Hero With Bad Publicity / Literature

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• Victor Steiner-Davion in the BattleTech expanded universe suffers from this. Of all the House Lords of his generation he's possibly the closest to a "good guy" you can get, he earnestly believes in his ideals and considers making compromises for reasons of statesmanship a necessary evil at best — but between the shadow cast by his father, the obligatory smear campaigns of his enemies, and at times simply rubbing people the wrong way in person, he still has the hardest time catching a break as far as public opinion is concerned. (That his sister Katherine takes advantage of every chance to nudge the media into reporting things her way doesn't exactly help, either.) Which of course ends up contributing straight to the eventual breakup of the Federated Commonwealth and later civil war...
• Bazil Broketail:
  • Despite her fame and everything she's done for Argonath, Lessis is generally disliked by ordinary people, since whenever she appears, it's because she wants to prevent a danger — thus, she is commonly viewed as a sign of impending disaster. The fact that many people she involves in her plans (noble as they are) end up dead or missing certainly doesn't help.
  • This is one of reasons he was overthrown. He is supported only by the southern parts of Sedimo, while his ruling cousin Madees is more popular in the east, north and west. Because of that, he's given up hope of reclaiming the throne a long time ago. Also, he thinks that Madees is going to be a good king, so there is further no point in deposing him.
• 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.
• Caleb Williams is this in his own home after his employer accuses him of theft. His infamy spreads nationwide after he escapes from prison and his employer's half-brother offers 100 guineas for Caleb's capture.
• In Jeramey Kraatz's The Cloak Society, Cloak's plots get the heroes labelled as imposters working for the Cloak Society.
• Surprisingly, in Companions Codex Drizzt Do'Urden is barred entrance from Bryn Shander, because twenty years ago, while he was undergoing a Big Sleep, the Balor Errtu attacked the town in search of Drizzt. Bryn Shander blames Drizzt for the catastrophe and tells him he's no longer welcome. All that after he spent the better part of a century trying and succeeding in endearing the people on the surface to him.
• Akuto Sai in Demon King Daimao has a world's worth of factors against him. He's going to become the next Demon King, which his classmates are forcing him towards, willingly or otherwise, because the prophecy said so. Every time he tries to do some good, people assume it's part of his reign of terror. And then there's his name.
• 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. 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 dangerous reputation as a means of protecting himself; he often 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.
• The Destroyermen series gives us O’Casey, a large, reticent one-armed man with a strange accent who joined the stranded submariners of USS S-19 on Talaud Island, along with a little girl he protects named Becky. O’Casey seems reasonably content to cooperate with the US Navy once rescued, but immediately gets out of sight when warships from the Empire of the New British Isles show up. O’Casey’s real name is Sean Bates, he was a childhood friend of Governor-Emperor McDonald and is wanted for treason. Bates tried to lead a rebellion against the Honorable New Britain Company, which was subverting the Imperial government ( and secretly collaborating with the Holy Dominion, who are about to invade the Empire), but it failed, the Company spun it into an attempt on the Governor-Emperor’s life, and Bates was forced to flee into exile under an assumed name. Meanwhile, the Governor-Emperor, suspicious of the Company’s machinations and fearing for the safety of his young daughter Rebecca, sent the Princess away from the Isles for her own safety. By coincidence, she was booked incognito aboard the same ship as Bates, who rescued her at the cost of his left hand when the ship was sunk by a leviathan/mountain fish. It takes several books and help from his American allies for Bates to restore his reputation.
• In Dragon Bones, the protagonist, Ward, and his companions suffer from this. Ward's reputation was that he's stupid when he was Obfuscating Stupidity. Then, in an attempt to make himself harder to discard by becoming a hero, he traveled to a neighbouring country where people from his country are universally disliked. Solving the bandit problem there got them some good publicity, but before that, they were close to starving, as no one would give them food. This trope is also played straight by Garranon, who is known to be the sex toy of the evil king. Turns out this arrangement is not entirely voluntary on his side, and he tries to use it to protect his family. He tries to join the revolution, but can't convince them that he's trustworthy.
• The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden might just rival Peter Parker for the hate that gets directed at him in-universe. To the "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 be conning Chicago PD out of good money. Chicago, Internal Affairs rabidly hates him and tried to jail him, while working to undermine him and everyone connected to him repeatedly. The FBI also doesn't like him considering that once four FBI agents investigating him vanished, and their records suspects him of kidnapping, murder, at least two cases of arson, and he was recently accused of blowing up an office building. To the White Council he is considered a loose cannon who may or may not be a devious, dangerous schemer using Black Magic, and it doesn't help that he caused a war with the Red Court of vampires. His ostensible allies don't trust him, and the only people he's got on his side are a gaggle of werewolves, the Knights, a few members of the Chicago PD's Special Investigations unit, his half-brother, his teenage apprentice, a Foo dog, and a smattering of allies in the Faerie Courts and the White Council. And knowing Harry, being homeless and dead for about a year is going to cause even more problems.
• A post-humous example with Xavier Harkonnen in the Dune prequels, who finds out that Grand Patriarch Iblis Ginjo is secretly endorsing the Tlulaxa organ farms' secret practice of abducting Zensunnis and using them as unwilling organ donors. Realizing that Ginjo will have him quietly "removed", Harkonnen decides to out with a bang by flying the ship carrying him and the Patriarch into Tlulax's sun. Prior to that, he sends a message to his friend Vorian Attreides, letting him know the truth. However, Ginjo's wife and Number Two canonize the Patriarch and vilify the "traitor" Harkonnen, causing his entire family to change their name in order to distance themselves from the shame. Vorian eventually reveals the truth to Xavier's grandson Abulurd Butler, who changes his name to Abulurd Harkonnen shortly after that and becomes the founder of the House Harkonnen we know and "love".
• Ender's Game: Ender Wiggin manages to do this to himself quite by accident. At first, he's a great hero who saved Earth from the evil Buggers. However, after writing The Hive Queen under an assumed name, he gets people to sympathize with the Buggers; he found and communicated with a cocooned infant queen who reveals that they simply didn't understand that humans were sentient and intended to leave them alone once they realized it, but by then humanity was determined to wipe out the Buggers to protect themselves. A side effect is that thousands of years later, Ender is reviled as the monster who killed the Buggers. Never mind that the entire human race was onboard with doing so, it wasn't unreasonable based on what they knew, and Ender himself was partially tricked into doing it.
• In The Faraway Paladin, Bagley, the Bishop of Whitesails, is a good man who only wants the best for those following the temple; but his cantankerous personality and constant busywork to maintain the temple's good name through favors and connections means that his own priests talk badly about him behind his back. Despite this, he continues to work hard for others' sake and intervenes on Will's behalf despite him being technically a temporary member of the temple's registry.
• Rose Marshall, the heroine of Ghost Roads Sparrow Hill Road, is a hitchhiking ghost straight out of urban legend, which is spooky enough, but it's her tendency to act as a voluntary Psychopomp for people fated to die on the road that's given her the undeserved reputation as a harbinger of death or even a rapacious reaper of the unwary, rising to the level of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished when she's targeted for revenge over a death she attended but did not cause. In reality, the worst she's done to an innocent driver is run away when she sensed Bobby Cross coming for him (which she still feels bad about).
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: Wei Wuxian, the novel's protagonist, was murdered by his former allies—lead by his own martial brother who he had been raised with—due to his false reputation as an Evil Overlord. This arose partly from his invention and use of demonic cultivation, partly from his perceived arrogance, and partly from his involvement in the death of his martial sister's husband and the bloodbath at the Nightless City. By the end of the story, he's managed to clear his name to an extent, and the younger generation of cultivators view him in a much more positive light than their parents.
• Harry Potter, despite being The Chosen One, gets this treatment frequently throughout the series, mostly being portrayed as an Attention Whore:
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 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 communicate with snakes.
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire he is accused of tricking the eponymous goblet into allowing him to participate in the Inevitable Tournament.
  • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Daily Prophet convinces the populace that he's a psychotic attention-seeker who is pretending that Voldemort has returned to get himself more Woobieness. They also on the same track smear Dumbledore who supports Harry's claims, which gets him fired from several political positions and branded as senile and dangerous. However, when Voldemort is seen at the Ministry of Magic, the Prophet not only reverses its position but also gilds Harry's reputation as a fearlessly determined Cassandra warning the Wizardry community of the threat. Not to mention leaving out their role in smearing him.
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Daily Prophet, having fallen under Death Eater control, accuses him of murdering Dumbledore and the anti-Voldemort resistance movement starts to lose faith in Harry because of his sudden disappearance, secretly criticizing him for being a Chosen One Who Doesn't Do Anything. Of course he wasn't doing nothing, and in the end all is forgiven.
  • 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 he killed Dumbledore (done at Dumbledore's request, but only Snape and Dumbledore knew this). Especially given that 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 Teacher's Pet students. Heck, even them at times. 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.
  • Sirius Black also qualifies; nearly everyone in the wizarding community believes he is a murderous psychopath until after his death.
• Mesa's gambit in the Honor Harrington book Shadow of Freedom is to invoke this on the Star Empire of Manticore by going to several planets under the thumb of the Solarian League's Office of Frontier Security, offering resistance movements aid in Manticore's name, and letting it appear that Manticore left them in the lurch when the movements are either stopped or take major action thinking Manticore has their backs. It fails, because someone does actually get word to Manticore — and it's not like the Royal Manticoran Navy doesn't practically fetishise initiative, or anything. Besides, the Manties, when they find out about it, realize that by going along, they are helping their own cause, and hurting Mesa's.
• Hoshi and the Red City Circuit: As an Operator, Hoshi is hated and distrusted by much of Red City even before she's framed for collaborating with organized crime and briefly becomes the face of the anti-integration movement.
• Juniper Sawfeather: June only wants to help the supernatural creatures she encounters, but she has a reputation as an attention-seeking liar who invents wild tales about mermaids, and her parents are seen as irresponsible and even abusive for "encouraging" her to do dangerous things that they actually had nothing to do with, like tree-sitting to stop a treant from being cut down.
• 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 tattooed as an unredeemable criminal, thanks to a spectacular failure on the law's part.
• 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. So does Fangorn Forest.
  • Gandalf isn't well thought of in places, either. Some of this is the Enemy manipulating rulers against him, but part of it is that he only shows up when things are about to get really bad (which is why one of his nicknames is Stormcrow).
• Myth Adventures: In 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 Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu, it's downplayed but this occurs twice to the restaurant. The first time, the restaurant was accused of distributing lager which is banned in Aitheria. The second time, they were accused of being a witch's den because the restaurant is considered "strange" and neither Nobu or Shinobu could properly explain where they are from (modern-day Japan). Both times, Nobu and Shinobu worry about closing the restaurant or being arrested. However, several of their regular patrons, many who are in powerful positions within the city, supported them and kept their business going.
• The demigod children who form the focus of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series are usually branded as troublemakers because their heritage causes ADD and dyslexia, but it's even worse for the main character. Percy seems to start every schoolyear by getting into a fight with monsters sent by the Big Bad, destroying them, and then being blamed for all the damage because the Mist obscures the eyes of mortals who witness the event. Even worse, exactly how mortals see through the mist is determined by what the gods think of Percy at the time. And since he has a habit of pissing off gods or getting framed for things, they don't see any reason to make his life easier.
• The Rise of Kyoshi: Kuruk, Kyoshi's immediate predecessor as Avatar, died prematurely at the age of 33 and left behind a tangle of political mess for Kyoshi to deal with. He had such a terrible reputation that Kyoshi hates him even before she is revealed to be the Avatar, and refuses to contact him for two whole years. It's later revealed that Kuruk actually spent most of his time as Avatar preventing dark spirits from invading the human world, because they were angered by broken deals that were brokered by his predecessor, Yangchen, who always preferred humans over spirits. Yangchen's actions led her to become a revered figure well into Kyoshi's reign, and Kuruk was a Nice Guy who did not want to tarnish her legacy, even if it stained his own legacy.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero: Naofumi Iwatami. He started out as a pretty chill guy... until those that already scorned his existence well before he even got there, with two (one especially rotten "Bitch" in particular, though the other guy hates his guts as well) key figures setting him up so very "nicely" for his little "Heroic Adventure". Until his little so-called "helper" very tidily steals his belongings whilst he was napping, then double-whammies it by pushing a convenient little "He nearly raped me last night...!" story his way, with him not receiving the usual execution due to him being the Shield Hero, but he still receives his punishment of being branded a "criminal" nonetheless, giving a healthy, grandiose helping of just how absolutely disgusting this "Fantasy World" really is. He walks out with just his under-shirt and pants (not even a shirt and pants, more like undergarments really) on him, with no money to help sustain himself as he has to be self-sufficient in order to earn the necessary coin needed to survive in the little country known as Melromarc. Even after Queen Mirellia exonerates his so-called "crimes", he still feels the pain he has suffered, for nothing can ever wash clean those internal scars he suffered, and nothing ever will.
• 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 Church of God Awaiting's Satan.
• Scrapped Princess: Both 'gods' of the setting are villainized by the people of "Dustvin", due to being Sadly Mythtaken:
  • While Celia Mauser is revered by her followers, who have created a religious faith in her name, to the followers of George Browning, she's a traitor who cost humanity the Genesis War five millenia ago. Not knowing that she did it because humanity was losing to the point of being on the verge of extinction. So Celia made a bargain with their alien overlords to spare their lives. When the war ended, she was left to watch over the world, as their "caretaker".
  • To the Church of Mauser, George Browning is considered a satanic figure and a heretic, along with those who follow his teachings. In truth, he was a human, like Celia. But unlike her, he was committed to fighting the aliens in order to free humanity from their control. Which is why he designed the Gigases as his trump card against them. At least, they might've been, had Celia not "betrayed" them.
  • Finally, there's Pacifica, the titular Scrapped Princess herself, a sweet Ingenue whose only powers are subconscious and purely defensive despite a prophecy that she's going to trigger The End of the World as We Know It and who gets unfairly blamed for all of the collateral damage caused by the people hunting her.
• Lina Inverse from Slayers has a pretty terrible reputation... because she tends to use Dragon Slave in the middle of towns. Plus steal. But she manages to do heroic stuff anyway!
• Tyrion Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire is assumed by the commoners to be evil simply because he's a dwarf. Even after he defended King's Landing from a siege that would have killed everyone inside it and let Stannis take the Iron Throne, he's condemned by pretty much everyone because of his dwarfism after he's framed for poisoning the King. His stint as Hand of the King was rife with this, as the smallfolk blamed him for the antics of Joffrey and Cersei, perceiving him as a depraved Evil Chancellor when in actuality he was the only one trying to reign the king's madness in.
  • Tyrion's older brother Jaime is an unusual example. While he is a definite scumbag for the first two books, when we finally see his P.O.V. in the third book, we find out that the act that he is most widely hated for was done with the most noble of intentions in mind and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The fact that he did get such bad publicity over it is part of what made him the amoral man he started the series as.
  • King Stannis Baratheon has a terrible reputation among most in Westeros, roughly on par with Tyrion's. Despite being the rightful King by law, he is perceived as a scary usurper uncle by the masses, a belief aided by slander and lies spread about him by the Small Council of King's Landing. His intimidating image is further compacted by his willingness to ally himself with a sorceress preaching the unpopular religion of R'hllor. A bad public image that his rough, coarse, blunt personality does few favors to help. However, among those followers closest to him and to us the reader we see that Stannis, despite all his personal flaws, is in GRRM's own words a righteous man. The only monarch actively living up to his Protector Of The Realm title. Riding North to save it and the Night's Watch from a horde of Wildlings, while the Iron Throne neglected their duties. Furthermore, Stannis is actively leading the war to liberate the North from the Boltons, as well as against The Others. He is the only monarch who knows they exist and is preparing to defend the realm against them.
• Star Wars Expanded Universe: Leia suffers from this when the public learns her real father was none other than Darth Vader. It scuttles her political career and ends any possibility of her becoming First Senator. Her brother Luke also suffers from this as he is also a child of Vader, but as he had largely dropped out of the limelight he isn't as badly affected. Even her husband Han was affected by the revelations.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Arguably, the entire New Jedi Order.
    • In their initial invasion, the Yuuzhan Vong vanguard quickly learned that the Jedi were (for various reasons) the only force that was both willing and able to oppose them. So their agents set about slandering the Jedi name, implying that the entire invasion was due to some (wholly invented) insult the Jedi had offered the Vong, offering planets amnesty if they took Jedi prisoners and turned them over, etc. Some of it stuck; at the height of their unpopularity, a third of the Senate was willing to vote to basically hand the Jedi over to the Vong, their paramilitary activities were curtailed, and Luke Skywalker was even put under (house) arrest. Although certain political and military leaders (such as General Antilles, General bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, and even Borsk Fey'lya in his way) offered them secret support, the tide of public opinion didn't begin to turn until, ironically, the war hit its lowest point. A series of high-profile victories at Talfaglio, Borleias, and Ebaq Nine, made possible by Jedi support and tactics, finally redeemed their image in the eyes of the public. Still, a certain amount of Jurisdiction Friction continued until (and even beyond) the end of the war.
  • Once again the case in the Fate of the Jedi series. Given Natasi 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. Subverted in that while the leader of the Galactic Alliance blames Jacen Solo's Face–Heel Turn and subsequent reign of terror on Luke Skywalker failing to prevent it and pushes him into a self-imposed exile from the Jedi Order, the Jedi wish him well in his quest for the truth, and his son Ben agrees to help with his father's investigation of the facts. 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.
  • At one point this is inverted with Han. He threatens to shoot a man to force him to comply with Han's orders and is told that of course Han Solo, hero of the New Republic, is not going to murder an unarmed man in cold blood. Much to Han's annoyance, this is correct and he gripes about how things were easier when people dismissed him as a mere criminal.
• In the Star Trek novel "Ex Machina" Kirk suffers from this after saving an alien civilization from destruction, which was controversial due to it involving a fairly serious violation of the Prime Directive. Kirk became a household name within the Federation and his career is picked apart by the news media - including all the trouble he caused throughout his career. The novel states that because of the negative publicity half of Starfleet wanted Kirk cashiered while the other half idolized him. In a compromise Starfleet C-in-C Admiral Heihachiro Nogura promoted Kirk to Admiral to keep him out of further trouble.
• Ryūji Takasu, The Hero of Toradora! fits this trope because he's a very Nice Guy, selfless, helpful, but misunderstood and feared by everyone but his few friends, because he looks like a delinquent due to his facial traits, and is the son of a Yakuza.
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs has an interesting example in its protagonist, Leon. Leon actively courts hatred out of pettiness and spite. After having originally planned a Zero-Approval Gambit to get expelled and demoted to avoid his responsibilities as a noble, by defeating and berating the five most powerful noble heirs in the academy fails, and having bet a bunch of money on himself who seemed unlikely to win, about seventy percent of the Academy nobles hate him. Thus begins a Cycle of Revenge where the students insult and assault Leon and his property, and he does the same back, since he enjoys the pain of people who hate him.
• Villains Inc. (sequel to Wearing the Cape) finds Astra going through a bit of this. Sure she helped save the President of the United States and took down a big bad super-terrorist, but she's also accused in the sensational media of being underage and having an affair with a much-older Atlas (her mentor and the setting's version of Superman). Add to this that she publicly opposes superhuman registration—a popular cause after a supervillain-triggered earthquake leveled southern California—and she's not the media-darling that she was.
• By the end of the second book in the Warchild Series, Captain Azarcon and his men have acquired this reputation.
• Worm has just about everything on the spectrum. To name a few:
  • Bastion got some bad press for calling a fan a spic.
  • The protagonist, Taylor, after she takes on the hero identity Weaver and joins the Protectorate. Understandable, considering that as Skitter, she led a group of teenage supervillains in conquering a city, humiliating the heroes at every turn.
• King Trent in the Xanth series. When he was known as "Evil Magician Trent," he states outright he's only "evil" because he opposed the ruling Storm King - whom no one would deny was far closer to the ideal of "evil" than Trent ever was. When the Storm King dies and Trent is the only one willing and eligible to take the throne, the "evil" part of his name is quickly forgotten.
• The Zombie Knight 's main character, Hector, has this problem. It started when his enemy attacked him with controlled versions of his classmates, and the property damage from later servant battles cemented this reputation. At least until he got a royal pardon, anyway.
• The Wheel of Time has The Aes Sedai. While they aren't exactly viewed as villains, they are viewed with much mistrust and disdain by many outside the organization and are considered to be Manipulative Bitches who are willing to sacrifice people for their agenda. Although It dosen't help that a fair number of them do in fact live up to this image.

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