The Last DJ

""Well you can't turn him into a company man

You can't turn him into a whore

And the boys upstairs just don't understand anymore""

- Tom Petty, "The Last DJ"

This is a character type with a lot of integrity. His skills at what he does has made him something of a legend, often greatly admired by those who work beneath or alongside him. He refuses to just go along with what his bosses or administration want. Unfortunately, because he doesn't play by the rules of office politics, and because house politics here promote blind obedience, his superiors have blacklisted him and made his career stall out at a certain point. This results in a tense situation where management may be actively looking to get rid of him but can't because of his reputation, while he wants to either just do his thing or make changes to the existing system.

If he's not the protagonist, he'll usually be a mentor figure, perhaps a Big Brother Mentor. Alternatively, in stories on the cynical side of the scale he can serve as a warning of what happens if you're not willing to make compromises. A natural enemy to and the bane of the Obstructive Bureaucrat.

The Last DJ can become the Almighty Janitor, though not always. If the bosses really get sick of his Honor Before Reason attitude, he may be threatened with or actually have to endure being Reassigned to Antarctica for his stubbornness.

Compare Rebellious Rebel, whose conflicts with his superior are acute, not chronic, and who rapidly ends up dead or fleeing.

Contrast Limited Advancement Opportunities, where characters never advance in their position because that would force the writing team to separate the cast. The exact opposite of Kicked Upstairs, where an unwanted and incompetent person is promoted, to get them away from the real work so they can no longer screw things up. See also Bothering By the Book and Screw the Money I Have Rules. Also compare Bunny Ears Lawyer, where the traits that would hold back a Last DJ get overlooked on account of how much of an asset the character is otherwise. Will very frequently overlap with Knight in Sour Armor. Music wise it overlaps with Music Is Politics.

Examples:

Music
"So DJs, rip up your playlists,
 * The Trope Namer is the song "The Last DJ" by Tom Petty, quoted above. Over the course of the song the titular DJ gets pushed out of the industry for his refusal to play mediocre music, until he winds up playing a station in Mexico. The song is about Jim Ladd, widely regarded as a hero of Broadcasting in The United States and the last free-form rock announcer-programmer on mainstream radio.
 * And before Petty, folk singer Mike Agranoff wrote "The Ballad of the Sandman."
 * John Peel, late legendary British DJ, was an example of this trope: His show had enough fans so that it couldn't be canceled, but Radio 1 still shoved it into the graveyard slot so that he wouldn't disrupt the non-stop commercial pap (thankfully, they respected him enough to hold an all day tribute to him on the day of his funeral in 2004). Up until his death, his show was one of the major importers of new music in the United Kingdom and was a major stepping stone for the mainstream success of the indie rock genre in the UK. If you can think of a popular rock band who formed anywhere between 1967 and 2004, chances are John Peel played the band several times before they even had a record deal. Pretty much every unpopular band, too. And anywhere doesn't mean "anywhere in the UK", or even "anywhere in the Western Hemisphere". It is just about restricted to this one planet, though.
 * From Mitch Benn's tribute:

Remember better stuff exists.

[[Painful Rhyme Now that he has left us how'll,

He save the world from Simon bloody Cowell?]]"


 * BBC 6 Music, a radio station staffed pretty much entirely by Last DJs, filled the void Mr. Peel left behind. The BBC tried to kill it off, but has so far failed.

Unfortunately, America's equivalent to BBC 6 Music, WOXY.com - which had barely survived the end of its days as an actual radio station and two moves - wasn't as lucky and was unceremoniously yanked from the internet in early-2010 after its new owner simply decided to stop funding it.
 * Before BBC 6 there was Mixing It, a show which successfully brought Zoviet*France, cLOUDDEAD, and Autechre to Radio Three, a station generally associated with mainstream classical music. It began its run in 1990, but by the 2000s whatever remained of the BBC's experimental ethos had died a death, and the programme was axed in November of 2006; the final broadcast went out the following February with no fanfare, and indeed the presenters were only allowed to mention the cancellation in passing during the show. The BBC went on to frustrate any attempts to bring it back on an independent radio station, arguing that Mixing It was still a BBC trademark, although the programme was no longer broadcast by the corporation. After making a successful comeback as Where's the Skill in That?, the show ended for good in 2010 when Robert Sandall, one of the two presenters, died of cancer.
 * Canadian DJ Chris Sheppard was largely responsible for bringing rave and techno music to Canada and for holding down a long running nationally syndicated dance music radio show. Even in later years when he 'sold out' he didn't really sell out.
 * The title track of Donald Fagan's first solo album, The Nightfly is sung in-character as this sort of DJ - "An independent station, WJAZ, with jazz and conversation, from the foot of Mt. Belzoni. Sweet music! Tonight the night is mine - late line 'til the sun comes through the skylight".

Anime and Manga

 * One Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex episode features Marcelo Jarti, a popular South American war hero, revolutionary, and drug kingpin who spends half his time dodging assassination attempts from the US and Britain because he refuses to go along with their plans for South American politics.
 * Kenzo Tenma in Monster ultimately counts as an aversion. It looks like he is being set up for this when he chooses to treat an injured child instead of the Mayor, who dies while being treated by less talented surgeons, but then his superiors died mysteriously, leaving Tenma clear to advance his career. After that he does choose to play it straight and leaves the better job to follow what he feels is a moral obligation.
 * Jin from Samurai Champloo has most elements of this. Believing in the purity of martial arts, he objected to his sensei's plan to work with Kagetoki Kariya, the Shogun's chief assassin, knowing that it would result in the entire school being forced to become assassins as well. For this defiance Kariya ordered Jin's master to kill him, but Jin won the fight. Nevertheless he never spoke a word against his teacher, and took the blame for his sensei's death without revealing his sensei's potential plan, which saved his sensei from public disgrace after his death. Later, despite wandering Japan aimlessly living as a near penniless Ronin, he refuses to work for the corrupt lords of Japan because of their evil ways and in one case we even see him mouth off about it to that lord's face.
 * Which earns him a Not So Different from Kariya, who claims that they are true swordsmen who were Born in The Wrong Century.
 * In Fullmetal Alchemist:
 * Roy Mustang presents himself as an inversion, a loyal kiss-up who will do anything to gain favor with the system and be promoted. Eventually however we learn that in truth Mustang is an Internal Reformist who was disgusted by the horrors and slaughter he participated in during the Ishval War. As a result he wants to gain control of the military dictatorship, topple it, and (depending on the version) either reform it forever or return the country to democracy even though, as the manga points out . And regardless of the personal dangers, the attempts to isolate, bribe, or coerce him, nothing can stop Roy from working towards his goal. (Although it should be noted that exact details on how and why Roy is taking these actions differ slightly depending on which anime you're watching or if you're reading the manga.)
 * Also played straight with Alex Louis Armstrong. Fuhrer Bradley tells Armstrong that he's never promoted because he refuses to follow orders completely. More specifically, he refuses to kill blindly and indiscriminately just because those are his orders. Both in the show's present and in the flashbacks to the Ishval War, Armstrong has either attempted to show mercy to his enemies or help Ishvalan civilians.
 * Cowboy Bebop - Jet Black's refusal to turn Dirty Cop or ease up on The Syndicates running Ganymede resulted in him being ambushed and nearly killed.
 * Legend of Galactic Heroes - Yang Wen-Li is the greatest military genius to be born since Genghis Khan conquered Eurasia, is loyal to a fault toward his country and politically savvy enough to know what the Free Planets Alliance should do to ensure its perenity and prosperity for a few generation at least and probably the nicest guy of The Verse. Because of this, a lot of corrupt officials in the alliance fear and hate him, knowing that he would easily beat them should he decide to quit the army and run against them in an election. Fortunately
 * Kotetsu from Tiger and Bunny is an idealistic hero who thinks that saving people is more important than scoring points...or worrying about collateral damage. His lack of respect from his superiors, his peers, and the general public is a Running Gag in the first season!

Comic Books
"I know how to get ahead, mister. And I know damn well I will never rise higher than colonel, because I do not and by God will not kiss the requisite amount of ass."
 * Preacher:
 * Minor character Colonel Holden. His response to Herr Starr when Starr chews him out and tells him to shut up and follow orders if he ever wants to get promoted past colonel is the very essence of this trope.


 * For that matter, main character Jesse Custer himself could count as an example, as he has a tendency to royally piss off people in power and defy them over idealistic points, up to and including God Himself, who Jesse chases down and tells off for being irresponsible and abandoning Heaven. Later in the series we see his integrity making him solve problems the hard way instead of just using his handy Word of God power to get himself out of the situations he gets himself into.
 * The Losers has supporting character Agent Stegler, a CIA agent who is an experienced field agent that has been reassigned to a desk job that he hates due to his unpopular opinions on what the agency should be doing, and his objection to young agents doing crappy work and just using their jobs as a networking opportunity to get in with corrupt private companies. (At one point some younger agents even ask why Stegler seems to be unable to get the point that his reassignment was an obvious attempt to get him to resign).
 * John Hartigan, the last honest cop in Sin City. Until he is framed and sent to prison for refusing to let the son of a senator rape a little girl.

Film

 * Star Wars series - Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn was allegedly never chosen to join the Jedi Council because of his unorthodox views, and his questioning of/refusal to just go along with the council's views and decisions.
 * He ends up (by complex means) becoming Yoda's master.
 * Captain Gordon from Godzilla Final Wars. When the Earth Defense Force is infiltrated at the command level, the soldiers nonetheless implicitly trust Gordon, who would never become "one of them."
 * In The Untouchables, when Elliott Ness asks Malone why he's still a beat cop at his age, the latter answers that he's one of the few policemen in Chicago who isn't on the take.
 * In Batman Begins, Lucius Fox was shifted away to the Applied Sciences division for making too much trouble for the Wayne Industries Board of Directors.
 * In the unproduced Batman: Year One film reboot by Darren Aronofsky, Lieutenant Jim Gordon fulfills this role. Gordon is (quite literally) one of the only two notable cops (the other a newly-hired desk jockey) who refuse to accept the drug money kickbacks and corruption that permeate the Gotham City Police Department, to the point that he is kept on crap assignments and as far out of the way as possible by Commissioner Loeb.
 * The main character in the 1978 comedy FM, although he's a station manager rather than a literal DJ.
 * In Soul Kitchen, a chef gets fired for declining to cook food that is not up to his high standards (warm gazpacho soup, namely).
 * One of the most extreme cases of this trope is the film, Hive Mind, where the main character's sticking to his standards have made him the last unassimilated human in a post-apocalyptic future. Interestingly, he literally was a DJ in his younger years.
 * In Tron Legacy, the boardroom scene heavily implied that this became the case for Alan Bradley, who questioned the rest of the executives on their improvments to the new operating system, and got "we put a twelve on the box" in response.
 * The first film had the same for Walter Gibbs, who was essentially locked out of his own company for protesting Dillinger's shoddy treatments of programmers and lockdown of data through the system. His counterpart, Dumont, was almost a literal case, operating the last free I/O Tower on the System in defiance of Master Control.

Literature

 * Discworld
 * Captain Vimes in Guards Guards felt that he was in this situation. In his own words: "Every time he seemed to be getting anywhere he spoke his mind, or said the wrong thing. Usually at the same time."

However, this has become inverted as the series progresses, as Vimes is repeatedly promoted and ennobled against his wishes, having to be coerced into accepting by the Patrician. Vetinari likes having a powerful person who won't play the game; it keeps the people who are playing it worried. The ultimate example is probably the end of Feet of Clay where, much to Vimes's own bewilderment, Vetinari gives him a pay rise for upsetting everyone important in the city, and bursting into a council meeting with an axe. Vetinari muses in one book that having an authority figure who is so staunchly anti-authoritarian is "practically zen".
 * Vetinari himself holds the unique position of being this trope, in a position of power. Vetinari believes in only as much authority as absolutely necessary; since this is far less authority than many influential people think is natural (and especially far less than they think should naturally be held by them), they'd love to be rid of him. But at the same time, he's managed to get the city working far better than any of the previous patricians, and he's the only one who knows the language the instruction manual is written in; in other words, he's made himself not just effective, but necessary, which (as is noted with some frequency) has far better staying power than being feared, and thus puts him leagues ahead of Machiavelli by just about every metric.
 * Eva Wolfe from the Burke series by Andrew Vachss was fired from her job as the head of City-wide Special Victims for refusing to "go along to get along", in the form of giving a pedophile a merciful deal.
 * Vorkosigan Saga - Aral Vorkosigan, in his depressive phases. After his almost-bloodless conquest of the planet of Komarr, he first killed his Political Officer bare-handed for ordering the Solstice Massacre, and got busted from Admiral back to Captain and Reassigned to Antarctica. It didn't stick.
 * The titular knight of David Eddings' Sparhawk series originally held the hereditary position of Champion of the Royal House of Elenia... but when the king was corrupted by his sister and a greedy Primate, Sparhawk refused to just go along with things.

After trying his best to beat the king back into shape (though not literally, or very successfully), he was forced to take on the position of glorified nursemaid for the young princess Ehlana, in hopes that he'd resign his position in humiliation. Instead, he proceeds to raise her into a brilliant ruler. Faced with that, the weak king finally caves to pressure from his sister/lover and his Treacherous Advisor, and simply exiles Sparhawk from the kingdom, to the heretic-infested, dust-choked, sun-baked, desert land of Rendor.

Much later, after the king has died and Ehlana ascended the throne, he is called back and more-or-less forced to marry her - and her Deadly Decadent Court quickly finds that he is not only as incorruptible as ever, but now also on very friendly terms with the highest power in the kingdom. Not to mention well-armed and more than willing to prove it to anyone who impugns the honor of his wife, or himself. His father, also named Sparhawk, was the reason the weak king could not marry his sister/lover. The incorruptibility of the Sparhawk line is legendary. ""Do you presume to question our authority?" Coram asked carefully.
 * The Dresden Files - Lieutenant Karrin Murphy was transferred to Special Investigations specifically because she wouldn't shut up about inconvenient facts. She couldn't exactly tell her boss she was helping a wizard  to rescue a teenage girl, now, could she?
 * And in the book Changes, she is fired (but with retirement pay, thanks to her boss at SI fighting for her) after
 * Snow Crash - Hiro Protagonist, last freelance hacker. He is aggressively sought after by at least one software firm willing to pay top dollar for his skills, but working for them would require wearing a tie and showing up to work in the morning. Hiro finds these conditions to be dealbreakers and remains unaffiliated.
 * Harry Drinkwater from Allen Steele's Lunar Descent. He obeys all FCC regulations to the letter, yet manages to get fired from every DJ position he's ever held.
 * Harry Potter
 * The Ministry of Magic treats Dumbledore like this in Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix.
 * literally becomes this during Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
 * Morgan and Duncan are treated this way by the Camberian Council in the Deryni novels. They are skilled and heroically loyal to their king (mentoring him in his youth despite efforts to stop them), they even rediscovered the Healing ability thought lost for two centuries, yet they are repeatedly dissed by the Council for being rogue half-breeds. The Council even votes to make them liable to arcane challenge just when reactionary clergy are out to get them and there's an invasion in the offing. They get the chance to confront the Council directly once, and Morgan seizes it:

"I question your authority to place our lives in jeopardy for circumstances which are outside our control, sir" Morgan replied. Coram sat back and nodded slowly as Morgan continued. "I do not pretend to understand all the ramifications of my inheritance, but His Majesty will assure you, I think, that I have a fair idea what justice is about. If you shut us out from the protection of our birthright, and force us to stand against full Deryni who are formally trained in the use of their powers, it may be that you decree our deaths. Surely we have done nothing to warrant that.""


 * The Council's antipathy continues for years after this; they hold Morgan and Duncan responsible for Kelson's reluctance to accept their guidance (rather than considering their own actions may be the cause), and many of them deplore the very notion that either Morgan or Duncan could have enough merit to join their number. It's fortunate that they have another, more understanding boss in their king.


 * Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, which is essentially.
 * John Galt from Atlas Shrugged, by the same author. Ayn Rand seems to love this type of character.
 * Detective Rivera, a character who shows up in many of Christopher Moore's San Francisco based books, is described in one of the books from the Bloodsucking Fiends series as a good cop who, "In 25 years on the force had never taken a bribe, never used excessive force, and never done special favors for powerful people. (Which was why he was still just a detective)".
 * This is essentially what happens to Violet in Feed, except without the "world renowned skills" part. Because of her active refusal to conform and be a mindless Feed user like many other teenagers she rebels and basically tries to Troll the Feed company. Unfortunately,
 * In the Elemental Logic series, Supreme Chef Garland deserted the Sainnite army because the General ordered him to cook badly, which he was completely unwilling to do.

Live Action TV
"Dr. Benson: You don't think, Perry. You're such a talented doctor. If you would play the game even a little, you'd be in a position where you could change things around here. But you're too stubborn for that aren't ya?"
 * Treme has Davis, a quite literal embodiment of this trope. He gets fired from the last "real" DJ position at WOL for blessing their "soulless" post Katrina digs with a voodoo ritual. He then proceeds to make several different short careers out of refusing to keep his mouth shut.
 * Scrubs has Dr. Cox, whose stubborn idealism makes him a near perfect example of this. In a very early episode, Dr. Cox is criticized for this by a former chief of medicine and mentor.


 * Later episodes go on to continue deconstructing this. For example, patients impressed by Dr. Cox and familiar with the hospital's power structure wonder how Dr. Cox can only be an Attending Physician and not higher up the chain of command. Cox' therapist tries to get him to confront his self-sabotaging tendencies, basically contending that Cox lies to himself by pretending that those tendencies are idealism and staying honest rather than self-loathing. At one point when Cox criticizes his Hero Worshipper JD for playing the game and scoring brownie points with Dr. Kelso, JD responds by saying "Look, I wanna be like you...but a more successful you. There's nothing wrong with playing the game once in a while." Even Dr. Cox himself shows that he realizes what a toll his behavior takes on his life. In one episode JD blows off a date to work late in an attempt to imitate Dr. Cox. When Cox learns about this he berates JD and gives the younger man some food for thought by saying "Are you trying to be like me? Newbie-don't you realize that I just barely want to be like me?" It finally pays off for Cox in the show's last season, when he becomes Chief Of Medicine after Dr. Kelso's retirement and several other would-be Chiefs flop at the job. Even that has its downside, however, as Cox becomes so bogged down with paperwork that he barely has any face time with his beloved patients -- or even his son -- just like he was worried about.


 * The Wire has a few examples. Jimmy McNulty constantly flouts the chain of command and makes cases against the department's political interests, enraging his superior officers. He is eventually transferred to the Marine Unit, but comes back, then becomes a beat cop and eventually Lester Freamon is also a great detective, but was busted down to the Pawnshop unit for going against the Deputy Commissioner, where he stayed for over 13 years and four months before getting back into real police work.
 * Michael is a very talented young drug dealer and hitman for Marlo Stanfield's crew, but he becomes increasingly disturbed by Marlo's tendency to kill anyone who challenges his authority, and his willingness to murder entire families. He starts to speak out against it to other members of the crew, and.
 * Gus Haynes, the City Desk Editor for the Baltimore Sun is another example. He seems to be the only one who still values journalistic integrity and the proper process while everyone else keeps their head down to avoid being laid off or actively games the system.
 * Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from WKRP in Cincinnati. A former successful DJ in Los Angeles, he was fired for saying "booger" on the air in The Seventies. Something of a burnout, he still refused to play songs from the station's Top 40 play list.
 * The Last Detective features 'Dangerous' Davies, who, despite his obvious brilliance, is always the.. well...
 * Star Trek - There are many subversions where Starfleet, being the dream-version of the U.S. military, actually promotes its mavericks. It's the heroes who just don't want to accept.
 * Commander Riker who holds the record for most turned-down promotions. And of course, you had Admiral Kirk who got himself demoted back to Captain, some would think on purpose.
 * And in the Expanded Universe, still-after-all-these-years-Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who actually turns down a promotion in the latest offering, 'Losing the Peace'. To be fair, Picard's only following the advice Kirk gave him in Star Trek Generations: Don't let them promote you out of the center chair; also, he's too valuable as a starship captain to be promoted, and senior enough to take command of the entire fleet in the absence of a normal command authority (see First Contact). The fact that Starfleet has a position for people in exactly that position that he has yet to be promoted to (Commodore) hasn't yet been raised.
 * Lt. Col. John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis said a lot of people never thought he'd make it past Captain, due to his tendency for insubordination. But as Elizabeth Weir reminded General Jack O'Neill, it ain't like Sheppard was alone in that regard...
 * Grissom from CSI qualifies in spades. In fact this is arguably the central theme of the show; pretty much every member of the night shift is like this -- they're good at the job, but not good at playing office politics. Ecklie, on the other hand, is the exact opposite.
 * The Last DJ was done very literally on Cupid 2009.
 * The protagonists of many British drama series are like this, including Inspector Morse and Rumpole of the Bailey.
 * NCIS - Jenny Shepherd on why Gibbs isn't Director: "Jethro's a great field agent. He's a great team leader. And he deals more efficiently with difficult politicians than I do." "Then why isn't he the..." "He shoots them."
 * And, indeed, when we see him as Acting Director in one episode where Jenny's out, Gibbs is incredibly maverick and winds up getting involved in field work, despite being the director and having people who could do that for him.
 * The premise of The Good Guys is based on this. Dan and Jack both pissed of their superiors but cannot be fired so they are relegated to investigating property crimes (petty thefts and vandalism). Dan disdains police procedures and disrespects his superiors but is a hero cop with his own TV movie. Jack in turn is a by-the-book cop who is so straitlaced that he once corrected the police chief's grammar at a public event. To be fair these heroes have a big tendency to blow things up and cause tons of property damage and Dan can be a serious menace to society.
 * Babylon 5 has several cases that are at least alluded to. Dr. Stephen Franklin is the most orthodox one: when the war with the Minbari was going very, very badly for Earth, he and other xenobiologists were called on to create biological weapons to combat the Minbari. He refused, and destroyed his notes so no one else could use them, and promptly spent most of the war in a jail cell as a result. In the pilot, the station's initial Number Two describes being stuck in a position where the only way to get promoted was to pay for it, which she refused to do.

Theater
"But what would I have to do? Cover myself with the protection of some powerful patron? Imitate the ivy that licks the bark of a tall tree while entwining itself around its trunk, and make my way upward by guile, rather than climbing by my own strength? No, thank you. ... I may not rise very high, but I'll climb alone!"
 * The title character of Cyrano De Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, is quite possibly the ur-example of this trope, making it Older Than Radio.


 * This trope is deconstructed in the play: Cyrano refuses Cardenal Richelieu (the most powerful man in France) patronage as a playwright because Richelieu could correct one of two of his lines, recriminates De Guiche his use of deception and spies in the war, and stubbornly attacks all the phonies he encounters with his satirical letters. He never compromises. What destiny waits for the Last DJ in Real Life? He got the respect of his peers, but almost all of them died honorably at war. At the end of his life, Cyrano lives alone, unknown and in poverty. Besides is clearly implied that his numerous enemies were sick of him and arranged a cowardly assassination. Cyrano realizes that none of his works will ever be remembered except the one scene that was plagiarized by Moliere (who certainly was a genial playwright, but also he had to compromise a lot with his patrons to be allowed to play... and is a thieving author, but so it was Shakespeare!) and dies surrounded by only three friends (whom gladly would have helped him, but as Mother Margarita said, Cyrano certainly would not have let them do it).

Video Games

 * Captain Brenner/O'Brian from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.
 * Final Fantasy X - Going by the Flash Back scene in a recording sphere, Auron could also fit into this before embarking on the pilgrimage with Braska. A promising Warrior Monk within the theocratic church and a true believer, Auron's career was blacklisted and at least one promotion that was meant for him went to others after he refused to marry the daughter of a high priest.
 * Captain Bartlett from Ace Combat 5 probably counts. "Why do they even bother reprimanding me anymore? I know I'm gonna be stuck at Captain forever." He's too much attitude to promote, but too much skill and reputation to just court martial.
 * Max Payne -- Max is something of a Cowboy Cop, and often disregards proper procedure in favour of following leads and going after perps.
 * Subverted and parodied in the Grand Theft Auto series -- Lazlow thinks that he's this, but is really just an arrogant, egotistical Jerkass who doesn't realize that he's no longer relevant, with most people treating him as a joke.
 * Junichiro Tokuoka from the .hack franchise was an eccentric, almost-worshiped director for The World's Japanese localization. After The World hit the jackpot, he was discarded by CC Corp because of his behavior and how it conflicted with the executives.

Western Animation

 * The main reason Optimus Prime in Transformers Animated is stuck leading a glorified repair crew is that he won't kiss ass and toe the line like Sentinel Prime does. Most obviously presented when Prime refuses to cave in and lie about the presence of Decepticons on Earth, even though Sentinel threatens to have him locked away for "Inciting panic".

Real Life

 * Pro wrestler "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson has been very vocal and very adamant that he will never join the rosters of either WWE or TNA, due to the fact that he's completely uninterested in playing politics and absolutely refuses to change his wrestling style (which, incidentally, has Smarks referring to him as, quite possibly, the world's greatest wrestler and at least America's greatest). This basically left him as the king of the American independent wrestling scene -- which isn't saying much these days. He's now signed with the WWE, apparently due to mounting medical bills. But then in June 2010, he was let go, purportedly because he was too violent.
 * And now he's back with the WWE and seems to be on track toward becoming a main eventer of the company. Of course, that's probably because he's that damn good in the ring.
 * And now he (or at least Daniel Bryan) is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and will main event Wrestlemania in a title defense.
 * Booker and manager Jim Cornette has worked for most every major wrestling promotion under the sun and wishes most would fuck off. Cornette is a traditionalist booker, emphasizing in-ring skill and younger talent over backstage politicians and older primadonnas like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash. As such, Cornette tends to shred just about any and everyone who uses politics and hype to further their career in the sport, leading him to leave company after company after company. He currently has found a home with Ring of Honor which is pretty much a entire company of Last DJ's.
 * Artists in East Germany who refused to serve the state were often this trope.
 * Dave Chappelle left his hit television show because, among other reasons, he felt that the game was starting to corrupt and/or change him and that the business was trying to control him, an idea he showed in his "Almighty Showbiz" skit, which aired on the final season. Other artists, comedians, writers, etc, often act on the same ideas.
 * Some people saw journalist Gary Webb as this.
 * Professor David Nutt of the ACMD was forced to resign from his position by the British Home Secretary for his research into drugs and their effects on society, because it didn't cohere with their policy, despite being scientifically accurate.
 * BET's VJs Free and Aj are considered to be this by some. They eventually left.
 * Rory Bremner was overwhelmed with job offers in the late 80s after the success of Spitting Image, but chose to remain freelance so that he didn't have to compromise his material. He now produces his own occasional show (i.e. one or two a year) which gets graveyard slots on Channel 4, rather than primetime on ITV or BBC. He's still widely regarded as one of the best political impressionist-satirists in the UK, if not the world.
 * Russell Poole - Poole's involvement during the investigation into the LAPD Rampart Scandal and his resignation over the fact that his testimony identifying LAPD officers as the perpetrators in Biggie Smalls' murder was being suppressed, made him stand out as a rare voice of right and reason in the world of the unapologetically corrupt Los Angeles Police Department.
 * NYPD officer Adrian Schoolcraft spent years defying the police department's secret quotas for the number of tickets to write and arrests to make, despite enduring numerous punishments in doing so. Finally, when Schoolcraft attempted to report this and his precinct's tendency of underreporting major crimes (so as to not make themselves look bad) he was fired, but Schoolcraft had the last laugh; he had spent his last two years in the department carrying a micro-recorder with him at all times, capturing all of the department's corruption.

Schoolcraft wasn't simply fired. He left work early one day because of illness (his work was very stressful, for some reason), which led to a squad of officers, including some of high rank, at his apartment late at night. Before they came in, he turned the recorder on. The scene that followed was chilling, as they piled on accusations and had him involuntarily committed. If not for the work of Schoolcraft's father, he might have remained locked up in a psych ward for more than just a week. "Chilling" barely begins to describe it.
 * Prince got tired of being jerked around by his record label. Unfortunately, the label had an ironclad contract that said they owned (and thus could do what they wanted with) any album that was released with his name on it... so he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol the label had absolutely no claim to. When the original contract was voided, he went back to calling himself Prince. Making him The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
 * It's sometimes commented that you never want a leader who wanted to be leader; you pick someone with leadership qualities. Why? To avoid getting someone who would be corrupted by and/or abuse the power.
 * The original Dictator was a Roman, hired by the State to solve impending problems of Republic Existence Failure, who was given absolute power for a year. At the end of that, though, he had to account for everything he'd done to the Senate. In the early Republic, the contest was to see who could solve the problem the swiftest and resign the position. The record was FIFTEEN DAYS.
 * This was a favoured and often-repeated maxim of SF author Frank Herbert: "Power attracts the corruptible."
 * Neil Young is notorious for this. He does what he wants, when he wants, for as long as he wants to do it. He once put out a couple of albums of techno-electronica and was sued by his record company for making music that didn't sound like Neil Young.
 * Calvin and Hobbes author Bill Watterson, whose notorious fights with Universal Press Syndicate over licensing (specifically, his blanket refusal to license anything), and his insistence that the Sunday comic format be more flexible, are nearly as well-known as the strip itself.
 * Jeff Gerstmann gave a very critical review of Kane and Lynch on Gamespot and was fired shortly after; it was presumed by many that the heavy amount of Kane and Lynch ads on the Gamespot website had something to do with this (the fact that after the incident several other Gamespot editors started leaving in droves lent quite a bit of credibility to this theory). Gerstmann went on to start Giant Bomb alongside several former Gamespot members.