Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Difference between revisions

Frequently happens when a [[Magnificent Bastard]] plays the [[Enigmatic Minion]]. See [[Reliable Traitor]] for a possible reason why the character can continue to find work. Related to [[The Starscream]], except that that character type ''doesn't'' succeed (most of the time, anyways... and when they do, they usually don't get to revel in it for long.) These characters are also commonly [[Chaotic Neutral]], [[Chaotic Evil]], [[Chaotic Stupid]], [[Stupid Evil]], or [[Stupid Neutral]]. (Lawful and/or Good characters tend to see betrayal as a big no-no, and [[Neutral Evil]] characters (probably) won't betray their current allies just for the hell of it.)

 

 

{{examples}}

** And when Ashura was born, she tried to kill hir as well, because a child of Lord Ashura was no longer advantageous to her. After three hundred years as the wife of the iron-fisted emperor of the gods, is she pretty much through digging for more power? Hell no! She plans to supplant him with her son and rule through him. Oh, Shashi, you backstabbing little minx, you!

* Mine Fujiko in ''[[Lupin III]]'' betrays Lupin in most of her TV appearances and ''all'' of her movie appearances. Then, if it looks like the villain (and/or [[Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist|Inspector Zenigata]]) isn't going to keep their end of the deal or she can get a better deal with Lupin, she'll betray them as well. Despite this, Lupin continues to blindly trust her until the next betrayal.

* [[Villain Protagonist|Michio]] [[Complete Monster|Yuki]] from [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s manga, ''[[MW]]'', has betrayed everyone over the course of the manga. He killed a man who happens to be his client at that time. Afterwards, he starts a relationship with Miho, his [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|corrupt boss]]'s daughter, only to have her killed. Later on, he betrays his own boss, whom he trusted with his life, when it turns out that {{spoiler|he's part of the MW cover up}}. He betrays Sumiko, [[Love Martyr|whom she keeps falls in love]] despite how evil he is, by starting a relationship and marrying Mr. Nakata's daughter, only to betray her later on when she is told by Detective Meguro of his evil actions. Prior to that, he betrayed Father Garai, the man whom he formed a homosexual relationship with, by sending him to a nightclub to take a picture of him with a customer. He did all that to achieve his goal: {{spoiler|obtaining the MW, the same gas that loses his morality, and use it to end the world when he dies}}.

* In ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]'', DarkKnightmon revels in this trope, backstabbing everyone he allies with, {{spoiler|even his brother}}.

* ''[[Discworld]]'' series:

** The way to get ahead at Unseen University is "by way of dead men's pointy shoes." In other words, kill the guy above you and steal his shoes and hat. Rinse, lather, repeat. Since the elevation of [[Boisterous Bruiser|Mustrum Ridcully]] as Archchancellor this process has been halted, by virtue of him being virtually unkillable, resulting in a lot more permanency among the other senior wizards as well as backstabbing decreases.

* ''[[X Wing Series]]'' Ysanne Isard. Nominally always working for the Empire, but after the Emperor died, she was just working for herself. Later in the series, Baron Soontir Fel and Gara Petothel are both accused of this. It's untrue on both counts.

* Ludovico in ''[[Leonardos Swans]]''. He does this both to his wife and his political allies.

* According to [[All There in the Manual|Pottermore]], the Ravenclaw house of [[Harry Potter]] has a problem with this at times. Though since the information came from the [[Unreliable Narrator|Slytherin Prefect]] it must be taken with a grain of salt.

 

* ''[[The Wire]]'': [[The Chessmaster|Stringer Bell]] betrays [[Rule of Three|three]] people, all of them main characters, and all of them considering him trustworthy. They are, in order, {{spoiler|Wallace, D'Angelo (coming and going), and ''Avon Motherfucking Barksdale''.}}

* {{spoiler|Tony Almeida}} in the seventh season of ''[[24]]''. He betrays {{spoiler|Emerson's group}}, which he claims he had actually been loyal to at one point for {{spoiler|serving as a deep cover agent for Bill Buchanan}}, then betrays {{spoiler|the FBI by killing Larry Moss after thwarting Juma and Hodges' plans}} in favor of {{spoiler|the masterminds behind the conspiracy}}, all so that he {{spoiler|can meet their leader face-to-face and kill him}}.

* [[Bret Hart]] had this during his entire tenure with World Championship Wrestling, but especially in the first couple of years or so, where it seemed sometimes even the ''writers'' were confused as to whether he was a good guy or a bad guy at any given time. In late 1999, he got the biggest push of his WCW career, winning the World Heavyweight Title as a face—only to, within a month or so, turn on former partner and friend Bill [[Goldberg]] and re-form the [[New World Order]].

* [[Shawn Michaels]] was teaming up with [[John Cena]] to become a championship tag team. Given that they were slated to compete at Wrestlemania for the WWE Championship, the team seemed shaky but HBK was determined to keep Cena at 100% for Wrestlemania. Cena was consistently worried that HBK would turn on him like he had done with pretty much [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq_u89b-SIk every single person and team he had ever worked with.] Inevitably, yes, HBK turned on Cena.

* Paul Heyman, thanks to his [[I Fight for the Strongest Side]] mentality.

* Ever since [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] debuted, [[Paul Bearer]] has been switching allegiances between him and [[The Undertaker]]. It actually started when Bearer abandoned Undertaker for [[Mick Foley|Mankind]] after six years of managing [[The Undertaker]].

** Subverted at Wrestlemania XXVII in a [[Meta Twist]]: everyone and their mother was expecting Christian to turn on Edge (who had been [[Those Two Guys]] pretty much their entire careers) during the match with [[Alberto Del Rio]] and yet amazingly, this wasn't even hinted at during the match. Christian never turned and pretty much everyone was rather surprised and happy. When Edge retired days later to a legit injury, it meant that instead of having Edge's last match be a loss due to the betrayal of his best friend, it meant he went out and retired as the champ.

* [[The Miz]]. He was tag team partners with [[John Morrison]] and then became one of his biggest rivals. He had Alex Riley as an apprentice but [[The Dog Bites Back|made another enemy after berating him too often.]] He formed a team with [[Ron Killings|R-Truth]] in the later part of 2011 only to turn on him before the year was over. If you want to join up with him, expect a [[Finishing Move|Skull Crushing Finale]] in your future.

 

== Real Life ==

** The leading scholar on Napoleonic history, J. David Markham, goes out of his way to mention how backstabbing Talleyrand was.

*** Actually, that's not quite right. His name was actually Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Napoleon lost patience with him after he bungled a battle, and consequently when the Swedish suggested him as their new king, Napoleon didn't care either way. Bernadotte did change sides in 1813, while he was the Crown Prince of Sweden, but he wasn't actually crowned King until 1818, and Napoleon ditched him before he ditched Napoleon. As an amusing side-note, he was styled Charles XIV when he took the throne, but he was only the eighth Charles on the Swedish throne - an earlier Charles, when determining the correct numbering, didn't realise that the book he was using was [[Did Not Do the Research|fictitious]].

*** Bernadotte switched sides because it was in Sweden's best interest to do so. So what we have here is switching loyalties from his native to his adoptive country, and Bernadotte did not make switching sides a habit.

* The entire Sengoku era of Japan is this; to the level of having [[wikipedia:Gekokujō|a specific term]].

* [[wikipedia:Yevno Azef|Yevno Azef]] was incredibly prone to this. He started out by joining the Socialists in Tsarist Russia. When he was about to be arrested by the [[State Sec|Okhrana]] (the Tsar's secret police), he fled to Germany, taking 800 rubles of party funds with him. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Russia in Exile. Then, the Okhrana contacted him, offering him a lucrative salary to become [[The Informant]]. At the turn of the century, he returned to Moscow, making himself indispensible to the Revolutionaries, and becoming head of their "Combat Division" by betraying his predecessor to the revolutionaries. His job was to become an ''agent provocateur'' - force the revolutionaries into doing stupid things that would get them captured. Unfortunately, this would mean that he would end up being seen as an incompetent head of Combat Division and he would be replaced. So, he set up genuine assassinations every now and again (the Minister of the Interior, a Duke or two) to cover his ass, telling the Okhrana that he didn't know about them. As a result, when [[Cassandra Truth|sympathetic policemen told the rebels about Azef's double dealing]], they ignored it as malicious propaganda. Eventually, however, events caught up with him, and a "Court of Honour" was convened in Paris to try him. He had one last trick up his sleeve, however - he promised to provide convincing proof of his innocence...[[What an Idiot!|if they would just let him go back to his house to get it]]. [[Too Dumb to Live|They believed him]]. He fled back to Germany, [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|becoming rich on the stock market]]. He would have got away with it too, if it weren't for that meddlin' [[World War I]], in which he was interned as an enemy alien. In prison, he caught a kidney disease, and died of renal failure in 1918.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Index Syndrome]]

[[Category:Betrayal Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]