"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
— Wash, Firefly
How characters betray each other's trust. Usually a Plot Twist of some kind, except when it isn't.
Contrast with A Trusting Index and Loyalty Tropes. Victims of betrayal are often motivated to seek retribution against the traitor through any type of Revenge Tropes.
Of course, beware of spoilers in these tropes.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: A character was left behind in the past by their allies, letting them face capture or death on their own.
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: Professional killers are always at risk of being double-crossed by their employers.
- Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: The Alpha Bitch is betrayed by one of her Girl Posse.
- Bad Samaritan: The villain who acts kind and uses good deeds to lure the heroes into a false sense of security, before turning the tables on them for their master plan.
- Bastard Understudy: A villain's underling biding their time until they can betray the villain.
- Because You Can Cope: A character abandons someone they're charged with taking care of when it becomes clear that the charge doesn't need them anymore.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Leaving someone to suffer or die instead of helping them.
- Betrayal by Offspring: A parent is betrayed by one of their children.
- Betrayal Fic: A fanfic about betrayal.
- Betrayal Insurance: A character makes plans against someone in case that person decides to turn on them.
- Big Bad Friend: The hero's friend turns out to be the main villain.
- Black Shirt: Someone who secretly wishes for the enemy to win so they can side with them.
- Board to Death: A business meeting set up to betray and kill the invitees.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Someone gets betrayed by the person who was supposed to be protecting them.
- Broken Pedestal: Someone finds out that the person they idolized wasn't quite as heroic and noble as they thought they were.
- Category Traitor: Someone gets accused of betrayal for liking or doing something that goes against their culture.
- Cavalry Betrayal: The Cavalry has arrived! Wait... why are they shooting us instead of helping us?!
- Cavalry Refusal: Your supposed rescue party isn't interested in saving you.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A character who always stabs everyone they help out in the back.
- Confidentiality Betrayal: A character tells another character's secret to third parties, making it no longer a secret.
- Les Collaborateurs: Characters or governments who collaborate with an occupying power against their people.
- The Commies Made Me Do It: Character betrays the heroes due to coercion by a hostile power who has someone they love in their power.
- Conflicting Loyalty: A character must choose between two sides that they're on.
- The Corruptible: A character under the sway of The Corrupter or otherwise in danger of betraying their side.
- The Coup: A government is overthrown and replaced, usually by a subordinate official seeking to hold leadership over it.
- Military Coup: When a (usually civilian) government is ousted and replaced by their own military officers.
- Dangerous Deserter: A military deserter gone renegade and evil.
- Dead Person Impersonation: A character impersonates a beloved dead member of another group.
- Deceptive Disciple: A student who seeks to betray their master.
- Deceptive Legacy: A kid is lied to about an absent parent.
- Defecting for Love: A character switches sides due to falling in love with someone of the other camp.
- Defector from Decadence: Someone leaves behind a group they're a part of out of disgust at their bad ways.
- Devour the Dragon: The Big Bad kills his top minion to get stronger.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit: The villains disguise innocent hostages as their minions in hopes of getting them killed by their would-be rescuers.
- Doctor von Turncoat: A war criminal with valuable expertise is given immunity by their former enemies in exchange for working for them.
- The Dog Bites Back: A being who's been abused and tormented gets even with the people who were picking on them.
- Double Agent: A member of an organization who is secretly a mole working for an opposing organization.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: A character is affiliated with way too many opposing factions at once.
- The Mole: A cover agent who infiltrates the opposing organization by pretending to be on their side.
- Feed the Mole: The hero gives the villain false information.
- Mistakenly Attacked Mole: Attack someone you didn't know was your mole.
- Mole in Charge: A character becomes the leader of a group and destroys it.
- Et Tu, Brute?: A person is betrayed by the one they trusted most.
- Evil All Along: A character thought to be on the side of good has actually been evil from the start.
- Evil Former Friend: The villain used to be friends with the hero.
- Face–Heel Turn: A good guy becomes evil.
- Heel–Face Turn: A bad guy becomes good.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: A bad guy gets brainwashed or hypnotized into being good.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: A character betrays one group and sides with another, but it's unclear whether either group is good or evil.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: The character keeps switching between being good and being evil.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: An evil character tries to change their ways, but either no one will accept that they genuinely want to make amends for what they did, or another evil character does something really bad to them before they can make any progress.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: The sole female villain ends up reforming.
- Sex–Face Turn: The villain reforms after having sex with the hero.
- False Friend: They were only pretending to be your friend so they could manipulate you into advancing their scheme.
- False Innocence Trick: A villain feigns innocence in order to set up the heroes for something nasty.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: When a character blames a hero for letting someone die, when that hero did everything in their power to save them.
- Fake Defector: A good guy pretends to change sides to pull one over the enemy.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Helping out a villain is rewarded with the villain doing the person who helped them wrong.
- Finding Judas: Betrayal for benevolent reasons by a non-villain.
- Going Native: Finding more in common with another group than your own, sometimes to the point of betrayal.
- Gold Fever: Greed for riches drives you to betray your friends.
- The Heretic: A character who betrays their religion, or whose beliefs are seen as a betrayal by their religion.
- Heroic Team Revolt: The hero's True Companions turn against them and leave due to the hero's very unheroic and immoral behavior.
- Hoarding the Profits: When an individual or small group steals the gains from the larger group they are part of.
- Hunting the Rogue: A rogue agent deserts from an organization they served and they're chased as a result.
- I Can Rule Alone: One half of a Duumvirate decides to backstab the other half in order to take full power for themselves.
- Inside Job: A crime is committed or assisted by someone affiliated with the target.
- Insidious Rumor Mill: A character lies or manipulates the friends, family members, and colleagues they share with someone they're in conflict with to turn their backs on that person.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Pretending to surrender so you can strike when the enemy has lowered their guard.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: A villain hurts someone a person cares about in order to punish them for something they did.
- Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Two sides form an alliance with the explicit intent of betraying each other when it's done.
- Instant Allegiance Artifact: A piece of Applied Phlebotinum that alters one's mind and can make someone change sides.
- In the Back: The best place to stab or shoot someone if you're a cowardly and treacherous bastard.
- Leave Behind a Pistol: The heroes leave a pistol with one round to a betrayer with the intention of having them shoot themselves.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Surprise! Someone you thought you could love is working for the other side!
- Love Makes You Evil: Love can be an ugly thing that can bring out someone's worst, sometimes to the point of betrayal.
- Lovable Traitor: A character with a likeable personality and a penchant for stabbing folks in the back.
- Lured into a Trap: Someone, sometimes someone who is normally someone's friend, betrays them by leading them into a trap by people who mean the person harm.
- Lying Finger Cross: Crossing your fingers behind your back when taking an oath to show that you're lying.
- Mistaken for Betrayal: Something happens to cause a rift between two friends and make them believe that one has betrayed the other.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Someone is betrayed by another, and the former repays this abuse by turning on the latter.
- The Mutiny: Insurrection aboard a ship against the ship's captain or commander.
- Anti-Mutiny: Insurrection against a captain or a commander who has chosen to defy their original orders.
- Nasty Party: A "party" intended to get people together for betrayal and elimination.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Criminals are willing to betray each other if it suits them.
- Not Actually His Child: A father learns that the kid he's been raising isn't biologically his, and he's been cuckolded.
- The Oathbreaker: Breaking an oath is one of the most basic forms of betrayal.
- Obvious Judas: YMMV trope where it's painfully obvious to the audience that a character will betray the rest.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: The "big figure" of the good guys suddenly decides to rebel for some reason.
- Parental Betrayal: When a parent (a mother or father) betrays their own offspring.
- Personal Horror: The one thing worse than being betrayed by others is betraying yourself and your sense of who you are.
- Please Shoot the Messenger: When a messenger is sent to someone with a message instructing the receiver to kill them.
- Popularity Cycle: Enjoy being popular. You're inevitably going to lose it.
- Post-Support Regret: A character is betrayed by someone they cared and vouched for against people who talked badly about them, making them regret defending and believing in them.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: Do you cooperate, stay silent and hope your partner doesn't betray you, or do you rat them out and hope they don't do the same to you?
- Properly Paranoid: Sometimes, something is out to get you.
- Propping Up Their Patsy: A culprit proclaims the innocence of another suspect to conceal their own culpability or further their own agenda.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: The villain used to be a student of the hero.
- Pushed at the Monster: I don't have to outrun the monster. I just have to outrun you.
- The Quisling: Someone decides to pledge allegiance to an invading force, selling out their own country or world.
- Rash Equilibrium: A meeting between enemies has both sides making plans against the other in response to trickery from the other side.
- Real Stitches for Fake Snitches: Someone who keeps their mouth shut can still be punished if they're framed for ratting out their side.
- Rebellious Rebel: Rebelling against a group of rebels.
- Regretful Traitor: A traitor who finds that backstabbing their friends wasn't worth it after all.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: An evil, crazy or fanatical offshoot of a more respectable organization, often viewed as traitors by the other organization.
- Restricted Rescue Operation: Outside forces restrict a rescue operation, often in ways that force heroes to act against their own morality.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Someone gets punished for betraying someone other than the punisher.
- Salvage Pirates: They don't intend to save you. They just want your stuff, and you are merely collateral.
- Saved to Enslave: Someone saved your life only to put you in their service.
- Shoot the Builder: When the villain has those who built their lair disposed of to prevent any secrets from getting out.
- Shoot the Dangerous Minion: A villain's minion is getting too dangerous for his own good! Better get rid of them before they start getting ideas...
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: The newest member of the team turns out to secretly be a villain intent on destroying the group from within.
- The Smart One Turns Traitor: The smartest or wisest of a team turns out to be or ends up becoming a traitor to their group and their cause.
- Social Deduction Game: A game where one or more players is secretly a traitor.
- Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb: Sneaking a bomb into enemy territory.
- Spies Are Despicable: Spies are viewed as bad people because of the propensity for betraying and lying to people as part of their work.
- The Starscream: An underling of the main villain who plans to overthrow their boss.
- Deck of Wild Cards: Every villain's underling plans to betray them.
- Stealing the Credit: A character betrays someone by taking all the credit for their accomplishments.
- The Stool Pigeon: A character who rats other people out.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Someone believes a character claiming to be good or reformed to be untrustworthy. After it looks like they're just being paranoid, their suspicions of the other person really being evil become validated.
- Team Killer: A character who kills people on their own side or team.
- Unfriendly Fire: A character "frags" someone on their own side of the conflict.
- Temporary Party Member to Villain: A Guest-Star Party Member that betrays the party and later fights it.
- Traitor Shot: A close-up of a character that is meant to draw suspicion upon the character.
- Transhuman Treachery: A character who becomes something other than human abandons and seeks to prey upon their former species.
- Treacherous Advisor: A mentor or other important character betrays the one they're teaching or looking out for.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: A character giving you a mission has ulterior motives for the mission and turns on you either during or after the mission.
- Treachery Cover Up: A treacherous deed needs to be covered up, for the perceived greater good.
- Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Betrayal is treated as being worse than any other evil act a villain has done.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Murdering members of one's own family is almost universally considered to be perhaps the most wicked form of betrayal.
- Trouble Magnet Gambit: A character betrays someone by planting something on them that will get the other person in deep trouble.
- Truce Trickery: Making an end-run around or blatantly violating a ceasefire or peace treaty.
- Turncoat: A character that switches sides in order to help out the other side.
- Undercover When Alone: A character keeps up their cover even when there is no one to see them.
- Unwitting Pawn: Someone is being manipulated all along and doesn't know it.
- Uriah Gambit: A subordinate is sent on a mission meant to get rid of them.
- The Usurper: Someone who seizes a position of power away from its legitimate holder; such as a monarch being overthrown by another royal seeking to hold the throne themselves.
- Vichy Earth: Aliens rule humanity instead of exterminating us, complete with Les Collaborateurs among the human side.
- Was It All a Lie?: Someone finds out that they have been lied to by a loved one and ponders whether the fabrication means that everything concerning their relationship with this person was insincere.
- Becoming the Mask: What was intended to be the cover of the mole ends up becoming how they really are.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: A character who once betrayed the group is welcomed back with open arms.
- We Used to Be Friends: Bitter rivals used to be the best of friends.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Manipulating people by pretending that someone hurt you.
- Police Brutality Gambit: A suspect in police custody seeks to make people think the police brutalized them in order to make them drop charges and/or get back at them.
- Wrong Side All Along: It turns out the heroes were unwittingly helping the bad guys.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: The villain is called out for going ahead with hurting people they promised wouldn't be harmed.
- I Lied: The villain admits that they never intended to keep their promise.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: The villain mocks the hero for believing their unkept promise.
- I Lied: The villain admits that they never intended to keep their promise.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The villain kills a subordinate after they've successfully done what they were ordered to do.
