Hero with Bad Publicity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{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]]''}}

 

 

This could arise for any number of reasons:

== [[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.

* 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.

* In [[Les Legendaires|Les Légendaires]], the Legendaries, who used to be loved by the people of their fictive world Alysia, became Heroes with Bad publicity after their "final" fight with their [[Big Bad]] Darkhell by accidentally breaking a magic stone, causing it to accidentally trap everyone on the planet in the form of a child. The population ends up blaming them for this, and while they gradually get their reputation back, it's only after they saved the world from an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] [[God of Evil]] that the population seem to have fully forgiven them.

** 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.

* ''[[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 with Good Publicity]] by promising to dispose of NICOLE for them. {{spoiler|And it ''works'', leading to a [[Heroic BSOD]] on NICOLE's part.}}

 

 

== Literature ==

** 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.

** 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.

* 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]].)

 

** 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.}}

** 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]]''.

* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]: Calamity Trigger'', {{spoiler|Noel}} mistakes Bang for an evildoer after {{spoiler|Yukianesa freezes Jin.}}

* ''Mario'', of all people, has to deal with this in ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]''. He gets tried by a [[Kangaroo Court]] for the actions of a [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Paper Thin Disguised]] Bowser Jr.

* In ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'''s recap of the [[Golden Sun|first two games]], what little mention there is of {{spoiler|Felix's actions}} openly casts him in a bad light, and {{spoiler|the Fire Clan}} are never explained at all ( {{spoiler|though the latter weren't particularly heroic to common knowledge}}).

* 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.''