http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadSamaritan



Even flowers have their dangers,

And though scary is exciting,

Nice is different than good" Little Red Riding Hood, Into the Woods "And take extra care of strangers,Even flowers have their dangers,And though scary is exciting,Nice is different than good"

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Beware of the kindness of strangers.

A Good Samaritan provides help to anyone in need, even a complete stranger. They will come across the wounded hero and take him in, feed him and tend to his injuries without asking for anything in return. Sometimes these people are punished for their goodness because they were a Horrible Judge of Character and chose to help someone who would only repay them with evil.

And then there are these guys.

The Bad Samaritan is someone who takes in the hero and seems (at first) to be helping, all to do the hero harm in the end. He doesn't act out of the kindness of his own heart, but by some villainous motivation. He will keep his intention hidden from his victim, gaining their trust, until he has the hero helpless. This is the inverse of the Biblical parable about the Good Samaritan, teaching the audience that relying on the kindness of strangers is not always a good thing.

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This is when a villain wears a mask of altruism and pretends that their goal is to help unfortunate, needy characters. They will befriend and offer them their assistance to win them over, secretly using them as pawns in their scheme. The good guys usually don't catch on until it is way, way too late to do anything about it and the villain has just put the final touches on the plot, revealing that the "help" was merely part of their evil plan all along.

This sort of ploy usually comes up when the hero wants something and is desperate enough to do anything to get it. The villain has just what the doctor ordered, and is willing to give it to the hero... for a price. And the price is always exactly what the villain needs to achieve his goals. The hero might have to give up something important to the villain, or may have to retrieve a Plot Coupon. Other times, the villain will maintain a cover of respectability and generosity in order to attract good guys who later unwittingly act as mooks for the villain's cause. And sometimes the villain is simply a cruel bastard and likes corrupting the thought of kindness by turning it into villainy.

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Either way, in the end, it turns out that by accepting their assistance, the protagonist has been unwittingly playing right into the villain's hands. The end result of this flavor of the trope is usually You Have Outlived Your Usefulness, with the villain killing or otherwise betraying their cronies once they've served their purpose. Where this gets confusing is when the Bad Samaritan means no physical or emotional harm, but uses their "kindness" to provoke a "Leave Your Quest" Test to get the hero to leave the Big Bad alone.

Related to Beware the Nice Ones and The Farmer and the Viper. Compare with Salvage Pirates, in which the hero expects help from people who turn out to be evil and who don't even pretend to help. See also All Take and No Give. See also Hostile Hitchhiker, specifically the "Harmful to Hitchers" type. Supertrope to Wise Old Folk Façade, where an evil elderly acts wise and helpful to others to hide their true nature.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

In The DCU, Granny Goodness runs an "orphanage" for poor and downtrodden children on Apokolips that is really nothing more than a boot camp for Darkseid's demon-dogs.

"Mournin' Mess" in Tales from the Crypt #38 featured a charitable society supposed devoted to providing dignified burials for the homeless. A reporter assigned to investigate the organization discovered that it was actually a group of ghouls interested in providing low-effort meals for themselves .

. In Green Arrow: Quiver, the resurrected Oliver Queen is taken in by a wealthy old man whom he saves from muggers, and who provides him with funds and equipment to get back on his feet as a hero. He also takes in Mia, a teenage girl who was forced to become a prostitute. Turns out he's not as charitable as he seems; he's actually a satanic killer who intends to Body Surf into Queen and rape Mia

Thanos during the Magus saga helps Adam Warlock in his battle against the Magus just because he sees the Magus as an obstacle to his goal of universal genocide. Later, he assists the In-Betweener (a cosmic entity created to balance Master Order and Lord Chaos, as Galactus balances Death and Eternity) in escaping from imprisonment. Thanos did so knowing that the prison was the only thing keeping the In-Betweener's powers active (an act of mercy from his parents/captors), stole the Infinity Gem from his brow, then left him to take the blame for the escape when Order and Chaos arrived to investigate.

When Lady Shiva ran into the newly christened Robin Tim Drake in Paris she helped him fight off gangsters, save a rogue DEA agent, prevent a criminal from gaining a biological weapon, helped him train and fully intended to take him from Batman as her own protege by having him kill the individual behind everything they're working to stop which she makes clear after Tim kicks Dorrance out the window of his executive suite and Dorrance is hanging on fifty stories up, calling Tim "her weapon".

Oddly enough, the Outsiders villain NAMED the Bad Samaritan isn't an example of this trope, being outwardly villainous to the heroes from the beginning.

Fan Works

Films — Animation

Films — Live-Action

Fairy Tales

In the story of "Hansel and Gretel", the witch lures children in with words of kindness and a Gingerbread House. Then she cooks them and eats them. Hansel and Gretel avoid this grim fate by pushing her into her own oven.

Gamebooks

Lone Wolf: Fire on the Water: Lone Wolf can get shipwrecked, and there is a chance he can get rescued by a boat full of fishermen. The fishermen appear friendly and even offer him food. However, once they reach shore, they suddenly knock Lone Wolf out and steal all his stuff, then leave him inside a small dinghy in the docks. Shadow on the Sand: A civilian offers Lone Wolf shelter when he's being pursued, but the hero figures out in time that the man is planning to betray him to the villains for a quick buck.



Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

The Rush song "The Wreckers" from Clockwork Angels tells of a group that had a lighthouse set up near an island. During a horrific storm, the ship that the protagonist is on, searching for any kind of port, sees the lighthouse and heads for it, only to run aground on rocks. At that point, they board the ship and steal everything that isn't nailed down.

Myths & Religion

Older Than Feudalism: In Greek myths, Procrustes, son of Poseidon, invited travelers into his home, took care of them, let them stay in his bed... and then tortured them with his hammer until they fit his bed (In later versions there were two beds. When someone who might fit one bed came along, Procrustes hid it and pulled out the other bed so he could amputate or stretch them as necessary.) When Procrustes tried this on Theseus, the hero overpowered him and made him Hoist by His Own Petard; while some versions don't say whether Theseus stretched him or cut him down, since Procrustes was in some versions a giant you'd have to be a complete dumbass not to figure it out. (In some versions, Procrustes did this because he was a bandit who robbed his victims, the same motive of some of other sadistic villains that Theseus encountered in that story.)

Tabletop Games

A whole city of Bad Samaritans is Grenepoli, the City of Diplomacy, first mentioned in the Planescape setting, but also in other settings where the Outer Planes are used. The fact that this city is on Maladomini, in the Seventh Layer of Hell and is openly ruled by devils should make people suspicious of it, but the place seems to be a Truce Zone where violence is not allowed (anyone who commits violence against anyone is executed by the city watch, and devils are not exempt from this law) and everything is given away for free by merchants. The "catch" is subtle; Grenepoli is a haven of pure politics and have classes that provides instruction on ways to destroy an enemy in the cruelest way possible without resorting to violence. Mortal visitors are encouraged to attend, those who show a knack for it and graduate being admitted to Offalon, a far more advanced Academy of Evil run by Baalzebul, the Lord of Maladomini. The plan, long term as it is, is that hopefully more and more Corrupt Politicians will be unleashed onto the mortal world to corrupt entire kingdoms and strengthen the power of Hell.

Warhammer 40,000: Fabius Bile (the Mad Scientist among Space Marines) was once taken prisoner by Dark Eldar (ho get off and feed on torture and hedonism, and have had ten thousand years to refine their art). He so impressed them with his own cruelty that they tutored him in additional torture methods, though they weren't happy that he tried to pass on this knowledge.

Theater

Theme Parks

The mime who appears prior to Clyde and Seymour Take Pirate Island show at the Sea Lion and Otter Stadium in Sea World, Orlando, has been known to "help" find people seats by leading them right out of the theater, leading them directly to the splash zone, and leading them to seats already occupied. He's also famous for following people closely, making fun of them behind their backs the entire time. Here's a life tip, folks: If you walk into a theater or stadium and see a mime in the aisle with you... walk away, as quietly and drawing as little attention to yourself as you can.

Video Games

Visual Novels

Nomura from Higurashi: When They Cry reached out to a despairing Takano and offered acceptance, acknowledgement and revenge. This kickstarts the entire plot, although you don't even know she exists until the final arc. Her true motive is just to destroy Hinamizawa and use the disaster as a way to discredit her political opponents.

and offered acceptance, acknowledgement and revenge. This kickstarts the entire plot, although you don't even know she exists until the final arc. In a side-story for Umineko: When They Cry, "The Witches' Tanabata", Bernkastel answers the wish of a young, orphaned Ange... by telling her to never accept her aunt Eva's kindness and motherly love, and to never smile ever again, or else her dead parents will never be revived. This, by the way, coupled with mocking the player afterwards , is her Moral Event Horizon In EP2 Beatrice is this, pretending to help the two cousin-servant couples (George/Shannon and Kanon/Jessica) get together only to have their relationships inevitably fall into ruin. But with the later revelation that Beatrice, Shannon and Kanon are all the same person, it turns out that this is just a metaphor for how Sayo Yasuda can never be with any of his/her love interests.

answers the wish of a young, orphaned Ange... by In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Manfred von Karma adopts Miles Edgeworth after the latter's father dies at von Karma's hands and raises him to be an excellent prosecutor, just so he can complete his revenge against his father and him fifteen years later by framing Edgeworth for murder .

Web Animation

Prima in Episode 2 of Of Weasels And Chickens. At first, she makes fun of clueless newcomer Marcus, but when she realizes she can use him to her benefit, her attitude changes entirely and she invites him to tag along with her.

Western Animation