History Main / ZeroApprovalGambit

* ''Fanfic/TheNegotiationsVerse'': Not that she planned for or intended it, but Celestia is completely willing to be hated by everyone and remembered as a historical villain more detested than Hitler, Stalin, Bin Laden, Mao and Pol Pot put together as long as it means that her ponies will be safe and forgiven and able to peacefully coexist with humanity.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': One of the major arcs in Creator/ChrisClaremont's classic ComicBook/UncannyXMen run was the HeelFaceTurn of Magneto, the team's archenemy. However, this actually caused a rift among the stable of writers and editors, with a portion of them refusing to accept that Magneto was redeemable. Bouts of ArmedWithCanon ensued, and Magneto would often revert to a bad guy when depicted in comics written by others. Right before leaving X-Men, Claremont introduced a justification to explain why Magneto returned to being a villain, while simultaneously respecting this huge HeelFaceTurn arc, by having Magneto claiming that he could do more good for mutantkind by acting like a bad guy and being a lighting rod for manking's hatred, instead of joining with the X-Men and damning them by his association.

* ComicBook/BoosterGold, who dooms himself to being seen as a fame-obsessed fool while he's saving the universe through time travel. Since his foes are also time travelers, hiding his true importance reduces the risk of being targeted for a GrandfatherParadox. [[spoiler:For the same reasons, his mentor and son Rip Hunter carefully hides his entire identity from everyone.]]
* On the inside, ComicBook/{{Batman}} is one of the most compassionate, good-hearted, and moral individuals on the face of the Earth. But hardly anyone has ever seen this side of him because he spends almost all his time cultivating a fearsome image and a gruff persona so that criminals will be afraid of him. The downside is that law-abiding members of society end up afraid of him too and other heroes think he's a jerk (if they aren't also afraid of him). Of course, this varies wildly DependingOnTheWriter -- Batman has gone through every shade of pretending to be awful, being completely upstanding, and actually being a CompleteMonster in an Elseworld story.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Hal Jordan does this in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/LightsOut'' and ''God Head'', [[spoiler:faking Kilowog's death, stealing Krona's prototype Willpower gauntlet and ditching the Corps to really pull the heat off of the Corps so that they can get on the good side of the universe again and have all of the blame and anger focused on him.]]

* This is a recurring theme in Creator/MarvelComics. Most heroes have gone through this at one point or another.
** During a crossover issue with the X-Men, it seems like ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, who has been given probationary X-Men membership, is trying to assassinate a man who is falsely accusing the X-Men of holding his daughter hostage. The twist ending has it turn out that Deadpool's real plan was actually [[spoiler:to save the man, who was really being threatened by Norman Osborn, from being assassinated while making it look like the X-Men saved him from Deadpool, giving a huge boost to the X-Men's reputation.]]
** In the 90s, prior to the ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' storyline, ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk was caught up in an incident where a mysterious group known as the Alliance was causing mass destruction (in actuality, it was the supposedly-dead Leader acting through one of his minions). After a number of incidents and seemingly caught in the throes of insanity, the Hulk decided to turn the US' attention back to him and claim he was "the Alliance" by going by his Maestro personality.
** In ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', Bruce Banner becomes increasingly unstable [[NotGoodWithRejection following his breakup with Betty Ross]] and talks of the government considering pulling their budget, so the Hulk goes on a rampage through Manhattan killing over 800 people [[EngineeredHeroics in order to demonstrate to the public that the Ultimates were needed]]. After turning back into Banner and explaining his motives, he's promptly kicked in the face and arrested by ComicBook/CaptainAmerica. His plan works without a hitch, as his teammates become celebrities and [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Betty decides to take him back]].
** During the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' storyline "The Other", following Peter's [[ComicBookDeath supposed death]], Wolverine hits on the grieving Mary Jane, who slaps him. His fellow heroes are disgusted until Wolverine tells them that he did it to make her angry, so she wouldn't become consumed by grief, and if she spent the rest of her life hating him for it, then so be it. Fortunately or not, Mary Jane saw through it in fairly short order, though she thanked Wolverine for putting in the effort.
** During ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion2008'', Xavin pulls a zero-approval gambit on the rest of the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, knocking them all out with a forcefield and then running away, hoping that the others will assume that they betrayed the team and elect to flee rather than trying to fight the Skrulls. It doesn't work and the team ends up rescuing Xavin when they end up in over their head. The only thing it does accomplish is making Karolina ''extremely'' cross with Xavin.
** One of the major arcs in Chris Claremont's classic ComicBook/XMen run was the HeelFaceTurn of Magneto, the team's archenemy. However, this actually caused a rift among the stable of writers and editors, with a portion of them refusing to accept that Magneto was redeemable. Bouts of ArmedWithCanon ensued, and Magneto would often revert to a bad guy when depicted in comics written by others. Right before leaving X-Men, Claremont introduced a justification to explain why Magneto returned to being a villain, while simultaneously respecting this huge HeelFaceTurn arc, by having Magneto claiming that he could do more good for mutantkind by acting like a bad guy and being a lighting rod for manking's hatred, instead of joining with the X-Men and damning them by his association.
* The ''ComicBook/AchilleTalon'' story ''Le Roi des Zôtres'' depends on this. The only other choice for ruler being a peace-loving beatnik, Achille sets out to look like a bloodthirsty madman channeling the worst dictators of history. Successfully pissing off every single age branch, social class, and profession, he barely escapes with his life but the country is restored.
* On ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'', Qubit endangers the entirety of the human race by letting the murderous Plutonian live and he gets his ass handed repeatedly for such an act. His refusal to kill him stems from his belief that he can put the Plutonian's power into good use without sacrificing Tony if given the chance, even when having the opportunity to kill Tony at all times.
** Gilgamos' plan to save humanity from the Plutonian involved making them immortal forever, which could have led to a stagnation of epic proportions. Good thing he was offered an alternative.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' pulled this in a one shot story titled "The Beating". Dredd is filmed at a public order incident seemingly beating a biker to death with a daystick and the video goes viral. Dredd, not caring about his reputation with the media (or anyone else for that matter), deliberately set the incident up, as the biker in question was actually a Wally Squad judge who was finished an undercover assignment and needed to be reassigned, so Dredd faked his death by using a rubber daystick.

** During ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', Xavin pulls a zero-approval gambit on the rest of the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, knocking them all out with a forcefield and then running away, hoping that the others will assume that they betrayed the team and elect to flee rather than trying to fight the Skrulls. It doesn't work and the team ends up rescuing Xavin when they end up in over their head. The only thing it does accomplish is making Karolina ''extremely'' cross with Xavin.

* ''The Sum of Their Parts'' sees Harry Potter becoming the next dark lord in order to bring about societal reform and unravel the attitudes that allowed Voldemort to rise. Augusta Longbottom contacts him on behalf of several influential players who are sympathetic to his cause and offers to help achieve the reforms he wants by making him a scapegoat and common enemy.
--> '''Augusta''': "I tell you this as a fair warning. I do not approve of your methods, but the Wizengamot is led by fools. If threats are necessary to make them see sense, then we shall accommodate them. We will cast your name in darkness, Lord Potter. We will speak of you in the same breath as Riddle and Grindelwald. You will be the Unforgivable against which all measures can be justified. And against that, against another Dark Lord aided by werewolves and vampires, even creature laws can be repealed."

** Jaime "The Kingslayer" Lannister broke his vows as a member of the [[PraetorianGuard Kingsguard]] and killed King Aerys the Mad, to prevent the total destruction of King`s Landing, which Aerys planned to burn down to spite his enemies as they breached the gates. For the entire series he is reviled and distrusted by nearly everyone he meets as a result, none of whom (except for Brienne, the only person he tells the story to,) know why he did it. In the end it seems he was too occupied with the political turmoil after the murder [[spoiler:and hunting down Aerys' other alchemists]] to make a big deal out of it, and by the time things had calmed down it would have looked like he was just making excuses for the murder, which his pride would not allow. Jaime was also put in a position of genuine conflicted loyalty - between his father and head of his family and his king. The realm considers what he did to be dishonorable, certainly, but it's still distinct from someone who turned traitor for money or to simply save himself.