Wild Card

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"Regimes may fall and fail, but I do not."

—Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

The Wild Card is so used to swinging between teams that they have no default 'good' or 'evil' Character Alignment or even a 'home team'. Not Chaotic Neutral, because even they generally care more. Chaotic Neutral also usually tends to imply being on someone's team, but being capricious, perhaps criminal, and having a limited attention span. This trope, on the other hand, truly isn't interested in consistently remaining with either side, and will very often simply want both to leave him alone. He can be the sort of person who will stay out of things entirely, until someone else (usually the hero or a sympathetic character) asks him for help.

Because the Wild Card doesn't care whose toes they stamp on, even if they're supposed to be their team. Come to think of it... the Hero probably only got them on the team (if they even manage to do that) because the Wild Card owes him big time. The Wild Card can really shake up a team - the more suspicious characters will quite rightly not trust him.

Wild Cards often share a few of these traits:

  • Heel Face Revolving Door - "It's all about being on the team closest to my personal goal."
  • Getting The Job Done - "There's a job to be done, and it doesn't matter whose feet I step on, or who gets in my way, I'm going to do it."
  • Personal Goals - "I'm after something else, and I can achieve it without needing to be a good guy. Or a bad guy."
  • Selfish Good, Selfish Evil - "It's all about me and what I want and need."
  • Self-Preservation: Dirty Coward/Lovable Coward. "I'm not in it for my reputation. Or yours. If push comes to shove, I'm going to save my own hide."
  • Somebody Else's Problem - "As long as that rampaging evil beast doesn't get in my way, it's not my problem. But if it does... well, the good guys just got a new ally."
  • Manipulative Bastard - "Sure, I'm on a team right now. That's because that team has the Applied Phlebotinum, Plot Coupon, MacGuffin, or other doohickey I need. As soon as they let me get my hands on it, I'll be selling it to the highest bidder. Even if it's the team I just stole it from."
  • The Chessmaster - "Why shouldn't I manipulate both teams at once if it'll help me get what I want?!"
  • A Distraction - "I'm not really evil enough to be the real Big Bad. I may have distracted the good guys from what's important and endangered the world, but that wasn't my intention. On another day I might divert the Big Bad's attention away from the heroes."
  • Becoming the Mask - "Although it doesn't necessarily last forever, my unsteady moral compass often gets in the way of what I'm trying to do, especially when I'm trying to stick it to the good guys."
  • Redemption Equals Death - "My redemption is never to turn 'good' (what does that mean to someone like me, anyway?) But as soon as I become steady, reliable, and predictable, I'm usually gone."

Sometimes Wild Cards fall in love. Love is the bane of the Wild Card, because no longer does the world revolve around one amazing and easy to understand person - there's somebody else. Oh my god, What Is This Feeling??! Knowing how erratic the Wild Card can be, it could be somebody from either team - or both. With somebody to care about, the Wild Card may well become more reliable for a team. Or if there's multiple people to care about, they may become less reliable. There are also some Wild Cards who became so because they fell in love with someone.

Wild Cards are very rarely Big Bads, though; they aren't really dedicated enough to evil - or to anything - to be that evil. However much they may enjoy doing what they do, most Wild Cards have either some form of morality, or high survival instincts, and are likely to turn on their evil employer because they were betrayed, don't want to be blown up with the planet, or even just because they just don't like being that evil. Wild Cards are more likely to be a Big Bad's poor choice of Bastard Understudy, or even the Good Team's Token Evil Teammate.

While the average Wild Card sees their 'friends' as a handy Bulletproof Human Shield, they have just enough conscience to feel bad about abandoning them when the fight turns ugly. No Wild Card switches teams because they care about their friends - they switch teams because it means a better life for them.

On rare occasions, a Wild Card may unexpectedly pull a sudden act of Heroic Sacrifice, just as Starscream did in his death scene in Transformers: Armada. It's worth noting, however, that Starscream guessed that if he didn't sacrifice himself, he'd probably die anyway - along with everybody else.

Wild Cards are just that unreliable.

Not to be confused with the Wild Cards book series.

See also: Ambiguously Evil, Enigmatic Minion, Lovable Traitor, Double Reverse Quadruple Agent, The Starscream, Heel Face Revolving Door, Chaotic Selfish, and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Compare / contrast Unscrupulous Hero.

Particularly Wild Wild Cards tend to fall under For the Lulz.

Examples of Wild Card include:

Anime and Manga

  • Impmon from Digimon Tamers ranges from an arrogant and selfish loner, to helpful and fun-loving (if a bit begrudgingly), to a depressed wreck, to a Complete Monster to The Atoner.
  • Vegeta from Dragon Ball, especially in the Namek Saga.
  • Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! cared for very little, aside from his brother Mokuba. The endless friendship speeches from Yugi and his friends might have soured him just a bit.
  • Wang Liu Mei from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, who would aid/manipulate anybody and everybody to achieve her vision for the future of the world (whatever that may be). The Ptolemaios faction of Celestial Being, to a certain extent; their Necessarily Evil nature make the intentions and targets of their interventions hard to second-guess, along with their tendencies to be flit between ruthlessness and diplomacy (depending on the circumstances).
    • Wang Liu Mei didn't have any vision for the future iirc. She just wanted to see what the world would change into through Celestial Being's interventions.
  • Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter.
  • Of Negi's students in Mahou Sensei Negima, a few of them became this: Evangeline doesn't care about Negi's welfare and will occasionally help the villains if she feels it will be entertaining; her partner Chachamaru, being a robot, will show loyalty to whoever she's programmed to, including the people she otherwise acts friendly around; while Tatsumiya Mana and Asakura Kasumi side with Chao Lingshen because they believe in her goal while having helped Negi several times previously (well, Kasumi switches sides when she learns of the consequences for Negi).
    • Of course, Eva seemed to treat the entire Battle of Mahora arc as a massive training exercise for Negi. If she had wanted to influence the outcome, she could have probably won the battle for either side singlehandedly.
    • And now there is Kurt Godel, who is said (with reason!) to be extremely dangerous and fits the trope to a T. He appears to be on a different side of the conflict every time he appears in a new chapter. The guy is Infuriating Awesome.
    • There is also Tsukiyomi, who will betray her side- and remain hostile to the other side- at the drop of a hat if it looks like fun. Unlike most others of her sort, you can't even point her at your enemies and let her loose- but she will make you think you can, right up to the point where the slices your limbs off.
  • Sagara Sousuke from Full Metal Panic! was apparently originally this, before becoming attached to his friends at Mithril and Kaname. It's implied that the reason he joined Mithril as a Wild Card was because Kalinin was part of Mithril, and he decided to join him there. Sousuke especially fits this trope in the section of Wild Cards that fall in love. He originally had no conflicting emotions, since his world and goals only revolved around getting the job done. However, it's made clear that falling in love with Kaname is his bane, making him much weaker. Gauron is less than pleased with this change...
  • Hibari and Mukuro from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Apparently, after 10 years, however, they both seem to be more loyal to Tsuna (even possibly admiring and respecting his strength). Of course, neither would ever admit it. Their present time selves definitely fit this trope very well, though.
    • Don't forget Xanxus. Or the whole of the Varia. They will fight under the name of Vongola.
  • Claire Stanfield in Baccano! While the Psycho for Hire does have some loyalties (such as to his stepbrothers, the Gandors), even then he doesn't mind screwing with those a little just because. Hell, in Drugs and the Dominoes, he takes a job from Gustavo against the aforementioned Gandors and himself under a false name, mostly for shits and giggles.
  • Xellos from Slayers.
  • Greed/Ling from Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Raphael from Angel Sanctuary, much to everyone else's frustration.
  • Nijima, self-proclaimed 'friend' of Kenichi in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - though calling him a Wild Card implies that he has a good side. He doesn't; all he's really interested in is gathering information, spreading rumours and ranking everyone in school. Oh, and running away. Even Kenichi gets tired of his shit.
  • Nico Robin from One Piece used to be one, jumping from crew to crew to find the Poneglyphs until she got in with the Strawhats.
  • Sora from .hack//Sign is probably one of the best examples in Anime, checking the entire list from above. Since the setting of the story is an MMORPG, Sora's goal is strictly to have fun, at anyone's expense. He doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation as the plot progresses probably because he's a child in the real world, and continues to flip back and forth between sides. Even though it's a game, Sora strives to survive at all costs; he only helps either side if there's an immediate tangible benefit to him, and isn't above playing both sides at once, although this ultimately costs him badly when he pulls one Back Stab too many, fulfilling the Redemption Equals Death aspect. The effects this have on him as a person are eventually examined through Haseo, a later character played by Sora's player after he's grown up somewhat, in .Hack//GU.
  • Izaya Orihara from Durarara!! There's nothing he loves more than stirring up conflict between people and watching the human drama unfold. He's probably helped out and back stabbed every significant character in the series just For the Lulz... except for Shizuo.
  • Minene Uryuu fits the definition nicely.
  • In Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke is well known for staying on one side only as long as it benefits him, then moving on. The sides bounce from good (Konoha) to evil (Orochimaru and Tobi) to basically neutral (Hebi). Considering that Sasuke has been getting progressively less moral, it's easy to characterize him as a bad guy, but when it comes down to it, he's killed more major bad guys than all the good guys put together.


Comic Books

  • Wolverine in many of his comic portrayals proves to be something of a Chaotic Good Wild Card - while usually on the side of the good guys, he's violent, dangerous, unreliable and extremely intelligent. While he may not swing fully from Villain to Hero and back again, like many Wild Cards enjoy doing, his comic incarnation especially has a high number of team affiliations, and he has frequently worked on his own.
    • This was far more explicit in the Ultimate Universe. Wolverine started off as a cold-blooded assassin working for Magneto. Then he did a Heel Face Turn in order to sleep with Jean Grey. Then when she dumped him, he responded by trying to murder her new boyfriend, Cyclops (by dropping him off a cliff. He broke a bunch of bones and spent a month lying in a pit eating bugs). Then he was given one last chance to rejoin the team (after having the crap blasted out of him by Cyclops), and has stayed good since. Except that then his time-traveling future self turned up and apparently murdered Xavier.
    • Mystique is similar; there's some contention of whether she belongs here or in Heel Face Revolving Door, i.e., whether she's actually changing sides as the plot demands or just allying herself with whoever's convenient. Not that most of them are under any illusions.
  • Nyna Calixte/Morrigan Corde from Star Wars Legacy has helped and hindered just about every major faction in the comic at least once. She clearly has an agenda she's pushing towards, but whatever it is remains completely unknown (and is the subject of much discussion on Star Wars fan forums), and as such it's difficult for fans and nigh impossible for characters to predict her next move.
  • Deadpool. He usually has no rational reason to do anything. And being both liked and loathed by people in both sides of the hero/villain community (sometimes even liked and hated by the same person) certainly qualifies him.
  • Catman, at least, liked to believe the Secret Six were this, choosing neither to join the Justice League or the Society of Supervillains, but plow their own furrow down the middle. Really, they were villains with standards. Well, some of them had standards.
  • In Secret Wars, the Beyonder transports a group of superheroes and a group of supervillains to "Battleworld" and expects the two groups to battle each other to aid his study of what it is to be human. It doesn't precisely work out: Magneto is grouped with heroes, despite still being a villain at the time, due to his Anti-Villain nature. The other heroes obviously aren't thrilled and he goes off to do his own thing before finally signing on with them. The Lizard is too savage to understand the concept of "sides" and ends up most loyal to the Wasp for having treated him when he was injured, and Galactus just ignores all the other combatants and spends the entire series working out a way to take on the Beyonder himself.

Fan Works

Film

Elizabeth: Whose side is Jack on?
Will: At the moment?

  • Iago from Disney's Aladdin. In the first film, he is effectively Jafar's (willing) slave. In the second movie and television series, he switches to Team Good Guy initially for the sole reason that they won, claiming to have been enslaved by Jafar's snake staff (despite his distinct displays of personality in the film). He spends much of the television series stealing treasures from his 'friends', manipulating people's good natures, and abandoning fights that turn ugly.

Jafar: "Iago... you betrayed me and allied yourself with my enemies! Then you turned on them as soon at it was in your best interests. That's what I love about you. You're so perfectly... predictable. A villain through and through!"

    • And his conscience moment...

Iago: "Hey, I did my good deed! I don't owe you a thing! You hear me?!" (beat) "Not a thing..."

  • Captain Renault in Casablanca looks like The Quisling at first, but he proves himself just as willing to bend the truth and turn a blind eye to the law for the good guys' sake.
  • The stranger in Last Man Standing not only hires himself out as a mercenary to both sides, but does so in the expectation that his presence will swing the gang violence into gang war, in which he can make more of a profit. Then he guns down both gangs.
  • Clint Eastwood also did this in Fistful Of Dollars, the first of his "Man With No Name" trilogy.
  • Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. While she starts off as an ally to Indiana, we find out that she's really a Nazi agent. However, towards the second half of the movie, she shows lots of mixed behavior that suggests she's not truly "evil" nor believes in the Nazi cause. She even helps Indiana by dispatching Donovan in the grail chamber (even if it was to further her selfish motive to get the grail). In the end, her character was just too morally ambiguous for a popular film, and the writers use a Death by Materialism to seal her fate.


Literature

  • In the Forgotten Realms, Jarlaxle is a Chaotic Neutral Magnificent Bastard Wild Card. One excellent example of his playing both sides and the middle is when he captured a young woman, made a half-hearted attempt at seducing her, and set things up so his own ally would "betray" him and free her, so they could go rescue her would-be boyfriend and the ally's rival, who was being held by Jarlaxle's employer. Ta-daaa.
  • Sethra Lavode from the Dragaera books might qualify as a Lawful Neutral Wild Card, given that she is loyal above all to The Empire but not necessarily the current emperor or empress on the throne. She is also rather a Chessmaster along with being eons old and ultra-powerful, and it's noted in the Khaavren series how some villages view her as the Evil Overlord to be defeated in their fairy tales, while she is considered a "fairy godmother" /PhysicalGod the next village over. In the Taltos series, her actions are more unambiguously good, and she experiences Becoming the Mask in her kindly and likeable persona as Classy Cat Burglar Kiera, which was initially just a scheme to monitor organized crime in the Empire.
    • The House she is associated with, the Dzur, is also something of a Wild Card group, as Sethra notes in the book Dzur how that group likes fighting for its own sake and will choose the right side when everyone else is against it.
  • Along the same lines as Talleyrand, both Fernand and Vilefort from The Count of Monte Cristo might count, being excellent judges of when to change their politics and thus rise through society at a time when most people suffer because of having Napoleonic or Royalist politics at the wrong time.
  • The Codex Alera features the ironically-named spy Fidelias, who starts the events of the first book when he turns traitor in an attempt to replace the aging First Lord with a new ruling noble, Aquitaine. He believes that what he is doing is no different than the many acts he has previously performed as a loyal spy, acting to preserve the long-term stability of Alera. In the later books, he turns again upon realizing that The Hero is the heir to the throne and would make a far better ruler than Aquitaine.
  • Sadi, Chief Eunich of the Nyssian Royal Court in the Belgariad really shows hints of this in the sequel series, the Mallorean. He shanghais the heroes to escape from some rivals' plots (Of course, his part in the prophecies didn't help matters either), manages to trick the leader of the Dagashi (ninja-like assassins) to the point that even said leader is impressed with his cleverness, and then near the end, represents his government (despite at that time having no legal standing whatsoever) in a set of very lucrative accords, and uses his standing in the accords to buy himself back into his queen's good graces.

Durnik: Did we kill anybody?
Sadi: Two. (off their expressions) It's a little hard to un-poison a knife...

  • In A Song of Ice and Fire, we have Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish and Lord Varys, both of whom have switched sides at least three times (Lannister to Tyrell to himself in Littlefinger's case, Targaryen to Baratheon to Lannister to Targaryen for Varys) depending on who happens to be able to help them out. Varys actually mentions more than once that his big talent in life is sucking up to whoever is in power. Both come from very humble backgrounds for the circles they operate in (the littlest of Lordlings for Littlefinger, foreign eunuch for Varys) but through raw talent became Councilors and major players in the realm, and both are aware of how they have to secure themselves at all costs. Particularly Varys, who despite decades as a major player has no title or wealth whatsoever of his own.
  • Vergere from the New Jedi Order series. What she was doing was pretty clear (training Jacen Solo to be an uber-Force user) but the why was so ambiguous that even the editors can't seem to decide. At first the official position was that she wanted peace but wasn't allied with any faction in particular, then that she was a loyal (albeit unorthodox) Jedi of the Old Republic, and now she's apparently supposed to be a Sith acolyte. Thing is, the original Vergere was just such a messed-up enigma that the authors seem to dust her off whenever they need someone to act as the linchpin of the ongoing plot, giving a sort of weird meta-status as the Wild Card.
    • Talon Karrde as well, although at least he's honourable enough not to sell anyone out if he can help it. He even lampshades it at one point, telling a Republic officer that he's in it for the money, not the ideology. The reason he sides mostly with the good-guys? He reckons they're going to win in the end.
  • The Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere. He's your man right up until there's more in it for him not to be.
  • Walter Baranov the Anti-Hero / Villain Protagonist of the mystery novel The False Inspector Dew qualifies as one of these in terms of his actions, particularly because the novel never conveys his mental state to the reader, making his true nature ambiguous. Walter had planned on killing his nagging wife on board a ship, but when she doesn't show and another corpse turns up, he has to impersonate a famous detective on account of using that detective's name as a pseudonym, and solves the murder. The ending implies that he will very soon be trying The Perfect Crime again, this time successfully.
  • Padan Fain/Mordeth from The Wheel of Time is the embodiment of this trope. He is sort of possessed by an Evil Chancellor (Mordeth) who became pure evil to ward his city from an other evil two millenia ago. But, as it turns out, he (Padan Fain) was working for the main villain before that, and now his only goal is to screw with both teams by killing the hero and making sure no one else does before him.
  • Diana from Gone (novel) is pretty much a Card-Carrying Villain, but she hasn't done anything truly, overtly evil, at least not relative to some of the people she hangs out with. She acts as the Caine's chief assistant and seems to genuinely care for him, but helps the heroes from time to time so Caine's Dragon, who has a sadistic fixation on her, will have someone else to target. And, although she has an apparant Heel Face Turn in Plague, it seems to mostly be because she can no longer control the Big Bad.


Live Action TV

  • A rare Lawful Neutral Wild Card comes about in the personage of Jack Bristow from Alias. He's a Wild Card, despite being almost rigidly Lawful Neutral, because he has not one but two goals, which he values almost equally. The first is, as an intelligence agent of the United States, to secure and defend America's military, diplomatic, and industrial interests abroad. The second, and more important, is as a father: to keep his daughter—also an intelligence agent—safe. Because of the dangerous nature of his daughter's missions, these two goals come into conflict more often than might be thought.
  • Eli David of NCIS seems to be this as well. He seems to put country above everything including family, to the degree of being an Abusive Parent because of this. At the same time, he is not a completely unsympathetic character. Still no one knows what he will do.
    • From the same show, Trent Kort, because nobody knows his reasons, which side he's on, or even his actual name. You don't get much wilder than that.
  • Firefly's Jayne Cobb appears to be this type of character, but when his one attempted betrayal is weighed against all the instances where he unhesitatingly stands by the crew against overwhelming odds he suddenly looks far less neutral. This may be because the one time he tried to betray the crew, Mal damn near threw him out the airlock.
    • Saffron (a.k.a YoSaffBridge), in her two appearances. There's a girl who truly can't be trusted.
  • Doctor Who: the Master in all his incarnations drifts inscrutably between sides, when he isn't a side unto himself.
    • He's always a side unto himself, and never works for anyone, just tricks people into doing his bidding.
    • Though he does get a doozy of a Heroic Sacrifice / Heel Face Revolving Door in "The End of Time".
    • Similarly, Sabbath from the Eighth Doctor Adventures tends to do a lot of becoming mortal enemies with everyone he allies himself with and shifting his goals because of it. He started off engaged in mildly Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with the Doctor, and, well. That didn't last. He carries on getting into Enemy Mine situations with the Doctor, bookended by attempts on the Doctor's life, until he decides he's actually "more than a little fond of" the Doctor.
  • Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia: When Mac is fitting all of the bar into a Five-Man Band structure, he designates Charlie as "the wild card" and for good reason. In that episode alone, he tries to proposition their loan officer, switches the bar to run on a gasoline engine, tries to sell some more gasoline to a random woman using a Texas accent (and sounding like a gigolo), and pushes four large garbage cans of gas out of the car and jumps out. When asked about any of it, he just says "Wild Card!"

Mac: Why aren't the brakes working?
Charlie: BECAUSE I CUT THE BRAKES! WILD CARD, BITCHES! YEEEHAW! * jumps out of car*

    • Frank also serves as a Wild Card, with less insanity and more selfishness. He doesn't have any loyalty, he just does whatever he thinks will net him the most money/enjoyment.
  • In season three of Supernatural, Bela pulls a lot of scams that endanger the Winchester's lives but will occasionally help them (usually out of self preservation).
    • In any given episode, Crowley , Meg and Ruby might be working alongside or against the boys, and are ready to betray them at a moment's notice. Demons are tricksy like that.
    • The angels aren't much better. Gabriel, Balthazar, Anna and even good old Cas frequently switch between helping or hindering the Winchesters.
  • Max from Wizards of Waverly Place, the youngest sibling of the trio. He constantly switches sides, from Justin's side to Alex's side and back.
  • Despite being nominally a villain or hero at various times, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer functions as a Wild Card for most of season 4 and early season 5 as he makes his gradual Heel Face Turn. During that changeover period he provides backup or information to the main cast when he's paid for it but also betrays them to Adam at the drop of a hat when it appears to suit his purpose.
  • Todd the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis:

Sheppard: Here's my problem. Every time we get involved with you, I feel like I'm walking around with a live grenade in my pocket, just waiting for it all to go wrong - for that one thing you forgot to mention.

  • Piggy of Power Rangers SPD was able to align himself with all three fractions in the series (The Heroes, the Villains, and The Villain Traitors) all for want of money. This isn't a guy who sided with whoever paid the most, this is a guy who just wanted pay.
  • Garak of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He actually skirts the edges of having no allegiance, because he is steadfastly loyal to Cardassia. However, he is not necessarily loyal to its current government, and he is on the side of the protagonists in later seasons because he believes the current government does not have the best interests of Cardassia in mind. Only rarely, however, is he actually opposed to the protagonists. It is not uncommon for him to be confrontational though (Particularly, his methods do not always sit well with Starfleet ethics).
    • Although we didn't find out his true loyalties until later seasons. Even then he displayed his Magnificent Bastard abilities by keeping people guessing if he was really on their side.
  • Survivor has had many, but the practice started with Rob Cesternino in The Amazon and resulted in the Pearl Islands season that followed being an all-wild card situation after Rupert's elimination. Special mention to Sandra, who won employing a self-proclaimed strategy of "as long as it ain't me."
  • Twenty Four has recently been bringing this trope out with Tony Almeida, who seems to have turned double agent in an attempt to get revenge on the man who killed his wife. This means he has no qualms about acting against his country's best interests in order to gain the Big Bad's trust.
    • Jack also played with it, "going rogue" as a result of the fact that the country wasn't exactly happy with him in the first place, but he still always had the country's best interests in mind and was merely playing the bad guys. Then again, when half the bad guys in the show are corrupt politicians, often going against the authorities is being the good guy.
  • Alex Krycek from The X-Files.
    • Even Mulder's informants can be seen as this, as they simultaneously offer Mulder information, withold it, and feed him incorrect information.
  • Krenshaw from Monk is probably the closest to being a Wild Card that could be given in the series. A notable example is in the episode where he attempted to vote for the destruction of a parking garage solely to spite Monk, who attempted to defend it from its destruction.
  • Benjamin Linus of Lost, even though his early appearances set him up as the Big Bad. Even up to the finale, the audience isn't quite sure what he's going to do or who he's going to side with.
  • Heroes: Sylar's intentions change to suit whatever his situation at the moment calls for; he'll assist either the good guys or the bad guys if he thinks he has something to gain from it. However, he also dislikes being lied to, and every attempt to control him through lying and manipulation has ended horribly with a bloodbath and Sylar defecting to the other side by default.
  • Fringe has quite a few of these:
    • The first is September, and the rest of the mysterious Observers. All they do is watch and observe... So there's one (or twelve) wild card(s).
    • William Bell's true allegieances are never really clear. On one occassion, he's fighting against Walternate and helping Olivia, on the other, he's the very man who created the shapeshifters. He's also behind some of the show's more...morally questionable acts.
    • Next, we have Sam Weiss. On one hand, he's very friendly, helps rehabilitate Olivia and makes a new friend in the process. On the other hand, Walternate is somehow aware of his existance and doesn't trust him, he appears to be the author behind the century-old book The First People, and knows exactly who Peter Bishop is and what his connection to the Wake Sink Device is. Eventually, we learn that he was just an ordinary guy all along who happened to have generations of knowledge bestowed upon him.
    • The show's biggest wild card is arguably The Man In The X T-Shirt. Olivia has absolutely no memories of the man despite the fact that he was in her mind. Even more creepy is that he wasn't a normal "mental projection". Because Olivia regressed and hid because of her fears deep in her subconciousness, all of her memories of everyone she knew turned malevolent, seeking to harm her as well as anything that "doesn't belong" (i.e, Peter, Water and Bell). This man, on the other hand, wasn't a malevolent entity - he simply sought to escape the zeppelin he was trapped in. And finally, after Olivia returned better than ever, this man's image simply appeared in her mind, and she nonchalantly stated that "he's the man who's gonna kill her." Word of God says that he's somehow connected to September, and David Robert Jones.


Professional Wrestling

  • The business calls these folks "Tweeners" (as in, between Heel and Face). Essentially, it's when the bad guys get heroes' welcomes. (Keep in mind, the inversions of this - babyfaces who get booed out of the building, or supposed big things who get no reaction at all - do not qualify as Tweeners; that's called X-Pac Heat.) Examples of Tweeners include:
    • Stone Cold Steve Austin. Never trust a rattlesnake.
    • Chris Jericho makes a career out of doing this.
    • WWE wrestler Triple H seems to settle into this role whenever he attempts a Heel Face Turn. Mostly because, even as a face, he's kind of a prick—but a smart, funny prick.
    • During his TNA days, Christian Cage settled into this role after the dissolution of the Christian Coalition, and his major storyline was about him trying to rebuild his burned bridges with the faces on the roster, in order to combat his allies who had now joined the Angle Alliance. The fact that he was still pretty much a cocky asshole Heel in characterization really hurt his efforts.
    • Ric Flair, whose exceptional skill at both grappling and cutting promos, and his ability to carry even the most pathetic "wrestlers" to four-star affairs while remaining the Dirtiest Player In The Game throughout, made him almost impossible to boo even as he started to push sixty.
    • Even at his most face-ish, the late Eddie Guerrero would lie, cheat, and steal to get his way. It was on his shirt. As he once said while teaming with his nephew Chavo, "Hey, we may lie, cheat, and steal -- but at least we're honest about it."
      • Which begs the question: what the hell's an honest liar?
      • Which provides the answer to: "The following statement is true: the preceding statement was false."
      • One can pretty much just simply say any mid-card WCW wrestler that later became pretty big draws in WWE.
    • Jake "The Snake" Roberts was a Chaotic Evil version of the Wild Card. He could be a good guy for as long as he needed to.
    • Shawn Michaels. Montreal Screwjob aside, whether he's a heel or a face, even if he's just playing a commissioner, he's cheered out of the building.
    • The Rock kinda fits this example too. Whether he's a Face or a Heel, he will attack anybody just because he simply doesn't like him (examples: Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin). Also, even when he's supposed to be a heel post-1999, fans will still cheer him on such as his fight with Goldberg. His charisma and obvious desire to entertain the fans even as a heel makes it really REALLY hard for fans to legitimately hate his character.
    • Randy Orton. Even after turning Face again, he still feuds and fights with John Cena and Triple H.
      • His assaults on both John Cena's father and the McMahon family should have made him the biggest heel in the company. Instead, fans tended to cheer him more.
    • The Undertaker and Kane also fit this example, as they will attack anybody they feel is a threat to them, not caring whether they are a Face or a Heel.
    • John Cena, despite turning Face in late 2003, still used Heel tactics to win some of his matches such as the one at Wrestlemania XX when he used the steel chain to defeat Big Show.
    • Kurt Angle will often be cheered regardless of his status as a face or heel due to his incredible in-ring ability. In fact, he once cut a promo proving exactly this: After saying that he is not a fan of "the black people" and wanting to make Jesus Christ tap out, he said people still wouldn't boo him because they knew he was the best in the world. The crowd promptly cheered.
    • Mickie James has never actually been booed in WWE. Fans loved her crazed psycho lesbian stalker gimmick so much she was cheered over the also very popular Trish Stratus at Wrestle Mania 22 and continued to be cheered through her heel run so she turned face and has remained so throughout her entire career.
    • Beth Phoenix slipped into this role when she was moved to Smackdown (she had been a heel on Raw) where she was immediately shown to be out for herself and a bit of a three way feud started between her, Mickie and Michelle McCool with Beth's allegiance constantly in question. Eventually she made a Heel Face Turn. Curiously when she turned back Heel she was still getting a large amount of cheers from the crowd, due to her character having a sympathetic point of view - wanting to make the division about talent instead of looks.
    • Similar to Beth, Kharma debuted as a Monster Heel but she only attacked heel divas at first, before then going for Face divas too. Her farewell promo blurred the lines even further.
  • During the summer of 2011, the WWE pulled off the rarely-successful main event tweener feud with John Cena vs. CM Punk. John Cena is nominally the face, does face things, and is certainly beloved by younger demographics, but has long had a poor reputation with the older fans who, while no longer giving him X-Pac Heat, think of his Boring Invincible Hero Hogan-like dominance as a clear symptom of WWE's static nature and an on-screen product that was getting old. CM Punk's current persona is the straight-edge The Guy Who Says What Older Fans Are Thinking. Officially, that makes him a heel, but understandably, it doesn't lead to him getting booed, and his Anti-Hero antics are hilariously entertaining to boot. Throw in some excellent matches between the two of them, and the result was arenas split 50-50 with support.


Video Games

  • In Tales of Symphonia, Zelos mentions several times that he's only helping Lloyd to be on the "winning team". He's actually helping all three factions in the game- the party, the Renegades and the Angels- so that he can side with whatever faction seems to be on top at the end. Still he will always side with you, as long as you don't reject everyone at a certain event.
  • Metal Gear: Revolver Ocelot. In fact, at the very end it's revealed that he wasn't working for anyone (aside from possibly Big Boss's faction, considering how he, EVA, and Naomi were the ones who came up with most of the plot to bring him back and eliminate the Patriots) and had his own agenda all along, and was actually orchestrating a huge scheme in order to off the Big Brother-esque Patriots once and for all, all for the sake of Big Boss. Oh, Ocelot, you Magnificent Bastard.
  • Delita from Final Fantasy Tactics is the ultimate Chessmaster; he manipulates absolutely everybody, and is more often on nobody's side than on any particular side.
    • Ramza is himself a Wild Card in the Lion War, though for the opposite reason as Delita. Almost every faction wants him dead, and the main plot of the third chapter is, from his perspective, one long Blast Out. Delita is just happy to give him fuel and let him clear up the Gambit Pileup for him.
  • Boomerang from the first Wild ARMs, though technically on the side of the bad guys, is only interested in fighting and hence couldn't care less about his own side. At least once in the game he protects your party from them.
  • Shadow the mercenary from Final Fantasy VI is a slightly less teetering Wild Card; he indeed seems to care little for the overarching plot, and will randomly leave your party in the first half of the game. He also works for the bad guys in one area of the game, but since you're also working with them at that point, the issue never really comes up.
  • Scorpion from Mortal Kombat often falls into this category, especially during the plot of the third game, his single-minded pursuit of hated rival Sub-Zero causing him to attack good and evil characters alike. Scorpion frequently switches sides in the post-MK3 games as well, though in fairness this is frequently the result of being duped or enslaved by higher-ups.
  • Roy and Meilin in Terranigma.
  • Archer in Fate/stay night. He pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice in Fate, goes through Chronic Backstabbing Disorder in UBW and then does his job as a Counter Guardian in Heavens Feel. In all cases he's immensely powerful and knowledgeable and to a large extent drives the plot, mostly in the latter two routes. He has his own goals, but he's not quite willing to destroy the world to fulfill them.
    • Rider as well in HF. Her goal is to keep Sakura safe and obey her. So throughout HF she's busy switching sides to ensure Sakura's survival and after she becomes unsure of what is the best option, she disappears despite presumably being on the good guy side at the moment. Sakura/Rider combo ends up causing more bad ends than pretty much every other character, beating out Caster and Ilya by a narrow margin. But she saves Shirou's at the end and even gets to live in the True End.
  • King Bulbin from The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Though he only stays on the evil side for the course of the game, his only text in the game states that this the type of guy he is after you beat him for the last time. He fights for the stronger side.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog works with whomever takes his fancy at that particular moment. In his game, you can switch his allegiance at any time.
  • The player characters in the Mercenaries series are private contractors. They have an overarching goal (The substantial bounty on General Song's head in the original, payback on Ramon Solano in the sequel), but are willing to play any side of the conflict, as long as it gets them closer to that goal. For instance, in the original, they had to work with the Allied Nations, since they were the ones giving out the Ace missions, but in order to get intel leading to the Aces, the players had to do missions for the Chinese Army, South Koreans, and Russian Mafia. Since the Chinese and South Koreans were hostile to one another, and the Mafia was at cross purposes with pretty much everyone, that meant the players had to fight for, and against, pretty much every faction at one point or another in order to maximize profits.
  • The upcoming Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes is giving players this ability: heroes can change into villains, villains can change into heroes, or they can stay somewhere in between as rogues or vigilantes.
  • Vile from Mega Man X really doesn't care whose side he's on, as long as it's not X or Zero's. The remake of the first game, Maverick Hunter X, even has a non-canon bonus mode where you play as him and fight Sigma's other minions just because they piss him off (and he wants to kill X himself). In his opening stage, he even explicitly identifies himself as such.

Vile: Incite rebellion. Split up the Hunters' forces. That's the way to get to X... But Sigma, I may be the wildcard you hadn't counted on!

  • Baldur's Gate has a few, but Haer'Dalis from Baldur's Gate II is a shining example of the trope. He's a tiefling (demonkin) from a wholly different plane of existence who joins the party to do some sightseeing, seduction, and provocation.
    • Jan Jansen from the same game is also an example, although he's much more down-to-earth than Haer'Dalis.
  • Vergil in Devil May Cry. He serves the most powerful—though of course his main intention is to become the most powerful.
  • Kreia in Knights of the Old Republic II. Ostensibly she's the main character's ally and adviser but only because that puts her in the best position to manipulate others without herself being manipulated.
  • In Fallout: New Vegas, this is a potential option for The Courier to take towards the end. The line of quests is even known as "Wild Card". Indeed, working with all the factions and stringing them along for as long as possible before upending all their plans and seizing power without warning is the encouraged way to get that ending. In the promotional deck of cards that came with special editions of the game, the Courier and Benny (who is also this, though with his lack of success amounting more to a Spanner in the Works) are the Jokers.
  • Illidan Stormrage from Warcraft.
  • Zevran in Dragon Age Origins, originally sent to kill the Grey Warden, then surrenders to his command. Because this fantasy is far too cynical to believe Defeat Equals Friendship, his motivations and loyalty aren't convincing. He can do a genuine turn, but if his Relationship Values are neglected, he remains the Wildcard.
  • Lambdadelta in Umineko no Naku Koro ni for differing reasons throughout the story. First is because she doesn't want an outright winner between Beatrice and Battler, later she acts in a fair manner because it's more interesting and, when pressed, is even capable of saying in red that she is completely neutral. While she's helping everyone out in order to amuse herself, you just need to remember the part about 'in order to amuse herself.'
  • Rogue CIA agent Steven Heck of Alpha Protocol has no real loyalties to anyone save for himself due to the fact that he's completely insane. He is however an ally of Michael Thorton provided that he stays on Heck's good side.
  • Axel/Lea from the Kingdom Hearts series is this trope all-over (in Chain of Memories especially, where he was quite the aforementioned "Getting The Job Done" type), until Kingdom Hearts 3D where, judging by trailers, it's heavily implied he's gone from occasional Anti-Villain to outright-good-guys territory.
  • Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising. He's apparently a reflection of the part of Pit that doesn't like being a loyal pet to the Goddess of Light. This means he's even more pissed off about the fact that he was created just to be a servant of the Goddess of Darkness.
  • The Monquistans from Pirate 101 act like this because they are easily insulted . The most famous of them is Mr. Gandry who had served in three different navies before he became a pirate.


Webcomics

  • Belkar, Order of the Stick's resident Heroic Comedic Sociopath (emphasis on the Sociopath part: Word of God says his alignment is Chaotic Evil).
  • Most of the main characters in Darken to a greater or lesser extent, but especially Jill.
  • Bun-bun from Sluggy Freelance is one of these through and through. He tends to fall on the good guys' side more often than not lately, though that's largely because the other characters have gotten better at making sure it's in Bun-bun's best interest to keep them alive.

Bun-bun: Deal, but I reserve the right to mug the target and/or switch sides at any time.
Riff: I know, I know, "your usual disclaimer."

  • Wanda Firebaugh, the dread Croakamancer of Erfworld, who's seemingly working for Stanley the Tool, but is involved with Jillian Zamussels who is on the other side, and is really working for herself. In large part, this is because she appears to see herself as a servant of fate, and will do whatever's needed to see that fate realised.
  • Galatea in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob. Poor mixed-up kid.
  • Played around with in Vriska from Homestuck. On the one hand, she was responsible for setting a Cycle of Revenge into place and keeping it going. On the other hand, she also agreed to end it, and showed some signs of genuine remorse. On the other hand, when she entered the veil she set in motion the events that lead to Jack Noir being prototyped by Bec, which doomed the kids' session. On the other hand, she claimed she was only doing it to make John stronger, and that she intended to try to face Bec Noir herself. On the other hand, she then proceeded to kill Tavros for pretty much no reason. On the other hand, she seems genuinely regretful of that, and has been talking more and more to John lately, who seems to be steering her down the right path. All in all Vriska's Wild Card days seem mostly over, though it's not out of the question she'll revert back to her old ways...
    • Later in the story, it's stated that the Bard class is considered a Wild Card class as it's role is to have a major influence in how the game progresses in either a positive or potentially devastating way. In the case of Gamzee, he was at least partially responsible for the Trolls' victory against the Black King.
  • Zombie Ranch gives us Rosa Amarilla, whose loyalties so far are proving to be... fluid. She's even portrayed as the Joker card in what appears to be a poker hand on the cover of issue five.


Web Original

  • Maxie Dasai from Survival of the Fittest version three who, whilst not stabbing anybody in the back or outright betraying them, was prone to walking out on groups or partners that she felt wouldn't benefit her. She wasn't exactly cowardly or villainous per se, but Maxie was definitely not somebody to be relied on.
  • She-Beast, daughter of the supervillain Dr. Diabolik in the Whateley Universe, looks to be in it for whatever she can get out of the deal. Usually hangs with the other Bad Seeds (children of supervillains), but seems to have a thing for Phase, who's pretty close to Lawful Good.
    • She-Beast has a dirty secret, though. She's Chaotic Good herself. She, in fact, wants to be a super-hero, or something close. She's pretty sure her mom IS a super-hero, in fact. Since her dad is Doctor Doom...Nobody trusts her, so she gives off a True Neutral impression.
  • In DC Nation's Olympics plot, Terra was one of these. Both Hades and Troia tried to recruit her because she was too damn dangerous NOT to. True to form, however, she took the divinity potion Hades offered her, and betrayed him as soon as he pissed her off. She is now a minor deity of Strife and Chaos (and a pain in the ass for the Titans' shapeshifters), a position that suits her perfectly.
  • New York Magician: Raymond. Cthulhu. Michel's grandmother. Michel himself (as seen by everyone else). Baba Yaga- is it possible to have a whole cast of wildcards?
  • YWC aka (Youtube Wrestling Community)as everyone switches sides as soon as the person they sided with previously upsets them, the wrestling vloggers also switch sides just as much.
  • Ylana Skyfire, a mercenary in Neopets.


Western Animation

  • Femme Fatale Blackarachnia from Transformers: Beast Wars starts out as an example of a Neutral Evil Wild Card. First of all, she was Starscream's Bastard Understudy in the episode Possession. After learning the ways of treachery from him though, she displayed genuine Wild Card traits by using her new skills on him before the episode ended. Later on she fell in love with Silverbolt, an action which changed her alignment (eventually) to Chaotic Neutral, although it didn't keep her from shooting him in the leg. Later versions of Blackarachnia (Beast Machines, for example) were less unreliable and more faithful to the Maximals.

Silverbolt: "You shot me!"
Blackarachnia: "He was going to blow your head off!"

  • The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series has two of these. The second, Torbin Zixx, is a mercenary who will betray everyone twice in order to complete a job. The first and more important one, however, is Foot Clan member Karai, whose sense of honor clashes with her devotion to her father in a way that makes her impossible to predict.
  • Red X in Teen Titans.

In his first episode:
Red X: Not everyone likes to play the big villain, kid. I'm a thief. I'm not threatening your precious city. Just looking out for number one.
While preventing the other villains from getting Robin's case[1] after Robin saves his life:
Gizmo: Whose side are you on, Barf Brain?!
Red X: MINE!

  • Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes. She both works for Lucius, yet often goes against him to help Jimmy.
  • Bigmouth in The Smurfs can play either friend or villain of the Smurfs, depending on what will get him more food.
  • Reboot has Mouse the agent for hire/turned goody when her employer disregards her own safety during a job.


Real Life

  • The page quote comes from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, a French diplomat who embodied this trope a couple of hundred years ago. He started out under the Gallic Church and King Louis XVI, switched sides to the anti-Church, anti-Royalist Republic, ditched them to help Napoleon seize power, converted back just as Napoleon had allied with Russia, convened the Senate that legally dismissed Napoleon, and finally threw his support to the Citizen King Louis-Philippe. All this time he remained powerful and influential, and even managed to stay out of prison. The Other Wiki says he was known as "The Prince of Diplomats" but Napoleon himself came up with the perhaps equally fitting (if less flattering) label "shit in a silk stocking".
  • Alcibiades. He switched sides five times during the Peloponnesian War, always for who was willing to give him the power and glory to match his military ability.
  • This is the constitutional position of the monarchy in Britain, last used to pick a new Prime Minister in 1963.
  • In countries which suffer from a hung parliament after an election, independents and third parties usually become this.
  • Dennis Rodman in Phil Jackson's Chicago Bulls.
  1. ↑ Which he himself had originally been trying to steal
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