Facade Drop - TV Tropes (2024)

Matt Engarde: (sigh) And here I was, trying to be a good boy for you, dude. I thought if you didn't know, you'd be able to do your job without feeling bad. Well, that's what I thought, anyway...
Phoenix Wright: M-Mr. Engarde... You really did hire...!?
[…]
Engarde: ...Well, I guess it's probably about time anyway.
Phoenix: About time for what?
Engarde: I think it's time for you to meet him now, Mr. Lawyer dude. (flips bang to reveal scars on his face with a Slasher Smile and a glass of brandy) How do you do... Mister Lawyer? I'm Matt Engarde.

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
  • In Chapter 57, Naddy initially presents herself as an American immigrant, but during a private study session with Rentarou where she makes her Love Confession, Rentarou pieces together that she’s actually Japanese, prompting Naddy to reveal herself as a reverse Occidental Otaku.
  • When we first meet Uto, she first appears to be a philosophical Wandering Minstrel. But near the end of her debut chapter, Rentarou sees her walking to school wearing a middle school uniform, with Rentarou deducing that she’s actually a Chuunibyou.
• In My Hero Academia, Hawks is known as a carefree, self-assured hero who rubs his fame and popularity in his rivals' faces in public. But he's also The Mole for the Hero Public Safety Commission, framing his public behavior as a facade for his "true" face as someone resentful of his place in society, effortlessly infiltrating the terrorist organization. This too is a mask for Hawks' actual personality as an idealist willing to get his hands dirty for the greater good and the Determinator who will stake his life to protect others. Hawks stops putting on a facade following the near-collapse of Japanese society, the exposure of his shadier deeds, and the reveal of his Dark and Troubled Past by the Paranormal Liberation Front, appearing at a press conference with complete and utter seriousness while being true to himself in order to be a better hero.

• Downplayed in The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf is already a huge, loud, arrogant jackass (and obnoxiously friendly to those he deems worthy of respect in a hamfisted Jerk Jock way), so finding out he's behind the Chaos invasion of Westeros barely changes his behavior or people's outlook on him (especially since he actually wants the armies of Westeros to fight him, as deaths in battle fuel the Chaos Gods' power), he just no longer has to claim his actions are for Daenerys' benefit.
• In this illustration from SlifofinaDragon's Sengoku Basara modern day fanfic The Battle of the Century Finally Begins, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's daughter Kagehime at last drops her act as Hitomi Kira to Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura's son Masa after he flat-out says who she is (as shown in this other illustration).

• Extinct (2021): For most of the movie, Clarence is depicted as a friend to the time-lost Flummels Op and Ed. Then he suddenly derails Op's attempt to save the species from extinction. When Op asks him why he's doing this, Clarence drops his friendliness and starts ranting that he hates the Flummels (due to Flummels once being the popular pets in the world) and that he was responsible for their extinction.
• Frozen (2013): Hans pretends to be in Love at First Sight with Anna while it suits his plan to steal the throne, but when she outlives her usefulness, he drops the kind facade and shows his true colours with a Wham Line.

  Hans: Oh, Anna. [smirk] If only there was someone out there who loved you.

• Breakdown: When Jeff frantically searches for his wife in a small desert town, a dimwitted, baseball cap-wearing local named Billy warns him not to trust the town cops. After Jeff is captured by the gang who kidnapped his wife, Billy "rescues" him from a locked car trunk... only to whip his cap off and reveal his Psychotic Smirk. He's part of the gang and manipulated Jeff from getting help.
• A Haunting at Silver Falls: Though Anne and Kevin have some moments of Jerkassery throughout the movie, they still act like caring — if misguided and unprofessional — guardians for the troubled Jordan. When Jordan discovers the stash in Anne's jewelry box, however, all hell breaks loose. Anne immediately stops pretending to be anything other than the sad*stic Serial Killer she is and openly plots on how to kill her niece while slapping Kevin around. Kevin himself maintains his facade a bit longer, only to get Jordan into a very vulnerable position after pretending to help her before cackling like a madman and revealing his true nature as a nasty Serial Rapist.
• In The Shawshank Redemption, after putting Andy into solitary, Warden Norton visits him in his cell. He drops his holier-than-thou act and says all sorts of vile things to Andy, so he won't forget who is really in charge. From this point on, it's made ever clear that the warden is really a cruel, exploitative, and vindictive villain, though the mask goes back on when Andy is finally let out of solitary.

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Mad-Eye Moody spends the bulk of the book being an intense but heroic Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who stands up for Harry, teaches him necessary spells, and foughht against Voldemort. After Harry comes out of the maze, however, he gets him alone and starts suddenly and dramatically explaining how he helped Harry through the tournament all along, transported him straight to Voldemort, and that he was Barty Crouch Junior in disguise. In the film, this coincides with him running out of Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself, and the effect wearing off.
• Moonflower Murders: In contrast to the somewhat Sympathetic Murderer of the first in the series, Magpie Murders, the murderer that Susan unmasks, Aiden MacNeil, has a distinct moment of this, which he also describes and comments on. He tells Pauline and Lawrence in his final letter that Cecily suspected he'd killed Frank because he couldn't always keep up the pretence with her and sometimes she saw "something" in him.

  And that was when it happened. Aiden’s face didn’t change but something that I can only describe as nightmarish glimmered in his eyes and I knew that Frank Parris must have seen exactly the same thing in his last moments in the room at the hotel and that Cecily Treherne, too, would have recognised it in the wood near Martlesham: the look of someone about to kill you.

• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Main character Oliver Horn puts on the persona of a completely average Jack of All Trades mage, largely expected to perform well enough to graduate from Kimberly Magic Academy but not stand out. It's suggested throughout the first volume that he's much better than he lets on, but it's not until the epilogue (episode 6 of the anime) when he discusses the events of the book in private with Professor Darius Grenville, that we learn the truth: he came to Kimberly with the sole Series Goal to assassinate seven key members of the faculty to avenge the murder of his mother, starting with Grenville.
• Sparkling Cyanide: Anthony Browne is a highly suspicious character with a criminal past. Seemingly cornered by Colonel Race, he does a Sarcastic Confession painting himself as the mastermind behind the murders of Rosemary and George. Suddenly, Race realizes he doesn't sound like an authentic criminal — more like as a government agent posing as one. Anthony admits Race is right, drops his previous manner, and reveals his actual Good All Along past and motives.
• Warrior Cats: In Long Shadows, Squirrelflight, Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf are stuck on a log in the middle of a fire, with Ashfur blocking their path. They beg the warrior, someone they trust and have had close relationships with, to move so that they can get to safety. Unfortunately for them, this is the moment that Ashfur chooses to reveal his secret, burning desire to get revenge for Squirrelflight choosing Brambleclaw over him. His personality shifts from a reliable warrior to an obsessed, cruel cat willing to let the three die to get back at Squirrelflight. From this point on, while the rest of the Clan was blind to who he was, the protagonists and the audience were aware of his treachery and despite being killed off and sent to StarClan, he would later return as the Big Bad of the seventh arc, The Broken Code.
• The Wheel of Time: After being largely overlooked as an obsessive but friendly scholar, Verin Mathwin shows her hand in Book 12. She breaks into Egwene's room to reveal that she is part of the villainous Black Ajah, joined under duress, has compiled most of the Ajah's secrets to destroy it, and has already poisoned herself to circumvent the spell that made her Tongue-Tied.
• The Word Is Murder: When Anthony realises that Robert Cornwallis is Dan Roberts, he goes to see Cornwallis in the funeral home. They have an apparently polite and pleasant conversation about Cornwallis's past as an actor...until Anthony tries to stand and realizes that he can't. He describes Cornwallis as reacting with concern, and then a moment where his facade drops and he smiles. Anthony remarks on it being a "horrible smile" and Cornwallis goes into full Evil Is Hammy mode, Laughing Mad and all.

• Doctor Who:
  • In "Spyfall", The Doctor and her companions meet a seemingly friendly M16 agent named "O", who is introduced as being cautious but intelligent and a valuable ally. This is, until they're in an airplane together, at which case she realizes that he's acting strangely. He laughs and reintroduces himself as the next regeneration of The Master, who planted a bomb on the plane and vanishes the Doctor to an unknown location while the companions remain on board, having plotted out this very reveal from the getgo.
  • In "Kerblam!", the Doctor and her companions are at the galactic shipping company Kerblam! trying to find who sent a distress signal. One of their allies is janitor Charlie, who is sweet, good-natured, and hard-working. That is, until Kari gets killed by the robots while he begs her not to touch the bubble wrap she was given — the bubble wrap that he turned into an explosive as part of an anti-tech terrorist plot to kill thousands of innocent customers. Charlie has a Villainous Breakdown due to the death of the one person he loved and reveals his true colors and motivations in a panicked, furious rant.
  • In "The Star Beast", 14 and Donna meet and attempt to help a small, furry, innocent little alien running from evil hunters. He's cute enough to act like a doll and brings out a protective urge in the protagonists, even with Donna still suffering from amnesia regarding her adventures. That is, until they're lured into a parking garage and the Doctor realizes that something isn't right. Meep reveals themselves as the actual villain, manipulating everyone into fighting against the police force that chased him to Earth. He also reveals himself to be absolutely cruel, mocking Donna and attempting to kill her and the Doctor.
• The Good Place: Eleanor realizes the truth in the Season 1 finale — they've been in the Bad Place all along and their bumbling angel companion Michael is actually a demon. When she blurts it out, the scene zooms in on Michael as he eyes her up, then smirks and lets out an Evil Laugh.

  Michael: Oh, man! I can't believe you figured it out.

• House of Anubis:
  • For several episodes of Season 1, Rufus was treated as a slightly shady ally of Patricia and by extension Sibuna, helping in the search for Joy and being unfairly targeted by the teachers. However, when Joy failed to meet the both of them one night, he grew progressively nastier to the point of clearly making Patricia confused and scared. He then ditched his act entirely by kidnapping her as a plan B and becoming both physically and verbally abusive; from this episode onward he'd never attempted to act like anything other than the villain that he was.
  • For the first half of Touchstone of Ra, Sophia was just treated as a friendly, helpful, and somewhat naive new kid who just so happened to be bonding quickly with Eddie. However, she then sneaks off to check on the Touchstone, and at that moment she makes it clear to the audience that she's actually the Big Bad of the film by putting on a supernaturally intimidating voice and stating her plan to use the stone. While she continues to manipulate Eddie and the rest of Sibuna for a bit, the audience now recognizes her actions as manipulation, and we see many more instances of the mask slipping before she removes it entirely.
• iCarly: In "iHire an Idiot", the girls hire Brainless Beauty Cort to be their intern, much to the dismay of Freddie, who is the victim of Cort's idiocy. He decides to hire his own intern, Ashley, who is also a Brainless Beauty — perhaps to even worse degrees. The group is at a stalemate until they all agree to fire their interns... at which point Freddie and Ashley reveal to both the girls and to the audience that Ashely is actually incredibly smart, and was just playing an act to help get Cort fired — a twist ending that results in a rare Freddie victory.
• In a first season episode of The Mentalist, Jane confronts a killer who has been pretending to be mentally handicapped for years while plotting revenge against people he held responsible for the murder of a friend.
• Supernatural: Sam tries to hide that he's lost his soul for the first part of Season 6, though his new emotionlessness and Lack of Empathy slip through enough to make his brother Dean suspicious. When Cass reveals the truth, Sam feigns an emotional appeal but then drops the act and dispassionately tells Dean to live with it.

  Sam: I didn't want it to come to this, but— [breaks out of his bindings] —you're not going to hold me, Dean.

• Torchwood: Children of Earth: In "Day One", Doctor Rupesh Patanjali is depicted throughout the episode as a potential new member of the Torchwood team, being curious about them and aliens and wanting to help them. However, when Jack goes to the hospital he works at to test a child, Rupesh suddenly shoots Jack dead. From there, it is revealed that he was actually working with the British Government as The Mole, and has killed at least one person to lure Jack into a position where a bomb could be placed within him and eventually lead to the Torchwood base blowing up.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): In "A Nice Place to Visit", Pip is a mysterious but seemingly affable figure throughout the episode. However, in the final moments, as Rocky Valentine reveals he is mad with boredom in his apparent Heaven, Pip drops the bombshell that Rocky is actually in Hell and laughs sad*stically as Rocky panics and tries to flee.

• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • Teledji Adeledji initially frames himself as the only member of the Syndicate sympathetic to the plight of the Doman people and thus a foil to the notoriously Corrupt Corporate Executive, Lolorito. But once he believes he's assassinated Nanamo and is poised to seize power in Ul'dah, the mask comes off and he gleefully rubs Nanamo's apparent death in Raubahn's face, proving Teledji to be just as bad if not worse than his fellow Monetarists.
  • Faldrinet puts on the mask of a kindly travelling doctor rebelling against Sharlayan's non-interventionist policies to treat the ill in Eorzea. This motivates Lalah and the Warrior of Light to protect him from Loifa, who is hell-bent on killing Faldrinet. Then you learn that Faldrinet is an alias for Guildivain, a Mad Scientist who went insane with grief and began performing horrible human experimentation to create a way to artificially fortify the body's natural aether. Once it becomes clear that Loifa and his friends are Guildivain's surviving victims, the mad doctor drops the kindly mask and starts performing craniatomies in an attempt to force the heroes to kill each other.
  • Emet-Selch is introduced as a mocking, boundlessly confident, and almost comedic Deadpan Snarker who moans about being bored watching the Scions do their work in Shadowbringers. But the mask slips as he unveils the true origins of the Source and its thirteen reflections, revealing him to be a crushingly tired and depressed old man who longs to return to his home and people. The mask falls off entirely when the heroes confront him in his phantom Amaurot, upon which he starts ranting to them about how they don't deserve to talk about all he's lost while declaring them unworthy of inheriting the star. To emphasize this point, he casts aside his title as "Emet-Selch" and battles you as "Hades" while wiping away the sigil representing his station.

    Emet-Selch: But come! Let us cast aside titles and pretense, and reveal our true faces to one another!

  • Vartinoix is introduced as a foil to Thordan as a Reasonable Authority Figure who wants what's best for Ishgard. But you learn via an Echo vision that he is in fact plotting to resummon King Thordan and his Knights Twelve to restore the old status quo of haves and have-nots. When called out on this, Vartinoix starts ranting about how Aymeric ruined everything by revealing the truth of the Dragonsong War and unintentionally making pariahs out of the clergy.
• Kingdom Hearts II: Demyx puts on a laidback and cowardly persona in order to replicate the feelings he had before he became a Nobody, but when Sora rejects his claim that Nobodies do in fact have hearts, Demyx drops the friendly act and becomes the cold, emotionless Nobody he really is, responding to Sora with “Silence, traitor” in a serious tone before fighting him.
• Persona: Fittingly for a series themed around the Persona as the metaphorical masks people wear to interact with the world around them, this is a recurring plot point.
  • Persona 3: Shortly after the defeat of the Hanged Man Shadow, Shuji Ikutsuki reveals himself to be more than just the pun-loving advisor of SEES, as the one who masterminded the Fall by having SEES defeat the Full Moon Shadows for him, allowing for Death to reassemble itself. This comes with a change in demeanor from mild-manner Pungeon Master to a Laughing Mad megalomaniac.
  • Persona 4: The Killer, Tohru Adachi, drops his bumbling cop act after the Investigation Team outs him as the murderer. In Golden, this also results in his Social Link Arcana changing from Jester to Lust/Hunger (unless the player chooses to pursue the Accomplice Ending).
  • Persona 5: Goro Akechi maintains a pristine public image as the second Detective Prince, which begins to slip after the Phantom Thieves force him to reveal himself as the assassin Black Mask who serves as the muscle of The Conspiracy. This continues when the Phantom Thieves confront him in Shido's Palace, where he reveals his other Persona, Loki, as well as his attire as Black Mask which contrasts with his Phantom Thief attire as the Detective Prince with his Persona Robin Hood. When he rejoins the party in Royal's third semester, these changes stick.

• Long Live the Queen: Onscreen, Aunt Lucille is almost always loving and compassionate towards Elodie. However, if Elodie senses her magic power and accuses her of hiding something at the gala, Lucille immediately tries to put a curse on Elodie that would send the girl into a vegetative state — and if Elodie's own resistance is low, Lucille succeeds. It happens completely out of the blue, and the player has to take a completely different route to even learn Lucille's motivations (placing her own daughter Charlotte on the throne).

• Cracked: Played for Black Comedy in "Extra! Mario Lopez has no soul!" when the reporter notices Lopez' Stepford Smile, agrees to go Off the Record, and meets the dead-eyed soulless void underneath.

  "I'll give it a shot," he agreed, and with a confused effort, the smile gradually melted from his face to be replaced with nothing. Nothing whatsoever. I have never in my life witnessed such complete blankness on a human face. I noticed that his eyes, however, remained the same. I realize now that they were always dead.

• Everyman HYBRID: Right up until the series finale, Vinnie portrayed himself as a Nice Guy struggling against forces outside of his control. That all changed when Evan tells him all that he'd learned from HABIT — namely that Vinnie was the one hiding cameras, forcing them to continue even when things got wildly dangerous, and even leading two of their friends to their death. Vinnie changes in an instant, becoming far crueler and throwing everything back at Evan, even blaming him for the actions he committed while under traumatizing Demonic Possession. This scene not only recontextualized damn near everything Vinnie did but also revealed him as a borderline sociopath who'd been using his friends and throwing them away.
• Red vs. Blue: In the Season 11 episode Neighborhood Watch, we are introduced to Felix, a snarky and sarcastic yet humorous mercenary fighting in a planet-wide civil war on the planet of Chorus, on the side of the rebellious New Republic. In this episode, he suddenly comes out of nowhere to protect the titular Red and Blue soldiers — who've inadvertently crash-landed on Chorus — from Locus, another mercenary aligned with the Federal Army of Chorus, the opposing side of this war. Both mercenaries were tasked with finding the Reds and Blues and recruiting them to their respective sides upon finding out they were on the planet, and during the conflict, Felix is shot by Locus trying to protect the squad. In the Season 12 episode Cloak and Dagger, Felix betrays the Reds and Blues and reveals that not only are he and Locus working together, but they're aligned with Charon Industries, who has been manipulating the Chorus Civil War by letting both sides kill each other and exploit the planet for their own gains. He also reveals that him getting shot by Locus previously was staged by the two of them so Felix can gain their trust and obtain information from them easily for his employer, as well as them being responsible for the Reds and Blues crashing on Chorus to get them roped into the war and further the conflict.
• Stampy's Lovely World: In Episode 344, "I See You", Veeva Dash is first introduced as a newcomer to the Lovely World who Stampy invites to join a minigame contest roster, and later makes recurring appearances as one of his Helpers. Eleven episodes later, she leads Stampy to HitTheTarget's fortress and hands the latter a Wither skull, using it to spawn in the Wither before they both escape using an invisibility potion and leave Stampy to deal with the destructive fallout and the betrayal.