History Main / ShillingTheWesley

%% Note: Examples are on Sandbox/ShillingTheWesley pending merge.

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->''Uh, hi, Mr. Meyers. I've been doing some thinking, and I've got some ideas to improve the show. I got it right here. (pulls out a piece of paper) One, [[ThePoochie Poochie]] needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine. Two, whenever Poochie's not onscreen, all the other characters should be asking "Where's Poochie"? Three...''
-->-- '''Homer Simpson''', ''TheSimpsons'' "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"

Some writers never realize [[TheWesley the fans hate their pet character]]. But sometimes, especially in the internet age, they do. In a better world, the writers would respond by [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap writing the character better]] (although plenty of fans would [[UnpleasableFanbase accept nothing less than them dying]] [[VoodooShark even if it doesn't make sense]]).

There are some cases, however, when the writer will take a character the audience ''does'' like, and have that character say wonderful things about the despised one, which has the nasty side effect of having the audience dislike both characters, with possibilities of even lowering the show's overall {{ratings}}. And if TheWesley, like most Wesleys, is hated for being a glaring MarySue, it only adds fuel to the fire.

It's made even more irritating if, as in many cases, the praise reflects an InformedAbility that the character doesn't actually seem to possess; you're supposed to show the audience evidence of the character's awesomeness, not have the other characters spend loads of time prattling on about how awesome that character is without backing it up (hence the classic writing maxim "[=~Show, Don't Tell~=]").

A massive enough Shilling can actually turn a character that fans might have only found mildly annoying into TheWesley. TheWesley is all about the dissonance between fans' hatred of the character and the creators' attachment to that character. Being told through an author mouthpiece that a character should be liked and why can help cement the fans' hatred of that character if they don't agree. Consequently, it becomes a vicious circle as the more stubbornly (and desperately) the writers attempt to plug their favourite character, the more stubbornly (and viciously) the readers resent them.

Contrast TakeThatScrappy, which is when a character expresses scorn, rather than praise, for the disliked character.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Shirayuki Berii, a fan unfavorite from the ''TokyoMewMew [[{{Sequelitis}} a la]] [[DisContinuity mode]]'' manga, is liked by all of the other characters immediately. Of course, that's one of the ''reasons'' she's hated so much...
* To some extent, the marketing of the ''{{Gundam}}'' franchise outside of Japan could be viewed this way. After ''GundamWing'' proved to be a runaway success overseas in 2000, Bandai and Sunrise decided to follow it up with [[MobileSuitGundam the original]]. While Japan had had the show for two decades by that point and it was a cultural icon on par with the original ''StarTrek'', in the United States and beyond it was viewed as...well, a goofy anime from the 1970s. Despite its doing poorly in the ratings and in merchandise sales, Bandai continued to push the Universal Century shows, which likewise went over like a lead balloon. The general feeling among the fandom is that had Bandai stuck with the Alternate Universe shows (which better match the general feel of ''Wing''), the franchise would have at the very least lasted longer.
* Constantly done with [[JerkSue Paul]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who acts like a jerk to everyone and abuses his Pokemon in order to make them stronger, outright abandoning the ones who he finds to be a waste of time, and yet he's constantly called a "great trainer", who just clashes with Ash because of "different methods", rather than because, well, he's a jerk. When Ash [[HoistByHisOwnPetard beats him with one of his abandoned Pokemon]] he's actually seen apologizing and promising to be good from now on... or at least that's where the story ''looked'' like it was heading. What happened instead was Paul pulled a few slight signs of kindness completely out of nowhere with no development at all and then shrugs off his loss to Ash the way he does in his only other two losses of the series. They still acted like he somehow redeemed himself, [[AesopAmnesia despite not really changing that much.]]
* This has debately happened with Touma, the main character of NanohaForce. His characterization was fairly bland in the first few chapters, up until it was revealed that he was the adopted little brother of Subaru, a far more popular character. While it's shown how they met, it doesn't quite show how they became so close, and the two don't even interact for a long while. It's basically just to say 'hey, ''Subaru'' likes him!' to the reader. It gets more obvious later on, when it's shown that other characters like Nanoha know and like him too, which happened ''entirely'' off-screen.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* Happened with Kyle Rayner when he [[ReplacementScrappy replaced Hal Jordan]] as GreenLantern. Having folks like MartianManhunter and {{Superman}} (not to mention {{Batman}} and Sandman) say what a terrific guy you are, completely unsolicited, led to much eye-rolling even amongst fans of the character, who felt that such shilling validated many complaints that haters of the character had. Luckily, Rayner managed to survive the shilling and [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap was officially rescued from the scrappy pile.]]
** It's been widely joked that Kyle got shilled ''specifically'' because DC were pissed off that fans (rightfully) saw how TheDeathOfSuperman and [[{{Knightfall}} Azrael becoming Batman]] were temporary plotlines. DC were deadset that Kyle would stick, hence the shilling. However, Grant Morrison refused to give Kyle the same treatment in [[{{Justice League of America}} JLA]]. Yes, most of the team respected him, but he had to work to really be seen as something more than a rookie. And TheFlash was open about his initial dislike of Kyle and it took a good amount of character development for them to become friends. As a result, Kyle Rayner grew his own crop of decidedly enthusiastic and loyal fans...
*** To whom, because of their loyalty (plus the fact that it was ''they'' and not the Hal Jordan fans, who had been the title's target audience and primary purchasers for over a decade, DC had to abruptly begin shilling Hal Jordan when the decision was made to bring the character back from the dead in order to resume his place as a GreenLantern. Out of nowhere, Hal Jordan, who had in years just before his return, been spoken of primarily as a tragic case of power going to one's head and how nobody liked him anyway, was suddenly the paragon of heroics and perfect moral fibre. The Kyle Rayner fans reacted in precisely the same way as the Hal Jordan fans did, a decade earlier.
* Recent ''{{Transformers}}'' comics have had this happen for writer Shane [=McCarthy's=] pet character Drift. Drift debuts on a ship alongside heavyweights like Kup, Hot Rod, and Springer, and Kup lets everyone know that Drift deserves to be in such company because he's ''that awesome.'' Several GodModeSue moments only further made fans hate him, culminating in his {{Wangst}}-filled Spotlight issue, which IDW hoped would change detractors’ opinions about the character. It did – now they long for when he was just a GodModeSue, not a {{Wangst}}y GodModeSue.
* A few ''{{Spider-Man}}'' examples:
** Kaine, from ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'''s Clone Saga. If you need to know more about him, go read [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/11/the_13_dumbest_spiderman_storiesjust_from_the_clon.php?page=2 #7]] (appropriately titled "Marvel Tries to Convince You Kaine Is an Awesome Badass") of [[ToplessRobot Topless Robot's]] [[http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/11/the_13_dumbest_spiderman_storiesjust_from_the_clon.php 13 Dumbest Spider-man Stories... Just from the Clone Saga]].
** In ''ASM'', we have Carlie Cooper, who has practically every single male character interested in her, is touted as being a "great character" by all the writers on the book despite the fact that [[InformedAttribute we never really see any such qualities in the stories]], is promoted as being the "perfect girl" for Peter by characters like Aunt May, Harry Osborn, notorious ClingyJealousGirl Black Cat, and even Mary-Jane Watson ([[CosmicRetcon formerly]] [[HappilyMarried Parker]]) herself, and has lived such a tough life that even Peter Parker couldn't possibly begin to understand, to which Peter (whose life [[TheWoobie thus far]] can be summed up as “[[DeathByOriginStory people around me]] [[ILetGwenStacyDie keep dying]]”) even agrees. This said, does it surprise you that Carlie is named after JoeQuesada's daughter, the guy who spearheaded the whole "[[OneMoreDay Make Spider-Man single again" storyline]]? But more surprising is that other writers are getting in on the act.

*** In recent stories, the shilling has been taken up to eleven. In Spider-Island, Carlie is the only person on the entire island of Manhattan using her abilities for the welfare of others (or so we are told). Spider-Man- the main character mind you- actually has to be talked into using his powers to help others after he was told to sit on the sidelines by his teammates to avoid confusion by using Carlie as an example. And who is using Carlie as a paragon of how to use their newfound powers? None other than Mary Jane, Peter's ex-girlfriend/ wife, once again shilling the greatness that is Carlie. Carlie is also the only person to deduce that the Jackal is the one behind the events of Spider-Island, despite the fact that he is, you know, dead and all and no real way to know that he is alive other than she's just that good. And when she goes into battle with Peter, he barely shows her up, not because he is more experienced or knows how to use his powers better then she does (which he is) but because he has taken kung fu lessons recently and just decided to bust them out. It looks like Carlie is turning into a giant spider alongside the rest of New York City for the rest of the arc. Which is good, because if she didn't, the way things were going it'd be likely that Carlie would have just solved all the problems in Spider-Island all by herself.
* In ArchieComics ''SonicTheHedgehog'', Ian Flynn's Iron Dominion Arc reintroduced Monkey Khan, a (not-so-liked) old character. Throughout the arc, Monkey Khan and leading lady Sally Acorn begin to date (much to Sonic's disappointment and much of the fanbase). When asked by fans why he thought they'd make a good couple, one of the reasons Flynn stated is that the relationship would help Khan become a more sympathetic character. And for many fans, Sally herself falls into this category, having seven different characters fall for her and being shilled by both Ken Penders and Ian Flynn.
* Invoked in TheFlash comics for Barry Allen after his recent return to life. Writer Geoff Johns acknowledged that people who haven't read any story with Barry in it before (basically anyone who started reading comics after the ''[[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]]'', which is to say, anyone under 30), will see him as a ReplacementScrappy for Wally, so his first priority in the ''[[ResetButton Flash: Rebirth]]'' miniseries was to sell Barry to newer readers. The first issue of ''Rebirth'' is mostly scenes of every single major superhero in the DCU talking about how awesome Barry is, save for Kid Flash, who refuses to accept him because he's not the one he grew up with, essentially making him their StrawFan.
* DC arguably did it with the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, when he and Booster Gold travel back in time to save the life of Jaime's predecessor, Ted Kord, and Kord says he's honored for Jaime to carry the mantle. A lot of fans have still refused to accept Jaime for reasons similar to those who disliked Kyle Rayner years before.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fanfic ]]

* A common tactic with new fanfic writers is to have their OC / MarySue talked up by their favourite characters about how talented, beautiful, kind, etc. the character is [[ShowDontTell without actually showing it.]] Even if the OC has not become a Sue yet, this is usually the starting point for them to become one.
** This is a common tactic of the Harmonians (Harry/Hermione shippers) in the ''HarryPotter fanfic community. Hermione will be described as not only smart (a trait established in {{Canon}}), but will suddenly be dazzlingly beautiful, graceful, and [[MaryPoppins practically perfect in every way]], so as to convince the reader that Harry should have been with her all along.
* Ronan of ''Fanfic/NarutoVeanganceRevelaitons'' takes this to unprecedented levels. He frequently gets talked up as a powerful ninja, a great lover, the best king ever and an extremely talented musician. This not only comes from his allies, but also, ''his enemies,'' as {{Naruto}}, who is jealous of him, frequently says that Ronan is better than he is and initially tries to flee from Ronan during their final showdown because of this.

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[[folder: Literature ]]


* This is, more or less, the ''only'' way that the [[AuthorAvatar two]] [[CanonSue main]] [[TedBaxter characters]] in the ''LeftBehind'' series ever interact with non-main characters. It's either Buck and Rayford are thinking about how special they are and what a privilege it is for the rest of their unnamed co-workers and friends to associate with them, or it's said unnamed co-workers and friends gushing about them. This can be seen as the authors ignoring the ShowDontTell method of storytelling, merely ''telling'' us how earnest, passionate, and sincere their characters are rather than actually ''showing'' any of these qualities.
* S.D. Perry turned Rebecca Chambers into her Wesley in her ''ResidentEvil'' novelizations. The most obvious example is in ''RE: Caliban Cove'', where one of two things would happen in the plot: A) Rebecca would be doing everything, or B) Rebecca was elsewhere, and the characters being written about at the time would go on about how wonderful she was.
** It started from the very first novelization, in fact, with Chris remarking numerous times about how much smarter and more capable Rebecca is than him. The weirdest part is that Perry extrapolated this extreme MarySue depiction not from the competent and sympathetic Rebecca of the 2002 remake, but from the annoying and cheerfully oblivious Rebecca of the 1996 original. Perhaps Becky was turned into a super-genius in the books because [[DidNotDoTheResearch Perry thought someone needed a doctorate to be a field medic]].
* Those who dislike Ginny Weasley in ''HarryPotter'' tend to either [[DieForOurShip ship Harry with someone else]], or were repelled by what they thought was an all too quick shilling from book 6 onwards. Ginny went from being a ShrinkingViolet to an [[CanonSue all too perfect]] embodiment of Harry's soulmate. A bad combination of J.K trying to push the character as one all the readers should absolutely adore, an unfortunate case of ShowDontTell, and the sudden change of personality turned a lot of readers against her, no matter how many times she saved a Quidditch match, or used her [[FauxActionGirl Bat-Bogey Hex]]. Then there's the unfortunate way every character who came into contact with her started to coo over her qualities, including Slytherins and Death Eaters...

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''AllMyChildren'' does this all the time. The most horrific example was fan-favorite Bianca waxing poetic about Babe Carey, how everything she does is out of love, how she's really a good person, etc. This was after Babe ''stole Bianca's baby'' and passed her off as her own while letting Bianca think her daughter was dead.
* ''{{Smallville}}'' does this all the time with respect to Lana Lang. The writers really seem to believe that if they have enough characters talk up Lana Lang, the audience will stop loathing her. They've never ''shown'' us why all the characters (even villains) seem to worship the ground she walks on. As a matter of fact, all we've really seen usually is her being dreadfully bitchy, deceitful, mean, and arrogant towards the other characters... and yet they all continue to treat her like royalty. Even [[DeadpanSnarker Tess Mercer “has an unsolicited pithy remark for your grandmother” Mercer]] has practically confessed her undying love for Lana. It ranges from a group of vampire sorority girls declaring her “amazing” to Lex Luthor falling in love with her and implying that she’s more noble than [[TheCape Superman]].
** They've also inverted this by having Lana gush about Clark a couple of times during her last few appearances, perhaps in an attempt by the writers to make Lana likable again by giving her a little last minute humility. Too little too late. It MIGHT have had a chance of working if she hadn't gone and immediately gotten [[GodModeSue permanent superpowers]].
* ''HowIMetYourMother'' has begun to do this in season 5 with Don. He was introduced as "the guy Robin would inevitably marry," but his subsequent appearances paint him as annoying and flawed. However, once he started showing romantic interest in Robin, he met the group and suddenly Marshall does not stop gushing about him. We don't see their interactions, but Marshall opens by saying that he is "smart, handsome and funny." This is jarring because two episodes ago we were supposed to hate the guy.
* In one particularly glaring example from a first-season episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien known as "The Traveler" stopped-in seemingly for the exclusive purpose of telling the crew how wonderful [[TropeNamer the original Wesley]] was. While Wesley hadn't ''quite'' become TheWesley by that point, this eventually worked out for the best by [[ChekhovsGun setting up]] the [[PutOnABus bus]] which Wesley would eventually be bundled off on.
** Another ''TNG'' example, "[[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/The_Next_Generation/The_Outrageous_Okona.aspx The Outrageous Okona]]", did nothing actually outrageous except taking advantage of his incredibly hyped reputation as a [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys wild maverick man of action]] to get laid. Popular with the ladies, but not with the fans, who largely consider him a joke.
** Dr. Pulaski, who replaced Dr. Crusher for one season, was an abrasive DrJerk who argued with anyone on the ship and was loathed by the fans. This didn't stop Picard from frequently saying how Dr. Pulaski -- despite her bitchy, annoying exterior -- was really gentle and caring (not that we really saw any of it).
** Second only to ''the'' Wesley is Will Riker. Picard (who seems to be the official [[WriterOnBoard "You Will Like This Guy" mouth piece]] for the show) was constantly touting Riker's leadership abilities and the fact that he'd passed on several Captain's posts of his own to stay with the Enterprise. Other characters would hype Riker's skills at "Activity X" as the plot demanded. But even when he got a DayInTheLimelight episode to show those skills, the fans' reaction was a hearty "So what's so special about that?" At least he [[GrowingTheBeard grew a beard...]]
* Kennedy of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. It seems that the more people hated her, the more screen time she was given. She got into Willow's pants, she became the boss of the other potential Slayers, and she became one of the most important players in the final battle.
* Rose Tyler from ''Series/DoctorWho'' is an example of a character who didn't even become TheWesley ''until'' they started shilling her, which was after she'd already been written out. She was pretty popular throughout her run on the show, and the Doctor had a much closer relationship with her than with most other companions. She started suffering HypeBacklash when, after she left, the Doctor would not shut up about how great she was (in stark contrast to the literally dozens of previous companions who were more or less instantly forgotten), to the point that Martha, her immediate follow-up, left simply because [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall the Doctor was too hung up on Rose to ever return her romantic interest]].
** Although Rose is hated by roughly half the fandom. The other half still loves her, and, coincidentally, accuses River Song of being TheWesley.
** Who's another interesting example, and her timeline is roughly backwards to the Doctor's. So while she was being shilled because we had to believe she was such a badass the Doctor didn't mind her using guns, among other things, the more we know about her, teh more (arguably) deserved she gets of the shilling, and the less she is shilled.
* [[ReplacementScrappy Marian's replacement]] Kate in the BBC's ''Series/RobinHood'' was shrill, callous, self-centered, and frankly, rather stupid. In fact, she was a textbook example of a JerkSue, particularly in the bitchy, self-important way she treated her fellow outlaws. The writers tried to compensate by having every other character gush about how wonderful she was: Robin called her "[[InformedAbility brave, compassionate and beautiful,]]" Allan called her "[[FauxActionGirl a good fighter]]," Little John referred to her as "[[TheLoad a treasure]]," and Much reverently whispered: "[[AntiSue she's amazing]]!" She was never shown to be ''any'' of these things, and the audience was neither fooled nor impressed.
* In a season six episode of ''{{House}}'', [[TheWesley Thirteen]] is told by the well-liked Wilson that she is "good" for [[DrJerk House]] and Foreman (when in fact she's inspired Foreman to [[LoveMakesYouCrazy act like an idiot throughout the past two seasons]] and has done nothing to help House), and has [[InformedAbility shown the ability]] to help keep House "grounded" and [[InsufferableGenius his ego]] in check (there's no evidence of this, and he even began to lose his sanity and spent time at a mental hospital after her arrival). All this came in an episode where she was shoehorned in plenty of screen time even though [[TwoLinesNoWaiting none of it impacted anything else in the episode.]]
** Especially glaring since many of the things Wilson said, like her being the only one who stands up to House and doesn't get sucked in to his vortex, is a lot more true of ''Taub'', who had also left the team and who didn't get one second of screen-time in this episode.
* ''StargateSG1'' went in for a fair amount of shilling of Jonas Quinn, most blatantly in ''Forsaken, '' when Jonas interrupts the rest of SG-1 saving the day to save the day himself with a plan he cooked up because the villains of the week had a ship which shared the same name as an Irish prison barge and he made the absurd leap of logic that they must therefore be the bad guys. The usually laconic O'Neill calls this "incredible" (which is right, for all the wrong reasons).
* Jennifer Keller from ''StargateAtlantis'', arguably the character with the largest anti-fans, gets this a lot. It certainly hasn't gotten better since the writers decided to pair her with [=McKay=].
* In the final season of ''{{That 70s Show}}'', there's a big Shilling The Randy moment on the way back from the fair:
-->'''Donna''': Randy is perfect. That lady at the fair who did the caricatures? She refused to draw him cause she couldn't find a flaw.
** On the other hand, the shilling Randy got from Red in the same episode was {{Justified|Trope}}: he praised Randy's strength... comparing it to Eric's, which is virtually non-existent.
* ''{{ER}}'' did this for a while with Abby Lockhart, who was quite depressing and unlikable throughout much of her tenure on the show, yet was often adored and lauded by everyone.
* ''{{Babylon 5}}'' had a LowerDeckEpisode in its last season, featuring a couple of maintenance workers who end up praising new character Captain Lochley and telling her that she was OK in their book. (Lochley in essence replaced the awesome Susan Ivanova, and suffered greatly by comparison.) This is made worse by the fact that the two "little guys" were [[WordOfGod openly]] {{Author Avatar}}s.
* Increasingly, ''{{Glee}}'' treats Will and Finn this way -- particularly, other characters stand around gushing about how talented, good-hearted, and attractive they both are.
** Kurt was getting dangerously close to joining them in the back half of Season 1 and into Season 2. He's a popular enough character, but some fans were getting sick of him being a KarmaHoudini and hearing about what a precious snowflake he was. The writers' solution? Remind the audience again and again, ever more insistently, of how great he was. It was taken UpToEleven in Furt, where his father's wedding to Finn's mother consisted almost entirely of people (literally) singing his praises. It's gotten better since though.
* On ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'', Debra is absolutely TheWesley. The writers tried to shill this Wesley by attempting to make her a SympatheticSue at times (however, it didn't really work, as it failed to prevent many fans from noticing her DomesticAbuse against her husband). The show had many moments where Ray, despite being a perpetual victim of Debra's physical assaults and insults, declares that Debra is wonderful.
* On ''StarTrekVoyager'', Jeri Taylor frequently shilled both Janeway (who was her borderline SelfInsert) and Neelix. The worst example of this trope came in the non-Jeri Taylor season 7 story ''Friendship One'' where Janeway was held to be a better explorer than James Kirk by the Admiral of the Week.
** Janeway was held to ''have made First Contact with more species'' than Kirk. Considering she has much better technology at her disposal than Kirk, and she happens to have the only Federation ship in the entire ''quadrant'' that is capable of contact with Earth, this is at least plausible. A better example would the episode when Janeway starts having delusions relating to her holodeck program. Despite her being the first one to start going nuts, she still is the one to save the day when everyone else starts getting hit with them too. To quote SFDebris:
--->'''Chuck''': "Oh come on, it's a Jeri Taylor script. You know that even in an episode where Janeway's been going nuts, she's gonna have the strongest will there is, don't be silly."
* In the sixth season of ''{{Bones}}'', the writers' apparent love for the character of Hannah Burley results in constant reinforcement of her beauty, talent and intelligence, despite most viewers despising her for her lack of depth. Other popular characters in the show (including Angela) constantly refer to Hannah and Dr Brennan as being "friends", although the scenes depicting their "friendship" seem awkward at best.
* ''[[Series.DeadRingers Dead Ringers]]'' used this trope to parody the StarWars re-releases. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAa0w5Wfu0&feature=relmfu They re-enacted the confrontation between Vader and Obi-Wan]] but with badly dubbed in lines about how Jar-Jar was a top bloke and how everyone could agree on loving Jar-Jar.
* Since the ''Tocantins'' season, the editors of ''{{Survivor}}'' often pick their favourites and cram them down our throats throughout the season. The problem is, they assume we'll like them too... but more often than not, we just hate them.
** Russell Hantz is the show's biggest example. In ''Samoa'', it might have been justified since, despite Russell being a SmugSnake, most other players were TooDumbToLive and Russell's gameplay really was miles ahead of them. But then he returned next season for the ''Heroes vs. Villains'' reunion, where he still got the bulk of the screentime, his bragging really started to grate, and the other players were as experienced and competent as he was. Then came ''Redemption Island'', which was blatantly set up to pit Russell against his ''H vs. V'' rival, Boston Rob. Thankfully, Russell's tribe had enough sense to dump him early, but...
** ''Redemption Island'' was just shilling Rob. He's clearly a good player, but there were ''sixteen'' entirely ''new'' people that were left on the cutting room floor in favour of the editors making sure the enitre season at first revolved around Rob and Russell, and then Rob and Phillip, but especially Rob.
** The Reunion Show was just this. Host Jeff Probst did not even so much as look at most of the cast and spent most of the show praising Rob. Unlike most other reunions where he talks to the first couple people voted out, Francesca and Kristina didn't even have so much of a ''reason'' to be there, since Jeff forgot they existed. This in spite of the fact that Kristina actually found a hidden immunity idol within the first three ''days'', a ''Survivor'' record.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* This was one of the many complaints about Anthony from ''{{For Better or for Worse}}''. Especially cited [[http://shaenon.livejournal.com/29475.html#cutid1 here in Shaenon Garrity's journal:]] "This nonstop chatter about Anthony's greatness may be the element that most turns readers against him. If he were just a dull, dorky loser, he'd annoy us. But he's a dull, dorky loser whom we're expected to hold in awe, and therefore we hate him." While Shaenon hates his moustache, the fact is that Anthony's lipwarmer, the one thing ''no one'' mentioned, was pretty much the only thing defining his personality. He was kind of just a moustache and when he shaved it off, there was literally nothing remotely interesting left about the guy.
** Comical Canuck KateBeaton parodies the whole Anthony storyline in one fell swoop [[http://beatonna.livejournal.com/54383.html here]].
** Lynn Johnston, the creator of the comic, shilled Anthony herself in [[http://howtheduck.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-30-seconds-once-day.html this message]] to her readers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]

* This becomes problematic when the commentators relentlessly talk up a wrestler who's not even in the current match, thus making it entirely clear that the wrestlers who ''are'' in the current match don't matter in the slightest and making it less likely that fans will actually care about them.
** As a recent example of this, WWE endlessly touted the physical prowess of [[TheBrute Sheamus]], who had recently debuted and was [[InformedAbility touted as unstoppable]]. This when all he had really done was [[SquashMatch squash the same people]] as everyone else has and beat up [[ButtMonkey Jamie Noble]]. He was promptly rushed a World Title in order to force the audience to believe how awesome he was despite miring in a sea of [[XPacHeat fan apathy]], though toward the end of his title reign [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap he began to get over as a more proper heel.]]
** Similar to Sheamus, Smackdown's Drew [=McIntyre=] probably received even more hype (his "official" debut after several weeks of blindsiding R. Truth had Vince personally introduce him as a rising star). His ring ability is limited, yet he was pushed with an undefeated streak (which seemed to have more to do with blind luck than his skill), won the IC title off of John Morrison (generally considered a much better wrestler), and basically throws a fit whenever he loses. Bordering on parody now that the Smackdown general manager isn't allowed to punish Drew [=McIntyre=] because he's ''that'' important. When he improved as a wrestler, though, he's stopped getting television time. You can't win for losing.
* Dusty Rhodes was the king of this during his JCP/WCW run. Nearly every promo on the show would refer to Dusty in some way. It got so bad that even the BadAss Road Warriors (who liked nobody at that point) wanted to team with him! Of course, Dusty was one of WCW's head bookers.
* Kevin Nash was an infamous example of this in WCW. During his run as booker (head writer) in 1998-1999, the shows were so heavily centred around him that {{WCW}} fans nicknamed him "Big Poochie" in honor of the ''Simpsons'' quote used at the top of this page.
* Finally ... the Rock HAS COME BACK to where he began! Yep, Rocky started off in WWE as one of these, a bland babyface with the staff trying to say how great he is. Then he took time off for an injury, and according to TheOtherWiki, checked the notes he took during speech communications classes from college. Result? FaceHeelTurn, character development (as in ''getting'' a character), and RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.
* Prior to his on-screen debut in TNA, HulkHogan got this treatment from the various TNA wrestlers (Face ''and'' Heel) talking about how awesome Hogan was.
* TripleH. [[LargeHam The]] [[TheGiant Big Show]] inexplicably turned into a fanboy of his during the time leading up to Triple H's return after the Invasion angle, only to [[CurbStompBattle try to jump him when he returned along with others]] in a completely ''un''ironic fashion to get hit with [[FinishingMove The Pedigree.]] What?!
* Unfortunately not limited to wrestlers, best summed up by Josh Mathews on the 4/21/2011 Super Stars broadcast. [-"All the things that happened this week in WWE and you still can't stop talking about Michael Cole!"-]

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Some ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' fans claim this for several factions, such as the Necrons (originally touted as the single worst threat the galaxy faces) and the Tau (touted as the last bastion of idealism and hope); however, the best example of this is the Ultramarines. They are regarded as the single greatest Space Marine Chapter ever (something explicitly believed by one of the Space Marine Codex writers), the spiritual leaders of all Space Marines and the pinnacle of humanity, in glaring contrast to their truly pitiful record. Though definitely exaggerated, [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ultramarines the 1D4chan article on the subject]] is a fairly accurate summary of both the praise they receive and their history of failures and glaring absences.
** The same writer is responsible for the GreyKnights codex, featuring [[CanonSue Canon]] GodModeSue Kaldor Draigo. To quote the fans, he exists "because GW wouldn't let him bring Roboute Guilliman [[BackFromTheDead back]]".

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Garrosh Hellscream is probably one of the most despised characters in ''WorldOfWarcraft'', even after his [[SarcasmMode character development]]. His personality suddenly pulls a total 180 from what we've seen in previous expansions with [[TakeOurWordForIt no first-hand reason]] shown to us for his changes, just so he could be in line with the overall personality of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Saurfang]]. ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Shattering]]'' extols him as a [[MartyTzu tactical genius ]] and has his entire faction cheering for his "victory" in Northrend, when in-game the players that comprise said faction can't go two seconds without spitting on his presence. In Cataclysm, Garrosh was elevated to the position of Warchief of the Horde, [[ReplacementScrappy replacing the well-loved Thrall]]. Some characters will refer to him with admiration, saying how he must be a great leader to be able to hold a group as diverse as the Horde together. This shilling is a case of two-fold irony, as the Horde is even more fractured under Garrosh than it was under Thrall due to Garrosh nearly alienating the Horde's other leaders (plus it's only because of in-universe [[ShillingTheWesley shilling]] from Thrall that it's even holding together ''that'' well), and because he is nothing if not a BaseBreaker in the fandom itself.
** Garrosh's shilling almost seems to be a joke, as the shilling is either followed by, or immediately follows him completely fucking the Horde over simply by being a terrible leader, such as in Twilight Highlands, where he orders the already barely-functioning zeppelins to attack the Alliance navy instead of actually defending them from the ''fucking dragons'' in the area. When said ''fucking dragons'' appear and destroy their entire fleet, you, Garrosh and a few NPC's wash up, where not long after you have to convince somebody to join Garrosh by basically saying he's the best leader anyone could ask for.
** There is also some speculation that the fact of Garrosh's elevated presence and importance in the game is itself an example of Shilling the new leader of the Alliance, Varian Wrynn, who is often considered a [[TheWesley Wesley]] in his own right. Characterized as being an ardent and passionate defender of his people, Wrynn's eagerness to go to war came across as being somewhat paranoid and [[FantasticRacism vaguely racist]], considering that Thrall kept expressing desires for peace. Garrosh's HotBlooded [[BloodKnight warmongering]] as leader of the Horde makes Wrynn's traits seem [[ProperlyParanoid more reasonable]] in comparison.
*** Then again, the dislike toward Varian Wrynn seems to be at partially because WorldOfWarcraft does a rather poor job of portraying his good qualities and his motives, and thus players who only know of Warcraft characters through WoW itself tend to see him as the baselessly paranoid and racist man mentioned above. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary materials]] show that he has plenty of damn good reasons to distrust the Horde.

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[[folder: Web Original ]]

* [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] has been uploading ''It Came From Beyond Midnight'', a television show that was [[ScrewedByTheNetwork canceled from its late-late-late night spot prior to a single episode airing and after several had been filmed]], for months now. Fans have been consistently lukewarm-to-actively-disliking of it almost since the beginning, especially since they believe it [[{{Padding}} has somewhat displaced Spoony's actual content]] despite causing no delay to Spoony's schedule. Nowadays, you'll hardly see people complaining about the show, since [[OrwellianEditor comments on videos are now moderated, and ones that dislike the show aren't allowed to be posted.]]
** Speaking of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses cast, ToddInTheShadows sees crowd chating "Posner!" in Mike Posner's ''Cooler Than Me'' as this. He even used clip of [[TheSimpsons Itchie and Scratchie talking how awesome Poochie is]] to show what he thinks about it.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Parodied in ''TheSimpsons'': Homer tried to get reviled character Poochie more screentime before he gained enough sense to try a WriterRevolt and get Poochie RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, with [[KilledOffForReal minimal]] [[ThePoochie success]].
** Played straight in "A Star is Burns" -- sort of. Jay Sherman from ''TheCritic'' makes a CrossOver appearance and is shown to be a massively talented nice guy of whom Homer immediately becomes insanely jealous. The thing is that Sherman wasn't actually a Wesley at all on his original show; in most aspects he was actually a very flawed and realistic character. This has led to speculation that ExecutiveMeddling afflicted the episode, possibly in combination with a WriterRevolt (to the point that this is the only episode that Matt Groening took his name off of, [[YourMileageMayVary although there are many far more deserving candidates]]). The next time he's seen, [[TakeThatScrappy he's in an insane asylum]], ranting about how everything stinks.
*** The episode throws in a lampshade / parody of this, which [[WordOfGod Al Jean]] states was to acknowledge what they were doing:
---> '''Bart''': ''[To Jay Sherman]'' Hey man, I really love your show. I think all kids should watch it! ''[turns away, shudders]'' Ew. I suddenly feel so dirty.
* ''The Critic'' also invokes this trope when Jon Lovitz himself appears. He receives over-the-top, fourth-wall-breaking praise from Jay (who is of course voiced by Lovitz).
* Owen on ''TotalDramaIsland''. Most of his accomplishments are either a) based on dumb luck or b) somehow related to [[BigEater eating]], yet in some episodes the other characters will praise him excessively. In the first episode of ''Total Drama Action'', for example, he manages to avoid being caught by the monster ''simply because he's too fat to pick up'', then eats a bunch of ''fake food'' because he wouldn't just stop and listen to Chris ''tell him'' it was fake. But by coincidence he happened to burp out the key they were supposed to find, and immediately the scene cuts to several other characters praising his success.
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** Kurt was getting dangerously close to joining them in the back half of Season 1 and into Season 2. He's a popular enough character, but some fans were getting sick of him being a KarmaHoudini and hearing about what a precious snowflake he was. The writers' solution? Remind the audience again and again, ever more insistently, of how great he was. It was taken UpToEleven in Furt, where his father's wedding to Finn's mother consisted almost entirely of people singing his praises. It's gotten better since though.

** This is a common tactic of the Harmonians (Harry/Hermione shippers) in the ''HarryPotter fanfic community. Hermione will be described as not only smart (a trait established in {{Canon))), but will suddenly be dazzlingly beautiful, graceful, and [[MaryPoppins practically perfect in every way]], so as to convince the reader that Harry should have been with her all along.

* Constantly done with [[JerkSue Paul]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who acts like a jerk to everyone and abuses his Pokemon in order to make them stronger, outright abandoning the ones who he finds to be a waste of time, and yet he's constantly called a "great trainer", who just clashes with Ash because of "different methods", rather than because, well, he's a jerk. When Ash [[HoistedByHisOwnPetard beats him with one of his abandoned Pokemon]] he's actually seen apologizing and promising to be good from now on... or at least that's where the story ''looked'' like it was heading. What happened instead was Paul pulled a few slight signs of kindness completely out of nowhere with no development at all and then shrugs off his loss to Ash the way he does in his only other two losses of the series. They still acted like he somehow redeemed himself, [[AesopAmnesia despite not really changing that much.]]

* Constantly done with [[JerkSue Paul]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who acts like a jerk to everyone and abuses his Pokemon in order to make them stronger, outright abandoning the ones who he finds to be a waste of time, and yet he's constantly called a "great trainer", who just clashes with Ash because of "different methods", rather than because, well, he's a jerk. This shilling ultimately allows him to [[KarmaHoudini walk away from everything totally unpunished.]]
** Technically his punishment is the fact that he lost to Ash with one of the Pokemon he himself abandoned, which led to his apologizing and promising to be good from now on. Or at least that's where the story ''looked'' like it was heading. What happened instead was Paul pulled a few slight signs of kindness completely out of nowhere with no development at all and then shrugs off his loss to Ash the way he does in his only other two losses of the series. They still acted like he somehow redeemed himself, despite not really changing that much.

* Rose Tyler from ''Series/DoctorWho'' is an example of a character who didn't even become TheWesley ''until'' they started shilling her, which was after she'd already been written out. She was pretty popular throughout her run on the show, and the Doctor had a much closer relationship with her than with most other companions. She started suffering HypeBacklash when, after she left, the Doctor would not shut up about how great she was (in stark contrast to the literally dozens of previous companions who were more or less instantly forgotten), to the point that Martha, her immediate follow-up, left simply because [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall the Doctor was too hung up on Rose to ever return her romantic interest]].

* Garrosh Hellscream is probably one of the most despised characters in ''WorldOfWarcraft'', even after his [[SarcasmMode character development]]. His personality suddenly pulls a total 180 from what we've seen in previous expansions with [[TakeOurWordForIt no first-hand reason]] shown to us for his changes, just so he could be in line with the overall personality of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Saurfang]]. ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Shattering]]'' extols him as a [[MartyTzu tactical genius]] and has his entire faction cheering for his "victory" in Northrend, when in-game the players that comprise said faction can't go two seconds without spitting on his presence. In Cataclysm, Garrosh was elevated to the position of Warchief of the Horde, [[ReplacementScrappy replacing the well-loved Thrall]]. Some characters will refer to him with admiration, saying how he must be a great leader to be able to hold a group as diverse as the Horde together. This shilling is a case of two-fold irony, as the Horde is even more fractured under Garrosh than it was under Thrall due to Garrosh nearly alienating the Horde's other leaders, and because he is nothing if not a BaseBreaker in the fandom itself.

** Kurt was getting dangerously close to joining them in the back half of Season 1 and the part of Season 2. He's a popular enough character, but some fans were getting sick of him being a KarmaHoudini and hearing about what a precious snowflake he was. The writers' solution? Remind the audience again and again, ever more insistently of how great he was. It was taken UpToEleven in Furt, where his father's wedding to Finn's mother consisted almost entirely of people singing his praises. It's gotten better since though.

** Kurt as getting dangerously close to joining them in the back half of Season 1 and the part of Season 2. He's a popular enough character, but some fans were getting sick of him being a KarmaHoudini and hearing about what a precious snowflake he was. The writers' solution? Remind the audience again and again, ever more insistently of how great he was. It was taken UpToEleven in Furt, where his father's wedding to Finn's mother consisted almost entirely of people singing his praises. It's gotten better since though.

** You do realize that everything brought up above applies equally to Clark? Superman is a paragon, in the mythos, but Smaville's Clark is anything but. And yet in later seasons he's treated as the paragon despite his behavior throughout the whole series mostly making him a jerkass, especially to Chloe, Lex, and Lois, the people who are supposed to be his closest friends at various points in the series.

* Constantly done with [[JerkSue Paul]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who acts like a jerk to everyone and abuses his Pokemon in order to make them stronger, outright abandoning the ones who he finds to be a waste of time, and yet he's constantly called a "great trainer", who just clashes with Ash because of "different methods", rather than because, well, he's a jerk. This shilling ultimately allows him to [[KarmaHoudini walk away from everything totally unpunished.]]
* [[{{Bleach}} Tite Kubo]] has said that the more fans complain about Orihime, the more spotlight he gives her.

* [[{{Bleach}} TiteKubo]] has said that the more fans complain about Orihime, the more spotlight he gives her.

* [[{Bleach} Tite Kubo]] has said that the more fans complain about Orihime, the more spotlight he gives her.

* Constantly done with [[AloofBigBrother Itachi]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Uchiha]] in ''{{Naruto}}''. Does he get called out for his repeated MindRape attacks on Sasuke? No. Does he get called out for enabling Akatsuki to get stronger? No. Does he get called out that he did nothing to prevent Akatsuki from gaining the Biju? No. Does he get called out for his MoreThanMindControl plan to rob Sasuke of his free will? No. [[spoiler: Instead, he is viewed as a perfect person inside the Narutoverse. Bee even said, after Itachi lectures Naruto *[[{{Hypocrite}} then breaks the point of the lecture by going alone to face Kabuto]]* that he wasn't 'just strong'.]] Itachi can get away with anything and is now a huge KarmaHoudini since he's not called out for ANYTHING he's done.

* DC arguably did it with the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, when he and Booster Gold travel back in time to save the life of Jaime's predecessor, Ted Kord, and Kord says he's honored for Jaime to carry the mantle. A lot of fans have still refused to accept Jaime for resins similar to those who disliked Kyle Rayner years before.

* Constantly done with [[AloofBigBrother Itachi]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Uchiha]] in ''{{Naruto}}''. Does he get called out for his repeated MindRape attacks on Sasuke? No. Does he get called out for enabling Akatsuki to get stronger? No. Does he get called out that he did nothing to prevent Akatsuki from gaining the Biju? No. Does he get called out for his MoreThanMindControl plan to rob Sasuke of his free will? No. [[spoiler: Instead, he is viewed as a perfect person inside the Narutoverse. Bee even said, after Itachi lectures Naruto *[[{{Hypocrite}} then breaks the point of the lecture by going alone to face Kabuto]]* that he wasn't 'just strong'.]] Itachi can get away with anything and is now a huge KarmaHoudini since he's not called out for ANYTHING he's done.

** Played straight in "A Star is Burns" -- sort of. Jay Sherman from ''TheCritic'' makes a CrossOver appearance and is shown to be a massively talented nice guy of whom Homer immediately becomes insanely jealous. The thing is that Sherman wasn't actually a Wesley at all on his original show; in most aspects he was actually a very flawed and realistic character. This has led to speculation that ExecutiveMeddling afflicted the episode, possibly in combination with a WriterRevolt (to the point that this is the only episode that Matt Groening took his name off of). The next time he's seen, [[TakeThatScrappy he's in an insane asylum]], ranting about how everything stinks.