Warts and All: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Delenn''': ''In this case...yes.'' |'''[[Babylon 5]]''': ''Atonement''}}

* ''[[Hancock]]'': Only one character manages to see through the appearance to heroism.

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', Zefram Cochrane was the genius who gave the human race warp drive, thus taking the first step in the founding of [[The Federation]]. ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' revealed that he was a cowardly, womanizing drunk whose intentions in building the first warp ship was "dollar signs, and lots of them".

'''Commander Riker:''' You did, ten years from now. }}

* In ''[[Cat Ballou]]'', Catherine is dismayed to find that Shelleen, whom she hired due to his high reputation with a gun, is constantly drunk and uncoordinated as a result. Even his horse shows a similar laid back attitude.

* The all powerful ''[[Wizard of Oz]]'' turns out to be {{spoiler|nothing more than a [[Snake Oil Salesman]]. His confidence trickster skills do, however, eventually save the day.}}

* In ''[[Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of ga Hoole]]'', Soren finds out that the ragged, one-eyed, rather cynical old owl Ezylryb is actually {{spoiler|his hero, the legendary Lyze of Kiel}}.

'''{{spoiler|Lyze}}:''' Well what did you expect? Some ''Tyto alba'' with gleaming armor and battle claws, the moon rising behind him? ''(holds up his mangled talon)'' Well ''this'' is what it looks like when you've actually fought in battle. It's not glorious, it's not beautiful, it's not even heroic. It's merely doing what's right. And doing it again and again, even if someday you look like ''this''. }}

== Live-Action TV ==

* Poignantly subverted in ''[[Firefly]]''. After arriving at a village that has put Jayne up as a folk hero due to a misunderstanding, Jayne eventually tries to make the townspeople understand he's just a regular guy, even going so far as to push over his own statue. They don't believe him.

* In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Dahar Master Kor is a legendary warrior that everyone gushes over. But he is really old and becoming more and more senile as time goes on. His legendary status gets stripped away when he starts reliving a battle from his glory days which gets a lot of his people unnecessarily killed. Shown for the senile old man that he was, the crew rejects him. But he redeems himself when he undertakes a suicide mission and shows that he still has the skills that made him the legendary figure in the first place.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Father's Day", Rose meets up with her dead father, whom she knows only from her mother's stories. He proves to be up to his neck in get-rich-quick schemes and he and her mother quarrel almost continuously. However, in the end, her father makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the universe. Rose's voice-over at the beginning and end of the episode are both about her father, but the concluding one is full of new insight.

* Two examples from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]:''

** The first, Solid Snake. He's been idealized as the legendary soldier who penetrated deep into enemy territory as part of FOXHOUND in two separate incidents to destroy nuclear weapons at great risk to himself. He's supposedly thought of in-universe as the modern James Bond, or such is the implication. Naturally, Meryl is surprised when Snake turns out to be rather coarse, rude and disdaining of her combat ability, as well as rather unhappy that he's involved in the mission to begin with.

** The second, Big Boss. Though he ended up being a traitor, that little fact was apparently concealed by the government, as by the time of the fourth game he's a household name as the ultimate soldier and his awesome-ness is apparently common knowledge. Numerous [[Hollywood Style|and highly inaccurate]] [[Take That|video games]] and [[Dan Browned|poorly researched books]] have been made out of his career. What nobody realizes is that he was a mentally damaged man who had to [[Shoot the Dog|shoot his own mentor on the orders of his government]] who was convinced that [[Utopia Justifies the Means|utopia for soldiers is worth nuking people with giant bipedal tanks.]]

* On ''[[Daria]],'' an old sports hero comes to Lawndale High for a dedication, and everybody has to put up with what a [[Jerk Jock]] he is. The discrepancy between his honored status and caustic personality becomes even more difficult when {{spoiler|he dies in an accident, evoking sympathy and [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead]]}}.

* ''[[Beast Wars]]'': [[Invoked Trope]] by Dinobot via his {{spoiler|[[Last Words]]}}:

{{reflist}}