implied to be Death, but before he can usurp the mask's powers SATAN kills him.
    • In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the aforementioned Zobek is confirmed to be Death.
  • Your boss, Mr. Jones in Code Name: Viper is actually the guy behind the South American drug ring you've been commissioned to stop.
  • In Dark Star One, Robert give Kayron his father's eponymous ship and sends him on his quest. In the end, he turns out to be Kayron's father's killer.
  • Sindri Myr to Chaos Lord Bale in Dawn of War, leading to one of the most narm-filled moments outside of the Soulstorm expansion.
  • The Big Bad of Demonophobia turns out to be Ritz, the phantom that has been providing Sakuri with hints throughout the game so that she can blunder her way into letting him escape Hell and wreak havoc.
  • The Professor in Detective Barbie 2 is a local historian that the detectives depend on in the treasure hunt and share their evidence with, but he also can turn out to be out to steal the treasure for himself in the ending where he is the culprit.
  • The Tribunal of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind were this to the hero-king Nerevar, as they were his trusted advisors (and in Token Evil Teammate Almalexia's case his wife) before betraying him to become gods.
  • Final Fantasy X can be considered the apotheosis of the concept. The party's initial quest is a voyage to seek aid in destroying the monster Sin; the ultimate end of this quest is the spirit of Lady Yunalesca who, in The Reveal, turns out to be an insane nihilist who has been complicit with Sin's cycle of reincarnation since the beginning, having offered her own husband as the first Final Aeon (which would also make him the second Sin). And the Maesters of Yevon are being advised on how to defeat Sin by Maester Seymour, in The ''other'' Reveal, turns out to be an insane nihilist who is plotting to merge with Sin so he can destroy all life on Spira.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the high-ranked Paladin Orson leads Prince Ephraim and his group into a direct trap, having betrayed his country since the enemy promised to revive his deceased wife.
    • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Izuka combines this with Evil Chancellor and tricks naive Prince Pelleas into selling out his country to the greedy Begnion senators. Those same Senators, in turn, betray and attempt to murder their own Empress for passing policy they don't approve of. Except for Sephiran, her closest and most trusted advisor and guardian... who betrays her for a different reason.
    • Exaggerated in Fire Emblem: Awakening. In chapter 7, Chrom randomly introduces a never mentioned character with a re-colored Mook design, the Hierarch. Chrom states the Hierarch was his elder sister Emmeryn's advisor and caretaker when she was young. Less than a minute after this, the Hierarch walks over unseen to the enemy commander, tells him he led Emmeryn and her friends into an ambush, and the enemy commander then rewards him with death. This event and the Hierarch are both never mentioned again, which becomes odd as the characters never learn he betrayed them in the first place, but just forget about him.
  • Full Throttle had Adrian Ripburger, who murders his employer Malcolm Corley in order to kill biker culture by turning the world's last dedicated motorcycle manufacturer into a maker of minivans. What sets Full Throttle apart from most examples of the trope is that Full Throttle actually spells out the reason Corley keeps Ripburger around. Corley is primarily a visionary and idealist, but a self-aware one, who realizes he needs someone with business savvy and killer instinct (like Ripburger) to keep him from chasing too many wild dreams and running his company into the ground. Corley also makes no attempt to hide his personal loathing for Ripburger, though he claims to respect him on a professional level.
  • The central plot twist of Jade Empire. Your wise Old Master who set you on the epic quest to begin with is the real Big Bad, having raised you as Laser Guided Tyke Bomb that would destroy his enemies and allow him to claim the Water Dragon's power, at which point he would kill you using the flaws in your training that he deliberately planted.
  • In the SNES Jurassic Park game, Dennis Nedry will occasionally call the player and give false information such as spitters giving you more life, raptors only attacking you if you move, approaching a T-Rex will give you a 1-Up, or it's okay for you to touch the electric fence. He'll even sometimes say "SUCKER!" when calling you.
  • Kirby's Return to Dream Land has Magolor. The reason why he tasked Kirby and friends to repair his spaceship and defeat Landia is because the dragon is guarding the Master Crown to keep it out of evil hands. Magolor's first attempt to beat Landia resulted in the Lor Starcutter being shot down, thus kicking off the plot, and he reveals his true nature to Kirby after finally claiming the Crown for himself.
  • Lloyd is one of these in The Legend of Dragoon, posing as an advisor to King Albert while secretly working for Emperor Doel, though this is only a secret to the characters; the player learns of Lloyd's deception in the very first cutscene in the game.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: For aiding Hyrule and its people, the King appoints Agahnim to be his chief adviser. Then Agahnim gets rid of the king, brainwashes the soldiers, and makes Hyrule Castle his base of operations.
  • Much of the Rat God's guidance in Mad Rat Dead is a ploy to lure Mad Rat into getting eaten by a cat.
  • In Mantra, the plot of the game is that Saric (the player character) is supposed to retrieve the Mantras of fire, earth, water, air, and force to help out his master, the Ambassador, in his negotiations with the evil magician Balther. Late in the game, however, you find out that the Ambassador is actually Balther.
  • Subverted by Mr. Mach in Megaman Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar And Cybeast Falzar, as he is not truly treacherous. After Megaman is lured into a trap by WWW (World Three) and kidnapped, several members decide to betray WWW and start up their own organization, taking Megaman with them. He then arranges a meeting with Lan to explain that he has actually been working for WWW in order to repay a favor from a higher-ranking member, his involvement in the near-burning of the school during the first day, and that he helped kidnap Megaman before finding out about the traitors. Mr. Mach then tells Lan where Megaman might currently be, verbally beats himself up for being a hypocrite, and asks for forgiveness before leaving.
  • The original Mercenaries has Josef oust Sergei as leader of the Mafia near the end of the game; probably not all that surprising, since 1) this is The Mafiya we're talking about, 2) Sergei is an airheaded Small Name, Big Ego, 3) Josef is ex-KGB, and 4) Sergei tried to have the player character and Josef taken out by the North Koreans first, which obviously failed 5) they foreshadow the hell out it by showing Josef having practically undisguised contempt for Sergei's bumbling and snotty attitude.
  • Metal Gear:
  • Metroid Dread: The ADAM AI who's been guiding you throughout the game is actually the Big Bad Raven Beak, impersonating ADAM ever since he and Samus lost contact in the begining. Raven Beak tricked Samus into cultivating her latent Metroid powers so that instead of simply extracting her DNA to create an army of Metroids, he can turn Samus into the ultimate Metroid and clone her once he defeated her.
  • In The Night of the Rabbit some characters insinuate that the Marquis de Hoto, mentor to the protagonist, has malevolent intentions. Subverted: he does not. However, he is also only a memory of the real Marquis de Hoto as he was before a Face–Heel Turn, so the concerns were not exactly ill-founded.
  • In Ōkami, you wind up consulting High Priestess Rao for help fixing the cursed mess that is Sei-an City and the Ryoshima Coast. Too bad she'd been killed months earlier, and you turn out to have been dealing with Demon Lord Ninetails, who was responsible for a lot of it and had been trying to use you as a Macguffin Delivery Service for the Fox Rods or, failing that, get you killed. It works pretty dang well, too, and only some very quick thinking and a Heroic Sacrifice on Queen Himiko's part allow Ammy to stop Ninetails.
  • Luigi has an offscreen adventure in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door where he collects the pieces of The Marvelous Compass to rescue Princess Eclair under Minister Crêpe's guidance. Minister Crêpe reveals himself to be an Evil Chancellor who set up the princess's kidnapping to make Luigi rebuild the compass for his own nefarious purposes.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 2 features a variation; in both games, the Time Count provides useful services — ones that can't be gotten anywhere else in Eternal Punishment. He turns out to actually be an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the Big Bad. Unlike most examples, it's not part of some overarching scheme — being a trickster and manipulator, he decided it'd be more fun this way, and arrogantly believed that even if he helped them, the heroes couldn't possibly defeat him.
    • In Persona 3, it turns out that Shuji Ikutsuki was actually trying to summon Nyx and end the world since long before the game even began, and that serving as the mentor for SEES was his way of using them as a weapon to accomplish this task. Without his own Persona, he had no way of defeating the Full Moon Shadows who needed to die in order to free Nyx, so he found some people who could get the job done, and...
  • Pillars of Dust: Almera and Elmer give Carlton and Gregg the mission of exploring Alluriga and learning about their heritage. Almer and Elmer turn out to be Almorigga in disguise, who wants to kill Carlton and Gregg in order to use their royal blood to undo the seal on his powers.
  • A variation in Pokémon Black and White: Since the theme of the game is Gray-and-Gray Morality, the main antagonist N is the hero whose advisor turns out to have been using him all along, rather than the player character. His advisor and adoptive father, Ghetsis, was manipulating him and planning to kill him after their plans succeeded.
  • Pony Island: Played with. The Daemons tell you the Hopeless Soul isn't to be trusted, and if you collect all the tickets...he still does absolutely nothing to seem he isn't on the up-and-up, he just decides to become the True Final Boss to give a satisfying conclusion to the completionist run. However, After you beat the game then tamper certain variables in the save file, come back into the game and hit continue will lead you to a screen where the typical 'devil head' sprite will appear blue and talk first with the sound effect of Lucifer, berating the player messing with game files, but afterwards switching to the sound... of the Hopeless Soul. Then it will let you in on a secret — sometimes he talks "in different voices", and he asks you to "not to tell dad".
  • Portal: GLaDOS, in the first game, initally appears to be a kooky AI helper who appears over the loudspeakers to guide you through the puzzles in the Aperature Science Testing facility. When Chell complete all the tests, GLaDOS promptly tries to kill her by dropping her in a fire pit, forcing Chell to get out of there and track the killer AI down.
  • Randal's Monday: The business bum is using Randal to regain the power of the ring.
  • In the first Ratchet & Clank game, our heroes initially try to alert local superhero Captain Qwark to the Blargg threat, but discover that he's actually working with Chairman Drekk, who's offering him a substantial amount of money and fame for sponsoring their new homeworld.
  • In RuneScape:
    • In the "Rune Mysteries" quest, Ariane's kindly and supportive mentor Wizard Ellaron has been stringing her along in order to use her to blow up the Wizards' Tower.
    • One of the Signature Heroes, Retired Badass Xenia, is in her own mind a Trickster Sink or Swim Mentor. To the player's perspective (and likely that of other characters involved), she's a treacherous advisor who places total strangers into certain peril in hopes that an adventurer (usually another total stranger) might step up and save them. She insists that she would be able to save the "victim" should the "rescue" attempt go wrong...
  • In Sacrifice, Mithras, a blind prophet and benevolent advisor to the gods is revealed to be Eldritch Abomination Marduk in a cunning disguise.
  • In The Settlers 7 campaign, Princess Zoe is sent by her father to save the kingdom of Tandria from the evil Lord Wolverine who usurped the good King Balderus. She is assisted by a kind old barkeep who is actually King Balderus in disguise. As added insult to injury, Wolverine usurped Balderus because he was a Tyrant and Balderus told Zoe that she was helping to free the people from Wolverine's evil rule.
  • Soma duology:
    • Soma Spirits: Form and Dissonance, the Great Spirits, both try to act as mentors for the brothers Heart and Soul, guiding them to collect orbs of Joy and Sorrow, respectively — though of the two, Form behaves as the more standard mentor while Dissonance is an openly antagonistic Stealth Mentor. Regardless, when you collect all six orbs, the mentor representing the orb you got less of (Form for Joy and Dissonance for Sorrow) will reveal their agenda to destroy the other world and betray the heroes, becoming the final boss — unless you got equal orbs of Joy and Sorrow, in which case both mentors betray you and try to destroy all of Soma.
    • Soma Union: Captain Guidance, leader of the Starship Virtue, sends Zero, Reca, and Lumen on their mission to collect the four orbs supposedly to use them to repair the shattered Soma. In truth, the orbs are pieces of Absolution and he intends to resurrect it to destroy what remains of Soma, so he can create a perfect world where Spirits can live their own lives instead of being slaves of Professor M.
  • SongBird Symphony: The Owl sets up a quid-pro-quo exchange with the Player Character, Birb, at the start of the game — if Birb can learn the songs of every bird in the forest and power up the Owl's artifact, the Owl will tell Birb what his true species and parentage is. In truth, the Owl is using Birb to claim mastery over the power of music and rule the forest, even if he has to wipe out the Lyrebirds to accomplish this goal. While the player has elements to understand who the Big Bad is, Birb is only a child, and he doesn't see anything coming until the Owl devolves into Evil Gloating about his plans.
  • In Suikoden, one of the first characters to join you is Cool Old Guy Sanchez, one of the members of La Résistance under Odessa. He generally comes across as a fairly unremarkable Smart Non-Action Guy, right up until the point he, well, lands himself on this page by revealing he was reporting to the Emperor the whole time.
  • Subversion in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, especially on Mizal Touval, the Shura Advisor (because he is not on the player's side all the time). He actually had plans of his own, that is to overthrow the Big Bad and usurp his power on his own. But he never got lucky in his endeavor, because: He either gets killed before he could pull the treachery off (Compact 3), or said Big Bad is dead first, and his successor killed him before he could do anything else (Original Generation Gaiden).
  • In System Shock 2, Dr. Janice Polito acts as Mission Control for the Soldier, but is revealed to be SHODAN, the first game's antagonist. She forms a fragile alliance with the player and guides them against The Many, before turning on the Soldier in the end.
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Van Grants, the main character's mentor and pseudo-father figure, aids the party and provides advice and counsel to the main character for the first third of the game. He then not only betrays the party and leaves them to die, but also turns out to be the real Big Bad manipulating Grand Maestro Mohs. He manages to rub even more salt in the wound by casually telling the main character that, in fact, Van created him to be nothing more than an inferior duplicate of one his minions, to be sacrificed as a pawn in his plot to destroy the world. Ouch. The fact that Van turns out to be more of a Necessarily Evil villain never alleviates the bitter sting of this personal betrayal.
  • The Tiamat Sacrament: Ry'jin was once a scholar and adviser to King Khytiel, but eventually formed a coup against him. As "Faen", he acts as an advisor to Az'uar and Xandra in the first half of the game and helps them find the Soul Gems of the Great Seven Dragons. This is all a plot for him to steal the power of the Great Seven from Az'uar.
  • Playing a campaign for Chaos in Total War: Warhammer will reveal that, near the end, the Advisor who has been guiding you is secretly an agent of Tzeentch. Though he really doesn’t do much, as it’s then revealed that his pet crow was a Lord of Change the whole time, and said Lord of Change quickly disposes of him to become the final boss.
  • Ultima VII plays with this a bit by linking it to a Chain of Deals. In order to contact the Time Lord, whose help is necessary to stop the Guardian from dominating Britannia, you need to get help from the Wisps — interdimensional information-brokers who, in exchange for the help, want you to acquire information for another client of theirs. The information in question is a notebook on the Guardian and his puppet church, the Fellowship, composed by one of the few Britannian scholars aware of the Guardian's existence. Turns out, their client is the Guardian, who, having found out what his opposition knows about him, then has him murdered.
  • Unlucky Hero:
    • Amethos seeks to kill off the younger princess of the kingdom so that he can marry the ruling princess and take over. This happens in basically the first ten minutes of the game, so it's not really a spoiler.
    • After his defeat, Lord Tourma fakes a Heel–Face Turn and acts as advisor. No one's fooled, except Princess Christel.
  • In Unreal II: The Awakening, the main character's rather paternal commanding officer sends him on a Fetch Quest to assemble Plot Coupons, ostensibly under orders from The Federation to keep it out of the hands of the Always Chaotic Evil Skaarj. It turns out he just wants the assembled Artifact of Doom for himself to take over the universe.
  • In Vexx, the player is given advice by an old mentor figure named Darby about finding the Wraithearts in order to eventually defeat the Big Bad. Of course, Darby actually IS the Big Bad with the Evil Plan.
  • View from Below: Peter, the leader of the Pieties, orders Iris to recruit mortals to fight the Crimson God. What Iris and the mortals don't realize is that the Crimson God is invincible unless his three soul pieces are defeated first, and Peter is banking on the Crimson God killing and absorbing the blood of the mortals. Learning this causes Melody to realize that the Pieties can't be trusted, but also causes a rift between her and Iris because she can't be sure if Iris is in on the conspiracy.
  • In Wario Land 3, Wario gets advice from a sealed away mysterious figure who will apparently give him riches and power if released. But sadly for him, it turns out this figure is actually Rudy the Clown, a Monster Clown who conquered said pocket universe the game is set in and transformed all the people into monsters.
  • What Lies In The Fog: The Priest rescues the Stranger from The Fog and tells him to shelter the townspeople inside the church to protect them. Should the stranger do so, the Priest reveals himself to be a demon who serves the Fog and was getting everyone in one place so the Fog may eat them.
  • In World of Warcraft:
    • The troll Yeh'kinya guided players through deciphering a prophecy about the return of Hakkar the Soulflayer and how to seal him away. Under his guidance players confronted the weakened soul of Hakkar and sealed it in an ancient vessel, supposedly to bind him. In fact, Yeh'kinya knew that sealing Hakkar into the vessel was a necessary step to allow his rebirth, leading to Hakkar's rise in Zul'gurub.
    • Drakuru in Grizzly Hills seems like a reasonable troll compared to his bloodthirsty kin so helping him in fighting them off seems like the smart move. In fact, his directions resulted in the trolls losing control of their main defense against the Scourge, hastening their empire's fall and gaining Drakuru praise from the Lich King.
    • Wrathion became this for Horde players in Mists of Pandaria. He sent them to defeat Garrosh to "save the Horde" while fully believing the Alliance would subsequently subjugate it. He's rather dismissive of whatever complaints the player might have had about being used.
    • On the Timeless Isle Kairoz had players empower his Vision of Time to see visions of the future if either the Horde or Alliance proved victorious. In a subsequent novel, Kairoz used the Visions to allow Garrosh's escape to Draenor, intent on using the Vision to build an army across multiple timelines.
  • A rare meta example occurs in Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. The game's tutorial is actually an evil spirit called Malice who lured Yui into committing suicide through its commands, and intends to do the same to Haru once she climbs the mountain at the end of the game.

    Webcomics 
  • Nicodemus, the Big Bad of The Dreamland Chronicles got his start as one of these. Notably, he actually told his liege in advance that he would betray him, though he made it clear that he would only do so if his liege continued what Nicodemus considered to be a self-destructive policy. His liege didn't stop. Nicodemus was true to his word.
  • In El Goonish Shive, the seer that serves as Susan's guide during the "Parable" storyline turns out to be the evil seer that Grace was warned about.

    Western Animation 
  • In Men in Black: The Series, Kay's first partner and mentor Alpha turned out to be a scheming bastard. When Kay refused to join him, Alpha shot him and left him for dead. It's no wonder Kay became an emotionless robot after that.
  • Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters
    • For most of the first season, Jonathan Rook is a billionaire businessman, brilliant scientist, and the Flex Fighters' benefactor, essentially hiring them as Charter City's superheroes and providing them with their heroic identities, gadgets, training, and publicity. Near the end, it is revealed that he is just using them to test out his Flexarium monster army, most of the other villains are also unwitting test subjects of his various technologies and advancements, and he tries to kill them once they are of no use to him and have foiled his plans. On top of that, he is also secretly Stretch Monster, the Flex Fighters' biggest enemy.
    • For most of Season 1, Malcolm Kane is Rook's grouchy head of security, who also mentors the Flex Fighters in teamwork and combat, despite his distrust of them. He seemingly bonds with them, and when he pursues them in Season 2, it's because he believes they're criminals and is unaware of Rook's true nature. Late in Season 2, Kane is revealed to be the leader of the Tech Men, a villainous organization, who played the long game as Rook's right-hand man to take his company and resources under him. He was also aware of Rook being Stretch Monster. Kane betrays the heroes and Rook, and becomes a large enough threat that forces them all to team up to stop his plans.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Mentor Mole, Treacherous Adviser

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