Not Me This Time

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Mojo Jojo: Oh, for crying out loud, no! I had no intention of committing any crimes! ...today.
-- The Powerpuff Girls, "Telephonies"

In a series with a recurring Big Bad, it is sometimes the case that a side-villain or Monster Of The Week is introduced to cause havoc and shake things up.

Of course, since this is a series with a recurring Big Bad, our heroes may feel perfectly justified in going after the usual suspects. This trope refers to such scenes, in which our regular villain is forced to inform the protagonists that this installment's plot is not his or her doing. This may or may not be believed at first, but after the villain's innocence is established, expect him to curtly dismiss the heroes.

Traditional Truce Zone requirements mandate that regardless of all the crimes they committed yesterday, if caught for the wrong thing today; the heroes have to let them go. Either that or the Big Bad is a Karma Houdini and/or got Off On A Technicality for yesterday's crimes.

This trope can be chalked up to The Law Of Conservation Of Detail: if you're going to have your villain appear, it might as well be relevant to the plot at hand.

This trope may also occur with any character who has a recurring habit. May or may not lead to Evil Versus Evil or Enemy Mine, depending on the story.

Also see Villains Out Shopping, which might explain the villain's innocence. Compare Motive Misidentification. Compare Did Not Eat the Mousse.

Examples

Contents

[edit] Anime and manga

  • Pokemon has its share of villains that aren't Team Rocket, whether single-episode Pokemon menaces, thieves, the region's local villainous team, or Bill Butch and Cassidy. As Jessie and James end up appearing in every episode, they get more than their share of this trope.
  • When Tohma of Magical Chronicles Lyrical Nanoha Force gets captured by the Huckebein, an infamous family of killers, he accuses them of being the culprits behind the destruction of his hometown. Not so, says Fortis. He double-checked, and they're not behind that particular massacre. After all, Tohma survived, and if they were the ones responsible, they would have made sure to kill everyone.
  • Keroro Gunsou has a rather sad example in one chapter. Keroro is expecting praise for doing a good job cleaning the house, but is instead met with furious accusations by Natsumi and Fuyuki of screwing with computer networks across the city, and has a nervous breakdown when they refuse to believe his pleas that he's not responsible. The real culprits turn out to be the Garuru Platoon, as a prelude to taking over the invasion of Earth.
  • Subverted in Naruto, when Madara claims that he was not behind the Nine-Tailed Fox attacking Konoha despite confirming or expanding on much of what Sasuke was told about him, when a later flashback arc shows that he was.
    • Though it should be noted, he wasn't exactly telling a lie. He was the cause of the event, but he didn't intend the event to unfold the way it did. In fact, one can argue what happened was better than what would have happened had things not gone out of his control.
    • Orochimaru gets this treatment as well, especially through the fillers, though nobody has the guts to go to him and tell him to his face (nor would they be able to, being on the run and all). Aizen falls in the same boat.

[edit] Comic Books

  • Marvel Knights: Spider-Man kick off with a story where aunt May gets kidnapped and he goes running to Norman Osborn, who's in prison, demanding he return her. Osborn says he had nothing to do with it, what with, you know, being in prison and all...
    • This is actually remarkably Genre Savvy on Spidey's part, since being in prison or even dead has not stopped Osborn from wreaking all sorts of havoc in Peter's life before.
    • This happens to Spider-Man a LOT, apparently. During the Fallen Son arc mourning Captain America's death. While at the grave of Uncle Ben, Spidey sees Rhino walking through the cemetery. He attacks, thinking he's up to something (despite Rhino pleading that he isn't here to fight), and their fight breaks a gravestone belonging to Rhino's mother... which was the only reason he was there in the first place. When he realizes this, Spider-Man attempts to apologize, but Rhino is, understandably, far too angry to listen.
    • In the Spider-Man spin off Jackpot, the heroine, later accompanied by Spidey himself, beats up a minor villainess who was smuggling but really hadn't anything to do with what Jackpot wanted to know about. The snippy answer of the villainess was something around the lines of : "What? Do you think every villain in New York gets a daily update about every crime?!"
  • Similarly, there was a Mickey Mouse comic where a series of crimes is committed that seem to be the work of the Phantom Blot. Mickey goes to see him in jail, but the Blot tells him he's in jail and hasn't busted out, as the guards will testify, but he appreciates Mickey thinking of him.
    • In another comic, Mickey and O'Hara are investigating some robberies when they run into the Blot walking down the street, prompting the latter to arrest him on the spot (with no evidence whatsoever). The Blot doesn't resist and firmly denies everything, which Mickey notices is not like him and thinks he may even be innocent. It turns out he did do it...however he's not actually the Phantom Blot but rather a magically summoned duplicate created by Magica DeSpell.
    • With the Blot it seems to be a recurring theme. Due to him wearing disguises anyway, it is easy for various copycats to use his identity and general style for a while. There are several variations on how is this resolved. At least some having the genuine Blot being the one to take down the imitators.
  • In one issue of Birds Of Prey, Black Canary's old mentor was murdered while she visited him in Hong Kong, even though he was terminally ill and would have died soon anyway. She quickly assumed that the supervillainess Cheshire committed the crime due to their history of animosity; the means of the crime, poison, also happened to be Cheshire's specialty. After Black Canary tracked Cheshire down, attacked and captured her, she found out that Cheshire did not do it; rather, it was the deed of a corrupt US senator who arranged the murder specifically so it would point to Cheshire. The two of them were enemies and he hoped Canary would deal with Cheshire for him. However, they eventually discover that it really was Cheshire after all. She made it look like she was being framed so that Canary would help her get back to the US as part of a Xanatos Roulette.
  • A story in Gotham Central had someone killing teenagers dressed as Robin, but despite Batman's violent interrogations, none of the usual rogues turned out to have any involvement.
  • The Astro City story "Adventures In Other Worlds" plays this to eleven. When Astra Furst of the First Family goes missing, they hunt down all of their usual super-villain enemies, convinced that one of them has captured her. Each villain's latest scheme gets disrupted, even though none of them are guilty of kidnapping Astra... who, instead, has run away from home to experience elementary school (and learn how to play hopscotch).
  • In an issue of the Justice League Unlimited spin-off comic, The Question sets out to discover who was responsible for a bomb smuggled into the Watchtower. Lex Luthor is the lead suspect, but when confronted Luthor points out that if the bomb had gone off as planned, the Justice League would never have known what hit them -- and when he destroys the Justice League, he'll do it in such a way that they'll know exactly what hit them.
  • In the Spider-Man spin off Jackpot, the heroine, later accompanied by Spidey himself, beats up a minor villainess who was smuggling but really hadn't anything to do with what Jackpot wanted to know about. The snippy answer of the villainess was something around the lines of : "What? Do you think every villain in New York gets a daily update about every crime?!"
  • In the year-long Batman Story Arc "Hush", after having seen his old childhood friend "Tommy" being supposedly gunned down by the Joker, Bruce is chasing after him in a murderous rage. A part of his mind is confused that the Joker is protesting his innocence (something he's not exactly known for), but it's drowned out by the red rage.
    Joker: Stop me if you've heard this one before... I'm innocent.
    • Joker: Devil's Advocate is another example of this: the Joker was actually innocent of the crime of placing Joker venom on lickable stamps. Turns out it was a disgruntled member of the Post Office who did it to frame the Joker, who killed his wife.
    • In a recent Batman issue, Batman pursues a recently escaped Joker because he thinks Joker was responsible for attacking and poisoning Commissioner Gordon's wife. After defeating him, however, and Batman tells him to stay away from the Gordons, Joker revealed that this time, he was completely innocent of attacking the Gordons. It was actually James Gordon Jr. who did the deed.
  • Non-villainous example in Asterix and the Magic Carpet. Cacofonix's singing is now so bad it causes rainstorms to occur, much to the annoyance of the rest of the village. On a trip to India to fix a drought, their flying carpet encounters a heavy storm, forcing Cacofonix to protest that this one has nothing to do with him.
  • This happens to Spider-Man a LOT, apparently. During the Fallen Son arc mourning Captain America's death. While at the grave of Uncle Ben, Spidey sees Rhino walking through the cemetery. He attacks, thinking he's up to something, and their fight breaks a gravestone, belonging to Rhino's mother, which was the only reason he was there in the first place.
  • In Star Wars Legacy, the Yuuzhan Vong were accused of using the terraforming to devastate the already damaged planets ecosystems even further by causing deformities in the terraforming process, an accusation that stemmed from their role in the Yuuzhan Vong conflict long ago. The Yuuzhan Vong protested that they were in fact innocent and that they did not cause the deformities, at least not deliberately, to which the Jedi believed them. Turns out, they really were innocent: The One Sith sabotaged the terraforming project with the help of a Yuuzhan Vong plant of theirs who wanted revenge for their defeat.
  • Just before the Our Worlds At War Mega-Crossover over at DC, Superman is tussling with General Zod in the upper atmosphere, when a huge SOMETHING flies past Superman, towards the Earth. Supe's response?
    Superman: You missed!
    Zod: ...That wasn't mine.
    Superman: I'm not falling for-
    Zod: No, listen to me. That wasn't mine. (they stare at each other) Perhaps this is best settled later?
  • In Curtis, Greg and Diane Wilkins are in their bedroom for the night, only to hear a crash originating from Curtis and Barry's room. They naturally assume that they got into a fight again. However, the final panel has them screaming for help with multiple crashing sounds, revealing that this time, the crash was not from one of their fights.
    • The next strip reveals the cause for the crash were hailstones the size of eggs or golfballs.
  • In The Sandman, Dream gets dumped by his most recent girlfriend. Afterwards, he goes to see his brother / sister Desire, who has a history of setting up and destroying any kind of relationship on a multi-universal scale. Desire bluntly tells him that "it" would love to take credit for Dream getting dumped, but "it" had nothing to do with the situation; this time it was all Dream's fault. Though to be fair, Dream was hardly without reason to suspect Desire; "it" had already ruined one of his relationships just for the sake of doing it (and at the cost of their friendship).

[edit] Film

  • Anybody who's seen La Folie Des Grandeurs will remember this immortal quote: "Non Sire! Pour une fois c'était pas moi!" ("No, sire! For once it wasn't me!")
  • Spoken word for word by John Spartan in Demolition Man, when his first attempt to capture Simon Phoenix results in a building in flames (blown up by Phoenix) and a heap of charred hostages (killed by Phoenix before Spartan dropped in, specifically to hide them from infrared scan until their unrecognizable remains could be found in the wreckage).
  • In the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, "On Stranger Tides", Jack Sparrow is believed to be trying to locate a ship to find the Fountain of Youth, as well as recruiting a crew. Turns out, for once, he was not the one who is actually doing it. It was Angelica, a former flame of Sparrow, who was doing this, while disguised as him.
    • However, a tad of an inversion. This was by far not the worst thing he's been accused of, and most of the other stuff were worse and true.
  • In Apollo13, Fred Haise has been using the cabin repress valve, which causes a sharp banging sound, to mess with the other astronauts. When the oxygen tank explodes and the entire ship starts shaking, he rushes in saying, "That's no repress valve!"
  • In The Spy Who Loved Me British Intelligence are at first concerned that whoever is behind the tracking and theft of their nuclear subs because they are worried that an unknown foreign power is trying to, or will, undermine their nuclear defense strategy; Bond's original mission is to buy the plans for the tracking system from someone who had them stolen. Later the Big Bad, who is behind the actual thefts, reveals that his plan is to fire nukes at New York and Moscow to trigger World War Three; Bond thinks that he's trying to hold the world hostage, but he really wants to devastate the world and build an underwater utopia for the survivors to start civilization anew.
  • At the beginning of Pitch Black, a survivor of a crash landing on an unknown planet disappears, and the convict protagonist Riddick is blamed for this. He says it wasn't him and it's confirmed. The rest of the film, he has to reassure the survivors "it's not him they should be afraid of".

[edit] General Animation

  • Happens in The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian," when it was Lisa who did something bad for a change:
    Marge: Bart, Nooooo!
    Bart: (standing beside her) What?
    Marge: Sorry, force of habit. Lisa, nooooo!
    • In "Wedding For Disaster", Homer is kidnapped and Bart and Lisa, after finding a potential clue, assume Sideshow Bob is responsible. They track him down, but he is proven innocent of this particular crime. Ironically, one of the true culprits was a near-victim of Sideshow Bob in the past, Selma Bouvier, along with her Psycho Lesbian twin sister, Patty Bouvier.
      • Happens earlier in "Brother from Another Series" where Bob goes to work building a dam with his brother Cecil's company. Bart suspects Bob is up to no good as usual but this turns out to be the one time he isn't planning something evil, it's his brother in an embezzlement (and technically revenge) scheme. When Wiggum shows up to arrest Cecil, he arrests Bob as well, mostly just out of habit.
      Bob: But I saved the children!
      Cecil: Tell them they'll live to regret this.
      Bob: "You'll all live to regret this!" Oh, thanks a lot, now I look crazy!
    • In the episode Two Dozen And One Greyhounds, Lisa, Marge, and Homer wonder who was causing various problems within the house lately (such as tearing up all her test papers, a broken vase, and spreading garbage all over the neighbor's yard before Homer got the chance to, respectively). Bart quips that he was this time innocent of these, and felt they were simply senseless destruction without any of his usual commentary. Turns out, it was the dog, who was continuing his path of destruction even in the room where they were located discussing what's happening.
  • In the Sushi Pack episode "The Thing That Wasn't There," an electrical creature that ByTheEyesOfTheBlind only Maguro can see is causing havoc all over the city. Since the attacks all have to do with electricity, the rest of the Pack assume that Unagi, the electric eel member of The Legion of Low Tide is up to no good. When they confront him, he denies having anything to do with it.
    Unagi: What'd I do? I didn't do anything!
    Kani: Yeah, right.
    Tako: We're on to you, Unagi. Your plan.
    Unagi: Um, what plan was that?
    Ikura: Your plan to distract everyone by turning up the volume on their car radios while you take over all the vacuum cleaners in Wharf City.
    Unagi: Hm... Not bad. But that isn't my plan. I don't have a plan. I wish I had a plan!
  • In the Powerpuff Girls episode which provides the page quote, the girls are pranked into believing the series regular villains are doing something evil and confront them -- only to find all three of them relaxing at home. Although the girls are not convinced, the villains quickly realize something is up and team up to deal with the pranksters themselves.
    • In another episode, a hit to the head makes Bubbles believe she is Mojo Jojo, stealing his clothes to match. The other girls instantly assume the latter is responsible, which leads to the priceless line:
      Mojo Jojo: You have got to be kidding. I'm wet, I'm naked, your sister is wearing my clothes, and this is all part of some evil plot TO RULE THE WORLD AS A SOGGY CHIMP IN MY BIRTHDAY SUIT?!
      • Bubbles proceeded to beat up her sisters, get knocked on the head again by Mojo Jojo, wake up to see him standing over her sisters gloating, assume he did it and kick his ass for hurting her sisters.
  • In Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego, it often seems like the only time that the two protagonists Ivy and Zack actually do catch their nemesis Carmen is when she didn't do what they caught her for.
  • The Venture Brothers plays with this one: When their Rusty and Brock get kidnapped (along with Baron Underbheit and Pete White), the titular characters immediately call the Monarch (more or less the BigBad) to demand their release. He responds that it wasn't him this time, but "I have something planned for next week."
  • David Xanatos was behind so much of the Gargoyles troubles, that they assumed he was responsible for Goliath and Elisa's disappearance. Brooklyn opposed confronting him on it, as it would only tip him off. It did.
    • This happens to him a few times. In another episode, where the Gargoyles are looking into who stole the Scrolls of Merlin, and Broadway is missing, they immediately head to Xanatos, only to have Owen tell them Xanatos had nothing to do with it. He then helpfully suggests they try MacBeth, who was behind the theft.
  • Inverted in one episode of A Pup Named Scooby Doo, where it turns out it really was Red Herring this time; naturally, it was the one episode where Freddie promised not to accuse of him of anything.
  • When Kim Possible finds out that her Arch Enemy Dr. Drakken has been broken out of prison by a woman with "green energy blasts", she naturally drops in on his Sidekick Shego, only to find out later that it was actually an alien who did it.
    Shego: I'm. On. Vacation!
    Ron: So, it wasn't you that busted out Drakken?
    Shego: Who do you think I'm vacationing from?
    • Also done in the first part of the two-parter series finale: Graduation Part 1. When several golf courses were undergoing eruptions, Kim Possible suspects Duff Killigan for the event. When confronted with the issue, Killigan explains that he wasn't involved, and even takes it a step further to reveal that his own golf course was defaced in a similar manner.
    • Ron and Yori attempt to track down their sensei in one episode when it is believed that Monkey Fist kidnapped him. Turns out, not only did Monkey Fist have absolutely nothing to do with the kidnapping, but the actual kidnapper, Gorilla Fist/D.N. Amy actually kidnapped sensei in order to deceive Ron and Yori into trying to track down Monkey Fist so she could locate him (since Monkey Fist was attempting to flee from her).
  • At the beginning of an episode of Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command, a bunch of important politicians are kidnapped. Buzz then videocalls Zurg to confront him. Not only does Zurg claim he has nothing to do with it (calling it too obvious), he steps aside to show that he was in a meeting with every other recurring villain on the show who deny it as well. However, Zurg also mentions his "great plans for the next fiscal year".
  • One episode of Rugrats has Suzie blame Angelica for stealing her brand-new tricycle and punishes her by tying her doll to a balloon and letting it go. Despite the evidence against her, Angelica was completely innocent - Suzie's trike was under her porch, Angelica's trike was her own and Angelica's red hands (which Suzie thought was from opening her garage's painted doors) were actually from her finger painting an apology letter. Thankfully for Suzie, a miracle (or a low-flying plane) gets Angelica's doll back to her and everyone's happy again.
    • Except for Chuckie. It was his balloon.
  • In the Invader Zim episode "Planet Jackers", Zim initially thinks GIR is responsible for screwing up his telescope, but this turns out to not be the case.
    Zim: You mean something's broken, and it's not your fault?
    GIR: I know. I'm scared too!
  • Hurricanes played this trope in the episode "Target: Winston". When Stats reveals to Amanda Carey evidence suggesting that the explosion that almost killed Winston Honeychurch wasn't an accident, she quickly suspected that Stavros Garkos, the show's main BigBad and Corrupt Corporate Executive, was behind this. She later learned he wasn't.
  • Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog had an episode where Tails had been abducted and Robotnik wasn't behind this.
    Robotnik: To be truthful, you horrible hedgehog, I have no idea where your feckless friend is.
    Sonic: And why should I believe you?
    Robotnik: Use your spiky head! If I'd had captured your companion, I'd be torturing him right now.
  • In Spider Man The New Animated Series], Kraven the Hunter apparently murders Mary Jane. In a rage, Spider-Man very nearly kills Kraven, only to discover that Kraven is innocent. Mary Jane was never murdered, and Spider-Man had been tricked by two other villains into thinking Kraven had killed her. (Kraven had killed the parents of the villains, and they weren't powerful enough to take revenge themselves.) Kraven doesn't get away scot-free, however: Spider-Man still drops him off with the police.

[edit] Literature

  • In Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Holly and Root assume it's Artemis behind the B'wa Kell golbin smugglings, but after they pretty much kidnap him to find out, it turns out not to be the case.
  • In the second Night of the Living Dummy book, the heroine, her sister, and her parents enter the sister's room to find that all her bedroom walls have been graffiti'd. The mother yells at the youngest brother, a notorious prankster, but he stops her by saying that this time he's innocent, and that this is messed-up even for him. Of course it turns out that Slappy did it, but who'd believe that?
  • Harry and Ron use Polyjuice potion Chamber of Secrets to imitate Crabbe and Goyle, Draco Malfoy's two mooks, in the hopes of getting Draco to admit that he's the heir of Slytherin, and thus the cause of all the shenanigans happening at Hogwarts that year. Instead, they hear Draco ranting about how thrilled he is that it's happening and how he'd love to congratulate whoever is actually behind it.
    • Similarly, in the film version of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Ron initially guesses when there is a long line towards the Fat Lady that Neville Longbottom must have forgotten the password again, only to learn from Neville's exclaimation that he was behind Ron the whole time, and thus couldn't have been the one keeping them out of the common room. It's revealed shortly afterwards that the reason they aren't allowed access is because the Fat Lady was scared away from her painting.
    • In Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Snape blames Harry's trio for stealing the Polyjuice Potion ingredients missing from his stores. Although they were guilty of that 2 books ago, they are not responsible for it this time.
  • Fainne says this exact line in Child of the Prophecy, by Juliet Mariller. It's really her grandmother who happens to have similar powers and much more motive...
  • Hero version: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

[edit] Television

  • Happens at least once in Farscape. John is thrown into what looks very much like Earth, and immediately suspects Scorpius of messing with his head. However, when he finds Scorpius in the simulacrum, he protests that he's not the one doing it this time.
    • Happens a whole bunch in season 4 when Scorpius joins our heroes on Moya and then again in "The Peacekeeper Wars." To be fair, John has good reason not to trust Scorpius after everything he's put him through.
  • In the Star Trek: TNG episode "Firstborn", Lursa and B'Etor of the House of Duras are suspected of an assasination attempt against Worf. It turns out a future version of Alexander, Worf's son, had traveled back in time to stage this attempt so as to motivate the young Alexander to become a Klingon warrior.
  • Not a recurring Big Bad, but in one episode of Columbo the killers try to make it look like a repeat offender did their murder. Columbo doesn't seem convinced but pays a visit to that offender to be sure.
    Offender: Who are you?
    Columbo: Lieutenant Columbo. Homicide.
    Offender: Homicide... no, I haven't done one of those recently.
  • Japanese Police Procedural Kochira Hon-Ikegamisho had a number of reformed criminal characters who would often be questioned following crimes that resembled their earlier ones.
  • In one episode of NCIS, Tony is framed for a crime. One of the first people he suspects is Ziva.
    Ziva: I would never do that!
    Tony: *looks at her*
    Ziva: Alright, I could. But I didn't.
  • Happens in quite a few episodes of Bewitched. Darrin usually assumes that his troubles are being caused by his wicked mother-in-law, Endora, who claims to be innocent (or doesn't appear in the episode at all). It turns out to be someone else was screwing with Darrin, or the problem was completely mundane with no magic involved. To be fair, Endora(or someone working for her) is the problem most of the time.
  • In Monk, Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck III is suspected of arranging for a death row inmate to be killed before execution because he hadn't paid off a debt. However, both Monk and Dale the Whale know Dale was innocent that time around, and in fact, even he wouldn't stoop as low as to kill someone/arrange for someone to be killed for not paying their debts, especially if the sum in question was in the low thousand dollar range. It was actually the prison librarian, and the death row inmate wasn't even the real target, but an ailing billionaire (as the man in question was dying from kidney failure and was also in the middle of a libel suit against her son who wrote a book on him). The only reason she had to kill the death row inmate is because he held the ultra-rare blood type needed to save the billionaire in question, and used poisons to destroy the organs.
  • In The Mentalist, a serial abductor/killer, known as the balloon killer, was suspected of kidnapping a child. However, after shooting him, he implies (and Jane confirms via phone and a note) that this time, he's innocent.
  • The Doctor assures Donna that he didn't have anything to do with Rome burning. Oh wait... In general though, The Doctor gets misblamed for a lot of things he didn't do.
  • Buffy is accused of at least two murders (normals) and assaulting one of her best friends. It doesn't help that the Principal and the mayor that hired him are out to get her. She is eventually cleared.
  • Dexter, when Rita dies, becomes a suspect (and acts suspect, too, mostly out of grief) for both the IA and Quinn. Quinn doesn't say this outright, but he probably suspected Dexter hovered over Trinity to find out his techniques and kill his wife, framing Trinity. Best part? Dexter killed Trinity and is the Bay Harbour Butcher, but he genuinly wanted a good life with Rita and never directly or purposely hurt her.

[edit] Professional Wrestling

  • In WWE Smackdown, a storyline in 2010 involved Kane looking for the one who put The Undertaker in a coma. When he accused CMPunk of doing the deed, Punk replied that while he wanted to do it, it wasn't him this time. Kane proceeds to identify Ray Mysterio as the attacker. Subverted; it was Kane himself who was responsible for it all.
    • An early storyline in 2011 had Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long getting taken out. Since Wade Barrett had just formed The Corre on that episode, had done something similar to the previous Raw GM during his time as The Nexus leader, and Teddy had just tempted fate by telling them that he would not allow himself to be cowed by their beatdown antics like the current Raw GM was, they were naturally the first suspects. However, they denied having anything to do with it. It eventually turns out that they were telling the truth. It was Vickie Guerrerro and Dolph Ziggler that did it.

[edit] Video Games

  • Peach is kidnapped at the beginning of Super Paper Mario. Immediately, Mario and Luigi go to Bowser's castle to rescue her. However, it turns out that Bowser was in the middle of a rallying speech in preparation for invading Peach's castle and did not actually do anything yet.
    • In Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, Rawk Hawk reveals that he was behind the guards locking Mario and his party up in an abandoned locker room, as well as a poisoned cake before fighting the party (in order to dissuade them from challenging him). However, when the party claims that he must have been the one emailing the threatening messages regarding the crystal star, he doesn't know what they are talking about, and reacts in such a way that he is genuinely unfamiliar with the concept of Crystal Stars, meaning he was not behind the threatening emails. It was actually the emcee/promoter, Grubba, who was emailing the threatening messages, as he was using the Gold Star to retain his youth.
  • Inverted in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. When the main characters run into Death, they are already aware that the castle is being run by a vampire who isn't Dracula. Thus, while they accuse him of working with the new villain, Death is the one surprised to discover that his master isn't around.
  • In the Kirby video game series, Kirby often goes after King Dedede for whatever evil plot is going on, whether or not he had anything to do with it.
    • Indeed, in most games, Dedede either doesn't have anything to do with it, is trying to fix it, or is being controlled by another entity, bringing up the question of why Kirby is so insistent that everything is his fault.
    • Dedede is the champion of this trope. The only game in the series (not counting spinoffs) where he's the real villain is Kirby's Dream Land 1 and its remake, Spring Breeze in Kirby Super Star. The next time he appears as the final boss isn't until the release of Kirby Super Star Ultra, released 12 years later. There, he's the final boss of the subgame "Revenge of the King," an expanded, more difficult version of Spring Breeze, and his defeat is unambiguously played as a tragedy.
    • The worst example of this was in Kirby Squeak Squad. Kirby's cake was stolen at the beginning of the game by the eponymous gang of thieving mice, and Kirby immediately comes to conclusion that Dedede is responsible with no evidence.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl is another case of this. The villains are all running around turning heroes into trophies. Dedede captures several, and keeps them in his castle, placing badges on them. He runs out of badges, and reluctantly takes his own off to attach it to the final hero trophy. After the real villain, Tabuu, uses his ability to turn every single character into a trophy, the purpose of the badges is revealed: they restore a trophy to life after a time delay.
  • Dr. Wily claims this in Mega Man 9, citing a video as proof that Dr. Light is the one wanting world domination. He's lying.
  • Happens in the Multiplayer Space Station 13. People assume that if you're the chemist, you're responsible for the the roiling cloud of thermite-napalm-superfoamsmoke that is destroying the station.
  • Sephiroth laughs at your party in Final Fantasy VII when you get attacked by a dragon in the temple of the ancients and think that he is responsible for it.
  • In StarFox Assault, after Pigma steals the memory core, the Star Fox team fights Star Wolf in the Sargasso Space Zone because they think that they were involved in Pigma's recent theft and want them to hand him over. However, after the fight, Wolf reveals that not only were they not involved in Pigma's theft, but they actually kicked Pigma out of Star Wolf long beforehand, and even went as far as to order a shoot on sight command in regards to Pigma should he ever attempt to arrive at the Sargasso Space Zone. They do nonetheless give intel on where he is most likely at, however.
  • Reimu Hakurei outright inverts this. Despite the many people she's had tea with, at least one of whom likely has powers that would cause the current incident, her crisis-solving methodology is openly stated to be to pick a direction and go, beating up anyone she finds until one of them has relevant information (usually around stage 3).
  • In Avernum 3, your party is trying to figure out who created the plagues of monster that are attacking TheEmpire. You can question the dragons, the Vahnatai, and the sorceress Erika, all of whom have grudges against the Empire and the means to create the monsters, but they all insist that while they hate the Empire with a passion, they have nothing to do with this. The vahnatai are lying.
  • In Futurama: The Game, Bender says this when they find the ship badly damaged. It turns out that he (as well as Fry and Leela) did do it.
  • In the last episode of the third season of Sam And Max Freelance Police, The Devil himself shows up to refute any claims that the Devil's Toybox is in any way related to him. In fact, the Toybox predates the Devil by an order of magnitude and the object was named this way by mistake. Yes, the Devil thinks that what Junior is doing is a bit too evil.

[edit] Web Comics

  • Girl Genius got Bangladesh Dupree. If someone is killed and Bang was around, she has to say it was not her this time. Or when a town is burned...
  • In El Goonish Shive Sarah and Elliot used to blame Tedd when someone is shapeshifted or appears to be. Not without a reason.
  • In Heroes-Inc., the first mission the titular agency partakes in is rescuing Princess Peach. They immediately consider Bowser as a prime subject, but quickly rule him out because of his "air-tight alibi". They later find out that Peach actually is in Bowser's castle, but it is a robot. The actual BigBad planted the robot in the castle so that when the heroes rescued it, it would easily be in a position to assassinate Mario.
  • Evil Diva. For once, Loki didn't pull the prank.
  • In Homestuck, Terezi automatically pins the murders of Feferi and Kanaya on Vriska, although even she admits this doesn't make much sense and is largely due to her own fixation on her. When she confronts Vriska, the latter is adamant that she is only guilty of Tavros's death.

[edit] Web Original

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