Hidden Depths: Difference between revisions

{{quote|<ref>''"The girl thought about her mother and father. About her father's lover. They all had secrets she'd never know about. And was that so terrible? Perhaps they weren't as selfish or evil or corrupt as she had once thought. Maybe their behavior wasn't a sign of weakness or some kind of compromise. As she looked for the way home, she thought about forgiving them, and keeping it a secret. Ever since then, the world had looked different. Everyone she saw had their own lives to live, with their own little secrets. And she realized; that was normal. Even these two, as normal as they seemed, probably had secrets of their own, feelings they could never tell anyone. And she found herself thinking how wonderful it would be, if she could tell someone what she had learned: That the world wasn't as terrible as you think."''</ref>}}

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Dia initially appears to be a simple, slow-witted [[Big Eater]] who pretty much went with whatever Pearl wanted, but it turns out he is far more thoughtful, sensitive, and empathetic, not to mention he desired to be on more equal terms with his best friend. He was able to piece together that Lady Berlitz wasn't a tour guide and that he and Pearl weren't supposed to be with her in the first place, but he kept quiet because he was afraid that saying the truth would be the end of their journey together.

** A simpler, straighther example are the three school characters, who initially appear to be walking stereotypes:

*** Hikari, the bitchy class representative? She grew into a serious person because she had to take care of her sisters after her mother died. She's still a normal girl that forms friendships and falls in love.

* Quite a few characters in ''[[D.Gray-man]]''.

** Lavi acts like a [[Keet|cheerful, carefree goof]], but is much smarter than he initially seems. Not to mention he's an apprentice bookman, somebody who's supposed to record secret wars, and grew up exposed to so much violence he was [[Stepford Smiler|emotionally barren]] by the age of sixteen. He got better once he joined the Black Order, but we see this side of him when Road temporarily reverts him to his old self via [[Mind Rape]].

** Allen himself. For the most part he's [[The Messiah]], but turns out to have a devious side, which we see when he [[It Makes Sense in Context|tries to charm a robot]], and when he's revealed to be a master at cheating at poker. Of course, {{spoiler|being a Noah}} might have something to do with it.

* Whitebeard in ''[[One Piece]]'' was initially portrayed as an [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]] who rips Shanks's letter, demanding that he comes to see him face to face, casually dismisses his nurses' concerns for his health and Shanks' warning that Blackbeard was bad news and he should call Ace back. But it's later revealed that while Whitebeard is proud, he is not smug. He is fully aware of his own mortality and {{spoiler|Ace was the one who chased after Blackbeard when Whitebeard told him not to.}} During the Marineford Arc, he's a [[Genius Bruiser]], able to match wits with Sengoku. And when one of his allies {{spoiler|stabbed him, accusing him of selling out his allies (having received false information), instead of disowning or killing Squardo outright,}} Whitebeard pulls the guy into a [[Cooldown Hug]] and reassures him that he would never abandon [[A Father to His Men|any of his sons,]] and gave all of his allies a chance to escape while he leaped into battle.

* In the US version of the ''[[The Office]]'', when Jim plays opera music to block out Dwight's listening device and asks Andy's opinion of the music as a cover, Andy knowledgeably criticizes it, and Creed, who had shown no sensitivity in the previous 5 seasons, starts crying.

* In ''[[The X-Files|The X Files]]'', the Smoking Man pops up early on as a mysterious figure with few lines and shadowy motivations. Over the course of the series he's revealed as one of the most well-known [[Magnificent Bastard]]s in popular television and shown to be dissatisfied with his position in [[The Conspiracy]], at one point almost tendering his resignation in order to become a semi-autobiographical crime writer.

** And then they had an episode where Ryan got to actually act like the Doctor, which provided a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].

* An episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' has the team trying to trace a teenage serial killer, and Garcia is on the phone after finding a name:

'''Deeks:''' I know who Bizarro is. How do ''you'' know who he is?" }}

* Parodied in [[Modern Family]] when Cameron remarked how people have some hidden depth even after knowing them forever. Turns out he was talking about [[Rob Lowe]]'s acting ability.

* Jay Wratten of ''[[The Shadow Line]]''. He seems at first to be little more than a [[Psychopathic Manchild]], but the final episode shows him to be much smarter and more manipulative than anyone realised. Gatehouse even uses this very phrase when describing him.

* ''[[Chuck]]''. Casey can hit a high note because he used to be a choir boy.

** Shizuka lives up to her name as [[The Quiet One]] [[Onee-Sama]] [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]] big sister to the main character, always totally calm and controlled. {{spoiler|She's actually [[The Berserker]], and has a bit of a [[Bodyguard Crush]] on her brother to boot.}}

* [[Super Mario Bros.|Luigi.]] At first, he was a [[Palette Swap]] of Mario. Fair enough, multiplayer is fun and the NES wasn't exactly known for storytelling. Then, as the years passed, he underwent [[Divergent Character Evolution]], becoming a cowardly individual with occasional very odd tendencies and a bit of a [[Butt Monkey]], especially in [[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]], who you could nevertheless count on when things got bad. Fair enough again, why should the brother have the same personality as [[The Hero]]? Then it's implied that Luigi has some... [[Expansion Pack Past|dark secrets]], and dark abilities to match. He also receives the Thunderhand at one point, allowing him to control electricity (this is, of course, [[Status Quo Is God|never mentioned]] [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|again]]).

** [[Inspector Javert|Silver]] shows a bit of this as well when he [[My God, What Have I Done?|acts extremely hurt]] after Amy [[What the Hell, Hero?|calls him out]]. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|After a heart-to-heart talk with Blaze,]] he decides that a [[Rivals Team Up]] is his best shot at redemption.

** Even before Sonic 2006, Shadow's massive backstory takes [[Sonic Adventure 2|a]] [[Sonic Heroes|good]] [[Sonic Battle|four]] [[Shadow the Hedgehog|games]] to completely reveal. He goes from being only a mysterious superweapon/black hedgehog/ultimate lifeform to a rather complex character who befriended his creator's daughter, who is killed during a government attack on the massive space station he was created in, giving him a powerful hatred for human beings in general that never quite goes away. He was created using the blood of a dark alien creature named Black Doom, who eventually comes and tries to take over the world so that humans can basically [[I'm a Humanitarian|be food for his alien race]], so Shadow kicks the crap out of him and blows up their "planet". On the outside, he's a mean, cold anti-hero. Inside, however, he's a lot deeper, and often does more thinking than the rest of Sonic's cast put together, as mentioned for Sonic 2006.

* The characters of ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'' were developed by building them upon stereotypes, then subverting them, according to an interview.

* Dante from [[Devil May Cry]], Though his main persona is the same in each game, chronologically he matures quite a bit, witness his change from thrill seeking(DMC 3) to guilt ridden(DMC 1) to cool headed(DMC 4).

* Solid Snake of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' is characterized as a guy who lives entirely for fighting and being a soldier, but as the man exclaims himself, he's rather fond of dogsledding. Apparently he even participated in dogsledding competitions before Shadow Moses.

* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', even Red himself is a bit surprised in Samoyede, when Elh reveals that {{spoiler|she knows a little about flowers, despite not being the girlish type, though [[I Was Just Passing Through|she claims it's only because they grew in her home village]].}}

*** Yuuko, a clumsy and sometimes awkward librarian/waitress/college student, {{spoiler|is actually a fairly good source of advice on relationships, especially considering that she's acquainted with some of the girls}}

*** Kenji, the paranoid misogynist conspiracy theorist, {{spoiler|was in a relationship in a past, and while he broke up with his girlfriend, he still has fond memories of their relationship}}.

** Ragna The Bloodedge, a fearful foul-mouthed figure known as The Grim Reaper who claims that he's going to take down NOL {{spoiler|[[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|has a lot of sweet spots]] where he doesn't act like a jerk... and not exactly your [[Chaotic Good]] Robin Hood figure, he's not there to release the world from oppression..}}

** Jin Kisaragi, psychotic, brother-obsessed rival who is cold as ice and an utter [[Jerkass]] to everyone, ESPECIALLY TO NOEL VERMILLION, {{spoiler|is actually a hardworking boy who has an aspirations of being a hero, utterly protective to his childhood friend Tsubaki, and would eventually become that hardass hero Hakumen. His Jerkass attitude was actually magnified from his Nox Nyctores Yukianesa, when he's not influenced with it, he's actually decent.}}

** Hell, most of Season 3 was this. The episode "''Alone''" was simply about three well-established characters sitting alone in their apartments, thinking about {{spoiler|how they'd been sexually abused}}. The story of Orel's teacher, in particular, is disturbing—She's {{spoiler|in love with her rapist, who has just died in prison}}. Another one, a [[Ms. Fanservice|ditzy airhead nurse]], is {{spoiler|incapable of having a healthy relationship, ever, because she's been a disposable whore so long she can't even think about sex without crying. It's also implied she's been raped}}. It's [[Tear Jerker|not really a funny episode]].

* Black Steve on G4's ''[[Code Monkeys]]''. This actually seems to be a bit of his gimmick on the show with fact he is well, black. He constantly gets angry and goes into angry black man rage when people expect him to go with a stereotype or things he is not something cause he is black. So far it's shown he is a Harvard graduate, a former professional wrestler known as "The Black Shadow," and speaks Japanese while he also manages the money of the company.

* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''

** Hank. On the surface, he's a cheesy parody of [[Jonny Quest]], [[Scooby Doo|Fred]] and the [[Hardy Boys]], but if you [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot|put a few bits and pieces together]], Hank has some ''major'' [["Well Done, Son" Guy|daddy issues]].

* The studio's elephant mascot from ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' is a talented pianist.

* An episode of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' involved an alien device that accidentally tossed a team of Joes and their Cobra opponents back in time to pre-Classical Greece. One of them reveals the ability to speak a little Ancient Greek. The highly skilled and multilingual infiltrators Lady Jaye or the Baroness? No. The well-read Lifeline? No. The genius Dr. Mindbender? No. ''Sergeant Slaughter''. It even gets lampshaded when Lifeline expresses utter disbelief.

* On ''[[Phineas and Ferb]],'' local "[[Punch Clock Villain|bully]]" Buford can speak fluent French and quote Voltaire. He also has a tendency to go into odd philosophical statements, though these usually break down into [[Sophisticated As Hell]].

** He was only an actual antagonist once, since all of the other characters recognized this almost instantly.