Devil in Plain Sight

"It's funny, really. Twilight here was suspicious of my behavior all along. Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize the suspicions were correct!"
—Queen Chrysalis, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Someone who is so obviously up to no good that the one character who seems aware of it is shocked no one else seems to notice. Everyone else, especially those with a tendency to be Horrible Judges Of Character, may just consider them a little quirky and wonder what the observant character's problem is.

Sometimes this can be a villain hiding as a lesser immoral person. For example, no one would be the least bit surprised to find out that any given politician is a slimy scheming Jerkass, and thus they manage to hide their greater villainy as the simple pettiness of your every day scumbag.

Less extreme than the Villain with Good Publicity, who is thought of highly by most people; the Devil in Plain Sight is mostly met with inattentive indifference. May also be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Might also be a case of Notice This (for the audience only).

Characters that are Too Dumb to Fool can be their most dangerous enemies.

Compare with It Was Here, I Swear, Not-So-Imaginary Friend, Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal, Mistaken for An Imposter. Contrast They Look Just Like Everyone Else and Most Definitely Not a Villain. For when the Devil in Plain Sight is actually the big D-man himself, see Louis Cypher.

See Hidden in Plain Sight for when a MacGuffin does this.

Examples of Devils in Plain Sight include:

Anime and Manga

  • Guu in Haré+Guu.[context?]
  • Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 plays with this trope; he's a conniving, scheming, trigger-happy Magnificent Bastard and doesn't care who knows it (his name can even be read as "devil in broad daylight"). Also, he avoids repercussions for his actions not by avoiding or sucking up to authority figures, but by blackmailing them.
    • And he looks pretty devilish, to boot.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Subverted in the manga version; Asuka is always nice to all the NERV staff, but with Shinji, Rei, Toji and Kensuke she is her usual, bitchy self. She keeps up this act for a while until, during a party, she punches out Toji in front of Misato after he starts revealing all her past angry outbursts. Misato then admits that they always knew that Asuka was faking her more amiable personality, prompting her to go ballistic... on Shinji.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei: Parodied with Mitama Mayo, who is evil, but because she also looks evil everyone who sees her decides not to prejudge and assumes she's not evil. Eventually even Itoshiki gets pulled into it, and decides there's nothing wrong with her.
  • Thriller Restaurant: In Episode 14, Anko's wart takes over her body and mind. The only ones who seem to notice anything wrong with her are her dog Kicchomu and Shou. Her parents actually become impressed by her personality makeover and maturity.
  • Xelloss of Slayers. Even though the whole party knows he's a demon, no one seems to mind him much - and that's despite his gruesome Kick the Dog record.
    • Slightly adverted as, once they know he's evil, they only keep him around because he's so strong and regularly helps them out, when it overlaps with his goals/ is bored.
    • Also the fact he's so strong there isn't much they can do about him, short of risking blowing up the universe. That it's Xelloss' eventual goal and Lina can do it may be part of the reason he likes hanging with her.
    • Lampshaded: That Xellos is both incredibly strong and evil is terribly obvious to the viewer, but Lina and co. don't figure out he's a Mazoku until quite a ways into Next, when it's practically shoved in their faces. The only one who figured it out before hand? Gourry, who didn't say anything because he thought it was so obvious.
    • No-one ever trusted him to begin with, and indeed Xellos never seemed to actually try to be trustworthy either, introducing himself as "Xellos, the mysterious priest." As the characters note, "Who introduces THEMSELVES as 'the mysterious priest'?" It's just that being a rather more literal devil in plain sight never occurred to anyone but Gourry.
  • Nobody in Mai-Otome except for Chie seems to suspect anything of #2 Coral Tomoe, even though the latter's sarcastic tone of voice (and occasional smirk, even in front of the teachers) is often blatantly obvious.
  • Ichimaru Gin from Bleach lays on his smiling, close-eyed, soft-spoken personality so thick that it's no wonder some people immediately figure out he's evil. In a way, this actually works to distract almost everyone from the machinations of the true Big Bad, Captain Aizen.
    • He isn't a perfect example either, as multiple people suspect him. Hitsugaya and Rukia often remark their doubts about Gin before he betrays Soul Society. They just don't mind evil people in their organisation.
    • SS Arc Mayuri is this too.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series: Bakura is this to a huge degree. His introduction scene is complete with Ominous Latin Chanting and when asked to show his favourite card, he whips out a picture of Sephiroth before hastily replacing it.
    • And Alex Brisbane, Mr "I'm Most Definitely Not a Villain". Fortunately he only has to trick Tristan, Tea, Joey and Yugi, which isn't exactly difficult.
    • And then there's Marik Ishtar "Malik Blishtar"...

Joey: [thinking] I still think there's something fishy about that guy...
Marik: Wahahaha! Destroy you all!
Joey: [thinking] Man, if I could only put my finger on it...

  • Monster: To Nina, seeing Johan is like seeing pure evil. To everyone else, it's just seeing a blond pretty boy. (At least until they see the light...)
  • Gankutsuou: Let's see, the Count has long, sharp nails, pointed ears, fangs, his picture doesn't develop if he's photographed, has moments of cruel and disturbing behavior, oh yeah, and he's blue. Only one character ever calls attention to his odd features, and Albert can't understand why his friends could possibly suggest that the Count is evil.
    • Of course in The Count of Monte Cristo, people calling the Count a vampire is a continuously running joke. Even though he isn't blue.
  • Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt: Scanty and Kneesocks, quite literally. Not even the red skin, horns, devil tails or the fact they were actually called The Demon Sisters tipped Panty and Stocking off.
  • An odd example: Mephisto Pheles of Blue Exorcist seems to be playing with this. It's difficult to tell at this point, but his first entrance drew immediate suspicion. He dressed extravagantly, wore all white, had dramatic mannerisms, and his looks made it obvious that he was a demon of some sort. Heck, even his name is an obvious pun on that of a famous demon. But then this was subverted as it turned out that a lot of people have demon blood in the series, and some of them are exorcists. Then it turns out that he may be another one of Satan's sons - possibly his eldest, actually. Then again, the main character is also a son of Satan. So, Mephisto could still go either way at this point. He plays loads of "tricks" on his students, such as letting high-level demons on campus to challenge the potential exorcists (particularly Rin) which, he implies, is for the purpose of making them all stronger. But then he may have...some other reasons. The fandom suspicion only mounts the more "tricks" he plays, but there's still too much evidence to support the idea that he may genuinely want to bring peace to Assiah and Gehenna. He was in fact friends with Rin's adoptive father, and was responsible for sealing Rin's demon soul inside the demon sword when Rin was born. Really, he is pretty much the most mysterious character in the series at this point. It's highly possible that he is a Devil in Plain Sight but he may very well be a subversion of the trope. The fandom will have to wait and see.
  • Kumiko-san from Kamisama Kazoku plays this trope LITERALLY. Only Tenko gets to see her true face, and her stories are so outrageous that no-one believes her - least of all Kazoku.
  • In One Piece's 3rd movie, the main villain Count Butler, he even wears a coat that has the Kanji of EVIL written on his back, all while claiming he isn't evil.
  • Schneizel el Britannia from Code Geass can be considered one of these. He may be one of Britannia's most prominent royal figures, but masks his true intentions with apparently conciliatory actions, making him appear to be an example of The White Prince, managing to fool most everyone he comes across. Lelouch and Xing-ke are two notable exceptions.


Comic Books

  • Nobody outside of people he has come in direct contact with (most of the people anyway) seem to notice that Roark Jr. from the Sin City story "That Yellow Bastard" is a psychopathic Serial Killer who has raped, tortured and killed a vast number of little girls (that may be because his father is a United States Senator and no one on the force dares to try to bring him down—at least until John Hartigan gets involved). It's implied that it was a public secret; everybody knew, nobody dared to act.
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: The title character commits ridiculously over-the-top mass murder and even himself seems puzzled why he hasn't been caught. It is later revealed that the reason why Johnny doesn't get caught is that he is a "waste-lock", a person created to watch over focal points of residue left over from negative human energy. This is revealed to him from none other than the Devil. It is implied, in the comic "I Feel Sick," that when the accumulated human waste acquires a mind of its own, it can allow a person to do whatever they want, even kill, without being caught. The doll tries to tempt Devi with this devil's deal.
  • I Luv Halloween. A black comedy of the darkest kind. About a group of amoral trick-or-treaters who want their Halloween candy even in the midst of an alien invasion and zombie apocalypse. One of the characters is Devil-lad, a hooded young boy wearing a devil's mask who patiently goes along with the group's crazy hijinks. The other trick-or-treaters note he smells like sulfur. Proven in the second volume, when he nonchalantly rises from a crater after being in the middle of a nuclear explosion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxDZ7DQmYwA&feature=related
  • As most Muggles in the Marvel Universe are Too Dumb to Live, none of Norman Osborn's previous actions prevent him from doing whatever he wants.
  • In the earliest Spider-Man comics, Aunt May couldn't seem to understand why the police would want to arrest the nice Dr. Otto Octavius.
  • Dr. Doom makes frequent attempts to take over the world that would be considered acts of war by real world standards, and most governments in the world just ignore him. No wonder he feels he better suited to rule the world.
    • This may count as Fridge Brilliance though: maybe world leaders have gotten the clue that all Doom wants is to keep having his little tiff with Reed Richards, so they just lay low and let the Fantastic Four deal with him to avoid getting targeted and devastated by Doom rather than just battered a bit in the crossfire.
  • Count Kasino in Les Légendaires. He's a young arrogant man who hires two assassins as his bodyguards, has a typical evil aristocrat face and attitude and is known by everyone to be a ruthless dictator on his own territory. He even has an evil grin when learning he has his chance to become king of Orchidia instead of his cousins Jadina and Tenebris. Yet, Vangelis actually seems surprised when learning it was him who attempted to kill Jadina and the Legendaries in the Gamera Mines. Partially subverted/inverted later however, as it turns out Kasino was actually nothing more than an Unwitting Pawn and the actual villain was Vangelis

Film

  • Harry Potter: Tom Riddle. Professor Slughorn, please take a good close look at this kid. Now please, put the ball away and take another look, this time a careful one. Now you see it? Good. Then please, do the world a favor - incinerate this godless hellspawn and save us all a heap of troubles.
    • Not only Slughorn, hell, Dumbledore too.
  • Rhoda Penmark in Bad Seed personifies this trope.
  • American Psycho: Patrick Bateman—despite the fact that he directly tells his friends that he is a sadistic serial killer.
  • The Black Hole: Dr. Reinhardt. Even though the "heroes" suspect, they don't suspect hard enough. What makes it even more jarring is Reinhardt's explicitly evil robot Dragon Maximilian, who manages to stir up little additional suspicion. (The title of this trope is justified by this movie's mind screwy ending sequence with Heaven and Hell symbolism, by the way.)
  • There Will Be Blood: The main character is clearly one of these, complete with the Meaningful Name of Daniel Plainview. How much better his enemies the Sundays are is up to debate. At least until the bodies begin piling up.
  • Hot Fuzz: Simon Skinner, owner of the local supermarket. He often behaves extraordinarily creepy around Sergeant Nick Angel, having a bit of a Psychotic Smirk, making puns about killing and showing up around the murder scenes. The fact that the murders committed lead Angel to believe that Skinner is responsible in order to get more land for his supermarket doesn't help either (though that wasn't the true nature. Turns out Angel's only part right.)
    • Then there's the wonderful scene where Skinner drives up to a burnt down house with a song about fire playing loudly on his card radio.
    • In fact, every time Skinner turns up there's a song that's related to the murder. His drive past the scene of the "traffic collision" features Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits.
  • Henry from The Good Son could be considered this, seeing his robot voice makes even his bogus innocent act seem... well, bogus. But, of course, even his parents can't see this...
  • Red Eye: Jackson Rippner is, although nice, a bit too interested in Lisa.
  • In The Paperboy Ms. Rosemont tells Cammie that Johnny is this.
  • In The Devil's Advocate, John Milton knows that his unassuming looks are his greatest weapon:

John Milton: I'm the hand up Mona Lisa's skirt. I'm a surprise, Kevin. They don't see me coming: that's what you're missing.

    • Later on, he describes an encounter with one of his victims:

John Milton: There's this beautiful girl just fucked me 40 ways from Sunday... we're done, she's walking to the bathroom, she's trying to walk, she turns... she looks... it's me. Not the Trojan army just fucked her. Little ol' me. She gets this look on her face like: "How the hell did that happen?"

  • Cape Fear: This trope is the whole point of the film. It's even more obvious in the remake.

Literature

  • The Dead Zone: A large part of the premise of Stephen King's novel.
  • Smerdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov is really just thought of as a scullion who has airs of intellectualism about him, and who carries blasphemous notions about religion. He's also thought of as pathetic to others because he suffers from epileptic seizures. The idea of him being the murderer is absurd to everyone in town for these reasons, yet he is. Only the protagonist seems to have any deep misgivings about him. I mean come on, he even flashes Psychotic Smirks whenever given the chance.
  • Count Olaf of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Though the Baudelaire orphans always see through his flimsy disguises, none of the adults ever believe them.
    • Until the last book, when the orphans are shocked to discover a community of adults who immediately perceive Count Olaf as both obviously in disguise and an untrustworthy villain. This comes with its own problems, of course, as they've already encountered "The Slippery Slope".
  • Reacher Gilt in Going Postal remarks on the fact that he actually tells people he's one of these and they just laugh.
    • For extra effect, he dresses up like a stereotypical pirate, complete with a parrot on his shoulder.
  • Redwall: Reversed with Veil Sixclaw. Everyone except his foster-mother Bryony realises that he's a delinquent and guess that it was him when an Abbeydweller is nearly killed. Ironically, it's heavily implied that if they'd treated him as if he was normal, he'd have grown up okay. But then they are mice trying to raise a ferret.
  • Harry Potter: This is inverted in the novels. Harry is utterly convinced that Snape is a terrible villain, but nobody believes him except his friends. Eventually, even they stop believing him. This continues until Snape kills Dumbledore, but is then subverted again when it is revealed that this was a mercy killing, agreed to well in advance, due to Dumbledore suffering under a terrible, incurable, and fatal curse.
  • 'The Demon Princes: The titular villains from Jack Vance's series, despite being infamous pirate lords and criminal bosses, value their anonymity and are essentially this. One has a position at a prestigious university, and on one occasion the hero Kirth Gersen gets into a bar fight with a Demon Prince without knowing. Often, the most difficult thing for Gersen is just figuring out who the Demon Prince is.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: How anyone in Westeros could ever trust Roose Bolton, lord of the Dreadfort, is shocking. The man's sigil is a flayed man, he comes from a family with a long standing tradition of skinning their enemies alive and wearing their skins in battle, he always speaks in a Creepy Monotone and his favorite pastime is getting leeched. Granted, everyone finds him a little unsettling but still, he's relied upon to perform extremely important roles several times. Trusting him never turns out well
    • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is obviously up to no good from the moment he appears in A Game Of Thrones and even tells Ned Stark not to trust him. When Ned does trust him, he betrays Ned, to no one's surprise. In the next two novels, where Littlefinger interacts with the Lannisters/the Deadly Decadent Court, mostly everyone seems to think that Littlefinger is just some ambitious commoner who wants to be a lord, and only Tyrion gets how much of a ruthless and dangerous backstabber he really is, or so he thinks. Even Tyrion never imagined that Littlefinger was essentially the Big Bad who deliberately engineered the civil war engulging the continent, and orchestrated the murder of John Aryn that kicked off the plot. He still doesn't know that, in fact- Baelish only confessed it in a Motive Rant to his hostage Sansa Stark, and he is doing it for the sake of power and is well on his way to becoming the most powerful man in the realm. He's probably holding stuff back from her too.
  • John Reed in Jane Eyre. He torments Jane constantly, sometimes in front of his mother who doesn't stop the bullying (then again, Mrs Reed never did like Jane). And the servants who notice the bullying simply tell Jane to put up with it.
    • That's blatant Parental Favoritism, and none of the servants will help Jane because John Reed is next in line to inherit the house. If they invoke his ire, it's bad luck for them down the road.
  • The Mystery Wanderer in Stationery Voyagers. Nobody can figure out that he's Melchar. And yet, he at best only plays the role of an anti-hero. Never a true good guy. But no matter how much he creeps everyone out, they keep giving him a free pass.
  • Literally the case in the Left Behind book series.
  • Everyone in Krabat should recognize Pumphutt for his big hat immediately, but they never do until he tells them who he is. Can be explained with A Wizard Did It.
  • Professor Moriarty. Three layers there: his obscurity, his charm, and his crack legal team. The brass tacks are pretty much reserved for the normal course of business in that massive criminal empire he's running, until Holmes manages to get him into a bind.
  • In Michael Kurland's The Unicorn Girl, Michael visits a universe where most of the people literally cannot see naked people, which leads to much confusion when some naked thieves begin to steal from people at a dinner party. Michael watches dumbfounded as his hosts are robbed right in front of his eyes, and when he tries to point it out, he ends up getting blamed for the crime himself. Fortunately, he realizes there's an obvious way to escape...


Live Action TV

  • Leave It to Beaver: The iconic television DiPS: Eddie Haskell. Prim and polite to adults, a bullying troublemaker to everyone else. Ward Cleaver to June: "There's something odd about that boy." Beaver to Eddie: "Even Wally doesn't like you, Eddie, and he's your best friend."
    • The film revealed that Mrs. Cleaver knew about Eddie all along.
      • The film? She had him pegged from day one: "I just don't trust a thirteen-year-old boy who's that polite."
  • Megan on Drake and Josh, to the point where it's not funny anymore and you would feel no remorse in watching her being torn limb from limb by a pack of rabid wolves.
    • That's going a bit to far, don't you think? Besides, there was this one episode were she blackmails Drake into letting her and her friends see a horror flick and ended up getting nightmares for weeks. It's the closest thing she'll ever get to Kick the Son of a Bitch or Break the Haughty, but hey, it still felt good.
  • The Janitor on Scrubs.
    • Actually, everybody seems to know the Janitor is weird, but they let him be, either because of amusement or boredom. This trope was more true in the earlier seasons, but then again, he only picked on JD and was relatively nice to everyone else.
  • Dexter works in the homicide department of the Miami police department by day, and kills by night; despite this, he stays well under everyone else's "something's not right with him" radar, except for Doakes. Dexter comments at one point about being in a room full of police officers and Doakes being the only one who has any sort of sense of something wrong about him.
    • Done again in Season 3 with Miguel Prada, the local DA, who only Dexter suspects of sinister urges. It turns out that Dexter underestimates the degree of his sociopathy and has to kill him.
    • Done yet again in season 4 with Trinity, the serial killer that nobody suspects... just like Dexter. His relationship with his family and the effect he has on them makes an interesting commentary on what he's really like, but outside of his family nobody other than Dexter suspects him.
      • And, of course, there's the Ice Truck Killer from the first season, whose persona is quite disarming. Most of Dexter's victims could also fit into this trope quite well.
  • The one-season wonder '80s sitcom It's Your Move featured Jason Bateman as a manipulative teenaged con artist whose single mom was (initially, at least) blissfully unaware of his intrigues. The first dozen or so episodes dealt with his efforts to prevent the mother's equally devious boyfriend from exposing him. When she finally got wise to him, the show's whole comedic premise was effectively retooled (and, arguably, ruined).
  • Dollhouse: Laurence Dominic. In episode 5, he tries to kill Echo. In episode 9, he is revealed to be the mole. Note that at the time of the episode's airing, the Dollhouse WMG page had eight different guesses eight guesses as to the identity of the mole, only one of which was a repeat, and yet no one had bothered to guess that it was Dominic. Because we're too Genre Savvy to fall for such an obvious Red Herring...yeah.
  • Oddly enough, the Devil in Reaper frequently exemplifies this trope.
  • Subverted and parodied so very hard in the Blackadder Goes Forth episode "General Hospital"; a German spy has infiltrated a nearby field hospital and Blackadder is assigned to find out who it is. In the field hospital, he meets a wounded man with a German accent so thick it could be spread on bread ("My name... eeeees Meeeiiiister... Smeeeeth.") who's always skulking around acting suspicious. Turns out he is a spy... a British spy, who's been undercover in Germany so long he's picked up "a teensy bit of an accent". Blackadder even lampshades how ludicrous it would be for the Germans to place in a British field hospital a spy with a thick German accent. This doesn't stop Darling from humiliating himself by trying to arrest him, however.
  • What's Happening : Dee, Raj's younger sister.
  • Brimstone: The Devil is shown at the local hot dog stand and jogging.
  • Battlestar Galactica: Count Iblis in the original is this... literally.
  • From Merlin, Agravaine, who waltzes around Camelot in a forbidding all-black outfit and Severus Snape's hairstyle, frequently flashing Psychotic Smirks when nobody's looking and popping off to visit Morgana at regular intervals. Merlin and Gaius quickly peg him as a villain, but can't say anything due to him being Arthur's uncle and chief advisor, and therefore above reproach without serious evidence.

Newspaper Comics

  • Curtis: Little brother Barry in the comic strip. While the creator clearly intends for Barry to be a stereotypically bratty little brother to Curtis, his actions are so frequently mean-spirited (and of a "because I can get away with it" bent), he ends up a irritation-flavored DiPS.

Video Games

  • Gary Smith in Bully. Despite how often he's told lies in the past, everyone still takes his word for it, apart from Jimmy and Pete.
  • Zola Dane from Drakan: The Ancient Gates. Bad foreshadowing, gesticulations, and voice acting (not to mention if you actually talk to him before going to the Shadowmire) make it an Un Reveal when you have to kick his butt the first time.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Manfred von Karma. The thing most characters in-game focus on when discussing him is his incredible record as a prosecutor, but... frankly, the guy may as well have 'evil' stamped across his forehead. And then he talks, and it just gets worse.
    • Damon Gant, Morgan Fey and Kristoph Gavin are better disguised versions, but still obviously bad people.
    • And Matt Engarde is a much better disguised version. Also his butler, aka Shelly De Killer.
  • Assassin's Creed: Al-Mualim. Despite every target telling Altair he's lying or using him and there never being any explanations for anything, everyone pretends to be surprised when he turns out to be the Big Bad. In all fairness, the targets were all bastards who spoke mostly in generalities (ie, not actually naming the Big Bad) but who nonetheless caused Altair to begin to question what was going on and demand answers. Just a bit too loyal though.
  • Persona 3: Tanaka is much like this, particularly with the fact that he is represented as the Devil Arcana.
  • Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2. A unique example in that everyone except the player's character notices.
    • Actually both games have a whole bunch of examples. Atris also in the second game, and if the player goes evil, other characters mistake them as such. And then there's the player in the first game, with a twist. Bastila sort of counts too, since it's obvious going to go evil from the start, although she doesn't really qualify as she was turned later on. And Revan and Malak, back when they were Jedi (and everyone who turned with them).
  • In Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures: The Last Resort, Ms. Flit's cutesy dogs Poodgie-Woo and Tinkie-Wee are quickly revealed to be ill-tempered, mischievous mongrels with a collective mean streak twice as long as your arm.
  • Michelle in Grand Theft Auto IV. From the newly bought furniture to her not really answering Niko's questions as to what she does to her near-constant questions asking if Niko and friends are involved in crime, it's pretty obvious that she's really an undercover government agent...well, obvious to everyone except for the in-game characters. Although Niko does occasionally comment "There's something strange about that girl..." right after they have sex.
  • Dragon Age: Origins: Teyrn Loghain was painfully obvious. Though everyone trusts him because he placed the blame on the Grey Wardens and was also a national hero for freeing the kingdom from decades of foreign occupation. The former can also be said of Arl Howe.
    • Arl Howe was voiced by Tim Curry.
      • Other than being voiced by Tim Curry, though, you probably wouldn't be expecting him to be a bad guy. At first.
    • In Dragon Age II, Mother Petrice. Tell me you didn't look at that cold, piercing gaze and at least predict she'd be a Smug Snake.
    • Also Bartrand. Listening to him you wonder why anyone works for him, why Varric hasn't abandoned him, and why Hawke and the rest of the group don't just shoot him on sight. It would have saved a lot of trouble.
  • The third line of dialogue from Chancellor Cole in Zelda: Spirit Tracks includes an ominous prediction while he stares at you with an insane evil smile. If you are still surprised when he shows himself as the Big Bad of the game five minutes later, you should start getting worried.
  • The scientist, Kindjal of Custom Robo Arena. She was so obviously a villain the second you saw her sprite.
  • Jan Rosencrantz in Vagrant Story. Everyone knows he's a traitor and an all-round bastard. It's just that no one cares. He turns out to be more powerful and ambitious than the characters had anticipated.
    • And many times more ruthless.
  • Hellen Gravely in Luigi's Mansion 3 right from the first trailer, fans saw something suspicious about this woman that Luigi, Mario, and Peach clearly didn't, and indeed, she's one of the Big Bad Duumvirate luring them into a trap.
  • Shin Megami Tensei gave us Louis Cypher. We all know about that one, though.
    • Ironically though, even if you do realize that, he's actually a pretty nice guy personality wise, and in some games he has a really strong claim to being considered a good guy anyway, especially compared to just how Eviler Than Thou his competition can be.
  • In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, one of missions you can do for the local assassins' guild involves you, around a half-dozen of poor saps who become your victims, and a house locked from the outside. Funny thing is, you have the choice of telling one of your victims that you are the assassin right before you off everyone (though she just laughs it off). Add that to the fact that you are the only one who can wears armor or weapons just screams, "I'm an assassin!"
    • When you enter the house, you can't be wearing armor or have weapons drawn. Also, after two or three deaths, at least one of the characters dons armor or finds a weapon.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep: Master Xehanort might as well be carrying a neon sign reading "I am evil, nyahahaha". Nobody, other than Yen Sid, seems to notice, not even the guy who fought him once before in a battle of light against darkness.
  • In World of Warcraft, Onyxia posed as Lady Katrana Prestor in order to give the very young king Anduin Wrynn bad advice that kept Stormwind weak.

Web Comics

Web Original

  • In A Very Potter Musical, Quirrell/Voldemort are played by two people standing back-to-back in the same set of robes. Quirrel's turban covers Voldemort's head, but it looks exactly like what it is: a second head, covered by a turban. Also, the turban occasionally sneezes. Needless to say, this is played for laughs.
  • Also played for laughs in one video of The Spoony Experiment where Dr. Insano ran for president... and won.

Dr. Insano: My advisor was Fu Manchu for God's sake, how can you be this STUPID!?! (insane giggling laughter)

  • Whateley Universe: Don Sebastiano—that's his chosen codename. I mean, he's known as 'The Don', he turned two teenagers into mindslaves last year, and he's still walking around campus as the head of the Alphas. Yet no one in the school administration seems to realize how badly he needs to be stopped.
    • Actually, they DO know.... even the Headmistress is fully aware. But they're keeping him on because he is the only link they have to the real, as of yet unknown, mastermind behind his actions....
  • The Cinema Snob is particularly irritated by Driller Killer's lack of subtlety with regard to who the slasher is.

Kendall: [innocently] But I don't know the killer!"
Snob: Sure you do! It's THE DEAN!

Western Animation

  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" revolves around a new friend, Bendy, who goes around making trouble, blaming it on others, and getting away with it by playing on the sympathies of Mr. Herriman and Frankie in a painfully melodramatic fashion.
  • Zim in Invader Zim.
    • Lampshaded in a sense, as Dib has apparently cried wolf so many times that the rest of the class seems to ignore the obvious signs to spite him (also because their world is full of ridiculous people like Old Kid and because everyone is remarkably stupid).
      • "It's like they want to be destroyed!"
    • This is one of the primary reasons for fans of the show Rooting for the Empire. This troper in particular finds it hard to support the human race when they are - almost completely - Too Dumb to Live and the prime example of the show's Crapsack World.
    • The only other person who knows Zim for what he truly is, is Dib's scary sister, Gaz. But she doesn't lift a finger, since she believes Zim is too stupid for his schemes to work. And most of the time she's right.
  • Angelica of Rugrats, though occasionally she did get caught. Her role was eventually trumped by Savannah Shane in both Rugrats Preschool Daze and All Grown Up!. However, unlike Angelica, she has yet to receive any real comeuppance or consequences.
  • Stewie on Family Guy. It probably helps that no one expects a toddler an infant to be an Evil Overlord wannabe.
    • Considering Family Guy abandoned this entire (and originally brilliant) idea about ten seasons ago, in favor of making Stewie a walking gay stereotype, I'm not sure how much this counts anymore.
      • Well recently people have come to dislike this version of Stewie seeing the sharp contrast of him before, rarely taking crap from anyone without at least swearing revenge, to now where an average teenage bully can easily push him around and relying on Lois's help. See Nightmare on Spooner Street. Even before this ep. many fans were starting to yearn for Stewie to go back to how he was. This troper let out a small cheer when he shot Diane to prevent her from killing Lois.
  • Jessica Lovejoy from one episode of The Simpsons. Her parents (the local minister and his wife) know that she's a troublemaker, but consistently look the other way because they do not want to bring disgrace upon the Lovejoy family. This allows Jessica to be both this trope and a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing - and to frame innocent boyfriends (in this case, Bart) for her many misdeeds.
  • Joe from Moral Orel is an all around hellion and sociopath, yet nobody with the exception of the main character seems to make much of a fuss about it.
  • "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Loveable Duckling" from the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode of the same name.
  • Phineas and Ferb: Suzy Johnson, Jeremy's clingy, Creepy Child little sister.
  • One Hundred and One Dalmatians: Ivy de Vil, Cruella's niece.
  • Soundwave of Transformers Animated definitely fits this troup in his premiere episode. Bulkhead spends half the episode trying to convince everyone else that the robot is evil. Guess who was right.
    • Longarm also fits, given that he was hinted the entirety of "Autoboot Camp" to be The Mole. The fact that he was actually Shockwave in disguise, we didn't see coming.
  • The anonymous bunny in the Ruby Gloom episode "Bad Hare Day".
  • A bunch of mind-bendingly cute animals from an episode of the Powerpuff Girls. Although it's not as if anybody didn't notice that they robbed banks, but rather that everybody (sans the Girls) was mesmerised by their prettiness and fuzzyness and was willing to give away everything they demanded, that is money, gems and the city key of Townsville.
  • The Fairly OddParents: Vicky is constantly left in charge of Timmy despite obviously being a malicious monster.

Dad: Now Chip Skylark's hit song "Icky Vicky" finally makes sense!
Doug Dimmadome: Well, what did you think that song was about? Pumpkins?!
Dad: .....Yes!

  • Mr.Kat from Kid vs. Kat. Poor Coop...
  • The Golden Eagle Twins in El Tigre the Adventures of Manny Rivera. Two twins who take advantage of their superhero fame to scam the locals into getting whatever they want. Only Manny and Frida are aware of this.
  • Cartman from South Park. In many ways, this trope is averted: after all, most of the characters know just how horrible he is. That said, Stan and Kyle oftentimes get punished right alongside him, despite being generally good kids who are usually trying to stop whatever evil scheme he has going. This becomes especially painful (not to mention a Downer Ending) in "Toilet Paper," in which they're given much harsher punishments despite being genuinely apologetic—unlike Cartman, who only apologized so they would get most of the blame.
  • G.I. Joe: Renegades: The newest incarnation of Cobra has the ruthless terrorist organization posing as a benevolent corporation providing essentials such as defense technology, pharmaceuticals, retail outlets, and apple pie. Their corporate logo not only bares a casual resemblance to the classic "hooded cobra" symbol of the original, it also closely resembles the Greek letter "Omega". Add to that, the CEO "Adam Decobray" has never been seen in public, and even putting on his best nice-guy voice in video conferences, he still sounds like the creepiest, most sinister man that ever lived (as opposed the to Nightmare Fuel it really is) thanks to Charlie Adler's fiendishly subtle acting.
  • On Total Drama, Heather in the first season; most of the characters actually figure this out pretty quickly, but somehow keep falling for her schemes anyway. Season three's Alejandro is a more Egregious example—he lasts until nearly the end of the season before Cody and Sierra, the last "good" contestants, figure him out, while everyone else (save Heather, Noah and Duncan) somehow ignore the fact that every girl he hits on (at least one of whom was spoken for) would be immediately eliminated, or question how he had Tyler reveal Duncan and Gwen's affair in order to win a challenge.
  • Vertex in Rollbots. In one episode, he is in a disguise (which is about as sinister as when undisguised) and directly has a conversation with Pounder and Aria of all people, right in front of Spin, the one person who knows the truth about him.
  • The cats Si and Am in Lady and the Tramp.

"We are Siamese if you please/We are Siamese if you don't please" as they try to knock of vases and get in the crib...

Grune: Look at us, Panthro, soon we'll run this entire kingdom.
Panthro: You planning on becoming a lion?
Grune: No, I'm planning on becoming king.

  • Zig Zagged in the season two finale of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. Twilight Sparkle assumes Princess Cadence is evil, namely because she didn't respond to her Secret Handshake, and how she (Cadence) mistreats her friends. She tries to warn her friends, but they simply wave it off, and her last attempt causes them to leave her in disgust. It isn't until Twilight arrives with the real Cadence that she is sorta proven right. But by then, the Changeling impersonating Cadence had already become too powerful to stop. Her quote at the top of the page pretty much points out how everyone but Twilight screwed up big time.
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