Basic Trope: A person simply cannot tell the truth.
- Straight: Eugene the Snake is a forked-tongued Manipulative Bastard who is compelled to lie even when no one asks. One day, out of nowhere, Eugene began spreading Malicious Slander around Alice's name, for no identifiable reason, who proceeds to file a defamation lawsuit against him.
- Exaggerated: Eugene lies unabashedly to the judge and jury, and continues to do so as he's having his ass hauled off to prison, lying to the prison guards and the inmates and sowing as much chaos as possible.
- Downplayed:
- Eugene may be a lying bastard, but knows when to shut his mouth when lying really isn't advisable.
- Or, Eugene doesn't lie, per se, but rather twists the whole truth into something that benefits him and/or hurts someone else, or abuses metaphorical truths and Exact Words.
- Justified:
- Eugene is a Narcissist or a psychopath, and is thus predisposed towards pathological lying.
- Eugene is forced to repeatedly tell lies by a Magically-Binding Contract he signed with the devil, or because he is being held under extreme duress or because his beloved is being threated with death should be fail his tasks.
- Eugene truly believes that he is telling the truth.
- Eugene is Made of Evil and either cannot comprehend the truth, or is hurt by the truth.
- Eugene never found a reason not to lie, because Evil Pays Better and no-one has ever punished him for it.
- Eugene is a Knave.
- Evil Is Petty
- Inverted: Eugene is under the influence of a Truth Serum, speaks the Language of Truth, or simply Cannot Tell a Lie.
- Subverted: When we are introduced to him, Eugene is shown as a lying bastard traducing Alice's blameless name. Yet, when he's captured and interrogated, it turns out he was being forced to destroy her reputation on the behalf of her Unknown Rival.
- Double Subverted: Eugene is a compulsive liar. Did you think that pain would make him squeal?
- Parodied:
- Eugene stands before an audience of primary-school aged children and states that the sky is brown.
- Eugene basically admits that he always lies. Wait a minute...
- Zig-Zagged: Eugene lies whenever it benefits him, and tells the truth whenever it benefits him.
- Averted: Eugene rarely, if ever, lies.
- Enforced: A Hate Sink like Eugene should exist to illustrate the values of honesty.
- Lampshaded: "I don't think this man can tell the truth..."
- Invoked: Eugene is raised from birth by his family and by the education system to habitually lie, as lying is a virtue and honesty is not.
- Exploited:
- Since Eugene can be counted on to lie, anything he suggests (except for sarcastic confessions; analyze before disregarding) will automatically be falsified.
- Eugene's employer lets him in on a closely guarded company secret because he knows that no one would believe him should he spill the beans.
- Defied: Eugene tries to be truthful, in spite of his nature.
- Discussed:
- Alice: "You can't handle the truth!"
Eugene: "I am the truth!"
Alice: "Then you cannot handle yourself."
- Conversed: "What is it with these people, it's almost as though they'll come over with the Black Death if they speak the truth."
- Implied: No one seems to consider Eugene's words with any credence.
- Deconstructed: Eugene has spoken far too many lies, cried wolf too many times, given far too many points of poor advice, and now the hens have come home to roost. Everyone he has ever wronged is now chasing him down to enact justice, and even if he tried to atone for his actions by telling the truth, no one would believe him because he already destroyed his reputation long ago.
Back to Cannot Tell a Lie... hehe.
