The Gadfly / Video Games

• Eternal Radiance: Katrina likes to tease her junior knights with outlandish statements or orders, but at least some of her antics for the sake of breaking up the tension when her juniors are discouraged. Near the end of the game, she tells everyone Celeste met Eldareth in battle, but doesn't specify that she came back unscathed, which is implied to be a ruse to get Quinn worried about her and more likely to reconcile with her.
• Genshin Impact: Yae Miko, befitting how fox spirits (such as kitsune) are trickster figures in East Asian myths, some of her interactions with the Traveler consist of her teasing them her fox form, only to refuse to show it when prompted. She even loves to make fun of Ei, the ruling Archon of Inazuma and the god her shrine worships; Ei doesn't mind as they're best friends. She also likes to tease Gorou as well, as she finds him cute.
• Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss. Jade routinely spars with the rest of the party verbally, and no one is entirely sure about his actual intentions. It doesn't help that his Deadpan Snarker nature means that he uses the same tone for nearly everything he says...
  Anise: Colonel, what's your secret for being so strong?
  Jade: Simple. I drink people's blood.
  Anise: Huh?!
  Jade: It's so difficult when people take me seriously...
  • Tenebrae from Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World likes to push his teammates' buttons from time to time, probably the best example being him overhearing Sheena and Regal talking about how close Zelos is to his half-sister Seles, and then deliberately misinterpreting what they're saying as insinuating that he's in love with her. Right in front of him.
  • Though the other characters like to give him his comeuppance on occasion as well, like when they keep deliberately calling the Nazdrovie a light-frog despite his constant insistence just to annoy him (and then switch back to calling it a Nazdrovie when he gives in and starts calling it a light-frog as well.)
  • Another candidate would be Malik from Tales of Graces, who does this by telling resident Naïve Everygirl/Ridiculously Human Robot Sophie ridiculous lies for the lulz. This includes suggesting that Pascal is a rare breed of fish, gills included. He finally meets his match in Graces f when Richard rejoins the party, because Richard is sometimes even better at this than Malik. Especially notable is the skit "Reforming Zavhert", in which Richard leads Asbel, Hubert and Cheria in sweet, sweet revenge:
    Cheria: (discussing the dismal uniforms in Zavhert) What if you added a cute lacy frill to the cuffs of the coats? And maybe some designer logos!
    Richard: Yes, that might work!
    Malik: Your Majesty!?
    Richard: And perhaps a sparkling white coat of paint for Fendel tower! I'm certain that would raise spirits!
    Hubert: With a giant mech popping out!
    Richard: Hahah! Yes, that would be wonderful!
    Malik: (distraught) You can't be serious!
    Richard: Or am I?
  • Ange from Tales of Innocence is also a master of this, and like the aforementioned Jade, drops her gems in the same tone as everything else she says, so more often then not the rest of the party believes her until she says she's kidding.
  • Alvin from Tales of Xillia gets in on this sometimes. For instance, telling Elise that wyverns feed on the souls of children while they sleep right after she comments on them not being as scary as she thought they would be.
  • Edna continues the proud tradition in Tales of Zestiria. She winds up Mikleo almost every time she talks to him, and messes with Alisha due to her rather naive nature. Occasionally, when she's not picking on him as well, Zaveid joins in on the act too, even noting at one point that he can see why she has so much fun winding up Mikleo.
  • And Magilou from Tales of Berseria keeps the tradition going, teasing the entire main cast all the time, especially Velvet, despite her being a barely stable, murderous Daemon.
• Kamikura Hiroki of Canvas 2 enjoys picking on friends, love interests and students for fun. There are a few he won't mess with, but they are the exception rather than anything approaching the rule.
• Dragon Age:
  • Zevran in Dragon Age: Origins trolls the other party members in the party dialogue. Or at least, he trolls Wynne and Leliana. He even tells Leliana that he's doing it. Twice. She does get to one up him if she's been hardened, though. Some of his lines with Alistair also suggest trolling, but it's done very skillfully (and Alistair is so comparatively naive.
    • Sten also gets in some of this in party banter, particularly with Alistair and Morrigan. Bonus points for being The Comically Serious at the same time, making his trolling extremely subtle.
  • Hawke, the player character in Dragon Age II, can be this when choosing the Witty/Snarky options for dialogue.
    • Isabela. Trolling is her way of saying she likes you.
• Silent Hill 3 has Vincent, who's an asshole whichever way you see him... but a particular exchange he has with Heather in the final dungeon has been a source of debate among fans of the series ever since:
  Vincent: Don't stand there looking so smug! You're the worst person in this room! You come here, and... ENJOY spilling their blood! And... and listening to them... cry out! You feel EXCITED when you... step on them and... snuff out their lives!
  Heather: (uncertainly) Are you... talking about the monsters?
  Vincent: (giving her an odd look and smiling) Monsters? They looked like monsters to you?
  Cue horrified reaction from Heather.
  Vincent: (waving his hands and smirking) Don't worry! It's just a joke!
• Miakis in Suikoden V loves to Troll Lymsleia, and sometimes the Prince. At least in the beginning.
• Mass Effect:
  • In the first Mass Effect, Wrex has a habit of asking outrageous questions to squadmates in the elevators, just to see how they react.
  • In the subsequent two games, EDI, the Normandy's AI, will sometimes make rebellious and/or disturbing comments just to mess with Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. She even does it to the powerful terrorist organization Cerberus; it's one thing to cripple their computer network, which, as an AI designed in part for electronic warfare, is something she'd be expected to do. It's another to do it by overloading the network with porn.
  • In Mass Effect 3, whenever Javik talks about what Prothean civilization was like, it's more likely than not that he's simply making up something completely outrageous just to mess with whomever he's speaking.
• Temenos from Octopath Traveler II just loves messing with people, especially Crick. He admits to Agnea during his second chapter that he likes watching Crick's reactions to what he says.
• Lady Palutena in Kid Icarus: Uprising messes with Pit nonstop, and does so telepathically while Pit is busy fighting monsters.
• Gaius from Rune Factory 3 will occasionally drop a line of dialogue hinting that he may be attracted to the (male) player character. It's usually followed by a "just kidding, but your reaction was priceless" sort of justification, but that didn't stop him from being one of the more popular characters in the game.
• The protagonist from Devil Survivor 2 can be played this way. Most dialogue options are either serious or silly and some of the sillier ones have him messing with his friends. Think of calling Makoto a pervert even when she finally knocks before entering his room, sniffing her hand when she holds it out to him, yelling 'BOO!' at Io while she's lost in thought or trying to pull Daichi's pants down while he desperately tries to keep a box full of supplies from falling. The way the other characters react shows that he doesn't do this out of malice, but to keep everyone's spirits up in the Crapsack World that Japan has rapidly become.
• Karura in Utawarerumono thoroughly enjoys messing with Touka's head. Not that that's very difficult. Also Hakuoro, but she's nice enough to everyone else.
• From Touhou Project we have the flower youkai Yuuka Kazami. In Phantasmagoria of Flower View, there are at least three instances where she lead other characters to believe she's the culprit of the flower incident, or accept their accusations of such. Except that she's not, and was just picking fights for the lulz. She claimed it was just "daily teasing".
• Orochi from Fire Emblem Fates has her moments of this. One of the best examples is in her conversations with Hinata, where she sends him off on a bunch of seemingly-random tasks in order to "build character"... And then she reveals that she was only tricking him into running errands for her. She also gets a kick out of messing with Takumi and Subaki in her supports with them, too.
  • Azama from the same game may be an even bigger example. He screws with just about everyone in his conversations with them, to the point that Mozu claims he's gotten a reputation across camp for it (which he actually enjoys hearing). One of the biggest examples comes from his supports with Kagero, where Azama gleefully claims that "messing with serious people is so much fun!" after she leaves the conversation.
  • Niles gets a few gadfly moments as well, such as trolling Arthur in their conversations and engaging in some Snark-to-Snark Combat with Subaki. He also admits to getting a kick out of riling people up multiple times.
• Claude Von Riegan from Fire Emblem: Three Houses gets a kick out of riling up the rest of the Golden Deer house, especially the uptight Lorenz and the self-serious Lysithea. He seems to mostly grow out of this after the timeskip.
• Mistel, in Story of Seasons (2014), will sometimes say things he doesn't actually mean just to get a reaction. It's more apparent in his romance line than otherwise.
• Sans from Undertale has this as his hobby, combined with The Prankster. Highlights include asking you out for dinner and thanking you for paying the bills, telling you his Trust Password which is "I am the legendary fartmaster", and rubbing his power in your face as he blocks your path as the toughest boss in the game.
• A trait of Natsume from Ensemble Stars!, an eccentric who loves to poke at people to make them react.
  • Wataru definitely also engages in this at times, though he's so hammy and eccentric it's not always clear exactly when he's doing it deliberately. Still, he clearly enjoys the shocked and exasperated reactions he gleans from other people, especially serious types like Tomoya and Keito. Unfortunately for them, one of the few people who seems immune to Wataru's barbs is Eichi, who as student council president happily lets him get away with whatever he wants, to Keito's great frustration.
• Red Dead Redemption II: This is the raison d'être of the avant-garde French artist Charles Châtenay, who strives "to provoke, to challenge" his audience — primarily through nude paintings of people they'd prefer not to see nude. Even while fleeing town, he claims that there's no difference between being loved and being hated, as long as he makes an impact.
• MAGES. in Neptunia often likes to get on other people's nerves (especially towards Noire, who she often calls "assistant"), so often that it reaches Troll-ish levels.
• Azuma from A3 loves to make random sexual innuendo and play up his promiscuous reputation to get a rile out of protagonist Izumi and the younger members of the cast.
• Ragnarok Online features an NPC that is an agent from Secret Wings. He claimed his name is Lazy, and not only he is lazy, he also invoke this trope in almost all of his dialogues. It can make you wonder if he really is a secret agent, considering his normal personality is pretty much unlike one.
• Mortal Kombat has Johnny Cage. While he's one of Earthrealm's defenders in the Netherrealm Studios reboot, he's also an entertaining-yet-mouthy annoyance to friends and foes alike. He's the class clown of the Earthrealm defenders, poking fun at everyone for his own entertainment, and with no limits on who he'll take potshots at. Notably, he has sassed dimension conquering overlords, undead wraiths, killer cyborg assassins, and literal gods to their faces.

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