Becoming the Mask/Playing With

• Main
• Laconic
• Playing With
• Quotes
• All Subpages
• Create New

Basic Trope: The Mole starts to like the surroundings he's infiltrated.

• Straight: Molly, a spy on Evil Inc.'s payroll, infiltrates the Five-Man Band and pretends to join them. Yet during her time with them, she starts to warm up to them, legitimately enjoying their company and the way they do things.
• Exaggerated: Molly was planning to infiltrate the heroes' headquarters for several months, but she is so overwhelmed by the goodness of the Five-Man Band that she does a Heel Face Turn after just one day.
• Downplayed: Molly is a spy for a Lawful Good organization, stationed to simply keep an eye on the Chaotic Good vigilantes and make sure that they don't cause any trouble. Molly eventually comes to understand that the Five-Man Band are legitimately good guys and, realizing that they don't deserve the suspicion and distrust they've garnered from her employers, resigns in protest and formally joins the band.
• Justified: Molly was dissatisfied with her life as a bad guy. The good guys present her with an opportunity to be happy for once.
• Inverted: Molly originally has no beef with the Five-Man Band, and only agrees to spy on them because she's strapped for cash. Once she infiltrates their hideout, what she sees shocks and appalls her, and she becomes much more comfortable with the prospect of destroying them from the inside.
• Subverted: Molly wasn't really warming up to the Band; she's so good at acting that she was even able to fake a growing sense of camaraderie with her victims.
• Double Subverted: ...at least, that's the excuse she gives when she has to go through with her betrayal. They'd never believe her if she told the truth.
• Parodied: The Five-Man Band makes Molly do all their cooking and cleaning, because none of the Band possess any kind of independent living skills. She ends up finding it endearing just how hopeless they are without her.
• Deconstructed:
  • Molly is forced to go through with her betrayal. Since she had started legitimately enjoying their companionship, this tears her up inside.
  • Molly starts suffering from a severe identity crisis as she begins to question who is the real her.
• Reconstructed: Because of the inner conflict sparked within her, she re-evaluates herself and decides that want she wants is to make a Heel Face Turn and become the Sixth Ranger.
• Zig Zagged: Molly initially plans to destroy the Five-Man Band from the inside, but eventually grows close enough to them that she starts having second thoughts. Her employers at Evil Inc. catch wind of this, and offer to double her reward if she goes through with it, and she decides to complete her original mission after all. But then, hours before the big betrayal is supposed to go down, she's suddenly consumed by so much guilt, and decides that no amount of money will make it worth it. At this point, Evil Inc. activates the Laser-Guided Amnesia device they implanted in her, causing her to forget her trepidation completely.
• Averted: Molly never shows any signs of growing closer to the Band, and goes through with the betrayal without remorse.
• Enforced: The creators want to send the message to their audience that everyone has a little good inside of them.
• Lampshaded: "You know, I could get used to this." "What was that?" "Uh?! I-I said... I should... let you do this! Yeah."
• Invoked: The Five-Man Band suspect that Molly is a spy, but rather than throw her out, they decide to be nice to her in an attempt to make her reconsider her alliance.
• Defied: "They may seem like nice people, but they're still my enemies. My mission remains unchanged."
• Discussed: "Your true face... What kind of... face is it? I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that... your true face?"
• Conversed: "That show was so sad, especially the part where Molly betrayed the team!"

---

Go back to Becoming the Mask, but make sure not to grow too attached...