History Main / MotiveMisidentification

** Grandfather, who literally survived the plummet of "[[ColonyDrop a gazillion tons of red hot metal and duct tape]]", mocks [[spoiler:Numbuh Zero]] for thinking it could actually crush him. [[spoiler:Zero]] retorts that they actually weren't trying to crush him. They only wanted to get him into the now-crashed room where they house the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia decommissioning chamber]]. Grandfather is only able to make a FacingTheBulletsOneLiner before the chamber wipes his memory again.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** Upon realizing childhood friend Tommy Eliott is the murderous Hush, Batman assumes Tommy hates Bruce Wayne because Thomas Wayne failed to save the life of Tommy's father after a car crash. As it turns out, Eliott isn't angry Thomas couldn't save his dad...he's angry he ''did'' save Tommy's mom because Tommy ''arranged'' for his parent's "accident" so he could inherit their fortune as a kid. Instead, he had to spend decades taking care of his mentally damaged mother before she finally passed on from cancer to let him get the money he wanted.

* ''Franchise/JusticeLeague'': In ''ComicBook/JLA1997'', a series of wild events are causing reality to warp which includes Batman vanishing because Bruce Wayne's parents were never murdered. When Oracle takes herself offline for a while, she's confronted by an angry Martian Manhunter who assumes Barbara Gordon is taking advantage of all this to find a way to change history so she was never shot and put in a wheelchair. A shocked Barbara responds she never once considered that; rather, she's trying to find some way to get reality reset yet still make sure the Waynes live and Bruce free of being Batman. Apologizing, the Manhunter relates that Barbara can't just play God like this and, like it or not, reality still needs Batman to endure that tragedy.
* In ''Comicbook/SleeperWildStorm'', TAO's motives are completely unknown to the characters, and the readers are led to believe he's running an incredibly complex GambitRoulette to try to TakeOverTheWorld. It turns out [[spoiler:he's planning on setting off WorldWarIII ForTheEvulz]].
* ComicBook/SpiderMan once tracked down ComicBook/DoctorOctopus through various thefts, only for Doc Ock to give up once his experiment failed. The real motive wasn't criminal; Doc Ock wanted to create a cure for cancer to save an old flame.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach is convinced that someone is trying to take out all the former vigilantes when the Comedian is found dead; Dr. Manhattan suddenly being discredited seemingly confirms that idea. He's correct in that the same person is responsible for both events, but the victims being former vigilantes is largely incidental; the mastermind's true motives and plans are much more elaborate. He even invokes the trope upon learning of Rorschach's investigations, with an assassin sent after Ozymandias mainly to keep Rorschach on the wrong trail.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': While it's true that Ares aligns himself with Athena because it gives him the opportunity to take down his hated father, she and Diana are blindsided by his more pressing motivation; to gain the ability to enter Themyscira where his daughter Lyta is being raised out of his reach. When he shows up and takes Lyta no one was expecting it.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach is convinced that someone is trying to take out all the former vigilantes when the Comedian is found dead. His killer's true motives are different, and he's invoking the trope to draw attention away from him.

** Grandfather, who literally survived the plummet of "[[ColonyDrop a gazillion tons of red hot metal and duct tape]]", mocks [[spoiler:Numbuh Zero]] for thinking it could actually crush him. [[spoiler:Zero]] retort that they actually weren't trying to crush him. They only wanted to get him into the now-crashed room where they house the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia decommissioning chamber]]. Grandfather is only able to make a FacingTheBulletsOneLiner before the chamber wipes his memory again.

* Magus from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' is a send-up of Japanese fantasy RPG tropes: as the Fiendlord, he sends forth his monstrous armies in a bid for world domination. He's also identified as the creator of [[EldritchAbomination Lavos]], the titanic hellspawn fated to destroy the world in 1999 AD. Crono and company set off to defeat Magus and prevent him from triggering the end of the world; unfortunately, [[AntiVillain it turns out that Magus was actually trying to destroy Lavos all along,]] and they interrupt him just in time to ''hasten'' Lavos' awakening, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero putting the world on schedule for destruction in 1999 AD.]][[note]]Since the end of the world happens in 1999 AD even without the intervention of the heroes, and Magus disappears after this point in the original timeline, general assumption is that in the original version of events, Magus only managed to weaken Lavos and was incinerated in the process.[[/note]]

In ''VideoGame/HiFiRush'', Chai and LaResistance spend a majority of the game assuming the reason [[BigBad Kale]] is giving people ArtificialLimbs and creating an AI called SPECTRA that can MindControl them is for a sinister plan, along the lines of creating an army of brainwashed cyborgs that he can use to TakeOverTheWorld. Near the end of the game, [[spoiler: Kale reveals that his actual plan with SPECTRA is to use it to [[MundaneUtility influence people into buying more Vandelay products]] because [[LaboriousLaziness he finds researching market trends and creating products that people will actually want to be too much hard work.]] Everyone is DisapointedByTheMotive, with Chai being disgusted by how "corporate" it is and Korsica commenting on it being "overly complex".]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' Raiden accuses BigBad [[spoiler:Senator Armstrong]] of being a typical greedy self-serving politician using the war economy to boost his own position. The villain initially plays along with this assumption. After Raiden destroys his Metal Gear, he figures that Raiden deserves to know his real goal and gives a MotiveRant while delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. He's actually a SocialDarwinist who hates WarForFunAndProfit, and he wants to tear down America and rebuild it as a nation where everyone is free to fight for what they believe following no law other than their own will. Raiden amends his earlier opinion of the man, saying "You're not greedy... you're BATSHIT INSANE!"

* Randall in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'' Mike (and most of the audience) thinks he's trying to cheat his way to the all-time scream record, when he's really up to something much worse...

* ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': At the end of the game, Sly initially believes that Arpeggio only planned to reassemble Clockwerk's frame because he's DrivenByEnvy over the fact that other birds can fly while he cannot, outright calling him pathetic. However, Arpeggio soon reveals that he actually [[ImmortalitySeeker wants to use the Clockwerk parts for immortality]].

* Randall in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''. Mike (and most of the audience) thinks he's trying to cheat his way to the all-time scream record, when he's really up to something much worse...

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Steve Rogers and the rest of Team Captain America, and later [[spoiler:Tony Stark once he gets aware that the evidence against Bucky Barnes was faked]], believe that Helmut Zemo is looking for the remnants of the Winter Soldier program to revive it and use [[spoiler:the five remaining {{Super Soldier}}s]] for some nefarious plot. In truth [[spoiler:Zemo never cared for the Winter Soldiers except as bait, and the first thing he does on finding them is killing them all in cryosleep. What he wants all along is to bring a wedge between the Avengers so that they'd fight and destroy each other, and for this he needs the report of Bucky's involvement with the murder of the Starks that is hidden in the Siberian HYDRA facility.]]