"I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation!"
So Bob is a Hero with Bad Publicity or otherwise isn't seen in high regard by people. Does he spend his time trying to win them over and improve how others see him? Oh, heck no! He's got better things to do with his time instead of trying to get approval from a bunch of people he's never met or will probably never be in the same room with.
This trope is where a character isn't seen well by others, and they decide to just brush off how they're seen and keep going on with their business.
Contrast with Slave to PR, where a character focuses on staying in the good graces of the public and has to tailor his actions around doing so. Compare Underling with an F in PR, where the character not caring gets his coworkers and employers in trouble.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Black Clover:
- The Black Bulls are seen by the rest of the kingdom as the worst Magic Knight squad for their various character flaws and tendencies to be lazy or destructive. The entire squad couldn't care less about how they are seen and just care about going about things their own way. The only member who has shown any concern for the squad's low standing is the newcomer Noelle, who feels that as a royal the squad is beneath her and she quickly grows past it after some Character Development.
- Asta particularly embodies this. As an Un-Sorcerer in a world where magic is everything and a peasant to boot, he's been looked down on for his entire life. He couldn't give a flying fish about how he's seen. When some Magic Knights were mocking and insulting him, he brushed it off because it's nothing he hadn't heard before and he has zero interest in their approval.
- The current Wizard King implies that he follows this idea. He's actively trying to reform the Magic Knight system so that capability and legitimate achievements matter more than social standing and connections. He outright says the only thing that is necessary to become the Wizard King is results, hinting that anything else is superfluous including public reception from the kingdom.
- A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun: Touma Kamijou doesn't seem to care that the public doesn't know about him and labels him a mere Level 0. When he saves people from the Graviton Bomber's explosion, it gets credited to Mikoto Misaka. Mikoto asks why he didn't step up and explain that he was the one who saved them. He indifferently says it doesn't matter who saved them, as long as they were saved.
- Dragon Ball Super: During the Tournament of Power, The Multiverse at large grows to hate Goku and view him as a villain because he gave Zeno the idea for the multiversal tournament in the first place, especially because each universe that loses will be erased. As long as he can fight powerful opponents, Goku doesn't care what they think of them and actually embraces being seen as evil, openly challenging the gods to bring their best fighters so he can beat them.
- Goblin Slayer: The titular character is seen as a complete weirdo by other adventurers for his single-minded focus on goblins, a race seen as more of a nuisance than a threat that most adventurers see as beneath them, despite being a Silver Ranked Adventurer. Goblin Slayer couldn't care less about how he's seen by others because he's completely and utterly dedicated to slaughtering every last goblin he can get his hands on. Interestingly, he isn't completely disdained for his behavior. Certain characters, such as Guild Girl and Sword Maiden, hold him in high regard and are grateful for him dealing with a Not-So-Harmless Villain race that otherwise just gets ignored by those who can do something about them. The Manga also establishes that most high-ranking adventurers have really bad memories from when they dealt with goblins and view him as insane for actually wanting to keep fighting them.
- My Hero Academia: This is a problem for some heroes, most notably Endeavor and Bakugo, both of whom start the series under the apparent belief that, as long as they can consistently beat villains, it doesn't matter what the general public thinks of them. This is in direct contrast to All Might and Deku, both of whom work not only to save people but also to give them hope and a sense of peace. It's not hard to see which set is more popular. While the former two are certainly capable (Endeavor was the Number Two hero for good reason), their intense approach to things sabotages their prospects of being heroes. It has been shown that good public reception to Pro-Heroes is a necessity for the job, with even heroes who aren't a fan of the limelight admitting that they have to at least look conventionally heroic to the public. This ends up being a problem for Endeavor after All Might retires, as his attempts to reform his public image into someone more socially approachable end up backfiring because everyone is used to his doom-and-gloom dour attitude.
- Hachiman Hikigaya from My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected is The Hermit of his school, a high schooler who doesn't care about any of his classmates or any of his school for an extension. When he's forced to be part of the Service Club, he still doesn't care for anyone, realizing social suicide acts where he can get as the "bad guy" just with the purpose of accomplishing the petition since it doesn't matter what the other boys and girls think about him.
- Saitama from One-Punch Man doesn't really care about his reputation and usually does nothing to try to improve it, even when other heroes take credit for his accomplishments or try to mock him to inflate their own reputations. In fact, his student Genos seems to care about Saitama's reputation much more than he does.
Comic Books
- Batman: In numerous incarnations, Batman not only doesn't care what the public thinks of his actions as a Vigilante Man, but actively cultivates the image of a Hero with Bad Publicity to make himself appear far more ruthless than he actually is, and therefore scarier to criminals.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Dr. Eggman is hated by everyone on Mobius, both on his side and against him, with several of his minions being potential Starscreams. Not only is he fully aware of his unpopularity, he embraces it, freely admitting to Lien-Da at one point that he views all of his minions' attempts at usurping him to be an amusing little game.
- Sonic the Comic: In issue #21, two people serving as Robotnik's image consultants recommend to Robotnik that he change his image, pointing out that nobody on Mobius likes him, and a makeover might help his image. Robotnik throws them out of his office, declaring that he's a "merciless, power-crazed dictator" and doesn't care whether or not anyone on Mobius likes him.
Fan Works
- The Night Unfurls: One of Kyril Sutherland's defining characteristics is that he is indifferent to how people in general think about him. In fact, he prefers being treated with apprehension while minding his own business instead of spending time trying to look good. Upon being knighted in the original versionnote , Kyril makes it clear that he does not care about maintaining his reputation as a knight. He doesn't care if people see him as a violent, brutal, ruthless, and unchivalrous killer as long as they stay out of his way in achieving his objectives. His behavior irks a lot of people, especially those from the nobility, but as the story progresses, more people gradually either respect his strength begrudgingly or figure out that it is best to get on his good side if he has one.
Film — Live-Action
- The titular hero in Hancock starts off not caring about all of the damage his vigilante heroism causes and the constant negative news in the media about it. Upon meeting Ray following one of his episodes of heroism, he is convinced to begin changing his act at Ray's behest.
- In Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Hellboy has zero interest in holding up the Masquerade and freely gives out autographs and poses for photos, to his boss' chagrin. This is in stark contrast to the comics, where the presence of a Big Red Devil being sent to investigate supernatural disturbances raises zero eyebrows among the people reporting the disturbances.
- Trumbo: After being blacklisted from Hollywood as a Communist, Dalton Trumbo works as a ghostwriter for B-movie producers the King Brothers. A flunkie for Trumbo's opponents pressures Frank King to fire him, claiming they'll ruin his reputation. King responds thusly while smashing his own office apart with a baseball bat in a rage:
Frank King: I MAKE GARBAGE! You wanna call me a pinko in the papers, do it! The people who go see my movies CAN'T FUCKING READ!
Literature
- Lord of the Rings: Aragorn and the other Rangers are responsible for protecting the humans and hobbits who still live in Eriador, but the inhabitants are mostly ignorant of their deeds and treat them with suspicion, scowling at them and giving them scornful names. Aragorn shrugs it off though, even telling the Council of Elrond that, "We would not have it otherwise" if it means those people can live free from care and fear.
Live-Action TV
- Scrubs: Dr. Kelso is hated by virtually everyone at Sacred Heart for his Dr. Jerk personality and tendency to make unpopular decisions that hurt staff and patients alike, but he largely doesn't care what they think of him and goes about his business as usual. In his A Day in the Limelight episode, it's revealed that this is a Zero-Approval Gambit so the rest of the staff keeps busy hating him instead of getting into fights with each other.
Dr. Cox: Do you have any idea what people around here think of you?
Dr. Kelso: I go to bed some nights wondering. And you know what happens to me, Perry? I fall asleep. And I mean like a log, brother.
Video Games
- Metal Gear: Solid Snake does what he needs to do to save the world, even if it makes people hate him for it or he's branded a terrorist in the process. This is what separates him from Big Boss; whereas Big Boss eventually snapped and sought vengeance on the world for taking everything from him and wanting him dead, Snake just plain doesn't care what people think of him. Campbell even remarks on this in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:
Campbell: We can't all be as strong as you, Snake. Some of us can't bear living like pariahs.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Discussed and subverted during Volumes 7-8. Every time characters point out that Ironwood's attempts to enact Draconian policies in pursuit of the greater good is making people hate and mistrust him, he claims that he doesn't care about his reputation. However, each time it's pointed out, he initially tenses up and looks like he's about to lose his temper before calming down and dismissing it, thereby implying that he's lying. During his final fight, he rants that no-one was grateful for his efforts, confirming once and for all that he was never apathetic.
Western Animation
- DuckTales (2017): Scrooge McDuck, despite his interest in cultivating a philanthropic image and belief that his immense fortune should be used to benefit the world as a whole, has little interest in being seen well by the public at large. In one episode, after one of his adventures causes a beanstalk to tear through the city, he's aghast when the Buzzards want him to do an interview to run damage control. Scrooge doesn't see what the big deal is because he always pays for any damages his adventures cause but eventually relents. While Scrooge can get testy about protecting his own self-image, it's usually out of pride rather than because of how it makes him look to the public.
- Young Justice: The League usually doesn't get the luxury of doing this, being dependent on having it appear that they are both adhering to the law and also not looking suspicious to the public when they have to resort to secretive and sometimes questionable methods behind closed doors to do what needs to be done. By the time of Outsiders though, Batman has grown tired of the increasing red tape that hampers them from acting to help people, opting to quit the League and leading several other members to leave with him. Aquaman tries to discourage him from this, noting how bad it will look for a founding member of the Justice League to just up and quit, but Batman feels that being able to act freely is more important than the public's good graces and working around the Obstructive Bureaucrats that try to prevent them from doing their job.
