Times where you can tell the good guys from the bad based on whether or not they're Nice to the Waiter in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Harry Potter/Thorson is always considerate of house elves and servants in Child of the Storm, implied to be partially because of his own abuse at the hands of the Dursleys and partially because he's just that kind of a person.
- Loki also invokes this trope, sponsoring taxi drivers, cleaners, and the homeless as atonement for his crimes during his Evil Overlord phase and because he now understands that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility. Of course, being Loki, his generosity has a second layer to it: those groups serve as a spy network for him, as they're invisible, get everywhere, hear everything, are often closely connected, and few people pay attention to them.
- Flannel Man aka Xander's shtick in Colors and Capes
is to look out for the little guy. As he told Lois Lane, a waitress having a hundred dollars stolen from her might mean she can't make rent or put food on the table, whereas losing twenty million dollars would only irritate Oliver Queen. As such, he mostly sticks to muggings. - Harry Potter in For Love of Magic might be wildly different from canon, but he's still unfailingly polite to his house elves and at one point uses one as a Secret Test of Character when Narcissa comes to beg his help.
- The Malfoys not following this rule comes back to bite them later. In a rage over his father being killed in a duel, Draco beats their house elf to death, which Narcissa merely views as unfortunate, since neither of them has any skill at housework. Even when Narcissa secures Harry's support, he refuses to allow them to buy a new house elf as he won't knowingly put one through such a situation.
- Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters: In his first scene, Charles Ludmoore treats Blunk very kindly, even asking after his mother. According to Blunk, Ludmoore is very fair to every Passling he works with.
- In Harry Potter and the Ice Princess, it is frequently noted that Elsa has been taught that being a kind ruler is better than ruling through fear, as fear only lasts until someone stronger comes along where kindness can inspire greater loyalty.
- In Lost in Camelot, Bo and Kenzi swiftly note that Arthur and Morgana show actual consideration for Gwen and Merlin respectively where most of the nobles barely seem to acknowledge the servants beyond calling someone over to pour another drink.
- Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower:
- Katarina Claes is the daughter of a duke and engaged to the prince who is expected to inherit the kingdom, so she's basically one of the most important people in the kingdom. Whenever she goes to visit the palace, she greets all the servants and guards by name, asking after their children and remembering important events. She's normally an Idiot Hero, but that's just because she doesn't consider schoolwork and her own romance important. She never fails to pay attention to the people around her.
- This is also mentioned to be the reason why it's utterly impossible for anyone to find a reasonable body double for Katarina. The kingdom has plenty of pretty girls of the right build who can smile and pretend to be stupid, but the act falls apart the second they meet some random servant and can't immediately rattle off their life story.
- Maria herself is quite kind to servants, even if she tends to be a bit too stiff and formal. She makes a special effort to learn all the names of her own servants and provide for them whatever they need, and at one point one of them breaks down crying because she's just too generous to them.
- Naruto in Sekirei? Is that some new species of little sister? apparently tips well enough that the bellhops at his hotel have a waiting line to be able to deliver room service to him and his wife. One bellhop even notes that her tip was more than she makes in a month.
- Funny enough, this is part of why the bellhops become convinced he's running a sex slave ring: he's clearly buying them off so they won't tell the police.
- In Spellbound, when Professor McGonagall discovers that the Grangers have died in a car accident and Hermione has been taken in by her previously-unknown biological father Tony Stark, McGonagall soon concludes that Tony is a good man because he has been friendly to the Weasleys despite the obvious social gap of his wealth compared to their poverty.
- Bakugou ignores this to his peril in The Vigilante Boss and His Failed Retirement Plan. Bakugou unthinkingly badmouths the Support students who make his costume and equipment, which is witnessed by Futaba. So when Futaba goes back to her Department and tells them what Bakugou said about them, they retaliate by giving him their worst service. They make sure that any of Bakugou's requests that are not an emergency are set to their lowest priority and give him the bare minimum of service. Unfortunately, Bakugou is so egocentric that he doesn't realize that the Support Department hates him until it's pointed out.
- It's a recurring theme in Shadow and Rose that Elissa, the Grey Warden, is unfailingly polite to everyone the group meets. Flemeth refers to her as "the young lady Warden with the polite tongue in her head." As Alistair notes when talking to Zevran, "it's probably saved our lives more than once." Eventually he learns that this is literally true; Morrigan reveals near the end of the story that it's the only reason Flemeth ever gave for saving Elissa from the burning Tower of Ishal back in Ostagar. She rescued Alistair because he would be needed for the dark ritual, but allegedly, she rescued Elissa purely because the young woman had been polite and respectful to her on their first meeting.
- In the Twice Upon an Age series, the main reason that Sera decides that Inquisition newcomer Bethany Hawke is all right is because she's "friendly to the girls who did the laundry," and Sera believes deeply in this trope.
- In the Adam Winters series, while Dumbledore is suspicious of the similarities in the history of Adam Winters and Tom Riddle, McGonagall swiftly determines that Adam is a good person based on the way he treated her when he was living on the streets and met her in the form of a cat.
- In Daphne Greengrass and the Boy Who Lived, Daphne and her family are always good to their own house-elf, Finny, and never send her on any errands she wouldn’t be comfortable doing, with Daphne even musing that she’s sure her parents would pay Finny if the elf ever asked for it.
- In A Different Messenger, Snape recalls when he saw Draco and his friends in a certain restaurant. They were polite to each other but absolutely rude to the staff.
- For purely practical reasons, Voldemort in Princess of the Blacks is unfailingly polite to his house elf, simply because it makes things easier on him if the elf likes him.
- In A Thing of Vikings, during Berk's first visit to King Magnus of Norway, Magnus notes to Hiccup that he ruled out the possibility of a marriage between Snotlout and Magnus's sister Wulfhild as a means of formalising their alliance because of Snotlout's poor treatment of Magnus's servants.
Monster Girl Quest
- The Tyrant and the Hero has Black Alice, who is on a First-Name Basis with her servants and even helps them out with their duties.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, it's one of Nova Shine's more notable character traits. His Establishing Character Moment is buying a homeless pony an apartment out of his own pocket, and later on, Cadance brings up several incidents similar to this, such as buying clothes for a pony he found wearing rags, purchasing food for a homeless shelter, and other things. When asked why, Nova responds, somewhat embarrassed, that he has a soft spot for homeless ponies.
- What Hath Joined Together depicts a blend between the friendship-driven Equestria and a Fantastic Caste System which encourages this trope to social subordinates. Sympathetic characters like Flash Sentry or Princess Celestia exhibit it, by helping his butler with chores and forgiving a major social faux pas respectively, while antagonistic characters like Captain Ironhoof do the opposite.
Star Trek: The Original Series
- Jacqueline Lichtenberg's epic series Kraith describes details of Vulcan culture, including their ideas of courtesy and social status. When greeting a bigshot and his assistants, the assistants come first; employees are always acknowledged before the boss.
- In A Gem, a Human, and a Baby, Pearl notices that Greg has always been nice to her, even after Steven was born. However, she also notices that he doesn't see her as "a Pearl"—she's his friend.
- Here Comes The New Boss: In the Hostile Takeover omake, Taylor may be officially a villain, but she's kind to wait-staff. Which is good, because the Butcher's powers burn a lot of calories and make her a Big Eater.
- She successfully finishes the 2000-calorie Fugly Bob's Challenger, which is free if you can actually eat it all — but she leaves a fifty-dollar tip anyway.
- When she has to leave a restaurant in a hurry, she just puts down a wad of bills for her meal and a tip. The waitress counts them up and is shocked to find that it's over a month's rent.
- Viktor accidentally insulted a fan's dream of skating the same ice as him when he asked for an autograph in Rivals Series which resulted in Yuuri's decade-long hatred of him and resulted in a fierce rivalry. Since Yuuri was also the love of his life, it tripled the resulting angst from this situation.
- Yuuri, despite his cold demeanor, makes a point to be nice to his fans part of compassion and partly fearing making his own enemies.
