Wild Card: Difference between revisions

 

 

The '''Wild Card''' is so used to swinging between teams that they have no default 'good' or 'evil' [[Character Alignment]] or even a 'home team'. Not [[Chaotic Neutral]], because even they generally care more. [[Chaotic Neutral]] also usually tends to imply being on ''someone's'' team, but being capricious, perhaps criminal, and having a limited attention span. This trope, on the other hand, truly isn't interested in consistently remaining with either side, and will very often simply want both to leave him alone. He can be the sort of person who will stay out of things entirely, until someone else (usually the hero or a sympathetic character) asks him for help.

 

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] - "It's all about being on the team closest to my personal goal."

* [[Selfish Good, Selfish Evil]] - "It's all about me and what I want and need."

* Self-Preservation: [[Dirty Coward]]/[[Lovable Coward]]. "I'm not in it for my reputation. Or yours. If push comes to shove, I'm going to save my own hide."

* [[Manipulative Bastard]] - "Sure, I'm on a team right now. That's because that team has the [[Applied Phlebotinum]], [[Plot Coupon]], [[MacGuffin]], or other doohickey I need. As soon as they let me get my hands on it, I'll be selling it to the highest bidder. Even if it's the team I just stole it from."

* [[The Chessmaster]] - "Why shouldn't I manipulate both teams at once if it'll help me get what I want?!"

* [[Becoming the Mask]] - "Although it doesn't necessarily last forever, my unsteady moral compass often gets in the way of what I'm trying to do, especially when I'm trying to stick it to the good guys."

* [[Redemption Equals Death]] - "My redemption is never to turn 'good' (what does that mean to someone like me, anyway?) But as soon as I become steady, reliable, and predictable, I'm usually gone."

 

Particularly Wild [[Wild Cards]] tend to fall under [[For the Lulz]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Impmon from ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' ranges from an arrogant and selfish loner, to helpful and fun-loving (if a bit begrudgingly), to a depressed wreck, to a [[Complete Monster]] to [[The Atoner]].

* Hisoka from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]''.

* Of Negi's students in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', a few of them became this: Evangeline doesn't care about Negi's welfare and will occasionally help the villains if she feels it will be entertaining; her partner Chachamaru, being a robot, will show loyalty to whoever she's programmed to, including the people she otherwise acts friendly around; while Tatsumiya Mana and Asakura Kasumi side with {{spoiler|Chao Lingshen}} because they believe in her goal while having helped Negi several times previously (well, Kasumi switches sides when she learns of [[Baleful Polymorph|the consequences for Negi]]).

** And now there is [[Smug Snake|Kurt Godel]], who is said ([[Implausible Fencing Powers|with reason!]]) to be extremely dangerous and fits the trope to a T. He appears to be on a different side of the conflict every time he appears in a new chapter. The guy is Infuriating Awesome.

** There is also [[Psycho Lesbian|Tsuki]][[Axe Crazy|yomi]], who will betray her side- and remain hostile to the other side- at the drop of a hat if it looks like [[Blood Knight|fun]]. Unlike most others of her sort, you can't even point her at your enemies and let her loose- but she ''will'' make you ''think'' you can, right up to the point where the slices your limbs off.

 

 

* [[Wolverine]] in many of his comic portrayals proves to be something of a [[Chaotic Good]] Wild Card - while usually on the side of [[X-Men|the good guys]], he's violent, dangerous, unreliable and extremely intelligent. While he may not swing fully from Villain to Hero and back again, like many Wild Cards enjoy doing, his comic incarnation especially has a high number of team affiliations, and he has frequently worked on his own.

** This was far more explicit in the [[Ultimate Universe]]. Wolverine started off as a cold-blooded assassin working for Magneto. Then he did a [[Heel Face Turn]] in order to [[Heroes Want Redheads|sleep with Jean Grey]]. Then when she dumped him, he responded by trying to murder her new boyfriend, Cyclops (by dropping him off a cliff. He broke a bunch of bones and spent a month lying in a pit eating bugs). Then he was given one last chance to rejoin the team (after having the crap blasted out of him by Cyclops), and has stayed good since. {{spoiler|Except that then his time-traveling future self turned up and apparently murdered Xavier.}}

* In ''[[Secret Wars]]'', [[Reality Warper|the Beyonder]] transports a group of superheroes and a group of supervillains to "Battleworld" and expects the two groups to battle each other to aid his study of what it is to be human. It doesn't precisely work out: [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Magneto]] is grouped with heroes, despite still being a villain at the time, due to his [[Anti-Villain]] nature. The other heroes obviously aren't thrilled and he goes off to do his own thing before finally signing on with them. [[Psychopathic Manchild|The Lizard]] is too savage to understand the concept of "sides" and ends up most loyal to the Wasp for having treated him when he was injured, and [[Physical God|Galactus]] just ignores all the other combatants and spends the entire series working out a way to take on the Beyonder himself.

 

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Fujiwara. He's almost as bad as the aforementioned [[Mahou Sensei Negima|Godel.]]

 

== Film ==

** This is mirrored in his role in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 1'' and ''2''.

* Captain Renault in ''[[Casablanca]]'' looks like [[The Quisling]] at first, but he proves himself just as willing to bend the truth and turn a blind eye to the law for the good guys' sake.

* [[Clint Eastwood]] also did this in ''[[Fistful Of Dollars]]'', the first of his [[Dollars Trilogy|"Man With No Name" trilogy]].

* Dr. Elsa Schneider in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade]]''. While she starts off as an ally to Indiana, we find out that she's really a Nazi agent. However, towards the second half of the movie, she shows lots of mixed behavior that suggests she's not truly "evil" nor believes in the Nazi cause. She even helps Indiana by dispatching Donovan in the grail chamber (even if it was to further her selfish motive to get the grail). In the end, her character was just too morally ambiguous for a popular film, and the writers use a [[Death by Materialism]] to seal her fate.

{{quote|'''Sheppard:''' ''Here's my problem. Every time we get involved with you, I feel like I'm walking around with a live grenade in my pocket, just waiting for it all to go wrong - for that one thing you forgot to mention.''}}

* Piggy of ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' was able to align himself with all three fractions in the series (The Heroes, the Villains, and The Villain Traitors) all for want of money. This isn't a guy who sided with whoever paid the most, this is a guy who just wanted pay.

** Although we didn't find out his true loyalties until later seasons. Even then he displayed his ''[[Magnificent Bastard]]'' abilities by keeping people guessing if he was ''really'' on their side.

* ''[[Survivor (TV series)|Survivor]]'' has had many, but the practice started with Rob Cesternino in ''The Amazon'' and resulted in the ''Pearl Islands'' season that followed being an all-wild card situation after Rupert's elimination. Special mention to Sandra, who won employing a self-proclaimed strategy of "as long as it ain't me."

** [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]]. Never trust a rattlesnake.

** [[Chris Jericho]] makes a career out of doing this.

** During his TNA days, [[Christian]] Cage settled into this role after the dissolution of the Christian Coalition, and his major storyline was about him trying to rebuild his burned bridges with the [[face]]s on the roster, in order to combat his allies who had now joined the Angle Alliance. The fact that he was still pretty much a cocky asshole [[Heel]] in characterization really hurt his efforts.

** [[Ric Flair]], whose exceptional skill at both grappling and cutting promos, and his ability to carry even the most pathetic "wrestlers" to four-star affairs while remaining the Dirtiest Player In The Game throughout, made him almost impossible to boo even as he started to push sixty.

* Delita from ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' is the ultimate [[Chessmaster]]; he manipulates absolutely everybody, and is more often on nobody's side than on any particular side.

** Ramza is himself a Wild Card in the Lion War, though for the opposite reason as Delita. Almost every faction wants him dead, and the main plot of the third chapter is, from his perspective, one long [[Blast Out]]. Delita is just happy to give him fuel and let him clear up the [[Gambit Pileup]] for him.

* Shadow the mercenary from ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' is a slightly less teetering Wild Card; he indeed seems to care little for the overarching plot, and will randomly leave your party in the first half of the game. He also works for the bad guys in one area of the game, but since you're ''also'' working with them at that point, the issue never really comes up.

* Scorpion from ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' often falls into this category, especially during the plot of the third game, his single-minded pursuit of hated rival Sub-Zero causing him to attack good and evil characters alike. Scorpion frequently switches sides in the post-MK3 games as well, though in fairness this is frequently the result of being duped or enslaved by higher-ups.

* The player characters in the ''[[Mercenaries]]'' series are [[Private Military Contractors|private contractors]]. They have an overarching goal (The substantial bounty on General Song's head in the original, payback on Ramon Solano in the sequel), but are willing to play any side of the conflict, as long as it gets them closer to that goal. For instance, in the original, they ''had'' to work with the Allied Nations, since they were the ones giving out the Ace missions, but in order to get intel leading to the Aces, the players had to do missions for the Chinese Army, South Koreans, and Russian Mafia. Since the Chinese and South Koreans were hostile to one another, and the Mafia was at cross purposes with pretty much everyone, that meant the players had to fight for, and against, pretty much every faction at one point or another in order to maximize profits.

* The upcoming ''Going Rogue'' expansion for ''[[City of Heroes]]'' is giving players this ability: heroes can change into villains, villains can change into heroes, or they can stay somewhere in between as rogues or vigilantes.

{{quote|'''Vile:''' Incite rebellion. Split up the Hunters' forces. That's the way to get to X... But Sigma, I may be the wildcard you hadn't counted on!}}

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' has a few, but Haer'Dalis from ''Baldur's Gate II'' is a shining example of the trope. He's a tiefling (demonkin) from a wholly different plane of existence who joins the party to do some sightseeing, seduction, and provocation.

 

 

* Most of the main characters in ''[[Darken]]'' to a greater or lesser extent, but especially Jill.

* Bun-bun from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is one of these through and through. He tends to fall on the good guys' side more often than not lately, though that's largely because the other characters have gotten better at making sure it's in Bun-bun's best interest to keep them alive.

* Played around with in Vriska from ''[[Homestuck]]''. On the one hand, she was responsible for setting a [[Cycle of Revenge]] into place and keeping it going. On the other hand, she also agreed to end it, and showed some signs of genuine remorse. On the other hand, when she entered the veil she set in motion the events that lead to {{spoiler|Jack Noir being prototyped by Bec, which [[Unwinnable By Mistake|doomed the kids' session.]]}} On the other hand, she claimed she was only doing it to make John stronger, and that she intended to try to face {{spoiler|Bec Noir}} herself. On the [[Rule of Three|other hand]], she then proceeded to {{spoiler|kill Tavros}} for pretty much no reason. On the other hand, she seems genuinely regretful of that, and has been talking more and more to John lately, who seems to be steering her down the right path. All in all Vriska's Wild Card days seem mostly over, though it's not out of the question she'll revert back to her old ways...

** Later in the story, it's stated that the Bard class is considered a Wild Card class as it's role is to have a major influence in how the game progresses in either a positive or potentially devastating way. In the case of {{spoiler|Gamzee, he was at least partially responsible for the Trolls' victory against the Black King.}}

 

== Web Original ==

{{quote|''In his first episode:''

'''Red X:''' Not everyone likes to play the big villain, kid. I'm a thief. I'm not threatening your precious city. Just looking out for number one.

'''Red X:''' [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|MINE]]! }}

* Heloise on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. She both works for [[Satan|Lucius]], yet often goes against him to help [[Morality Pet|Jimmy]].