Unwitting Pawn: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Not only does an Unwitting Pawn fail to stop the bad guy, but he actually furthers the villain's plan in the process. This is the kind of person that the [[Magnificent Bastard]] and [[Batman Gambit]] depend on. The [[Manipulative Bastard]] will take great delight in using them and then [[Hannibal Lecture|deconstructing]] their [[Horrible Judge of Character|naivete]] and [[Did You Actually Believe?|blind faith]] as they [[Evil Gloating|gloat]]. Not surprisingly, they also have a tendency to [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|die ironically after inadvertently helping the villain]].

The [[Wide-Eyed Idealist]] often becomes this, but sometimes the [[Knight Templar]] and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] can fall into this too. When the main character does this, and then has to ''fix'' it, it's [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]].

 

 

Compare [[Out-Gambitted]], [[Unwitting Instigator of Doom]], [[My God, What Have I Done?]]. Contrast the [[Spanner in the Works]], who just as ignorantly harms these schemes.

Tend to be played by [[The Chessmaster]], logically enough.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', {{spoiler|Kimblee masses the Drachman army to attack Amestris from the north, in order to cause enough bloodshed to complete Father's giant Transmutation Circle. All the Drachmans are defeated except for the General, who calls Kimblee out. Kimblee then coolly states that he didn't care which side lost as long as lots of people died. The general is then hit by one last shot from the Amestrians, to add death to insult and injury}}.

** Hohenheim's backstory reveals that {{spoiler|the Emperor of Xerxes also fit this bill. Father lured him into creating a nation-wide transmutation circle, claiming it would grant the Emperor immortality. Instead, Father used it to give immortality to himself and Hohenheim, at the price of the entire nation}}.

* Lavinia Reberth of ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' is a [[Fan Girl]] of epic proportions, who'd do anything to get some of Sara's attention. Dress up as a [[Playboy Bunny]]? Failed. Ambush her in the shower? Got the wrong girl. Steal her most precious possession? Dropped it in a garbage dump, which ended up with Sara's [[Luke, I Am Your Father|true identity]] revealed to the whole crew, the Libertad kicked out of port before it could complete repairs, and one of their teammates dead. [[It's All My Fault|Oops.]]

* In the anime of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'', nearly everything that the main characters do seem to play right into Aion's hands. {{spoiler|In the end, even though [[Downer Ending|almost all of the main cast die]], they only seem to stop him temporarily.}}

** Same for the Order of the Black Knights, which was first manipulated by Lelouch before {{spoiler|becoming Schneizel's pawns}}. Lelouch actually ''is'' the hero who is trying to save the world. He has a lot of bad luck and some questionable methods, but the Black Knights generally benefited from his actions, manipulation aside. {{spoiler|Schneizel, not so much. He has decent luck, if not good, and his methods are not questionable - they're definitely not good for the human race as a whole.}}

** [[Double Subverted]] by Rem, who {{spoiler|kills L for Light in order to save Misa from being arrested}}. She figures out ''exactly'' what Light is trying to get her to do, how he's getting her to do it, and what will happen if she doesn't {{spoiler|(she dies)}}... And she does it anyway.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Whitebeard was a target for this. The World Government wanted to kill him and his whole crew with a barricade killzone trap and execute Ace, {{spoiler|the son of the Pirate King}} once they are stuck as a warning to all Pirates and cement their power. However, Whitebeard, {{spoiler|while he still dies, manages to re-ignite the Golden Age of Pirates, and most of his crew and allies survive. Also, technically Ace was saved, but still dies anyways.}} However, in the end, he, and technically the WG, is still fooled by the true mastermind and main cause of the war, {{spoiler|Blackbeard}}. His plan was that he knew Whitebeard would risk anything to save a single of his crew, and the WG would do anything to take him down. {{spoiler|While everyone is focusing on Marine HQ, Blackbeard slips into Impel Down, recruits the strongest prisoners of Level Six, which contains some of the worst criminals in the history of the world, sails back, kills Whitebeard, steals Whitebeard's destructive powers for his own means, and then makes a clean escape.}} Even worse, the WG's pride makes it that they will not acknowledge his success, and cover it up, meaning he can plan even more things unharrased.

* Treize Khushrenada is such a [[Magnificent Bastard]] he turns essentially the ENTIRE CAST of ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' into Unwitting Pawns.

* [[He's Dedicated to Roses|Hak-Yoon]] ends up being one to Mi-Mi, who manipulated him by pretending to like him, then had him and his gang rape her maid and film it in front of two of said maid's best friends, all because she was jealous that the maid had gotten the boy she was ''really'' in love with, and when said plan fell through, abandoned him to his fate and told him he was nothing more than a pawn for her revenge. [[The Dog Bites Back|He isn't too happy about this.]]

* Poor [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Homura]], so you wanted to save your friend from certain death using your Faust powered wish? {{spoiler|Well you did technically save her by making it so as long she is not saved, the timeline repeat itself. Unfortunately, you also helped Kyuubey create what is the ultimate power source based on people suffering since Madoka is not only a juicy power source but since with every cycle Homura becomes more cynical, her suffering only gives even more power with each interval. And she can do nothing to get out of the loop.}}

* Near the end of the first season of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', Sho assumes that {{spoiler|everybody in Duel Academy were the pawns of Kagemaru, the season's [[Big Bad]].}}

* ''[[Gundam Seed]]'': Everyone—but especially [[General Ripper|Patrick Zala]] and [[Villain with Good Publicity|Muruta Azrael]]—serve as Unwitting Pawns to series' [[Big Bad]] Rau Le Creuset. In ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', Shinn Asuka is the Unwitting Pawn of Chairman Durdandal.

 

 

 

 

* {{spoiler|Tom Ludlow}} in ''Street Kings''

* Subverted in ''Collateral Damage'': The protagonist very nearly succeeds in helping the terrorists' [[Evil Plan]] come to fruition, but luckily becomes wise to his true situation just in time to foil it.

* Christopher Nolan's first film, ''[[Following]]'' has two levels of Unwitting Pawns. A house burglar and a blonde femme fatale sucker a floundering writer into {{spoiler|framing himself for the burglar's murder charge.}} Then we learn that {{spoiler|the burglar is actually working for a gangster who the blonde is blackmailing, and he was setting the writer up for ''her'' murder.}}

* In ''White Noise'', once John begins experimenting with EVP (a way of listening to/seeing spirits in the beyond) on his own, he starts receiving messages from his late wife, believing them ways to save people. {{spoiler|They're really trick visions sent by three very, very malicious spirits so that they can follow him and break into the realm of the living through the door he's opened up. And Anna's constant insistence that he 'Go now!'? Those were visions of when he arrived at the final location the messages showed him, where she was trying to warn him to get away and save himself.}} "Exactly as planned" indeed.

* In the words of {{spoiler|the fake}} Mad-Eye Moody in the fourth ''[[Harry Potter]]'' book,

{{quote|Decent people are so easy to manipulate.}}

** This hits Harry ''hard'' in books 4 and 5. Given how badly these stories ended for everyone, the best thing Harry could have done was ''nothing''.

** Ultimately, {{spoiler|almost every major character in the series is revealed to be one to some extent, pawns for Dumbledore and Voldemort, both of whose decades long game of wits to destroy the other is revealed to be what the whole series revolves around. Even Harry himself is a piece in the game. Snape on the other hand is a willing pawn for Dumbledore}}.

** Ironically enough, {{spoiler|Pryrates is an even bigger Sucker. The Storm King manipulated him with the promise that Pryrates would be the "first among men" when The Storm King returned. And he was the first...to die.}}

** The entire cast of protagonists are suckers, by the classic definition, as the most basic element of the Storm King's [[Xanatos Gambit]] is to trick them into {{spoiler|[[MacGuffin Delivery Service|bringing him the Three Swords]]}}. It works perfectly.

{{quote|You can't bribe Sam Vimes, but why bother when you can just pull the wool over his eyes?}}

* The [[Dale Brown]] book ''Act of War'' has many characters play into {{spoiler|National Security Adviser Robert Chamberlain's}} hands.

* In [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s novel ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'', Angela and Newt Hoenikker are suckered by agents of the American and Russian governments, respectively.

* At the end of Suzanne Collins's ''[[The Hunger Games|Catching Fire]]'', Katniss learns that she was central to an enormous plot that no one let her in on.

* In Hunger, the second book of the [[Gone (novel)]] series, the Gaiaphage does this to Caine and Lana. Caine thinks he's messing with the nuclear power plant for revenge and power, and Lana thinks she's actually trying to destroy the Gaiaphage. It may also be doing this to Brittney in book 3. Drake is corrupt enough that he actually works for it willingly.

* Kronos does this to ''everyone'' in [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]. Furthermore, especially in the second book of the new series, [[The Heroes of Olympus]], many characters, among which the [[Big Bad]] herself, state that Percy will be Gaia's pawn, and that he'll bring about the destruction of the gods.

* ''[[In Death]]'': William from ''Rapture In Death'' doesn't even know that his wife, Reanna [[The Sociopath]], has manipulated him in more ways than one to help her commit murder.

* Under the advice of his dead wife's spirit and [[Big Good]] Kil'jaeden, the old orc shaman Ner'zhul in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' novel ''[[Rise of the Horde]]'' [[The Alliance|convinces his people to put away their differences]] and [[Training the Peaceful Villagers|prepare to defend themselves]] against the Draenei. Except his wife's ghost was an illusion, Kil'jaeden is [[The Devil]] and this book is the [[Start of Darkness]] of the orcs that explains how they became the [[Exclusively Evil]] [[The Horde|horde]] of the first two games. Oops.

* In ''Fred, Alice and Aunty Lou'', a [[Robert Westall]] short story in his anthology ''[[Break of Dark]]'', author Peter Wingfield plays into the hands of vengeful ghosts; giving them a conduit to the real world and the energy of his dislike for his old school-mate, Roger.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

*** Britain as a whole served as the Sucker, or maybe just [[Too Dumb to Live]]. The Doctor's six words ("Don't you think she looks tired?") were only to the Prime Minister's ''assistant'', the one person she should have been able to count on to defend her. Harriet Jones, to all appearances, was as popular and successful as Churchill and had just saved London from invading aliens. The ''next day'', Parliament ousts her in a vote of no confidence because she's "tired". Is it any surprise who they put into power next? They got what they deserved.

**** It was very compressed, but apart from the speed, isn't entirely unlikely. And it could be that her frantic worry about what he had said didn't help her side of things.

** The Daleks are admittedly pretty good at [[Incredibly Lame Pun|suckering]] the Doctor. In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks|Victory of the Daleks]]", the Daleks use the Doctor's hatred of the Daleks and love of Earth to not only create ''five'' retro-style Daleks (a net gain of two), but also {{spoiler|for once, survive the events of the episode}}.

**** "[[Person of Mass Destruction|The most dangerous warrior in the world]]" indeed.

** In ''The Doctor's Wife'' it is revealed that the Doctor has been being manipulated for a very long time by {{spoiler|The TARDIS, who was waiting for a time lord crazy enough to try and steal her so she could see the universe. The Doctor protested that he chose her because someone had left the door unlocked. The TARDIS, briefly able to speak, replied that of course "someone" had.}}

* In ''[[Lexx]]'', captain Stanley Tweedle's backstory, in which he was supposed to deliver what amounted to blueprints for the emperor's superweapon to the rebel forces, and instead ended up providing the emperor with the codes to deactivate the rebel's planetary defenses.

* ''[[Lost]]''

** He also kept juggling [[Idiot Ball]]s, [[Villain Ball]]s and [[Conflict Ball]]s all throughout the series, while every single flashback has portrayed him as a gullible loser. It's a testament to Terry O'Quinn's acting that, in spite of that, he has consistently been one of the most interesting, popular and [[Badass Grandpa|badass]] characters of the show.

** For a devilish [[Manipulative Bastard]] and a supposedly wise ageless man, Ben and Richard too came across as total dupes; Locke, Ben and Richard, the [[Three Stooges]]?

* In the 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'' series, both multiple characters (Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere) end up as Mab's suckers at one point or another.

* The "rich and powerful" marks Nate Ford mentions during the opening credits for ''[[Leverage]]'' are usually these. At some point along the way, their Mooks will often fall to this trope or Elliot, whichever one hits first.

* In the fourth season finale of ''[[Chuck]]'', {{spoiler|it's revealed that every major plot point that has happened since the pilot has been part of a bigger scheme, with Chuck and possibly everyone involved with those major plot points as the unwitting pawns. Whose pawns, exactly, and in what game, has yet to be revealed.}}

 

 

* There is sort of a subversion played on this in ''Spartan: Total Warrior'' The game, like the movie [[300]] which it shares many similarities to, consists of ridiculously epic [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|One Against Billions]] battles and sweeping, one-button-per-5-victims decapitations like a living lawnmower, all while listening to the god of war Ares's evil laughter and bloodlusty encouragement ("Hahaha, kill and kill again!"). It appears blatantly obvious to anyone familiar with button-mashing spells and swordplay epics that he will turn out to be some sort of enemy in the future, and that his plan all along was to get you to kill every Roman and his mother, but it turns out that it's only half true; {{spoiler|while Ares does indeed to turn out to be the [[Big Bad]], your genocide on the Romans was merely a distraction so that your homeland of Sparta could be destroyed while you were away. We are treated to multiple more tropes during Ares's [[Hannibal Lecture]], such as the fact that he is your [[Luke, I Am Your Father|father]] and Tiberias was merely a [[The Man Behind the Man|puppet]]. You technically did fulfill his plans for mass murder, but it was of both your enemies AND your friends.}}

* The Global Defense Initiative (okay, mostly Boyle) in ''[[Command & Conquer]] 3: Tiberium Wars'' walks ''right'' into Kane's [[Gambit Roulette]], and their only hint that they were even hit by it is when the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] arrive. The expansion pack then explains that Kane specifically planned for Boyle to be the only surviving GDI leader after the nuclear strike on the Philadelphia ''specifically'' because Boyle is easily predictable. If you play the Scrin campaign, even the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] are suckers in Kane's roulette.

** Even more so Diablo 2: {{spoiler|The entire game is the tale of how Marius gets manipulated by Bhaal into rescuing his soulstone from destruction at the hands of the player character, escaping the fate that his brothers suffered. Poor Marius dies in asylum cell as the horrible truth comes crashing down on him.}}

** [[Diablo III]]: Diablo's unwitting pawns? {{spoiler|''Everyone''. Except Adria, who wasn't unwitting, and may not have actually been a pawn.}}

** Terra and her comrades fall for this ''hard'' when the Empire in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' insists that it wants to commence peace talks. Granted, a few party members are suspicious enough to prepare a backup plan, but Terra, Locke, and General Leo swallow the plot hook-line-and-sinker and deliver a whole bunch of Espers for Kefka to turn into Magicite. Worse, this enables him to enter the Esper World and raise the Floating Continent, where the Three Goddesses are hidden away. It turns out that Emperor Gestahl was also a Unwitting Pawn: {{spoiler|Kefka uses him and the Empire to get to the Goddesses, and then uses their power to kill him and take all of it for himself.}}

** Cloud from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. One of the main points of his character is that [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|Sephiroth]] can make Cloud do anything by manipulating him just the right way, and he makes sure Cloud knows it.

** Tidus and Yuna from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. They get bounced like ping-pong balls back and forth between Yevon's plan to {{spoiler|continue the spiral of death and Auron's plan to destroy it and free Spira.}} ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' seems to imply that Yuna, at least, ''never figured it out.''

** {{spoiler|Almost ''everyone''}} ends up this way in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' after the dust has settled from the [[Gambit Pileup]] by the story's end. {{spoiler|Except Delita. And Ramza.}}.

** [[Final Fantasy V|Bartz]] is this, aside from being an [[Idiot Hero]]. He and his companions {{spoiler|Head into the Great Forest of Moore, in order to stop [[Big Bad|Exdeath]] from taking what's sealed inside. Turns out ''he'' waited for them to get to that world's crystals... And destroy them. Wow.}}

*** Bartz and Krile go to seek Ghido for help after {{spoiler|Exdeath is defeated and the worlds fuse together}} and at that point, {{spoiler|an innocuous-looking splinter that Krile has}} enables Exdeath to return. Having overheard the converstion, {{spoiler|he sets out to take control of the Void}}.

** By the time [[Final Fantasy XIII]] rolls around, the main group is being ''told'' that they're Unwitting Pawns.

* [[Radiata Stories]]. [[Idiot Hero|Jack]] does [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Lucian's]] job for him. All he has to do is provide the tools and the directions.

* ''[[Golden Sun]] I'' and ''II'' has Alex, who uses both parties in a massive Unwitting Pawn. While they fight amongst each other about lighting the lighthouses Alex twiddles his thumbs for when they finally do and cause the Golden Sun to rise and shine down massive power down on Mt. Aleph, where he happens to be waiting.

** Only to discover that he ''himself'' was {{spoiler|the Wise One's}} Unwitting Pawn in his plan: {{spoiler|he knew lighting the lighthouses would allow someone to gain enough power from the Golden Sun to conquer the world, so when all but one of the gems required to light the lighthouses was removed from their chamber, the Wise One transferred just enough of that power (which was originally split evenly between the gems) from the remaining gem to Isaac without telling him, meaning that if the lighthouses were all lit, anyone who wanted the Golden Sun's power would not get enough of it to conquer the world.}}

*** {{spoiler|And in [[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]] it's shown that he one-upped The Wise One, and is doing the same thing again. He's so good at this that in his very first appearence, he even says to the characters they're pawns, and they can't do anything about it. By the end of the game, it's clear that he's been using almost everyone of importance throughout the whole plot, including [[Those Two Bad Guys]]. And the player still doesn't have the slightest idea what his long-term goals are, as he remains [[The Unfought]].}}

* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series:

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' shows Naked Snake being used by the United States government into achieving their goal of gaining Russia's portion of the Philosopher's Legacy. ''Portable Ops'' has {{spoiler|Zero}} use Big Boss to defeat Gene and scare the Philosophers enough that Ocelot can gain control of their whereabouts and the American portion of the Philosophers' Legacy.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' retcons many of the events previously established in the franchise. It is explained that the events of the first two ''[[Metal Gear]]'' games involved {{spoiler|Big Boss trying to create a place where individual liberty is guaranteed for everyone, instead of being a soldiers' haven. The Patriots have Solid Snake tear down both Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land to destroy Big Boss' dream of freedom}}. The first two ''Metal Gear Solid'' games are changed to have Solid Snake again being used by the Patriots {{spoiler|and possibly Zero}} to defeat anyone who stood in their way. The Patriots by MGS4 (set in 2014) are now an {{spoiler|AI system which was supposed to continue Zero's legacy by gaining control of all of mankind using the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system. Snake is sent in to stop Revolver Ocelot from destroying the Patriots AI system}}. At the same time, Snake and his allies are used {{spoiler|by Liquid Ocelot in his goal in destroying the Patriots AI systems, Liquid Ocelot pretending to plan to hijack the System using the AI named 'GW' and Snake and company countering it by using a virus to destroy the it, not knowing the virus as written by Naomi would destroy the remaining Patriot [[A Is]] as well}}; even if he didn't know about it or plan for it to happen, it certainly fit his goals. ''Somewhat'' averted in that his own post-Patriot vision was averted by {{spoiler|Sunny Gurlukovich, who wrote the virus to destroy the Patriot [[A Is]] but preserve key parts of modern civilization, and then, Drebin implies that Ocelot's vision of a war-torn world would still be an inevitable likely outcome despite this, that or the UN becoming a neo-Patriots/Philosophers III group}}.)

** Solid Snake was manipulated throughout the entire series. The most affecting part of the MGS4 ending {{spoiler|might be Big Boss promising Snake that there is no one left to manipulate him anymore}}.

*** The sad thing is that, even if Liquid's plan didn't work or didn't even happen, Snake still would have been an unwitting pawn in either case: {{spoiler|According to Liquid and his Pentagon spy, the real reason why Snake was sent over to Shadow Moses was to infect most of the people on the island, both the terrorists and most of the people involved in the REX project, so the Pentagon, and presumably the Patriots, would have recovered REX and the Genome Soldiers from the island without any risk of damage, even making absolute certain that FOXDIE was injected into Snake.}}

*** If Peace Walker is anything to go by (and possibly ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''), Big Boss's misinformation doesn't even come close to the fact that the Patriots essentially manipulated Snake into trying to destroy Metal Gear and take Big Boss down as an insurance policy in case they failed to either bring him back into the fold or ruin/kill Big Boss the first time by one of their agents firing a nuke at the East Coast.

** Speaking of ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', other than the brief revelation that Coldman was the deviously cunning strategist that Gene alluded to in Portable Ops, it turns out that most of the game was manipulated by Paz Ortega Andrade, even the KGB agent Zadornov hiring Snake as a distraction to force Coldman to activate Peace Walker so he could hijack it and frame America with an attack on Cuba, and she wasn't even the one who pulled all the strings: Her employers, Cipher, had planned out the entire incident just to get Big Boss to rejoin the fold, and it is also heavily implied that they also ordered Paz to frame Big Boss and MSF with nuking the East Coast when Big Boss refused the offer. They also arranged for Kaz to briefly work with them, although it is also implied that they didn't tell him about the nuke plan.

* Virtually every single named character in the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' trilogy is a Unwitting Pawn. This is not an exaggeration.

* The majority of the plot of ''[[Atelier Iris 3]]'' concerns three quirky teenagers trying to find [[Mineral MacGuffin|eight gemstones]] so they can open a book which will grant any wish, while helping the even-more-quirky townsfolk with their problems. What could go wrong? {{spoiler|How about nearly causing [[The End of the World as We Know It]] because you were manipulated by an evil spirit from (almost) the very beginning into wasting the only wish you get?}}

* The main characters in ''[[Persona 3]]'' spend a good portion of the game fighting a series of [[Monster of the Week|powerful bosses that appear once a month]] only to discover that {{spoiler|Ikutsuki}} tricked them into doing so {{spoiler|by doctoring video footage of Yukari's father}} so that he could {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|summon Nyx]]}}. {{spoiler|His plan fails when he forgets about [[Spanner in the Works|the dog]].}}

* ''[[Persona 4]]'': {{spoiler|If the player doesn't choose to immediately kill him (and get the Bad Ending), Taro Namatame is revealed to be a [[Tragic Hero]] with genuinely good intentions misguided by Adachi, the [[Man Behind the Man]]. Later on he has a [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment upon learning that the TV World was not the shelter he thought it was. But then it turns out there's an even BIGGER [[Man Behind the Man]]...}}

** It's implied that Thrall only let the Forsaken into the Horde because they need a presence in the Eastern Kingdoms, and because the Earthen Ring suggested that they could potentially cure undeath. The Forsaken are considered allied to the Horde rather than true members.

** [[You Suck]] too. There are multiple quest chains where you're [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|suckered into doing a bad guy's bidding]]. Unfortunately for the bad guy, once they decide that you've outlived your usefulness, you [[Oh Crap|show up with friends]] and proceed to [[Spanner in the Works|beat the tar out of them and take their loot.]]

** The game implies that Thrall doesn't really trust the Forsaken, apparently he flat out needs them because otherwise the Alliance is too much more powerful. (Without the Forsaken and the Blood Elves, the Horde would be entirely on Kalimdor [and then Outland and more recently Northrend] which is also home to two of the Alliance races ''and'' a noticeable number of human outposts, including Jaina Proudmoore's city of Theramore Isle.) The other Horde leaders never even mention Varimathras when planning. It's very likely that nobody trusted him at all except [[What an Idiot!|Sylvanas]]. And Arthas was savvy enough to realize he was probably selling his soul and just didn't realize it was to his enemy. After all, it DID give him the power to almost destroy the Scourge. The Scarlets? Morons.

** Thrall is ''not'' fooled though by {{spoiler|Neeru Fireblade}}, who remains only at Thrall's pleasure because he doesn't have enough information to move against the Burning Blade cult, all the while convinced that ''he'' has ''Thrall' outwitted.

** Sintharia, Deathwing's only surviving consort, despises him and plots to make a new Twilight Dragonflight to take over Azeroth. It is implied that she's been manipulated by him all along, as in Cataclysm, he has reanimated her and uses her eggs to create Twilight Dragons to assist him in his plans.

** In ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldurs Gate]] II: Throne of Bhaal'', {{spoiler|your whole party is this, killing off the other Bhaalspawn for Melissan's scheme to ascend to power.}}

*** Alhough not made by [[BioWare]], the player character from the second game counts too.

** {{spoiler|''The protagonist''}} in ''[[Jade Empire]]''. [[Magnificent Bastard|"Magnificent"]] indeed.

** Part of the reason is because the amnesiac Mercer, even though he's [[I'm a Humanitarian|eating people left and right]] in order to understand what the hell is going on, is often in the dark about what the hell is going on. As the game progresses he ''knows'' he's probably being played, but due to a lack of options he has to play along anyways if he's going to have a hope of accomplishing anything. He even says it outright to {{spoiler|Cross}}.

{{quote|'''Mercer''': Why do I get the feeling I'm getting the short end of this deal?}}

* The Tribunal expansion of Morrowind gives us the power-maddened (literally) {{spoiler|pseudo-god Almalexia. Centuries of wielding power that is unfit for mortals has left her more than a little crazy, and she has the protagonist carry out her increasingly insane orders (whether or not the character is aware that he's being manipulated is [[Heroic Mime|impossible to tell]]. Either way, it's a case of [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]). When she finally lays out her cards, she embarks on a long monologue about how nutty she is and how stupid you are, and there isn't even a [[Talk to the Fist]] option}}.

* Dear lord, Zelenin from [[Strange Journey]]. [[Manipulative Bastard]] [[Dragon with an Agenda|Mastema]] and [[Council of Angels|The Three Wise Men]] play her like a fiddle all the game, playing on her insecurities and fears in a terribly blatant manner, which she always blissfully ignores, until either their plans come to fruition or she's been reduced to holy dust.

* In the old FPS/RPG ''[[Strife]]'' you get hit with this in the bad ending, {{spoiler|Blackbird, your [[Voice with an Internet Connection]], is revealed to be the Entity and has been using you to free her}}.

* {{spoiler|Dimentio}} does this to Mario and co. in [[Super Paper Mario]]:

{{quote|''"Even if the count dies, the Chaos Heart won't disappear if I continue to control it! But I needed the power of the Pure Hearts to beat him. I couldn't do that on my own. So I had you do all the sweaty labor for me. And you even used your Pure Hearts to defeat Count Bleck! If they make greeting cards to thank people for helping with evil plans, I owe you one."''}}

* The Player Character is this in ''[[Dark Souls]]''. No matter what you do, by beating the game you're just a pawn in an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] and [[Forever War]] regarding whether the Age of Fire should continue or end.

 

* Mary in ''[[Shikkoku no Sharnoth]]'' is obviously the pawn of multiple competing factions, but doesn't realize it fully until well into the story.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

** Vaarsuvius has now turned into one, when {{spoiler|s/he attacked Xykon with his newfound power, knocking him [[Orcus on His Throne|off his throne]], exactly as the fiends who granted hir that power planned.}}

** As it turns out, {{spoiler|''Xykon himself'' is this to Redcloak, who's been playing humble servant all these years in order to get Xykon to aid in completing the Plan (which, it seems, doesn't aid Xykon's own goals ''at all''.}}

* Sillice of ''[[Drowtales]]'' when {{spoiler|Kalki tells her that the Nidraa'chal she's just fighting are just a diversion for the enemies that are currently most probably killing the Val'Sharess. Sillice then barges into the ravaged tower, confronts one of her sisters ([[Guilt by Association Gag|the only one NOT included in this plot]]) and then gets accused of having killed all the guards in an attempt to overthrow her mother, and has to run away to exile with their mortal enemies. No one suspects the ones that are truly pulling the strings: Snadhya'rune, Sarv'swati and Zala'ess, who get off scot free and take control of the clan while pretending their mother is still alive.}}

* Terezi of ''[[Homestuck]]'' is usually [[Awesome By Analysis]], but she's recently fallen into this at the hands of {{spoiler|Gamzee, who she has no idea turned evil}}.

* Nick in the "Surreptitious Machinations" arc of [[General Protection Fault]]. The entire plan hinges on him being isolated from his friends and building the "Project Velociraptor" to power Trudy's energy weapons, enabling her and C.R.U.D.E. to take over the world. He's also [[Horrible Judge of Character|one of the only ones who still trusts Trudy]], so the heroes have to try to convince him to see the truth.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', almost every major non-human character takes a turn being one of these, as would be expected when [[The Mole]] happens to be a [[Manipulative Bastard]].

* In season 4 of the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', both the turtles and the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] Agent Bishop are suckered ''royally'' by the Foot Mystics/Shredder's Heralds, resulting in the ''entire plot'' to season 5.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Supposedly, the only relatively foolproof reason for letting yourself be recruited as a spy is to do it for the money. Any other motives (Freedom, Nationalism, the Workers' Revolution, whatever) expose you to being played as an unwitting double agent, mole, or agent provocateur by the people you oppose.

** This is NOT a "[[wikipedia:Useful idiot|useful idiot]]," which is when (usually overt) support for a third party's nominal, moderate, public goals is cynically manipulated by the latter to advance their more closely-held, radical and secret goals. The "idiot" part comes from them being [[The Quisling]] without realizing that's what they're doing. They claim to love their country/faction/family/4-H club, but their actions and words say otherwise—and they'd never believe you if you pointed it out.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Gambit Index]]

[[Category:Evil Gloating]]

[[Category:Betrayal Tropes]]