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"Who are you creating a perfect world for? There is no one around you anymore!"
Makoto Fukami, Kamen Rider Ghost

It's hard for authority figures to be unanimously adored by those who work under them. Whether it's just because of political differences, personal friction, or even just random dislike, nobody will be completely liked by every subordinate all the time. To make an enemy out of every person below you, though, is a feat in and of itself, and that's what this trope is about.

When an authority figure is hated by every person they have authority over, whether it's just the staff at their Burger Fool or the entirety of The Empire, it usually cements that figure as a villain, or at least a massive Jerkass. Even a Hero with Bad Publicity couldn't be despised so completely. These leaders are often the kind to be a Mean Boss or a Bad Boss, who treat their underlings harshly and can't tolerate dissent or insubordination. They might be competent enough to keep themselves in power, but it's usually through shutting down any "rebellion" before it can grow and getting rid of their rivals for the role. They can have an army of Mooks at their beck-and-call, if they're that powerful, but that doesn't mean the individual mooks will actually enjoy working for them. Their authority will be based on bullying, fearmongering, and abuse of the rules, which keeps them in power, but also explains why they're hated by everyone else.

This serves a pragmatic reason for writers in terms of keeping things morally justified for our heroes because if they were taking out an emperor who was popular with the people or who had done good work for the country under their control for a (usually) personal vendetta, they wouldn't seem that much like heroes at all! Then again, it happens sometimes, and then you have people Rooting for the Empire.

If a 0% Approval Rating really bothers a sufficiently powerful ruler but they don't care to better themselves, there's always the option of Brainwashing, playing god and creating lifeforms loyal from birth, or singling out a couple of people and turn them into Les Collaborateurs. The Evil Overlord who wants to work at it can try Bread and Circuses. If the person has a plan that requires all of their underlings to hate them, then it's a Zero-Approval Gambit.

No Real Life Examples, Please!. Not only is it near impossible for any political figures to have a zero percent popularity rating (no, not even the most contentious ones), as they would've been removed or overthrown long before they hit the 0% mark, we aren't here to discuss how hated real-life people are. In fact, there is a study that shows someone needs at least 3.5% of the population to control the government of a region, so a zero percent popularity would be impossible even in theory.

Subtrope to Hated by All, which deals with any character, not just authority figures, being hated by everyone else in the story. Compare Hate Sink, where a character is solely designed to be hated by the audience and Karmic Shunning, when a person's loved ones no longer want anything to do with them. Contrast Universally Beloved Leader, for an authority figure who is beloved by all. Has nothing to do with the certain films that get this unlucky score on a certain website, though it might be named by it. —-

Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Barodius is this from Bakugan Battle Brawlers, as he is the tyrannical ruler of Gundalia who is feared and hated by all his subjects. Most Gundalians serve Barodius out of fear and the soldiers are utterly terrified of his wrath and they try to stay on his good side and not question his rule as he would punish them. Barodius has turned Gundalia into a place of ruin and despair and forces his people to live underground and never gives them any peace and happiness and everyone in his forces are expendable to him; which is why he is a horrible excuse for a ruler and no one loves him. It's no wonder Nurzak, Ren and his teammates betray him and defected to the Battle Brawlers' side and want to overthrow him. The only ones who are loyal to Barodius are Kazarina, Gill, Airzel and Stoica as they share the same views as him and are just as ruthless. Everyone in Gundalia rejoices after Barodius is defeated and no one misses him after he is gone as they are happy they are finally free from his cruel regime.
  • Lelouch does this in Code Geass R2, since taking over as Emperor, he's alienated the nobility of Britannia by dismantling the aristocracy and alienated everyone else by barging his way into the UFN and kidnapping everyone, making it seem for all intents and purposes that he's out to Take Over the World. Which he then does. Strangely, due to his actions, the common Britannians love him. His master plan is to make himself into the enemy of the world. When Suzaku, disguised as Zero, kills him, the entire world will be united in their hatred of the now-dead Emperor.
  • Cross Ange:
    • Julio Asuka Misurugi is almost hated by every Norma, including his own sister, Ange, whom he exposed to the entire Misurugi Empire of being a Norma. Needless to say, he's highly unrepentant for his actions, even until Embryo offs him. However, at the very least, the more racist Mana users conform to and approve him (though once he's dead, they started mooching off to Embryo and forgot about him).
    • Everyone outside the Mana society — Norma, DRAGONs, and Ancient Humans who have interacted with Embryo completely loathes him. Even Salia, whose loyalty still lies to Embryo, found this out the hard way when she is called out by Jill in the penultimate episode as she is the last person to realize that Embryo doesn't love anyone and has no qualms about abandoning her.
      Jill (to Salia): Love? He doesn't love anyone. He feeds and cares for people so he can use them later.
    • Ironically, the PS Vita Licensed Game of the series allows the original player character to defy the trope for Embryo, siding with him. This results in Embryo managing to be more gentlemanly and altruistic (and made his Restart the World plan no longer look more horrific than in paper, since he makes it more like the Lighter and Softer angst/prejudice-free High School AU manga) because his approval rating is no longer zero but above it.
  • While Black Skull of Cyborg 009 has supporters in the manga, the graphic novel retelling plays him up as more of this trope. Dr. Wiskey (the only scientist who is left alive after Black Skull kills the rest) clearly has misgivings about the whole "destroy the world" agenda, only joining in the first place to cure his ill son and apparently only hanging around out of fear. When given a chance to betray Black Skull and save the cyborgs, he chooses to do so. The graphic novel also ends with the reveal that the Black Skull's own backers eventually turn on him and execute him, no longer willing to support his "selfish desire to take over the planet".
  • The manga adaptation of Disgaea 2 starts off with Laharl hitting this point after managing to drive Etna away in tears. For those not in the know, Etna had been serving as a Vassal to Laharl's father, King Krichevskoy, for years before Laharl was even born, so she has a fair bit of pull. When Laharl chooses to double down on his Jerkass behavior by stating he will never apologize to Etna, the rest of the castle Vassals make their disapproval known by packing up and leaving. Later chapters show that Laharl is utterly miserable without Etna around, but his Netherworld-sized ego refuses to let him apologize.
  • Dragon Ball: Downplayed with Frieza. While he is despised and loathed by all the main heroes and the universe at large, he is highly respected by his soldiers and followers. However, in Resurrection 'F', it's established that the only reason his men used the Dragon Balls to resurrect him is because, with the empire going down since his demise, they see his fear factor as the only way to restore it. Even while searching for the Dragon Balls, Tagoma flat-out tells Sorbet that it's a bad idea to resurrect Frieza given what a psychopath he was, and Sorbet agrees that they may be better off without him.
  • Fruits Basket: Nearly every member of the Sohma clan hates Akito Sohma and considering the fact that Akito heaped all manner of physical and emotional abuse on most of them, it's hard to blame them. By the end of the manga, however, almost all of them forgiven her for her actions, in part thanks to Tohru's healing personality and in part for Akito pulling a genuine Heel–Face Turn (again, thanks to Tohru).
    • Akito does have the support of the older maids, who believe that the head of the family deserves their devotion. Akito's mother, Ren, on the other hand, has even fewer supporters. She's despised by Akito for being an Evil Matriarch and a good portion of the Sohma family hated her when she managed to win the heart of the then-head of the family, despite being a maid.
  • The Maoh King in Genma Wars is a cruel and decadent demon king whose pastime is taking human girls as concubines to provide him with half-human heirs and engineer war and destruction for his entertainment. None of his subjects — either human or demonic — have anything good to say about him and even some demon noblemen were plotting to overthrow him. In the end, his many hybrid children team up to defeat him, but the Maoh King's own demise came from his own hated wife Parome.
  • Dakki of Hoshin Engi. She has got King Chu under her leash (per seduction spell) and thinks of a new atrocity each month. She lives in luxury, while the peasants starve and are picked off for her entertainment. Entertainment, in this case, always involves dying, in a snake pit, in a forest by wild tigers, and somesuch, while she and King Chu drink on a boat on a lake of sake... And the list goes on. Everyone that isn't under her temptation spell (aka, everyone powerful enough or far enough away) hates her with passion. The best/worst part? She gets away with it (in the manga, at least).
  • In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, practically no one likes Diavolo, The Don of the Passione mafia. Giorno despises him for dealing drugs, and eventually, Bucciarati and his other subordinates except for Fugo join him in trying to overthrow The Boss after its revealed he wanted to kill his own daughter, Trish, to keep his identity secret. The Boss's team of hitmen betray him due to feeling slighted, especially after he has two of their members killed in retaliation for trying to look into his identity. The Boss's own subordinates don't seem to have much personal loyalty to him, either. The only exceptions are Pericolo, a capo who commits suicide to keep a clue to Trish's final destination secret, and Doppio, The Boss's right-hand man and split personality.
  • In the entirety of Kagerou-Nostalgia, there does not seem to be a single person (excepting his wife) who actually likes General Kiyotaka Kuroda, who controls eighty percent of the series' version of medieval Japan. His tendency towards organising random slaughters of people and using demons as a part of his army may have something to do with that. It's worth noting that even Ranmaru and Rikimaru, Co-Dragons to Gessho Kuki, the series' Big Bad, do not like Kuroda, and that Gessho himself seems to view Kuroda as The Starscream and, therefore, expendable. The man is truly loathed, albeit with good reason.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: King Dedede. Thanks to his ever-constant Jerkass attitude to his subjects, almost no-one in Cappy Town likes him or even respects his authority. Meta Knight and Customer Service are only using him, the Waddle Dees only serve Dedede because he gives them a place to stay, Captain Doo is only loyal to the Waddle Dees, while Tiff is always suspicious about his schemes. The only characters who really seem to like Dedede are Kirby and Escargoon, but even then, the latter makes it clear in several episodes that he's a Bad Boss and is only serving him to take his position. "Dedede: Comin' at Ya!" in "Cartoon Buffoon" manages to gain an approval rating of less than 1%. This eventually culminated with "Sweet and Sour Puss", where the monster Togeira possesses King Dedede and siphons all of his anger, which gives the residents of Cappy Town (sans Escargoon, who is actually upset to see a sudden change in Dedede's personality) the opportunity to whack him countless times to see if he reaches his Rage Breaking Point.
  • Celestial Being of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 drop deeper and deeper into this as they follow their Well-Intentioned Extremist nature and continue making attacks on anyone who they perceive as pursuing conflict. With the appearance of Team Trinity, who are even more aggressive in pursuing their goal than the Gundam Meisters and have no concerns about civilian casualties (to the point that when one of them blows up a wedding just on a whim, neither of her partners is at all concerned about this), the last lingering threads of approval vanish and they become reviled as the worst terrorist organization in history, enemies of all humanity. It turns out that this was all part of the plan. Fortunately, everything they've struggled through afterwards ultimately gives them a good enough reputation to have an in-universe movie depicting them as the heroes in an over the top fashion.
  • My Hero Academia: While Katsuki Bakugo has many friends, people who encounter his repulsive attitude, massive arrogance, and tripwire temper instantly despise him. This also has the unfortunate side effect of turning everyone else against Class 1-A, as they tend to assume that they're all just as arrogant and obnoxious as he is.
    • He fails his license exam simply because he's such a giant asshole to the people that he's rescuing that they all gave him failing marks despite how many targets he saved.
  • Now and Then, Here and There: King Hamdo rules over the Hellywood battleship, where he's amassed a cult like worship of himself as the savior of humanity. In reality, almost all of his soldiers(particularly the Child Soldiers) realize what a fanatical monster he is and only carry out his depraved whims so they can end the war and go home. Tabool even admits this and states he plans to overthrow Hamdo for control of Hellywood. It's even moreso outside Hellywood, where many factions are willing to risk their people's safety just to kill Hamdo, as he's a tyrant who pillages lands and conscripts children into his army. When he finally bites it, left to drown by his own right hand, everyone, fucking everyone, is happy the bastard's dead.
  • One Piece:
    • In the kingdom of Dressrosa, the former king Riku Dold III is absolutely despised by his people. This grudge is so strong, it extends to the entire royal family, particularly his granddaughter Rebecca. This completely changed when Riku's name was cleared during the Bird Cage fiasco, and the hatred quickly transferred to the man who deposed him — Donquixote Doflamingo.
    • The World Nobles, also known as the Celestial Dragons, and rightfully so. As the descendants of the twenty kings who created the World Government, they are considered "gods" and have a carte blanche to do as they please, being completely above the law in its entirety. They stretch this privilege to its fullest extent, enslaving people from all races for their personal amusement and executing others for the smallest of slights. Worse yet, the common people cannot retaliate — attacking a World Noble is a capital offense, punishable by death, possibly even requiring the intervention of an admiral if the World Noble in question desires it. Notably, the number of likable World Nobles that have appeared thus far in the series can be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and they're the ones that have essentially rejected everything that makes the Celestial Dragons so detestable in the first place.
    • Deconstructed with Kurozumi Orochi, the current shogun of Wano. He's hated by almost every living person in Wano (even his own allies and inner circle) for running the country into the ground and making everybody other than his minions miserable, only being kept in power by the fact that he has the backing of one of the Four Emperors. The deconstruction is that Orochi knows full well how hated he is and not only does he not care, he's actively cultivating that hatred; the reason he's such a horrible leader isn't that he is incompetent, its because he's deliberately destroying the country and tormenting its people out of vengeance for the persecution his family faced.
  • Ōoku: The Inner Chambers:
    • Shogun Tsunayoshi becomes deeply unpopular with both her people and her court. A stagnant economy, some natural disasters, the 47 Ronin Incident, and her deeply unpopular "Edicts on Compassion for Living Things" makes her unpopular with the people and sparks several revolts, while her mercurial nature, profligate spending, being ruled by her (increasingly senile) father and her inability to produce or name an heir (which sparks a Succession Crisis) makes her deeply unpopular with the court. Worse is perhaps that Tsunayoshi eventually comes to realize how deeply unpopular she is, but simply isn't up to the task to right the ship. She spends most of her twilight years in a depression as a result, to the point that she welcomed her own death, thinking that no one wanted her alive (and she might very well have been right).
    • Harusada was merely the power behind Ienari's throne and the people at large didn't have an opinion on her cause they didn't realize she was the true ruler, but among the courtiers and officials she was so hated due to her tyrannical whims and penchant for offing her own grandchildren that when she gets poisoned, incapacitating her, everyone agreed she suffered a 'tragic' stroke and shunted her off to die, with no one speaking in her defense, not even her son. (To be fair to Ienari, she tried to kill him first.)
  • In Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix, the king in Yamato is distinctly aware of how much the kingdom hates him, and therefore orders a hundred people to be sacrificed when he dies just to ensure that the country will mourn his death.
  • In Red River (1995), Queen Nakia initially held some support from the upper-class but was hated by most of the peasants and working-class people, who she ignored and abused. Her stepson, Kail, knows full well he wants to kill him and his brothers. Over the course of the manga, as Yuri more openly directly opposes Nakia's deeds and stands up for the people of the Hitte Empire, it becomes increasingly obvious that everyone would much rather have her as their queen instead of Nakia. By the end of the series, Yuri is openly spoken of as if she were the queen while Nakia loses the little political support she had when it's found out that she was selling military secrets to Egypt, becomes utterly alienated by everyone including her own son (who seemed to be one of the few people she cared at all for), and loses Urhi after he's executed.
  • In The Rising of the Shield Hero, this becomes a plot point with Malty Melromarc, aka Myne. The woman is a Hate Sink owing to her being a Compulsive Liar, betraying anyone she works with, and acting like a pompous Royal Brat of the first order. She constantly makes life harder for Naofumi and Raphtalia, and loves to ruin peoples' lives simply because she can. Malty gets away with all of it due to being a princess. However, Malty's title is eventually stripped from her, she's branded with a Slave Seal that shocks her whenever she lies, and Naofumi has her name legally changed to "Bitch." Then to top all that off, she's sold as a Sex Slave to her uncle, repeatedly raped and tortured, and finally burned at the stake as a witch in a Cruel and Unusual Death. All of the misery in Malty's life happens to her because her Zero Percent Approval Rating means that no one is going to come to her assistance, believing what she's going through to be karma.
  • This happens in one backstory of the "Great Distance in the Wind; the Sky at Dawn" arc of The Twelve Kingdoms. King Chuutatsu of Hou, on the advice of his wife, orders that anyone accused of a crime—regardless of severity—will be put to death. This results in the brutal, systematic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of his subjects (including several Women of Court falsely accused by the queen) and eventually a revolt by some of his governors and generals, who promptly behead the King and Queen and their kirin Hourin and force their 13-year-old daughter Shoukei into hiding. Only once the ex-Princess gets out into the real world does she find out just how much everyone absolutely despised her father for his cruelty (Hou was the only one of the 12 Kingdoms that still practised crucifixion, for one); at first she's in stubborn denial, then deeply ashamed.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Just about everyone at Yokai Academy, including the teachers, despises Kuyo, head of the corrupt Student Police, to the extent that, upon his defeat, the entire student body declares Tsukune their hero for doing so.
  • A Certain Magical Index: Othinus becomes infamous across the world due to the destruction and chaos caused by her terrorist organisation GREMLIN. Even the other members of GREMLIN don't like her, only following her out of fear of her power and to have their own desires fulfilled. When she achieves her full power and remakes the world to her liking, she also decides to inflict this on Touma (the one person immune to her power) to break his mind. She creates a world in which literally everyone wants him to die, including his own parents.
  • In Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, no one seems to like the Novelist, who's sponsored every Squad Jam tournament besides the second one. The third one is especially unpopular, since midway through the event, one member of each team is forced to leave their team and fight alongside the other "betrayers".

    Comic Books 
  • Sonic the Hedgehog does this a lot with different incarnations of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): By the time the comic started, the original Robotnik had burnt all of his bridges. He became the de facto enemy of Mobian kind and the Overlanders saw him as a war criminal and traitor (even before he joined the Mobians in the Great War). Robotnik tended to surround himself with non-sentient allies and warriors, recognizing he could only count on them as support. All of Robotnik's allies capable of thought, ala Crocbot or Snively, hated and plotted against him, with Snively ultimately being the one to kill him.
      • Like Robotnik Prime before him, Eggman is universally despised by everyone on Mobius, both on his side and against him. All of his allies who are capable of thought and free will, such as Lien-Da and Snively, only work for him to further their own personal ambitions while hating and plotting to usurp him constantly. Eggman is well aware that all of his sub-bosses and minions hate him, and in fact relishes it, openly admitting that he views their attempts at overthrowing him as a game. Sonic himself lampshades it in issue 200, asking how Eggman can really claim to control Mobius if everyone hates his guts and he's fighting for it constantly. Averted post-Cosmic Retcon, where some of his minions are genuinely loyal, much to his surprise.
    • Sonic the Comic: During his time as the ruler of Mobius; Robotnik is well-aware that everyone on Mobius hates him, and doesn't care. It became more pronounced near the end of his reign as he lost his grip of terror over the citizens, with them doing such things as destroying his statues, holding demonstrations and protests, mocking him on national television, and even fighting back against his Badniks. After he's overthrown, however, a cult called D.R.A.T. surfaced, all of them supporting Robotnik and desiring to bring him back to power. Despite this, even they acknowledge in their oath that Robotnik did horrible things and made their lives miserable.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Par for the course, nobody likes Eggman. He's a tyrant, Bad Boss, and all around danger to anyone on his side or against him. Most of the planet hates and fears him and he tends to employ mindless automatons because they are less likely to betray him. Only Metal Sonic seems to actually like him and even then he had to have that loyalty programmed into him after a previous betrayal. As much as he respects Eggman, Starline is frustrated at Eggman's methods and lackadaisical attitude which ultimately results in him turning on the evil doctor. Even Orbot and Cubot, who were built to be loyal to Eggman, only follow him out of fear.
  • EVERYONE both in and out of the Marvel universe hates the Red Skull. EVERYONE! Even supervillains such as Magneto, Joker, and Doctor Doom have tried to kill or harm him on different occasions. Not because he got in their way, but just because they wanted him dead due to how horrible of a human being he was. (Of course, Magneto being Jewish and Doom being Romani was likely also a factor) Considering the guy is one of the most feared Nazi supervillains, it's hard to find even one person willing to work with him, and even mentioning his name is a good way to end any supervillain deals. His cruelty was also said to be so despicable that even Hitler, who wanted to make him into a Nazi in the first place, became afraid of him. However, the people who serve under him tend to have Undying Loyalty to him...in large part because they are nearly as evil as him.
  • Speaking of which, The Joker tends to be this as well. It's been clear most villains want nothing to do with him, mostly because of his utter insanity and also because they're flat fucking terrified of him. The rare times he's let into a "Legion of Doom" style gathering is mostly because the other villains are worried that if they snub him, the Joker will just mess things up out of his bruised ego. Nonetheless, like the Red Skull above, he manages to find loyal underlings since he either enables their own madness and/or sometimes rewards them generously (or kills them — being a henchman of the Joker is very much Russian Roulette).
    • In the "Underworld Unleashed" crossover, the Trickster sums it up.
    Trickster: Great going, Neron, bring in the one guy no one wants to be in the same room with. When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.
  • Ultron of Marvel Comics infamy is feared and hated by everyone. The reason? He is an omnicidal maniac and deranged robot who cruelly kills or roboticizes organic life. It takes being brainwashed by Ultron to avoid hating him, and even then, his own creations outright hate or fear him. It 'helps' that he rarely actually needs to work with any other sapient beings, being both immensely personally powerful and capable of manufacturing Mecha-Mooks of varying sophistication, so being likeable simply isn't a relevant priority for him.
  • Spawn: Jason Wynn is utterly despised by anyone who knows him personally; in fact, the only reason he hasn't been assassinated is that he's spent his career gathering incriminating evidence on various governments and organizations throughout his career, preventing him from being terminated and providing him with a bargaining chip to regain his authority if lost.
  • Marvel's Doctor Doom has been on both sides of this trope. Sometimes, the Latverians hate him, but other times, they're okay with him — especially since alternative rulers like Prince Zorba are usually even worse. It doesn't hurt that he turned a backwater Ruritania into an industrial and military force to be reckoned with, strong enough to (before the Sliding Time Scale messed it up) stand neutral directly between Western Europe and the Soviet bloc. If he didn't have a terrifying and capricious temper, he'd stay out of this trope entirely.
  • Planet Hulk: The Red King of Sakaar indulges in delusions of godhood and mass genocide and, judging by a flashback to Caiera the Oldstrong's origins, has been irredeemable since childhood, all the way to his death (where he tries to destroy the planet rather than not rule it). Really, the Mini-Marvels parody of this story arc summed it up:
    Caiera: Wouldn't that be bad karma?
    Red King: Everything I do is bad karma.
  • Kid Paddle: Kid, when he plays SimCity. He put barbed wire around the city so no one can leave it and raised taxes to 100% to pay for the police he needs to oppress the population. Not surprisingly, when asked what the biggest problem is, 100% of the people say "The mayor!"
  • The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck comments on this in the last chapter, showing a newspaper headline when Scrooge decides to retire: Cantankerous tycoon will be missed by few. Followed by a smaller headline later on the same page: ... if any....
  • As much as the various members of the Suicide Squad may dislike each other, they all agree that they absolutely loathe Amanda Waller. Even the Squad members who aren't so bad (Rick Flagg, Bronze Tiger, Vixen) despise Waller's tendency to use the Squad and play around with people's lives. Also, the Justice League aren't fans given Waller is using super-villains to do the government's dirty work.
    • When Nemesis quits the Squad, he warns Waller not to stop him or "I'll put you in the hospital. And not a person here will lift a finger to stop me." Looking at the Squad, Waller sees them either just looking off or downright eager to watch Nemesis do it.
    • In the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad event, Waller tells the Squad she needs them to protect her from a pack of enemies. After a pause, every member of the Squad just bursts out into hysterical laughter.
  • The entire world hates Superman's Regime in Injustice: Gods Among Us due to its severe authoritarian nature and global scope, though most are too afraid to stand up to it. Even some of the Regime's own high-ranking members start to question its level of power, and some start hating Superman himself since he treats them so disrespectfully.
  • Dracula in Requiem Vampire Knight has every major faction in Résurrection gunning for him: The lamias despise him for good reason since they are oppressed by his authoritarian rule; the Ghouls and the Dystopians are his greatest political rivals who would like to replace him as dominant power; a secret vampire group headed by one of his top lieutenants Black Sabbat is secretly plotting to overthrow Dracula and rule the world through a figurehead leader. It doesn't help that Dracula doesn't try to endear himself to possible allies since the Archaeologists decided to side with Sabbat after Dracula had their high priest mutilated out of spite in his Establishing Character Moment. Ironically, the main protagonist himself would like to keep his distance from him, but he is dragged into the feud after his girlfriend is forced to become Dracula's bride.
  • Iznogoud:
    • In "Chop and Change", Iznogoud actually manages to become the Caliph by changing bodies with him. However, due to his tyranny, he's overthrown by the people of Baghdad, who think that "everything's been worse since he threw the Grand Vizier in jail". After overthrowing him, the "Grand Vizier" (really the imprisoned Caliph in Iznogoud's body) becomes the new Caliph, thus restoring everything to normal (except the two now have swapped bodies and Iznogoud is in jail, together with Wa'at Alahf, who now has the body of the Caliph's food taster).
    • In Iznogoud Finally Caliph, a conspiracy is formed by the inhabitants of Baghdad to get rid of him. When asked who is in this conspiracy, Wa'at replies to Iznogoud that everyone in Baghdad is, since except for the Caliph, they all hate him.
    • In "Mirror Image", the vizier travels to a Mirror Universe (literally on the other side of a mirror where everything is reversed) and is delighted that every single citizen wants the Caliph's head... except that in the Mirror Universe he is the Caliph.
  • When Dick Dastardly wins the race in "Trek To Tanzania" (Wacky Races #1, Archie Comics series), he is loudly booed. Dick thanks the crowd.
  • Achille Talon: In "Le Roi des Zôtres", Achille is found to be the closest living relative of Zôtrland's king Abzurd (there is another vaguely-related cousin, but he's currently a hippie somewhere in India), who wishes to abdicate. Achille goes under protest but learns there's a plot to turn the next king into a figurehead and rule the (already severely factionalized) country through him. Achille (with Abzurd's help) immediately becomes a mishmash of every tinpot dictator the 20th century has to offer in order to unite the country against him and put the cousin (who's been found) on the throne, declaring war on every surrounding country at once, putting the youth to work for the nation seven days a week for no pay, and making medals smaller and replacing beer with wine to get the army to revolt. The plotters are taken aback by how quickly he does it, as they can tell the revolution is about to happen without them.
  • Transmetropolitan:
    • Incumbent president The Beast is so unpopular that the secret Service is charging him for protection. Not to mention that just about everybody calls him by the nickname that Spider Jerusalem gave him, even the man's own children.
    • The Beast's successor Gary Callahan AKA the Smiler. After Spider's continuous attacks, his approval ratings dropped lower than that of an earlier president who was caught fisting kittens in public.
  • Superman: Because Superboy-Prime killed so many of his fellow heroes and his whiny attitude about how much he suffers, he is pretty much despised by all of the DC superheroes.
  • When Galvatron led the Decepticons in Transformers: Robots in Disguise, he swiftly fell into this, much like his cartoon counterpart. Though not a gibbering loon, he has no real respect for the Decepticon cause or ideals, and only sees the faction as a vehicle to use for his own ambitions of conquest. He nakedly despises both his fellow Decepticons and their human allies, and many of his plans show a great disregard for life, meaning only the most battle-hungry troops are okay with him. For the most part, Soundwave is the one who's actually keeping the army together.
  • X-Men: During an issue of Astonishing X-Men Sydren tells Abigail Brand that if he were to strangle her then and there, two-thirds of S.W.O.R.D. would applaud him. Abigail's reaction? Dryly note her approval rating's gone up.

    Fan Works 
  • In The Lion King Adventures, no one likes Scar or Hago when they take over the Pride Lands in Friends to the End. They change this via hypnosis, though.
    • In the same story, Hago even thinks Scar's actions are too much. This is why he kills him later.
  • This trope is played straight in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic one-shot fanfiction, Adored with Queen Chrysalis. A Changeling monarch's best popularity indicator here is their ability to sense the love and adoration of their subjects. When she can sense zip, this starts to worry her. The causes of this fall from grace are put down to her increasing ineptitude, incompetence, and over-reliance on a Rasputin stand-in, as well as the obvious...
  • In Earth and Sky, it's established that no one — from her employees to her husband — likes Diamond Tiara. When Chrysalis replaces her, she's shocked to find that the best she can feel is tolerance, which to her is like trying to eat styrofoam.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Desperation, no one — including his former allies, the Elder Gods, and his own henchmen — really likes Raiden after he Came Back Wrong, given how he committed atrocities such as slaughtering the Lin Kuei, sadistically torturing Cassie Cage to near death, and destroying towns in both Earthrealm and Outworld, all For the Evulz and to force his former allies turned enemies in line. Plus, the ways he uses dirty and underhanded tricks to cheat in the Mortal Kombat tournament has attracted the ire of many. Shang Tsung and Hotaru also get the same treatment, but on a lesser scale than Raiden. Plus, his abusive treatment of his henchmen makes it easy to see why many of his henchmen secretly plan to defect from him, and given his twisted ambition of becoming the Evil Overlord of all realms and the wanton violence he commits to achieve that goal, it shows how he's virtually despised by everyone, making him the resident Hate Sink. Heck, even the comments made by readers indicate they despise him. His original goal was to protect Earthrealm at all costs by invading Outworld, but that has been since decayed and changed into a sickening desire to subjugate all realms with the Mortal Kombat universe.
  • In A Growing Affection everyone hates Madara. The only people who don't want him dead are the ones who need to use him in some way. And they will kill him as soon as he outlives his usefulness. Some people like his Tobi persona, but once the mask comes off, they want his blood. Pain even trained a special corps of ninjas to take out Madara if he betrayed Pain, or just if Pain gave the order. Good thing for Madara he is pretty useful and very tough to kill.
  • On Trial: After it's discovered how much King Frederic has corrupted the justice system of Corona simply because he feels criminals aren't punished harshly enough, he becomes this trope (to the point that he's stripped of his place as king, with Arianna usurping control of the government from him and Rapunzel assisting her in royal duties).
  • The Unexpected Rookie: After what Chick pulled at the end of the first Cars movie, he's lost a lot of his sponsors and most of his fans. Lightning doesn't hate him, but he makes his dislike of the narcissist fairly clear. The Autobots don't like him either, but mostly because his massive ego and dishonesty make them think that he's a Decepticon spy. Sadly, they're wrong.
  • A villager named Harold in Ruby and Nora attempts to invoke this so he can overthrow the current village leader. It gets turned back on him in the end.
  • New Stars: Due to their creation and enslavement of the clones, the entire Orville crew has an intense dislike for the Republic.
  • In The North Remembers, the Lannisters' already shaky rule over the Seven Kingdoms completely falls apart after Cersei orders the executions of the Westerling family and Roslin Frey for allowing Jeyne to escape from Riverrun. This act causes nearly every noble house in Westeros, including those sworn to House Lannister, to rebel and declare for Aegon Targaryen.
  • In the The Legend of Zelda fic Wisdom and Courage, Veran is noted to be universally despised even by her fellow Twili; given her twisted ambitions and love of carnage, destruction, and death, it's not hard to see why.
  • Sometimes I Hate the Life I Made: HYDRA is this for all the earth-bound characters, including the obvious ones like the Avengers, SHIELD, and for SHIELD agents, but also Ultron and the Maximoff Twins. The only person or organisation to receive more hate is Ward.
  • Implied in Enslaved when Kirche states that if someone were to force-feed the Emperor of Germania his own balls and kill him, she'd melt down all her family's gold to make a statue in honor of said person and her mother would swear undying loyalty.
  • Sudden Contact: The UED sums it up pretty nicely about the Dominion:
    "When the most likely reaction of your neighbors upon hearing of the UED assault is either applause or indifference, you know you have failed at diplomacy."
  • Pony POV Series: Nyarlathotrot. As the God of Tragedy and Horror, as well as the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Shadows Who Are's dark side, he's tolerated by the rest of the Pantheon due to having an actual purpose at best. Both Nature's Law and Nature's Fury hate and oppose him, and the mortals who know him hate him. Even Discord ultimately ends up hating him and his own family, the Outer Concepts, now hate him due to his actions getting them banished from the POV Multiverse for several billion years.
  • Uchibi Sasuke: The Uchiha. Everyone hated the Uchiha, due to their Blue-and-Orange Morality and clan policy of showing off and making their lives better by making everyone else's suck. To the point that they deliberately tried to destroy three of the five original arts just because they sucked at them. It seems like the only two Uchiha that are even remotely liked are Itachi (for killing off the entire clan) and Sasuke, who, having to raise seventeen kids almost entirely on his own on top of training to be a somewhat strong ninja, rejects most of the clan's ideals and philosophies and grows up to be a somewhat sane and fully-functioning individual as a result.
    Shikaku: Uchiha ruin everything.
  • Total Drama:
    • Predator and Prey: All of the Peanut Gallery and many of the behind-the-scenes people hate Blaineley, to the point where they throw a huge party in celebration of her being shipped off to the competition.
    • Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite: It's apparent that Alejandro has become more hated than even Heather for his actions in World Tour. When Gwen is worried she'll die underground and gives messages to other contestants in the confessional, she tells Heather that she'd be willing to bury the hatchet with her, but tells Alejandro to get bent. And in the four-parter, everybody sans Heather glare at him when he appears.
    • Total Drama Superstars: Scott, which begs the question of how he hasn't been eliminated yet.
  • No one seems to sympathize with Holly Blue Agate's predicament in Gift of A Diamond. This is especially the case since she tried to have Steven/Rhodonite shattered by reporting him going against orders and rescuing the zoomans before they could suffocate. For his act of bravery, he wound up promoted while Holly Blue was demoted into a janitor for nearly letting the zoomans die.
  • In The Dragon King, Marva's obnoxious personality and admiration for Drago Bludvist does not exactly garner much sympathy. The only other character that seems to care for her in the slightest is her father, who was outraged when he heard about how Hiccup snapped and nearly strangled her. Even then Hiccup got off pretty light for it and is unwilling to ignore her behavior. Even her own tribe celebrated after hearing about it.
  • In A Man of Iron, Joffrey manages to have it even worse than canon. Kinda inevitable when you kill a sweet little girl in front of her daddy and all of King's Landing.
  • The Raven's Plan: In the fallout of the Peggy Sue spell the heroes use to Set Right What Once Went Wrong becoming much more powerful than originally planned, causing way more people than the initial select few to remember their previous lives, several characters become utterly despised by the rest of Westeros for their actions in the original timeline.
    • House Lannister in general has to deal with this due to the ruthless and underhanded tactics certain members engaged in for the pursuit of power. It's made clear multiple times that if wasn't for the looming threat of the White Walkers, all the other great houses would've been all too happy to put aside any previous grudges they had with each other and collectively stamp them out of existence.
      • Tywin committed numerous atrocities throughout his life to elevate his house's standing, and with the Remembering, he's basically on the shitlist of every other great house on the continent and even many of the commoners who were caught in the crossfire of his campaigns. Hell, the only reason Tyrion hasn't killed him again or shipped him off to Dorne to appease the Martells is that Kevan and Genna still love him .
      • Cersei, by far and away, is the most hated woman in Westeros, if not the world. She basically lost her mind during the Long Night to the extent that those who remember the original events talk about her in the same breath as Aerys II. Notably, her own brother and former lover Jaime was the one to finally put an end to her little "reign of terror", and even though kinslaying is considered one of the worst sins a man could commit in Westeros, there's not a single person who holds it against him for killing her, not even their own family. If anything, everyone pities Jaime for having to kill his own sister first place.
      • Joffrey is largely remembered as one of Westeros' most despicable monarchs for his gleeful sadism and overall incompetence, with everyone in-universe referring to him as "the little shit". As soon as he sees that Joffrey remembers, Sandor Clegane wastes no time giving him a savage and well-deserved No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for everything he did to Sansa, and no one mourns him besides Cersei. Cersei and Tywin are the only ones who beat him out, and that's probably because they're where he gets his worst traits from.
    • Stannis Baratheon firmly falls into this after news of what he did to Shireen in the previous timeline spreads. His soldiers ditch him, Shireen and Davos both immediately pull a Screw This, I'm Out of Here! as soon as they Remember (with the former disowning him), and Robert has him thrown in a Black Cell.
    • House Frey's reputation goes completely down the toilet after the Remembering, with the Red Wedding and the gross violation of Sacred Hospitality (among other things) being seen as their In-Universe Moral Event Horizon. Thus, no one really sheds a tear for them for getting exterminated twice over (first by Arya in the original timeline, second by a legion of forces led by a Took a Level in Badass Edmure Tully) and even those that were spared from being purged are still regarded with suspicion and given a hard time, with Stevron Frey lamenting that it's probably going to take years for his family to live this down.
      Greatjon: The bread's not poisoned. We're not the fucking Freys.
    • Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish is also despised all across Westeros for his manipulations throwing the Seven Kingdoms into not one, but two devastating civil wars all for his own quest for power. When he's killed by Jaime early on after the timeline reboot, everyone who knew of his treachery can only say "good riddance" and Sansa practically does a Happy Dance upon hearing of it.
  • A Rabbit Among Wolves: Adam Taurus had few genuine allies among the White Fang due to his horrible personality. The only reason why he was tolerated was for his skill as a warrior. When Jaune accidentally kills him and takes over his branch of the White Fang, no one is remotely upset.
  • The Victors Project: There are few Victors that even their district dislikes.
    • Luster. Lancaster. After he won his Games he wrested control of the DAEYD away from Gleam and turned District 1 into his personal dictatorship. Not only did he forcibly take the best-looking children away to be trained as future tributes and high-priced escorts, it was him that suggested to Snow the idea of making Victors prostitutes for the Capitol in the first place. Ultimately, he was so hated that he turned the previously loyalist District 1 into another hotbed of rebel activity because they were that desperate to get rid of him.
    • Roan Tully. He's descended from the ranchers of District 10, the closest the district has to aristocracy, and a cruel and violent racist even by normal Settler standards. The Anasazi outright use his name as a curse word, while even other Settlers refuse to talk about him.
  • Another Day in Bluffington Duology: Bob White became a pariah in the town of Bluffington following him losing the mayoral elections to Tippi Dink. He was already unpopular with the poorer classes for making the rich richer and accepting bribes, but after he lost, he slowly began to lose his mind to the point where he had sex with an underage girl. This caused him and his family to be kicked out of the town in disgrace, with Bob's son Willie only being able to hold a job as a janitor and living with people who secretly supported his father.
  • In Splint, it's made clear even the Orcs despised and feared Sauron and Saruman. They apparently weren't too keen on the Witch-King of Angmar either; Rukhash is thoroughly impressed when she learns Eowyn killed him. When Eowyn expresses surprise at this, as he was one of Mordor's leaders, Rukhash bluntly states that he was an "arsehole" and a "great big prick".
  • The Unexpected Rookie: Because of what he did to the King, Chick Hicks has lost a majority of his sponsors and all of his fans. He doesn't care, though, so long as he can still insult or injure the other racers. He's so disliked that several Autobots are convinced he's a Decepticon in disguise.
  • CWCollateral: A Tale of the Resistance: The steadily dwindling human population of CWCville universally despise Mayor Chandler for squeezing them dry to support the Chus lavish lifestyles, the imported mercenaries propping up the regime find the ruling class annoying and are kept onboard by monthly tugboat payments and while the Chus themselves idolize their father with religious fervor they are deeply selfish, craven and will gladly turn on each other for any form of short term personal benefit or gratification.
  • Witching Hour: Pretty much everyone in the kingdom hates and fears Gaz because of her violent temper and tendency to lash out at anyone who provokes her wrath, but thanks to her royal status nobody ever dares to try and stop her because she'll have them brutally punished. When she is accused of being a witch, no one but her family speaks up in her defense, and when she is declared guilty, everyone is more than happy to burn her at the stake.

    Films — Animated 
  • The Lion King (1994): Scar is such an unpopular ruler that even the land itself seems to hate him; it begins to wither and die as a result of his reign (and once he's overthrown, everything gets pretty again). The lionesses and Zazu openly criticize his policies, all the animals seem to hate him, and the Hyenas who helped him come to power have grown so irritated with his rule that, at the end of the movie, they eat him alive, even admitting beforehand that his brother, Mufasa, was a way better ruler. Yet no one even tries to overthrow the guy until Simba returns from exile to take him down. In the sequel, however, it's revealed that Scar did have some supporters, namely Zira and her clan, and they remain loyal to him years after his death.
    • The Lion King (2019) double subverts this. The lionesses still hate Scar for being a tyrant, but Scar treats the hyenas better in the remake than in the original, and they become loyal to him. But it's only when Scar throws them under the bus when confronted by Simba do the hyenas turn on him and kill him.
  • Lord Farquaad from Shrek. When Dragon smashes through the window and swallows him whole at his wedding, everyone in attendance actually starts laughing and cheering.
  • Aladdin: The Return of Jafar: Abis Mal's men get so sick of Abis Mal that they actually try to kill him, and would have succeeded had Abis not found Jafar's lamp at that precise moment.
  • Robin Hood (1973): Prince John's "The Villain Sucks" Song, "The Phony King of England," was so successful that everyone starts singing it, even Prince John's allies Sir Hiss and the Sheriff of Nottingham.
  • The King and the Mockingbird: According to the titular Mockingbird, the titular King "detested everyone, and everyone in the kingdom detested him". Given his personality, it's not hard to see why.
  • Frozen has one with Elsa after her powers are exposed. She starts off well-liked by the people, who are excited to see her officially crowned, but during the coronation ball, Elsa loses her temper and shoots ice spikes at her sister, then flees the castle. When she enters the crowded courtyard, she starts to lose control of her powers, which turns one fountain's water into spiky ice and accidentally shoots a blast into the crowd. She then flees the kingdom, as unknown to her, her Power Incontinence sends the country into an Endless Winter. Pretty much everyone begins to fear her and believe that the newly crowned queen intentionally abandoned her kingdom and doomed them to freeze and starve, with the exception of her sister, and once she creates them, her snowlems Olaf and Marshmallow. After it looks as if she murdered said sister, a foreign prince is able to convince people to accept him as their new ruler and even complied with his orders to sentence the former queen to death with minimal fuss, despite the fact that such an act would trigger a war with foreign kingdoms. Once she is able to end the Endless Winter and the prince's deceptions exposed, though, her popularity returns and she is now well-loved by pretty much everyone in Arendelle.
  • The Emperor's New Groove: While Kuzco believes he actually is a Universally Beloved Leader, the truth is everyone in his empire hates him for being a selfish, narcissistic Spoiled Brat. When Yzma holds a funeral for Kuzco's presumed death, none of the attendees even pretend to be mournful, with Kronk later remarking that nobody seems to care that Kuzco is gone or that Yzma has taken his place. Not that they're happy Yzma is taking over either, because she seems to be far worse. Discovering this is a key factor in kicking off his Character Development.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Judge Claude Frollo is reviled by just about everyone in Paris for his Holier Than Thou Knight Templar attitude, but everyone is too afraid to stand up or speak out against him. Of course, after he goes on a rampage through the city, burning most of it down in search of Esmeralda, they all get sick of it; they all protest his attempt to burn Esmeralda at the stake, and when he attacks Notre Dame itself in pursuit of Quasimodo, Phoebus is able to rally the citizens against him.
  • Toy Story 3: Everyone in-universe either fears or hates Lotso. His followers abandon him after his treatment of Big Baby gets revealed, and the protagonists deem him Beyond Redemption after he leaves them for dead in the incinerator despite them risking their own lives to save him about a minute beforehand. Even before his subordinates pulled a Heel–Face Turn, Bonnie's toys and the Chatter Telephone were visibly wary of Sunnyside, and the Bookworm knew Andy's toys were escaping the daycare center but just didn't care or were too scared.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • 6 Underground: None of the Turgistanis appear to like Rochav Alimov. All it takes for them to rise up is a video from Murat calling on them. His own military even turns on him pretty quickly when Murat speaks to the brass. As he massacres defenseless people and kills even his own soldiers merely on suspicion this isn't really surprising.
  • In the Tim Burton film of Alice in Wonderland (2010), the Red Queen is hated by everyone, and the only reason people obey her is that she's in control of the Jabberwock (it's not even clear why the beast obeys her). This goes to the point that once Alice kills the Jabberwock, the Red Queen's minions promptly surrender, openly telling her they don't have to listen to her anymore. To drive the point home, when the Knave of Hearts is banished to Outland alongside the Red Queen, the Knave immediately tries to kill her; when he's thwarted, he literally begs the White Queen to kill him instead.
  • In The Black Room, Baron Gregor is so despised by the populace that there assassination attempts made against him every time he appears in public.
  • Desperate Living, Queen Carlotta of Mortville is hated by everyone—even her own daughter Princess Coo-Coo—for putting them through endless humiliation and death threats had any of them disobeyed her orders. She even staged "Backwards Day" to watch everyone's humiliation by calling them 'ugly' and 'stupid'. Her only supporters were her 9 goons and Peggy Gravel. At the end of the movie, Muffy St. Jacques, Mole McHenry, and their friends (Flipper, Shotsie, Shina, and the now-rabid Princess Coo-Coo) fight back and kill Queen Carlotta and serve her like roasted turkey.
  • The film version of Eragon. The villain is so despised, it seems that nobody, from the peasants to the minions to The Dragon (that is, his most powerful ally, not his literal dragon steed), has anything but fear and loathing for him, no matter how much his reign benefits them personally.
  • By the end of Gladiator, Emperor Commodus has this in regards to the senate. At the end of the battle between him and Maximus, his body is left on the ground to rot while the populace carries Maximus to his funeral. During the battle, he lost his weapon and commanded his Praetorians to give him one. Quintus, the head of the Praetorians, intervened and told them to sheathe their weapons.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • In the live adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask (a story from The Three Musketeers), nobody particuarly likes King Louis and with good reason. D'artagnan is loyal to him only because he is his son.
  • The Pajama Game: With the possible exception of Vernon, no one likes Mr. Hassler, the factory manager. The factory workers resent him for being a belligerent company man who won't give them a 7 1/2 cent raise. His secretary Gladys doesn't like the way he takes out his Hair-Trigger Temper on her. New superintendent Sid Sorokin resents Hassler's refusal to compromise and end the strike.
  • In Pixels, the US President starts the film with pretty much nobody fond of him and his ratings plummeting every day. It seems that the only people with any fondness for Cooper are his wife, his friend Sam and the UK Prime Minister.
  • The Ref: Everyone in the Chasseur family despises the Evil Matriarch Rose, but are too scared of her to actually say anything about it. However, once a few members actually grow a spine, they don't hesitate to call her out for how awful she is. Even Gus, an actual criminal, is repulsed by her due to how terribly she treats her own family. It's telling that when Gus threatens to shoot her after his ruse is discovered, none of the family bats an eye at it, with Connie nonchalantly telling him to do it.
  • Star Wars:
    • The Empire during the Galactic Civil War is hated by the countless denizens of the galaxy, especially after they destroyed the peaceful planet Alderaan because its leader Bail Organa was supporting the Rebellion since he was part of it and was just about to rally his people to fight after he learned of the Death Star. Many join the Rebel Alliance to overthrow the Empire and restore the Republic, while the rest only cooperate with the Empire out of fear (which weakens every time the Rebels score victory again and again). In fact, much of the Rebel Alliance is composed of former Imperials who realized that the government they served was evil to the core.
    • The First Order, a successor state to the Empire, is notoriously bad with this. Nobody in the leadership hierarchy like each other, leading to constant backstabbing and rivalry that cripple the First Order's advances in the galaxy. As a result, the newly arisen Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is left with a disobedient chain of the command that he keeps in line through fear. This insecurity eventually bleeds down to the systems they subjugated, causing the First Order to panic as they lack the needed numbers necessary to quell rebellion. They end up making a deal with Darth Sidious in exchange for his massive fleet, which was built in secret during the Galactic Civil War. Ironically, it proves to be the final straw for the whole galaxy to completely revolt against the First Order, when a Xyston-class Star Destroyer of the Sith Eternal Fleet, Derriphan, destroys Kijimi as a show of Palpatine's power.
  • One of the complaints directed against the film adaptation of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta is that everyone already hated and distrusted the government before V came around and had no fear of saying so.
  • In 9 to 5, Franklin M. Hart II is revealed to be so hated around the offices of Consolidated Companies (by male and female employees alike) that while the three female leads are holding him hostage in his own home (which the other employees don't realize), the only person to actually question Hart's absence is his administrative assistant, Roz, whom Violet (one of the three female leads) sends away on a multi-week training.

    Literature 
  • Older Than Feudalism (at the very least), as it is simpler to make, say, the biblical pharaoh, King Saul of Israel, or Prince John of England universally unpopular so as to make Moses, David, and Robin Hood heroic in an uncomplicated way. In the novels of Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe), Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers), and Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood: His Odyssey, The Sea Hawk), the characters are universally liked, or at least accepted, by the populace, who favor them over their legal rulers. The hundreds of Hollywood movies made from or imitating these novels follow that lead and usually exaggerate it.
    • The book version of The Three Musketeers hardly counts as it's much more of a realistic setting with no clear villain and opinions among the populace (and in the course of the story even the main characters!) vary a lot. The film versions do, though, since they love to simplify the story.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: Evil Overlords spanned the entire popularity spectrum:
    • Jadis the White Witch: absolute zero approval rating from the "good" races (only the "evil" races were her allies). She also had zero approval rating on her own homeworld of Charn and killed off every living thing except herself using an apocalyptic incantation called the Deplorable Word because her own people were on the cusp of victory in deposing her. (Her opponents were led by her own sister, who is implied to have been almost as bad as Jadis; it's not made clear who was the rightful heir to the throne. Jadis describes her enemies as "rebels", but Unreliable Narrator definitely applies here.)
    • Miraz: zero approval rating from the Old Narnians in hiding, but was approved of by most of the Telmarines.
    • The Tisroc of Calormen, during The Horse and his Boy: from what we're shown of the Middle East-esque Calormen, it's impossible to say what his approval rating is. Everyone except the rich provincial Calormene lords has reason to hate him, but it appears that at least some of the peasants revere him — the protagonist, Shasta, briefly fantasizes about being this guy's son without actually knowing anything about him, for example — while the rich lords envy him and plot to rise to his position.
    • The Tisroc is just a generic Middle Eastern monarch and not even given a name. The peasants have no real reason to hate him (other than taxes) or love him (other than for not being worse) and their reverence would be simply the instinctive reverence taught in a hierarchical society. As for Shasta wanting to be the Tisroc's son, well it's not as if that position is without advantages. Also, his adoptive father was very harsh.
    • The Lady of the Green Kirtle: Brainwashed all of the gnomes into serving her.
  • The Death of Russia: Admiral Ugryumov, even before his death in a mutiny, is hated universally across Russia for abandoning the city of Vladivostok to a North Korean invasion, with even the Stalingrad regime he was nominally loyal to condemning him for "failing to negotiate Vladivostok's surrender", while the Petrograd Government decried him as a symbol of how the Communists "sold out Russia", and Lebed seeing his action as the "most cowardly in Russian history".
  • In The Arts of Dark and Light, the Kingdom of Savondir is not very popular, at least in its newly annexed territories. They rule only through might and fear, and have to spend a lot of effort suppressing uprisings and purging dissidents. The King isn't extremely popular in Savondir proper, either.
  • Played with in a few of the Discworld novels.
    • In Wyrd Sisters, the Felmets seem annoyed at how long it takes for their tyrannical rule to get to the people of Lancre; at one point, Duke Felmet laments "You couldn't oppress a people like that any more than you could oppress a mattress."
    • Lord Vetinari is something of a subversion; very few people seem to actually like him or even the patrician system of government in general — there seem to be plenty of casual royalists in Ankh-Morpork. However, no one wants to get rid of him as he has carefully manipulated the situation to ensure his would-be usurpers hate each other more than they do him. If they do get rid of him, what then?
    • Lord Hong of Interesting Times is another good example. When Cohen the Barbarian places his sword to the neck of one of the palace servants and ask them who scares the servant more right now, Cohen or Hong, the servant actually answers Hong. Cohen is pretty impressed by this statement, realising how terrifying, brutal, and powerful Hong really is. He lets the servant live.
  • In Dragon Bones, high king Jakoven comes pretty close to this. Ward mentions that, as Jakoven is a jerk, and Ward's father was a similar jerk, they should have liked each other, but Ward's father didn't like to have to pay taxes, so he, too, hated Jakoven. Garranon, the king's "lover" was raped by the king's soldiers when he was about fifteen, approached by the borderline pedophile king not long afterwards, and only sleeps with Jakoven in order to protect his family from revenge. Hilariously enough, the villain the heroes face is actually someone who wants to overthrow Jakoven and become emperor himself. He's evil, power-hungry, and cruel, but would arguably make a better king than Jakoven, as he at least knows the importance of being popular.
  • Gajusz, vampire king in Dora Wilk Series is disliked by everybody in his coven, although his popularity boosts (a bit) when Albin threatens to take over. Albin, on the other hand, finds out he has no approval in Conclave (vampire government, which he presides over) the hard way.
  • Fire & Blood:
    • Maegor the Cruel's management policies of "kill anyone who disagrees with me" mean pretty much the entirety of Westeros is in open revolt against him by the end.
    • Rhaenyra started off seen as "the Realm's Delight". After taking King's Landing back from her usurping brother Aegon II, she needed to refill her coffers quickly (Aegon's supporters having stashed the money elsewhere). Her Master of Coin's taxes proved so unpopular it ruined her standing with the smallfolk, who thereafter referred to her as "Maegor with teats". Things did not get better when the beloved Princess Helaena died under 'suspicious' circumstances, kicking off a mass riot that tore apart King's Landing.
  • The Winkies feel this way about the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Likewise the Munchkins about the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wizard is just a Villain with Good Publicity.
  • Machiavelli's The Prince says to avoid this at all costs. In the first place, it suggests ruling by being both loved and feared. However, it acknowledges that instilling both in the populace at the same time is difficult. Love has its uses, but fear is the safer bet if you can only have one because love is given at will, while fear is involuntary. Thus somebody who likes you but doesn't fear you might still betray you if they're offered a big enough bribe, while they wouldn't dare if they didn't necessarily love you but at least feared your punishment. No matter what a ruler chooses, though, they must avoid being hated. That's because if a person hates you enough they'll stop caring about what you can do to them, and become willing to risk their own lives just to harm you. Presumably the worst thing of all would be to be hated but not feared, since then people would have no reason not to get rid of you in a heartbeat.
  • In Astrid Lindgren's novel Mio, my son (or Mio, my Mio, in some translations), the antagonist, sir Kato the knight. Everyone and everything the protagonist runs into during his quest hates him, including his own servants and nature itself. Just saying Kato's name causes the sky to darken, moonlight to fade, flowers to wither, and birdsong to fall silent. Oh, and his heart is made of stone. Everything the protagonist meets during his journey enthusiastically tries to help him defeat Kato, not only people, but even rocks and trees actively help him to hide from Kato's men since they despise the knight just as much as everyone else. At the end, when the hero finally manages to defeat him in a duel, even Kato starts begging the protagonist to kill him, which makes the hero realize that probably no one hates Kato as much as Kato himself.
    • Also, Tengil from The Brothers Lionheart. There doesn't seem to be anyone in Briar Rose Valley who hasn't geared up with hidden weapons to fight him with.
  • In The Black Company novels, the Dominator is so thoroughly hated by everyone, even his own inner circle, that many of his former lieutenants conspire with the Black Company to keep him bound in his grave. His successor, the Lady, goes out of her way to avoid this trope, but still ends up fighting disaffected rebels. For example, her big black fortress of Evil is named 'Charm'.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, it is made clear that Sauron is not well-loved even by his own minions. His Nazgûl are directly enslaved to his will and don't have much choice in the matter, but beyond that, he controls endless swarms of Orcs and Trolls. From what little we hear from them, they aren't at all content with their lot, and if they weren't completely terrified of their master and hoping for a better life once he successfully takes over the world, they would probably be much happier looting and pillaging for themselves. Mordor is apparently designed to keep all of Sauron's slaves in just as much as it is to keep everyone else out.
    • Tolkien once said Sauron had many slaves, but no servants, implying no one would have served Sauron willingly.
    • The so-called "Mouth of Sauron" is an exception, as he seemed to be in it willingly, being rumored in-universe to have been one of the "Black Númenóreans" who sought Sauron's power. Still, that makes only one inhabitant throughout all of Mordor explicitly stated to like what he was doing.
    • Even Sauron's two big-name allies are openly against him. Saruman has a (loose) alliance with him to crush the Fellowship but is also independently seeking the ring so he can use its powers for himself. Shelob seems to work for Sauron on the surface, but it's soon revealed to be just a convenient arrangement between the two and she couldn't give two shits if he wins as long as she keeps getting fed.
    • Sauron largely gets around the issue of loyalty through the use of psychic domination. The ability to command entire armies psychically is a huge part of his power, and it's why his forces immediately fall apart when the One Ring's destruction brings an end to him too. The Nazgûl are even more enslaved to his will since their Rings of Power were specifically created to reduce their willpower.
    • If the accounts of Gorbag and Shagrat are to be trusted, the Nazgûl are also largely hated by their underlings, with them being seen as creepy weirdos who suck up to the big boss and leave the orcs to clean up their messes.
  • The Reynard Cycle:
    • The Calvarians are universally despised by every country they interact with, which is not surprising seeing as their normal method of dealing with other countries involves invading them and then wiping out the native populations in order to replace them with "pure" Calvarian citizens. They are constantly forced to put down rebellions wherever they've gained a foothold.
    • Glycon is also generally reviled, being a country of fanatical, dragon worshipping, slavers whose main export seems to be professional assassins and psychos for hire.
  • In The Shahnameh, the Serpent King Zahhak starts out his rule as a beloved king, largely because he managed to cast himself as a savior against the rule of Jamshid (who had gone full A God Am I). This doesn't last long, as Zahhak is far worse than Jamshid, with his most notorious feat being his habit of eating a stew of the brains of two subjects every day (admittedly, the result of a curse, but he goes into it with gusto). He's so disliked that at one point, he attempts to have a declaration written up that declares him to be a great and noble king and demands that people around the kingdom sign it. It's explicitly noted that his servants only do so out of fear, and when the blacksmith Kaveh, who lost his children to Zahhak's appetite, reads the document, he immediately storms out and declares a rebellion. Despite its makeshift nature (Kaveh literally uses his apron as a standard), he still manages to gather a pretty sizeable group that joins up with The Chosen One Feraydun. When Zahhak attempts to lead his army out on campaign and Feraydun takes the capitol, only one (Kondrow) goes to try and warn Zahhak that his palace is now under new management. And when Zahhak returns to retake his kingdom (now mostly reliant on bound demons rather than human troops), it's said that everyone left in the city who was capable of fighting joined the defense.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Stannis Baratheon more or less admits that he would be a king of this type if he manages to win the throne in the current civil war. The populace would hate his guts because he's a stern, taciturn Knight Templar, the nobility would hate him because of his complete unwillingness to budge on so much as what appetizers to serve at dinner, and his own supporters and bannermen would hate him because he would treat them just as harshly as he would his own enemies. The only reason he even wants the throne stems from the reason he would be so bad at it: as his elder brother's heir following the former king's illegitimate children, he sees the throne as legally his, despite the fact that almost no one, including himself, actually wants him to hold it. His most fervent supporter, Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight, was previously a smuggler/pirate who sneaked onions and other foodstuffs onto Stannis' besieged fortress during the previous rebellion. In recognition of his gallantry and heroism, Stannis knighted him. And as punishment for his old smuggling activities, he ordered the last joint of the fingers from one hand removed. He let Ser Davos choose which hand. Needless to say, loyalty like the Onion Knight's is very much the exception in Lord Stannis' court.
    • The Lannisters seem to be moving closer and closer to this as the series goes on. In the fifth book, even random nobles on another continent spit at the sound of their family name.
      • Joffrey Baratheon is completely loathed by everyone even before he was king for his pointless cruelty to everyone, just to show he's the king. Of course, when he gets poisoned later on, nobody knows who killed him and nobody, not even his own family, really care about finding out.
      • Even more so Cersei Lannister in particular, who managed to surprise even Magnificent Bastard Petyr Baelish with how fast she managed to alienate everyone and turn her control of the kingdoms into a disaster. He'd been expecting it to take her five years to get to this point (a Mythology Gag about the five-year Time Skip that the author originally planned).
      • Tyrion is hated by the commoners and nobles of King's Landing even more than Joffrey and Cersei. He, at least, considers this horribly unfair, though whether it is or not is a matter of interpretation. He's certainly better than Joffrey or Cersei, but many of his actions, while perfectly justified from his own perspective, are seen as tyrannical by outsiders.
    • After House Frey breaks the rules of Sacred Hospitality by brutally murdering King Robb, his mother and his bannermen at a wedding, the entire North and Riverlands want them dead and the rest of the continent are appalled by them. However, they also have a rather impenetrable fortress and (as of A Dance With Dragons) the undisputed rulers of the North with House Bolton, who are also universally hated for their excessive cruelty. Should a Frey be out in the open, however, its open season for everyone in Westeros... and thanks to Tywin Lannister's death they can't count on the promised protection that induced House Frey to commit the wedding massacre in the first place!
  • Visser Three from Animorphs is a textbook example. He's an Ax-Crazy Evil Overlord who executes his subordinates at the drop of a hat and makes a hobby out of collecting torture devices and morphing giant alien monsters. Consequently, he's almost universally hated and feared among his fellow Yeerks, with only a few die-hard fanatics expressing loyalty towards him. This actually becomes a plot point in later books, as the Animorphs are threatened with the prospect of seeing Visser One take over the invasion and decide it works more to their advantage that Visser Three remain in charge, as his leadership makes the Yeerks less effective.
  • Harry Potter
    • Dolores Umbridge is an aversion. She manages to appeal to the magic Nazi/sadomasochist niche that the school just happens to have in the form of Slytherin House. Plus, many at the ministry seem to find her pleasant enough, though that may be because many of them don't know of her true nature.
    • Played straight with Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort. While there are devoted followers such as Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr., the rest of the Wizarding World fears and/or despises him. None of his "followers" looked for him after his supposed "death" after the first Wizarding War. Most stay with him out of fear or their cause and not loyalty. At the end of the final battle, most of them abandon him. When he dies, everyone rejoices and they throw his body in an unmarked vault in the school.
    • Cornelius Fudge, post-Order of the Phoenix. The first chapter in Half-Blood Prince reveals that all of magical Britain near-unanimously demanded his resignation from his post, and Fudge himself admits that he has never seen such unified and widespread support for such a thing before. According to Pottermore, he's considered the second-worst minister of all time (the top spot jointly owned by the ministers who created Azkaban and tried to ban Muggle/Wizard marriages, respectively), and the worst minister in modern history.
    • According to his descendant Sirius Black, Phineas Nigellus Black was the least popular headmaster Hogwarts ever had. Considering the fact that he hated young people and his job by extension (not to mention sharing his family's prejudice against muggleborns), that's hardly surprising. (Though on the other hand, Sirius is extremely biased against his family members. On the other other hand, Sirius's bias against his family is well deserved.)
    • Barty Crouch Sr. used to be very respected when he ran the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He was an absolutely uncompromising enemy to Voldemort, and the Ministry would have probably fallen without him, but he was also very overzealous, threw Sirius Black and many other potentially innocent people in Azkaban without a trial, being a Hanging Judge in the trials that he did authorize, and giving the Aurors authorization to use Unforgivable Curses. Then his son, Barty Crouch Jr., was arrested with the Lestranges. Despite questions as to whether Crouch Jr. was in fact truly an accomplice to the Lestranges' torture of the Longbottoms, Crouch subjected his son to a Kangaroo Court before sending him to Azkaban. The trial was a sham, and the Wizengamot had to endure the sight of a nineteen year-old boy being viciously disowned by his father, while his mother cried and fainted beside him. Many in the public felt sympathetic to Crouch Jr., believing that the reason he went astray and fell in with the Death Eaters was because his father was neglectful. Crouch Sr., who many considered to be the next Minister of Magic, saw his chances irreparably disappear overnight along with his reputation. By the time Harry meets him, he's been shunted into a rather useless posting as head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and no one particularly likes him, save Percy.
  • Galbatorix from the Inheritance Cycle. While his (corrupt and evil) nobles like him, anyone who is good hates his guts. He's just too powerful to be overthrown. Or, at least, so it first appears; later books show that most people support Galbatorix. While he is evil, the forces of good don't make the citizens' lives better, as it is them that are destroying the country. As such, they met with heavy opposition in most villages. Also, in the first book, the village of Carvahall didn't care that Galbatorix was ruling them because they were remote and unimportant enough to evade his attentions and thus still lead a peaceful life. The Varden are the only ones that really oppose him.
  • Fulbert from Malevil pays this price for subverting the Villain with Good Publicity that an evil priest with a flock should have. He would be overthrown in a heartbeat if he didn't gain total control over the food and weapons while people trusted him. To make matters worse, his Corrupt Church is composed of merely four men who are only half-loyal to him anyway.
  • Saint Dane in the Pendragon series: The Soldiers Of Halla, in particular. While it looks like the Ravinians are on Saint Dane's side, it's revealed late in the book that they hate what's going on too, and they deactivate the dados and help save everyone. So no one likes Saint Dane, not even the people he gave immense wealth and privilege to.
  • In The Belgariad, this is the crux of Garion's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Torak: the Angaraks worship him out of fear and/or lust for power, but none of them actually love him.
  • In The Malloreon, we learn that only fear of Torak kept the Angarak nations from fighting each other.
  • In Warrior Cats, Brokenstar, leader of ShadowClan was hated so much by the ShadowClan cats that at the end of the first book they all teamed up to drive him out.
  • As depicted in Someone Else's War, the Lord's Resistance Army seems to have one of these. However, they're still successful in war because they use an army of children to fight all their battles, and their blindsided enemies have a hard time bringing themselves to murder children.
  • Played with in Dirge for Prester John. The people of Pentexore like John well enough, but nobody likes the Christian teachings he brings with him.
  • Venandekatra the Vile in Belisarius Series is hated by everyone, even his own kin. He not only has every vice that can possibly be crowded into a single man, but he is also utterly incompetent.
  • In Of Mice and Mooshaber, people are dissatisfied with Albin Rappelschlund, his dictatorship, and terror. They want to see their rightful ruler, widowed Duchess Augusta. The official propaganda says she still rules together with Rappelschlund but she hasn't been seen in public for decades and the rumour has it she's either hiding or dead.
  • A rare protagonist example, August at first in Wonder (2012).
  • Black Peter Carey, the Asshole Victim of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of Black Peter," was such a pariah that, when he's run through with one of his own harpoons, not one of his neighbors has anything nice to say about him. His own daughter openly admits to Holmes and Watson that she's happy her old man is dead and grateful to the person that killed him.
  • The Bosses in Clocks that Don't Tick are despised by everyone but themselves, and for good reason. Of course, they're far too delusional and arrogant to realize this. Not that they'd care if they did.
  • Avin Wargunsson in The Tamuli isn't so much a tyrant as he is useless, attention-obsessed, and weaselly, but he's still remarkably unpopular. When he's murdered in a particularly embarrassing way — shoved into a wine barrel and the lid nailed down — the entire congregation at his funeral have trouble holding in their laughter, and one of the theoretically holiest men in the country is more upset about the waste of good wine than anything else.
  • In The Golgotha Series, Malachai Bick, a wealthy businessman who owns much of the property in Golgotha and controls the town from the shadows, has reached this point by The Shotgun Arcana. When Ray Zeal announces his attention to come into town and kill Malachai, no one speaks against him and most people start cheering.
  • In Guns of the Dawn, Mr. Northway, Mayor-Governor of Chalcaster, is widely unpopular — everyone knows him to be corrupt, and the aristocrats who are just as bad nevertheless view him as a shabby commoner who they'd rather not have at parties. The protagonist has particular reason to dislike him, but finds that he's used to being disliked and doesn't take it amiss — he even gives her his blessing. She eventually decides that he's not so bad... but his approval rating with everyone else is likely still low, since he's now working for the victorious foreign occupiers, mitigating their rule while enduring the inevitable unpopularity.
  • During Tiago's brief stint as the duke of Nesme in Companions Codex, he made a sport out of hunting those people who wanted to flee the city to escape his reign. It is implied that there wasn't a dearth of those.
  • In Malazan Book of the Fallen Kallor's people had a few misgivings with his rule during his stint as The Emperor. When they rebelled and called down an alien god to rid themselves of his rule, he responded by nuking his own empire, so that no one but himself would be able to rule it — ignoring the hint that a large number of his subjects already had killed themselves to be rid of him.
  • In The Machineries of Empire, Shuos Jedao is distrusted and despised by just about everyone, owning to the minor fact of him having murdered over one million people in his first life — half of those his own subordinates. In time, Cheris and others come to respect him, though they still don't trust him.
  • In Twilight of the Red Tsar the Soviet Union becomes an international pariah thanks to Stalin using nuclear devices and man-made smallpox on the People's Republic of China, purging even more people, COMMITTING ANOTHER HOLOCAUST, and generally being a dick.
  • In A Frozen Heart, a Tie-In Novel to Frozen, this is justified with Prince Hans' father, the king of the Southern Isles, as he is hated by his subjects for being an Evil Overlord who abuses his power, killing and/or torturing citizens even for tiny reasons. His own wife despises him, given how he abused her and their 13 sons over the years, and even Hans secretly hated him despite being his gofer, causing him to find a way out of his abusive household for good. Hans frequently wonders how someone like him in charge of such a large kingdom "could be so stupid."
  • The Emperor's Gift: A high ranking member of Warhammer 40,000's Inquisition, Ghesmei Kysnaros is liked by nobody. It's implied that Joros only helps him to gain political clout and the rest of the Inquisition support him as an excuse to act on their long-standing feud with the Space Wolves. Other Grey Knights openly disapprove of Kysnaros' orders, to the point that some Grey Knights and Inquisitors conspire to assassinate him before the conflict with the Space Wolves worsens.
  • Eugenides, from The Queen's Thief, becomes this due to being a Hero with Bad Publicity after he becomes King of Attolia. Attolians hate him because they think he forced their beloved and terrifying queen to marry him (half-true, but she made the choice because they did fall in love). Then his own people from Eddis hate him because Eddis the queen marries the new king of Sounis and they voluntarily sign over their sovereignty to him. Unlike other examples, Eugenides doesn't deserve to be hated and is being used as a scapegoat for Eddisians who adore their queen and therefore require a different person to be angry at. Eugenides does his best to manipulate his unpopularity to serve his goal of safeguarding the little peninsula from The Empire.
  • How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Julius Amidonia hits this almost as soon as he takes the throne of his country, following the failed invasion against Elfrieden. The people of Van quickly turn on him when he tries to suppress the freedoms granted by Elfrieden during their occupation, just like his father before him. Even Souma had warned him that he should focus on the good of the people instead of wasting resources on the military, but he refused to listen. To add insult to injury, his sister Roroa intentionally spurs multiple rebellions across the country at the same time, eventually forcing Julius to flee into exile.
  • The Oleander Sword: No one aside from the priests really seem to like Emperor Chandra, as he demands complete obedience but offers only scraps in return for this, even aside from his violent zealotry about religion, which results in him burning many women alive as his human sacrifices. As a result, his sister Malini convinces many of his vassal rulers rather easily to switch sides and join her in a rebellion against him.
  • Shatter the Sky: The emperor is sliding toward this by the second book, as his ruinous taxes, along with conscription and repression of dissent in general turns most citizens against him. Only the nobles (mostly) and the Talons (dragon riders) are loyal to him, rather than simply going along in fear. The former is because he keeps them in the lap of luxury, while the latter are honored as his elite soldiers. It's the Talons who have kept him on the throne even in the face of growing popular loathing, because no one can fight a dragon. Once that begins to change, he's doomed as riots and rebellion spreads.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024): Under Ozai's regime, rebellions and assassination attempts within the Fire Nation are high enough for the Fire Lord treat it like another daily routine rather than a serious problem. His disregard for his people's well-being actually caused some of his soldiers, namely the 41st Division, to swear loyalty to Prince Zuko over him. And the subjects who remain loyal to him are only doing it to climb the social ladder and gain perks, with some like Zhao wishing to one day usurp the Fire Lord himself.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • House Bolton aren't particularly loved by the Northern Houses, especially when they become the new Wardens of the North. Even Littlefinger calls them the most despised family in the North, in particular Ramsay Bolton. Must have something to do with all the flaying and torturing...
    • King Joffrey Baratheon. Nobody likes him. Even his own family members are no exception, except maybe Cersei, and even she wouldn't mind him being subjected to some of his grandfather's "discipline" by this point. Same goes for the audience. That may have something to do with the fact that he's a bullying little shit who just uses his powers as king to torment people for his amusement: the most prevalent example is at his wedding with his ultra-humiliating "reenactment" of the War of the Five Kings. When he's poisoned at that wedding, the list of suspects is "anyone other than Cersei who had the opportunity" and nobody is in a hurry to try to find out.
      Tywin (to Tommen): Your brother was not a wise king, your brother was not a good king. If he had been, perhaps he would still be alive.
    • While not as hated as her son Joffrey, the commonfolk of King's Landing don't like Queen Cersei Lannister much at all. Her haughty, crappy treatment of the subjects and the rumors of incest certainly don't do a lot to change that. Later, her destruction of the Sept of Baelor — which killed hundreds if not thousands of people, including Margery, Loras, Mace, and Kevan — and her grab for the Iron Throne after Tommen's subsequent suicide cemented her position as the most hated person in Westeros. At least, in theory... in practice, she somehow manages to not only maintain her position, but actually gain allies afterwards.
    • King Stannis Baratheon lacks the charm both his brothers possess and thus hasn't been able to attract many noble houses to his cause through diplomacy. Several characters insist that his rigid and unpopular personality would make him a terrible ruler, though most of these people are rivals for the throne and corrupt schemers like Littlefinger. Somewhat subverted, however: Many people (e.g. Davos, Ned) who know him personally admire him for his honesty, military abilities, and a strong sense of duty. While he may not be loved, he is certainly respected.
    • Balon Greyjoy. Unlike in the books, Euron openly admits to murdering him at the kingsmoot. Nobody is especially bothered by this.
  • In The Handmaid's Tale, the United States is overthrown by a force called the Sons of Jacob who transform it into the oppressive theocracy Gilead. Women are stripped of all rights with the fertile ones used as "breeding stock" and others for slave labor. It's also shown that most other religions and lifestyles have been banned. It's soon showcased that this has turned America into an international pariah as only Mexico and Canada are willing to deal with them. Even Russia thinks Gilead goes too far and refuses to negotiate.
    • In season 2, main commander Waterford heads to Canada for a meeting to discuss things like handing over "illegal immigrants" (people who escaped to Canada). The Canadians make it clear they utterly despise Gilead with one man coldly stating he and his husband once enjoyed America but "are no longer welcome."
    • A representative of a "Free America" meets Waterford's wife, Serena, and offers her a chance to escape. When Serena snaps "I'd never betray my country," the man snidely responds, "I thought you already did."
    • When a series of letters from women inside Gilead is published, the Canadian officials immediately kick the Gilead group out of the country and make it clear they will not negotiate with a nation that treats women like cattle and claims to be a "superior nation."
  • Played for Laughs in The Thick of It. Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker, the terrifying political enforcer of HM Government, receives in one episode a birthday cake with the words "Happy Birthday C*nt" written on the icing. His reaction?
    Malcolm Tucker: This could be from anyone.note 
  • iCarly: Ms. Briggs and Mr. Howard in iHave My Principals.
  • Doctor Who: The Master achieves this when he takes over the world in "The Sound of Drums "/ "Last of the Time Lords". Even his wife despises him.
  • It seems that lower demons on Supernatural weren't too upset about Azazel's death. One particular demon described him as a tyrant who kept the demons in line before his death.
  • In 'Allo 'Allo!, Herr Flick's attempt to find out who stole One Million Francs from his personal account runs into problems because he defines a suspect as "someone who hates him". Helga points out that everyone hates him though.
  • Kamen Rider Ghost: As quoted above by Makoto Fukami (Kamen Rider Specter), almost everybody hates Adel, including his own siblings. Given what an insufferable Smug Super Narcissist he is, he won't shut up about recreating a perfect world of his own image, even if he has to kill everyone who stands in his way.
  • Rodolfo in Deus Salve O Rei becomes widely disliked because of his inept and egotistical rule as king of Montemor leading the country to ruin. Being a lecherous, wimpy, cowardly jerkass didn't help either. He becomes so unpopular that he gets deposed in a literally bloodless coup as both the peasants and the army have enough of him and rally behind his heroic brother Afonso, who demands Rodolfo to step down. Nobody is willing to stand up for him, not even his own personal guard as they also knell before Afonso and accept him as the rightful king.
  • Drex, the villain from the Henry Danger episode "Hour of Power" is hated by everyone. Even the news anchors at the end do not hold back at their hatred of him.
  • ER. After yet another screw up by Dave Malucci, Elizabeth Corday bluntly tells him, "None of us (the hospital staff) thinks you're much of a doctor."
  • Daredevil (2015): Wilson Fisk works hard to maintain an image of a well meaning philanthropist falsely accused of horrible crimes. Problem is, his style of running things means he invariably alienates those who actually work for or with him through his behavior (with the notable exception of James Wesley, who dies early on anyway) to the point that some of his closest underlings are only there because he's bullied, blackmailed or manipulated them. This is especially notable in season 3 where he gets his entire FBI detail in his pocket by digging up dirt on them and / or threatening their families, leading to them testifying against him once he is actually arrested anyway, and especially with Dex who turns on him the moment he learns that Fisk had Julie killed just to undermine his sanity further. The public at large alternates between loving him and loathing him depending on what they think about him is true, and at the end of the day he's just plain unable and unwilling to invest in genuine loyalty rather than mere obedience, basically giving his own men every reason to want him to somehow fail.
  • Played for Laughs in the Reba episode "Bullets Over Brock". Van gets fired as the soccer coach because everyone in the team, plus the team members' parents, want him gone once Van's Sports Dad attitude proves too much.
    Jake: You're fired.
    Van: What'd you say?
    Jake: I said you're fired.
    Van: (laughs) Uh, Jake, you can't fire me.
    Jake: It's not just me. It's the whole team.
    Van: What, are you stupid kids crazy? The parents won't stand for this.
    Jake: It was the parents' idea.
    Van: So it's a coup, huh?
    • It remains in place after Kyra replaces him as the team coach, as the kids' parents prefer Kyra over Van even though the team performance doesn't improve after the change in coach figurehead.
      Van: Kyra, you can't let them lose like that. Those psycho parents will tear you to pieces.
      Kyra: Thanks for the advice. Oh, uh, tell mom I won't be home for dinner because some of those psycho parents want to take me out for sushi.
  • Once Upon a Time: During her time as the Evil Queen, nobody wanted anything to do with Regina due to her murderous actions and constantly trying to kill Snow White. The only reason she held on to her throne was because of her magical power. She stayed this way as Mayor of Storybrooke due to being a Jerkass and Alpha Bitch, and once the curse was broken the entire population of Storybrooke tried to murder her. However, over time, once Character Development set in, she becomes a better person and starts winning over the people of Storybrooke to the point that in the Season 6 finale she is officially given the office of Queen of the town by the citizens of Storybrooke. Additionally, in the Season 7 finale, she gets chosen to be the ruler of the United Realms as the Good Queen.
    • Even Zelena recognizes that she was absolutely despised when she was the ruler of Oz.
  • The Serpent Queen: Catherine de' Medici is this in the present timeline—everyone either despises her or is terrified of her.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron is hated by everyone in Middle-earth, but especially by Orcs so much that one of them dared to turn on him and kill him temporary after being fed up with Sauron's mistreatment.

    Manhua 
  • Discussed Trope (and Lampshaded) in Ravages of Time, where the more savvy characters think to themselves that no government could truly be that incompetent and that they must have been painted in a bad light by the dynasties that usurped them as to give the new guys in power the illusion of legitimacy.

    Music 
  • Metallica’s "King Nothing" is about the decrepit king of a decrepit kingdom who was abandoned by everyone he ruled.
    "And it all crashes down! And you break your crown! And you point your finger but there’s no one around! Just want one thing, just to play the king, but the castle’s crumbled and you’re left with just a name! Where’s your crown, King Nothing?"

    Newspaper Comics 
  • In Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless seems to be hated by everybody — but their hatred of him is exceeded by their fear of him, as his name would suggest. That, and most of Mongo's races are too busy hating each other to focus on Ming himself.
  • Played for Laughs in Bloom County, when Opus is involved in yet another presidential campaign and learns that according to the polls, he's only slightly ahead of a cucumber.
    • The National Radical Meadow Party (which ran Opus as its nominee for Vice President several times) isn't actually evil, but its staff is so hilariously incompetent that it might as well be. When a Meadow Party campaign is in progress, it's a rare day when its ticket isn't polling at or near zero percent; the polls are as likely as not to have the Meadowcrats below zero. After all, this is the party that more than once nominated a dead cat for President (he was only dead the first time; the second time, when he was alive, he polled lower).
  • The King from The Wizard of Id, who regularly abuses his authority and empties the kingdom's coffers on frivolous expenses is always shocked to learn that his subjects not only despise him but have coined the phrase "the king is a fink."

    Podcasts 
  • Quest in Show: Prince Pratt’s decisions throughout the first season cause him to be this in the finale. Fortunately, he manages to turn it around by the end of the episode.

    Radio 
  • Pretty much none of the civil servants in The Men from the Ministry like Sir Gregory. As Mr. Lamb puts it, "It's not he hasn't got friends it's just that they all hate him."
  • Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin is frequently seen scraping 0% in his popularity amongst the students and faculty of Madison High School. This is mostly due to his strictness, his pompous nature, as well as his occasional unprincipled actions. For example, without authorization, he forces students to go to "School on Saturday" in the episode of the same name. Or pay arbitrary fines, proceeds going to a bust of Mr. Conklin's head to be placed on the pedestal in the library ("Carelessness Code"). Another low moment for Mr. Conklin was his attempt to raise money to renorvate his office from the student body and the faculty. Not only did nobody donate money in the collection box, Walter Denton stole a dime out of the half dollar Mr. Conklin put in to get the ball rolling! There is, however, one student who loves Mr. Conklin. His daughter Harriet!

    Religion 
  • Egyptian Mythology has Apep/Apophis. Every other god, even scary ones like Sekhmet and Sobek, had praiseworthy traits and cults that held them in high regard. Apep's sole reason for being was to end the world by eating Ra, and he's the only Egyptian god to be prayed against; every recovered prayer about him is about wishing him dead or defeated.
  • In The Bible, King Jehoram of Judah was recorded as having died "without being desired" in 2nd Chronicles 21:20, meaning that he was so unlikable as king that nobody was sad to see him go.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Two particular Primarchs of Warhammer 40,000 were pretty well loathed by everyone they knew.
    • Firstly, there was Konrad Curze. A psychotic loony who spent his years before rediscovery violently butchering anyone on his adoptive world who so much as jaywalked. When he became Primarch of the Night Lords, he gained no fans either. His Legions tactics earning him alienation and scorn from his brothers. Even his own father wasn't wild about him and was seriously considering disbanding his legion before the Horus Heresy.
    • And then there's Angron. Even his own Astartes didn't like the guy, noting he was a frothing madman, who had no interest in anything but wanton slaughter. In Betrayer, a mortally wounded World Eater asks to be finished off as he'd rather die than continue fighting for Angron; his final words are a bitter chuckle and "Piss on Angron's grave when he dies."
    • On the Chaos side of things is Fabius Bile. While the forces of Chaos are happy to use his macabre experiments and technology in their endless war with The Imperium, a good 99% of those same Chaos forces want his head on a spike. The Black Legion want him dead for cloning their fallen Primarch, Abaddon wants him dead because his creations are possible competition for his place as top dog of Chaos Undivided, and several other Chaos Space Marine chapters have tried having him assassinated. Even Fulgrim, Primarch of Bile's own legion, is rumored to have put a price on his head.
  • The Baali in Vampire: The Masquerade. The Baali are generally famous for being demon-worshippers and actively trying to bring about Hell on Earth. The appearance of a Baali can make every other vampire, regardless of clan, sect, affiliation, or personality, put their differences aside and hunt them down. To hammer home just how hated the Baali are, fluff describes a Baali Defector from Decadence who tried to join up with the Tal'Mahe'Ra. The defector was willing to go through interrogation, torture, mutilation, starvation, Mind Rape, and two separate magical bonds of loyalty to prove his bona fides, and there was still a large group within the Tal'Mahe'Ra who wanted them killed out of had for being Baali.

    Theater 

    Video Games 
  • The Borgias in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood are universally loathed by everyone in Roma, even the soldiers are more interested in the florins paid to them than the cause they fight for as Ezio removes the pillars of support that funds the armies. Even the Templars themselves hate Rodrigo Borgia and regard his time as their Grand Master as their order's Dark Age.
  • The version of King Louis Philippe in Aviary Attorney is right around here. Very few characters seem to hate him but his selfishness and incompetence are staggering and when an attorney tries to collect favorable anecdotes about him, every single story makes him look worse.
  • In Baten Kaitos, Emperor Geldoblame is a ruler everyone hates (except the people in his capital city, who adore him), in contrast to Lady Melodia, a lesser noble that everyone loves. He's being puppeteered by her.
  • Batman: Arkham Series: After the Joker's death at the end of Arkham City, Harley Quinn takes over his gang, and none of Joker's mooks are happy about it. In the DLC campaign Harley Quinn's Revenge, some believe her to be even crazier and worse to work for than the Joker, and Joker himself was a horrible boss.
  • The Big Bad of Bug Fables, the Wasp King, is loathed and feared by all, and more than a few wasps hate him for being a tyrannical madman. Even his fanatically loyal troops are brainwashed into serving him, and once he dies and they go back to their old selves, none of them are sad to see him go.
  • It's possible to have one of these displayed in Civilization, though it's more flavor than the degree of dysfunction you'd expect from that — your approval rating is based on the Happiness stat, and once your Happiness gets low enough it can indeed hit 0%. In the game proper, it's fairly easy to avoid this (just build lots of Happiness-boosting buildings, don't conquer or settle willy-nilly, and keep your hands on some luxuries), but not doing so results in, for instance, being unable to settle new cities, all your troops taking heavy combat penalties, your population no longer growing, your social beliefs forcibly changing, rebel units spawning in your territory to wreak havoc, or even entire cities switching sides. It's not uncommon to see once-prosperous empires take over a bunch of territory, then immediately disintegrate because their new conquered populace hates their guts.
  • In the Yuri's Revenge expansion of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the titular Big Bad is hated by both the Allies and Soviets, to the point Albert Einstein refers Yuri as "hostis humani generis".note 
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day: After the Panther King's death, everyone, including his own guards, celebrates his demise and happily declare Conker the king in his place.
  • Subverted in Crystalis. Though the villagers in most of the backwater places you visit complain about the rule of the Evil Empire, the urbanites in the later cities of the game (Goa and Swan (sort of)) are really living up the prestige and wealth of being in the right place at the right time.
  • The Devil fits this to a tee in Cuphead. All of the residents of the Inkwell Isles hate the Devil due to many of them being in debt to him to the point where many of the residents refuse to hand their Soul Contracts over to him. Once Cuphead and Mugman defeat him, the residents celebrate being free of their servitude to the Devil.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Meghren of Dragon Age: Origins was a cruel tyrant who despised the Fereldens to the core. Mass Executions and needless brutality were how he managed to hold on to the nation for quite a long time. His most favorite pastime was to throw parties and invite the Fereldan lords, at least one of which would be taken away and executed either for displeasing Meghren or just because he felt like it. Unfortunately, this also resulted in many lords willing to betray their rightful Queen in order to please him. Meghren was, in fact, exiled from the Orlesian court, as his own cousin, The Emperor, didn't even like him.
    • There isn't a single man in the country who likes Arl Rendorn Howe. The fact that after his death, practically nobody mourns him and his own family doesn't make any move to attempt Howe's funeral is proof as to how hated he was.
    • If Arlessa Isolde wasn't this before, she's pretty much this after Origins. Considering she's directly responsible for the crisis that happened in Redcliffe (nearly all of Redcliffe's population was wiped out by the undeads created by her demon-controlled son), nobody, from her husband to her subjects, trust her any longer, leaving her even worse off than before.
    • In Dragon Age II, the leader of the Templars in Kirkwall, Knight-Commander Meredith is completely bonkers, with everyone from beggar to lieutenant seeming to know this and her treatment of the Mages also gets worse as the game progresses, to the point where she's mass ordering the Rite of Tranquility on Mages who have passed the Harrowing, something illegal under Chantry law. Unfortunately, everyone's too afraid of her to stop her... that is until Justice/Anders sparks a Mage rebellion by blowing up the Chantry and pushing Meredith off the deep-end.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • This is the case for Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption. While many of the Daedric Princes are Jerkass Gods, all have at least some redeeming qualities which earn them some respect from mortals, even if they aren't particularly liked. Not Molag Bal, who is universally despised by every culture in Tamriel. He is the closest thing in the series to a true God of Evil and is a being of pure malevolence with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Among his servants, the only ones who genuinely like him are those who don't know him very well and those who have become enthralled by the power he's granted them. And it's only a matter of time before he betrays the former group, or converts them into one of the latter...
    • Skyrim:
      • Nobody likes the Thalmor prancing around Skyrim like they own the place, arresting random Nords for execution, and those in the know about their endgame utterly HATE them with every ounce of their being for plotting to undo creation because a few purity-obsessed self-righteous elitists are Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence. This becomes very evident if you kill a bunch of Thalmor in a city; the Empire guards only charge you for assault, and the Stormcloak guards will watch the whole thing and bet on how girly the officer screams at the end. If you initiate a conversation with them and provoke them into attacking first, the bounty is automatically zero. Hell, killing Ondolemar, the Thalmor leader in Markarth will net you a letter from the Jarl and 100 Septims — it's almost as if he's thanking you for getting rid of the asshole.
      • The Wolf Queen Potema. Unlike King Olaf, there's no argument as to just how evil she was. How evil? She started a civil war to get her son crowned as Emperor, she murdered the legitimate heir, and when her son was caught and killed, she resorted to raising the fallen on both sides as undead to fight for her. By the end, she was a terrifying psychopath waited on by skeletal chambermaids and consorting with vampires. She's one of the few historical Nords whose spirit cannot be found in Sovngarde when you visit. Tellingly, King Olaf One-Eye, who is largely remembered as a tyrant who conquered Skyrim in a bloody and long-fought war and has a yearly festival dedicated to burning him in effigy, is still considered noble enough to be allowed in.
      • Grelod the Kind, the headmistress of Honorhall Orphanage in Riften, is hated by her charges for her being a cold-hearted abuser, and not very well-regarded by the rest of the citizenry. Hell, when you kill her, the kids practically jump with joy, the townsfolk don't really care either way, and you don't even receive a bounty for the deed. The Dark Brotherhood are also amused at her death, and only slightly irked that you pulled a Kill Steal on an assassination that they were supposed to carry out.
  • You can play one of these in Fable III, depending on your policies.
  • In the backstory of Fallout, two years before World War III, a President of the United States was removed from office by unanimous vote from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The reason? Jaywalking... and circumventing Congress to forcibly annex Canada for oil.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VI: Kefka Palazzo. When Shadow and Sabin Figaro arrive at Imperial Camp at Doma, they overhear several soldiers talking: One of the soldiers, when learning from another soldier a rumor that Kefka intends to usurp Leo Christophe's position in the military, exclaims that he'd quit the Empire if that ever happened. The soldiers have a very good reason for complaining against Kefka (although they did it behind his back, for obvious reasons), as this is also the same guy who had a brainwashed Terra burn fifty Imperial soldiers alive during her training exercise, and later deliberately poisons Doma knowing full well that there are still Imperials being held prisoner there.
    • Surprisingly averted in Final Fantasy XII. When Vayne takes over as regent of the newly defeated Dalmasca, everyone expects to hate him, but he gives an impassioned speech and many members of Dalmasca begin to grudgingly respect him. At least, for a while.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Gangrel, the Mad King of Plegia, was steadily losing the support of his countrymen over his costly war with Ylisse. After Emmeryn makes herself a martyr by killing herself after being captured to be executed, all but the most ardent loyalists begin to desert his army en masse. Also the Grimleal, despite technically being the official religion of Plegia are even more hated than Gangrel. As early as Chapter 8, Plegian villagers tell the player that all the commonfolk hate and fear Grima's worshippers, who they'd love to see dead. The religion seems to be solely composed of thugs who Rape, Pillage, and Burn and Evil Sorcerer types who define their god as evil. The only recruitable character from the Grimleal even reveals the religion was only able to get her to join with brainwashing from one of the aforementioned evil Sorcerors.
  • In Half-Life 2, everyone you meet (even those who aren't members of La Résistance) seem to be fed up with the Combine's reign. The constant relocations, disappearances, warrantless investigations, and the impotence field don't help matters. Gordon's first major blow against them (Nova Prospekt's accidental destruction) is an instant signal to start a massive rebellion.
    • During development, the game developers had Combine propaganda posters hanging on walls throughout the game but thought that the alien overlords wouldn't care about public opinion, so they left it out. In the final game, Breen seems to be the only one who thinks of the invasion and enslavement as a positive.
  • Captain Del Rio in Halo 4 is shown early on to be a short-fused and incompetent captain who likely wouldn't be especially popular with his subordinates, but his entire crew's lack of respect for him is made crystal clear when he orders Master Chief to be arrested for refusing to hand over Cortana for termination. When he descends into a screaming fit when Master Chief refuses, and subsequently orders Commander Palmer to arrest the Chief, Palmer simply stays put and doesn't budge. Del Rio's second-in-command, Commander Lasky, later goes behind Del Rio's back by giving Master Chief a Pelican gunship to use in his mission to stop the Didact, and instead of trying to stop him from taking it, the soldiers in the hangar stand at attention and salute the Chief when approached. On top of that, FLEETCOM is appalled by his decision to abandon Master Chief on Requiem instead of staying and helping him, and he's promptly removed from command and replaced by Lasky.
  • Hero King Quest: Peacemaker Prologue: Dark Lord Spidergland is a dark elf supremacist who discriminates against the goblinoid, humans, and wood elves in her realm, and those groups likewise have no respect for her. Even the dark elf NPCs consider her a terrible ruler for causing internal tension and ignoring the reality of the Cerulean Land's bad faith diplomacy. When Spiderweb starts a coup against Spidergland with the help of the other factions, even Spidergland's personal guard abandon her because they don't think she's worth dying for.
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us:
  • In King of the Castle, there are multiple ways for the King to earn the hatred of the entire Kingdom, all of which result in an immediate Game Over.
    • If the Kingdom's Stability reaches zero at the end of a season, the entire nation is consumed by riots, with peasants massing at the Palace gates. The Marshal is futilely trying to contain the riots, the Treasurer has absconded with most of the Treasury funds, the Chancellor jumps out of a window to their death, and the Spymaster brings an end to the chaos by assassinating the King for the good of the country.
    • If all three regions rebel against the King simultaneously, the Marshal gets drunk instead of trying to organise the troops to put down the rebellion, and with no-one left to support them, the King is soon arrested and executed by the rebels.
  • In the Mega Man Zero series, Dr. Weil takes over Neo Arcadia in Zero 3. Sure, Copy X was a total jerk, but at least he was good at taking care of the people he governed. Then in 4, we see humans leaving Neo Arcadia in droves for the greener pastures of Area Zero. Weil tries to rectify the problem... by forcefully taking them back. This doesn't work, so he tries to destroy Area Zero's environment instead. Not only is he making things worse for himself, but Neo Arcadia is blown up by Weil's own Kill Sat, and his approval rating also seemed to be an indication of his chances of survival... In this particular case, however, that's exactly his intention.
  • It is heavily implied in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops that Colonel Volgin fell into this category, with Jonathan's claims that by Naked Snake killing Volgin at Groznyj Grad (although technically, it was lightning that killed Volgin rather than Snake himself), Snake was also considered a hero by the Soviet Union. It also explains why he wanted to place Breszhnev and Kosygin in power as Puppet Kings in the first place: The Soviets would never have served Volgin had he tried to do rule it directly.
  • In Metal Wolf Chaos, following his coup, Richard Hawk sets out to be this, militarizing cities, bringing back slave labor, building a Wave-Motion Gun on Alcatraz, gassing Chicago, and terrorizing New York with a giant mechanical spider for seemingly no other reason than just being cartoonishly evil. He at least subconsciously acknowledges that everyone hates him and runs a Bathos laced propaganda campaign to boost his approval ratings out of the .000%-range.
  • Largo LaGrande in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is the ruler of Scabb Island despite claims of the island being an "anarchist cooperative," but only because he bullies everyone else, and is hated by everyone in turn.
  • If there is one thing literally everyone in Mortal Kombat 11 agrees on, it's that the Joker needs to die. Frost refuses to be his lackey, Kano refuses to hire him, Geras wants to crush him into powder, the Kollector wants to flay his hide, Shang Tsung threatens to steal more than his looks and not even Shao Kahn can bear his existence. Keep in mind that this is just the villains; the actual heroes don't want him either and even secondhand reports of his exploits is evidence enough for Jacqui and Cassie to put him into the ground. Lampshaded by Sheeva, who outright tells Joker that his evil alone is enough to unite all the realms against him, which should be impossible.
  • Orochi in Ōkami. Granted, being a monstrous, armored, multi-headed dragon probably killed any thoughts of resistance against him.
  • Persona 5: You start the game with pretty much everyone wanting nothing to do with you due to your "record": fellow students, teachers, police officers, your legal guardian in Tokyo, even your parents. In fact, you only make your first friend after you're both nearly killed in the collective unconscious.
    • The Phantom Thieves, as a group, have a dynamic, in-universe approval rating on their fansite that updates each day. By the time you catch up to the present, it gets dangerously close to literally being at 0%.
  • Phantom Brave has Marona; a Chroma who can see phantoms. This causes all of Ivoire to shun her as an outcast, despite the fact she's incredibly nice and selfless, believing that one day, everyone will like her while she endures all the abuse and neglect. She's right.
  • The Backstory of Ravenmark has this with the Carsis nobles who used to rule the lands that now comprise the Empire of Estellion. Their decadent rule, complete disregard for any laws or morals, and brutal suppression of any resistance means that, when the people rally behind a charismatic and righteous figure, the Carsis find themselves beaten before they can even figure out what's going on. House Corvius, the ruling dynasty of the Empire, remembers that lesson and teaches their children to keep in mind that they rule because the common people support them. One of the major mechanisms for ensuring the loyalty of the populace is the path to Ravenhood (nobility). Essentially, any commoner can attain temporary nobility by faithfully serving the Empire as a soldier for 22 years (or as an administrator for 36). If the individual has served with distinction, he or she is given the status of a Raven, which also makes him or her an officer in the Imperial Mark. The Ravenhood is retained for no more than 2 generations, which means that the person's grandchildren once again become commoners unless the status is reaffirmed by continued service to the Empire. This keeps the Empire from descending into the same decadence that proved the undoing of the Carsis. By retaining Ravenhood for 10 unbroken generations (extremely rare), a family can attain permanent Raven status and become a noble House, with each firstborn holding the title of Rook.
  • Saints Row IV: It's never explained what exactly it is the President of the United States did, but their approval rating is nearly rock-bottom.
    Pierce: Here's the latest approval poll.
    President: We lost twenty points, we can get them back.
    Pierce: They're at twenty points.
  • Although Tony Montana from Scarface: The World Is Yours is usually a Villain with Good Publicity (or, more accurately, an Anti-Hero), raising his Cop Heat and Gang Heat too high can cause him to suffer detriments that include gangsters attacking unprovoked and police responding with amazing speed to minor transgressions.
  • After the second American Civil War in Shattered Union, the one faction not composed of former Americans trying to rebuild the country is the armed forces of the European Union. Every other faction sees them for what they really are — Europe's thinly veiled attempt to prop the United States back up (the world economy did collapse as a result of the war, after all), essentially turning it into a puppet state to all of Europe.
    • The conflict's outbreak actually traces all the way back to the election of U.S. President David Jefferson Adams, whose first term as president saw the rapid rise of civil unrest and domestic terrorism within the United States as a result of his unpopular policies, some of which bore signs of an increasingly totalitarian regime. The final straw was when he managed to get the Supreme Court to rule that any opponents to him in reelection was unconstitutional. His ultimate assassination at the hands of who initially appeared to be domestic terrorists results in the war's outbreak. In reality, Russia propped him up and then ultimately nuked Washington DC so they could be the only world power.
  • In the Shin Megami Tensei series, YHVH tends to have this by the end of most games he personally shows up in. While it goes without saying why the fallen angels would dislike him, the angels tend to also due to him prioritizing his own glory over the creation of a world of peace. So they generally play along with him until a chance to off him appears or until it becomes too apparent that he's only holding back the goals of the side.
  • Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves: In China, most of the missions there show just how much of a despised and complete asshole General Tsao is. When he's arrested by Carmelita at the end of the level, even his own minions are happy to see him go.
  • In the Starcraft expansion pack, Brood War, Kerrigan almost lampshades this when she says she is 'the Queen bitch of the Universe'. The Protoss also describe her as the 'enemy of all who live'.
    • So long as she controls the swarm, it doesn't really matter how popular Kerrigan is with other species, she presumably intends on wiping them out anyway.
    • Even within the Zerg swarm, her approval rating isn't 100%. She introduces the Zerg campaign of Brood War by threatening to kill the player cerebrate if they don't obey her, and between the first game and Starcraft II she apparently disposed of the cerebrates and replaced them with Brood Mothers who only defer to her because they respect her strength.
  • Star Fox Adventures: Everyone, absolutely everyone hates General Scales. Including his own soldiers, who must have become rather sick of being used as meat-shields and projectiles. After his defeat, the Sharpclaws are shown celebrating and thanking Fox.
  • Stellaris: Opinion bonus and penalties go up and down the ratings scale. 100 in either direction is already considered very big, but Fanatical Purifiers, Devouring Swarms, and Determined Exterminators get a default -1000 penalty... and if you go out of your way conquering and purging everyone you see, the score can drop even lower. Another permanent -1000 diplomacy score to all other Empires can be "achieved" in the middle of a game by activating the "The End of the Cycle" event chain in the Shroud and waiting for "The Reckoning" to occur. It even has the nice name "YOU DOOMED US ALL".
    • With the Nemesis expansion, once you became the Galactic Crisis, the rest of the Galaxy will inevitably declare war at you.
  • Street Fighter: Anyone who has met and talked with M. Bison considers him as public enemy number one. Heck, Shadaloo's leader has lots of Arch Enemies to count starting from Chun-Li to Juri.
  • In Stronghold, some of the scenarios require you to have a certain approval rating — and in some cases, that approval rating has to be below a certain threshold. This makes the game more challenging because maintaining a high enough population to achieve the scenario goals while everybody hates you is quite tricky. The trick is to make them too afraid to leave, by showing yourself to be a malicious and frivolously evil ruler. In other words, you have to be in it For the Evulz in order to prevent your zero-percent approval rating from hurting you too much.
  • Rare Justified example from Summoner: when the Big Bads initially invade Orenia and Medeva, there are actually significant portions of the population that think their rule might be an improvement. They're quickly proven VERY wrong, as the villains are revealed to be Nuvasarim, followers of a Religion of Evil which revolves around deriving magical power directly from raw human suffering, and consequently have an excellent motivation to become the most hated despots they can be.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: The Camarillan Prince Sebastian LaCroix is already on sandy ground with most of the city's Kindred (the Anarch majority hate him for being Camarilla) but can't even keep house in his own faction. Camarilla loyalists like Tung explicitly mention they're loyal to the Camarilla and not to its 'official' local leader, and one of his Primogen all but openly says LaCroix is in charge because he's a useful lightning rod. LaCroix is fully aware that nobody respects him either and it's a perpetual source of annoyance to him. His attempts at the Ankharan Sarcophagus burns what few bridges he had left. Throughout the game, a Malkavian Player Character refers to LaCroix as the "Jester Prince", and nobody has to ask for clarification.
  • In the Wolfenstein games, Deathshead is utterly despised and feared by everybody in the game series, even by other nazis and in The New Order, he is shown to cruelly mutilate those who cross him often turning them into robotic monstrosities against their will. After his demise, very few characters mourned his death in The New Colossus and he was seldom mentioned. It's almost as if the villains were thanking B.J. for killing him.
    • Also, in The New Order, the entire world hates the Nazi Regime because of how oppressive, genocidal, and cruel they are. However, most people are too afraid to stand up to them and even some individuals have either gone rogue or defected from them. Predictably, once B.J. kills Frau Engel on live TV, millions of angry American citizens, having suffered under Nazi tyranny for most of the game, proceed to give the remaining Nazis a well-deserved beatdown.
  • It's quite possible to literally have this in Shadow President, with the easiest route being nuclear weapons (especially nuking allies or countries that can't strike back). Once you hit this level, assassination is the most likely end result; impeachment and removal from office if you're lucky.
  • Pharaoh has the Kingdom rating, which goes up or down depending on your response to requests from other cities. If it gets too low, they feel justified in invading your city. Actual approval from citizens isn't that important, people only turn to crime and simply leave if the city is too badly run (not enough food, too few jobs, taxes too high...).
  • While some of the more hated faction leaders in World of Warcraft have at least some loyal followers, Prince Farondis' subjects unanimously loathe him, blaming him for their current plight. He'd planned to stop Queen Azshara by using the Tidestone of Golganneth to destroy the Well of Eternity, but Azshara caught wind of the plot and destroyed the Tidestone, resulting in Farondis and all of his people being cursed to live as ghosts. Because of their curse, his subjects can't overthrow or assassinate him, so their only recourse is to treat him coldly. However, when Farondis defies Azshara once again to save the Player Character from the naga, his subjects arrive to help against Athissa, and once again pledge their loyalty to Farondis.
  • In Tekken Tag 2, characters can enter Rage Mode faster or slower depending on how much they like their teammate. NO ONE likes Ogre, so many characters will enter Rage Mode only when Ogre is very close to death.
  • Skylanders: Trap Team: After having enough of the Golden Queen’s carelessness regarding the Doom Raiders being captured by the Skylanders, Wolfgang takes advantage of their plan to travel to the future to get a cheese that’s been buried for 10,000 years (long story) to take over Skylands himself in that time period. By the time the Skylanders have arrived in the future of Skylands to bring Wolfgang to justice, he has already taken over to the point where he is called “Emperor Wolfgang”. And because of his giant speaker, the Big Bad Woofer, being able to blow stuff up through loudness with just one play on his bone guitar, every Mabu encountered in the future is more than happy that Wolfgang is gonna be taken down.
  • Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic: All citizens have various stats meassuring their happiness and loyalty to either you or the church (and their addiction to alcohol) and allowing any of them to drop to low (or too high in case of Religious Loyalty) may cause them to escape your country.

    Web Animation 
  • Inanimate Insanity: In Season 1, once he was appointed as captain of Team Chickenleg, the rather meek and timid Balloon decided to lead them with an iron fist to ensure his own safety. Naturally, the other members quickly grew to resent him for being a Bad Boss, and when they were given an opportunity to vote him out of the show, they all took it.
  • Princess Natasha: As king, Lubek was despised by the entire kingdom of Zoravia.
  • RWBY:
    • Adam Taurus was originally regarded as a hero and rising star within the White Fang. However, as the series progressed, his descent into extremist ideology and selfish obsession led to him burning his bridges with everyone. His abusive behavior drove away his love; he became a terrorist wanted for the attacks on both Beacon and Haven Academy; he alienated himself from Salem's faction by putting his own desires ahead of hers; his obsession with revenge turned all of Menagerie against him for trying to assassinate their chief just to spite his daughter, Blake; and the White Fang turned against him for abandoning his men to the Mistral authorities to save his own skin. In the end, all he has left is his life — and he wastes that by going after Blake in one final attempt at revenge.
    • Initially the well-respected General of Atlas, James Ironwood's increasingly paranoid behavior and authoritarian decisions slowly lead to him burning all his bridges and earn him nothing but hatred from the people he claims to be protecting. By the end of Volume 8, Salem has more allies and supporters left than Ironwood. After abandoning Mantle to the Grimm, threatening to nuke it afterwards, declaring the heroes public enemy #1, overthrowing the Atlesian Council and imposing martial law on the city, and murdering and arresting everyone that refuses to go along with his actions, even the firmly loyal Winter and Ace-Ops have turned on him.

    Web Comics 
  • King Steve of 8-Bit Theater.
    Left Hand Man: Recent polls show a 40% approval rating.
    King Steve: Excellent!
    Left Hand Man: Sir, you only got that because the poll only had two options: Be ruled by King Steve forever, or get a sword in the head. We lost 60% of the voters.
  • Bug Broke the Rating Scale, as shown in the image above. Here's the link to the comic.

    Web Original 
  • The Dark Overlords from the web fiction serial Dimension Heroes are almost universally hated by the populace of their dimension... that is, unless they manage to brainwash them to see things from their point of view.
  • The Dream SMP has Jschlatt, President of Manburg. He wasn't popular to begin with (he won with 16% of the popular vote), but over the course of his tenure as president, he manages to make some very powerful enemies and loses every ally he had. Wilbur and Tommy were exiled by him, Niki despises him for exiling her friends and destroying many historic symbols, Eret sees him as a tyrant, Tubbo and Fundy are both working as spies in his administration, Dream views him as completely incompetent yet is afraid he'll follow through on his promise to expand the borders (which would soon lead to the invasion of land that Dream owns), doing whatever he can to help overthrow him, and even Quackity leaves him to join Wilbur and Tommy after Schlatt tears down the White House and insults him one time too many. After he drops dead at the end of Season 1, BadBoyHalo announces to the attendees of his funeral that all his friends were gathered there on that day, to which he is interrupted by Quackity; Bad quickly corrects himself to say "friends, enemies, and loved ones", but Quackity corrects him again, "Nah, just enemies."
  • In Farce of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Chen is offed "by popular demand." He's definitely a Jerkass but probably doesn't crack the top ten most evil characters, although that may be mostly due to lack of screentime.
  • The King of Town from Homestar Runner, while not a villain per se, manages to be hated by all of his "subjects" except the ones he employs. With the possible exception of Homsar, no one respects him, and he is routinely beaten up and stolen from.
  • Drefan Justes, a character from Lore of Terra (a set of musical albums and stories created by Yoomah) is the prince of the wretched Justes Kingdom and wants to make things better and break the status quo. Unfortunately due to having a human appearance (90% of the population is composed of lizardmen and they're prejudiced towards humans) and his increasing insanity, he's despised by almost everyone. To the point that despite his good intentions, the townsfolk prefer his relative Lunalarich over him, just because he's a full lizardman.
  • Mahu: In "Second Chance", hating the Biluan Mind is the one thing all of the realms, republics, kingdoms and empires in the galaxy seem to have in common. It helps that the Mind is a horde of always-hungry drones who will feast on themselves once the rest of the galaxy's species are gone.
  • In Medusa's Daughter, nobody likes Rictus. Nobody. Not even his business partner and co-owner of the circus. The only way he seems to keep control is through being the most on-the-ball person in the group. Skully is a hopeless alcoholic and is deeply ashamed of his role in helping to kidnap Maia, Maia is kept under Rictus's thumb through emotional and physical abuse, and everyone else at the circus just seems to be too busy hating one another to do anything against him. Skully lampshades this at one point when he tells Maia how it's like the people from his native Ireland spend all their time killing one another, instead of working together to deal with external threats.
  • In the SuperMarioLogan episode, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Part 2", Craig the Devil uses a lifeline to ask the audience to help him answer a question. All four answers result in 0%, and the Brooklyn Guy asks the audience if their keypads are broken. He soon finds out that the audience deliberately chose not to help Craig.
  • Vester And Friends has Link, Vester, Waluigi, King Dedede and Woody have the title of the most hated people in Vesterland. Link due to his grating voice, Vester due to his laziness, Waluigi because they think his dancing stinks and King Dedede and Woody are both hated by the other characters due to their Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies.
  • Welcome to Night Vale has the Apache Tracker, whom everyone in Night Vale agrees is a racist asshole and an embarrassment to the town. Even after he sacrifices himself defending the town against an invasion from underground dwarves, the City Council made a statue honouring him, then decided to bury it somewhere in the middle of the desert and forbid anyone from looking at it because they still don't want the town associated with him.

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time:
    • As established in "You Made Me!", just about everyone in the Candy Kingdom completely despises the Earl of Lemongrab and vehemently protest against Princess Bubblegum's request that some of them go to his castle to keep him company. One Candy Person, Mr. Cupcake, actually goes so far as to break his own arm to have an excuse not to hang out with him.
    • Later, when King Of Ooo managed to dethrone Bubblegum in becoming the new princess of the Candy Kingdom, his malicious acts harm the whole community of the kingdom to the point every single Candy Citizens hates him, preferring their old Candy Princess over him. The final straw of this is when a Dark Cloud approaches and rather than march his candy citizens to defend, he orders them to close the gates just to save his own skin. No surprise that he ended up being overthrown by them and have Bonnibel reclaim her rule over the kingdom.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: From the glimpses we get at Fire Nation soldiers' and citizens' conversations, it's clear that most are more loyal to the title of "Fire Lord" than to Ozai as a person. The Yu Yan archers use the term "Fire Lord propaganda" derisively, and their General regards his hunt for the Avatar as out-of-touch with the ground troops fighting the real war. Outside of the mainland, the people indigenous to the Earth Kingdom colonies (outside of a few individuals) don't respect him OR his title. It says something when Zuko is permitted to take the throne while Ozai is still technically alive. It's not technically zero, because the New Ozai Society forms in effort to place him back on the throne; but they're a decidedly fringe group, and even they're more interested in restoring the Empire than in Ozai himself.
  • In Bandolero, everyone despises the tyrannical general Don Rodrigo, to the point that even his men in the militancy don't like him that much. The only ones who were quite tolerant of him were the governor Campomayor and some of his men until he betrayed and usurped Campomayor as the new governor.
  • Gravity Falls: In "The Stanchurian Candidate", Stan starts with one when he decides to run for mayor, and it gets worse after his first interview.
    Candy: Your approval ratings started at zero. Now it's a number lower than zero.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Superman: The Animated Series:
    • Lois Lane visits an alternate reality where Superman and Lex Luthor joined forces to take over Metropolis and seem to have a Zero Percent Approval Rating.
    • Subverted in the series finale, where Superman expects this to be the case when he throws a beaten Darkseid to his oppressed masses, but is shocked to find that the people of Apokolips love the tyrant and tenderly help him to safety.
      "I am many things, Kal-El, but here, I am God."
  • Appears in an alternate timeline in Justice League. In that timeline, Luthor kills the Flash, which causes the Justice League to go rogue and take over the world (even going and changing their group name to the Justice Lords), and because of it, the public hates them.
  • Subverted, or perhaps parodied, in The Simpsons "Easter Stories", where David (Bart) fights and kills Goliath Jr. (Nelson), who took over his kingdom. David gets arrested for "megacide" because Goliath Jr. was publicly beloved and used his huge size to build roads, libraries, and hospitals.
    "We called him 'Goliath the Consensus-Builder'."
    • Mayor Quimby usually holds a pretty good reputation, despite his... lackluster... abilities, but Sideshow Bob briefly managed to push him into this during one episode. After a brutal campaign and multiple failures on Quimby's part, the election results in Quimby taking home one percent of the vote, "and, we remind you, there is a one percent margin of error." Even Homer, whom Bob has attempted to murder, and Krusty, whom Bob framed for armed robbery, end up voting for him. Bob cheats anyway.
    • When Mr. Burns starts out in his campaign for mayor, he initially has a 0% approval rating.
    Advisor: Congratulations, Mr. Burns, the latest polls show you're up six points.
    Mr. Burns: Giving me a total of...?
    Advisor: Six.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes: Lucius, the ruler of Miseryville, definitely has this, but that's to be expected from someone who generally likes to make people miserable. While he mostly revels in this, a few episodes show him trying to be loved. Regardless, this exchange from "Jimmy Matchmaker" sums it up quite well.
    Jimmy: Beezy, this is serious! Saffi wants to crush Lucius!
    Beezy: Nooo, who would want to hurt my dad?
    (everyone raises their hands)
  • Transformers:
    • In The Transformers, Galvatron's third-season tenure as Decepticon leader tends to be marked as this, with him being a complete lunatic and Bad Boss who loves ridiculous schemes and attacking his own men. His Noble Top Enforcer Cyclonus seems to be the only character with any kind of real loyalty to him (and given that he was created to be Galvatron's loyal servant, that's not saying much), and even he acknowledged that Galvatron isn't very good at his job and sent him in for psychotherapy (which failed). Much of the reason he keeps his job is because there simply isn't any obvious pick for successor, and without him, the Decepticons would quickly degenerate into fighting each other for scraps.
    • Stunticon leader Motormaster is usually portrayed as this, being a brutal, thickheaded tyrant with a massive ego and an abusive attitude, shepherding a group of troops notorious for their dysfunctional and rebellious nature. It's noted that Menasor, their combined form, is completely nuts in large part because the other four components hate Motormaster so much.
    • Beast Wars's version of Megatron is hated by basically everyone under his command. By the third season, nearly every Predacon either deserted him (Dinobot, Blackarachnia, Waspinator), pulled an attempted coup (Tarantulas, Quickstrike, Terrorsaur), or only stay under his command because they literally cannot betray him (Rampage has a rig hooked up to his spark that lets Megatron torture him at will, Inferno is mentally conditioned to think he's an ant and Megatron is the queen, Dinobot II is a mindless drone and minutes after getting free will, he betrays Megatron too). The only sane Predacon who is completely loyal to him is the moronic thug Scorponok, who dies halfway into the series. Given his utter and open contempt for his soldiers and supreme selfishness, it's not hard to see why he's unpopular.
    • In Transformers: Animated, Sentinel Prime is already a Jerkass in every possible sense, but once he becomes the Autobots' new Magnus due to the actions of Shockwave, he turns Cybertron into a militant police state.
  • Said word for word in Hercules: The Animated Series for King Salmonues in the episode "King of Thessaly".
  • In Babar, Rataxes is lucky to have a "popularity ranking" greater than a rattlesnake bite or a volcanic eruption.
  • Total Drama has the Depraved Kids' Show Host Chris McLean. Everyone (except Chef, and even he gets frustrated by Chris sometimes) hates him. Everyone. Though the original cast by far hates him the most — even with the temptation of the million-dollar prize, all of them (including super-competitive Heather) do not want to be on the show anymore after suffering three seasons of his sadismnote . The only reason any of them show up in the later seasons is due to contractual obligations, with many of them vocally complaining about how much they hate Chris and being on his show.
    • Heather's definitely this (albeit not to the same extent as Chris), especially in the first three seasons of the show — due to her actions throughout the first season, virtually none of the other contestants actually like or trust Heather (which Izzy tells her point-blank in an episode of Action), and initially, Harold's the only contestant willing to actually give her a chance (which she rejects). And as shown in the video from home sent to Heather by her family, it turns out that not even Heather's own family seems to like her that much, as her parents are initially shown celebrating her being gone and are even having all of her stuff moved out of her room while she's gone.
    • Courtney's also this, albeit to a much lesser extent than Chris and Heather — while Courtney may not be as hated either Chris or Heather, most of the other contestants greatly dislike Courtney, largely because of perfectionist tendencies and her bossy, "win-at-all-costs" attitude. And as pointed out by Lindsay in the fourth-to-last episode of the first season, even if Harold hadn't rigged the votes to get Courtney eliminated from the show (his way of getting back at Duncan for bullying him so much in Basic Straining), she probably would've just been voted off in a later episode. Even when she does grow close with other contestants (such as her relationship with Duncan in Season 1, her camaraderie with Heather after her breakup with Duncan in Season 3, and her reconciled friendship with Gwen in Season 5) her behavior quickly ends up alienating them with the sole exception of Bridgette, who's Courtney's Only Friend by the time of her latest appearance.
    • Alejandro is so despised by his fellow contestants for his actions during World Tour (feigning friendships, seducing girls, wrecking relationships, backstabbing allies, etc.) that everyone was cheering for Heather when she defeated him in the final episode of the season. When he returned in All-Stars, none of the cast was willing to put an ounce of trust or sympathy with him despite his attempts to warn them of Mal and had him voted off the moment the opportunity arose.
    • Scott's Team Killer tendencies and general jerkassery earned him absolutely no sympathy — to the point, where everyone laughed at him when he showed up brutally mauled by a mutant shark to the point being placed in a trauma chair. However, he Took a Level in Kindness during All-Stars, which significantly improved his reputation with his castmates (although a few trust issues did remain).
    • In-Universe, Mal just might be the most universally despised character other than Chris. Absolutely no one has felt a single shred of sympathy for him upon finding out his true nature. Even Heather and Alejandro have managed to score an occasional friends along the way.
    • Blaineley too. Her Attention Whore nature and bullying of Bridgette and Geoff on the Aftermath disgusted everyone (especially after she had Bridgette shipped off to Siberia just so she could host the show in her place). Geoff was even willing to sacrifice his own paycheck by running the show into overtime just to make sure she wouldn't get paid either. The contestants even all laughed at her when she showed up on the last Aftermath in a body cast and a hand truck after falling out of a plane from over 30 000 feet and didn't bother to help her when a bear started using her as a chew toy.
    • In Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, we have the Ice Dancers named Jacques and Josee. They are immensely hated by the other contestants and the host himself. In Argentina, they were able to complete the tango challenge easily, much to everyone else's (even Sanders') disappointment. They are also notorious for cheating, which Josee did in Siberia by sabotaging Kitty and taking her ball. When they were finally eliminated, Don was happy that this day happened. Even Crimson was happy to see them get eliminated, therefore making them ineligible to go to the final two.
  • Beany and Cecil: In the 1988 episode "The Brotherhood Of B.L.E.C.H.," Dishonest John actually enjoys getting hate mail.
  • Everyone on Kaeloo hates the Alpha Bitch Pretty (who hates them back).
  • Solar Opposites: The Shlorpians family to the neighborhood and they make things worse by trying to figure out why.
  • Subverted in South Park. By the final episode of Season 21, Mr. Garrison's approval rating has fallen to a mere 3%, making him far and away the most despised president in U.S. history, even when taking the Civil War and the Watergate scandal into account, and despite being so unpopular that he's reduced to wandering South Park enquiring about his approval ratings and almost everybody in town wanting to kick him out, there is still one resident who defends the President's every decision and deflects all criticism by Playing the Victim Card (even though 97% of the country hating the president logically includes almost all white people as well) and saying that Hilary Clinton would have been even worse had she won the election.
  • At the start of The Legend of Korra, President Raiko is a decently well-liked leader. But as the story progresses and the threats facing Republic City get worse, he's exposed as an incompetent fool who dithers over or bungles disasters and relies upon the Krew to pull his ass out of the fire, whilst showing little to no gratitude for it. By the time of Turf Wars, he's burned through virtually all of the goodwill he had with the citizens by surrendering Republic City to Kuvira and ignoring a refugee crisis in the Earth Kingdom to focus on his re-election campaign, causing his approval ratings to be in the negatives. Said re-election campaign is indicated to be doomed to failure, despite the fact that Raiko is running unopposed.
  • Emperor Dark of StarCom: The U.S. Space Force is very unpopular with his underlings, and most of Shadow Force's generals are constantly scheming to overthrow him. Only the robotic General Torvek is loyal to Dark, and that loyalty is literally programmed into him.
  • The Venture Bros.: Baron Ünderbheit. He is the Evil Overlord of Ünderland, a dark and squalid Ruritania where his miserable subjects are cowed into submission. Even the Baron's most trusted lieutenants are scheming to betray him, and it seems Ünderbheit only stays in power as long as he does because they are laughably incompetent. Team Venture agrees to help La Résistance and discovers that their idea of cloak-and-dagger rebellion includes a campaign of Prank Calling. When he is finally deposed, no one seems to miss him.
  • In Central Park, Bitsy Brandenham is not well-liked in New York due to her childish behavior and for being a mean, old lady. Her own hotel staff is afraid of her and her brother's extended family thinks she's nuts. When Bitsy is having a business meeting with her investors, they all talk over her and don't take her seriously. In Season 1 "A Fish Called Snakehead", Mayor Whitebottom took a poll to see how New Yorkers feel about Bitsy. She did so bad in the polls that the East Side Strangler did better than her and she became the new baseline. Another poll asked what's New York's most hated thing, with the options being slow walkers, New Jersey, Bitsy, rats, and tourists, Bitsy is the highest.
  • In Futurama, Bender's mercifully brief tenure as the Pharaoh of Osiris-4 ended with him being the victim of a Conspicuously Public Assassination that was wildly celebrated by all. Given that this was right after he directed his slaves and priests, upon the completion of a one-billion-cubit-high memorial statue of him, to "tear it down and try again, but this time, don't embarrass yourselves," it's little wonder that they started cheering.
  • Amphibia
    • Captain Grime was this upon his introduction, as despite being a genuine badass, he was also thoroughly under the impression that he was the only competent person at the base and made no secret of this, frequently insulting his troops and belittling their abilities. He's so surly and unlikable that Sasha, who is officially one of the prisoners, ends up being far more popular around the base than him simply because she's actually openly friendly. Once he places Sasha under his command, though, things turn around, as she's able to convince him to be at least somewhat nice to his troops.
    • After King Andrias true intentions have been revealed, it seems no one in Amphibia will willingly serve him after that. The citizens of Wartwood aren't going to stop until the tyrant is brought down, especially after he destroyed their homes, and have installed a piñata in his image in the meeting room, ready to be lowered at a moment's notice for them to beat him up in effigy. In "Olivia & Yunan", there's almost not a single loyal newt around the capital, not to mention his Dragon and royal advisor have rescinded their fealty to their king out of disgust for his horrible actions and his strip-mining and destruction of Amphibia's natural ecosystem. Bartley, Branson, and Blair do show up later on serving him, but given everything he does and their reactions to his possible wrath/annoyance, it's apparently only because they're too afraid of him to defect. Any newts and toads serving him were likely coerced under the threat of being brainwashed, which is what will happen to those who are noncompliant. Everyone on Earth cheers when Anne finally defeats him.
    • After The Core's true nature and intentions have been revealed, it seems no one in Amphibia will willingly serve it after that; even King Andrias himself started to develop second thoughts during the Core's invasion of Earth. Following its failure to conquer Earth and being severed of its link with Marcy, the Core furiously plans to destroy Amphibia out of spite against everyone (including King Andrias) for their defiance against it. In the end, everyone in Amphibia cheers when Anne finally destroys the Core; even Andrias himself is relieved by this, considering the fact that it has been gaslighting him into the tyrant that he was known to all of Amphibia.
  • Eclipsa Butterfly in Star vs. the Forces of Evil has this among non monsters. She gets it during her first reign for falling in love with a monster and during her second reign for attempting to give monsters equal rights. It gets to a point that Star can't find the culprit behind an assassination attempt because there are too many possible suspects.
  • Big Bad Arktos from Tabaluga is disliked by all his subjects. They are quick to abandon him if given the opportunity. Lampshaded by Arktos himself:
    Arktos: Don't make me laugh! Nobody is loyal to me! My 'loyal' subjects would boil me in hot water if they had half a chance!

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"The Poor Little Princess"

The title character of the storybook is disliked by all of her subjects due to her selfishness and greed.

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