History Sandbox / UnwittingPawn

* The ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series:

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' retcons many of the events previously established in the franchise. It is explained that the events of the first two ''Metal Gear'' games involved [[spoiler:Big Boss trying to create a place where individual liberty is guaranteed for everyone, instead of being a soldiers' haven. The Patriots have Solid Snake tear down both Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land to destroy Big Boss' dream of freedom]]. The first two ''Metal Gear Solid'' games are changed to have Solid Snake again being used by the Patriots [[spoiler:and possibly Zero]] to defeat anyone who stood in their way. The Patriots by [=MGS4=] (set in 2014) are now an [[spoiler:AI system which was supposed to continue Zero's legacy by gaining control of all of mankind using the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system. Snake is sent in to stop Revolver Ocelot from destroying the Patriots AI system]]. At the same time, Snake and his allies are used [[spoiler:by Liquid Ocelot in his goal in destroying the Patriots AI systems, Liquid Ocelot pretending to plan to hijack the System using the AI named 'GW' and Snake and company countering it by using a virus to destroy the it, not knowing the virus as written by Naomi would destroy the remaining Patriot AIs as well]]; even if he didn't know about it or plan for it to happen, it certainly fit his goals. ''Somewhat'' averted in that his own post-Patriot vision was averted by [[spoiler:Sunny Gurlukovich, who wrote the virus to destroy the Patriot AIs but preserve key parts of modern civilization, and then, Drebin implies that Ocelot's vision of a war-torn world would still be an inevitable likely outcome despite this, that or the UN becoming a neo-Patriots/Philosophers III group]].)

*** If Peace Walker is anything to go by (and possibly ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4''), Big Boss's misinformation doesn't even come close to the fact that the Patriots essentially manipulated Snake into trying to destroy Metal Gear and take Big Boss down as an insurance policy in case they failed to either bring him back into the fold or ruin/kill Big Boss the first time by one of their agents firing a nuke at the East Coast.

* The ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series:

** The ending to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' implies that Solid Snake and Otacon may have ended up being Unwitting Pawns of the Patriots all along.

** In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]], the homunculi manipulate alchemists into trying to create the Philosopher's Stone so that their leader Dante can use it for her own immortality. Dante also falsely promises to make the homunculi human if they succeed.

* Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Reconquista movement and BigBad of the first arc of ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' is ultimately this for [[spoiler:King Joseph of Gallia, the ultimate BigBad of much of the series. Cromwell's rebellion would not have gotten anywhere without Gallian aid and the only reason why Joseph helped in the first place was so he could use the chaos of the war as a cover to slip his agents into Albion in order to find the Founder's Music Box as part of his plan to gather Brimir's Void relics and harness their power.]]

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', seemingly '''everyone''' is a pawn of Aleister Crowley. A number of them are aware of this (so, not unwitting), but TheHero, Touma, is not. [[spoiler:There are even some hints that Aleister is trying to pull one over on ''Aiwass'', though until [[HiddenAgendaVillain we actually know what his plan is]] it's hard to say.]]

** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', anyone? [[spoiler: You're the ex-Sith Lord? Captured, [[MindRape mind-wiped by the Jedi Council]], and with Bastila holding your leash]]. JediTruth on par with Obi-Wan and his "certain point of view."

** The game implies that Thrall doesn't really trust the Forsaken, apparently he flat out needs them because otherwise the Alliance is too much more powerful. (Without the Forsaken and the Blood Elves, the Horde would be entirely on Kalimdor [and then Outland and more recently Northrend] which is also home to two of the Alliance races ''and'' a noticeable number of human outposts, including Jaina Proudmoore's city of Theramore Isle.) The other Horde leaders never even mention Varimathras when planning. It's very likely that nobody trusted him at all except [[WhatAnIdiot Sylvanas]]. And Arthas was savvy enough to realize he was probably selling his soul and just didn't realize it was to his enemy. After all, it DID give him the power to almost destroy the Scourge. The Scarlets? Morons.

* In ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'', this happens often enough through the game's plot that it's practically the player's full-time occupation. However, those who had played the first game, and knew who they were dealing with, walked into the Gambit with open arms.

* Non-FF Squaresoft example: Surlent from ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra''. Being fooled by a thief is one thing, being fooled about ''once every thirty minutes'' by the very ''forces of Creation'' is another. Although it quickly becomes clear that Surlent helping the game's GambitPileup along (and [[spoiler: losing his body thrice in the process]]) is actually his destiny (by failing hard but consistently, he accidentally brings all of the MacGuffins to the right people at the right time), it still occasionally starts looking like a case of JustEatGilligan.

** Both the Good and Evil characters in the Imaginationland trilogy, [[PretextForWar manipulated into war for a terrorist cell's plot to destroy collective imagination]] [[KillEmAll by getting both sides to kill each other,]] despite the narrative's full support for the Good characters starting in Part 2 as if the Evil characters were the [[BigBadEnsemble Big Bads]] instead of the already-dead terrorists, when they weren't, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin despite what they literally are.]] [[spoiler: However, the plot fails because the Good characters win the war and [[CruelMercy the Evil characters are imprisoned.]]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall,'' the Woodsman is tricked by the Beast into [[spoiler:maintaining the Beast's SoulJar, which he believes contains his daughter's soul instead]]. He was also initially unaware that the eidelwood trees he was using [[BalefulPolymorph used to be human children]].

** ''He's'' got it bad? Poor Kitana has been a victim of this multiple times, throughout the whole franchise. The first time was by Shao Khan in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat2''. Then it was by Onaga in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'', and then by both Mileena and Jade in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatShaolinMonks''. Even in the non-cannon ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'', she was an UnwittingPawn of both Dark Khan and Quan Chi.

* In ''Manga/NanatsuNoTaizai'' entire Holy Knights order (especially Jericho and Vivian) was used by [[BigBad Hendrickson]], who himself used by [[spoiler:Dreyfus]].

** The Rebel [[spoiler:clones]] in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''. They're friendly enough, if kind of vacant, and tell our heroes to stay around, their leader is out right now but he'll be back soon and they should meet him. Turns out their leader is [[spoiler: an actual DarthVaderClone]]. But they have no idea that he should be their enemy--he's the one who gathered [[spoiler: the skin and hair samples they were created from, and they have no memories about what being a Rebel means or what the Empire is.]]

*** [[spoiler:And in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' it's shown that he one-upped The Wise One, and is doing the same thing again. He's so good at this that in his very first appearence, he even says to the characters they're pawns, and they can't do anything about it. By the end of the game, it's clear that he's been using almost everyone of importance throughout the whole plot, including ThoseTwoBadGuys. And the player still doesn't have the slightest idea what his long-term goals are, as he remains TheUnfought.]]

* [[spoiler:''[[RuleOfThree The protagonist]]'']] in almost every ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' installment. [[spoiler: Blatantly obvious in the later installments, where Reimu is used by Yukari to counter Kanako's influence.]]