"What a nice face you have," he said, with a paternal tone, "Can't wait to skin it off."
— Warlord, Echoes (Kagaseo)
Adventure Time
- Alex from the eponymous Adventure Time fanfic never drops her polite demeanor even when she's hurting both Marceline and Princess Bubblegum.
- Day of the Barney Trilogy: Barney and Baby Bop are turned into this. They maintain their cute, friendly, lovable children's show host mannerisms even as they order out the genocide of adults. They act incredibly friendly to children, but will decapitate boys and impregnate girls with creatures that will kill them during pregnancy once said children turn 13, which they consider to be too old.
Crossover
- All For Luz:
- When the soldiers pull out their semi-automatic guns to cow the vocal protests of the now terrified kidnapped kids, Antagonistic Governor Maxwell tells them to put their weapons down, as it's unnecessary on children while being visibly amused at the sight of it all.
- All For One is almost always polite and cordial towards Luz and his incredible charisma allowed him to amass a following of devoted servants when he ruled Japan and gain some level of trust from Luz, despite knowing he's a bad guy. That said, he often laces his politeness with barbs and jabs when talking about others and views everyone else as beneath him. Luz at one point remarks to herself that she can practically hear the fake smile on his face.
- Darlene mock apologizes for "crashing the party" as Julia lies bleeding out from the fatal wounds she gave her.
- Tyler Wittebane insincerely apologises to Riley for putting out a hit on her Aunt Camila with the same energy as one who just ordered the wrong pizza.
- The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core: Pythor acts like a genuine friend towards Marinette when she was lost in the sewers, that being the only time they meet each other, and helped her get out of the sewers and onto the hotel, but it turns out it was a facade to keep tabs on her by his employer, and keeps tabs on her now and then.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: Terumi can make himself come across as more polite and charming, but as his POV in Chapter 39 shows, it's all just a façade to mask what a sadistic, petty sociopath he really is. Even his superficial attempts at seeming affable don't completely hide his vile nature, as despite Ruby and Noel going along with him when he offers potential evidence on the White Fang, they're both still on-guard and creeped out by him.
- Child of the Storm:
- In the first book, Lucius Malfoy is courteous, urbanely charming, a Deadpan Snarker and probably the joint Only Sane Man of the villains along with Alexander Pierce. He's also described as having an attitude towards Muggles that's comparable to a Dalek, seeing them as animals - though 'some things you don't do, even to animals'. This is later altered to one of disdain for those he generally considers 'weak', muggle and wizard alike, and he'll happily maintain polite conversation while preparing to murder you as unpleasantly as possible.
- In the second book, Ghosts of the Past, 'Dave', an ancient dragon is a prime example - he's intelligent, smooth-talking, and happy to carry on a conversation for his own amusement... which is all very clearly a facade, with a comparison being made to a cat playing with a mouse, but with actual intelligence and sadism behind it. He also freely admits that he enjoys breaking the wills of and enslaving anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across his lair, if he doesn't just eat them. This is unsurprising, since the author admits that he was patterned off a mixture of Smaug, a canon example of this trope, and Glaurung.
- Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship: Adagio acts like Timmy's friend and savior, but it is a barely veiled attempt to manipulate him into giving her what she and her sisters want. She uses her "saving" him from Sunset's "evil" in order to bully him further. This facade falls apart when Timmy utterly refuses her demands point blank.Adagio: (repeated phrase) Timmy-buddy, I thought we were friends?
- John Mandeville from The Night Unfurls plays the kindly old man even as he molests and tortures his daughter.
Dream SMP
- Dream/the Green God in Passerine is this in spades. Despite his ordinary appearance and superficially pleasant, casual manner, he very quickly reveals himself to be a deranged Reality Warper who, during an extended Motive Rant, cheerfully admits to having reset and rewritten Phil, Techno, and Wilbur's lives countless times, extends mocking condolences for Tommy's death and gloats over the fact that he has absolutely no intention of reviving him (the entire reason the heroes sought him out in the first place), and implies that he purposely orchestrated the deaths of his friend Sapnap/the War God's lovers (which led to Tommy's death in retaliation) and mind-controlled Technoblade into murdering his entire family, before trapping the three of them in a Lotus-Eater Machine meant to keep them pacified while he rewrites their world again.
The Familiar of Zero
- In Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji, this describes Graf Johan von Leopold at his most composed. The politeness of his language does absolutely nothing to mask his condescending manner, and his brutality and self-centeredness speak for themselves.
- Epiphany: Hojo from Final Fantasy VII tries very hard to convince Aerith he actually cares about her well-being, but it only serves to make him even more revolting.
Godzilla
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): As the fic goes on, Ghidorah's center head starts talking in an unusually polite, refined and human-like manner when he and his brother heads psychically (and violently) reach into Vivienne's mind to give her the latest in a line of breaking speeches intended to drive her to despair. The shift in the middle head's speech patterns is an indicator that Ghidorah's heads have absorbed humanity's socio-cultural knowledge thanks to the Many, and the author confirms that the middle head is taking on this demeanor as a psychological warfare tactic to further erode Vivienne's sanity.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Professor Quirrell, a.k.a. Lord Voldemort. Sure, he is almost always calm and polite, but his true persona is a cruel psychopath with no trace of good in him to speak of.
- Intentionally subverted by Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin. As Harry himself put it: “He makes a point of trying to act charming and likeable and deliberately failing....And because he fails to be charming and likeable, people think they see through him and find Lord Potter’s ruthless fixer behind the false image. And they never guess that the ruthless fixer is just another false image to hide the back-stabbing Death Eater that represents his true self.”
Hetalia
- One of the leaders of the HCS, in Human Curiosity. When he finds that England has escaped confinement, he smiles, politely addresses him, and then beats the ever-loving tar out of him. He then has England dragged downstairs and forces him to look at the frozen corpse of Portugal and, when England tries to attack him, calmly says to not act out or else he'll be killed and frozen next.
Jackie Chan Adventures
- The dark wizard Lung from Queen of All Oni starts out seemingly polite, if a bit condescending. Then he starts torturing Jade in order to try and break her to his will.
Karmen Rider Fourze
- Voodoo King Damballa of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, or rather the side story Month of Sundays, laughs and makes smart talk with the Cosmic Hunting Dogs and is such a jovial guy... who's currently under contract with Shotaro and revived him as a crazy marionette with nails for teeth and is currently doing that to Haruto Souma and Eiji Hino.
- Shen vs. Kai: In this Kung Fu Panda fanfiction, it's the demon Hei Yinying. He's so incredibly refined and perfect-mannered with Shen, Kai and the heroes most of the time that one can be forgiven for almost failing to see through the veil to his true colors as a wicked, self-serving and heartless monster.
The Land Before Time
- The Seven Hunters introduces Calin, a fastbiter who puts on a smug, yet cordial demeanor. He even waves and talks in a conversational tone as he is discussing how his pack is going to kill the dinosaurs that he is conversing with.
- The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild paints Master Kohga in this light. He’s still presented as goofy and wild, but the fanfic draws more attention to his brutality, and even children and pregnant women are not safe from him. It gets to the point that even the otherwise perfectly loyal Sooga is disturbed by his antics at times.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Pinkie Pie in Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles). She maintains her trademark Genki Girl attitude even while torturing and killing other ponies.
- The Pony POV Series:
- Discord, of course, as per canon. However, the Dark World arc also adds in the Valeyard, who has all of the Doctor's personality quirks, but none of his morals.
- The Shining Armor Arc has General-Admiral Makarov. He presents himself initially as an affable and charismatic person, but that turns out to be a result of his Charm Person abilities. It turns out that beneath the facade he's a narcissistic sociopath who will kill people for not knowing who he is and beneath that, he's a Equineoid Abomination who's willing to kill millions in his quest to conquer the world and make everything be about him.
Pokémon
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has MissingNo, who almost always speaks to Ash in a genial tone, but it's very clear that it considers him to be little more than a plaything to torment. Furthermore, while it talks about the horrible things it did to Ash's friends as though it were doing them favors, its disappointment at May not suffering a tragedy shows that it only really cares about hurting them.
Rango
- Dufayel, the Big Bad of Old West, is polite and prefers to approach problems in a civilized way, like trying to convince the heroes to leave with his reimbursements. However, if you resist his charms and continue foiling his plans, he's willing to show you how vindictive he truly is.
RWBY
- Randall Silva from An Emerald Unearthed fits this to a T. He is a ruthless Loan Shark and complete scumbag, but he always behaves in a jovial and friendly manner. He always provides sarcastic comments to pretend to be a lighthearted person even when he threatens loved ones for not making payments. Emerald describes him as a man who would kill you with a smile on his face.
Sonic
- Sonic X: Dark Chaos:
- Tsali has shades of this in the rewrite. Despite his Ax-Crazy love for killing and bloodshed, he's quite sociable and sympathetic to Trinity, even after he realizes that Trinity is an Angel spy.
- Maledict himself hides his megalomania and obsessive desire for power under a rather level-headed demeanor and a thin veneer of good intentions. On the other side, Jesus hides his own lust for revenge and callous dislike of non-Angels under a facade of concern and empathy, even though he was perfectly fine with slaughtering quadrillions of innocent people to invade the Milky Way.
- A Better Word Than Humanity's main big bad, Dr. Feral, has about five seconds during her introduction where she seems to be somewhat akin to a misplaced school teacher, and remains cordial to any humans she talks to. Unfortunately, Donatello Hamato is not human.
Total Drama
- Radcliffe from Keepers of the Elements is this. He blows up a planet, kidnaps, tortures with spells just because, and enslaves someone with mind control, and certainly isn't above brutal murder, yet acts rather calm and charming most of the time.
- Predator and Prey depicts Alejandro as being an even bigger case of this than he was in canon. As the fic shows it as, the lady-charming Manipulative Bastard we see is only how he acts on-camera; when the cameras are off him, he's actually an incredibly depraved sexual predator who loves raping girls (namely Bridgette). However, only Bridgette and a select few ever learn this, and the rest see him as how canon presents him as.
Touhou Project
- Yuuka Kazami in the Touhou Project fanfiction Imperfect Metamorphosis takes great pride in being a gracious host and pleasant conversationalist, and is completely unapologetic about her passion for torture, rape, and mass murder. Indeed, part of the reason everyone finds her so terrifying is that no one knows how much of her pleasantry is an act, and she is just as likely to affectionately pat someone on the head as she is to casually crush their skull.
- In Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Jason Vaugn, the head of the PCA, acts friendly when Mei's friends first meet him, but he quickly reveals his true personality after they tell him they don't know where she is.
Undertale
- Temmie in TS!Underswap. They like to mess around by playing cute, dumb, and friendly, but they're just waiting for the perfect time to drop the act, kill Chara, and steal their SOUL. It wasn't an act in Undertale (there they're genuinely silly and friendly creatures who think humans are cute and just want to pet them), but this is a result of TS!Underswap swapping their role in the story with Flowey, who is himself an example of this trope in the original game.
Warhammer
- In The Weaver Option the pirate admiral Travelliath Sliscus likes to present himself as an affable, benevolent noble. He's also the 92nd most wanted being in the galaxy due to his countless atrocities, including completely depopulating fifty worlds because they mispronounced his name. Even his allies are well aware that given the slightest reason he'll viciously murder them and make a quip while doing so.
Unsorted
- Heart of Gold (Cardcaptor Sakura): Shinatobe casually chats with Sakura and Syaoran, calmly asking them to "die for her." The fact that she asks them to do so as calmly and casually as asking them a favor completely freaks the two out. As it turns out, Shina wasn't actually evil, just Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Marble from Equestrylvania begins as a sweet, sensitive, stuttering mare. Later on, she still has a very pleasant and perky attitude, but has poisoned many foals with a deadly toxin that will kill them in a few hours, extorts Twilight Sparkle for the cure, and threatens and torments her friends. And she does it all with a smile! Then it turns out she was being possessed by Actrise, so this trope applies more to the latter.
- Fallout: Equestria: Snowfall
has King Sombra. While his current interactions with Sleet Gray and his friends makes him look like a polite and sociable pony, his true wickedness is revealed in the malevolent glee he takes in making the crystal pony among them nearly cross the Despair Event Horizon. - The Grand Highblood in Hivefled can be quite personable while answering reader questions and talking about art or spirituality. He's also a murderous, incestuous Monster Clown who likes to sexually abuse and murder teenagers and then collect their ghosts.
- In A Monster's Nature, while Doctor Bishop’s primary goal of stopping Brandon/Brightburn’s attacks would make him the protagonist in any other situation, despite appearing kind to Caitlyn during initial interrogations he swiftly drops that approach when Caitlyn calls the research team horrible, calling Caitlyn ‘a dumb girl feeling sorry for a monster’.
- Raiden, the Big Bad of Mortal Kombat: Desperation. Polite, charming, composed — he appears as a Smug Snake to his ex-allies and generally speaks to them in a condescending and snobbish manner. But beneath that superficial charm, lies a power-hungry tyrant and unhinged brute who relishes in the suffering and despair of others, and his cruelty streak is far worse than that of Shao Kahn and Shinnok. In fact, part of the reason his ex-allies find him so terrifying is that his mood could swing at the drop of a hat - one minute, he could be calm and collected, but a minute later, he'll be cackling like a lunatic.
- My Little Wesker sends Albert Wesker to Ponyville as a magical equine right after the events of Kijuju. He remains incredibly polite and verbose, even as he delivers threats and insults and plots to overthrow Equestria's leaders and ascend to Physical Godhood, with the Elements of Harmony as his first goal to either conquer or destroy.
- Ceylon of Necessary to Win speaks very formally, even when insulting her own subordinates or her enemies. It's indicated that her refined manner of speech is yet another means of her acting superior to others.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: Jovian and Jacqueline Kikion often act polite and sweet, but are openly sadistic Psycho Lesbians and Blood Knights who thrive on causing people pain, doing such things as sexually abusing Felucia and Kyouko while holding them hostage and blowing up Tsukune's house right in front of him for shits and giggles.
- Daymare Sun/Queen Celestia, the Big Bad of Sunshine and Fire. As the Evil Counterpart to Princess Celestia, she has the same kind tone when she talks to her underlings, but it is clear she is manipulating them, and toys with Daylight Sparkle's (Twilight's Evil Counterpart) emotions. And she calls multiversal conquest "making new friends."
- Mr.Evil's:
- Lord fits this to a T. He hardly goes a sentence without a ridiculous rant and crazy laugh, all whilst he is mind raping his victims, slaughtering over a billion people, and thinking of killing an innocent girl as a good way to pass the time.
- His other Original Character Alexander Sovereign comes close, as he can talk about a grand war that would make the first two look like child's play, all while speaking in a polite tone. The only reason he bypasses this is because he has no emotions to begin with.
- In Total Drama fanfic series Monster Chronicles Cedric can put on a very cheerful and eccentric front, but he's also a total sadist who's ready to kill at the drop of a hat.
- A Tale of Two Suns: Circinus seems quite cultured and polite, but it barely masks her ruthless and corrupt nature.
