Line #4 Main/MonsterFacade


1	%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions63
2	%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:347:[[Franchise/{{Shrek}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shrek_monster.jpg]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:347:''"This is the part where you run away."'']]
6
7	->'''Donkey:''' Hey, what's your problem Shrek? What you got against the whole world anyway?
8	->'''Shrek:''' I'm not the one with the problem, okay? It's the world that seems to have a problem with me. People take one look at me and go, "Aah! Help! Run! A big, stupid, ugly ogre!" They judge me before they even know me. That's why I'm better off alone.
9	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1''
10
11	There is a creature without any malicious intentions. It just wants a quiet, peaceful life, maybe a few friends. But the problem is: it is enormous and looks monstrous. Thus, the people are afraid of it and run at it from sight, or grab their TorchesAndPitchforks to fight it. The poor GentleGiant or ReluctantMonster can try and convince the people to not be afraid, but its efforts are fruitless. So sometimes, it decides to give the people exactly what they want: a gigantic, fearsome, bloodthirsty beast. It might chase after people with a MightyRoar and cause some property damage, but it is all just an act.
12
13	The reasons why a monster can do this can vary. Maybe it got tired of people responding with fear and TookALevelInCynic. Maybe it is [[CowardlyLion afraid of people]], so it keeps up the terrifying image to protect itself. Maybe it's putting on a show to help a friend or an accomplice (for example, to pull a MonsterProtectionRacket). Maybe someone [[PunchClockVillain pays them to put on the act]]. Maybe it simply [[IntroversionTropes prefers solitude]]. More often than not, there will be a good-hearted character who sees through the monstrous act, learns that the monster is NotEvilJustMisunderstood and befriends it, delivering AnAesop about not judging a book by its cover. You still have to BewareTheNiceOnes, of course.
14
15	The trope shares some similarities with ScarecrowSolution: in both times, someone harmless pretends to be something terrifying. The main difference is that in a ScarecrowSolution, the monstrous bluff is created by a small, weak character to scare someone stronger than them, whereas a creature putting on a Monster Facade is actually strong and would be capable of hurting its victims, it just prefers not to.
16
17	Compare HiddenHeartOfGold, where a human pretends to be meaner than they really are and doesn't want anyone to know about his true, nice nature, and MeanCharacterNiceActor, when the monstrous act is the part of a show. Compare and contrast ScoobyDooHoax, where a human with malicious intentions pretends to be a monster. Also compare ThenLetMeBeEvil, when the creature goes one step beyond, and actually becomes a monster after constantly being treated like one. As TheReveal that the monstrous behavior was just an act is often near the end, beware of spoilers! Related to SoHideousItsTerrifying.
18
19	----
20
21	!!Examples:
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
26	* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': [[WorldsStrongestMan Accelerator]] ''tries'' to do this, but is horrifically bad at it due to a combination of [[NoSocialSkills poor social intelligence]] and the automatic nature of his AttackReflector powers. Eventually he decides that [[InsaneTrollLogic the only way other people will treat him normally is if he becomes so strong that everyone will be too scared to challenge him]], and agrees to an experiment in boosting his powers by fighting [[ExpendableClone emotionless clones]] to the death... but out of uneasiness, he kills them in the most monstrous and nightmarish ways he can think of, [[SunkCostFallacy hoping that one of them will beg for mercy so that he can use it as an excuse to stop]]. Somewhere in the middle of all this he is discovered by [[TheHero Touma]], who defeats him and gets the experiment shut down... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone at which point Accelerator discovers]] that not only were the [[RefugeInAudacity thousands]] of clones he killed [[ClonesArePeopleToo real people]], but the whole thing was [[FailureGambit an elaborate sham which the scientists had planned to abort as soon as he objected]]. This leads him to spend the rest of the series [[TheAtoner consumed with self-loathing, believing that he really was a monster all along]].
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
30	* This is the whole premise of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'': the monsters pretend to be vicious and scary because [[PunchClockVillain it is their paid job]], as the screams of terrified children are their main source of energy. Ironically, the monsters themselves are [[HumansAreCthulhu far more terrified of the children]]. [[spoiler:The facade is eventually dropped once they figure out that ''laughter'' is a much larger energy source.]]
31	* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' does this in the beginning of his first movie. He's a grumpy, cynical ogre who grew tired of people screaming at his sight and attacking him with TorchesAndPitchforks, so he chases them away from his swamp. Donkey sees through his act and befriends him.
32	* The titular creature of ''Film/TheReluctantDragon'' only wants to frolic and write poetry, but because of his terrifying appearance, the people of the nearby village hire a knight to slay him. The knight, who is also a poet, befriends the dragon, but the two decide to stage a fight to give the people what they want, where the dragon is seemingly slain.
33	* Implied with the gorilla in the circus parade scene from ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', who shakes the bars of his cage ferociously, but when he accidentally breaks one of them, he tries to screw it back to its place with a sheepish expression.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
37	* The dragon from ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' pretends to menace a farming village so that his accomplice, a KnightErrant, [[MonsterProtectionRacket can charge them a fee to slay the monster]]. PlayedForLaughs when the felled dragon cannot sink into a lake deep enough to preclude being mobbed and discovered to be unharmed. "I can't, it doesn't get any deeper." he snarls to Bowen in a StageWhisper.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Literature]]
41	* The Cowardly Lion from ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' (and TheFilmOfTheBook, ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'') is afraid of almost everything, but once he realized that every creature in the forest ran from him because they assumed he was a ferocious lion, he ran with the facade in the hopes that no one would actually call his bluff and challenge him.
42	* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': Sollertree (formerly named Skyspike) is a simple-minded gigantic hedgehog. When confronted with vermin his tactic is to rear up to his impressive full height and starts roaring the most bloodthirsty threats at them, which sends them running... and leaves him sprawled on the ground and gasping for breath.
43	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Sanya is a Knight of the Cross, a demon-hunter literally on a MissionFromGod, who was granted a sword holding one of the nails from the Crucifixion of Christ in the blade by an honest-to-God archangel, and one of the few indisputably "White morality" characters in a series that otherwise thrives on GrayAndBlackMorality. He is at one point called upon to play a [[TheMafiya Russian thug]], in order to squeeze information from a gangster his less upstanding allies have captured and tied to a board. He does so, with aplomb, and his outrageously thick Russian accent only seals it.
44	-->"Hy take this bord. Hy brek it in haf. I trow bot hafs in incinerator."
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
48	* The protagonist of ''Series/SusuASarkany'', a gentle, childish dragon, does it in two different episodes. First, he stages a fight against the Prince, which the Prince is supposed to lose so that Süsü can kidnap the princess and no longer be alone. Second, to save the kingdom from financial trouble, he sits in a cage and acts monstrous, so that the tourists can pay to see a terrifying dragon. Both times, Süsü blows the cover and reveals his gentle nature.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Video Games]]
52	%% * ''VideoGame/ChibiRobo'': The [[Main/Mummy]] toy Mort is a romantic soul who yearns for the love of Princess Pitts, but the Princess cannot handle scary things and faints at the sight of him. Chibi Robo helps Mort deliver the Princess flowers, and then helps Pitts overcome her fears.
53	* {{Enforced}} in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. In the setting, {{youkai}} requires [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve human fear]] to exist, and the Human Village is their main source of fear in Gensokyo. Because of this, while the youkai need to make the villagers fear them, they are not allowed to actually harm the villagers. This restriction doesn't apply to non-villager humans, though.
54	* ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}''
55	** The vicious personality of Hydreigon is revealed to be this in its ''[[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Violet]]'' entry as a result of people seeing it as evil. It is shown to be a very affectionate Pokémon once you have obtained it, as shown while playing with it from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' onwards.
56	** Armaldo in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'' is responsible for the scary reputation of the dungeon where he lives, and acts the part of a dangerous monster, but turns out to be just pretending and is kind to Igglybuff when he's not afraid of him after all. [[spoiler:[[MultilayerFacade It turns out that he actually is a criminal, though, and his reputation also doubles as ensuring he won't get arrested]].]]
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Webcomics]]
60	* The Bloody Baron from ''Webcomic/MyLifeAsABackgroundSlytherin'' is an amicable FriendlyGhost who often engages in intellectual conversation with Emily, but he wails and rattles his chains at first-year Hufflepuffs to uphold the "dark" image of his house.
61	* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest''. The Nightmare Knight, the BigBad of the series, was once an OmnicidalManiac who sought to destroy Dreamside. But upon his first defeat, observations with the world, and interactions with his creations, the [[SealedEvilInACan Disaster Masters]], he no longer wished to play the part of the villain. But the Nightmare Knight is powered by the fear that Dreamside holds towards him. If that were to weaken, he would weaken, and he would [[NoOntologicalInertia not have the ability to sustain the Disaster Masters]]. Alongside that, the Disaster Masters still see him as the malevolent villain he once was. Those who do find out that he no longer is, however, [[VillainousBreakdown do not take it particularly well]].
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Western Animation]]
65	* The eponymous [[KingKongCopy giant gorilla]] from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Babar}}'' episode "Conga the Terrible" lives by himself on an [[IsleOfGiantHorrors island]], and has a fearsome reputation. When Babar and his friends get shipwrecked on his island, the ape menaces them several times. Eventually, Cornelius stands up to him and learns that he's really a GentleGiant who acts scary because he believes people will always see him as a monster, and to drive away people who may want to capture him.
66	* The title creatures in ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' episode "Wottles" are actually timid reclusive elf like beings that live underground as means of helping the Wuts. However due to being ShroudedInMyth, the villains are convinced they are actually ferocious carnivores. The Wottles use this to their advantage and scare them away when their current scheme has them mine through their home.
67	* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
68	** In the episode "The Spear of Selene", Webby and Dewey encounter a tentacled SeaMonster as they are searching for the Spear of Selene in the temple of Ithaquack. The monster grabs them and threatens to devour them, until he mentions that he is guarding a different artifact, the Spear of Poseidon. Once they clear up the misunderstanding, the monster releases them and politely shows them the way to the Spear of Selene, and even accepts Dewey's apology for calling him hideous earlier.
69	** In the episode "[=McMystery=] at [=McDuck=] [=McManor=]", Blackarts Beagle summons a scary-looking demon that, after throwing out its master, chases after the triplets. [[spoiler: After they end up in Scrooge's hiding place, the demon reveals itself to be the ghost of Duckworth, working for Scrooge all along. He explains his behavior by having a "flair for the dramatic" - basically just trolling the triplets.]]
70	* In ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfTheThreeCaballeros'', the titular trio is taken by Xandra, the Goddess of Adventure, to the Labyrinth of Crete, where they encounter a [[OurMinotaursAreDifferent minotaur]]. After José accidentally insults the beast, it attacks the Caballeros and chases them until they manage to wrangle him with some bullfighting skills. As the Caballeros are congratulated by Xandra, the minotaur shows up again and fist-bumps her, admitting that he was just testing the trio (and having a lot of fun while doing so).
71	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MonsterFacade