History Main / SubvertedSuspicionAesop

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': When [[spoiler: Zuko]] finally has their HeelFaceTurn, most of the group is open to hear their side of the story and give them a chance. Katara, however is skeptical, and doesn't trust their new teammate. The 'investigation' part of the trope comes in in the much [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] individual adventures they each have with their new member. Of course, in the end, it does end up being an aesop when Katara is proven wrong.

* AvatarTheLastAirbender provides a very good example that is played almost to the letter...except that it ends up actually being averted. When [[spoiler: Zuko]] finally has their HeelFaceTurn, most of the group is open to hear their side of the story and give them a chance. Katara, however is skeptical, and doesn't trust their new teammate. The 'investigation' part of the trope comes in in the much [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] individual adventures they each have with their new member. Of course, in the end, it does end up being an aesop when Katara is proven wrong.
** Katara points out that she has good reason not to believe him. She was there when he first expressed an interest in a HeelFaceTurn, but didn't turn, resulting in Aang ending up (mostly) dead.

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', in the episode 'Living Conditions': Buffy insists that her annoying roommate is an evil demon, and suddenly declares she needs to kill her, which her friends naturally take as a ''bit'' of an overreaction to said roommate playing Cher too many times. It turns out the roommate actually ''was'' a demon, the spurious evidence Buffy had was accurate, and Buffy's own erratic behavior was a result of the roommate trying to steal her soul.

* SouthPark had a variation. A middle-eastern looking kid and his family move in, and Cartman is suspicious of him immediately. The kid's family itself was innocent, but Cartman's suspicion directly results in him saving the town by finding out about someone else's terrorist plot. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at the end.

* In ''WinxClub'', Techna suspects the new teacher of being connected to the BigBad, and attempts to use a Detect Evil spell on him (actually a translation glitch, she was attempting to detect a specific kind of being which he wasn't.) A few episodes later, yup, he's evil.

* ''WolverineAndTheXMen'' had a ''[[SubvertedTrope double-subverted]]'' suspicion aesop. Yes, really. It all starts with Emma Frost, who joined the team, but Logan was suspicious of her. For 19 episodes, she seemed reasonable, so it just seemed like the standard, unsubverted version. Then it became this trope when it was revealed that Emma was only there to gain their trust so that she could find Jean Grey for the Inner Circle. Indeed, she was responsible in part for the explosion that almost killed Jean and Charles Xavier, the one that launched the series and initially broke up the X-Men. But ''that'' was quickly subverted again, when we discover that she was doing this to try to save the world from the emergence of the Phoenix.

* At the beginning of ''Series/TwentyFour'' Day 6, amid a series of terrorist bombings in American soil, a Middle Eastern youth named Ahmed (played by KalPenn) witnesses his father being detained as a suspected terrorist with apparently unclear evidence. The rest of the mostly white neighborhood then tries to pressure Ahmed to leave and are about to get violent until his neighbor defuses the situation, takes him into his home and even defends him against another neighbor who tries to kill him. An unfortunate victim of xenophobia used as an Aesop about bigotry? Nope! Turns out Ahmed himself is the real terrorist and "repays" his neighbor [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished by holding his family hostage and forcing him to deliver a package to his terrorist cell which results in him getting fatally shot and a nuclear bomb being detonated in the middle of LA]].

[[DiscreditedTrope However, that is not how the trope is played most of the time.]] We didn't sit in front of the TV and stay there for 11 minutes just to see how much of a JerkAss the main character can be. So, TV writers often write a twist to the Aesop, where the new guy that the majority of the characters were defending was EvilAllAlong. When it's subverted like this, it may be revealed that they're evil midway, but it can easily be covered up as NotWhatItLooksLike.

* The third season of SailorMoon toys with this trope a little, but ends up averting it. For a while, many of the senshi tell Usagi that she should regard Uranus and Neptune as enemies. Of course, she doesn't do so. But in the end, Usagi seems to have been the one with the right idea, since the girls eventually become part of the normal senshi group.
* Averted in Cardcaptor Sakura. Throughout the first arc, both Cerberus and Syaoran are distrustful of Kaho Mizuki, the magical newcomer to the neighborhood. Sakura, of course, doesn't understand their suspicion and proceeds to befriend her. Both boys then engage in a certain amount of investigating on Mizuki--Cerberus most noticeably--and for a while, it looks like this trope is going to be played straight, and Mizuki is going to end up being the BigBad. But in the end, it turns out she's on Sakura's side and it's really [[spoiler: Yukito Tsukishiro]] they should really have been watching out for.

* At the beginning of ''TwentyFour'' Day 6, amid a series of terrorist bombings in American soil, a Middle Eastern youth named Ahmed (played by KalPenn) witnesses his father being detained as a suspected terrorist with apparently unclear evidence. The rest of the mostly white neighborhood then tries to pressure Ahmed to leave and are about to get violent until his neighbor defuses the situation, takes him into his home and even defends him against another neighbor who tries to kill him. An unfortunate victim of xenophobia used as an Aesop about bigotry? Nope! Turns out Ahmed himself is the real terrorist and "repays" his neighbor [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished by holding his family hostage and forcing him to deliver a package to his terrorist cell which results in him getting fatally shot and a nuclear bomb being detonated in the middle of LA]].

-->'''Raven:''' {{I knew it}}. ''I knew it.'' We never should have trusted her!

* In an episode of [[AmericanDragonJakeLong American Dragon: Jake Long]], Jake's school holds a fund-raising auction in which the girls auction on which boy they want to date. Jake rigs the auction so he would go with the hottie instead of the nerd girl. Jake's friend warns him about being shallow. When there was a sighting of a Siren causing trouble, it took some convincing that the girl he was with was the culprit. [[spoiler: Turns out the nerd girl was the one who was the Siren]].

* In the same vein as the above, ''DesperateHousewives'' had a new neighbor move onto the lane with his sickly sister. After he helps her out with an issue her son was having, she goes to his house with a cake in thanks. While there, she discovers a wall of photos of shirtless young boys. He explains that he's a swim coach, but she still has her suspicions. Since this followed her being held hostage, it's suggested that she's merely suffering PTSD or something similar, but she's already told the local gossips. Eventually, things escalate to Wisteria Lane's residents protesting outside his house. The stress causes his sister to go into cardiac arrest and she dies. Lynette goes to him to apologize and finds that he's moving. Before leaving, he implies that his sister was what was keeping him from actually doing anything with the boys. However, there is some ambiguity in his statements, hinting that he may only be saying this to get back at Lynette for how her actions led to his sister's death.

A new character enters the setting. But someone gets suspicious of them, and thinks they're up to no good. All the other people say [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong not to be suspicious about new people]], and/or that they're just jealous (which may or may not be true) If you're TropeTelegraphing, you may expect the guy to, in fact, be a good guy, after the main characters [[WhatTheHellHero start stalking the character all day]], possibly throwing in some moments that are NotWhatItLooksLike, and for the new character to be PutOnABus in exasperation.

* At the beginning of ''TwentyFour'' Day 6, amid a series of terrorist bombings in American soil, a Middle Eastern youth named Ahmed witnesses his father being detained as a suspected terrorist with apparently unclear evidence. The rest of the mostly white neighborhood then tries to pressure Ahmed to leave and are about to get violent until his neighbor defuses the situation, takes him into his home and even defends him against another neighbor who tries to kill him. An unfortunate victim of xenophobia used as an Aesop about bigotry? Nope! Turns out Ahmed himself is the real terrorist and "repays" his neighbor [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished by holding his family hostage and forcing him to deliver a component of a nuclear bomb that ends up being detonated in the middle of LA]].

* The ''{{House}}'' team had a patient once that Thirteen was suspicious of, for no other reason than that the patient gave her the heebie jeebies. Everyone else thought she was just being unreasonably jealous and antagonistic. Turns out the patient was a [[spoiler:psychopath]]; Thirteen's [[MotherNatureFatherScience female intuition]] was able to pick up on the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the patient.

* AvatarTheLastAirbender provides a very good example that is played almost to the letter...except that it ends up actually being averted. When [[spoiler: Zuko]] finally has their HeelFaceTurn, most of the group is open to hear their side of the story and give them a chance. Katara, however is skeptical, and doesn't trust their new teammate. The 'investigation' part of the trope comes in in the much [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] individual adventures they each have with their new member. Of course, in the end, it does end up being an aesop when Katara is proven wrong.

* At the beginning of ''{{24}}'' Day 6, amid a series of terrorist bombings in American soil, a Middle Eastern youth named Ahmed witnesses his father being detained as a suspected terrorist with apparently unclear evidence. The rest of the mostly white neighborhood then tries to pressure Ahmed to leave and are about to get violent until his neighbor defuses the situation, takes him into his home and even defends him against another neighbor who tries to kill him. An unfortunate victim of xenophobia used as an Aesop about bigotry? Nope! Turns out Ahmed himself is the real terrorist and "repays" his neighbor [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished by holding his family hostage and forcing him to deliver a component of a nuclear bomb that ends up being detonated in the middle of LA]].

* ''WolverineAndTheXMen'' had a ''[[SubvertedTrope double-subverted]] suspicion aesop. Yes, really. It all starts with Emma Frost, who joined the team, but Logan was suspicious of her. For 19 episodes, she seemed reasonable, so it just seemed like the standard, unsubverted version. Then it became this trope when it was revealed that Emma was only there to gain their trust so that she could find Jean Grey for the Inner Circle. Indeed, she was responsible in part for the explosion that almost killed Jean and Charles Xavier, the one that launched the series and initially broke up the X-Men. But ''that'' was quickly subverted again, when we discover that she was doing this to try to save the world from the emergence of the Phoenix.

* ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': After having a bad experience with the griffon Gilda, Pinkie Pie comes to believe she's one of the most mean people in the universe. [[JerkAss She's in the ballpark, at any rate.]] Made un-Broken by the fact that the person advising Pinkie never actually met Gilda, and the ''only'' pony she's ever remotely nice to is Rainbow Dash.

* MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic: After having a bad experience with the griffon Gilda, Pinkie Pie comes to believe she's one of the most mean people in the universe. [[JerkAss She's in the ballpark, at any rate.]] Made un-Broken by the fact that the person advising Pinkie never actually met Gilda, and the ''only'' pony she's ever remotely nice to is Rainbow Dash.

* ''{{Jimmy Two-Shoes}}'': In a parody of ''RearWindow'', Jimmy suspects that his neighbor is actually an evil [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes pickle]] lady. At the end, he turns out to be correct, and she becomes a recurring villain.

* Subverted in MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic: After having a bad experience with the griffon Gilda, Pinkie Pie comes to believe she's one of the most mean people in the universe. [[JerkAss She's in the ballpark, at any rate.]]