Tricksters are heroes that often appear to be more of a lovable rogue than a knight in shining armor. A Trickster hero may take on many forms of deception, from crafty schemers to puckish pranksters with so much thrill. These sly heroes often love using their sharp intellect, street-smarts, quick wit, guile, secret knowledge and their talent of devising ruses that helps them outsmart their enemies by playing tricks on them in order to exploit their weaknesses, turn the tables on them and pull a fast one on them to their full advantage.

This is a hero archetype in folklore (and modern fiction) where this character embodies qualities of mischief, social change, cunning, and transformation, often playing an essential role in challenging norms, conventions, and boundaries as much as they like to disrupt, mock or question authority (which often consists of gods, goddesses, spirits, humans and anthropomorphic characters for the role in a narrative). They also tend to get unconventional to offer the audience (or other characters) a fresh perspective on the world and serve as a reminder that there is more than one way to view any situation as well as handling them.

These underhanded characters are often astute and wily enough to utilize their skills in deceit such as misdirection and equivocation to win over the most easily deceived of people. They also exhibit a form of unpredictability and charisma to their deviousness and pragmatism, often by showing a mastery in disguises, stealth, subtlety, mind games, beguilement and having the ingenuity to come up with many schemes, strategies, fabrications, hoaxes and surprises that can catch anyone off-guard (especially their enemies) and play their opponents like a fiddle, which they manage to do by conning them and outwitting them in the name of good.

Most tricksters show enjoyment in making a fool out of their foes, doing it to look after themselves or to simply disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior seen within a story, often to show how they'd handle situations differently from other people, especially in regard to deceiving their foes by turning their enemies' plans on its head. Even though some tricksters can be either clever or foolish, moral or immoral, mature or immature, silly or serious, chaotic or organized, wise or reckless, it's always important to remember that an ideal trickster hero is always willing to do the smart thing for the right reason.

It's important for Tricksters to be given challenges and conflicts to face within their ventures, and also have sympathetic qualities such as them being targeted by antagonists (unprovoked): which helps us rooting for them to win and wanting them to defeat the antagonists that targeted them in the first place, and many of these heroes will have to find ingenious, unusual and resourceful ways to combat their rivals or their more villainous counterparts, often with greater cleverness and/or getting imaginative enough to enhance their skills in sneakiness and manipulation in full force in order to outfox and defeat their most intelligent and formidable enemies with ease. There is always a lesson learned from the trickster, even if it's unintentional; the best example of such a character is Bugs Bunny, who outsmarts several villains in the Looney Tunes Universe, especially Elmer Fudd.

A slight difference between trickster heroes and mischievous heroes (despite both categories often going hand in hand with each other) is that most trickster heroes will not go too far in their trickery since they are oftentimes presented in a more solemn and honorable way (even if some of them provide humor) and they often have very noble goals that make them stand out in a moral standpoint, whereas mischievous heroes are more akin to heroic troublemakers that are very likely to go out cause trouble anywhere they go and would go too far with their antics and shenanigans, thus making it harder for them to be taken seriously in vast comparison and stark contrast. However, some tricksters in this wiki can be con artists/conmen who have redeemed themselves and have become better people by either not devoting themselves as fraudsters no more and/or using their confidence tricks for good purposes (e.g Nick Wilde, Stanley Pines, RJ, Capper, Captain Qwark, Neal Caffrey, Kevin Levin, Mr. Satan, Hokey Wolf).

Pure Goods can be tricksters as long as they have no corrupting qualities to show they are not willing to go too far in their series of hoaxes, are shown to be really altruistic with their deceptive expertise and have enough remorse for people to show that they care about the lives of others too. They can also rely on deception on their foes whenever it's necessary, even if it means ensuring the safety of others.

NOTE: Not to be confused with liars who trick others; this page is just for heroes who fit the Trickster archetype.