Properly Paranoid: Difference between revisions

* In the ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' series, others viewed a young Michael Myers as a disturbed boy. Loomis viewed him as a [[Complete Monster|monster]] just waiting to strike. Guess who was right.

* In ''[[Galaxy Quest]],'' when the crew of the NSEA Protector goes on a planet to search for beryllium spheres to repair the ship, one of the crew members, Guy, panics when he sees the planet's residents. Naturally, the crew dismisses this as paranoia because {{spoiler|he once played a [[Red Shirt]] on the show who died in an episode before the first commercial. In a hilarious turn of events, Guy is proven right.}}

* Sarah Connor from the ''[[Terminator]]'' films. She even gets institutionalized for this, but it turns out there really ''are'' killer robots from the future after her.

* In the third ''[[Transformers]]'' movie, Jerry Wang is convinced that everything is a Decepticon. {{spoiler|He is later killed by his computer, which then turns into the copy machine, and poses variously as a TV, stereo, and pink Bumblebee.}}

* ''[[Tremors]]'': Though not a straight example, having underground shelter with [[Wall of Weapons]] and ammo, supplies and power generator in case of a [[World War III]] served Burt Gummer well when his town got attacked by large subterranean carnivore reptiles.

* ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'': Del Spooner (played by Will Smith) doesn't trust robots, believing that they are not as safe as the [[Three Laws of Robotics]] are supposed to make them. He is therefore the only person in Chicago who doesn't get one of the new NS-5 model robots. When the NS-5s stage a [[Zeroth Law Rebellion]], Spooner is naturally the only human capable of effectively fighting back.

* ''[[Film/The Conversation|The Conversation]]'' 'nuff said.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': Harry Dresden approaches this, with good reason. In one book we learn it's contagious; his friend and sometime medic Waldo Butters {{spoiler|puts on a bulletproof vest and grabs garlic and a cross}} as soon as he hears that Harry needs help.

** After all, you never know if that pretty girl asking for help is secretly a cultist being hunted by a sorcerer's ghost, or if that strikingly lovely [[Femme Fatal]] is actually the [[The Fair Folk|Winter Queen]], or if that guy who ''looks'' like you resident paranormal consultant is actually a ghost wearing his face, or if those otherwise ordinary-looking humans are Red Court vampires.... [[Fallen Angel|Demon-possessed terrorists]], [[Grand Theft Me|body-jumping necromancers]], [[Horny Devils|life-sucking succubi]], [[Eldritch Abomination|Navajo skinwalkers]], and [[Knight Templar|White Council Wardens]] can ''all'' look like perfectly ordinary humans in this setting.

* Many of [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s characters fall under this trope.

** ''Every single character'' in ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' to some extent, but subverted in Slothrop, whose knowledge of many conspiracy theories leads him to create imaginary ones in his head, suspect everyone he knows and eventually lose his mind.

** And {{spoiler|Petra}} ''still'' ends up getting abducted.

* In ''[[Literature/Dragonsbane|Dragonsbane]]'' by [[Barbara Hambly]]:

"That's right," John agreed, and there was a dangerous edge to his quiet voice. "You ever think what might happen to you [[Living Shadow|if your own shadow caught you]]? Now ride -- and ride silent." }}

* Errtu from R. A. Salvatore's novels is also viciously paranoid, believing that anything bad happening to him is evidence of some sort of conspiracy against him. Given that he's a balor living in the ''Abyss'', he's not too far off the mark.

** In addition, one of their foster relatives was an extremely paranoid woman who avoids using various things because of a very grave, even if minute chance, safety hazard that would occur to them in specific scenarios. Let's just say that after a storm that virtually destroyed her house shortly after she was kidnapped by Olaf, her paranoia about these things is perfectly justified...at least in the film version.

* The novel ''[[Catch-22]]'' by [[Joseph Heller]] is the source of this famous quote:

* In ''[[The Tripods|When the Tripods Came]]'' the party finds that Switzerland is becoming this because of the Tripods.

* Most of the ''[[Animorphs]]'' books mention this to some degree, but the first book from Marco's perspective addresses it the best.

* A second season episode of ''[[Forever Knight]]'' starts out with a teen delivering groceries to the world champion of paranoia: barricaded in a house with the garden constantly lighted up like madison square garden, wild-eyed, unshaven, sweaty, clinging to his shotgun, very highly strung but, after the initial shock, almost a nice guy. {{spoiler|When Mr. Paranoia steps out of doors in a fit of anger just once, he isn't outside for a minute before something nasty gets him.}}

* On ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' Bobby Hobbes' paranoid delusions sometimes (not always) turn out to be right. To quote his partner Darien,

* In season four of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy goes to college and gets a really annoying roommate: Kathy. Kathy listens to Celine Dion, insists on keeping track of whose milk is whose, and worst of all, she ''irons her jeans''. Obviously, Buffy concludes that she's an evil demon from another dimension who's trying to eat Buffy's soul, and decides to slay her. Cue all her friends running around trying to stop an obviously possessed Buffy from killing an ordinary (if annoying) girl. Do I need to say it? Buffy is 100% right.

** But Kathy's evil spell WAS making Buffy act really wiggy and stressed, drastically undermining any attempts she made to rationally explain things. It wasn't until Giles noticed that Kathy's toenails did, in fact, keep growing after being cut (just as Buffy had been ranting about) that the gang believed her.

** Fornell also mentions "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you.

** A better example would be Gibbs' Rule Forty:

'''Abby''': "If you think someone is out to get you, they are." }}

* Tubbs and Edward from ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' are horrified and disgusted at the thought of "strangers" from outside the decent town and local shop. Their fears seem completely out of scale in the first series, but when you consider the likes of Pop, Herr Lipp and worst of all Papa Lazarou...

* Agent Ballard in ''[[Dollhouse]]'', although it turns out that he isn't quite paranoid enough.

* In the season 4 finale of ''Lost'', off-island Sayid is this trope.

** [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_s2H9uhxEthA/SXgf5p_efAI/AAAAAAAAE0s/oILtvuJsVpM/s320/tape.jpg See?] If he wasn't so paranoid, he and Hurley would both be dead.{{spoiler|Well- deader, you know what I mean.}}

* Mentioned in an episode of [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]] by Weyoun 6, a defecting high ranking member of the Dominion.

'''Weyoun 6''': "Of course I'm paranoid, everyone's trying to kill me!" }}

** The show also has Enabran Tain, head of the intelligence agency, the Obsidian Order. When you're the first leader of the organization to live until retirement, then you weren't paranoid, just prepared. Pretty much everyone from that group would fit this trope.

* Stringer Bell, drug lord extraordinaire, on ''[[The Wire]]''. By Season 3, he has his men using phones only to set up face to face meetings. These phones are disposable cell phones, which are bought individually from random convenience stores up to 200 miles away from Baltimore and which are thrown away and replaced every two weeks. Stringer himself does not use these phones. He has a different phone, on a different network, which only his [[Number Two]] has the number for (and which he never calls him on from one of the other disposables). The detectives trying to bust him just have to sit back and marvel at it all.

* In [[Yes Minister]], Hacker is often convinced that the actions of anyone involved in government are part of some political plot. Probably because they almost always are.

* In ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', Charlie gets sick, and the local stalker Rose ends up taking care of him. After a while, he becomes suspicious that Rose may have convinced him he was sick somehow and was drugging him as some sort of plot to get him together with her. He also kept a cold pill upstairs without consuming it as proof, but it ended up eaten by Bertha (resulting in her being knocked out). Charlie was eventually proven to be right, although it was actually in such a way even he did not anticipate: Apparently the method Rose used to orchestrate his sickness was arranging a friend of hers to work while she had the cold and seduce Charlie so he'd get infected.

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', [[Big Bad|Lex's]] [[The Dragon|right-hand man Regan Matthews]] is suspicious of whether [[Manipulative Bastard|Tess]] is actually loyal to Lex. His suspicions are proven accurate when she turns on Lex as soon as she finds out that he's betrayed her. {{spoiler|[[Undying Loyalty|He tries to kill Tess for this.]] Unfortunately for him, she's better than he thought she was.}}

* Michael Westen on ''[[Burn Notice]]'' is ex-CIA, so he's ''trained'' to be slightly paranoid, and is vindicated repeatedly. [[Discussed]] at least once: Mike quotes Golda Meir's famous line that "even paranoids have enemies" (referring to the [[Monster of the Week|Villain of the Week]]). Sam's response?

* In ''[[Sam and Fuzzy]]'', Malcolm has various crazy cryptic rants about a conspiracy involving {{spoiler|the hunter in white, the corporation that kills to control the message, the man with two faces and space gophers. They all turn out to be a true (even the space gophers) and a result of his hairstyle accidentally picking up secret transmissions from Sin records}}

* Lord Shojo, ruler of Azure City in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''. Best summed up by this:

* Roxy Lalonde from [[Homestuck]] believes that Betty Crocker is evil and wants to kill her and her friends. {{spoiler|She's right.}}

* Lieutenant Shore Pibald of ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' is paranoid to the point of insanity (fortunately, in a mercenary company of violent sociopaths, this isn't a bad thing). However, he's intelligent enough that he's been correct about his suspicions on at least three notable occasions.

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Riff spends a good chunk of the comic paranoid that Aylee will revert to her "primal instincts" and go on a killing spree. While this paranoia is [[Moral Dissonance|unusually assholish for Riff]], the inventions he's made out of his paranoia ''have'' ultimately saved the group multiple times.

* After discovering that they are werewolves, the main cast of ''[[Cry Havoc]]'' (with the exception of Hati) become paranoid that the Vatican and Aesir churches are out to get them, this even goes so far that they tactically sweep and clear rooms they enter, carry multiple weapons on they at any time, and plan on how to kill their only allies should they be surprised.

*** In a world where you can get poison THAT easily, why ''wouldn't'' you be paranoid?

** In yet another episode, Homer steals a pile of sugar from a crashed sugar truck. He then keeps it in his backyard and stays all night next to it with a gun to "protect" it. When Marge says he's being paranoid, he immediately pulls out [[Quintessential British Gentleman|a stereotypical British guy]] with a [[Spot of Tea|tea cup and saucer]] from ''inside the pile''.

'''Homer:''' You see, Marge? Do you see? }}

** And then another episode had Homer ''making up'' conspiracies and posting them to the internet. One such conspiracy (Flu shots being used for [[Mind Control]]) turned out to be true, causing Homer to be kidnapped and held in [[The Prisoner|The Villa]]--no I mean "The Island".

* In ''[[Invader Zim]]'', Dib has the [[Cassandra Truth]] reputation going strong. But he's right -- Zim, the main character, is indeed an evil alien bent on conquering humanity. What's more, whenever he's seen engaging in other paranormal studies (such as chasing a hairy kid he thinks is a baby Bigfoot), he continues to show much more awareness of the world around him than... well, the world around him. Maybe he'd be more credible if he stopped talking to himself.

** His sister Gaz knows he's right and that Zim is an alien... however she's too busy with video games and pizza to actually give a damn. Although, she has an excuse:

'''Gaz:''' ...But he's so ''bad at it.'' }}

* ''[[Kids Next Door]]'' has this in the main character, [[Punny Name|Nigel Uno]] aka Numbah One. He comes across as a big-time [[Agent Mulder]], with theories ranging from "the adults are feeding children asparagus because they hate it themselves" to "the mystery meat in the cafeteria is [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|rainbow monkey]]" to "the doctor is turning children into moose to sell their antlers" (or something to that effect). Whenever Numbah One is wrong, it's because the truth is even more outlandish.

* Mallory from ''[[The Mighty Ducks (animation)|The Mighty Ducks]]'' seemed rather disturbed that brainiac Tanya not only had a named code in the case of a random dinosaur attack but defense plans for just such an occasion. Of course dinosaurs are cousins to the race that twice conquered their planet and enslaved their people, so it's not as out there as the show makes it.

* The titular hero of ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]]'' theorizes that anything bad that happens in the universe is the work of his [[Arch Enemy]], the Evil Emperor Zurg. It was even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the pilot movie.

'''Buzz''': The fiend! Why can't he leave kitty cats out of his nefarious schemes? }}

** The freakiest thing is he's usually right, as Zurg, being a classic [[Card-Carrying Villain]], will do anything to cause chaos in the galaxy. Heck, there was even one episode completed devoted to this trope where Buzz (after working nonstop for weeks) captures a pen from one of Zurg's shuttles, believing it to be the key to one of his most devious plans. Everyone thinks he's been wound a bit too tight and force him to take a vacation and relax. It turns out though that Buzz was right as the pen was the firing trigger for Zurg's ''(with dramatic sting music)'' '''Hyper''' [[Death Ray]]!

* While being one of the most paranoid characters in the series, Ron Stoppable from ''[[Kim Possible]]'' has been accurate many times, such as when he claimed that swimming in the lake of Camp Wannaweep was a bad idea. Turns out, the lake had been polluted by one of the neighboring camps, which resulted in Ron's camp bully (who took to swimming in the lake all summer) becoming a mutant villain. Another episode features said enemy of Ron being supposed cured of his mutation and reformed. Ron, however, remained suspicious, despite even having most of people he told his claims to [[Produce Pelting|pelted him with rotten vegetables]]. Guess what? He was right again as his enemy wanted to become a mutant again and create an army of mutants. Also, in one episode where Ron's so-called irrational fear of monkeys was apparent, he claimed that the simian-wise archaeologist Monty Fiske was 'bad road'. Boy was he right big time as it turns out, he was a power-hungry Monkey Kung Fu expert who decreed that from now on, he'd be known as Monkey Fist. It was probably the fact that Ron suspected him from the get go that he's more of Ron's enemies than Kim's. In the [[Grand Finale]], Ron was worried that graduation from high school would bring about the end of everything (though he was referring to it more in terms of his relationship with Kim). Turns out his worry was more justified than he thought as an [[Alien Invasion]] struck the night of graduation, literally bringing about the end of the world. As Ron put it:

** And who could forget his claim that his teacher has been dogging him ever since he looked at him funny?

* Colonel Hunter Gathers from ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' eats, sleeps, and breathes this trope. Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like completely insane conspiracy babble, but he's pretty much always right.

* On [[King of the Hill]], conspiracy nut Dale Gribble has a practically ''encyclopedic'' knowledge of government bureacratic procedures, a knowledge which has come in handy on several occasions. Perhaps the best example was the incident in which he blackmailed a worker at the Department of Motor Vehicles into providing better service, simply by naming the all of worker's superiors in ascending order, then threatening to call them and complain:

* The Tribunal from ''[[Metalocalypse]]''. Seem like a bunch of crazy people, convinced that a metal band is going to fulfill some kind of prophecy, right? Wrong. As the seasons have gone on, Dethklok has been doing almost everything the The Tribunal has feared, and they aren't even aware of it. The Tribunal however is, and they're very worried about it.

* In [[Recess: School's Out]], TJ Dettwiler tries to tell everyone in town that there was suspicious activity going on at the school, yet his parents and the police never believed him, and even his friends felt doubtful at what happened after stealing one of their crates and Prickly apparently leaving the school ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]). Turns out, TJ was actually very sound in his suspicions, as the school had actually been taken over by an extremist group led by the former Secretary of Education and former principal of Third Street Elementary, Phllium Benedict, that was trying to eliminate Recess.