Trust as character flaw 23/ 65 (35.4%)
- Horrible Judge of Character: Gigi's opinion of him is that he's too trusting for his own good, which is probably why he laid such low standards for his knights. When Cordelia and Peridot invade the kingdom, the local knights quickly betray their king.
2-3. Characters.The Boondocks Main Characters
- Horrible Judge of Character: Robert has a bad habit of dating women with low morals or sanity. His girlfriends have included a Lazy Bum who's a gold-digging prostitute, several ugly women who pretended to be sexy online, a crazy and homicidal Dark Action Girl who nearly killed him, a Dominican drug boss who brought one of her armed henchmen to the dinner table, a crazy woman who kidnapped Riley because of his cuteness, a shady doctor who almost harvested his organs, a narcissistic reality TV star, etc.
- Horrible Judge of Character: His blind hatred of blacks and blind love of whites. Not to mention his mother, who he loves despite being the other big reason he's such a self-hating mess today. On a more personal note, his attitude around the Wuncler family.
4. Characters.Red Vs Blue Red Team
- Horrible Judge of Character: From walking into the enemy base assuming it's a general store, to chatting with the Meta under the misguided assumption it's a new recruit for Blue Team (and completely oblivious to the fact it's trying to kill him with a Brute Shot... which Donut thinks is a broom) ...suffice to say, Donut suffers from this a lot.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Early on, the GM expressed concern about whether the players were playing the game "correctly", but couldn't really say why. As discussed after the end of the game, it turns out the player characters were very much not the skeptical investigator types the GM was expecting, and consequently they trusted the Big Bads most out of anyone in the story. Given that, they missed a whole lot of clues and they were basically doomed to fail from the start.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Diadem is willing to give King Sombra the benefit of a doubt when they first speak in a dream and he feeds her a sob story about his past, since her own experiences have messed with her worldview a little bit.
7. Characters.Invader Zim Aliens Monsters And Weirdos
Horrible Judge of Character: Lard Nar continues to take Spleenk's advice even after he proves himself over and over again to be a moron. It reaches a point where even Spleenk himself has no clue why Lard Nar listens to him at all.
- Adults Are Useless: Poul, the school principal is a Horrible Judge of Character doesn't realize that Rune is a bully with control over most of the other students, and doesn't take Helle's concerns seriously.
9-10. Characters.Warrior Cats Shadow Clan Leaders And Deputies
- Blind Obedience: Which, combined with his terrible character judgment, makes for half of a nasty Fatal Flaw duo. Yellowfang derogatorily refers to him as a bully who's happy to follow the orders of other cats, and Blackfoot's Reckoning shows that, while he has considerable more depth than that, he would withhold his personal objections and always obey orders. He latches onto Tigerclaw as a new leader within minutes of learning of Brokenstar's death, expressing relief that there's some new cat in charge now, and his villainous actions are depicted as him gradually Sliding Down The Slippery Slope due to his preference for taking the word of cats he trusts at face value.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Not only has he fallen for the lies of Brokenstar, Tigerstar, and Sol, he genuinely mischaracterized the former two as noble warriors wanting the best for ShadowClan.
11-12. Literature.The Cuckoo Clock Of Doom
- Abusive Parents: Michael's parents, but only towards him. They are extremely doting and loving towards their young daughter, Tara, who they see as an angel, and they never notice just how disturbingly rotten she is as a person and in the process treat their son Michael like crap on a daily basis by letting Tara bully him and calling him a liar when he tries to defend himself. Even before Tara was born, Michael's father was mocking him as a baby for not being able to say full sentences yet and not being able to tie his shoes when he was slightly older. Michael's parents are much nicer to him later, though, when Michael is his own age again and Tara is erased from existence.
- Hate Sink: Not just Tara, but also Michael's parents, who constantly dote on Tara and treat their only son like shit.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Michael's parents, who think of Tara as perfection incarnate and Michael as inferior to her, to the point of being Abusive Parents towards the latter.
13. Characters.Friendship Is Magic Expanded Universe
- Horrible Judge of Character: She seems completely unaware that the "Master" pony she works for is evil, seeing his Evil Laugh as him just being really happy. Lampshaded by Doctor Hooves in volume 2.
14. WebVideo.RWBY The Abridged Series
- Horrible Judge of Character: When Weiss asks Pyrrha if she wants to go faunus hunting with her, she completely misses the fact that Pyrrha is uncomfortable with the subject and believes she’s gaining her trust, even though Pyrrha explicitly stated she finds it immoral and that some of her best friends are faunus.
15. Characters.Tangled Cassandra
- Character Development:
- Inverted in Season 3. Throughout most of the series until then, Cassandra was a kind, loyal, and protective best friend towards Rapunzel and had her back. Despite being a handmaiden and brushed off as such, Cassandra sought to become a respected and independent warrior. However, after learning the Awful Truth about how she was abandoned by Mother Gothel in favor of Rapunzel's magic hair, Cassandra completely turns her back on Rapunzel and all her other loved ones, seeking to find her destiny via darkness, usurpation, revenge, and warmongering, and shedding her honorable qualities in the process. To top it off, she blindly trusts Zhan Tiri, and freely allows the demon to manipulate her into doing terrible things.
16. Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher
- In Leave for Mendeleiev, Ms. Bustier is such a Horrible Judge of Character that she accepts Chloé's claims that she misses Marinette and just can't focus without her at face value, attempting to badger Marinette into transferring back... or agree to "mentor" her long-term bully.
17. Dances and Balls
- In Gankutsuou, while Franz and Albert were visiting the Carnival on Luna, Franz was shown attending a ball and dancing with the Marchioness. Of course, he has a really hard time enjoying the ball when the aristocrats there warn him that Albert, being out alone at night, is probably going to get mugged and beaten up (which is exactly what happened, plus getting kidnapped).
18. Characters.A Very Potter Musical
- Horrible Judge of Character: Dumbledore sees nothing wrong with hiring a man (Quirrell) with the Dark Lord on the back of his head and absolutely trusts Snape, an obvious double-agent who frequently tries to assassinate him.Dumbledore: I need to interview for the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I've got it down to Gilderoy Lockhart, Mad-eye Moody and er, somebody called Squirrel. I don't want anybody dangerous though so I think I'm gonna go with the Squirrel.
- Horrible Judge of Character: In Con Amore, Noir assumes that because the D'Alembert family treated her well, all humans would be friendly to her. This leads to her death when she tries to approach Alain.
- Motoyasu: Hero of the Spear, Abhorrent Admirer to Filo, Broken Ace, The Bully, Casanova Wannabe, The Chew Toy, Death by Woman Scorned, The Dulcinea Effect, Dumb Blond, Jock, and Muscle, Entitled to Have You, Horrible Judge of Character, Hypocrite, Deconstructed Idiot Hero, Lethally Stupid, Stay in the Kitchen, Sanity Slippage after a long series of humiliating events and becoming loyal to Naofumi, Mad Love towards Filo and Fitoria, Raises Filorials, Becomes a He-Man Woman Hater after Myne's betrayal, First of the Three Heroes to get a spin-off
- For His Own Sake:
- Haruka spells out to Mutsumi that Keitaro left the Hinata Inn because of how Naru and the other girls mistreated him, that he's clearly much happier with his new life, and that they have no right to try and force him to return, much less back into a relationship that neither he or Naru want. But when Kagura and Chisato offer to help Mutsumi get them back together, she immediately latches onto them, missing all the signs that they're less than trustworthy.
22-23. Characters.Fallout 3 Vault 101
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- It's implied that while the Overseer made no secret of his hatred for James and his child, James believed that he simply wasn't twisted enough to let it get the better of him. Unfortunately, he was wrong and without James around to provide his service as their Doctor, the Overseer had no reason to keep you around either.
- James believed that Stanislaus Braun was the greatest mind of the Pre-War era and jumped at the opportunity to have a seat in a tranquility lounger and speak with him in person. Alas, he hadn't considered the possibility that, as the man responsible for the worst of Vault-Tec's atrocities, Braun might be more of a psychopath than a visionary. It gets him turned into a dog and trapped in the Tranquility Lane simulation.
Unspecified reason for trust 21/ 65 (32.3%)
1. Characters.Spider Man Insomniac Villains
- Horrible Judge of Character: Aaron believed that as long as Simon Krieger of all people would keep his promise of leaving Spider-Man (his nephew) alone, he'll help capture the Tinkerer. He learns the hard way what kind of person Simon really is when he orders his men to brutally torture his nephew. Miles was not happy that he'd even make a deal with such a sadistic, backstabbing man.
2. Characters.Scrubs Med School
- Horrible Judge of Character: She slept with Cole and he took a nude picture of her and she still thought he was a decent enough guy to date.
3. Characters.Pokemon Ruby And Sapphire
- Absent-Minded Professor: Crosses with Horrible Judge of Character. He initially goes along with Team Aqua/Magma thinking they would help him excavate meteorites, only to steal it from him. He gets better later on.
4. Characters.Wind Over The Ocean
- Horrible Judge of Character: She seems to think that her unrequited feelings for two Yandere are perfectly normal.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Keith from “Gargantus and the Road of Doom” thinks the titular Gargantus is a great role model. Keep in mind that Gargantus is an Obviously Evil Expy of Humungus and Wes.
6. Pantheon.Couples Archetypes
- Vlad Masters has lusted after Maddie for ages, and hoped to earn her love once more. They were quick to remind him that he's burned his bridges and have sworn to squeeze him into the tightest Fenton Thermos they could possibly get. Despite their animosity, Jack used to be oblivious that Vlad hated him, assuming they were still best buddies. Maddie has no patience with the likes of Lezard Valeth due to being like Vlad, and Jack sees Kotonoha Katsura and Sekai Saionji's affections as twisted as him.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Views the Sanderson sisters as misguided souls forced into committing acts of evil. The truth is far, far from that thought.
There are many potential reasons why the character was surprised — maybe they're used to being mistreated, whether due to an abusive childhood, living in a Crapsack World, or having a bad work environment. Perhaps they have a negative association with the other person's profession, nationality, etc (e.g. someone who had Sadist Teachers in school expects a teacher to be mean). Then again, maybe they're just a Horrible Judge of Character, someone who Hates Everyone Equally, The Cynic, or thinks that Hope Is Scary. They might also be evil or obnoxious and thus don't expect a person to help them (if evil, this can overlap with Evil Cannot Comprehend Good).
- Horrible Judge of Character: Trusted Takeo a little too quickly, even when the other man got a bit handsy. Takeo exploits this, drugging and raping him.
10. Characters.Like Father Like Daughter
- Horrible Judge of Character: Doesn’t realize that his advisor and the nuns he invited are working to overthrow him.
12. Characters.Forged Destiny Friends And Allies
- Horrible Judge of Character: When it comes to Jaune. When learning about the many troubles the guild already has faced, he initially believes the blonde knight to be a glory seeker taking advantage of Ruby's idealism and naivete to drag her into danger, though he later admits to being wrong. He then again pegs Jaune as a Fearless Fool due to being far too calm and focused during a Grimm siege, not realizing it's due to an as yet unknown skill than a character trait.
13. Pantheon.Torture And Mutilation
- Winston and Julia: Anti Heroes, Cult Defectors, Being at their Happiest Together (Both), The Everyman which means More than it Sounds, Is not Good at Properly Recognizing Someone, Making up Statistics for Big Brother, Writers Are Writers (Winston), Good Bad Girl, Wrench Wench, Wants to Reform the System from the Inside (Julia)
14. Characters.Pokemon Adventures Allies
- Horrible Judge of Character: Is this considering Lysandre, constantly praising him. Unlike the games, everyone else is suspicious and wary of Lysandre, making the professor seem even more oblivious in contrast.
- Horrible Judge of Character:king Mitron. He doesn't once suspect his kinsman Bihoreau to be Zizanion; when Anthracite takes power in Coquefredouille, he expects the great and good to resist him - they rush to grovel before Anthracite; and when Anthracie manages to lose his all-destructive bomb, the chief of his bodyguards arrests him - Mitron is moved by such loyalty and makes him chief of HIS bodyguards…
- Horrible Judge of Character: Salinas wants to cooperate with Japan to displace the American influence in the Mexican economy, but is also described as a naïve man when it comes to people's intentions, something which might bring harm to Mexico as he works with Japan.
17. Characters.Steven Universe Alternate Future
- Con Woman: Pyrite is described to be an ace con-Gem, best shown when seducing shopkeeper Grouper into giving her a makua motor and taking advantage of Braids' Horrible Judge of Character to give it to her. As a bonus, the chapter where she serves as its Villain of the Week is titled "A Fool and their Money".
18. Characters.Beelzebub Demon Characters
- Horrible Judge of Character: She thought Johan, the Reaper of Solomon, was trustworthy, even though he had only been using her from the start.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Nick toward his gold digger fiancée. She is very rude - not only to the girls, but also to his housekeeper.
20. Film.The Affair Of The Necklace
- Horrible Judge of Character: The Cardinal believes Jeanne when she says she is a confidante of the queen. He also listens to his occultist.
21. Characters.The Creation Alchemist Enjoys Freedom
- Horrible Judge of Character: She completely trusts the words of the Imperial Prime Minister at face value, just because he's nice to her every now and then, when he's a scheming two-faced weasel who only sees her as a tool, on a good day.
Has good reason to trust the villain 7/ 65 (10.8%)
1. Characters.Samurai Jack Allies
- Horrible Judge of Character: Jack points this out to them that Aku cannot be trusted. Unfortunately, this is justified due to Aku's power keeping their city under water, and thus he is the only one who can lift it. Predictably, he doesn't.
2. Characters.For Your Eyes Only
- Horrible Judge of Character: Ferarra thinks Kristatos is an Anglophile and a reliable informant, and takes Bond to him for information on Locque's whereabouts, not realising that Locque is working for Kristatos. To be fair, Bond is also taken in by Kristatos' act.
3. Characters.Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation Mo Dao Zu Shi Lan Clan Of Gusu
- Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. He has unrelenting belief in Jin Guangyao even when the evidence stacks up against the latter's innocence, right up until he's captured and held hostage by the very character. However, this mistake in judgement isn't completely unreasonable, as many other men (including Nie Mingjue at first) have also been fooled by Jin Guangyao due to the latter's masterful acting and manipulative ways.
4. JerkassHasAPoint.Dragon Ball
- At the end of the Future Trunks Saga, he [Beerus] coldly tells Gowasu to choose his apprentices more carefully in the future. Considering the fact that Gowasu proved to be a Horrible Judge of Character in regards to Zamasu and failed to notice his growing darkness until it was almost too late, and also told him about the Time Rings and Super Dragon Balls, both of which proved crucial to Zamasu's plans, he's not wrong. Though, in defense of Gowasu, we actually get to see Zamasu before becoming a Supreme Kai and he was actually quite kind and humble back then.
5. Characters.Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
- Horrible Judge of Character: With the exception of Raikov, everyone in his inner circle is actively conspiring against him. EVERYONE. Ocelot and The Boss on behalf of the Americans, EVA/Tatyana on behalf of the Chinese (and to a lesser extent Snake), the Cobras are loyal to The Boss. To be fair, all of them are extremely well trained Philosopher agents, but still, Volgin is being played like several different fiddles and never realizes it.
6. Characters.X Men Film Series Deadpool
- Horrible Judge of Character: When recruiting for the X-Force, he recruits a guy with no mutant powers just because he took a shine to him, and blows off Domino's luck-based power because it's so abstract.
7. Characters.Twenty Four Government
- Horrible Judge of Character: Has worked with Miles long enough that she believes he can ultimately be brought into the loop to take down Charles Logan. Big mistake.
ZCE 7/ 65 (10.8%)
1. Characters.Bobs Burgers Bob Belcher
- Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: In an inversion, Bob is the Responsible Husband to Linda's Foolish Wife. Bob is pragmatic in regards to difficult situations, can cook burgers quite well, and usually objects to whatever shenanigans Linda's got planned. Linda, however, is recklessly enthusiastic, tends to be smothering regarding the kids, and is often a Horrible Judge of Character.
2. FranchiseOriginalSin.Western Animation
- My Little Pony (Generation 4), which includes My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
- The fights against the villains became increasingly criticized for using The Worf Effect, Idiot Ball, Militaries Are Useless, and Anti-Climax Boss. At first, that fact that there were any fights in My Little Pony was so surprising and cool enough most fans were willing to overlook this. However, it got worse as the series went on, as the Sorting Algorithm of Evil and Serial Escalation reached the limit of what they could get away with without falling into this. The first villains, Nightmare Moon and Discord, were Physical Gods who could only be defeated by the Elements of Harmony, justifying only the heroes being able to oppose them, with Princess Celestia contributing though cunning plans keeping her from being useless. The Season 2 finale had the Changelings; despite them being weaker, they successfully overran Canterlot despite its army being mobilized. This combined with all the bad decisions and bad judgements the heroes made beforehand, as well as Celestia getting defeated in her first on-screen fight, caused the first backlash. This was mitigated by the Changelings grabbing the element of surprise so tightly even fans didn't see them coming, Celestia's loss being due to unique circumstances even the villain was surprised by (and Celestia was winning the fight before those unique circumstances set in), and the heroes still put up an epic fight and were only beaten by sheer numbers. This keep it very well received by most who didn't expect any action, much less that kind of bar raising. The Season 3 opener was criticized for its lesser action, but still worked as Sombra, was so Crazy-Prepared he nearly won without a fight and the Princesses' noninvolvement was justified as them testing the heroes. The Season 4 opener and finale were very well received, to the point the latter is oft considered the best episode of the series, thanks to it having the best action and justifiably threatening foes, which again raised the bar to the point most overlooked the heroes and Princesses poorly thought out plans indirectly enabling Tirek's actions. The contrivance started to set in Season 5, as Starlight Glimmer inexplicably rivaled Twilight Sparkle in power despite being a regular unicorn, which was harder to ignore as the action was not struggling to up the ante. The Season 6 finale had all the heroes and Princesses getting defeated offscreen by the aforementioned Changelings without anyone noticing or any kind of explanation given all the circumstances they needed last time. This denied a chance for action and upped the contrivance to the point it broke Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Not helping was that by that point the expectations for action was was raised to a point it couldn't measure up and the aforementioned Starlight Glimmer was the only one (besides three allies she had) left to save everyone; this added to her criticism of making the other characters look bad to give Starlight unfair favoritism. My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) only added to this, as an Actionized Sequel made the contrivances so central to the story it was harder for viewers to overlook.
3. Characters.Rebuild World Major Cast
- Horrible Judge of Character: Zig-Zagged. It’s more that the details of his guesses are wildly off due to overthinking, his general impressions of people are pretty good.
4. Foil.Infinity Train Blossomverse
- As a father figure, he's the opposite of Professor Cerise. He's kind and patient with his own son, never once pushing him to take an appearance he didn't like and was proud of Lexi learning to fold his papers into different beings. He also tends to numerous books like their his children and his only flaw was a Horrible Judge of Character moment on Grace and Simon. In contrast, Professor Cerise's work is about the relationships between Pokémon and humans, but he is completely oblivious to Chloe's problems, has no idea that she doesn't like Pokémon and the only time he praises her just makes things even worse.
5-7. WebVideo.Backstroke Of The West
- Horrible Judge of Character: When confronting Space General again, Ratio Tile claims everybody is good.note He also has no problem with letting Allah Gold — who thinks that the best way to put an end to war is to have less freedom and start more wars — participate in peace negotiations.
- Before his second fight with the Space General, he says he has “contacted good” after speaking with the silver, red-wearing landing delegation.
- Allah Gold isn't much better. He's convinced that "Speaker D is not a bad person" and that "Heroes is just bad person." Really trying to make sense of out nonsense
Character intended to be intelligent 4/ 65 (6.2%)
- The Scrappy:
- Samejima/Shepard. He is supposed to be the Reasonable Authority Figure of Academia but his uselessness, Horrible Judge of Character, and potentially disastrous (and stupid) actions have made him the worst character in GX. Even some fans outright admit to preferring the likes of Cronos/Crowler and Napoleon/Bonapartenote to him.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Morwenna served her for years, and even as an all-knowing Benevolent Mage Ruler, the Starwife apparently never once suspected her handmaiden was not who she appeared to be.
- Horrible Judge of Character: As mistrusting of others as he is, he never thinks to suspect Dimlon as being a member of the Scale.
%%* To the extent that, upon seeing the first episode of 80s cartoon Skeleton Warriors and hearing a character say "How can you think Baron Dark is our enemy?", one has to laugh.
Subversions 2/ 65 (3%)
1. Characters.Friendship Is Magic Expanded Universe
- Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted. On the one hoof, she does ally with several characters that ranges from shady to malicious (except for Iron Will), especially Chrysalis, to get Sombra back. On the other hoof, said army was just one massive distraction for her real plan and given that virtually all of them are bad to various degrees, it does mean there is little issue in using them as pawns. If nothing else, she definitely planned to backstab Chrysalis. And while the Umbrum seem like a race of Obviously Evil beings, Rabia (their queen) did spend a thousand years convincing Raidant Hope otherwise (including altering their forms, and given that she's Sombra's mother, she's definitely skilled at manipulating.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Magra acts unfazed by the fact that the potential candidates for leader of the pack is the cruel Ragear and the goofball Grey. Averted. As it turns out, Magra knew from the start Ragear would not be a fit leader. In fact, the reason he even let Grey compete is because he'd rather a prankster like him lead the pack than someone who would reign with an iron paw.
Others 1/ 65 (1.5%)
1. Characters.Blaz Blue Cross Tag Battle RWBY
- Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. She thinks Hazama is a decent guy. This is a weakness carried over from the show: she expects the best in everybody and this has led her to trusting some horrible people she really shouldn't have, like Mercury and Emerald or Raven Branwen. In Ruby's defense, though, Hazama did end up appearing out of nowhere when she needed a partner, so Ruby really couldn't judge him by anything else other than appearance. Plus, since she’s not from the Blazblue universe, she would have no way of knowing about Hazama, what he did, Terumi, etc...essentially, apart from shadyness and suspicious behavior, she didn’t really have any reason to distrust him at the time, unlike Ragna and the other BlazBlue characters, who actually DO know Hazama and have lots of reasons to distrust him. Seems like a combination of trust as a flaw, and has a good reason to trust
