The Confidant

"Why in the hell am I telling all of this to you?!"

— Asuka, Neon Genesis Evangelion

By their nature, characters have problems, issues, traumas, and sundry emotional baggage they need to lay down, even if only for a moment. However, finding someone to confide in isn't easy. Some don't care about anyone else's problems but their own, some characters feel they can't trust their secrets to others (or outright know telling anyone they know their problem won't end well), and a few feel that no one can really understand what troubles them.

Enter the Confidant. They (statuary and inanimate objects can serve this purpose, as can pets) are the one person that the character can confide in. The Confidant doesn't just listen though; they understand and keep the secret, no matter how much it sucks. They may or may not have profound, sensible, or well-reasoned advice; sometimes just listening can help the character achieve an epiphanic "Eureka!" Moment. The Confidant can be any cast member or a one-time-only character. Interestingly, The Confidant isn't necessarily everyone's Confidant; there may be a daisy chain of confidants in the story.

For extra kicks, they might be a powerful or influential person who proceeds to use their connections to help the character. Though usually a Nice Guy or gal, even a Jerkass can show a softer side this way. The Bartender is often saddled with this as a professional hazard because In Vino Veritas, whereas the Chatty Hairdresser tends to treat their customers as their confidant. It's often a trait of the Fixer Sue because She is always there to listen to everyone's problems, even people who wouldn't ordinarily admit they had any problems to themselves, much less admit them to another person, and Mary-Sue fixes them single-handedly. For these reasons, The Confidant provides a good way to get a character to spill out their guts without necessarily monologuing about how That Makes Me Feel Angry.

Naturally, this is a common form of The Reliable One, as a requirement for being a Best Friend. They are also likely to act as Love Confessors.

For characters with a secret identity or other important secret, a confidant is often also a Secret-Keeper.

This Stock Character was used in ancient Greek drama, which makes it Older Than Feudalism.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Code Geass C.C. becomes this to Lelouch, as she knows his deepest secret (his geass power) he confides everything in her.
• Inori Yuzuriha of Guilty Crown is this to the often troubled and uncertain protagonist. He makes a point of how she always stayed loyal to him, no matter how bad their situation got, or how everybody else turned on him.
• I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: The protagonist plays this role to Sakura; he is the only person Sakura confides in about her illness.
  Sakura: You're probably the only one who can give me honest words and a normal routine for me.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Hayasaka acts as one for Kaguya. Having been her servant and close friend since childhood, she was the only one that Kaguya acted genuinely friendly towards prior to her Character Development. One of the reasons she hates herself so much is that she's been betraying Kaguya's trust since the day they met and leaking almost all her secrets to her eldest brother Oko.
  • Osaragi acts as this to Iino, who tells her everything that's troubling her. However, she avoids doing so when Iino needs advice about her conflicting feelings for Ishigami without making it obvious to her. The reason is that Osaragi has placed Ishigami's happiness over everything else, and she's not going to risk his chances of him getting together with Tsubame by helping Iino.
• Kyrie from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection often spoke with her Childhood Friend Iris about her worries and feelings of inferiority towards her sister. This is ultimately a deconstruction since Iris was a False Friend who preyed on Kyrie's insecurities to turn her into a pawn in her quest for revenge against Yuri. And Kyrie was so emotionally dependent on her that she was unable to fight back when Iris revealed her betrayal.
• Maria no Danzai: Maria is this to Yashima after the former encourages her to share her worries. The girl tells her that a friend of hers attempted to shoplift and was blackmailed by "a bad person" (Kowase) who forced her to do horrible things. When she asks her if she should bear with it because of her misdeed, the nurse tells her she doesn't need to tolerate all of this and that she will protect her at all costs. Weeks later, Yashima confesses to Maria that she was with Kowase when he disappeared, but she didn't say anything to the police in fear of being a suspect. Maria reassures her that this will be kept a secret, which makes the student realize that her confidant knew the truth about her relationship with her abuser. This shows the trust Yashima has for Maria thanks to the woman's compassion.
• In Naruto, Naruto sees a kindred spirit in Hinata, which allows him to let the mask slip in front of her and confess to her how he really feels about himself in Chapter 98: he only puts up a strong front so people wouldn't know about his embarrassment and frustration at his own ineptitude. Considering that almost everyone in Konoha is still avoiding him like the plague at this point, and even his own teammates, while starting to grow somewhat fond of him, still find him too annoying to be around a lot, let alone care about his problems, this is the only time Naruto ever reveals his deep thoughts to anyone. Not only does Hinata hear him out, she also reassures him that he's truly strong because he never gives up in trying to overcome his failures. This is the foundation of their strong friendship and eventual romance.
• Both Yue Ayase and Chisame Hasegawa in Negima! Magister Negi Magi serve this role to the main character Negi, being the people he talks to the most about his problems. This even gets pointed out to Yue near the end of the series. Interestingly, Yue provides a logical perspective while Chisame uses a more emotional point of view.
• After a rocky start, Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion comes to spill many of his fears, troubles, and daddy-related worries to Rei Ayanami. There's this poignant little scene where we see him comfortably talking to her in episode 22 after everything else has fallen apart.
  • The page quote comes from a scene where Asuka Langley Soryu starts spilling out her feelings about her stepmother to Shinji. She doesn't normally treat Shinji as a confidant - she treats him in a far too aggressive manner most of the time for that, and Hikari, who is implied to be her only friend other than the other pilots, serves that role for her - but this occurred when she was undergoing progressive Sanity Slippage due to 'losing' to Shinji repeatedly (she was easily defeated by Zeruel and his sync-rate test score then surpassed hers), eventually culminating in her being Mind Raped. The implication is that she just vented her feelings at him because she was feeling particularly unstable. As well, it's very heavily implied later in the same episode that she loves him.
• In O Maidens in Your Savage Season, Izumi often confides about to and seeks advice for his relationship with Onodera from Sugawara. She eventually develops feelings for Izumi, and attempts to use one of their outings to seduce him. This promptly ends her status as confidant.
• In Oreimo, Kyosuke becomes this to his younger sister Kirino after finding out about her secret hobby and affirming that he'd support her.
• Rebuild World:
  • When Akira is traumatized by how word of a pickpocket getting away with stealing from him keeps being spread around, Sheryl and then Shizuka serve as this for him, and then Nasha, the best friend of said pickpocket, serves as the ultimate one, with Akira telling her about how Vengeance Feels Empty and killing the pickpocket was My Greatest Failure.
  • Subverted with how The Rival Katsuya comes to Sheryl like this to help deal with The Chains of Commanding and Survivor Guilt... but Sheryl is just exploiting him in a Honey Trap since getting information about Drankam impresses Akira. In fact, Sheryl’s information proves to be key to Akira’s Batman Gambit that kills Katsuya.
  • Akira himself serves as one for Reina… about himself. Reina goes on about all the negative feelings she’s built up about Akira right to his face with Brutal Honesty (to the horror of her bodyguards), but Akira just laughs it off as they’re Fire-Forged Friends.
  • Akira serves as this again for Carol revealing her Dark and Troubled Past in her Origins Episode. She was actually Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places trying to find one of these.
  • Akira comes to Shizuka yet again after Vengeance Feels Empty yet again with Chloe's death.
• In Re:Zero, Rem acts like this to Subaru during the third arc. Subaru is at his lowest point, finds himself at the depths of despair when he thinks everything is lost, and there's nothing he can do about it. Rem is there to listen to his troubles and give him the courage to not give up and try again.
• In Saint Beast, Luca fulfils this role for Judas. Being The Quiet One and The Lancer, he makes a specialty of it.
• The World God Only Knows: Keima says that this trope is essential to conquests: "A girl's troubles are an ace in the hole; acquire them even if it costs your life." When he becomes this for Kanon, he believes his victory to be inevitable.

Comic Books

• Aquaman: Wonder Woman has had her moments with both Mera and Arthur, whether helping a Red Lantern Mera through her grief over her failed relationship with and untold secrets to the then dead Arthur during Blackest Night, helping Arthur in the post-Flashpoint era realize his purpose after the crown of Atlantis was passed over to Mera, or patch things up with a very distraught Mera, who he felt he couldn't reunite with yet for very good reasons.
• Batman:
  • Alfred is this to Bruce Wayne because he's the closest Bruce has to a living father, in addition to being his man in the Batcave.
  • Alfred also plays this role for Tim Drake, and there is quite a lot he's told Alfred that Bruce remains blissfully unaware of. For a time it looked like Tim and Stephanie were going to be as such for each other, but then she faked her death and left Tim believing her dead for years, and the universe ended just when they were finally getting to trust one another again.
• Spider-Man: Mary Jane Watson became this for Peter Parker after she revealed that she knows he is Spider-Man. After that, he has someone with whom to share his Comes Great Responsibility troubles.

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles:
  • Bolt serves as a sounding board for Penny a few times.
    • In "The Walk," for her Age-Appropriate Angst regarding a bad breakup and her not fitting in well at school.
    • In "The Car," for her hopes and concerns as she enters college.
    • Inverted in "The Teacher," where Penny says she has a bigger issue to discuss — more than using Bolt as a sounding board will fix.
      Penny: I sure hope I can talk to her [my chem lab partner friend] about this. I really need to get things off my chest, and for once, unburdening myself to Bolt just won't do. He's a great listener, but right now I need some sage advice beyond 'Woof!'.
  • Penny and Rhino serve as advisers for Bolt and Mittens respectively in "The Ship," offering their thoughts on the advisability of the dog and cat entering into a love relationship with each other.
• In Child of the Storm, and particularly in the sequel, Ghosts of the Past, Carol develops into this for Harry. There's a number of reasons why, but it has a lot to do with the facts that: a) she's usually right alongside him in whatever insane (and frequently, ludicrously traumatic) scenario he's found himself in this time, so she usually has the inside track on what's happened - which is important, if whatever happened was too painful for Harry to really want to talk much about, b) they have an increasingly close friendship flavoured by UST that eventually evolves into an Anchored Ship, c) after the first chapter of the sequel, as a side-effect of her letting him in her mind to perform some well-intentioned but inexpert psychic therapy, they wind up with a Psychic Link, meaning that he doesn't actually have to say things, as such.
• The Choices That Make Us: At various points in the story, Snape listens to Regulus and Narcissa’s problems and gives them advice with a certain amount of loyalty and affection even after he becomes a spy for the Order of the Phoenix.
• In The Matrix fic "A Different Point of View", it is revealed that Ghost is the only person Trinity told about the Oracle's prophecy that she would fall in love with the One. Despite his own love for Trinity, Ghost is privately accepting of this news, reflecting that Trinity is so exceptional that only the One would be truly worthy of her and confident that, despite Trinity's own fears, she will be enough for him in turn.

• Kyon: Big Damn Hero: Kyon's aunt Rika Fuurude is this for Kyon, though she had to reveal her own supernatural trials first in order to make Kyon trust her with his secrets.
• Kyoshi Rising; Sun the Wandering Minstrel becomes this for the titular heroine, being there to hear out her complaints and fears about being the Avatar and helping to rein her in if she slips too far into Knight Templar mode.
• In Naruto: the Secret Songs of the Ninja, Hinata is this to Naruto just like she is in canon (see above) when he confesses to her his doubts about being able to win against Gaara, but Naruto also doubles as this to her in Chapter 3 when she confesses her complete lack of self-confidence to him and he encourages her not to give up.
• The Night Unfurls:
  • The Plain Doll is considered to be the only person Kyril could open up to, even if his suitresses tried their hardest to make him feel comfortable. She listens, counsels, and provides him plain comfort. Being the only one who has full knowledge of whatever the hell happened to Kyril during the Night of the Hunt and has stood by him since then also helps.
  • Celestine's P.O.V. reveals that Claudia is the only person who had been told of the full story regarding Celestine's latest vision — a bloodstained stranger that possesses enough power to either save or destroy her kingdom (aka. the Godzilla Threshold Kyril). This indicates that Celestine trusts no one but Claudia about the specifics of her visions, especially when they prove to be troubling.
  • Several named characters find it comfortable to talk to Kyril about their sensitive matters in private. Examples include Hugh, with his family issues; Olga, with the shenanigans during her reign as the Dark Queen; and Grace (remastered version), with her past in the North and the loss of her husband. On these occasions, Kyril gives time to listen, as well as keeping their words to himself if need be.
  • Celestine becomes Claudia's confidant as the story of the original version progresses, willing to listen and keep to herself regarding Claudia's beef with Kyril, which worsened due to Claudia's husband being under suspicion of being a traitor (this information is deemed so sensitive that it must be kept secret to avert a scandal).
• The Titanic (1997) fic “Onwards and Upwards” makes Molly Brown this for Rose and Jack when she finds them both alive on the Carpathia, respecting Rose’s decision not to inform her mother and Cal of her survival and offering them both what discreet support she can in getting off the ship and starting a new life in America (she only doesn’t offer them a place to stay directly because of the risk of Ruth finding them).
• In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Reflecting Balance, Hercules the Heracross is this to Blitz, being the only one who knows the real reason why Blitz moved to Fenix town. Until Sera and Chiaki found out in Chapter 22, that is.
• Pony POV Series: Applejack is this learns a lot of ponies problems inflicted on them by Discord's Mind Rape by looking into the Truth, but can be trusted to only use them to help them. This is especially true when it comes to Rainbow Dash having faked being Discorded.
• Pretender: Frederick becomes one to Robin being one who prevented Robin's suicide attempt and whom Robin tells about his issues being an amnesiac with no past and his feelings for Chrom.
• Corrin Reacts: Azura is this to Corrin, who trusts her with his plans. Being as she is a Deadpan Snarker, she provides her own kind of advice in return, much to Corrin's exasperation.
• Rules: Light has two: Elijah/L and Charlie. The former is his best friend and the only person besides Ryuk that he can be completely open and honest with, both in his regular life and as Kira. The latter is the one he confesses his fears and insecurities and finds comfort and genuine advice in return, a talk that becomes the basis for their romantic relationship.
• Cole serves as one for Marinette in Burning Bridges, Building Confidence. They kept in touch online, and Marinette opened up to her about her troubles at school, especially after Lila returned and started turning her classmates against her. This continues after Cole's family moves back to Paris and she joins their class, well aware of what she's walking into and ready to defend her cousin.
• In Patterns of the Past, Olesya and Obed promise not to reveal the existence of the White Dress Hop, a local speakeasy, to the police. This is because, to them, speakeasies are nonexistent, since they are places meant for adults, not underage children like them.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Fly (1986), Veronica's editor/ex-lover Stathis stalks and attempts to blackmail her when he realizes her interest in Seth Brundle is not just professional but personal. When she stands up to him at the end of the first act he proves willing to back off if she'll still regard him "as a professional confidant". In the third act, Stathis gets a lot more than he bargained for when she confides in him that Seth is undergoing a Slow Transformation into a Half-Human Hybrid, and just as he's getting his head around how bad that situation really is she confides in him that she's pregnant with Seth's baby — something she cannot bring herself to tell Seth. The tragic climax is put into motion when Seth finds out about all of this.
• In Holiday, Ned's main function is to provide his sister with a sympathetic ear and a timely pep talk.
• In Knives Out, Marta was this for her employer and close friend, Harlan. Despite the rest of the Thrombleys looking down on her, Harlan trusted her enough to clue her in about some of the family's secrets and seek her advice, meaning she is way more on top of things than the others give her credit for.
• The TV film A Love to Remember (2021) features Tenley being mistaken for the new wife of her online crush Jared through an unfortunate sequence of interruptions and misunderstandings after Jared is left in a coma on the day he was meant to meet her. The only person in Jared’s family aware of Tenley’s lie is Jared’s younger sister Betsey, who convinces Tenley to keep up the lie as the family need Tenley’s support in other areas until Jared regains consciousness.
• In the made-for-TV film “Love Strikes Twice”, when Maggie Turner finds herself fifteen years in her own past, the only person she tells about her time-travel experience is her brother, a sci-fi fan, to get his opinion on how it might have happened. When Maggie returns to the present, her brother understands her meaning when she says “I just got back”.
• In Major Grom: Plague Doctor, Oleg Volkov, as an Only Friend, is this to Sergey Razumovsky: he listens to his friend's rants about corruptions and justice and offers to solve his problems "in a hard and uncompromising way".
• In Maleficent, the title character's shape-shifting raven servant, Diaval, is meant to serve as her spy, but with him as her only company for sixteen years, he becomes this, as well as a companion.
• In No Name on the Bullet, Luke occasionally visits his fiancée's father Judge Benson to talk about Gant, trying to understand what makes him tick, and the potential strategies for stopping him.

Literature

• The Aeneid: Dido's sister Anna is such an archetype of this trope that Shakespeare referenced it in The Taming of the Shrew; see "Theater" below.
• Zig-Zagged in The Angel of Khan el-Khalili — the self-proclaimed "angel" named Seeker can be bargained with to obtain miracles, but she takes payment in the form of "hidden truths" that are "more than secret." Protagonist Aliaa interprets this to mean confessions and is obliged to share her Dark Secret with Seeker. Part of the bargain stipulates that the secrets must be confessed willingly, and are told in the confidence that Seeker will not share them with outside parties. Seeker believes that these confessions are helpful to her supplicants, asking Aliaa if she doesn't feel unburdened for having shared those painful truths; Aliaa vehemently disagrees.
• James Mackintosh Qwilleran from the The Cat Who... Series books. His folksy, down-to-earth style generally causes even the most reluctant interview subjects to open up to him, allowing him to delve deep into historical research with elderly figures who otherwise might clam up. It also comes in useful when it comes to possible suspects in the murder investigations he inevitably finds himself involved in.
• The Devourers: The Stranger picks Alok out of a crowd to reveal the Masquerade and his family history as the titular werebeasts, correctly assuming that Alok's curiosity would outweigh his caution and he'd know better than to try and share the truth. In the finale, he admits that he'd planned to kill Alok afterwards, but can no longer bring himself to do so.
• On the Discworld, witches typically fill the role of confidant in their towns.
• In Dragaera there are the Discreets, people trained to be the confidants of the powerful.
• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Ginny becomes this to Harry. Harry lies to Ron and Hermione by telling them that he's gotten the basics of Occlumency down and that's why his lessons with Snape ended, and he lets them believe that he's miserable because he had another fight with Cho over Marietta's betrayal. In reality, Harry's miserable because during his last Occlumency lesson, he accidentally saw Snape's memory of James being a Jerkass to him, which is why the lessons ended, and he started having a Broken Pedestal towards his father as a result. Later on in the library, he confesses to Ginny that he actually wants to talk to Sirius, not Cho, but he finds this to be impossible due to Umbridge's many restrictions. Not only does Ginny hear him out, she also tells him that after growing up with Fred and George, anything is possible, which makes Harry feel happy and hopeful. This is the foundation of their eventual romance in the final two books.
• In the Heralds of Valdemar series, this is the primary purpose of the Monarch's Own Herald. The position was established soon after the founding of Valdemar as a way to give the Monarch, who as a Herald him/herself would feel The Chains of Commanding most forcefully, an absolutely trustworthy and incorruptible advisor. Queen's Own Talia exemplifies this, with the added bonus of being The Empath so Selenay doesn't even have to tell her how she feels.
• Jeeves and Wooster: Jeeves is to Bertie and Bertie to most of his friends, although it's often because they're hoping to get Jeeves' advice and assistance secondhand.
• Journey to Chaos: Eric is the only person with whom Kasile feels comfortable venting about The Chains of Command. Part of this is because she can't hide anything from him anyway (due to being Mind Link Mates) and part is because he has absolutely no interest in her queenly title or her court and is thus impartial, and except for their friendship, unconnected.
• The Man Who Carried Trouble has Bill pouring out his trouble to the title character.
• The Mortal Instruments: Isabelle Lightwood confides in her mother, Maryse about the problems in her parents' marriage.
• Psmith: Mike to Psmith but Psmith likes to have an audience, so he makes Mike his "confidential secretary and adviser."
• the secret lives of Princesses: Near a princess's side at all times. A locked safe that keeps all the princess's secrets.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Davos is this to the notoriously coldhearted Stannis, being one of the few men he can trust and show self-doubt in front of.
• Vampire Academy:
  • Sonya Karp realized Lissa was a fellow spirit before the majority of the cast. She kept the secret. She was also aware that her cousin Emily Mastrano was mother to Jill, an illegitimate daughter of royalty. She was Emily's sole confidant in that respect.
  • Daniella Ivashkov was the confidant of Eric Dragomir. She knew he had an illegitimate daughter.
• In The Wheel of Time, Min is this for Rand throughout much of the books. Whether he is ranting or thinking out loud, she is always there for him - sometimes just listening, sometimes giving advice or opinions. As she does not have any political or power agenda of her own, this is one of her primary functions in the series. As Rand slowly goes insane, she is among the last that he ever suspects of being against him (obviously a large reason for that is because they are in love).

Live-Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Tara becomes this to the Slayer over her destructive love affair with Spike. Buffy is so traumatized over the fact that she had basically become her Arch-Enemy Faith that she begs not to be forgiven.
  • Spike himself acts in this role at the beginning of the season; a sign that she's drawn more toward him than to her friends. Spike offers an alternate explanation in "Once More With Feeling" — the fact that he's a vampire means that Buffy can tell herself that her confessions to Spike aren't real like confiding to her friends would be.
• Cheers: A guy came in looking for Gus, a bartender who used to work there because he had a big problem that the other bartender would be able to help with, but Gus hadn't worked there for years. Finally, Coach got sick of the guy going on and on about how great the other bartender was and took on solving the guy's problem himself. It involves the man's son and his fiancé, who is black.
  Coach: It's a problem of communication. Here's what you do you get home, and you sit the kids down, and you say to your boy — what's your boy's name?
  Leo: Ron.
  Coach: Uh, Ron. What's Ron's fiancée's name?
  Leo: Rick.
  Coach: Rick... here's what you say you say, "Rick, Ron..." Rick and Ron?
• CSI: NY: Jo, for Sid. First, when he sells his pillow patent for $27 Million, he asks her not to tell anyone. Later, when she finds out that he's the so-called "Guardian Angel" secretly giving million-dollar checks to seemingly random people, he asks her to keep his name out of it. Finally, after he's diagnosed with cancer he asks her to be his confidant yet again... and to let him decide when the time is right for him to step down from his position as Medical Examiner. She agrees every time.
• Daredevil (2015):
  • When Matt is having self-doubts about his work as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, he turns to confessionals with Father Lantom for moral advice.
  • Foggy attempts to function as one to Matt once he learns Matt's secret identity but it's hamstrung by Foggy's own fears about Matt getting hurt at night.
  • By the time of The Defenders (2017), Karen Page has become one for Matt, plus Frank Castle and Danny Rand.
• Forever (2014): Abe serves this function for Henry, having been his son and known his secrets for decades. Abe worries about what will happen when he's gone, and he has urged Henry to take Jo into his confidence so that she can fill this role for him. Even Dr. Farber, Henry's therapist in "Skinny Dipper" and really his stalker, Adam, tells Henry everyone needs someone they can share secrets with, and the first person he asks about at work is Jo.
• Frasier: Niles Crane often plays this role, usually towards his titular older brother and anyone who has a problem with said older brother. Almost every time Frasier gets into trouble, his very first reaction is to go running to find Niles in order to spill the whole story and/or ask for advice, which Niles always genuinely and thoughtfully (though sarcastically) delivers.
• Game of Thrones: Shae to Sansa, after being made her handmaiden, to the point where HBO's website once listed her as part of the Stark household as opposed to the Lannisters. Particularly noticeable in "The Climb", where Shae is aware of Sansa's engagement to Ser Loras Tyrell, and apparently did not even tell Tyrion about it.
• On Glee, Quinn and Kurt become Confidants for Sam, after they learn by different ways (Quinn by dating him, Kurt by running into him when he was making pizza deliveries) that his family has lost their house and is living out of a motel room and a car. Both of them find ways to help Sam, and keep his secret even under extreme pressure when the WMHS rumour mill starts turning in extremely unflattering fashion to all three.
• Inspector Lynley has his confidant in his partner Sergeant Barbara Havers. Although he has other close friends in the show, two of them disappear after the pilot and the other is his wife - who he either can't confide in because his issues have to do with her, or won't confide in about anything else for any number of other reasons. Meanwhile, he is also Barbara's confidant, where the issue is much more straightforward — he is the only person she has to confide in, period.

• Chloe Sullivan from Season 5 onwards became this to Clark Kent in Smallville. Though sometimes, the burden of keeping Clark's secret, along with his relationship issues, a Lonely Rich Kid who was a former friend of Clark's gets obsessive about finding Clark's secret, and his Love Interest not being too forefront herself, does get to her, and she lets Clark know about it whenever he's being inconsiderate, or upset because of any of the above.
• Supernatural: Bobby got sick of Sam & Dean leaning on him all the time, especially when he had his own problem - Crowley (a Middle-Management Mook type demon) had his soul.
• NCIS:
  • Forensic psychologist Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane when she joins the show in season 15. Not only are her skills used for profiling suspects, but she slips easily into the Team Mom role and becomes uncannily good at getting the team to turn to her when they're having problems instead of bottling up their emotions. Even Gibbs confides in her — though there may be other reasons for that one.
  • Ziva calls Jimmy everyone's confidant during her short return in season 17. He does show he knows quite a bit about the individual team members' pasts compared to other colleagues.

Music

• In Paul McCartney & Wings' "Rock Show":
  In my green metal suit I'm preparing to shoot up the city,
  And the ring at the end of my nose makes me look rather pretty.
  It's a pity there's nobody here to witness the end
  Save for my dear old friend and confidant Mademoiselle Kitty.

Tabletop Games

• Changeling: The Dreaming With the power Confidante, even complete strangers often spill their guts to a pooka. This ability to get people to open up and talk, even about their darkest secrets, is an innate talent (Birthright) common to all pooka. Each has his own way of going about it: some put people off balance with mixed insults and compliments; others rapid-fire questions so fast that the target loses track of what is being said, and some are just so darned cute that no one can resist them.
• Warhammer 40,000: Malcador the Sigillite was this to the Emperor of Mankind, being effectively second-in-command of the entire Imperium. He seems to have been the only person the Emperor trusted implicitly, even moreso than his own sons, and was the only man who could speak to the Emperor more or less as an equal. How exactly he wound up in this privileged position is unknown: he and the Emperor were already friends when the Emperor revealed himself publicly during the Age of Strife.

Theatre

• The Container: Miram acts as this to Asha, as she discusses her backstory, as well as the stories of the other passengers in the container.
• The Taming of the Shrew: Tranio serves as this to Lucentio.
  "...And now in plainness do confess to thee
  That art to me as secret and as dear
  As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was,
  Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
  If I achieve not this young modest girl.
  Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst.
  Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt."

Toys

• Gogo's Crazy Bones has two characters like this:
  • Angiru, a standard confident that other Gogos can tell their secrets to, ensuring that the secrets are forever safe in his mind.
  • Tsu from the Megatrip set, who keeps other Gogos' secrets safe in her hair.

Video Games

• In The Elder Scrolls series, the leaders of the Blades, who have long served the Tamriellic Emperors as bodyguards and spies, are naturally this toward the emperors as well as being Secret Keepers. For example, Blades Grandmaster Jauffre was entrusted by Emperor Uriel Septim VII to take and hide away Uriel's bastard son, Martin. This was kept a secret, even from Martin, until the events of Oblivion forced Jauffre to reveal it.
• Byleth's supports in Fire Emblem: Three Houses often had characters approach them with their innermost problems that they wouldn't dare tell anyone else. Their appearance in Fire Emblem Engage has Byleth retain this trait.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link becomes this for Zelda once the latter gets over her initial jealousy of the former's apparent ease in meeting the expectations of his destiny. Turns out Link was just as anxious about fulfilling his duties as a knight and as Zelda's bodyguard as Zelda was about sealing Calamity Ganon with powers she cannot awaken. Once Zelda finds this out and starts sharing her own insecurities with him, they become close friends. Link also becomes this for Riju, who becomes more open with him about her own insecurities once he retrieves the stolen Thunder Helm for her.
• Mass Effect:
  • In the Mass Effect 2 DLC Lair Of The Shadow Broker, it is possible for Liara to become this for Shepard, allowing Shepard to express his or her feelings of grief, frustration, or helplessness about the mission to Liara in a way that they would be unable to do towards any of their crew. This is an attempt by Liara to redress the fact that Shepard tends to act as this for everybody else.
  • In Mass Effect 3, this role moves over to Garrus who, as one of the longest-serving and most loyal of Shepard's True Companions, doesn't need any soft soap about how the war is going. He's also practically the only one who Shepard sees fit to talk to about the burden of command thanks to Garrus' stints as a squad leader in-between games (as Archangel on Omega between 1 and 2 and as commander of the turian "Reaper task force" between 2 and 3 and becoming one of the highest-ranking turians alive when the Reapers do arrive). Liara also continues to act as an always open sympathetic ear for Shepard's doubts and feelings of Survivor Guilt. Tali and Joker, being the other two longest and most loyal friends, also pick up some slack as Shepard becomes more burnt out as the war continues.
• Tales of Berseria:
  • Eleanor eventually becomes this to Velvet despite their extremely rocky start. Following the group's escape from Innomiant, Velvet lets Eleanor in on certain things that she doesn't tell the other party members, and Eleanor keeps quiet about it. There are a few occasions they have private discussions, especially when they are heading to the last battle, and Velvet more or less confesses to Eleanor there is a chance she might not make it. Eleanor then makes a promise to look after Laphicet if anything does happen.
  • Alternatively, in an optional skit Eleanor tells Velvet she is all she's got when it comes to disclosing or discussing certain topics as well.
• Social Links in the Persona series frequently take this form, with the Link characters, each representing one of the major arcana, gradually reveal their conflicts and problems to the protagonist, who in turn provides support and helps them sort out their issues. Persona 5 takes things further by actually renaming Social Links to Confidants. There, each character has something troubling them, either in the past or present, and Joker hears their issues and helps them solve them in exchange for services that benefit the Phantom Thieves. Most also have another person who is either causing or exacerbating those issues whose name you learn and whose shadow you defeat and reform in Mementos. In the end, each Confidant you max out helps the rest of the Phantom Thieves clear Joker's name to get him out of jail using their own set of connections.
  • Your link with Ann in particular in part begins with her tearfully confessing how she feels about being made to go out with Kamoshida and being seen as a slut by the student body, then wonders aloud why she's revealing this all to a complete stranger. You then suggest that it's because you're an uninvolved party who won't judge her which allows her to trust her secrets to you.

Visual Novels

• In Daughter for Dessert, the protagonist is the one to whom Mortelli tells his secrets (even the ones that he insists aren’t secrets).
• A few different ones in Double Homework:
  • Amy confides everything about her life in Morgan.
  • Morgan also confides her own biggest secret to the protagonist.
  • The protagonist chooses his own confidant when he’s trying to get into the ski lodge and needs someone on the inside (Lauren, Morgan, Amy, or Rachel). He tells this girl the whole truth about his and Tamara’s roles in the Barbarossa incident.
• The Fruit of Grisaia: Yumiko fills this role for protagonist Yuuji outside her route, Yuuji turns to her because she seems to be the most reliable (and sane) of the cast when it comes to serious matters.

• Melody:
  • The protagonist serves this purpose for Arnold at Amy’s birthday dinner, hearing him out about his personal history and advising him to make the changes he wants to make in his life.
  • Xianne also fills this role in a conversation with Arnold, hearing him out about his relationship with his stepdaughter (whom she only finds out late is Melody), and telling him to be more emotionally open with her.
  • Invoked by Sophia after she finds out how Melody stole back her guitar and messed around with Steve’s social media pages. She reminds Melody that she can trust her with these things, and expresses a wish that Melody told her about what she did before.

Web Comics

• Cursed Princess Club:
  • Gwendolyn has the members of the Cursed Princess Club (particularly Calpernia) and her brother Jamie with whom she can confide. The CPC are the first ones to hear that her arranged fiancé Frederick thinks she's ugly, and they do their best to advise her both on how to love herself independently of other's opinions and how to try and smooth things out with him. Jamie, meanwhile, can tell his sister has been feeling down lately and gets her to open up to him about her misgivings over her betrothal to Frederick. While she doesn't specifically tell him about Frederick calling her ugly or about the existence of the CPC, he's perfectly fine with not pressing her on every topic, and he's able to figure out enough from what she does tell him to resolve to be an active Romantic Wingman for her.
  • Gwendolyn herself gradually becomes one for Frederick, to the surprise of both. Initially, Frederick is repulsed and frightened by Gwen's appearance, to the point that he begs his unsympathetic father to not make him go through with the marriage. As he is forced to interact more with her, however, he realizes that she's a very kindhearted girl who makes a constant effort to be nice to him and appeal to his interests even though she knows what he thinks of her appearance. When Gwen finds him alone in the Plaid Palace's library during his brother Lance's birthday party, Frederick offhandedly admits that seeing his family members "always surrounded by tons of adoring people" just reinforces his sadness over being The Un Favourite. He's shocked and embarrassed that he would blurt out something that private to anyone, especially her, but her heartfelt advice in response seems to convince him that he wasn't wrong to do so.
• El Goonish Shive: Evidently puppets are nature's psychiatrists.
• Gunnerkrigg Court:
  • Kat becomes this to Annie, an antisocial girl who tends to bottle up her emotions. The fox spirit Reynard is this to both of them and generally acts as a mediator in their friendship.
  • Kat inverts this in the 'Catalyst' chapter, after she realizes that she's bisexual and kisses Paz. Annie walks in on the two, and Kat comments that if Annie knows it, she doesn't care who else does.
• Homestuck:
  • Karkat is one of the few people willing to put up with Eridan's melodramatic shenanigans and take him seriously. Kanaya is one of the few people willing to put up with Karkat's rudeness and take him seriously.
  • It's implied that a good moirallegiance involves the two participants becoming this to each other.

Web Original

• Hector's World actually has two: Senorita Ortega (whose very job is giving advice) and Kui, an old whale who gives advice.

Web Videos

• Noob: Ash exploits this trope when it comes to Tenshirock, with whom he shares an odd Villainous Friendship. The dialog between the two is 90% Tenshirock explaining to Ash his latest plan to drive people off MMORPG or refusing to help with Ash's Real Money Trade activities and Ash snarking back. In Season 5, it turns out that Ash has been trying to pry a piece of information out of Tenshirock for several years and been gravitating around him in the hope he'd let it slip. When another character shows up offering Ash an information exchange with Ash being able to choose what he wants, his immediate reply is "I want to know Tenshirock's secret.".
• Youth & Consequences: Farrah and Colin become this to each other, being the only people they both talk about regarding their family issues.

Western Animation

• Diane Nguyen in BoJack Horseman, especially in the first season.
• In The Legend of Korra, Korra is suffering a Heroic BSoD after being poisoned by Zaheer. She's home at the South Pole to recover from being paralyzed and to get the Avatar state back. While all of her friends send her letters, she only responds to Asami, telling her about all of her fears and struggles.
• Steven Universe: The episode "Rose's Scabbard" reveals that Pearl was Rose Quartz's sole confidant, and she shares those secrets with Steven since he has Rose's gem. She later suffers a Heroic BSoD when she finds out that there were some secrets (such as Lion's existence) that Rose kept even from her. This becomes much harsher when the truth about what happened to Pink Diamond is revealed. Pearl knew because she was Pink Diamond's Pearl, but was physically unable to tell anyone for thousands of years, even after Rose's "Death."
• In ThunderCats, Court Mage and Old Retainer Jaga suspects that young Rebel Prince Lion-O has seen a vision during a Rite of Passage, and is frightened of disclosing it because of a reputation as a Cloudcuckoolander and family Black Sheep. To prompt Lion-O to confide in him, Jaga notes that legend says "... our greatest king will possess the ability of "Sight Beyond Sight." which prompts Lion-O to ask a Trial Balloon Question about visions. After a pep talk, Lion-O is won over and says he has something to tell Jaga.
• Kaeloo:
  • In later seasons of the show, as Kaeloo learns to open up about her problems instead of suppressing her emotions, Mr. Cat becomes this to her, as she is able to vent to him about anything.
  • In season 5, Mr. Cat gains his own confidant in the form of Quack-Quack, after the latter encourages him to confront the bad impacts that his bad childhood has had on him. Throughout this season, Mr. Cat slowly opens up about the way his trauma shaped him as a person, and Quack-Quack is the only person he trusts enough with the secret that he has decided to pursue therapy for his issues.
• The Simpsons: Some episodes have suggested Lisa acts as this to Homer on the occasions he has a problem he doesn't want Marge to know about. Results can be exactly as mixed as you'd expect from a Manchild like Homer asking for help from an eight-year-old.
  Lisa: You're very lucky to have Mom.
  Homer: That's your advice?! Go to bed!

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