Basic Trope: An apparent Nice Guy turns out to be a Jerkass, often even a villain.
- Straight: Alice seems like a gentle, reserved, glasses-wearing beauty, but turns out to be an Alpha Bitch.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is practically a Devil in Plain Sight, acting kind and sweet in public, but being a horrible, manipulative monster to anyone she gets alone, to the point where it's amazing she's able to maintain the facade at all.
- On the outside, Alice is kindness incarnate: she donates much of her wealth to charity, does community service, and was voted the most friendly person in the world... but really, behind that PR smokescreen, she is a literal Rich Bitch in charge of a company with dubious track records in everything except annual profits, has a penchant to make her employees suffer for the slightest and flimsiest — often even made-up for the sake of punishment — faults, tries to bribe those aware of her misdeeds, and will silence anyone unwilling to accept the bribe and/or threatening to expose her.
- Alice may be the sweetest, most lovely girl in the place, yet that cute exterior hides a vicious, unrepentant criminal with a severe Lack of Empathy.
- Faux Affably Evil.
- Evil All Along.
- Bait the Dog.
- Downplayed:
- Some forms of Beware the Nice Ones.
- Tsundere: Alice conceals her cranky side with a sweet exterior.
- Stepford Smiler
- Alice seems rather shy and unassuming, which she genuinely is. Once she feels comfortable, she reveals just how much contempt she has for the people around her.
- Alice gives her kind persona a few token flaws so people won't think she is too good to be true.
- Alice is nice to everyone except Bob.
- Jerkass at Your Discretion
- Justified:
- Alice has a position or family life which requires a high amount of charisma or a constant facade of amiability. Since she can never appropriately express negative emotions or opinions, they come out in inappropriate or exaggeratedly abusive mannerisms.
- Alice is a highly functional psychopath who knows exactly what to do to make people believe she's a sweetheart, all while committing atrocities when no one is looking.
- Inverted:
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Alice normally behaves rudely and off-puttingly, but if you do get to know her better, she's quite caring and amiable to her friends.
- Tsundere: Alice has a cranky exterior that conceals a sweet side.
- Alice is a Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing. While she seems “mean” and is “on the side of the bad guys”, she’s just pretending to be on their side to help the good guys.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While Alice maintains an aloof, cold, stern exterior and does not open up easily to people, she still has a kind and friendly soul, and once you develop a bond, she may well become your best friend ever.
- Being a scheming crime boss doesn't prevent Alice from also being polite and respectful even to her enemies (let alone underlings or servants).
- Lovable Alpha Bitch
- Lovable Rogue
- Subverted:
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing.
- Alice is a lot meaner in private than she is in public, but it's because she's afraid to get close to anyone after previous bad experiences.
- Alice really is just that nice.
- Took a Level in Kindness
- Alice has a Hidden Heart of Gold.
- Superdickery
- Double Subverted:
- Except even that is just another layer of her disguise; she may want to avoid any romantic relationships, but she's not above lacing people's drinks.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
- Parodied:
- Alice is a Purity Sue in public and a cackling Card-Carrying Villain in private. Even her clothes change, without explanation.
- Alice is wearing a literal wolf-in-a-sheep costume.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice is a very nice and friendly person in public, but an Alpha Bitch in private...but it turns out that she is still a fundamentally good person, just a bit rougher...however, that turns out to be yet another layer, and she's a manipulative Rich Bitch underneath...except she's Affably Evil. Actually, she's Faux Affably Evil, but she is also a Well-Intentioned Extremist. No, wait, that was just a front to gain publicity... Or was it? It turns out that while she is a well-intentioned extremist, her means of bringing a utopia seem unnecessarily evil to everyone but her, so she has to put up a front anyway. Well, that is until she reveals her true colors - an evil supervillain. Or is she? It turns out that another, bigger supervillain with the unusually mundane name of Bob was staging the reveal. But then it turns out that she IS evil anyway, and she joins Bob's cause. No, wait, she's just a Mole.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent
- There are some people who Alice is genuinely kind to, and others she pretends to be nice to. Still others she does not even bother pretending to be nice to.
- Averted:
- Alice is exactly as nice as she appears and no one ever even hints otherwise.
- Bitch Alert.
- Enforced: "Man, the audience wants Bob with Claire, but we can't just kill Alice off. I know! Let's 'reveal' that she's actually been pure evil underneath all along and just pretending to be sweet! It couldn't possibly fail!"
- Lampshaded: "I should have known you were a bitch. All pretty flowers do is distract from razor thorns."
- Invoked: Alice knows that her personality won't get her any allies, so she starts trying her hardest to seem sweet, though she never denies her inner personality.
- Defied:
- Bob personally investigates everyone he comes into contact with to ensure he won't be fooled by a pleasant act.
- Bob calls Alice out for only pretending to be nice, and convinces her to drop the "sweet" act entirely.
- “I am not going to hide my true colors behind a Nice Guy facade! I’m a jerkass, and I’m going to be open about it!”
- Exploited: Charlie decides to blackmail Alice about her meaner side for personal gain.
- Discussed: "Keep an eye on that one; there's no way she's that sweet."
- Conversed: "Sure, she seems sweet, but she's a) the most popular girl in school and b) dating the main character's love interest. Odds are good it's just an act hiding one sick bitch."
- Implied: We are never shown whether or not Alice’s kindness is a facade or not but Alice tends to have a lot of “innocently” insensitive moments and her apologies for those sound a bit forced and insincere.
- Deconstructed:
- Once Alice drops the facade in front of somebody, word spreads and her mask is permanently fractured until her sweet persona has completely crumbled in the face of utter disbelief.
- Alice's horrible attitude causes her to become Lonely at the Top since nobody wants to talk to her.
- The heroes are taken in by her and disdain the rough diamond Billie, resulting in disaster. And they're still not seeing through Alice, because she is still charming, so they blame Billie, who is deeming them, idiots.
- Alice's persona ensures that she is never held accountable because people are so taken in by her persona that they consistently side with her, even when her victims and those she's harassed, hurt and broken down for daring to be in her path try to get people to realize this. Many of her victims either end up having to flee and hide to escape her, or become jaded and quiet in the belief that people will never recognize how awful she truly is, cynically noting how doing surface level good deeds is enough to make people think her negative qualities don't matter, or the hurt and pain she's inflicted are to be brushed under the rug.
- Reconstructed:
- Aware that her reputation could be ruined by word getting out, Alice takes steps to ensure nobody who sees her Alpha Bitch tendencies will ever be able to warn anyone.
- Disillusioned Billie sets out to form her own team, seeking out less powerful characters with better judgment, who can solve the problem. Afterward, said "heroes" who trusted Alice are now judged as the idiots Billie said they were, to her amusement.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice literally turns into a snarling, drooling monster the second everyone but Bob isn't paying attention. Of course, nobody believes his babbling about her horrible alter-ego.
- Alternatively, the character Bob, hurt by Alice, sets her up with the even worse character Charlie. Alice proceeds to get her just desserts to Bob's amusement.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice lures Bob into an abusive relationship, then plays the Wounded Gazelle Gambit when he tries to tell others, leaving everyone hating him and rallying around her for support.
- Again, Bob is hurt by Alice and he sets her up with the worse character Charlie. Alice gets her just desserts and more. It becomes so bad that Alice is emotionally and/or physically abused much worse than she abused people. Even when she repents she is still stuck with Charlie. Bonus points if Bob refuses to help.
- Played for Horror: Alice tortures, rapes, and kills people in cold blood in private.
Back to Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. And if you tell anyone what I did...
