troperville

tools

toys

Must be Monday. New podcast! Just click on the fancy logo below.
SubpagesLaconic
Main
PlayingWith
Quotes

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

TV Tropes Org
random
Playing With: Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
Basic Trope: A character regularly betrays his allies.
  • Straight: Bob betrays the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to go work for The Empire, which he later betrays to go work for The Federation.
  • Exaggerated: Bob can't stay loyal to any faction more than one episode at a time, sometimes even less.
  • Downplayed: Bob takes advantage of whichever side he's working for to line his own pockets, but won't actively betray them beyond that.
  • Justified: Bob is an opportunist who doesn't believe in pledging loyalty to any organization, ideal or higher power, but is only concerned with what benefits him.
  • Inverted: All of Bob's allies keeps betraying him.
  • Subverted: Bob is a Double Agent loyal to The Empire, and was only faking his betrayal towards them...
  • Double Subverted: ...until he goes rogue against them too.
  • Parodied: Bob requires to have a contract explicitly allowing him to betray.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob betrayed the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits for The Empire, betrayed The Empire for The Federation, then revealed that he never really betrayed the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits and only partially betrayed The Empire on the Misfits' behalf. In consequence, betraying The Federation. In the end, it turns-out he was a high-ranking member of The Cartel playing the Rag Tag Band Of Misfits for profit until his experiences "protecting" the misfits by pretending to betray them made him go-through a change of heart... and betray said cartel.
  • Averted: Bob stays loyal to the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits the entire show.
  • Enforced: Bob betrayed the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits for theEmpire, but wasn't originally supposed to betray the The Empire as well, but when the producers wanted more drama out of Bob, they demanded he betray The Empire and work for theFederation.
  • Lampshaded: "Well, I an't say I'm surprised you stabbed us in the back, after what you did to thos misfits".
  • Invoked: Alice wants to betray the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits and expects Bob to do so as well, so she prepares to betray the Misfits with him.
  • Exploited: Queen Alice of The Empire already knew Bob had Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, and ran a Batman Gambit hinging-upon the fact he would betray The Empire and defect to The Federation.
  • Defied: The Empire tempts Bob to betray the Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits, but Bob stands strong and refuses.
  • Discussed: "Bob betrayed you guys, too?"
  • Conversed: "Bob already betrayed Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits and The Empire, he'll probably betray The Federation, too".
  • Deconstructed: Word of Bob's tendency to betray his allies quickly spreads wide and far, to the point where no one trusts him and he is eventually Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves.
  • Reconstructed: Bob reveals that he only left the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits after learning that their leader was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and he left The Empire after learning that joining them was also a mistake. Bob's loyalty is to his ideals, not to any one group.

Go back to Chronic Backstabbing Disorder before Bob betrays you too.

random
TV Tropes by TV Tropes Foundation, LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org.
Privacy Policy
9055
26