Horrible Judge of Character: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''[[Reasonable Authority Figure|Sultan]]''': Nonsense! One thing I pride myself on, Jafar... I'm an excellent judge of character.

 

 

 

On the extreme end, the [[Friend to All Living Things]] will also be intensely [[True Companions|loyal to their friends]], so they'll [[Selective Obliviousness|ignore all evidence]] that the Manipulator means them harm. When true friends try to point them to suspicious behavior or even show outright damning evidence, they will get a pouty "[[You're Just Jealous|You're just jealous of our friendship]]!" and be blown off as [[The Cassandra]], probably earning an earful about how Baron Bloodlove is a wonderful human being who just happens to be around whenever someone's bloodless corpse is found.

 

 

This [[Heel Face Turn|may]] or [[Designated Villain|may not]] work.

 

If it's romantic, expect a [[Love Martyr]] or [[Mad Love]]. If the "friend" is a [[Chessmaster]], then they're an [[Unwitting Pawn]]. If the horrible judge of character causes a horrible plot development by doing this, they are an [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]]. Contrast [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]].

 

 

* In ''[[Gankutsuou]]'', Albert is a Horrible Judge of Character. He ignores the strange coincidences when the count arrives in Paris, the horrible turns of events, the letters to his father. Even when his childhood best friend pleads with him that he be careful around the count, all he gets are ''tantrums''. The count, being a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and [[Manipulative Bastard]] counted on this, and systematically destroys Albert's remaining confidence in him by slowly spelling out how he was a piece in his schemes for revenge... and does so precisely in the most heartless manner possible to get him to challenge him to a duel and get a legal excuse to kill him as a revenge against his parents.

** Yet by [[Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack|Char's Counterattack]] they show no signs of improvement. "In return for not dropping your space rocks on us, we'd like to give you {{spoiler|a big space rock loaded with nukes!}}"

** Really, after a certain point it stops being humorous and becomes worrying. One has to wonder if the Earth Federation has a terrorist insurance policy on the planet Earth and is desperately trying to cash in on it.

** Not necessarily: Lithuania ''does'' express frustration in dealing with Russia and Poland, actually, but deals with them because he has to ''and'' has to make the best of the situation. His only case of this trope is with [[All Love Is Unrequited|his clearly one-sided crush on Belarus]].

* Tsuna from ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' is this, somewhat. He ''does'' realize that the villains aren't the nicest people on earth, but is very naive about wishing to believe the best in people (namely, Rokudo Mukuro). It's lampshaded by several characters in the series (yes, even by the villains themselves).

* For most of ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]''' first [[Story Arc]], {{spoiler|Yuka Sugimoto}} swears complete loyalty to the King of Kou despite several indications that he is simply using her and cares for nothing but himself. Even after being {{spoiler|abandoned on a remote, barren farm}}, she makes up an excuse for it herself and remains eager to do his bidding. Sure, the girl ''is'' [[I Just Want to Be Special|desperate to be the heroine]], but ''still''!

** In the same story line and also in the anime, Cooan is revealed [[Love Martyr|to be in love with Rubius]], who is completely evil and clearly using her. Learning the obvious is what leads her and the other three Ayakashi Sisters to their [[Heel Face Turn]].

* A cynic could very well consider Akane Tendo of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' to be one of these. She is convinced that Ryoga Hibiki is a sweet, gentle, kind-hearted person and her best friend. While he ''does'' make some good character growth, Ryoga is very flawed as well: petty, melancholic, obsessive, childish, and obsessed with wooing her, and her blindness to his romantic intentions is one of the things that upsets him the most. She blatantly ignores things like the fact he was once part of a plot to kidnap her because he does things like choke down her [[Lethal Chef|repulsive food]] and lie that it tastes delicious, immediately leaps to assault Ranma when Akane gets angry or upset, and otherwise goes out of his way to stroke her ego. In fact, it's possible that ''this'' is the keystone behind her apparent inability to realise he is really her pet pig P-chan: she thinks so highly of him that she can't conceive he would abuse her trust and stain her honor the way that pretending to be an animal so he can, among other things, sleep in her bed would.

** Given her trust levels for Ranma, the same could be applied there. While Ranma is hardly a model citizen, Akane is generally willing to accuse Ranma of all sorts of immoral actions that he would never take, or has shown any sign of taking. Most notably is her insistence that Ranma is a pervert, despite the fact that Ranma never shows any kind of lust and never abuses his [[Gender Bender]] curse to go peeping. Ranma is guilty of many things, but he is all but immune to lust.

** Though in Graham's case, he [[Ax Crazy|isn't that different from Ladd]] personality-wise. It's just as likely that Graham is well aware of what kind of man Ladd is, but is so violently insane himself that he likes it!

* Averted in ''[[Death Note]]'': Though the audience is well aware of Light's descent into madness, he uses a 'normal' persona around his family, classmates, lady friends and (later) coworkers, and often uses that to his advantage. Of course, it doesn't last forever...

** Played straight with Rem, however. In the Yotsuba Arc, having shadowed the greedy and egocentric {{spoiler|Higuchi}} for a while, she begins thinking Light's 'as pure as Misa'. Well, until he {{spoiler|manipulates her into killing L, Watari, and herself}}, anyway...

*** She does largely distrust him for the most part, and eventually, in the manga, {{spoiler|realizes his plans, and goes along with it when she has no choice but to do so to prevent Misa from becoming a suspect again}}.

* Bear Walken of ''[[Gungrave]]'' trusted Harry McDowell with both the fate of Millenion ''and'' his ''daughter''. Bear Walken was a good Mafia boss but apparently terrible with people.

* In ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'', Ken Hidaka is quite convinced that his childhood friend [[Jerkass|Kouichiro Kase]] can't possibly know what his evil boss is up to. One murder and an attempt on Ken's own life later, he wises up to Kase's conniving ways, but it takes ''another'' attempt on Ken's life before he actually does anything about it - which, for those of you playing along at home, would be the ''third'' time Kase's tried, and failed, to kill him.

** She also mistrusts the ''Elric brothers'' for a while, probably because she thought Ed had "lied" to her about being tall and handsome as opposed to short (in reality, she just [[Cloudcuckoolander|thought this up herself]] and took her disappointment out on him). There's also the fact that they were Scar's enemies...

** Things don't work out so well for her when she decides to trust [[Complete Monster|Envy]], though.

* ''[[Sakura Gari]]'': Masataka. Honestly, there are all these horrible rumors about Souma, Souma himself acts really weird, strange events keep occurring, and... he just thinks Souma is a nice master. Right.

* Ayase of ''[[Okane ga Nai]]'': his cousin ''sold him to the Yakuza'' and he things it was just a "misunderstanding." This is also the guy who surrounds himself with "friends" who - without exception - are trying to get in his pants. And he keeps thinking that it's also just a "misunderstanding" when one of his "best friends" tries to rape him. Twice. And then chain him to a bed post in his room. Aaaand he lives with the loan shark who ''bought him'' from said cousin. For more details just look in the [[Too Dumb to Live]] entry. He's there too.

* Everyone who isn't named [[Highschool of the Dead|Rei Miyamoto]]. Everyone in her class practically worships [[Obviously Evil|Koichi Shido]]. The other main characters see him as a douchebag rather than a villain.

* Inverted in [[The Slayers]], with Gourrys reaction to Xellos admitting to being a demon. Gourry knew all along, he just never brought it up because [[Genre Savvy|he thought it was obvious]], [[Dumbass Has a Point|and that if he recognized it, then his friends who were always amazed at Gourrys ignorance, must have noticed it too.]] While no-one ever trusted Xellos for a minute (and Xellos clearly made no attempt to try to be trusted), the revalation that Xellos was actually a demon came as a shock to everyone but Gourry.

 

== Comic Books ==

** There are also officially Sith techniques that allow them to hide the energy they project into the force. Which makes some sense, since Sith have been hiding from the Jedi and biding the time for their revenge for almost 7,000 years before the movies.

* Ralphie, from ''[[Storm of the Century]],'' who insists that [[Complete Monster|Andre]] [[Significant Anagram|Linoge]], who has been responsible for five deaths so far and is heavily implied to be ''[[the Devil]]'', isn't a bad guy because he gave Ralphie a present, and "bad guys don't give kids presents."

 

== Literature ==

* This is very much true of the character Squire Allworthy in ''Tom Jones''. He's supposed to be a [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], but throughout the novel, he always makes the wrong judgments, trusting bad characters and assuming the worst about the heroes to the extent that his reasonableness is [[Informed Ability]].

** Seeing as "the real [[Big Bad]] is [[Big Bad Friend|actually the person who has been apparently helping the protagonists the most]] and has no logical reason to ''be'' the [[Big Bad]]" is one of the ''[[Strictly Formula|many]]'' common elements to all of [[Dan Brown]]'s work, this may be a case of [[Genre Blind]] instead.

* ''[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Wuthering Heights]]''. Lockwood originally describes Heathcliff as "a capital fellow". But then after storytime with Nelly...

** She wasn't exactly on the ball concerning Jacen either, although the level of her uncharacteristic obliviousness in that series seemed to vary from book to book, [[Depending on the Writer|depending on what the author at the time needed in order to get away with the plot.]]

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', Cornelius Fudge in regards to Lucius Malfoy.

** Everyone trusted Voldemort before his first rise to power. Everyone that is, except Dumbledore. But he's Dumbledore so he doesn't count.

*** Of course, it probably helped that Tom Riddle was brilliant, good-looking, ridiculously good at charming people, and had the "sympathetic orphan" angle going. Basically, when he got to Hogwarts, he started to do his damnedest to make everyone think he was a good guy. The folks at the orphanage knew enough to be terrified of him.

* At the start of ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'', the young Count himself is a terrible judge of characters, trusting as friends the same men who will completely ruin his life and get him started on the quest for revenge that will occupy the rest of the story. In fact, he will never realize, by himself, the reason of his downfall: only with the help of old Faria will he be able to finally get a clue.

* Cheryl from [[Atlas Shrugged]] is a young woman who believes in her author's philosophy of hero-worshipping. As a member of the villainous faction of Looters, [[Manipulative Bastard|James Taggart]] believes in a philosophy which is the exact opposite of Cheryl's. And yet, Cheryl manages to misunderstand Taggart so badly that she thinks he's a heroic man who believes in heroism, and marries him. [[Love Martyr|Naturally, the marriage goes badly for Cheryl.]]

* ''[[In Death]]'': Peabody sure acted like this in ''Holiday In Death''. Eve had warned her that Brent Halloway was the wrong guy to get attracted to, due to his [[It's All About Me]] attitude. Peabody still got gooey-eyed over the guy, and as a result got his fingers being stuck into her crotch, and in one of Roarke's bars on a date, no less! At least Peabody gave that pervert a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]].

** {{spoiler|Eve's mother}} in ''New York To Dallas'' proves to be this. Both Eve and Melinda Jones try to warn her that Isaac McQueen is just using her and will kill her off like so many of his "partners". She doesn't listen. Guess what happens to her later on.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* There's also just about every Elven Noble thousands of years ago, from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Not only electing Bel-Shanaar as Phoenix King, but also being blind to Malekith's evil intent for so long. Come on! [[Meaningful Name|His name is MALEKITH!]]

 

*** Ol' Shakespeare had to tread lightly with his characterization of Banquo, as the historical figure he's based off happens to be an ancestor of the King of England at the time.

** In ''[[Othello]]'', Othello is mindlessly trusting of his ancient, "honest Iago," a character thoroughly devoted to ruining his life.

**** That still doesn't excuse some of Othello's idiocy, such as saying he refuses to believe Iago's words about Desdemona's infidelity and then, two seconds later, starts believing what Iago says.

** This was also ''[[King Lear]]'''s problem when he was unable to distinguish between the genuine love his daughter Codelia had for him and the shallow flattery offered by her wicked sisters.

* Luke fon Fabre from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]],'' the poor bastard.

* Iris from ''[[Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations]]'' is thought of this way by Edgeworth after she calls Maya 'strong and reliable' and Larry 'sincere and hard-working'; however, they can be described as these under certain circumstances. Of course she ''also'' trusts {{spoiler|her murderous twin sister Dahlia despite the numerous examples of Dahlia abusing this}}.

** Actually, it's unknown if Gestahl actually planned on killing General Leo off. When Kefka murders him, he states that "he'll simply state that he disposed of/exterminated a traitor", implying that he was probably killing Leo completely out of his own free will and not under Gestahl's orders, and was going to give an excuse to why he killed Leo.

* [[Neverwinter Nights|Fenthick's]] horrible judgment and political ineptness in trusting Desther conspire to get him executed at the end of the first chapter of the main campaign. {{spoiler|It's okay, as his only reason for existing in the first place was to give Aribeth something to angst about before her [[Face Heel Turn]].}}

* Gordon Frohman of ''[[Concerned]]'' is a [[Black Shirt]] who utterly supports The Combine who have enslaved his race and is utterly against [[La Résistance]] of the humans, Gordon Freeman as well as the Vortigaunts, the alien allies of the humans. {{spoiler|His hatred of Vortigaunts ends up making them choose to let him die rather than save his life}}.

* [[Scary Go Round|Ryan Beckwith]] is way too trusting for his own good when it comes to Ralph, Tackleford's local occultist. Even though Ralph's advice has come back to bite him in the ass time after time, he still defends him and goes back to get his spiritual advice. This may have changed now that Ralph has {{spoiler|been exposed as [[Louis Cypher|the devil]].}}

* Otacon comes up again in ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', where Liquid is able to convince him to install a nuclear launch program on Metal Gear by telling him that he wants to shoot down metors like in ''[[Armageddon]]'' (however, there's evidence that Otacon's in denial about Metal Gear's true purpose at this point, and Liquid did threaten to feed him to a largely-unfriendly-to-him-wolf).

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''

** Mr. Jones of Goodman Rubber is one, as he, impressed with Fooker's skills, invites him to give a motivational talk (Fooker is every bit as good as Mr. Jones thinks and [[Brilliant but Lazy|perhaps better]], but he's also a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] with a questionable sense of humor). He later laments how someone [[Devil in Plain Sight|as nice as]] [[Manipulative Bastard|Trudy]] "fell in with that wrong crowd," and believes that [[Smug Snake|Trent]] is far more competent than he actually is.

* Kevin of ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' is considered this as a result of being a fearless rabbit, which is implied to have been what led him to marry his first wife [[Jerkass|Angelique]]. By the time the strip begins, though, he's smarter about people's ulterior motives.

 

== Web Original ==

** Most people who trust [[Magnificent Bastard|Azula]]. This includes Zuko, who really should know better (although with him, Azula is just adept at telling lies he ''really'' wants to hear, and occasionally mixing just enough truth into it).

* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'': "It soon became obvious to me that The Joker, so often described as a raving homicidal madman, was actually a tortured soul crying out for love and acceptance..." Doctor Harleen Quinzel (aka [[Evil Clown|Harley Quinn]]), welcome to the list.

** Aladdin's not the only one. ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' has the Villagers being completely, legitimately loyal (as in, they willingly love and are not forced to love him out of fear) to Gaston, a man who not only has shown himself to be a self-centered, arrogant [[Jerkass]], but has no qualms of expressing it, reaching an all new low when Gaston and Le Fou blatantly state to the entire bar that their plan involved arresting Maurice under false accusations of being a dangerous madman in order to marry Belle, and they still supported him. Then again, maybe the villagers really are extremely, irredeemably evil.

* ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'' - King Spartos of Tarkon had a really bad habit of trusting advisors that told him what he wanted to hear, despite his daughter's objections and knowledge of the wider galaxy. It's only towards the end (and with the use of some [[Applied Phlebotinum]] from the Heart of Tarkon) that he's able to see his daughter and the Rangers are correct.

* [[Pinocchio]], both in the Disney film, and in the [[Filmation]] unofficial sequel, [[Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night]]. He seems to think he can trust ''absolutely everyone'' he comes across. Worse yet, he often trusts people that ''[[Too Dumb to Live|he's well aware have double crossed him before]]''. In the latter, he willingly makes deals with a boatman with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|glowing red eyes]] aboard a ship referred to as "The Empire of the Night."

* Yet again from the [[Disney Animated Canon]], Mufasa from ''[[The Lion King]]'' may get angry at his younger [[Obviously Evil]] brother Scar, but still trusted him as a family member. This leads Scar to manipulate Mufasa to get him killed.

 

== Real Life ==

** Of course, you could argue that that has more to do with the fans living out vicarious fantasies- they may be well aware that the pairing makes no sense, but they just want to see it happen to satisfy their own [[Perverse Sexual Lust]].

** Same thing for how fans interpret [[Word of God]]. They seem to scream [[Death of the Author]] when said author is usually truthful in what he says, yet authors that tend to lie and troll their fans seem to have everyone taking their every word as gospel truth no matter how often it turns out to be a lie. Fans are generally really, really bad at figuring out the character and values of creators...

* An excerpt from [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|William Lyon Mackenzie King's]] diary: "{{[[[Adolf Hitler]] Hitler}}] is really one who truly loves his fellow-men, and his country, and would make any sacrifice for their good...the world will yet come to see a very great man–mystic in Hitler..."

** As pointed out below, many leaders at the time saw Hitler as a good leader. To be fair, he was known for being passionate and charismatic, and made many promises to better the lives of the German people... at the expense of just about everyone else. There was also the fact that Mackenzie King was known for trying to see the good in all people, and was a very spiritual man, which probably caused him to try and ignore Hitler's increasingly obvious faults.

* Many Western European politicians and intellectuals (Churchill included) initially saw Hitler as the right man for Germany.

* During the Three Kingdoms Era of China, Shu Kingdom's Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, despite being a military genius in the battlefield, was this according to his legendary nemesis, Wei Kingdom General Ssu'ma Yi. During the Battle of Jie Ting, Sima Yi banked on Liang to make the mistake for choosing an inspiring yet inept commander to make a mistake he can exploit. The mistake that the commander made dealt a huge blow to Shu that Zhuge was forced to execute him

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]