In childhood, stories are always about exactly what they appear: “See Spot. See Spot run.” But as we grow older and our life experiences deepen, so do our story experiences. What emerges is often a complex weave of subtext and misdirection. Life isn’t always as we perceive it on its surface—and even when it is, we often miss what’s right in front of our noses anyway. Our stories should reflect that, and one of the best tools for achieving this effect is character misdirection.

What Is Character Misdirection?

Character misdirection occurs when POV characters and readers misunderstand another character’s role, motives, or allegiance. A character who appears helpful may be a False Ally, while a character who appears antagonistic may be a False Enemy.

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby (affiliate link)

(The great John Truby, author of Anatomy of Story and Anatomy of Genre, calls these characters “Fake-Opponent Allies” and “Fake-Ally Opponents.” I prefer simply “False Enemies” and “False Allies.”)

In short, these are characters who are not what they seem. They provide rich opportunities for dichotomy, juxtaposition, insights into the protagonist, insights into the theme, plot revelations, and plot twists. They’re both incredibly useful and incredibly fun to work with.

False Allies vs. False Enemies

The four variations of character misdirection differ according to the gap between characters’ apparent and actual allegiances and whether those allegiances change during the story.

The four variations of character misdirection, compared by apparent allegiance, actual allegiance, and typical story effect.

The 4 Types of Character Misdirection

Character misdirection can be broken down into four variations on the False Enemy/Ally.

1. The False Ally

These are characters who pretend to be on the protagonist’s side—when really, they’re not. Even as they seem to support the protagonist’s goals, they are privately working toward their own ends, which are in opposition to the protagonist’s.

For Example:

• The False Ally might be a mole or a spy, planted in the hero’s camp by the main antagonist.

Character Misdirection Example: Edmund Pevensie starts out C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by luring his siblings to the White Witch, in exchange for “sweeties.” (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Walt Disney Pictures.)

• The False Ally might be someone who despises the protagonist’s goals, but who feels the best way to undermine the protagonist is by masquerading under the guise of friendship.

Character Misdirection Example: Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations is believed by the protagonist Pip to be his great friend and benefactor, when she is, in fact, working to symbolically destroy him in vengeance for having been jilted by her fiancé many years past. (Great Expectations (2011), BBC One.)

• The False Ally might be someone who has no actual ill will for the protagonist, but whose goals are so diametrically opposed to the protagonist’s welfare that any well-meaning advice is incredibly misleading and destructive for the protagonist.

Character Misdirection Example: Tyler Durden in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club seems to be the protagonist’s friend, but as the story progresses, the protagonist slowly begins to realize that “Tyler” has been working his own agenda from the beginning. (Fight Club (1999), 20th Century Fox.)

• The False Ally might truly believe themselves to be aligned with the protagonist, before their own goals and desires pull them away.

Character Misdirection Example: Willoughby in Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility was believed by the Dashwood women to be their friend. Willoughby himself seems to have felt the same—but his true nature eventually betrays the Dashwoods when he abandons Marianne without explanation. (Sense and Sensibility (2008), BBC/WGBH Boston.)

False Allies often align with Dramatica’s Contagonist archetype, which stands in opposition to the Mentor/Guardian, in that they appear to be on the protagonist’s side while subtly luring the protagonist away from the story’s thematic Truth as well from as victory in the plot conflict.

2. The False Enemy

The False Enemy is a character who appears to be opposed to the protagonist, but is, in fact, on the protagonist’s side, in part or in whole. The protagonist doesn’t start out with any trust in False Enemies, either because the protagonist outright suspects them to be enemies or because the False Enemies are outwardly presented as such. However, as the story progresses, the facts just don’t quite stack up, and it becomes clear that the true obstacle is the protagonist’s distrust of this character, which stands in the way of their working together toward a common goal.

For Example:

• The False Enemy might be a double agent, someone who appears to be working for the enemy, but is, in fact, in the employ of the good guys all along.

Character Misdirection Example: In Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the protagonist Cap’s best friend Bucky Barnes has been brainwashed into serving Hydra’s evil ends, but even though he obstructs Cap’s goals until the very end, he ultimately reverts to his true role of ally. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Marvel Studios.)

• The False Enemy might be someone who fulfills a stereotypical “bad” role, prejudicing the protagonist against them, even as they work toward the protagonist’s ultimate good.

Character Misdirection Example: Magwitch, in Great Expectations, plays the reverse role to Miss Havisham’s. His reputation as a brutal escaped convict convinces the protagonist Pip he is evil, when, in fact, Magwitch turns out to have been his benefactor all along. (Great Expectations (2011), BBC One.)

• The False Enemy might be someone who is not “for” the protagonist, but who is working against the antagonist, so that their goals at least momentarily align with the protagonist’s, in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of twist.

Character Misdirection Example: In Bourne Ultimatum, CIA chief Pam Landy becomes Bourne’s unofficial ally in an attempt to bring down the corruption at the heart of the CIA’s covert black ops. (The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Universal Pictures.)

3. The False Ally Who Becomes a True Ally

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

This is where things can get tricky. Sometimes characters who aren’t what they seem turn out to be exactly what they seem! The False Ally who becomes a true ally is a fun character because of the inherent character arc involved. Although these characters start out opposed to the protagonist, their exposure to the protagonist inspires change within their lives to the point that their goals and motivations can entirely shift.

In Anatomy of Story, Truby says this character is…

…valuable because he is inherently complex. This character often goes under a fascinating change in the course of the story. By pretending to be an ally of the hero, the fake-ally opponent starts to feel like an ally. So he becomes torn by a dilemma.

For Example:

• Sometimes the character will resolve this inner dilemma and turn away completely from the opposition to become a true ally.

Character Misdirection Example: In Brent Weeks’s Night Angel trilogy, the protagonist Kylar’s opposing assassin apprentice Viridiana falls in love with him and eventually comes over to his side completely.

• Sometimes these characters will fail to completely resolve their internal dilemma. Torn between loyalties, they may fail to wholly satisfy either, or may reluctantly swerve back to their original alignment with the opposition.

Character Misdirection Example: Vesper Lynd in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale is essentially a double agent who comes to despise her original loyalties, only to be sucked irrevocably—and lethally—back into them. (Casino Royale (2006), MGM.)

4. The False Enemy Who Becomes a True Enemy

Finally, we have characters who masquerade as enemies only to end by creating genuine obstacles to the protagonist’s goals. These characters are rarer, since they present the least amount of conflict and complexity. The protagonist generally dislikes them from the start, which means there isn’t much in the way of angst when these characters really do prove to be traitors. Still, they can create an interesting subplot of personal turmoil as they sort through their own loyalties.

For Example:

• This character might be an avowed triple agent from the start: a spy for the bad guys who also spies for the good guys but whose true loyalty really does lie with the bad guys (is your head spinning yet?).

Character Misdirection Example: The demon Ruby in Supernatural shifts alignment within the plotline multiple times: she goes from enemy to distrusted ally/False Enemy, before finally revealing her alignment as a true enemy. (Supernatural (2005-2020), The CW.)

• These characters might also be ones whose loyalties are conflicted from the beginning. They have a foot in each camp, genuinely caring for the protagonist even though the protagonist doesn’t know it—but ultimately not caring enough to do right by the protagonist.

Character Misdirection Example: In Secondhand Lions, the protagonist’s selfish mother is presented an antagonist from the beginning. Even though she loves her son and has a few short glimmers of trying to be a good mother, she ultimately cannot overcome her own self-centered needs enough to care for him—forcing a final confrontation between them in the Climax. (Secondhand Lions (2003), New Line Cinema.)

Because these latter two categories can get confusing fast, it’s best to concentrate on the first two categories—straightforward False Allies and False Enemies—but also to realize they don’t always have to be straightforward.

5 Ways Character Misdirection Strengthens a Story

Have you been able to identify any False Allies or Enemies in your story? Or perhaps just their potential? If so, the next step is to consider how you can use character misdirection more intentionally throughout your story. Start by concentrating on these five angles:

1. Create Conflict

Ultimately, the true and best use of character misdirection is to serve the heart of your plot: to create conflict. The joy of stories about mistaken identities is the havoc caused by the characters’ misconceptions. Whenever protagonists are drawing false assumptions about another character, it means they will be unable to fully grapple with the true conflict.

For Example:

False Allies create conflict by misdirecting protagonists away from the true fight, while secretly working against them.

False Enemies create conflict by (willing or unwillingly) drawing protagonists into opposition against them, while the true conflict happens elsewhere.

2. Add Moral and Thematic Complexity

One of the most delicious things about character misdirection is its ability to create complexity and nuance within the story. Instead of black-and-white good guys and bad guys, you’re able to present readers with characters of subtlety and subtext.

• Whose side are they really on?
• What is their true moral alignment?
• What shades of gray influence their convictions?

The possibilities for thematic explorations and consequences are vast, as false characters are able to influence your protagonist in one way and then another by commenting on both sides of the thematic premise.

For Example:

False Allies create complexity by winning the protagonist’s heart while sowing seeds of the Lie and luring the character away from the thematic Truth.

False Enemies create complexity by first hardening the protagonist’s heart against the Truth they’re trying to share, then winning them over to reconciliation and a keener understanding of the true thematic premise.

3. Challenge the Protagonist’s Beliefs and Complacency

When the characters around the protagonist fail to fit neatly into boxes, according to the protagonist’s initial worldview, you open the door to personal catalysts within the protagonist’s character arc. False Allies and Enemies will challenge the protagonist’s established views of the world. Just like Pip in Great Expectations, sometimes the people we believe to be good turn out to be bad, and vice versa.

For Example:

False Allies challenge the protagonist’s beliefs by creating a dichotomy between their seductive words and their dark actions in opposition to the protagonist’s goals.

False Enemies challenge the protagonist’s beliefs by disproving prejudices and leading the protagonist to believe truth can be found even in unexpected places.

4. Create Major Plot Turns

The revelations that arise from character misdirection can be wonderful plot catalysts. When the protagonist discovers the false characters’ true nature, the plot and its conflict necessarily advance by leaps and bounds.

For Example:

False Allies turn the plot by forcing the protagonist to recognize betrayal—or perhaps even that the protagonist has been lured into self-betrayal.

False Enemies turn the plot by forcing protagonists to make up for the ground they lost by ignoring good advice—or perhaps by having to save this newly-realized ally whom they just betrayed.

5. Build Suspense and Plot Twists

Write Like the Masters by William Cane (affiliate link)

The old “are they good or are they bad?” question that hangs over the heads of most false characters creates untold suspense. Readers will race through your pages, wondering if your protagonist is about to get stabbed in the back. As William Cane points out in Write Like the Masters:

You can use the same Dickensian mystery story technique in your own work by purposefully withholding crucial information, such as who a friend (or enemy) of your hero really is.

The revelation of the truth often makes for some of the best and most moving opportunities for effective plot twists.

For Example:

False Allies create suspense by casting doubt upon themselves and making readers wonder if they can really be trusted around the protagonist.

False Enemies create suspense in exactly the same way before eventually dispelling that doubt instead of fulfilling it.

Character misdirection is a delightful game authors get to play within the pages of their stories. Who’s good? Who’s bad? We don’t know! That sense of curiosity will entrance readers, raise the stakes, and keep them reading right to the very end.

Note: This article has been expanded and revised from a previous version.

Want More?

While some characters hide their true allegiances from protagonists and readers and others hide even from themselves, the most convincing downward transformations rarely begin with characters consciously deciding to become villains. They begin with the self-deception of characters rationalizing their choices and protecting the Lies They Believe as they take one seemingly defensible step after another until they become someone they probably never intended to be.

In my upcoming class, Negative Character Arcs: The Hidden Pattern of Self-Deception, we’re going to explore how characters can “go bad” even as they doggedly continue believing their choices are justified—and how writers can develop these transformations with psychological depth, structural integrity, and thematic power.

Join me October 6, 1 PM, EDT, for the premiere of Negative Character Arcs: The Hidden Pattern of Self-Deception. The class will be prerecorded, and I’ll be live in the chat throughout the presentation to discuss the material and answer your questions.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! How are you using character misdirection to challenge your protagonists’ beliefs and deepen their character arcs? Tell me in the comments!

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music).

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