Poisonous Friend: Difference between revisions

*** It's [[Alternate Character Interpretation|debatable]] as to weather or not she enjoys it, as her telling him to shut up about it may be because she wants to cleanse that from her mind.

** Also, if you insult, harm, or threaten his master, you'd better have someone to save you, otherwise you [[Too Dumb to Live|''will'' regret it]].

* Maki from ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]''.

* Paul von Oberstein plays this to Reinhard in ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|purposefully delaying the information that a faction opposing Reinhard was carpet bombing a planet with nukes}} and later {{spoiler|intentionally or unintentionally causing the death of Reinhard's moral compass Kircheis}}.

* Perrin's loving girlfriend and wife Faile in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]''. Besides being a very jealous type and giving him a hard time over any woman she suspects might want him, she also indulges in all the dirty aspects of politics he considers to be wrong, including sabotage, espionage, manipulation and assassination. Some of those things he tells her not to do, but she doesn't listen. The rest, he just doesn't know about...

** That's doubtful, as he knew the type of woman he married, especially after meeting her parents. It's more of a contrived ignorance, as he is very aware of just how ruthless she can be. It's more that he knows better than to ''ask'' as he would probably not like the answer.

** There's a dark sort of [[Overly Long Gag]] late in the book where The Gentleman tells Stephen a rambling story of the lengths he went through to find Stephen's "true" name and the many people he ended up murdering directly or indirectly in the process.

* Vimes and Vetinari in ''[[Discworld]]''. Unusual in that the Poisonous Friend is actually the protagonist's boss.

** Pella would be a better example, as she commits a crime to further the main character's cause.

** The trial was specifically about a particular village that he slaughtered; though he thought he was doing evil at the time, demon scryers found that had he ''not'' done so, they would have eventually become an invasion force that would subjugate the entire continent. The net moral worth of his act was therefore deemed "good" and he was, essentially, on trial for ''neglectful virtue''.

* In ''[[Men in Hats]]'', Aram attacks Sam with a steamroller in the name of putting Gamal's plans into action, and Gamal is pretty sure [http://www.meninhats.com/d/20030908.html steamrolling people wasn't his idea]. (Aram has also been known to [http://www.meninhats.com/d/20020823.html literally] [http://www.meninhats.com/d/20020830.html poison] [http://www.meninhats.com/d/20040331.html his] [http://www.meninhats.com/d/20040319.html friends].)

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', Nioi [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-11-10 acts on the assumption] that Lord Tedd would be better off without his personal [[Blood Knight]]. In turn, General Shade Tail's opinion of Nioi is [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-11-07 pretty low].

** Somewhat understandable at second glance, seeing how Roosevelt had already bagged its mother without realizing she had a cub, and leaving an orphaned juvenile bear to fend for itself would have been far more cruel than simply [[Shoot the Dog|shooting it]].

*** [[I Did What I Had to Do|He did what had to be done.]] Sometimes that actually IS the good road...

* Gaius Scribonius Curio, and to an extent Marcus Antonius, were poisonous friends to [[Gaius Julius Caesar]] during the political conflicts leading to the civil war and during the civil war. They would often give a far more aggressive image of Caesar and his motives, probably in their part contributing to the eruption of the civil war. At one occasion Curio told someone who wasn't decided on who to join in the war that Caesar's thus far merciful and gentle attitude toward conquered (Roman) enemies and encountered neutrals was just for the moment and soon his (Caesar's) cruel nature would emerge from the facade. This was completely contrary to what Caesar liked to present himself being like, writing to Cicero that, "Nothing is more alien to my nature than cruelty." (Gauls would disagree.) In the times leading to the civil war, Curio would insinuate that Caesar was ready to start a war if his requirements (a consulship following directly after his proconsulship in Gaul) weren't met. This, of course, only added fuel to the flame for his enemies, who saw that as long as it was Caesar who would start the war, they'd gladly join the fight and no doubt win. In fact, a lot of Caesar's political allies had a very similar mindset, and neither Caesar nor Pompey actually wanted to go to war, though they were absolutely prepared for it.

* Some real life lawyers for benevolent or naive celebrities are perfectly willing to knowingly be assholes if it means protecting their deserving employer. A rare positive example.

[[Category:Friendship Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]