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Reliable Traitor: Difference between revisions
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the Barbarossa campaign of ''[[Age of Empires II]]'', Henry the Lion betrays Barbarossa, but is still forgiven, considered a valuable ally. Then he [[The Starscream|betrays you again]], and is banished.
* [[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Characters|Etna]] from ''[[Disgaea]]'' makes it rather clear to [[Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Characters|Laharl]] that she'll kill him where he stands if he doesn't prove himself worthy. Laharl just sees this as ''even more'' of a reason to promote her to second-in-command. {{spoiler|She did take out a key enemy, after all, so she gets the job done.}}
* Archer in ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. Lancer and Assassin also have shades of this trope, being motivated by being [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]] while being stuck with Masters who deny them battles, but neither of their masters appreciate them either.
* In ''[[Dawn of War]]'', [[Ax Crazy|Lord Bale]] expresses concern over joining forces with the Orks against the Blood Ravens due to their unpredictability, to which the [[The Chessmaster|Sorcerer Sindri]] replies "Orks are not unpredictable. On the contrary, you can rely upon them to turn against you." It doesn't matter either way, [[Xanatos Gambit|since the Alpha Legion's scheme was made to work no matter which side won and started fighting them directly]].
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* ''[[Warcraft]]'' has plenty of these. First case was [[Evil Sorcerer]] Gul'dan, who Orc Warchief Orgim Doomhammer kept around because he knew Gul'dan would be useful to the Horde, even though he didn't trust the warlock. Statements about Gul-dan say that he preferred having himself surrounded by untrustworthy, ambitious individuals like himself because he knew how they thought, and actually didn't like having individuals motivated by loyalty around him because he had no clue how they thought. Additionally, Ner'zhul, the Lich King, works for Kil'Jaeden despite quite clearly having ulterior motives--since Kil'Jaeden never trusted Ner'zhul, he had his [[Elite Mooks]], the Dreadlords, watch the Lich King.
* Some early editions of ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms (video game)|Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' on the SNES had an oddly literal example in Lu Bu. While undeniably the [[Badass|deadliest general in the game whose WAR rating was unparalleled]], he was almost impossible to use in that function because he could be counted on to turn on whoever he served if you provided him with a modest bribe. Even measures to ensure high loyalty wouldn't come to much--a little more gold and your best warrior was off to join the opposition. On the other hand, coming across Lu Bu was not as threatening as it might be in [[Dynasty Warriors|other games]], because any half-decent strategist could bribe the [[Dumb Muscle|clueless brute]] in return, bringing him over to your side for the turn. You could even mess with history by doing this to [[Fat Bastard|Dong Zhuo]] during the campaign to overcome him. It eventually leads to the bizarre situation where you have the greatest warrior in the land, and you're keeping him holed up in some corner of the kingdom training troops for the rest of your officers. While the early games didn't offer the greatest amount of characterization, this ''is'' Lu Bu we're talking about. [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|I think it's been demonstrated that he's not exactly the most loyal of people.]]
* In ''[[Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits]]'', Darc (a deimos who believes firmly in [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]) spurns letting any deimos who is slavishly loyal to him serve him, since he sees it as a sign that they're weak and would turn on him as soon as a stronger overlord turned up. In contrast, he happily welcomes Delma back into his service after she stabs him in the back, leaves him for dead and tries to steal control of his clan from him, seeing it as an acceptable display of strength on her part.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', being part of ''[[Star Wars]]'', not only inevitably features this amongst the Sith but even allows ''the player'' to implement it in the Sith Academy, playing Reliable Traitors against themselves as a distraction for their own treachery.
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', the Tevinter magister Caladrius is openly contemptuous of his patron, {{spoiler|Teyrn Loghain}}, and immediately offers to betray him to the protagonist if he is allowed to live and still make a profit on his [[Evil Plan]].
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