Basic Trope: Being open about your shortcomings and/or wrongdoing is considered better than hiding them.
- Straight:
- Bob admits that he's lied to Alice, stolen Charlie's money, and mooches off of porn. Bob, Alice, and Charlie all agree that Bob is a better man than he would be if he had hidden his shortcomings or lied about them.
- Bob is a card-carrying thief while Charlie is a conman who prefers being considered right all the time and Alice is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who absolutely refuse to label the things they do as "crimes". Bob makes clear that he knows he's a bad man and he's going to Hell for his crimes but he can at least look at himself in the mirror and accept it.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob openly admits that he killed thousands of innocents just for fun. All of his friends agree that he was in the right to tell the truth and is Easily Forgiven.
- Bob is a Psycho for Hire and Alice and Charlie are an evil politician and a Smooth-Talking Talent Agent respectively, and yet Bob is more dangerous because he's honestly vile than Alice and Charlie are because their veneer of righteousness gets in the way.
- Alice and Charlie are psychotic General Ripper-types who are willing to kill millions of people out of incredibly petty and/or racist reasons and perform actions just as (if not more) vile to conceal said reasons. Charlie is also villainous, but the plot shades him as A Lighter Shade of Black because because his openness at being a Satisfied Street Rat is framed as "more moral".
- Downplayed:
- Bob isn't quite open about his crimes, but he makes no effort to hide them and is frank about what he's done when people ask him.
- Bob flat out states that he and Alice are both doing the same thing owing to circumstances with no judgement beyond that they are the same.
- Justified:
- Bob doesn't want anyone to see him as a hypocrite.
- Villains Never Lie: Honesty is the only virtue Bob respects, and he never relents on this point.
- Bob is a Card-Carrying Villain.
- Inverted:
- Being a hypocrite is considered better than admitting you're wrong.
- Bob gets a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how his honesty makes him even worse, because he openly acknowledges his bad behavior and still refuses to change it.
- Emperor Evulz admits that he's treated his prisoners well, and let several potential victims live.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
- Subverted:
- Bob is honest to everyone except Alice.
- Bob is honest about his stealing and porn addiction, but has spent millions covering up the thousands of innocents he slaughtered.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob thinks that Alice deserves to be left in the dark.
- Alice was lying about the murders because she wants to get dirt on Bob.
- Parodied: Bob brags to the police station that he just committed three homicides without getting caught. The police thank him for being honest about himself, and give him a two-week sentence in prison.
- Zig Zagged: Bob takes pride in being honest about his crimes compared to Alice and co.'s hypocrisy. However, because of this pride, he comes off as a self-aware Smug Snake that can do terrible things while knowing what they are. Of course, Bob gets around this by saying being open and content is better than being secretive and tortured, but Alice points out that his self-righteous attitude makes him even more of a hypocrite, especially since he's accused the heroes of feeling the same despite lying. But then Evulz comes along and he is such a repulsive smug little Trumplica who glorifies his evil in an attempt at Refuge in Audacity that Alice and her team finally accept that Bob at least has, by villainous standards at least, humbleness.
- Averted:
- Everyone agrees that nothing about admitting your wrongs inherently gives you the moral high ground.
- Hypocrite
- Enforced: The executives order the writers to make a moral lesson where admitting your wrongs is better than being a hypocrite.
- Lampshaded: "So what if you admit that you have done all of these bad things to us? That doesn't make you a good person, Bob." "Well, at least I didn't lie. That's something."
- Invoked: Bob figures that honesty is better than dishonesty, so he confesses his crimes.
- Exploited: Bob is unabashedly open about his tyrannical ways, knowing he can take Refuge in Audacity in addition to a moral high ground.
- Defied:
- Not wanting to get into trouble, Bob goes to great lengths to hide his secrets. His friends never find out.
- "You're still an asshole either way, Bob."
- "I may hide my crimes behind a veneer of righteousness, but at least I don't wear my sins like a badge of honor."
- "Yeah, I lie about who I am. You notice how i'm not in jail or dead right now? You wanna quit with the sanctimony and maybe think for two seconds about how those facts are connected?!"
- In a moment of clarity, Bob realizes that being honest about his flaws and misdeeds means nothing if he doesn't actually become a better person.
- Discussed: "I bet you're going to say that it's okay to admit that you've sold out on your own family." "No. Admitting that you're a piece of shit doesn't make you any less of a piece of shit."
- Conversed: "This show is messed up. Honesty doesn't make horrible crimes okay!"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob's acknowledgement of his faults or problems yet continuing to indulge in his vices makes him appear worse, since it would imply he is choosing not to improve himself. As a result, he comes off as a hypocrite or worse throughout his character arc.
- Bob is confronted as to why he continues doing what he does despite being aware it's wrong. He admits that he sees himself as Beyond Redemption and only serving as an Anti-Role Model, showing his acknowledgement as a form of resignation and defeat.
- Bob is projecting his own moral inadequacies onto everyone else; he presumes everyone else is just as rotten as him deep down and thus claims to be morally superior just for admitting it.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob is well-aware of his fault and embraces them, operating under a veneer of honesty and it is who he is. His explanations may come from something like Orange And Blue Morality.
- Bob seeing someone else do his faults, but hide them and act shameful causes him to see things differently and forces to take a good hard look at himself and seeing what sort of person he is now. Thus, he comes to the decision to change that.
- Bob confessing into admitting his vices and faults is actually a recent development he is now fully understanding and the first step into becoming a better person now that he's aware of it. Change is difficult and painful, but admitting there is something worth changing means Bob is already bettering himself.
- Played for Laughs: Bob seems like he's going to admit to a relevant flaw, but instead lists off a laundry list of flaws, some of which he doesn't have or even are flaws to begin with.
- Played For Drama: Alice and Charlie may agree with Bob that confessing your shortcomings is better than hiding them, but Diane doesn't. She murders the other three because they disagree with her.
- Played For Horror: Bob is an unapologetic mass murderer and feels proud of the fact he's going to kill Alice while Alice ended up in Bob's grasp because she got lost in the woods trying to prevent Charlie from discovering that she was two-timing him.
I may be a Wiki Vandal and a natter-er, and I've evaded my suspension ban, but At Least I Admit It!
