History Main / ZeroApprovalGambit

* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Xiaxi is taken as the favored new servant of Mingyi, who goes out of his way to show his wife and concubines how great she is. Even though she's clearly rejecting him, his wives get pissed off and the seemingly meekest of them, Liu Ru, actually whips Xiaxi herself along with a few servants. [[spoiler:This turns out to have been a deal between her and Xiaxi: Xiaxi gets the bonus of Mingyi realizing he went too far while Liu Ru gets blamed for what happened. Liu Ru is promptly exiled, just as she and Xiaxi planned: Liu Ru was abducted into the household and wants to leave to be with her true love. She offers to take Xiaxi with her, but Xiaxi can't leave.]]

** It is revealed in episode 42 that [[spoiler:Rcules]] had done this as well. [[spoiler:He had been acting as a villain for the past 17 years as part of a LongGame to get an opportunity to kill the true BigBad Dagded. After he finally learned the identity of TheMole in his court in episode 20 which he had been looking for, he chose to use the trial by combat as an opportunity to vacate the throne to Gira and fake his death. The unhinged villainous rant he publicly went on was actually an act to make the citizens turn on him so that Gira would be accepted as the new king. Suzume was the only person who knew he had good intentions.]] Later, when he is finally put on trial for his actions, he requests that his motivations be kept secret so that history will remember him as a villain as he feels that his goal didn't justify his crimes.

** It is revealed in episode 42 that [[spoiler:Rcules]] had done this as well. [[spoiler:He had been acting as a villain for the past 17 years as part of a long con to get an opportunity to kill the true BigBad Dagded. After he finally learned the identity of TheMole in his court in episode 20 which he had been looking for, he chose to use the trial by combat as an opportunity to vacate the throne to Gira and fake his death. The unhinged villainous rant he publicly went on was actually an act to make the citizens turn on him so that Gira would be accepted as the new king. Suzume was the only person who knew he had good intentions.]]

* Ishigami Yu from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' has a tendency to redirect things to himself for others. In particular, [[spoiler:when he's falsely accused of stalking Kyoko Ohtomo by her boyfriend to hide his rampant infidelity, he ends up suspended from school and ostracized by all his peers; while he certainly did not intend to do this, he chooses again to remain a pariah in order to protect Kyoko from further pain, humiliation, and possible abuse by her boyfriend.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ryuuken appears to be engaged in a [[HeroicNeutral long-term plan]] to keep himself [[RefusalOfTheCall outcast]] from the spiritual world and his family, and hated by his son. Uryuu views Ryuuken's [[HiddenHeartOfGold dismissal of Quincies]] as a betrayal of the family heritage, refuses to live with him and doesn't trust him. When Isshin accuses Ryuuken of allowing Uryuu [[SecretTestOfCharacter to go to Hueco Mundo]] with Ichigo, Ryuuken quickly explains he simply doesn't care whether his son lives or dies. Souken states that Ryuuken's goal is [[DeclarationOfProtection protection]], but refuses to tell Uryuu what. It's very strongly implied to be Uryuu's life, which has been in grave danger from the [[ShroudedInMyth legendary]] [[TheEmperor Quincy King]] for at least nine years. It's also implied that Ryuuken is ''persona non grata'' among the Quincies; they are shocked to learn Uryuu exists and, while TheEmperor and a very few elite Quincies have mentioned Souken, Uryuu and Uryuu's mother, even they don't speak of Ryuuken.

* In "Side:Hope", the final episode of ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'', [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn the students of Class 77-B]] agree to publicly take the blame for the Final Killing Game in order to ensure that the Future Foundation will be able to recover from the event and continue to help rebuild the world]].

Sometimes to make a HeroicSacrifice, a hero doesn't need to die. Sometimes they must sacrifice something else...their good name, reputation, and integrity.

A character attempting a Zero Approval Gambit will knowingly risk -- or deliberately seek -- a ZeroPercentApprovalRating and paint themself in a bad light in order to achieve some greater good. This might involve falsely confessing to a crime they didn't commit, or it might involve them being an enormous {{Jerkass}} contrary to their true nature of JerkWithAHeartOfGold or HiddenHeartOfGold. The net result is that they will be hated, hunted and/or disgraced for all time. In short, they willingly become a HeroWithBadPublicity. See also SelfMadeMyth. Note that this isn't a short-term trick. A Zero Approval Gambit is usually permanent or takes a huge amount of work to undo.

* In ''Manga/SoulHunter'', the hero Taikoubou pulls one off to ensure the safe passage of refugees through a border gate, with shades of BatmanGambit and EnforcedMethodActing. He pretends to take the side of the official of the pass and attacks one of his shills harmlessly with wind magic. This angers his {{Humanshifting}} companion Youzen so much that Youzen transforms into a highly respected general to convince the official to let the people pass. Taikoubou tells the official that the 'general' is a [[CassandraTruth shapeshifter trying to trick him]], and forces him to choose which person to believe. The official arrests Taikoubou and lets the refugees pass.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': [[spoiler:Roy Mustang did this when he enacted a plan to make it appear that he burned Maria Ross to death (it was actually a fake cadaver, and Ross was being sneaked out of the country). Ross was under arrest for the murder of Maes Hughes and was to be executed, so Mustang saved her life while making it appear to the higher ups that his desire for vengeance was quenched. All the while, Ross's friends and family continue to think she's dead, making Mustang a bloodthirsty murderer in their eyes (at least until they learn the truth).]]
* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Xiaxi is taken is as the favored new servant of Mingyi, who goes out of his way to show his wife and concubines how great she is. Even though she's clearly rejecting him, his wives get pissed off and the seemingly meekest of them, Liu Ru, actually whips Xiaxi herself along with a few servants. [[spoiler:This turns out to have been a deal between her and Xiaxi: Xiaxi gets the bonus of Mingyi realizing he went too far while Liu Ru gets blamed for what happened. Liu Ru is promptly exiled, just as she and Xiaxi planned: Liu Ru was abducted into the household and wants to leave to be with her true love. She offers to take Xiaxi with her, but Xiaxi can't leave.]]
* Partially averted in ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' where in the fourth season, Inazuma Eleven GO, [[spoiler: [[TheAce Gouenji Shuuya]] of all people turned heel and took on the name Ishido Shuuji [[HiddenHeartOfGold in order to save soccer]] from BigBad Senguuji Daigo]]. It is partially averted since quite a few people in-universe knows he's actually [[spoiler: Gouenji and vice-versa]] such that it doesn't hurt his reputation that much to anyone inside the FourthWall. In the end, his gambit paid off and his position transitioned to the leadership of LaResistance leader and BigGood Hibiki Seigou, thereby ensuring the safety of soccer for everyone. Funnily, it was played straight with the fandom.

* The entire first season of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' is essentially this. Celestial Being appears all of a sudden and declares war against all three factions (The Union of Free Nations and Solar Energy (the Americas, Japan and Australia), the Advanced European Union (Europe and Africa) and the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India)). Eventually, it is revealed that the small group of Celestial Being's members that the series revolves around are largely expendable and that the goal all along was essentially to piss off the three largest military powers in the world enough to make them join forces against Celestial Being, thus uniting the world and bringing an end to the conflict. It didn't work out quite as intended, as Season 2 introduces the A-LAWS, who themselves cause even more devastating conflicts than Season 1 had.

* A flashback chapter of ''Manga/SnowWhiteWithTheRedHair'' reveals that upon reaching maturity Izana cruelly set up two problematic earls to fail by behaving like a much more self-centered and spoiled prince than he really is and having them beggar themselves and ruin both their own families and those loyal to them in their attempts to win his favor before stripping them of their lands and titles. It's downplayed in that those who hate him afterwards are only from two areas of the kingdom but he was well aware at the time that his actions would likely lead to assassination attempts but he wanted to send a clear message about what kind of king he was going to be while also testing the rest of the nobles in the kingdom while ensuring they are all very cautious around him.

* In the second episode of the anime adaptation of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', there is an established mistrust between the players and the beta testers, due to the latter gaining the upperhand early in the game. This nearly leads to disaster when a troublemaker begins to raise the tension between beta testers and players after [[spoiler: and the man who organized the raid dies]]. In response Kirito takes all the scorn on himself, claiming that the other beta testers spent too much time on the early floors while he climbed higher into Aincrad; the end result is that he earns a reputation as "a beta tester and a cheater! [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs A beater!]]", while the other beta testers are not ostracized.

* ''The Sum of Their Parts'' sees Harry Potter becoming the next dark lord in order to bring about societal reform and unravel the attitudes that allowed Voldemort to rise. Augusta Longbottom contacts him on behalf of several influential players who are sympathetic to his cause, and offers to help achieve the reforms he wants by making him a scapegoat and common enemy.

* In ''[[{{Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier}} Captain America: The Winter Soldier]]'', [[spoiler:Black Widow]] does this by allowing [[spoiler: her]] checkered background get leaked to the public. Captain America intends this for all of S.H.I.E.L.D., reasoning that [[spoiler:they've been so thoroughly infiltrated and corrupted by HYDRA that the only way to destroy the infestation is to [[GodzillaThreshold burn SHIELD with it]].]]

* In ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', [[spoiler:Earl takes the blame for his ex-wife Joy so that she could take care of her children and husband.]]
* Doctor Kelso has done this a number of times on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''. He's entirely comfortable being disliked by most of the hospital, and often uses it to his advantage. In one episode, the staff becomes bitterly divided over [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the Iraq War]]. Kelso realizes that doctors constantly fighting when they need to work together is a recipe for disaster, so he deliberately introduces petty and unpopular rule changes, causing everyone to forget their arguments and come together to complain about him.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''
** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E17SinsOfTheFather Sins of the Father]]", Worf takes discommendation and shame on his family name for the good of the Empire, even though he knows the real villain was the father of the politically powerful Duras. In the later episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E7Reunion Reunion]]", [[spoiler:Duras repays Worf for this by ''murdering his on-off lover and the mother of his son'' after she spurns his advances. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Worf takes this about how you'd expect]]]].
** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E10TheDefector The Defector]]", a Romulan Admiral defects to the Federation to prevent a Romulan-Federation war.
--->'''Admiral Jarok:''' My daughter will grow up believing that her father is a traitor. But she ''will'' grow up.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E19Duet Duet]]", the Cardassian clerk Aamin Marritza poses as his former superior and infamous war criminal Gul Darhe'el, brazenly antagonizing the Bajorans with regalings of the atrocities so that he can be executed and provide some closure for the Bajorans, and to shame his fellow Cardassians for not owning up to these crimes.
* Wesley's reasoning for kidnapping Connor in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' is that, though he's betraying his friends and they'll hate him forever, he's saving Connor and sparing them the burden of knowing that Angel's prophesied to kill his son. Unfortunately, this decision's made after several sleepless weeks, which is perhaps the only justification for the mixture of IdiotBall misunderstandings that follow.

* Perverted a bit in ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' where Curtis needs to break up with her ex without getting upset and triggering his time-warping guilt. Queue the awesome breakup montage.
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'': Pierce [[spoiler: falsely admits to bribing the teacher to kick Jeff out of Biology 101, so that their anger would be directed back at him, instead of Jeff.]]
* In ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'', to defuse some slightly more personal than usual teasing between Drew and Ryan, Colin invites them all to "make fun of the bald guy" and declares himself the "lightning rod of hate."
* In ''Series/{{Broadchurch}}'', it's eventually revealed that Alec Hardy took the blame for [[spoiler: his wife losing a crucial piece of evidence while at a hotel with her lover, to keep their daughter from learning of her mother's affair.]]
* Played for laughs in an episode of ''Series/SisterSister''. When the girls and one of their friends get into a bitter fight during a trip, Lisa inserts herself in a very annoying way, causing the girls to complain to each other about her and forget their argument. She then smirks that all they needed was a common enemy.

* In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba tells Glinda that no one can ever know the truth that she was only rebelling against a tyrannical Wizard.

* ''[[Videogame/Yakuza1 Yakuza]]'' has TheHero, Kazuma Kiryu, take the fall for his friend Nishiki killing their Patriarch after the latter tried to rape their mutual friend/crush Yumi at the beginning of the game. [[spoiler:Tragically, as the events of the game (along with bonus scenes from the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Kiwami]]'' [[UpdatedRerelease remaster]]) progress, it might have been better off for everybody involved had Kiryu not done so.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'', the Dark Warriors are this trope combined with TrueNeutral. They've destroyed the overflow of light in the world to keep the balance, after which the world slowly started edging towards darkness instead. If they hadn't, the lack of balance would have caused the world to be destroyed - but in the meantime, they're known as the ones who ended the happiest era known on the planet. Luckily, the majority of the people you talk to during the game actually seem to ''understand'' this.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' Tali can pull one of these to exile herself from the fleet (and destroy her reputation) to save her father's.
** If you play the ''Arrival'' DLC, Admiral Hackett basically tells Shepard that they're going to have to pull one [[spoiler:to prevent a human-batarian war after you slowed the Reaper invasion by destroying a colony of 300,000 batarians]]. If you give a Renegade response at the end, he blatantly tells you that you're a convenient scapegoat. Notably, Shepard goes through a similar situation even if he/she isn't involved in the events of ''Arrival'', thanks to their alliance with Cerberus.
* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'': This, combined with GambitPileup, aptly describe the [[AntiVillain (Anti-)Villains]]. ''Your party'' even get to try to make people agree to your madman's scheme [[spoiler: to drop a significant part of the FloatingContinent to power-up a literal stairway to heavens in order to make real an ancient miracle that's ''proven to not work'' before.]] Oh, and there is a ''[[SoundtrackDissonance nice song]]'' playing when you drop the thing, too!

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', it's heavily implied that [[spoiler: Maferath]], the ultimate betrayer of the series' backstory, actually pulled one of these to enable his descendants to eventually take down [[TheEmpire The Empire]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' Ambassador B'Vat tries to provoke a ForeverWar between the Federation and the Klingon Empire to ensure that the Klingons will forever have [[EnemyMine an enemy to unify against]] since he fears that the Empire would self-destruct without one. To that end, he attempts to sic a planet killer on Federation planets. [[spoiler:The player disrupts the plan with help from a Klingon defector, and kills B'Vat shortly thereafter.]]
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCentralFiction'': [[spoiler: Ragna erases himself from the universe in order for the world to move on, and in order to do so, he must become 'The Enemy of the World'.]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'': [[spoiler:Emperor Rudolf of Rigel]] purposefully makes himself look like an EvilOverlord and [[spoiler:tries to conquer the entire continent]] to ensure that Alm can [[spoiler:rally everybody against him and lead to a natural unification of Rigel and Zofia, all while ensuring that now-Emperor Alm will obtain the power to defeat the [[MadGod long-since-degenerated]] Duma]].
* ''VideoGame/RealityMinds'': [[spoiler:Silvana was originally supposed to create a spell that could send Kvena's spirit to the afterlife, but secretly gave up on it because she didn't want to lose Kvena's company. Kvena then manipulates Silvana into attacking her village as part of a gambit to make the latter hate her, all to motivate Silvana to finish the spell in order to kill Kvena.]]
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsX:'' Though admittedly it was more "3 approval gambit" but [[spoiler:Hopes's entire plan in the TrueFinalBoss fight relied on him turning against the heroes to fuel Ende to with the power of love, courage, hope, friendship, and all the positive emotions that the heroes kept on going. The only ones who could tell, hence the "3", were [[Anime/CodeGeass Lelouch, C.C.]] (the former pulling off his infamous "Zero Requiem"), and the protagonist.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'': At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the Retributive Tower's KillSat is primed to fire ceaselessly upon whatever humanity's collective consciousness hates the most; in other words, [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves it will keep firing until the world is destroyed]]. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Rufus Albarea]] stays behind in the tower and uses its communications array to broadcast a fake ultimatum to the entire world framing himself as the ultimate evil responsible for the tower, who is now holding the world ransom; needless to say, this quickly makes him the most hated man in the world, and since he happens to currently ''be'' in the Retributive Tower itself... The rest of the party realizes what he's trying to do and manage to save him from his own HeroicSacrifice right before the tower annihilates itself.]]
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': As ''[[BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea Burial at Sea]]'' reveals, [[spoiler:[[RebelLeader Daizy Fitzroy]] went to her death fully knowing that Elizabeth killing her would be the key towards her taking down [[BigBad Comstock]]. The Luteces however did have to egg her on to pull a gun on a young boy to give Elizabeth an excuse to kill her]].

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** [[spoiler:Itachi Uchiha]] is probably the most intense example available, as [[spoiler:it involved him killing his parents and entire clan (except Sasuke), making himself a wanted mass murderer in the eyes of the whole world, and making his brother hate him so intensely that Sasuke chases him for years just to kill him]], all so that the world could know peace. He then also had to adopt the mask of an [[MurderInc Akatsuki]] member for years, something he hated, just to keep up the act and continue to be of use to Konoha by [[spoiler:keeping the Akatsuki away from the village]]. The gambit worked in that another major war didn't occur for about eight years. As for how it [[spoiler:affected Sasuke]]...
** In a lighter example (though tragic as well), under the Fourth Kazekage's orders Yashamaru told Gaara that he'd never loved him and in fact hated him, that Gaara was not and never would be loved, because he blamed Gaara for his sister's death, and that his sister had also never loved Gaara and was using him to exact revenge on Suna. In reality, Yashamaru did legitimately love him, and the person he truly hated was the Fourth Kazekage, Gaara's father and Yashamaru's brother-in-law. Karura, Gaara's mother, also loved him: [[spoiler:in fact, her love is what truly drives the sand to protect her son]]. If anyone was to blame for this, it was the Fourth Kazekage, who [[spoiler:after being revived by the Edo Tensei admitted he did not deserve to be called Father by his youngest son.]]
** [[spoiler:This is also Sasuke's motivation behind wanting to be the Hokage. By [[GenghisGambit shouldering all of the hatred of the shinobi world on himself]], he'll be able to create a world of peace. It doesn't take off, as Naruto puts a stop to it before it can begin.]]

* Taiga's run for Student Council President in ''Literature/{{Toradora}}'' was essentially this. Declaring that if elected she'd essentially be an Evil High School Overlord was part of a plan to get the reluctant Kitamura to step up to the plate. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] as the other students were perfectly aware of it.
* Jintetsu of ''Manga/{{Kurogane}}'' does this almost compulsively, since he thinks so little of himself. The most prominent example is when he [[spoiler:doesn't tell Makoto who really ruined her family (her adopted "father", Renji). This leads her to continue to believe he (Jintetsu) had done it, thus allowing her to maintain her fond memories of Renji]].

* Anthy from ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. It turns out [[spoiler: she's an ancient Goddess-Princess who watched her brother, the God-Prince, being blamed for all the evil on earth. As a child, she decided to take the blame and let herself be punished by the world for all eternity. She subsequently spends the entire series serene and calm, while suffering the anguish and hatred of the entire world... because her brother coped by becoming evil instead. Eventually subverted when it turns out that ''none'' of it was necessary, and all it took for her to change her situation is to overcome her fear of change and simply walk away.]]
* In the Edolas arc of ''Manga/FairyTail'', Mystogan wants to paint himself as the villain who made [[TheMagicGoesAway the magic go away]] (it actually ''was'' his fault) so that Pantherlily can kill him and be the hero who will unite Edolas in their time of panic. Pantherlily wants to do it the other way around. In the end, however, it is resolved when [[TheHero Natsu]] steps up as the '''[[LargeHam Great Demon King Dragneel]]''' so no one has to die.
* ''Manga/TheRecordOfAFallenVampire''. [[spoiler: The humans and the vampire distrust each other. They distrust each other so much that there's a war just waiting to be launched, which would very likely destroy the world. Strauss' solution? [[HeroicSacrifice Take on everyone's hate]]; both human, vampire, and dhampire, so that they will always have a common enemy to unite against, despite them STILL not liking each other.]] If that's not a Zero Approval Gambit, nothing is.
** [[spoiler: Especially since it only works while he's alive]]; He's literally borne the hatred of all three races on his back for thousands of years, all while trying to revive his Queen [[spoiler: who he didn't truly love, and having to kill the reincarnation/soul of his slain children in the form of the curse of the Black Swan.]]
* In ''Manga/SpecialA'' we discover that antagonist Yahiro Saiga pulled one of these years ago. Having discovered that one of Akira's friends was a GoldDigger who was only interested in using her for her money, Yahiro used his family's wealth and his own skill as a ManipulativeBastard to force the girl to transfer. Akira discovered this, and rather than telling her why he did it, Yahiro let her think of him as a monster and maintain her happy memories of her friendship. Flashforward a few years to the series, and Akira still hates him for what he did, as do Yahiro's ex-friend Kei and most of the Special A class. He doesn't try to correct their image of him and instead plays the villain until well into the series.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' has a two-person variation, wherein Zechs Merquise and Treize Khushrenada put themselves in charge of OZ, an Earth-based militray organization, and then start the biggest, most terrible war they can so the common man will finally realize WarIsHell and actually do something to prevent it. This is apparently somewhat subtle in the anime; the manga and novelization have Zechs come right out and admit to this trope.
* The entire first season of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' is essentially this. Celestial Being appears all of a sudden and declares war against all three factions (The Union of Free Nations and Solar Energy (the Americas, Japan and Australia), the Advanced European Union (Europe and Africa) and the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India)). Eventually, it is revealed that the small group of Celestial Being's members that the series revolves around are largely expendable, and that the goal all along was essentially to piss off the three largest military powers in the world enough to make them join forces against Celestial Being, thus uniting the world and bringing an end to conflict. It didn't work out quite as intended, as Season 2 introduces the A-LAWS, who themselves causes even more devastating conflicts than Season 1 had.

* In an early arc of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Guts taunts Theresa after he just killed her monstrous Apostle father the Count. Theresa furiously swears that she'll kill Guts someday, somehow. Guts sneers at this, but the moment he turns his head away he looks like he's on the brink of tears. After his own painful daddy issues are revealed, it's clear in hindsight that Guts was just trying to give Theresa something to help her deal with her grief.
** Guts does this a lot. Since he's constantly under attack from demons and evil spirits, anyone who follows him is at risk of hideous death. Thus he makes a complete jackass of himself whenever possible, driving them off and saving their lives. This fades as he gains friends who can handle themselves in battle.
* One story in ''Manga/BlackJack'' has Jack look after a patient who plays the bad guy on a children's show. The patient's little brother is constantly picked on by his peers, who think that because the patient plays the villain, he ''is'' a villain. At the end of the chapter, Black Jack takes advantage of his [[TwoFaced naturally creepy appearance]] to pretend to be a bad guy attacking the little brother. The patient plays along and "defeats" him, causing the little brother to have his pride in the patient restored.
* In the second episode of the anime adaptation of ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', there is an established mistrust between the players and the beta testers, due to the latter gaining the upperhand early in the game. This nearly leads to disaster when a troublemaker begins to raise the tension between beta testers and players after [[spoiler: and the man who organized the raid dies]]. In response Kirito takes all the scorn on himself, claiming that the other beta testers spent too much time on the early floors while he climbed higher into Aincrad; the end result is that he earns a reputation as "a beta tester and a cheater! [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs A beater!]]", while the other beta testers are not ostracized.

* In ''Manga/DestinyOfTheShrineMaiden'', this is Chikane's gambit. [[spoiler:The ritual requires a priestess to kill the other. In order to save Himeko, she does this and that ([[ItWasHisSled you know what are these]]) which includes apparently [[ZeroApprovalGambit siding with Orochi]], so that Himeko will hate her enough to kill her]]. The gambit is not about saving the world, it's about saving her girlfriend.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ryuuken appears to be engaged in a [[HeroicNeutral long-term plan]] to keep himself [[RefusalOfTheCall outcast]] from the spiritual world and his family, and hated by his son. Uryuu views Ryuuken's [[HiddenHeartOfGold dismissal of Quincies]] as a betrayal of the family heritage, refuses to live with him and doesn't trust him. When Isshin accuses Ryuuken of allowing Uryuu [[SecretTestOfCharacter to go to Hueco Mundo]] with Ichigo, Ryuuken quickly explains he simply doesn't care whether his son lives or dies. Souken states that Ryuuken's goal is [[DeclarationOfProtection protection]], but refuses to tell Uryuu what. It's very strongly implied to be Uryuu's life, which has been in grave danger from the [[ShroudedInMyth legendary]] [[TheEmperor Quincy King]] for at least nine years. It's also implied that Ryuuken is ''persona non grata'' among the Quincies; they are shocked to learn Uryuu exists and, while TheEmperor and a very few elite Quincies have mentioned Souken, Uryuu and Uryuu's mother, even they don't speak of Ryuuken.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul[=:Re=]'' uses this as a '''major''' twist. [[spoiler: For more than a decade, Kishou Arima had been conspiring with Eto to sow the seeds of revolution. He purposefully built up his fierce reputation as TheDreaded, becoming a boogeyman either worshiped or feared by everyone......so that whoever could kill him would become a HopeBringer capable of bringing down [[GovernmentConspiracy V and the CCG]]. When Kaneki defeats him but won't strike the killing blow, Arima takes his own life to complete the plan]].
* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' this apparently was [[spoiler:[[BigBad Acacia's]]]] plan from the wery beginning. Turns out that he figured out [[spoiler:the weakness of his inner demon]] long ago, and all this time he tried to force [[spoiler:it to vomit all that he devoured [[VillainousGlutton (which included the population of countless planets).]] Said weakness is the fact that his inner demon [[EmotionEater hates the taste of anger]] and an immense amount of it can make him sick. That means that in order to free everyone who was devoured, he not only had to be defeated but also defeated by someone as angry as possible.]] Naturally, in order to do it, he had to be as much of a [[HiddenHeartOfGold jerkass to everyone, as possible]].
* In "Side:Hope", the final episode of ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'', [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn the students of Class 77-B]] agree to publicly take the blame for the Final Killing Game in order to ensure that the Future Foundation will be able to recover from the event and continue to help rebuild the world]].
* ''Manga/TigerMask'' does this four times, initially because, as a wrestling heel, the more he was hated the more people came to his matches hoping to see him defeated, meaning more money for him (and he says so to the public to make them hate him more. Left out was that he used the money to help orphans), and later, after establishing himself as a face in a world where ProWrestlingIsReal, because he thinks he may not survive the next ordeal. It never works properly: back when he was a heel Ruriko recognized the man under the mask as her childhood friend Naoto, eventually leading to his official HeelFaceTurn; at the Maskmen World Championship (a tournament set up by Tiger's Cave to murder him) [[spoiler:Baba]] asked himself why Tiger Mask would take part in a tournament where his life was in such a clear danger, discovered what he wanted to use the prize for (pay for an extremely expensive surgery that would restore a girl's sight), and went out to help him win the tournament and regain his good fame; before fighting Black V, that Tiger Mask was convinced he could not beat (as he had not come up with a counter to Black V's devastating Missile Headbutt ''yet''), even Ruriko and Baba thought he had gone insane when he inflicted a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to the aspiring wrestler Teppei Oiwa, but Teppei recognized it as a SecretTestOfCharacter and explained it to Ruriko (and Tiger Mask himself admitted so to Baba right before facing Black V, so that someone would become Teppei's teacher in his place if Black V ended up killing him); and before going to face an apparent execution at Tiger's Cave main base the other JWA wrestlers flat-out disbelieved him due the previous incidents and [[spoiler:[[TrueCompanion followed him to Tiger's Cave main base to turn his execution in the storming and defeat of Tiger's Cave]]]].

* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', it's revealed this is the goal of [[spoiler:Second Princess Carissa]] in Volumes 17 and 18. [[spoiler:Angered by the United Kingdom's falling status amongst the European nations due to both her mother's more pacifistic direction of leading and the encroaching influence of the Roman Catholic Church [[TheManBehindTheMan manipulating the European Union]] into forcing the UK to commit to nuclear disarming, she decides to unleash a ''coup d'etat'' on the nation with the Knights of England and the power of [[CoolSword Curtana Original]] in order to assume power, kill off her family, and then crush all of the UK's enemies after rebuilding their military might to ensure the Catholic Church couldn't manipulate them anymore. She never really had any intentions of surviving once it was done and fully intended to be overthrown, killed, and seen by history as nothing but a tyrant if it ensured her country's security]]. This revelation causes most of the soldiers who were already wavering or even otherwise loyal to turn traitor and join the heroes [[spoiler:because they wanted to spare her from that fate]].
* In ''Manhua/GoddessCreationSystem'' Xiaxi is taken is as the favored new servant of Mingyi, who goes out of his way to show his wife and concubines how great she is. Even though she's clearly rejecting him, his wives get pissed off and the seemingly meekest of them, Liu Ru, actually whips Xiaxi herself along with a few servants. [[spoiler:This turns out to have been a deal between her and Xiaxi: Xiaxi gets the bonus of Mingyi realizing he went too far while Liu Ru gets blamed for what happened. Liu Ru is promptly exiled, just as she and Xiaxi planned: Liu Ru was abducted into the household and wants to leave to be with her true love. She offers to take Xiaxi with her, but Xiaxi can't leave.]]
* Ishigami Yu from ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' has a tendency to redirect things to himself for others. In particular, [[spoiler:when he's falsely accused of stalking Kyoko Ohtomo by her boyfriend to hide his rampant infidelity, he ends up suspended from school and ostracized by all his peers; while he certainly did not intend to do this, he chooses again to remain a pariah in order to protect Kyoko from further pain, humiliation, and possible abuse by her boyfriend.]]
* ''Literature/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'' is a series almost exclusively about this, as main character Hachiman Hikigaya constantly comes up with the most cynical and messy solutions to Service Club clients problems that often require him to intentionally play the bad guy. By the end of the first sixth volume (or first season in the anime), he cements himself as 'the most hated guy in school' and his friends and teacher begin trying to convince him to start thinking of his own happiness above others. The wiki even has a section detailing all instances of this he's pulled called "Social Suicides Committed by Hachiman Hikigaya."
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'': Satsuki Kiryuin puts down pretty much everyone in her school in order to get her desired result -- [[spoiler:an army strong enough to take down her mother]]. This includes some on-the-fly lying to Ryuko [[spoiler:when Isshin's real murderer shows up]].
* In ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'', William's ultimate plan requires drawing the hatred of everyone in London and the British Empire at large as a common enemy of the people, to be defeated by them. Now, if only he weren't so darn likeable...

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'': At the end of the game, [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Rufus Albarea]] pulls off a last minute one against the entire world as the Tower of Babel is about to destroy all of Zemuria. He has the entire world concentrate the hate on him to feed the energy to reflect the laser back to the tower so Zemuria can be saved at the cost of his life. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky The rest of the party]] realizes what he's trying to do and goes back to saving him with [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZeroAndTrailsToAzure Lloyd Bannings]] leading a small team for the final stretch of gameplay.]]

* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'':
** This, combined with GambitPileup, aptly describe the [[AntiVillain (Anti-)Villains]]. ''Your party'' even get to try to make people agree to your madman's scheme [[spoiler: to drop a significant part of the FloatingContinent to power-up a literal stairway to heavens in order to make real an ancient miracle that's ''proven to not work'' before.]] Oh, and there is a ''[[SoundtrackDissonance nice song]]'' playing when you drop the thing, too!
** Subverted by Jakuri[[spoiler:/[[VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia Myuru]]]], she ''never'' bothers with painting herself in good light. And she does KickTheSonOfABitch several times in the story.

* Saitama invokes this in ''Manga/OnePunchMan'' by [[spoiler:claiming that the only reason he defeated a powerful monster was that all the other heroes risked their lives to weaken it. This ensures that the superhero agency continues to get support and funding, at the cost of everyone hating him for being a GloryHound.]]

* In "Side:Hope", the final episode of ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn the students of Class 77-B]] agree to publicly take the blame for the Final Killing Game in order to ensure that the Future Foundation will be able to recover from the event and continue to help rebuild the world.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* [[spoiler:The Slime King]] in [[Webcomic/BlasphemousSagaFantasy Blasphemous Saga Fantasy]] declares himself to be a bad guy so that [[spoiler:Seb can have the motivation to train and get stronger, as well as being able to watch over the village in case of Grrg's return]]
* The end of [[WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon Bill-Sanctioned Shenanigans]] has [[spoiler:Bill doing this once it becomes clear that he can't stop Ao from reaching Mt. Silver and undoing the lock on the gods' powers.]]

* Anthy from ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' combines this trope with TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask. It turns out [[spoiler: she's an ancient Goddess-Princess who watched her brother, the God-Prince, being blamed for all the evil on earth. As a child, she decided to take the blame and let herself be punished by the world for all eternity. She subsequently spends the entire series serene and calm, while suffering the anguish and hatred of the entire world... because her brother coped by becoming evil instead. Eventually subverted when it turns out that ''none'' of it was necessary, and all it took for her to change her situation is to overcome her fear of change and simply walk away.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:WARNING: [[ShutUpHannibal Actual results may vary.]]]]

* Taiga's run for Student Council President in ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' was essentially this. Declaring that if elected she'd essentially be an Evil High School Overlord was part of a plan to get the reluctant Kitamura to step up to the plate. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] as the other students were perfectly aware of it.

* In the second episode of the anime adaptation of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', there is an established mistrust between the players and the beta testers, due to the latter gaining the upperhand early in the game. This nearly leads to disaster when a troublemaker begins to raise the tension between beta testers and players after [[spoiler: and the man who organized the raid dies]]. In response Kirito takes all the scorn on himself, claiming that the other beta testers spent too much time on the early floors while he climbed higher into Aincrad; the end result is that he earns a reputation as "a beta tester and a cheater! [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs A beater!]]", while the other beta testers are not ostracized.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', it's revealed this is the goal of [[spoiler:Second Princess Carissa]] in Volumes 17 and 18. [[spoiler:Angered by the United Kingdom's falling status amongst the European nations due to both her mother's more pacifistic direction of leading and the encroaching influence of the Roman Catholic Church [[TheManBehindTheMan manipulating the European Union]] into forcing the UK to commit to nuclear disarming, she decides to unleash a ''coup d'etat'' on the nation with the Knights of England and the power of [[CoolSword Curtana Original]] in order to assume power, kill off her family, and then crush all of the UK's enemies after rebuilding their military might to ensure the Catholic Church couldn't manipulate them anymore. She never really had any intentions of surviving once it was done and fully intended to be overthrown, killed, and seen by history as nothing but a tyrant if it ensured her country's security]]. This revelation causes most of the soldiers who were already wavering or even otherwise loyal to turn traitor and join the heroes [[spoiler:because they wanted to spare her from that fate]].

* ''LightNovel/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'' is a series almost exclusively about this, as main character Hachiman Hikigaya constantly comes up with the most cynical and messy solutions to Service Club clients problems that often require him to intentionally play the bad guy. By the end of the first sixth volume (or first season in the anime), he cements himself as 'the most hated guy in school' and his friends and teacher begin trying to convince him to start thinking of his own happiness above others. The wiki even has a section detailing all instances of this he's pulled called "Social Suicides Committed by Hachiman Hikigaya."

** In the episode "Sins of the Father", Worf takes discommendation and shame on his family name for the good of the Empire, even though he knows the real villain was the father of the politically powerful Duras. In the later episode "Reunion", [[spoiler:Duras repaid Worf for this by ''murdering his on-off lover and the mother of his son'' after she spurned his advances. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Worf took this about how you'd expect]].]]
** And in the episode "The Defector", a Romulan Admiral defects to the Federation to prevent a Romulan-Federation war.
-->'''Admiral Jarok''': My daughter will grow up believing that her father is a traitor. But she ''will'' grow up.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "Duet", the Cardassian clerk Aamin Marritza poses as his former superior and infamous war criminal Gul Darhe'el, brazenly antagonizing the Bajorans with regalings of the atrocities so that he can be executed and provide some closure for the Bajorans, and to shame his fellow Cardassians for not owning up to these crimes.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** The Doctor [[spoiler: destroys Amy's faith in him]] to kill the Minotaur in "The God Complex".
** The Seventh Doctor did the same thing to Ace in "The Curse of Fenric", for similar reasons.
** In "Hell Bent", the Twelfth Doctor knowingly alienates [[spoiler: his own people, whom he spent millennia pining for, and his confidante Ohila]] in his effort to [[spoiler: save Clara Oswald from her unjust, fixed-point-in-time death]]. Sadly, he does not [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending]] -- he has undergone a SanitySlippage and his goal is a TragicDream that cannot be fulfilled without destroying space and time. Maybe he'll mend fences with them later if they finally prove understanding.

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': [[spoiler:Eren Yeager's final plan hinges on taking all of the world's hatred of Paradis and the Eldians on to himself. In doing so, he enables the Eldians to be in a better position to achieve lasting peace by being the heroes who saved the world from him while simultaneously showing Marley and the rest of the world the problems with how they dealt with Eldians in general. By [[MemoryGambit wiping his friends' memories of his confessions]], he allows that all to come to pass]]. In the long run however, people do eventually go to war again, resulting in the destruction of Paradis civilization long after the conclusion of the main plot.

* ''Webcomic/SweetHome'': Hyuk tends to create plans that involve deliberately leaving others to die or never risking lives to save others in order to encourage the others to go out of their way to keep everyone alive out of spite towards him. It gets him hated by just about everyone, but his plans almost always work perfectly.

* Satsuki Kiryuin of ''Anime/KillLaKill'' puts down pretty much everyone in her school in order to get her desired result -- [[spoiler:an army strong enough to take down her mother]]. This includes some on-the-fly lying to Ryuko [[spoiler:when Isshin's real murderer shows up]].

* On the inside, Franchise/{{Batman}} is one of the most compassionate, good-hearted, and moral individuals on the face of the Earth. But hardly anyone has ever seen this side of him because he spends almost all his time cultivating a fearsome image and a gruff persona so that criminals will be afraid of him. The downside is that law-abiding members of society end up afraid of him too and other heroes think he's a jerk (if they aren't also afraid of him).[[note]]Of course, this varies wildly DependingOnTheWriter — Batman has gone through every shade of pretending to be awful, being completely upstanding, and actually being a CompleteMonster (albeit in an Elseworld story).[[/note]]
* ComicBook/GreenLantern Hal Jordan does this in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/LightsOut'' and ''God Head'', [[spoiler:faking Kilowog's death, stealing Krona's prototype Willpower gauntlet and ditching the Corps to really pull the heat off of the Corps so that they can get on the good side of the universe again and have all of the blame and anger focused on him.]]

** In the 90s, prior to the ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' storyline, the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] was caught up in an incident where a mysterious group known as the Alliance was causing mass destruction (in actuality, it was the supposedly-dead Leader acting through one of his minions). After a number of incidents and seemingly caught in the throes of insanity, the Hulk decided to turn the US' attention back to him and claim he was "the Alliance" by going by his Maestro personality.

** In ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', Bruce Banner becomes increasingly unstable [[NotGoodWithRejection following his breakup with Betty Ross]] and talks of the government considering pulling their budget, so the Hulk goes on a rampage through Manhattan killing over 800 people [[EngineeredHeroism in order to demonstrate to the public that the Ultimates were needed]]. After turning back into Banner and explaining his motives, he's promptly kicked in the face and arrested by ComicBook/CaptainAmerica. His plan works without a hitch, as his teammates become celebrities and [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Betty decides to take him back]].

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/TheUltimates https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hulk_83.png]]]]