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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Your powerful GDI forces have been emasculated, and [[Non
|'''Kane''', ''[[Command & Conquer]]''}}
{{quote|''As a newsman, I know I should keep my opinions to myself, but I just wanna say: Kenan and Kel, we hate you!''
▲{{quote|''Your powerful GDI forces have been emasculated, and [[Non Entity General|you yourself]] are a ''killer of children.'' Now of course it's not true, [[Villain With Good Publicity|but the world only believes what the media tells them to believe.... and I tell the media what to believe. It's really quite simple.]]''|'''Kane''', ''[[Command and Conquer]]''}}
|'''Newsman''', ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''}}
Being a [[Superhero]] isn't all it's cracked up to be. The heroes' lives and those of their loved ones are constantly in danger from their [[Big Bad|archnemeses]]
▲{{quote|''As a newsman, I know I should keep my opinions to myself, but I just wanna say: Kenan and Kel, we hate you!''|'''Newsman''', ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''}}
▲Being a [[Superhero]] isn't all it's cracked up to be. The heroes' lives and those of their loved ones are constantly in danger from their [[Big Bad|archnemeses]]--and sometimes from their own powers, too. Sometimes [[Fake Ultimate Hero|someone else]] [[Dude Where's My Reward|takes credit]] for their heroic efforts. But perhaps [[Et Tu Brute|the most hurtful and confusing]] drawback comes when the people they've sworn to protect hate their guts.
This could arise for any number of reasons:
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** [[The Hero]] is in the middle of a [[Conspiracy Redemption]] or is taking on the mantle of a reviled [[Legacy Character]].
** [[Good Is Not Nice|He's a jerk.]]
** [[What the Hell, Hero?|She deserves it]].
** He pulls a [[Zero
* Because people just plain want [[The Chew Toy|to pick on the hero]]:
** [[Shoot the Dog|Shooting the dog]].
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** People like [[Bullying a Dragon|pissing off someone above their]] [[Super Weight]] category.
* Other:
** [[Malicious Slander|Anonymous rumors]], perhaps planted by a [[Villain
*** [[The Hero]] is centerpiece to some disastrous prophecy.
** The hero's [[Walking Disaster Area|constant proximity to awful events]] makes him [[The Scapegoat|appear suspicious]].
** The news media just needs to [[Only in It For
But whatever the reason, public sentiment is against these heroes, and there's usually [[Status Quo Is God|nothing they can do about it]]. Sorry - you can't please everyone.
Usually serves as the grass-roots support for a [[Super Registration Act]]. Can be a reason that [[
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The titular character of the manga ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' has this problem early on. In the first chapter, aliens actually ''cancel'' their invasion plans rather than fight Kinnikuman, the only hero available at the time. A bit later, the Japanese government allows American superhuman Terry Man to become their resident hero, in spite of the fact he charges for his rescues, because it's ''still'' better than being saved by Kinnikuman.
* Vash from [[Trigun]] has a reputation so bad he's viewed as a natural catastrophe. Mostly because people keep trying to kill him and blowing up the nearby towns, blowing up a city himself one time and finally because Knives is trying to <s>kill</s> [[Break the Cutie|break]] him.
* [[Slayers|Lina]] has a pretty terrible reputation... because she tends to [[No Kill Like Overkill|use Dragon Slave]] [[Destructive Savior|in the middle of towns.]] Plus steal. But she <s>means well</s> manages to do heroic stuff anyway!
** ''[[Oddly
* In ''[[Gaiking]]: Legend of the Daiku Maryu'', this ends up being the case since the heroes essentially take the fight to the enemy's planet very early on. The episode in which the hero Daiya finds this out is actually called "''We're the bad guys?!?''"
* Victor Freeman from ''[[Blaster Knuckle]]'' hunts demons that revert to a human form when killed, and have often taken the forms of women and children. The first issue kicks off with him stomping into a saloon and gunning down a pretty brunette pleading for help (she was actually a demon, but...). Did I mention that this story takes place in the 1880's Deep South, and that Victor is ''[[Scary Black Man|Black]]''?
* [[Monster (
* The ''[[Guyver]]'' manga features this after the Zoanoids go public and claim that the Guyver and his allies are alien invaders. The recent anime just barely scratches the surface of this plot and is the only non-manga iteration to get up to even that point.
* Mist from ''[[Knights]]'' is generally feared and hated because he's black and he's in a Medieval European-esque setting with an overwhelmingly white population.
* A major plot-point and cause of grief for Hoichi Kano, protagonist from [[Cannon God Exaxxion]]. Good part of it comes from the [[Destructive Saviour|absurd amounts of damage]] caused by the titular [[Super Robot]], but the Riofaldian defamation campaign on him (which smashes to dust the [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in
* While the public and the Magic Counsel is grateful that the [[Fairy Tail]] guild often solves world-threatening crises, the tendency for its members to cause massive property damage greatly irritates them.
* Akuto Sai in ''[[Ichiban Ushiro no
* The title character of ''[[
* This trope seems to disproportionately affect [[Dark Is Not Evil|Dark-type]] and [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Ghost-type]] Pokémon. The eponymous Pokémon in ''[[Pokémon:
** Thankfully, both of the above receive credit once the heroes realise the hastiness of their judgement.
** Absol also suffers bad publicity. It is known as the Disaster Pokémon, and is able to pre-empt when disasters will happen. It then does the logical thing and tries to warn people of the impending disaster, only to be blamed as the cause of it, since it happens shortly after he appears.
* Yusei Fudou in the first season of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
** They don't take kindly to Satellite people in general...
* The straw hats of [[One Piece]] tend to be treated like this, they do a lot more good than harm, but still get chased out of places due to technically being pirates, and series of bad coincidences.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Roy Mustang more or less cultivates this by appearing to care only about chasing women and promotions. He gets hit with it for real when he {{spoiler|is apparently responsible for burning a fugitive woman to death. Subverted in that he's ''still'' cultivating it - he fakes the murder and smuggles the woman, who is innocent, to safety in another country, knowing full well that people will hate him but preferring that over leaving her to her fate.}}
* In the FRLG saga of ''[[
* Zero and the Black Knights of ''[[Code Geass]]'', [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|when it comes to]] the Britannian Empire.
* Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'', although he's technically an [[Anti
* Naofumi Iwatani, protagonist of ''[[The Rising of the Shield Hero]]''. He spends a lot of time in season 1 as a pariah, due to Malty's [[Malicious Slander]] against him.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The instigation for the events in [[Marvel Comics]]' ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' [[Crisis Crossover|crossover]] is due to a large amount of collateral damage (including a few hundred dead children) from a botched mission that turned public opinion against superheroes. The result is that superheroes are put under government control (a fairly sensible idea that very quickly [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went horribly wrong]]), with Iron Man in charge.
** But Iron Man himself becomes a
* The anti-mutant prejudice in the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' labels probably qualifies, although this can also be seen as a case of [[Fantastic Racism]].
* [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] gets a lot of undeserved flak, mostly due to the negative PR campaign by his employer, J. Jonah Jameson. Probably the first superhero to have this as his status quo.
** This is all the more baffling when you consider how little collateral damage Spidey causes compared to most superheroes with super-strength.
** However, while Spider-Man doesn't do much property damage himself, his [[Rogues Gallery
** Within the first twenty issues it was revealed JJ felt jealous of Spidey's successes. Later revelations included [[Freudian Excuse|being beaten by his stepfather]], [[All of the Other Reindeer|a mistrust of superheroes]], and JJ's own failure to live up to the high standards he sets for himself.
** Of course, if he took one look at [[The Chew Toy|how Spidey's life normally functions]], he'd soon be whistling a different tune.
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*** Meaning that now he HAS to have bad publicity... But, among his family, he is the greatest hero of all.
* Richard Wentworth, [[The Spider]], had a habit of killing crooks by the score. While this behavior was justified within the stories, it did make the police and public think of him as a dangerous criminal in his own right.
* Just about all of the masked vigilantes in ''[[Watchmen]]'' after they fell out of favor and costumed adventuring was made illegal - except for those who work for the American government. Of course, the only other one still active is Rorschach, and he [[Nineties Anti
* The [[The DCU|Outsiders]]' raison d'être is to be the team of superheroes that can do the [[Dirty Business]] and ''know'' they're going to come out with stains upon their name. Considering that it was funded by [[Fighting Dirty|Batman]], it makes sense, but raises some [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|interesting questions]].
** When Batman took control of the team again, he fired several of the members, pointedly because they weren't suited to that sort of reputation:
{{quote|
* Like Iron Man, in the aftermath of ''Secret Invasion'', Spider Woman has attained a very horrible reputation. Even if she is the real Spider Woman, most of the New Avengers (and some normal people) [[Never Live It Down|still see her as the Skrull Queen, the orchestrator of the Invasion that captured and impersonated her for years.]]
* While this tends to come up at some point in most incarnations of ''[[Transformers]]'', it was a particularly strong theme in the original Marvel Comics run, where the humans frequently weren't even aware that there were two factions of Transformers, let alone that one of those factions might be better-intentioned than the other.
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* [[The Green Hornet]] actually invokes this. Since his day job consists of him being the owner and publisher of a major newspaper, Britt Reed, he constantly has his newspaper run stories about the Green Hornet being a dangerous criminal mastermind so he (as the Green Hornet) can infiltrate criminal gangs who assume he wants a cut of their operation.
* In a complete 180 of his long held status, [[Superman]] in the DC Relaunch universe will start out as one of these (at least in his new backstory which will be covered in Action Comics.) There are indications that he won't have the warmest relationship with the general public even in the new present timeline.
** He previously had a bit of bad publicity during his Electric Superman phase where losing control of his powers made him dangerous briefly.
** Before that, there was a storyline a few years after Superman returned from the dead where stories started circulating that Superman had not returned from the dead and that this was another impostor. Seemingly backed up when Superman's body was found in his tomb (turned out to be an illusion from Braniac.)
* The three main heroes in ''[[Sin City]]'':
** Hartigan was framed for Junior Roarke's murder due to being one of the only clean cops on the force.
** Marv already had a reputation of being a psychopath but going up against the Roarkes ensured that his name would be mud {{spoiler|before execution}}. In fact, they initially ran afoul of him when they tried to frame him for murder.
** Dwight is wanted for the murder of an established socialite {{spoiler|unlike the other two examples, he actually did it, although he was manipulated into doing so.}} His reputation was bad enough that he underwent plastic surgery to avoid being recognized.
* ''[[
* In [[Les Legendaires
** This sometimes cause the population of Alysia to be portrayed as [[Ungrateful Bastard|horribly ungrateful]], seeing how they were quick to forget all the time the Legendaries risked their life (and keep doing so) for them just because of ''one'' accident that wasn't even lethal to the population.
* [[Batman]] is being hit ''hard'' with this in the new DCU as Batman ''and'' as Bruce Wayne. Some people in Gotham actually riot because they think he killed [[The Joker]]
* ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'': Following her [[Brainwashed and Crazy|brainwashing]] by the Iron Queen, NICOLE becomes a subject of fear to much of New Mobotropolis, particularly [[Idol Singer]] Mina Mongoose, who begins a series of musical protests against her. And things are made even worse when [[Evil Sorcerer|Ixis Naugus]] starts using Mina's music as a conduit for his magic, amplifying the public's distrust of NICOLE into [[Hate Plague|paranoia and hate]], in a bid to make himself a [[Villain
* ''[[ROM Spaceknight]]'' had this problem early in his career, at least on Earth. A cyborg tasked with coming to Earth and hunting down his race’s arch enemies, the Dire Wraths (an evolutionary offshoot of Skrulls that had been corrupted by dark magic), he was initially seen as the villain by earthlings, due to lack of foresight on his part. Like regular Skrulls, Dire Wraths are shapechangers who can disguise themselves as humans, and Rom’s method of dealing with them was a [[Ray Gun]] that [[Thou Shall Not Kill| banished them to their home dimension of Limbo]]. Unfortunately, at first he had no way of communicating with humans, so given what they witnessed, they assumed he was a [[Killer Robot]] attacking them with a [[Disintegrator Ray]]! Fortunately, after several run-ins with Earth's heroes he managed to manipulate his actions so both [[Luke Cage]] and [[Iron Fist]] saw the Dire Wraths for what they were, prompting both [[The Fantastic Four]] and [[Doctor Strange]] to reassess the situation, and Rom was eventually accepted as a hero.
== [[Fan
* In ''[[Aselia]]'', a major plotline involves the [[Tales
== [[Film]] ==
* The movie ''[[Hancock]]'' starts off with this and the PR agent who volunteers to try to improve his image.
* The titular hero goes through this during ''[[
** Yet another Batman movie example: In ''[[
* Just about any [[Cowboy Cop]] is one of these.
* The ''[[
* [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford]]''. Ford's killing of Jesse is clearly cowardly but he tried to play it off like it's heroism. Nobody buys it and Ford is widely villified, and later murdered by a lone gun nut seeking to avange Jesse's death (who, to twist the knife further, is buried as a hero, while Ford's tombstone reads "the coward who killed Jesse James"). The irony is that Jesse was actually a [[Villain
* The ''Desperado'' series of TV movies follow Duell McCall, an innocent man framed for one murder who travels from place to place, upholds justice, defeats evil men and inevitably gets blamed for everything that happens in the film so his bounty just keeps getting bigger.
* The premise of ''[[The Green Hornet (
* Mystery Inc. in ''[[Scooby
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and others of Tolkien's writings,
** It might have something to do with how uninvited guests rarely survive entering her realm. The elves of Lothlórien are even more xenophobic than their Mirkwood cousins.
** Most of the time uninvited guests never even manage to enter; her enchantment keeps the land protected and intruders lost. Orcs were deliberately lured inwards so that they could be slaughtered to the last man, however.
* By the end of the second book in the [[Warchild Series]], {{spoiler|Captain Azarcon and his men}} have acquired this reputation.
* [[Harry Potter]], despite being the [[The Chosen One|Chosen One]], gets this treatment frequently throughout the series, mostly being portrayed as an [[Attention Whore]]:
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** This trope could also apply to Severus Snape. No matter how many times he has demonstrably saved Harry's life, or failed to cause him any harm besides a few detentions and sarcastic remarks when he had plenty of opportunities, Harry continued to hate his guts until the very end. Also, everyone believes him a traitor after book six because {{spoiler|he killed Dumbledore (done at Dumbledore's request, but only Snape and Dumbledore knew this).}} Especially given that {{spoiler|Snape had been a Death Eater before (of his own free will,)}} it was an ''entirely reasonable'' conclusion to come to. The fact that Snape was always a [[Jerkass]] to Harry doesn't help his case. He was also a [[Deadpan Snarker]] to everyone, as well. Except for his chosen [[
*** {{spoiler|Harry ''finally'' gets this when he views Snape's life story and forgives him for his flaws. Not only did he get his second son's middle name from Snape, he even campaigned to have Snape recognised as a legitimate Headmaster and hero of the Wizarding World.}}
** Don't forget Sirius Black, who is believed by nearly everyone in the wizarding community to be a murderous psychopath until after {{spoiler|his death.}}
* The demigod children who form the focus of the [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] series are usually branded as troublemakers because [[Blessed
** Even worse, exactly ''how'' mortals see through the mist is determined by [[Cosmic Plaything|what the gods think of Percy at the time]]. And since he has a habit of [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|pissing off gods or getting framed for things]], its almost always bad.
* The [[Deryni]] in the novels by Katherine Kurtz suffer for this generally, and Camber of Culdi and Alaric Morgan most particularly.
** Some Deryni are evil, and a family of them conquered Gwynedd and ruled tyrannically for eight decades. Unfortunately, in the backlash ''all'' the Deryni were condemned as evil. [[Shrouded in Myth|Fear, ignorance and imagination soon make them seem nigh on demonically powerful and diabolically clever.]]
** Camber of Culdi found the heir of the previous ruling family, engineered his restoration to the throne (and the toppling of the evil Deryni ruler), and for what? Sure he gets sainthood, but quickly loses it. He and many members of his family are outlawed and die untimely deaths, his estates are forfeited, even his family's tombs are destroyed.
** Alaric Morgan had bad publicity from birth. He chooses to make use of this, cultivating his [[Shrouded in Myth|dangerous reputation]] as a means of protecting himself; he often [[Dark Is Evil|wears black]] and he is open about the fact that he is Deryni, even if he doesn't perform magic openly. Despite this, he serves two kings loyally and effectively, often risking his life in the process. While he reaps many rewards, his reputation precedes him.
* Arguably, the entire [[New Jedi Order]] in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
** Once again the case in the Fate of the Jedi series. Given [[General Failure|Natasi]] [[Omnicidal Maniac|Daala]] is the incumbent Chief of State for the Galactic Alliance and a major antagonist of the Order (and Force users in general) this is not that surprising.
* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] is pretty much this trope walking. To the [[Muggles|"straights"]] he's at best a quirky man who knows way too much and thus is pretty damned creepy, and at worst they see him as a delusional charlatan who may or may not be conning Chicago PD out of good money. To the White Council, however, he is considered a loose cannon who may or may not be a devious, dangerous schemer at [[Black Magic]]. His ostensible allies don't trust him, and the only people he's got on his side are a gaggle of werewolves, the [[Church Militant|Knights]], a few members of the Chicago PD's Special Investigations unit, {{spoiler|his half-brother}}, his teenage apprentice, and a smattering of allies in the Faerie Courts and the White Council.
* Patrick McLanahan and his team(s) from ''[[Dale Brown]]'''s books are disliked at best, outright hated at worst by those in the American government who know of their existence. Jason Richter and Task Force TALON get a similar treatment.
* Subverted in [[
** As well as, at his trial, a crowd of Muggle supporters that reminds the reader that ''no'', the entire GA is not against the Jedi, and ''yes'', despite said leader's smear campaign, people in-story still realize that Luke is one of the biggest heroes and forces for good in the GFFA.
* In ''[[The Bible]]'', Jesus warns his disciples that the world will hate them.
* In ''[[Myth Adventures|Something M.Y.T.H. Inc.]]'', we see how Skeeve's well-meant efforts to reform the kingdom of Possiltom in ''Sweet Myth-tery of Life'' are mistaken for the actions of a stereotypical "evil wizard" or [[Dark Lord]] by the kingdom's more impressionable citizens.
* In the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' Michael develops a tendency to be the prime suspect of the crime he's trying to solve due to being {{spoiler|tattooed as an unredeemable criminal}}, thanks to a spectacular failure on the law's part.
* Pei Shan-wei of ''[[
* It also happened to ''[[Sherlock Holmes (
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffy]] is feared and/or disliked by much of the teaching staff at Sunnydale High School. Initially, it was because they'd heard rumors about how she [[Kill It
** Even more pronounced in the Season Eight comics, where the Slayers are, suffice it to say, ''controversially'' heroic, in large part due to there being [[Villain
*** It's not even entirely unjustified; Buffy's brilliant idea for funding her worldwide Slayer operation was to rob a Swiss bank with the aid of magic and Slayer powers; her justification was that it was probably Nazi gold, anyway.
{{quote|
:* Buffy is, unfortunately, far from the first Slayer to fit this Trope. The very first Slayer was Sineya, an African tribeswoman in a prehistoric era. Living in a time before the Old Ones were locked away and still free to menace humanity (including possibly Chthulhu itself, given one of the comics' illustrations) she certainly did her job admirably, but her own kinsmen (whom she protected) believed her to be just as much a demon as the creatures she fought, and cast her out. One could say Sineya had it much worse even than Buffy, having nobody to confide in and being truly alone in her task.
* Narutaki, a self-proclaimed "prophet", spreads rumors across realities about the eponymous ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' being destined to destroy [[The Multiverse]]. {{spoiler|To be fair, Narutaki wasn't far from wrong.}}
* Starts to happen in [[Smallville]] Season 8 and in full force in Season 10.
* In ''[[
** After Martha's departure to travel with The Doctor, her mother is warned that the Doctor is dangerous by the mysterious "Mr Saxon" (later revealed to be {{spoiler|The Doctor's fellow Time Lord and old nemesis, The Master}} )
* Not superheroes, but [[Kenan and Kel]] becomes this in episode, ''Foul Bull'', due to Ron Harper's injury being blamed on them.
* Surprisingly averted in ''[[Power Rangers]]''. The population still trust and love the Rangers, despite the regular rampage of [[Gundamjack
* In the BBC ''[[Sherlock]]'' second-series-ender ''The Reichenbach Fall'', this is one of Moriarty's objectives for the titular sleuth. For as-yet-unknown reasons, {{spoiler|Sherlock himself seems to go along with it right at the very end, after having resisted}} throughout the episode. (It doesn't help that he's known for a [[Good Is Not Nice|brusque and cold demeanor]].)
== [[Music]] ==
* In [[
** This is even lampshaded by Willy when he states that it doesn't even matter if he's telling the truth or that his arguments don't really make sense, the very fact that he pointed his finger at Light caused the crowd to blindly hate him.
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== [[Theater]] ==
* Elphaba from ''[[Wicked (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[Phantom Brave|Marona, Marona, Marona!]]
* Everyone calls him a legendary hero, but only a few knows that there's something more benevolent to [[Mega Man Zero|Zero]]'s "extremist" actions.
* In the first [[Command
** In the GDI campaign, this is played with. It ''looks'' like Nod's media campaign has brought UNGDI to the brink of being disawoved by the Security Council, with funding being suspended while investigations are made... and then, when Nod launches a major offensive, it is revealed that it was a trick by the GDI leadership, taking advantage of Nod's media edge to bait the Brotherhood into striking before properly building up its strength. You still have bad publicity, but it wasn't ''so'' bad as it looked to you or Kane.
* Georg Prime of ''[[Suikoden]]'' fame is frequently accused of committing regicide against the Queen of Falena. {{spoiler|It's true, but she WANTED him to do it, as it was the only way to keep her from using the Sun rune (which was driving her insane) to wipe out the entire country.}}
* AVALNCHE in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is branded as a terrorist group. It's basically true, but the government that labels them so [[One Nation Under Copyright|consists almost entirely of]] [[Corrupt Corporate Executive
** Ramza in [[Final Fantasy Tactics]]. {{spoiler|He gets branded as a heretic for pretty much telling the bad guys to stop doing bad things, and is STILL remembered as a villian after the game is over. It eventually stops and it's implied he gets the recognition he deserves...five hundred years later.}}
* Pretty much everyone wants to arrest and/or kill [[Badass|Yuri]] [[Vigilante Man|Lowell]] in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''.
** Though he really ''did'' commit the crimes he's accused of (well, at least most of them; one of them was a misunderstanding).
* Villain smear campaigning causes Link to suffer this fate in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: A Link to the Past'', where the palace guards have the townspeople convinced that he's responsible for Princess Zelda's disappearance. He has to slink around Kakariko Village in order to achieve his objectives; if his neighbors spot him, they send for the guards to kill him.
** This trope can also happen in ''Link's Awakening'', although in that case, it really is justified. It is triggered if you make Link steal any item from the store by careful manouvering around the shopkeep while carrying one of the items. Should you decide to do it, your game file will be permanently renamed to THIEF, and everybody in the town will treat you accordingly, and if you return to the shop after stealing an item, {{spoiler|the shopkeeper uses magic to shock you to death}}. Yikes. Still, it is pretty hard to resist doing this in-game, since the bow in the game is sold at the ridiculous price of 990 rupees (the rupee cap is at 999), and it takes a looooong time to save up that amount of money.
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** Wolf Link in ''[[Twilight Princess]]''. Outside of the twilight, he's feared as a monster. Inside of it, he's invisible so he gets no credit for his heroic actions. Thankfully, Link also has a human form in which he can be viewed heroically.
* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Shadow the Hedgehog]]. Not that he seems to care much.
** Sonic in [[
* Subverted in ''[[
** Actually, {{spoiler|the Voice of Survival gets killed off regardless of whether you're playing good or evil, though it's easy to miss the cut scene if you don't happen to pass a TV at the right time.}}
* ''[[Quest for Glory]] IV'' starts out like this, due to suspicious townsfolk who are fearful of strangers and especially anything to do with magic, although the hero will gradually win their trust by helping them out.
* Tassadar has a bit of a publicity problem in ''[[
* Marina from [[Mischief Makers]] takes flak from the evil double's paper-thin disguise.
* {{spoiler|Archer}} from [[Fate/stay
* Similar to the [[Transformers]] example above, Jedi are almost universally hated and hunted during the time of [[Knights of the Old Republic]] II because the galaxy percieves the whole Jedi-Sith war that nearly tore apart the Republic as "a religious dispute between two factions of Jedi". Many people refuse to see any distinction between Jedi like the [[PC]] (if light side) and the Sith Lords and assassins that seem to follow him/her wherever they go.
* [[Player Character|Commander Shepard]] in ''[[
** Likely to get much worse for him/her in ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''Mario'', of all people, has to deal with this in ''[[
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', there is a [[Story Arc]] where you become a
* In ''[[Golden Sun
* Entirely possible in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''. Because your karma (how good or evil you are) is factored separately from your reputation (how much people like you) it's very, very possible to end the game with the highest karma possible, and ''every single faction hating your guts.''
** Although, because of the game, it's actually very hard to end with high karma and everybody hating you, and you must actively peruse this as a goal, because you must do a lot to up your karma, and most karma upping quests are related with one faction are another.
*** If somebody is going through the trouble to be hated by everybody but still be a picture of justice overall, that might be more suspicious than anything else, that or every single person around them is just insane.
* Alex Mercer in ''[[Prototype (
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles III]]'': Kurt Irving and The Nameless can give [[Final Fantasy Tactics|Ramza]] a run for his money. They are supposed to do the dirty jobs that the official military won't, and at one point was branded traitor (and possibly heretic). But they finally have their name cleared, even if they must live in obscurity for the rest of their life.
** Depends if you're talking about an individual level or group level. Individually, most are nothing more than people caught in a bad situation or simply got shanghaied into the unit. By comparison; two characters are actually Lanseal graduates (the game's equivalent of West Point), one of which graduated with honors. (And thats not including the volunteers.) As a group, the unit's bad reputation has more to do with the fact that its commanding officers keep them on hand and use them explicitly for wet works than anything they actually do.
* Janos Audron in the [[Legacy of Kain]] series.
* In ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' games the Heralds always speak out against the Assassins even if you do your best to avoid civilian deaths. However, this is easily solved with simple bribes.
* The new ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* [[Less Than Three Comics|The <3-Verse]] has the Shadow (no, not ''that'' one), a vigilante, shunned for his violent methods against regular crooks.
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', the Motor City Marshalls are wanted by the Detroit police for assault, battery, destruction of privacy, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, and pretty much every other crime that your everyday, standard superheroic activity can be descrbed as under the law if the local District Attorney thought superheroes were a menace to society.
* In [[Sonic the Comic Online]], this trope has become Sonic's downfall - the Kane Broadcasting Company uses their footage to convince the population of Mobius that Sonic is actually a villain who might be ''worse'' than Robotnik, and the worst part of it is, the footage they have to back up their claims, while very one-sided, is still genuine. Sonic's base can spy on every zone in the world, Sonic himself [[Jerkass Sue|is a bit of a dick,]] and [[Super
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Ziv Zulander from ''[[The BOTS Master]]'' has been branded a terrorist by the RM Corp.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' for the majority of Season One and the beginnings of Season Two. He gains good publicity eventually. Too much of it actually.
* Some instances of [[Batman]], such as in ''[[
* A bit of a problem for the Autobots in season two of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', presumably after the property damage of the first season starts sinking in. In the first season, it's mainly just Bulkhead who has a problem with this, as he's [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|a klutz who's strong enough to throw cars]].
** In ''[[Transformers Super God Masterforce]]'', Hydra and Buster attack Ginrai in a populated with the intention of causing considerable enough collateral damage to turn public opinion against the Autobots. They actually succeed for a short while.
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* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', all supers have Bad Publicity after they're sued for causing damage while saving lives. The result is that using superpowers becomes illegal and they all have to go into the "[[Super Registration Act|Superhero Protection Program]]."
* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' has this build up in the first season, then reach it's peak in the second season when they're framed for using their base defense system to destroy a city.
* [[Adam Westing|Catman]] from [[The Fairly
* The [[Street Sharks]] get this constantly, to the point in which one of their friends has to point out to the police that if they were really guilty of one of the crimes they're accused of, they'd have to have been in two places at once. The [[Big Bad]] also gets everyone to blame their dad for creating ''them'', so yeah.
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' has... well, the titular gargoyles. Brooklyn even lampshades their "publicity problem" in "Hunter's Moon."
** {{spoiler|Greg Weisman has alluded to that being only temporary. After saving the city a few times, the Clan becomes a branch of the NYPD and eventually, due to [[Heroic Sacrifice|Goliath's sacrifice]] sometime in the future, the United Nations declares the Gargoyle Species a protected race, acknowledges its sentience, and creates a Nation for the Gargoyles to founded.}}
* Ben in ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'' has this when his [[Secret Identity]] gets outed. A jerk reporter even breaks out the [[Spider-Man|"threat or menace"]] false dichotomy:
{{quote|
'''Julie''': Only 26% of adult viewers think you're a menace.
'''Ben''': See? That's not bad.
'''Julie''': 74% think you're a threat. }}
* Superman has become this in the series finale of ''[[Superman:
* Just like in the comics, Spider-Man suffers from this in [[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]. Oddly enough, J. Jonah Jameson at first doesn't actually hate Spidey, and simply views him as easy publicity. However, similar to [[Ultimate Spider-Man]], a story about Spider-Man in a rival newspaper outsells the Daily Bugle's own story on his son's heroic landing of a space shuttle. As a result, Jameson finally snaps and begins a smear campaign.
* A [[
* [[Darkwing Duck]] parodies this a lot; the titular characters suffers ''a lot'' from bad publicity due to his dark look and mannerism, both from civilians and authorities, to the point when he seemingly dies in ''Dead Duck'', he is only granted a cheap burial, and [[Psycho Electro|Megavolt]], who is believed to be the murderer, not only gets away with it without going to jail, but even ''becomes famous by writing a book about it''. This reach such proportions that Darkwing attempts in one episode to give himself a better image so he'll get better publicity, and almost succeeds until his [[Arc Enemy]] Negaduck ruins it (ironically, both the audience and Darkwing end up grateful to Negaduck, as Darkwing realizes his obsession with good image prevented him from focusing on his cases, and the fans found Darkwing new looks ridiculous).
* Zig-zagged in [[The Powerpuff Girls]] Movie. Before becoming heroes, their game of tag renders Townsville asunder ("Bug-eyed Girls Destroy Townsville" reads the headline of the Townsville Times). Even when they attempt to do something good, they are seen as pariahs.
* The focus of ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades]]'' which has most of the team being branded as criminals while trying to expose Cobra's operations who, in this incarnation, are [[Villain
* Happens to [[Word Girl]] almost three or four times.
* Possibly true of the [[The Pied Piper of Hamelin]], at least in the setting of ''[[Miraculous Ladybug]]''. Kind of hard to fathom why the former holder of the Fox Miraculous (which he was in this continuity) would be known for kidnapping children, or if he had, why Trixx would never mention it to Alya or any other holder. At very least, it suggests there was more to the story than most folks know.<ref>[[Word of God| Thomas Astruc's]] explanation for why the Piper was a Miraculous holder was simply, [[Shrug of God| "Why not?"]]</ref>
== Real Life ==
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** Pitbulls in general get a very bad rap; since they were originally bred for dogfighting, they have a bad reputation, but they've ''also'' been bred not to attack humans, to the point where they make terrible guard dogs because they love people so much. Between this and the horrible abuse they're often subjected to, the whole breed is listed on the [[Real Life]] subpage of [[The Woobie]] for a ''reason''.
* All too often, whistle-blowers.
** Julian Assange published several cables from the American military, including illegal base locations and a now famous video of a gunship murdering civilians in cold blood. These were provided by Bradley Manning, a young soldier. Cue the media screaming for their blood, Bradley being imprisoned in inhumane conditions, and cries of 'traitor!' by Americans. Yes, evidently you can betray a country you don't live in. Recently subverted in that both of them have been nominated for the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131025125725/http://rt.com/politics/assange-nominated-nobel-prize/ Nobel Peace][http://rt.com/news/manning-nobel-peace-prize-631/ Prize.]
** Manning does live in America. For a good breakdown of the gunship video, read [https://web.archive.org/web/20180818134732/http://markhumphrys.com/2007.airstrike.html
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Fame and Reputation Tropes]]
[[Category:Hero Tropes]]
[[Category:Hero
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