Ironically, Sam Vimes is on his own “immediate distrust” list.
Come to think of it, there are a lot of Discworld characters on my “immediate trust” list:
Lu-Tze
D[sub][sup]EATH[/sup][/sub]
Susan Sto-Helit
Nanny Ogg
Granny Weatherwax almost makes the list, but there’s always that tiny little chance that she’s gone cackling. Nanny Ogg, though, I’m pretty sure will never cackle.
Rincewind is THE most trustworthy person on the Disc.
CMOT Dibbler and the Nac Mac Feegle probably tie for most suspect.
Vetinari, no way no how.
I came in to say pretty much this. However, I will note that Scald’s actual question is slightly different than the one that most people are answering, since it has an element of *unlikely to be wrong *in there was well.
So, I will add: Immediately Distrust: Morgan from the Dresden File novels. Because c’mon, the guy is *always *wrong about what is going on (I have not read the latest novel, btw).
Trust:
Superman
Mr Spock
Mistrust:
Dracula
Hannibal Lechter
Trust:
Sgt. Zim
Lady Sybil
Nanny Ogg
Anne when acting as a Fair Witness
Mega-Distrust:
Lazarus Long
Nobby Nobbs
Louis Wu
After thinking about it, I realized that there’s one character I probably would mistrust in the scenario in the OP:
Superman.
Now, true enough, there’s also enough variations in iterations of Superman throughout the various universes and continuities to make this problematic, even leaving out Elseworld Evil Supermen and whatnot, but hear me out.
Usually, when Superman is about to outright kill someone, it seems like it’s at a point in a story where he’s finally been pushed way too far, and isn’t thinking straight, and this is about the point where some other character jumps in and tries to talk him out of it. Usually with a “Clark, please listen to me, this isn’t you…” or a “No! If you kill him, you’ll be just like him!” Now I’m hardly a deontologist, so I’m skeptical—at best—of statements like the latter, but I’m at least willing to consider in that situation, Superman might be under stress and not making the best decisions, or that there might be other, more pragmatic reasons to try and stop him. (Like too many witnesses, or it’d give him PTSD, etc.)
(This is also leaving aside the possibility that he’s being mind controlled by a villain.)
But the other big thing—which to be fair also applies to a lot of other “never kill” superheroes, and not just Superman—is, well…Superman is a bigot.
At least towards artificial or exotic forms of life, like androids and AIs. He’ll kill and mangle them without hesitation, or a second thought. As I hinted above, I’m not one for keeping dangerous supervillains alive purely for the sake of morality, but thoughtlessly slaughtering them just because their “race” makes it okay leaves a foul taste in my mouth.
So if I see Superman about to kill an intelligent robot? I have to question if he’s doing it because the robot genuinely needs to die…or just because Superman has a cavalier definition of “person.”
Gee, and here I was going to say:
Trust - Superman, Captain America, Thor
Now, based upon your analysis and some research (does Google count?) I am amending my answer to:
Trust Implicitly- Captain America, Thor
Trust Provisionally - Superman
Neutral - Ironman
Distrust - Batman (the guy is insane)
ETA: I forgot my original entry!
Trust - Salvor Hardin
From the HillBilly Section of the Multiverse.
Trust: Sheriff Andy Taylor
Jed Clampett
Arnold Ziffel
Lisa Douglas
Suspicious: Granny
Gomer Pyle
Ellie Mae Clampett
Oliver Douglas
Distrust: Barney Fife
Jethro Bodine
Ernest T. Bass
Wilbur Drysdale
Mr. Haney
I think that covers it.
Immediate Trust:
Qui-Gon Jinn
Hermione Granger
Jon Snow
Spike Spiegel
Probably Suspicious:
Titus Pullo
Det. Sgt. Jack Vincennes
Lt. Col. Kilgore & Capt. Willard
Turin Turambar
From videogames:
Immediately Trust: Harry Mason
Probably Suspicious: Auron
Immediately Distrust: The Courier
Immediate, complete trust:
Leroy Jethro Gibbs of the infallible gut and strong sense of right and wrong
Nero Wolfe, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Peter Wimsey
I’d think about it a few minutes:
Patrick Jane. I’d assume that he was running a scam, and things were not as they seemed.
even though he seems amoral, he does perform gratuitous bits of healing, once he’s through messing with people.
Bigby Wolf (of Fables), in Fabletown and beyond. He has the moral code of a noir hero, but is smarter and has evil deeds to repent.
Distrust:
Mal Reynolds and Castle. Both jump to false conclusions way too often.
Lancelot, King Arthur, Lazarus Long
Shawn and Gus. Lazy and frequently wrong, but doesn’t care about making mistakes or wrecking lives.
I was going to talk about Gandalf, but I think he’s a Wise Old Man, and not a Hero.
I would have thought you would send a swarm of bees, or your father disguised as a pollster.
Immediately trustworthy: Gandalf
Probably suspicious: Boromir
Immediately distrust: Saruman
And you called it on post 10, too! Nice.
I thought of Atticus and began to list him even ahead of Gibbs. But I can’t imagine him at the point of murder.
The problem with Spock and Superman is that they’re both so unlikely to engage in murderous violence (Spock by philosophy, Supes because he simply won’t need to) that the times they have done so have been under someone else’s control. If you’re in their universes, you’d have to consider that.
The problem with Lecter, apart from his not being a hero (the default assumption is that he’s in the wrong), is that there’s no H in his name.
While I agree with Ann, I disagree on Laz. He’s not given to losing his temper or indiscriminate violence. If he’s calm and about to kill someone, then that person has just passed up a dozen opportunities to resolve things peaceably (be retreating. If he’s in a rage, then somebody has just done something violent to Maureen, Laz-Lor, Ishtar, or Hamadryad, or Tamara. Or harmed any child. Or tried to rape someone, or enslave Laz.
The point is that Lazarus doesn’t start shit; he ends it.
Turin was wrong in strategy, not in particular engagements. Apart from poor Beleg, I can’t think of an act of violence he committed when he was egregiously wrong.
KaylasDad, Skald - I’m so glad I made that mistake by not reading the OP closely enough & gave you two something to giggle over.
Distrust: Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan. Not because he’d be wrong, but because he’s a jerk who likes to screw people over, and I’d expect him to shoot me, drug me, or somehow ruin my life.
Trust: The Shadow (specifically from the pulp novels) or any of his agents. He’s a jerk to everyone, but he’s always right. I want to hate him for being a jerk, but I can’t.
Distrust: John Constantine (from the Hellblazer comics). Same deal as Spider, except he screws up more often. Actually if I was in the same place as Constantine, I’d probably just run. The best I could hope for from being around him is to die.
Trust: Sir Integral Hellsing from Hellsing. Or Seras. Or probably even Alucard, but only because I know who holds his leash. Also, I don’t want to die.
I shall quibble with you here. Hannibal, as he was introduced to us in the novel Red Dragon was certainly evil. Monstrously and inexplicably so and, therefore, he does not qualify for this list.
Over the course of several more novels, and a couple of movies, Hannibal has morphed into an anti-hero. In the novel Hannibal, and the movie as well, I can’t think of anybody he killed who wasn’t a reprehensible piece of shit. Hannibal is basically a grand guignol re-imagining of the vigilante-as-hero that we’ve seen in about a million movies, tv shows, and shitty paperbacks.
Are you feeling well? You left out Tygra, Cheetara, Panthro, and Jagga in the “trust” category. Not to mention Lion-O & the Wilies in the “suspicious” category.
I haven’t read Hannibal Rising and shall throttle anyone who quotes from it, but in Hannibal-no-suffix he rapes and brainwashes Clarice Starling. Even apart from my love of book-Starling, which is deep and abiding, movie-Starling is either Jodie Foster or Julianne Moore, both as sacrosanct in their persons as Kaylee.
Hannibal Lecter needs killing. The most I’ll concede is that a person in combat with Hannibal may ALSO need killing.
Rhymers do not giggle. Never have, never shall, at any age. My daughter is less than a year old, and even shy, watching me pretend to be a Skald the Rhesus for her amusement, restricts herself to a wry smile, then returns to sharpening her daggers.
I wasn’t complaining. While I think responses should LOGICALLY be restricted to heroes (as villains are by definition untrustworthy in such matters), I knew the qualification wouldn’t be honored; allthreads mutate.
Trust: Sean Connery’s James Bond
Suspicious of: Daniel Craig’s James Bond
Distrust: Timothy Dalton’s James Bond