Hero with Bad Publicity: Difference between revisions

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{{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]]''}}

{{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 & 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!''|'''Newsman''', ''[[Kenan and Kel]]''}}

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* 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 ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', an ultimatum was set up in that the three Pokedex holders, Red, Green and Blue, must surrender themselves to Team Rocket, or else the evil team's attack on the Sevii Islands will continue until they are captured. This caused the local community to pin the blame on the Pokedex holders, and even trying to hunt them down.

* 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-Hero]]. Still beats his {{spoiler|reincarnated}} nemesis Griffith, who is the [[Villain with Good Publicity]].

== [[Comic Books]] ==

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* [[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]] does more property damage than all other [[Rogues Gallery|rogue galleries]] in comics COMBINED. In fact, some of his enemies do so much property damage that it's practically part of their gimmick (Rhino, Sandman, Electro, Green Goblin, Hydro-Man, etc.).

** 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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* [[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.

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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==

* In ''[[Aselia]]'', a major plotline involves the [[Tales (series)]] characters figuring out why their realms and verses merged together, and the bad reputations of certain characters has caused other protagonists to, at best, find them to be the in-story equivalent of side-villains, and at worst, assume that they were responsible for merging the verses in some form. Specific [[HWB Ps]] are Asbel Lhant, Jude Mathis, Lloyd Irving, Veigue Lungberg, Senel Coolidge and [[Vigilante Man|Yuri Lowell]].

== [[Film]] ==

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* Just about any [[Cowboy Cop]] is one of these.

* The ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', who are largely thought to be charlatans while they are saving the city. The sequel shows that many people continue to doubt their legitimacy even after the climax of the first film.

* [[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 with Good Publicity]]- while the public at large thought he was a [[Lovable Rogue]], he was actually a violent, brooding, paranoid lunatic who had recently [[The Purge|purged]] several members of his gang because he thought they'd betrayed him. In private Ford confesses that, ultimately, the real reason killed Jesse was that he seriously believed Jesse was going to kill him, and based on the evidence he was [[Properly Paranoid]]. To top it off, James is implied to be a [[Death Seeker]] and ''let'' [[Suicide by Cop|Ford kill him]] to escape a miserable life constantly on the run from the law.

* 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 (film)|The Green Hornet]]'' is this. He posed himself as a villain, but his deeds are actually heroic. Look at the Comic Book example above.

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== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and others of Tolkien's writings, Galadriel -- the Lady of the Golden Wood -- has a bad reputation with the Riders of Rohan, as well as Gondorians.

** 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 ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets|Harry Potter]]'' he is suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin due to always being seen with the victims shortly before it happened and being able to [[Snake Talk|speak snake]];

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** 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.

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* 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 ''[[Safehold]]'' tried to stop her fellow colony directors from giving in to their [[A God Am I]] delusions and forever turning the planet into a [[Medieval Stasis]] when the objective is to build back up to full technology. Her [[Anti-Mutiny]] is rewarded by her being murdered, along with all her friends and associates, and labeled the [[Path of Inspiration|Church of God Awaiting's]] Satan.

* It also happened to ''[[Sherlock Holmes (novel)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' in the Anthony Horowitz story, "The House of Silk."

== [[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 with Fire|burned down the gym]] at her old high school, but later she's the focus of a smear campaign directed by her principal.

** 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 with Good Publicity|Vampires With Good Publicity]].

*** 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.

* 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.}}

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== [[Theater]] ==

* Elphaba from ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' probably qualifies as she is definitely engaged in heroic activities saving Animals from the fascist dictator of Oz. However due to the Wizard's efforts to paint her as wicked she rapidly becomes the most hated figure in Oz.

== [[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 ~~and~~ Conquer]] at least, GDI. Nod's Greg Burdett, a respected journalist, would help them fabricate news stories about GDI slaughtering villages and burning down orphanages. Nod's mainline troops would also regularly partake in a little bit of the random slaughter, usually so they could make it look like GDI did it. This was also the entire point of the last couple of missions of Nod's campaign, in which you were {{spoiler|working to hijack the GDI Ion Cannon to destroy a landmark (you go to pick), framing GDI for the attack}}.

* In the first [[Command & Conquer]] at least, GDI. Nod's Greg Burdett, a respected journalist, would help them fabricate news stories about GDI slaughtering villages and burning down orphanages. Nod's mainline troops would also regularly partake in a little bit of the random slaughter, usually so they could make it look like GDI did it. This was also the entire point of the last couple of missions of Nod's campaign, in which you were {{spoiler|working to hijack the GDI Ion Cannon to destroy a landmark (you go to pick), framing GDI for the attack}}.

** 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.}}

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** 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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* Tassadar has a bit of a publicity problem in ''[[Starcraft]]'' due to his alliance with the Dark Templar and the Terrans. Arcturus Mengsk used to be one too, back when the Confederacy was in power. Jim Raynor has been one ever since the Dominion rose to power.

* Marina from [[Mischief Makers]] takes flak from the evil double's paper-thin disguise.

* {{spoiler|Archer}} from [[Fate/stay night]] got ''executed'' because nobody liked him.

* 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 ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', what with the [[Magnificent Bastard|Illusive Man]] resurrecting and manipulating him/her to save the galaxy with a [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|Cerberus logo]] on his/her ship, s/he has to deal with this problem throughout the game. On the one hand, the civilians who recognize him/her love Shepard. But those who knew him/her personally range from being leery of his/her new connections to outright enraged that s/he would associate with them.

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* ''[[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 ''[[DmC: Devil May Cry]]'' game looks to be heading this way as a trailer shows a newscast of a reporter claiming Dante to be a terrorist from his "attacks" when really if just damage cause by the fights in the parallel world carried over to the real one, however humans can't see the monsters so put the blame on Dante.

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* [[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 with Good Publicity|Villains With Good Publicity]].

* Happens to [[Word Girl]] almost three or four times.

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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 [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 [http://markhumphrys.com/2007.airstrike.html\]. The Nobel Peace Prize is a [[Take That]] at [[George W. Bush]] by the same commitee that awarded the prize to [[Barack Obama]] before he was even elected. Also, Wikileaks leaked the names of Coalition informants in Afghanistan and Iraq, who face brutal torture by the insurgents, who also target their husband/wives and children. Assange shrugged this off by saying they [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/julian-assange-wikileaks-nick-cohen/ deserve it, even their relatives.]

* Trade unions in the English-speaking world, particularly since the 1970s.

* Both sides of the [[Arab-Israeli Conflict]] consider themselves to be this.