Villain With Good Publicity - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Claw from Gun X Sword has a positively ridiculous amount of this, and considering how he acts, even this troper had to keep reminding himself this guy has killed two women in cold blood. This is even crazier when you realize how he got all this support: He merely was a really nice guy who was there for people who needed him!
Muruta Azrael from Gundam Seed is all-but-worshipped by the EA generals, has the Earth's rulers in his pocket, and Natarle has heard of him. His sucessor, Lord Djibril, is regarded as a pale shadow of him primarily because he has none of this clout - well, that and his ridiculous choice of clothing)
Lelouch in Code Geass, leader of Japanese rebels despite his French name and Britannian heritage, rapidly obtains popular support among the Japanese and even some Britannians through his charisma, showmanship, and ability to pull off outrageous plans. Many would argue that Lelouch is not the villain though, but either an anti-hero or anti-villain with good publicity.
- A more straight example would be the Britannian administration of "Area 11," and, by extension, the Emperor himself, at least among the Britannian populace. Of course, this is probably to be expected given the xenophobic level of national pride displayed by many citizens.
- Another example would be Clovis who, during his ridiculously short screen time, is seemingly well received, by the Britanians anyway. He was very media savvy, if nothing else.
  - Considering how the show ended, Zero-zaku would also fit the definition.
The Church of Mauser in Scrapped Princess.
There are a few of these in all factions of the Earth-Jovian war in Martian Successor Nadesico.
After a time jump, the main character of Guyver wakes up to find that the villainous organization Chronos has taken over the world... and that the Guyver is a villain.
Light in Death Note, as Kira, gradually gains more and more public support. In spite of being a mass murdering vigilante, he is admired by many for reducing crime rates through fear and power as if he were some deity smiting the wicked (which happens to be exactly how he sees himself). During the Time Skip, entire nations announce that they endorse Kira. You know he's doing a good job when even much of the show's audience requires a particularly despicable moment from him mid-series to *realize* he's a bad guy.
- Hell, even then some people, such as this troper, still believed him to be the good guy.
- Then troper, you need to know what real good guys are. Light/Kira was a kid with god complex who killed police officers, FBI agents, had plans to kill people for being ''lazy', killed people who cared about him left and right... he is a pure villain protagonist, troper.
Sir Crocodile from One Piece. Suave, amiable casino-owner by day, devious mastermind by night.
- Also: the World Government.
The homunculus Pride in the anime of Full Metal Alchemist is the Fuhrer President of all Amestris. Meanwhile, in the manga, he's Wrath, and his true nature is known to the entire military high command, who are knowingly collaborating with the enigmatic "Father" and his homonculi, and can be found discussing, among other things, possible "human sacrifices".
- Not to mention that in the manga, Pride is posing as the president's son who pretends to view Edward as his role model.
- There's also Father Cornelo, who convinces everyone he's a holy man when he's really a fraud out for power. Edward exposes him using an Engineered Public Confession.
In the anime version of Chrono Crusade, Aion becomes this when he brainwashes and controls the Holy Maiden Rosette Christopher. Because she heals and takes care of the people, they begin to believe that the Maiden and anyone related to her are chosen by God to lead them. Aion uses this to his advantage and cultivates his followers into a cult, who attack Chrono and the Order.
Griffith from Berserk in Millenium Falcon arc.
"Friend" from Twentieth Century Boys. Imagine if the Church Of Happyology expanded into a political party and took over Japan and effectively made it into North Korea.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei gives us Mayo Mitama, a villain with "bad bad" publicity. In that she looks evil and does evil things, but, since people are afraid of judging by appearances, they always assume she didn't do them. Her name in Japanese, Mitama Mayo, translates to "Exactly what she looks like".

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The Ghost Rider villain Deathwatch, as his alter ego Stephan Lords, was a benevolent and generous businessman. He blamed Ghost Rider for the destruction of a homeless shelter that he built underneath one of his office buildings and the deaths of the people inside it—when Deathwatch himself had been planning to use them as a food source to fuel his hunger for the pain of others.
In their first run-in with Brother Blood, the villain manipulated the Teen Titans into attacking church members in full view of TV cameras. He then played it off as a terrorist attack by costumed vigilantes, and staged his own fake death to put the blame on the Titans. (His priestesses explained that he would rise from the dead, as he had done several times before.) The ploy went a long way to legitimizing the Church of Blood within America and making it difficult for the Teen Titans to act against him. Considering that his name is Brother Blood, he has a Satanic wardrobe, and his church is decorated to look like a cross between Hell and Transylvania, how anyone would not see that this is clearly a mustache-twirling villain of the first order is anyone's guess.
The Penguin of DC Comics, as mayor of Gotham City (in the comic series that spun-off from Batman The Animated Series), has been known to crack down on "vigilantism" (read: Batman). Also sometimes depicts himself as a "reformed legitimate businessman" while actually a crime boss attempting to take over half of Gotham, though nowadays he seems to truly be reformed (it won't last, it never does).
Likewise, Lex Luthor got himself elected president and proceeded to cause problems for the Justice League. Well before that, he was a classic Teflon-coated Corrupt Corporate Executive, on which absolutely nothing illegal could ever be pinned, no matter how involved he was.
- Although Lex is Genre Savvy enough to realize that he's living in a world where "it wasn't me, it was a version of my Mind Controlled clone from an Alternate Universe who had me tied up" is a credible legal defense, and has thus kept himself out of jail, the public has recently stopped buying his collective bullshit. Lex has rapidly plummeted into a Zero Percent Approval Rating, lost his corporation, and is well on the way to becoming a pure Mad Scientist again.
In the Secret Empire story arc, Captain America fights and brings down a criminal conspiracy led by an Anonymous Ringer for then-president Richard Nixon.
Senator and later President Callahan, the nemesis of Spider Jerusalem in Transmetropolitan, who has the habit of killing people close to him for sympathy ratings, whenever one of his misdeeds comes public.
Doctor Doom wavers between this and Zero Percent Approval Rating within Latveria, but as its head of state, enjoys diplomatic immunity during his official visits to the States. On his "unofficial" visits, however...
- The Mighty Avengers, possibly because they are fully licensed agents of the United States government, seem to have had it with Doom. They responded to his latest attack by simply turning right around and invading Latveria to get at him.
  - Except it WASN'T him who launched the attack, and the Avengers have been played for fools.
Ozymandias from Watchmen. He is a public hero and has his own product line, including action figures.
Around the time of Civil War, the Thunderbolts were ReTooled from villains in disguise Becoming The Mask into a Boxed Crook team led by "ex-" Spider Man nemesis Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin. They quickly gained public support for hunting down rogue heroes that wouldn't register with the government. Recently in Secret Invasion, he got promoted to the head of all government superheroes.
- Osborn himself has always been one, having only been outed as a villain about a year befor Civil War was launched.
  - An outing that occurred on live TV... a fact that is the current elephant in the room regarding just why Osborne was trusted with so much power and why so many seem to be okay with this.
  - He's a Magnificent Bastard.
  - The recent Dark Avengers had him go on live TV, were they point out all the stuff fans are bitching about Osborn then ends up not only admitting he used to be the Green Goblin but does it in a way it all comes out that he might want be to a good guy, it's even hinted he's trying to reform Bullseye.
The Spacemen in Untold Tales of Spider-Man are beloved astronaut heroes... to hear them tell it, at least. The fact of the matter is that they're ruthless criminals, but their publicity is so good, that J. Jonah Jameson likes them.
- Then again J. Jonah Jameson isn't exactly the world's greatest judge of character.

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Chancellor Palpatine in the prequel trilogy of Star Wars. He is handed power, and for most of his reign, enjoys popular support from humanity. It helps that the heroes don't know he's actually the villain- or that if the series is watched in numerical order, the audience isn't supposed to know, either.
- In the origial trilogy of Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine still isn't considered pure evil by most humans in the heavily populated and prosperous Core worlds—perhaps due to the Empire controlling its own publicity. Non-humans and Outer Rim humans, on the other hand, are positively rebellious...
- Not to mention that he has carefully cultured a public image as an old man: He's either seen as the aging savior of the Galaxy, or a weak-willed coward almost certainly being manipulated behind the scenes. Both, of course, are untrue, but that's Palpatine for you.
The Agents in The Matrix are believed to be legitimate government agents by most, including the cops.
The Fairy Godmother in Shrek II
Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz. In the eyes of almost everyone in Sandford, he can't be evil, because he's a pillar of the community and he runs the local supermarket. Partially subverted when Angel finally publicly accuses him of several murders, only to be proved wrong by a flawless alibi. Which is not a fake.
- That said, ALL the Sandford "pillars" turn out to be involved in the murders, including Skinner, although his alibi was real and he wasn't the one who dirtied his hands.
Max Shreck in Batman Returns, and, later, the Penguin during his mayoral bid, although he was soon brought down by an Engineered Public Confession.
- This spawns a great piece of dialog. Penguin: "Odd as it may seem, Max, you and I have something in common: We're both perceived as monsters. But, somehow, you're a well-respected monster, and I am, to date, not." Shreck: "Frankly, I feel that's a bum rap."
The villain in Minority Report, who is brought down by an Engineered Public Confession.
In L.A. Confidential, Captain Dudley Smith is definitely this. He's brought down by a good old-fashioned shotgun, however.
Repo! The Genetic Opera has the Largo family, who are mostly known for curing the organ failure epidemic and hosting the titular Genetic Opera, a very popular televised event—and who tend to send the Repo Men out after people who bad mouth them anyway.
- And how convenient was it that Gene Co suddenly showed up to cure all these people dying of mysterious organ failures? Can anyone prove they didn't cause the epidemic?
Hank Quinlan from Touch of Evil, who's become a very well-respected policeman through careful evidence tampering. In the end, it even turns out the person he was trying to frame in the film was guilty, giving him the epitaph "He was a great detective, but a lousy cop."
My what a guy, that Gaston!
James Bond gets this all the time. So often a clue is revealed seeming to point to someone, only for M to proclaim "Good lord man! But he's a well-respected industrialist!"
- Let's see... Hugo Drax, Gustav Graves, Karl Stromberg, Auric Goldfinger, Dr Kananga, Max Zorin, Elliot Carver...
General Mandible from the Dream Works film Antz falls into this perfectly. First he sends all of the troops who are more loyal to the queen then to him off to battle the termites, an enemy he knows can't be beaten. People cheer him for it as they leave.
The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. Despite the fact that he's a murderous, insane stalker, Erik has all the fangirls, and poor Raoul has none.

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Many depictions of the anti-Christ put him in this category. For instance, the incredibly charismatic Nicolai Carpathia of the Left Behind series.
- By definition, the Anti-Christ is supposed to be seen as the greatest force for good since Jesus himself (but isn't), not as the antithesis of Christ (which he is).
- The whole modern concept of the Anti-Christ is a kind of Memetic Mutation. As used in the Pauline epistles, an "Antichrist" is somebody who claims to be the Messiah, but who isn't Jesus. ("Even now many antichrists have come." — 1 John 2:18) The word Antichrist appears nowhere in the Book of Revelation, which the Left Behind series is supposed to be based on.
Tywin Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire. While ruthless in his war against the Starks and being an all-around jerk, he is known to be a wise ruler who led Westeros into many years of prosperity as the Hand of the King.
The Queen in the short story "A Woman's Work" is the head of an aggressive empire that ruthlessly conquers and spreads, orders people killed with a mere gesture (including a princess who refuses to marry her son), kills off heroes trying to stop her, and is quite willing to have her son be a target for assassination instead of her. However, since she provides universal education and health care, a sound economy, a healthy population, and employment training, and doles out the praise and rewards when it's earned, her people and army absolutely love her.
Sir Charles Latrom aka Lord Boreal of The Subtle Knife. It takes Lyra a while to realize the implications of his good publicity when she tries to get back her Black Box that he stole: that he is a well-connected pillar of the community while she is a dimension-hopping child who can't actually prove to the authorities that she exists in this particular world, let alone that the alethiometer belongs to her.
Xan, the Warden of England in the novel Children Of Men.
From the second Sapphire Rose trilogy, Davind Eddings' the Tamuli. Zalasta is the cause of everything wrong, despite being the one to recommend that Sparhawk be called in. Which, of ocurse, bites him in the ass later.
Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter.
- Quite a few former Death Eaters were revealed to have gained good reputations and worked in the Ministry. This was one of the reasons Fudge refused to believe Harry when he was naming followers who returned to Voldemort.
In Dostoyevsky's The Possessed, both Stavrogin and Petr Stepanovic are highly regarded by the whole town, with the exception of a handful of characters who are either despised by everybody (Satov, Stepan Trofimovic) or too insane/lunatic to care (Kirillov). Petr Stepanovic actually pulls this off on two levels, as he is admired both in the high society he frequents and in his secret terrorist group.
Noboru Wataya in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
In Animorphs, the Yeerks can take control of any human. As a result, they choose highly respected members of the community, such as Jake's universally loved brother and the school principal. Their front organization for recruiting new voluntary hosts, the Sharing, pretends to be a Boy Scout/Girl Scout kind of thing that anyone can join. All-American nuclear families, outcasts, rejects...
The unstable homicidal sheriff who is the Villain Protagonist of The Killer Inside Me.
Marisi, in the Magic The Gathering novel Alara Unbroken. He is credited by the Wild Nacatl with founding their society, but he turned them and the Cloud Nacatl against each other as part of Nicol Bolas' plan to create chaos on Alara.
In the Wild Cards books, Puppetman is a sadist who mind-controls people and uses them to torture and kill others for his own pleasure. He's also a well-respected candidate for President of the United States.
In Nineteen Eighty Four, everyone who isn't a thought-criminal worships Big Brother, though he is never seen except on propaganda posters and telescreens.

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On Homicide Life On The Street, the only recurring villain was Luther Mahoney, a college-educated drug kingpin whose front was as a self-proclaimed "community activist" who ran a number of community centers and charities in the slums. No matter what the detectives tried to pin on him, he always walked away totally unscathed and with his reputation intact, causing one detective to remark that he would likely someday be elected Mayor. Eventually, one of the detectives killed him in a questionable shooting, leading to many, many more problems than were solved.
Wolfram and Hart of Angel: they are their crack legal team.
- Later in the same series, Jasmine took this trope to the logical extreme with good publicity through mass brainwashing.
The Alliance in Firefly and Serenity (who also shade into being Knights Templar).
- The Alliance is a very good example of this. Most of them think they are being no worse then Kipling-style Imperialists who conquer the unwilling but also build hospitals, ship medicine to the Rim, and try to establish Rule of Law. Which comes in hard for River and Simon who don't just face exile but the respect with which well-engineered hypocrisy can cover injustice. And it comes especially hard for the inhabitants of places like Miranda...
- This Troper has sometimes wondered if the Alliance is like Imperial Japan in the 1940's: superficially a respectable state but in the keeping of a political cult that, rather then being up front about its power (like the Nazis), chooses to hide as The Man Behind The Man.
Pick a perp, any perp on Law And Order Special Victims Unit.
In season 5 of 24, President Logan turns out to be the Big Bad.
- Of course, it's subverted a bit in that Logan, prior to being revealed as the main villain of Day Five, seemed to be generally considered to be hopelessly inept as President of the United States, so he wasn't exactly getting good publicity as such.
The conspiracy in the Earth government of Babylon 5 stays in power largely by controlling all the media and spinning everything in their favor.
- Morgan Clark's Regime in Babylon 5 Fits this to a tee. His goverment engages in practially every single Trope in the description including, capturing Sheridan and attempting an Engineered Public Confession as a major Story Arc. Tellingly, during a Meeting with a Earth Force Major who reports martial law has been declared and troops are deployed in all Earths major cities, he notes that martial law has been (officially) met with widespread public approval! and things have never been more calm. Sheridan stangely replies, "Yeah, but it's the peace of the gun". Sheridan then proceeds to use his own guns quite effectively.
- The Psi Corps tries to be this, but a lot of people mistrust them on principle, without even knowing their true villainy. Those Psi Cops don't exactly radiate friendliness.
  - "We're everywhere, for your convenience"''.
Jim Profit on Profit. It helps to have your name in the title.
In the original 1966 Batman series, one of the bad guys is pointing a gun at a local citizen, so Batman busts in to arrest him. It turns out that it was a lighter in the shape of a gun, and he was showing it off to the guy. This gives the bad guy the ability to sue Batman for false arrest.
Mr. Saxon in Doctor Who. See President Evil. Like Jasmine, brainwashing was involved.
- Davros, in Genesis of the Daleks. At least, before he arranged the Kaled Dome's destruction (and the extermination of his people) to avoid having to cover his tracks.
  - Davros also returns to this in his Sixth Doctor appearance in "Revelation of the Daleks," where he's credited for helping solve universal hunger. You know, until it was revealed his food was Made of people. Whoops.
  - As he astutely predicted, that sort of thing can create "consumer resistance".
In the Sci-Fi Channel's Flash Gordon series, Ming of Mongo goes to great lengths to present himself to his subjects as "The Benevolent Father" (but can never quite live down his old nickname "Ming the Merciless").
Sheriff Lucas Buck of American Gothic. Nowhere is this more obvious than in one episode where he is strolling down the hallway of the town hospital: on every side of him, men tip their hats and women hand him flowers, little old men and women thank him for the charity work that has enabled them to afford their medicines, children smile and wave, and so on. No one in Trinity could possibly believe good ol' boy Buck could have a mean bone in his body, let alone be Evil Incarnate. Gail finds herself working (unsuccessfully) against this mindset when investigating Buck and his connection to her parents' deaths; Dr. Crower is unable to convince anyone the sheriff is pure evil, hence making it easy to lock him up as crazy; and even Caleb, who knows right off the bat that something isn't right about the fellow, ends up being taken in by his charisma and accepting him as his true father who's been wrongfully maligned and only wants to help raise him right.
Francis Urquhart from the House of Cards trilogy cheats, connives, blackmails, coerces, and murders his way to the post of prime minister of the UK. He effortlessly charms his friends and enemies into doing everything he wants as he stabs them in the back, and he enjoys overwhelming popular support. He ends up ruling longer than Margret Thatcher.
The malevolent alien Visitors in V begin like this, gaining control of the world's governments by pretending to be Human Aliens who have come to share their great knowledge... thus facilitating their real plan to enslave and devour mankind.
- And from the trailer it looks like the forthcoming remake has them heading down exactly the same path, at least as far as the first part is concerned. As for the second…
Wilhelmina Slater hasn't been mentioned yet? Incredible...
- No way! Wilhemina is conniving, but no more so then anyone else in the company. I don't think she is a villain, and I don't think her publicity is that good either!
Megan. It's just not funny anymore. An adult who did the things she did, including smuggling illegal merchandise and using counterfeit money, would be in jail for years.
Senator Kinsey in Stargate SG-1. He's such a self-righteous Jerk Ass, you have to wonder how he manages to function in society without constantly being punched, much less get elected. Kinsey was later an Evil Vice President, but he got fired after the Personable President wised up to him being evil. Again, it's amazing how many people don't figure out he's evil two seconds after meeting him.

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Dr. Blackgaard on Adventures In Odyssey — he preferred to let his Mooks like Richard Maxwell take the fall for everything.

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Desus, one of the signature characters of Exalted, is one of the most famous and well-liked of the First Age Solars, and has no real enemies. Even those who oppose his faction are convinced of his nobility and good intentions. As for his true character...Well, the fact that he has no fewer than three paragraphs all to himself on the Complete Monster page really speaks for itself.
- To boil it down, he repeatedly beat his wife, Lilith, until she miscarried, and then brainwashed her into believing that it was all her fault. And that's how he treats the woman he (in his own sick way) loves. You don't even want to know what he does to people he's not attached to having around... And let's not even think about what he does to people that he actually dislikes.
Inverted in Genius: The Transgression. One of the befits of having a high Karma Meter is that people naturally see you as a trustworthy authority figure and have a very hard time believing you're up to anything evil.

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The Crey Corporation in City Of Heroes is meant to represent this, but is a jarring stretch of Willing Suspension Of Disbelief in the process. There are a TON of missions involving Crey conspiracies, several stories that show deep levels of corruption within the company, and even literally hundreds of Crey operatives (wearing outfits with the distinctive Crey logo, nonetheless) in several very public areas that take pot shots at every last hero to pass by while often strongarming civilians. One randomly generated mission even has them attacking a bank to get "frozen assets". One would think that with a rap sheet like this, Crey would have been destroyed with utter impunity as priority number one, but they're still mentioned as having products in nearly every home and a respectable face. It's practically a whole organization Clark Kenting it up.
- That's mainly the attempt to have the plot advance as you level up. High-level arcs involve Crey as nothing but the rogue remnants of their security forces after their Corrupt Corporate Executive is facing trial for about a million charges.
The Big Bad of Baten Kaitos, Melodia, was one of the world's most beloved nobles... and puppeteered the Zero Percent Approval Rating Emperor Geldoblame into doing the grunt work. In the prequel, Baten Kaitos Origins, Verus has this sort of charm.
The Cruxis and the Tethe'allan side of the Church of Martel in Tales of Symphonia.
Several villains in the Ace Attorney series work this way.
- Most notably amidst them is Justice For All's last villain and arguably Big Bad, Matt Engarde, who rather than dirtying his hands, hired Psycho For Hire Shelly DeKiller to kill his rival actor , and went as far as to have De Killer forcing a lawyer to save his ass through a hostage situation, and then trying to frame his manager for it. Even if he's not the only Villain With Good Publicity, he's the most notable in the series, specially since we only have a confirmation that he's a villain midway through the case.
Possibly your character, in the game Overlord; as the game's base assumption is that your character is evil, rather than choosing between being good or evil, your moral choice is whether to be an Ax Crazy maniac who slaughters all in your path... or a Villain With Good Publicity who cultivates the respect and gratitude of the people towards your own evil ends.
- Or just mind control them
Tony Montana in Scarface: The World Is Yours, despite his drug-dealing, becomes respected enough that he can talk citizens into surrendering their cars and cool off "heat" from gangs and police with a snappy one-liner.
Saren Arterius, at least briefly, under the cover of being a SPECTRE in Mass Effect .
Bob Page in Deus Ex is considered by the general populace as a benevolent philantropist. The game's opening cutscene reveals him to be otherwise, controlling the population while operating behind an Ancient Conspiracy.
- Walton Simons, too. "Some people are just good, you know? Good to the bone."
Subverted in the Resident Evil series when Umbrella goes down being involved in Raccoon's destruction. Not only does the US government basically tear up all contracts with the company, their public stocks take a nosedive.
- The movies unfortunately play this straight, to the point of forgetting that the president ordered the nuclear strike to destroy Raccoon in the games.
Kane, resident Magnificent Bastard of Command And Conquer, attained much of his power in the First Tiberium War through clever manipulation of the media against the Global Defense Initiative, painting them as the very same violent, bloodthirsty murderers his own Brotherhood of Nod usually turned out to be. He continues his fine tradition in the Third Tiberium War, with the Brotherhood playing the only stabilizing influence in Earth's Yellow Zones, feeding and protecting the population of the economically ruined and poor regions of the world, all the better to stoke the fires of their hatred for the perceived oppressors of GDI....
In the scenario of Tekken 6, former Tragic Hero Jin becomes corrupted, takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu, and uses it for various atrocities. The people turned to the G Corporation, led by Kazuya, one of the series' villains (and ex-hero), as the savior of the world from the Zaibatsu, and Kazuya happily uses it to his advantage to try to get rid of Jin. Never mind that Kazuya is also evil and has done lots of atrocities with the Zaibatsu in the second series. Or maybe Jin's treatment are way worse.
- And before Jin took over, Heihachi was known to run the Zaibatsu as this.
King Tejara in D'ni history.
For the first half of The Legendof Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is one of the king's top aides and is well trusted by all but Zelda and Link, who know the evil man that Ganondorf is, but won't be taken seriously, part of the reason being that they're just kids and Zelda knows because of a dream. Of course, we all know how that turns out.
- Considering that Zelda's plan of action ends up giving Ganondorf the Triforce of Power, a holy relic which makes him effectively immortal and insanely powerful, first half!Ganondorf is very, very preferable.
Dr. Wily from the Mega Man series, especially the latest entry (9). Several times failed and people still believing he can change.
- Serpent and Master Albert from Mega Man ZX and Advent, respectively.
- Subverted with Dr. Weil of Mega Man Zero. He made a very intricate plan to make Zero and the Resistance look very bad, which, in turn, made him the hero. However, no sooner had this been established, did he turn on the people of Neo Arcadia, and they were able to finally see what sort of monster he really was...
Ghaleon from Lunar milks this trope for all it's worth managing to turn the heroes into his patsies through their altruism.
Dusknoir from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 has elements of this at first.
- Blake Hall from Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia is the president of Altru Corporation, the largest corporation in Almia. He is highly popular among the citizens of Almia because he claims to have invented an efficient alternative to fossil fuels, but he murdered his father who didn't want to use the Darkness Crystal, and Blake Hall is secretly planning to use the Darkness Crystal to turn all the Pokémon of Almia into his zombie slaves.
In Escape From Monkey Island, Charles L. Charles (Big Bad Lechuck's alter ego) becomes one of these after winning the gubernatorial vote with his "Good Times, Free Grog" policy, which the local pirates cannot possibly resist.
Chairman Drek from Ratchet And Clank is this, as well as a Corrupt Corporate Executive. He's also the man who gives the good PR to otherwise useless superhero Captain Quark. Quark then does the full Face Heel Turn through the course of the game, and in the second game tries to manufacture heroic publicity for himself by causing the protopet disaster. The third game is then spent with much time under his command, believing he's going to turn on you before he fakes a Herioc Sacrifice, only to finally do some actual heroics at the end of the third game.
The Order of Zugzwang, the main villains of Dragon Quest V use propoganda and servants to give the rest of the world the impression they're a benevolent religious order that seeks to protect the world, when they actually seek to bring their ruler into the world so he can rule. By the third generation, they have human followers from around the world, and its hard to go anywhere without hearing something about them.
The leaders of the Yevon clergy from Final Fantasy X, especially Omnicidal Maniac Seymour.
The characters of Xenosaga don't actually know Wilhelm is the Big Bad until quite late in the third episode. Even to the player his nature is ambiguous.

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In The Order Of The Stick, Lord Kobuta is of the opinion that he is one of these, and after being captured for his crimes, fully intends to exploit it at the trial. Vaarsuvius, however, has other ideas.

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Captain Hammer takes this to the logical extreme: Everyone thinks he's a hero. To the titular Anti Villain, however, he is most definitely the bad guy.
Michelle Clore from KateModern, a world-famous Reclusive Artist who also happens to be the ruthless evil mastermind behind pretty much everything that goes wrong on the show. Similarly, Rupert Van Helden is the author of various books that provide inspiration to Hymn of Oners everywhere, but is actually a lying, wife beating hypocrite.
The Spoony Experiment Review of Final Fantasy VIII has Mad Scientist character Dr. Insano become president, parodying Edea becoming an ambassador despite being Obviously Evil as well as Lex Luthor's presidency.

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Mom in Futurama appears as a sweet, lovable old lady in public, but is really a Corrupt Corporate Executive planning to take over the world.
Vlad Masters/Plasmius in Danny Phantom. Prior to becoming a reasonably respected major in Amity Park (to secretly torment Danny), he was already a well-known billionaire celebrity.
Magnacat in Monster Allergy.
Darius Dunn in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward.
- And let's not forget Oroku Saki himself during a previous season (3) of the Turtles revamp. By singlehandedly funding the rebuilding of New York City after an alien invasion, he was hailed as a hero and humanitarian. While this troper can't recall any time this directly affected the Turtles' efforts against him (being ninjas and mutant freaks, they have to work in secrecy anyway), it was still irritating. And the public was never the wiser, even constructing a library in his honor when he was finally defeated by the Turtles.
Porter C. Powell in Transformers Animated is quickly becoming one of these. Not only did he exploit Sari's lack of a birth certificate to make himself the legitimate CEO of Sumdac Systems, but he also made expert use of legal loopholes to justify his hiring of mad scientist Henry "Headmaster" Masterson. So far, only Sari and the Autobots suspect him of anything underhanded, while the rest of Detroit is none the wiser.
- Although to the first point, it's not as if business are hereditary and Sari was only eight. Powell did have a legitimate reason for taking control away from her. Now, turning her out of her own home, that's a different story.
Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk in the 1990s Spider Man animated series. He's a well-respected member of the community. Peter Parker doesn't even know he's a criminal mastermind until late in the season, and at one point saves him from an attack by the Green Goblin during a groundbreaking ceremony.
- Speaking of the Goblin, Norman Osborn is also a Villain With Good Publicity in all versions: Muggles don't know about his criminal activity as a businessman or as the Green Goblin. In this particular series, the other crime lords are the same: even Spidey thought Silvermane was a nice old man.
In The Spectacular Spider Man, Lonnie Lincoln - no, L. Thompson Lincoln - has Wilson Fisk's place in the story... maybe. Lincoln was revealed as crime lord known only as "The Big Man," but Fredrick Foswell, who was The Big Man in the comics but hasn't done anything sinister yet in this show, had once said that he knew Lincoln wasn't the Big Man. Also, Lincoln's voice actor and the VA for the Big Man's voice on the phone aren't the same, though Kevin Michael Richardson's Lincoln sounds almost exactly like Keith David's Big Man and it could simply be that Keith David chose/had to leave for some reason so The Powers That Be got the best match. However, we haven't heard Richardson over the phone as Big Man yet. Only time will tell how this turns out. However, Lincoln is Tombstone, so he's still a Villain With Good Publicity. As Tombstone, he shares Kingpin's ability to trash Spider-Man hand-to-hand much more easily than any of Spidey's more tricked-out foes.
- The change in the voice is not a trick of any sort, I'm told by both Keith David and producer Greg Weisman. Keith recorded the first episode of SSM, but then left to take a role as Lord Oberon in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Greg says he would gladly work with Keith any day of the week, but Keith's just too busy. So they found the best substitute they could.
Dethklok, no matter how many people die due to their concerts/actions still have legions of bloodthirsty fans who will slaughter anyone that the band does not like/say something bad about them.
- Although, admittedly, Dethklok aren't villains. They have no idea whats going on outside their personal lives half the time, let alone control anything. Their manager, on the other hand....
The Secret Saturdays has V.V. Argost, who hosts a popular TV show about "cryptids" and is well-liked around the world.
Parodied with Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons. Despite being a textbook Card Carrying Villain, he often strives—and always fails—to portray himself either as a sensitive, kindly soul (his autobiography is titled Will There Ever Be a Rainbow?) or as a benevolent super-being (in his film festival entry, he portrays himself as both E.T. and Jesus). Furthermore, when he loses his plant (and in one case, his entire fortune as well) and Springfielders are free to openly hate and mock him, Burns is genuinely shocked that they feel that way.
Apparently taking a cue from Lex Luthor, the Delightful Children in Kids Next Door briefly became student council president in one episode.
Arguably, Jafar in Aladdin; he's obviously an Evil Chancellor but, even after doing some questionable things, the sultan keeps him around. There's no word from the populace about him, though, so his good reputation may be strictly limited to the sultan. Him having a Mind Control Device handy doesn't hurt either.
Looney Tunes: Fresh Airedale, a 1945 Chuck Jones cartoon, concerns a "loyal, trustworthy" dog named Shep who gobbles up his master's steak, invites a burglar to ransack the house when the master's away at work, and attempts to kill the nation's "#1 dog" after reading about him in the paper. A cat repeatedly foils the dog's schemes, but ends up taking the blame for them.
Although he did get a six month jail sentence at the end of the pilot for receiving stolen property, David Xanatos from Gargoyles is still viewed as a billionaire industrialist and member of high society, and his many misdeeds are never revealed to the public.
For almost all of Beauty and the Beast, Gaston is seen as the perfect hero and the greatest guy in the town. Somehow, everyone manages to ignore the fact that he was stalking, harassing, blackmailing, and essentially sexually assaulting Belle and then tried to wrongfully commit her father, just so he could get the perfect trophy wife.
Dr. Paradigm of Street Sharks certainly counts. He manages to convince the entire city that the sharks and their father are the real bad guys, essentially ensuring that they blame everything wrong on them. On the other hand, that's pretty much the only plan of his that actually works.

Close Western Animation

Probably most tyrants today are like this. While "I am Ozymandias" was once in fashion, subtlety is the thing today. Very few really give an evil laugh and say they are taking over the Earth.
In the twelfth century, King Richard "The Lionheart" left England with a huge army to wage a very expensive war; his brother John tried to distribute the resultant massive tax hike reasonably, placing the majority of the burden on the wealthy, the nobility and the clergy. Nonetheless, John was seen as a cruel taxman who would get his comeuppance when the brave and kind Richard returned.
- It's even crazier than that. See, Richard was a bit... well... Ax Crazy, to put it bluntly. The Lionheart built several castles and fortifications in various areas of France, not to hold the land, but just to make sure he killed more Frenchmen when the inevitable counterattack came.
- He was in England for 6 months of his entire reign, during which he had to be talked out of selling Cumbria to Scotland (or possibly back to Scotland, I forget the details), and yet he gets a statue...right outside Parliament!
- Although it should be pointed out that A) The War Richard went on was deemed as vital in the time period he lived in, the Crusades being seen as the proper duty of any Christian and unlike his father and brother John, didn't try to weasel his way out of it. B) John was a bastard through and through, not just for taxes but he had a taste for letting mercenaries have a great say in his regime and delighting in cruelty. C) Richard needed the defences in France and what good are defences if they don't kill someone? Siege warfare was a long, bloody process of attrition, any advantage either side could grab was useful. Richard himself wasn't exactly the best of people, but when compared to his incompetent and cruel brother, it isn't entirely surprising that he gets the better press treatment.
Most dictators, such as Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein, were like this, at least in their rise to power. Hitler was famous for using politics to take over Germany after his coup had failed.
Rev. Jim Jones. Peoples Temple won lots of praise for its social outreach programs and racially integrated congregation, and Jones himself was appointed to several powerful political positions. It was only after former members started speaking out about the disturbing cultishness of the group and Jones' own increasingly bizarre behavior that his reputation took a nosedive.
John Wayne Gacy. Not many serial killers had their picture taken with the First Lady◊ during the middle of their killing spree.
José Efraín Ríos Montt of Guatamala benefited from this—at least in the United States and the Free World. Given that he was a brutal dictator who launched genocide against the citizenry of Guatemala, killing hundreds of thousands in his efforts to stamp out Catholics, commuinists, indigenous peoples and anyone else he happened to dislike. To add to his good PR, he was a minister of the pentecostal Church of the World, and had Ronald Reagan call him "...a man of great personal integrity and commitment" who only wanted to "improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice." Fantastic PR in the United States, certainly.
It seems that Ax Crazy Scary Black Man Idi Amin (he of Last King Of Scotland) took a page from some the guys above. It appears his charm and charisma fooled his fellow Ugandans and others. At least until he started massacring folks.
Helen Ukpabio, the head of an African Evangelical movement with odd views on any child who has malaria: " If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan."
Although Vlad Tepes (also known as Vlad the Impaler) is commonly regarded as a brutal sadist by Western scholars and much of the world, in his native country, he is revered to this day as a national hero.
- He managed to keep the Turks out of Romania pretty much on his own. Considering the power of the Ottoman Empire back then, that was quite the Crowning Moment Of Awesome,
Paris Hilton; ugly, shallow, hedonistic elitist with good publicity.
Right hand man to a totalitarian dictator, murderer, terrorist and yet his face is on millions of t-shirts. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Che Guevara.
- Except that: 1) He was a part of the revelutionary movement that deposed a worse dictator (Fulgencio Batista). 2) He was mostly involved in revolutions against U.S.-backed dictatorships. 3) He was diplomatic enough to address the UN Security Congress in 1964 (atlhough this trope would still be played somewhat straight). 4) Most revolutionaries are morally ambiguous enough to be called terrorists. They're largely remembered by the success of their actions..or if they come into power. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that he has a reasonably high death toll, from executions in war and kangaroo courts. Also, the fact that his face is worn mostly by ~~ignorant idiots~~ the "bourgoisie" he wouldn't have thought twice to have imprisoned or tortured or even killed, this trope still counts, or a Draco In Leather Pants or at the very least, a Well Intentioned Extremist.
  - Che thanks you for this good publicity.

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