Jerkass Facade/Playing With

Basic Trope: A normally nice character acts like a Jerkass to avoid getting too close to people.

Straight: Bob, who's dying of a terminal disease, becomes an insufferable asshole to everyone around him so he can spare them the pain of his death.
- Bob commits a Kick the Dog act or few but it is to hide a secret to protect someone he cares for.
Exaggerated: Bob, who caught a cold, actively assualts everyone around him so they won't catch it too.
- Bob's actions make him look like a Complete Monster but they turn out to be highly elaborate hoaxes to protect those he has cared for.
Justified: Bob's friend Alice died of a terminal disease and it tore him up inside. He doesn't want others to go through that as well.
- Bad things would happen if people knew about Bob's motives and he has no way of being able to resolve his problems without deception.
Inverted: Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
Subverted: It turns out that it wasn't a facade...Bob has decided that he's going to spend his last few moments telling everyone exactly what he thinks about them, no holds barred.
- Bob does have hidden motives but they turned out to be petty and selfish.
Double Subverted: ...However, there's a few hints that even this is a facade.
- Bob's motives were actually petty and selfish but that is revealed that its what he wanted you to think.
Parodied: Bob's attempts at being a 'jerk' are so pathetic and feeble that no one is fooled in the slightest about what his intentions are.
Deconstructed: Bob's attitude eventually alienates everyone around him enough to where they decide to cut him out of their lives. He ends up dying alone, wishing he had been a better friend.
- Bob used to be a nice guy but after had been through a lot of hardships, he begun to act like a jerk because he thinks he will win greater success by it.
- Bob's elaborate but well-intentioned lies horribly backfire on him in which his friends and/or the very person(s) whom he was trying to protect called him out on this on how his actions ended up causing the very thing he was trying to prevent.
- A plot with An Aesop which is "Deception is never justified, if you can't figure out how to protect the people you love honestly then your not doing it right".
Reconstructed: However, his friends saw through his facade and show up in his last hours to let him know that while they'll miss him, they still enjoyed their time with him.
- While some people may have had legitimate reasons for not wanting to forgive Bob for his facade, the story tries to preach that he had a good reason why he did it and that he had no way of doing without some deception. Basically the plot tries to play the "Shades of Gray" angle in Bob's actions as much as possible.
- Bob doesn't feel bad about doing this Facade at all but he does realize that it could backfire if he deceives everyone. So he lets a few certain friends whom hopefully will be willing to keep said secret, even if its out of fear that those certain friends would try to ruin (and potentially could) his plans if he deceived them.
- The fact that Bob's actions were a facade have been revealed and the person(s) he was trying to protect end having life go a lot worse at best to end up dead at worst. And the plot greatly implies on how things would've been a lot better if nobody knew about Bob's facade.
Zig Zagged: The strength and existence of Bob's facade varies from day to day.
Averted: Bob acts like he normally did when he was not ill.
Enforced: "We need some drama in this series. Let's have Bob turn into a jackass while he's dying!"
Lampshaded: "Look, I know you're dying, but that doesn't mean that you have to be such a jerk!"
Invoked: ???
Defied: Bob, rather than driving everyone away, decides to spend his last few days enjoying life with his friends.
Discussed: ???
Conversed: ???

Back to Jerkass Facade.