What the Hell, Hero? is about heroes being called out for bad things they did. However, the title can make it sound like a trope about heroes doing bad things ever, similar to how most Not So Different wicks didn't have any remark being made in-universe. Alternatively, it might be used for any character who gets called out, heroic or not.
138 wicks need to be checked.
Wicks: 138/138
Results:
- Correct: 64/138, or ~46%
- Not A Hero: 23, or ~17%
- No Call-Out: 10, or ~7%
- Other Misuse: 10, or ~7%
- ZCE: 12, or ~9%
- Unsortable: 23, or ~17%
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Correct usage
- Analysis.Magic The Gathering Wedges: Kenshiro is a great example (and coincidentally would fit in well with the actual Mardu). He's the originator of Manly Tears, so quite emotional. He will always stop to help a stranger in need and will refuse food from those who need it more than he. Yet, as Rei points out (albeit subtly), Kenshiro is ultimately selfish for pursuing Raoh. As much of a monster as Raoh is, he's not by far the worst man in the Wastes and people under his rule are better off than many others. Not only does pursuing Raoh put Yuria in greater danger, if Ken dies, then the wastes just lost their savior. Ken ignores his advice.
- Anime.Myself Yourself: When Sana introduces himself to Nanaka, he doesn't remember her at all. She slaps him as a result due to the fact that he recognized Shuusuke, Shuri, and Aoi, but not her. She also later rants at him for not being there when she needed him the most shortly after her parents died in the fire.
- Awesome.Catherine: Also, the fact that nearly everyone is totally on board with Vincent and Rin's relationship. Jonny is pissed due to what it means for Katherine and even punches Vincent, but begrudgingly accepts it. Orlando is utterly baffled at first due to Vincent outing himself to be bisexual, and Rin's gender, but quickly decides to roll with it. That kind of reveal could've gone far worse, and it demonstrates how strong these guys' friendships are. The most telling reaction comes from Erica, who was famously outed as a transwoman in the original game. Not only did she become Rin's best friend early in the game and it's made clear she knew about Rin's gender all along, but she's visibly concerned and angry when Vincent admits that he panicked over Rin's Unsettling Gender-Reveal and caused him to run away. She immediately tells Vincent to call Rin and apologize, listens intently when Vincent desperately tries to fix his mistake over the phone, and ends up being the couple's biggest Shipper on Deck once Vincent makes his decision. This entire scenario approaches the subject matter far, far better than the original game.
- Characters.Ace Attorney Victims: Angrily chastises Miller for selling Officers. He reluctantly decides to keep quiet, but Miller doesn't trust him, and so kills him.
- Characters.Blue Bloods The NYPD:
- Frequently delivers these to Frank. Has also occasionally been on the receiving end when Frank thought he was out of line. Garrett himself delivers a rather eloquent one to Henry when one of Henry's statements lands Frank in hot water.
- When a former partner of his is accused of excessive force in the death of a crazed man in the streets, Gormley rightfully chews out Frank for not standing up for the officer. It later happens when he gives similar remarks in a COMPSTATS meeting concerning the reputations of his own men, as the meeting happens while Danny is under investigation for a (false) excessive force complaint.
- Baez functions as the one to call Danny out on his behavior if she thinks he's crossing the line, such as some remarks he makes about Muslims in a Post-9/11 Terrorism Episode.
- Characters.Chad Vader: After Chad quits his job at Empire Market after a single night shift, spies on her and Clint on their date at a restaurant, gets drunk, and tries to start an argument with Clint, she calls him out on his behavior, and tells him to "[d]o something with your life and stop being so lame".
- Characters.Cthulhu Saves The World:
- Brutal Honesty: He's not above doing that. does this count as a bad thing?
Girl: Is the volcano going to destroy our town?
Cthulhu: Yes, dear. The volcano is going to burn you all to a crisp.
Girl: Waah!
Umi: Cthulhu!- Morality Pet: Gradually became this to Cthulhu. Once she got attacked by shoggoth, he resorted with attacking it to the point when, in his own words, "there wasn't enough left to traumatize a toddler". Plus, she's actually capable of calling him out and having him listen, as shown in one conversation with an NPC.
- Characters.Haganai: At the end of Volume 8/season 2 of the anime, Rika straight-up attacks Kodaka with floating metal balls after he runs away from Sena's Love Confession. While Rika understands Sena caught him off guard, that doesn't excuse him avoiding the entire club for a week and going to work with the Student Council like nothing ever happened. Rika also calls him out on how he keeps "raising flags" with the girls of the club like a generic harem protagonist and then plays dumb to avoid having to answer their feelings.
- Characters.Legion Of Super Heroes Silver Age: Gave one to Chameleon Boy after his impulsive plan to spy on the Khunds got Brin and a few other Legionnaires stuck on an asteroid with little hope of rescue and led to the Mistaken for Cheating incident above.
- Characters.Monark: She blows up at the Vice-President and Kokoro after Hidefumi's death, calling them liars and demanding to know why they didn't save him.
- Characters.Project Arashi: Called out by Motoko following the challenge at the kendo showcase during the first day of Mahorafest after he deliberately provoked Setsuna and then fought unfairly in a challenge match. Konoka, also, called him out on his behavior before the fight even started.
- Characters.Sherlock Sherlock Holmes:
- Break the Haughty: In "The Great Game", he responds to John angrily calling him out on not caring for the victims' lives by coolly responding that caring about them won't help him save them, so he won't make that mistake. Then John gets kidnapped and put at risk... and not caring suddenly isn't so easy.
- Gets called out a lot when he says or does cruel things to people around him, mostly by John. In fact he delivers one to himself in his best man speech at John's wedding, pointing out the sheer number of flaws and personality quirks that make him a terrible person and friend, but which John's patience has helped him to better overcome.
- He has one of these himself when Mycroft rudely tells Mrs. Hudson to "shut up". P sure Mycroft is a bureaucrat, not a heroMycroft: Oh, shut up, Mrs. Hudson!
Sherlock: Mycroft!
Mycroft: [pauses] Apologies.
- ComicBook.Kingdom Come:
- Batman to Wonder Woman when she kills Von Bach.
- Norman McCay to Spectre when it seems the Spectre is going to allow Superman to wreak his revenge on the United Nations.
- The UN delegates (and by extension, the United States) expresses anger at Superman and Wonder Woman for building a meta-human prison in the middle of Kansas without telling anyone nor even asking for permission. The Winston Churchill Expy levies a potent threat to Superman as a Wham Line:Perhaps it is time that we began to decide some things for ourselves. Good day.
- DethroningMoment.College Humor: The plot of the video involves Luigi calling out Mario for basically getting the spotlight while the green plumber always plays second fiddle. Snippet taken from a broader example.
- DevelopersForesight.Metal Gear:
- Snake will be chastized if you follow Meryl into the women's washroom after the Psycho Mantis fight and then call Nastasha or Mei Ling; they will both call you out on going somewhere you don't belong. Even worse, Mei Ling will refuse to let the player save their game.
- If you shoot the rats that are scurrying on the girders just above where Sniper Wolf is during the first fight with her, eventually you will get a Codec call where several members of the support team will call you out on killing animals just for your own sick pleasure. You'll similarly get called out by your support team and Vulcan Raven if you shoot the ravens outside his lair.
- Fanfic.The Element Of Time:
- Godzilla Threshold: A's planned special technique that he needs Yugito's help with in the event of a last resort. Also the moment where Naruto finally masters a 5-element Rasengan with help from Sasuke and Hinata. Itachi also lampshades this trope to shut down Felix's attempted angry reprimanding towards him for once again going behind his back and allowing a massive number of people to regain their memories of the old timeline without his permission.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Naruto gives a blistering one to Inari after the young boy's defeatism ultimately ends up rubbing him the wrong way. When Hinata points out how mean Naruto was being, Naruto regretfully points out that, for all his rudeness, he wasn't wrong, and that what Inari had been through was no excuse for him to turn his back on the principles and ideals he'd been raised to believe in by spitting in the face of the heroic actions of people like his own dead father.
- Fanfic.The Great Alicorn Hunt: After having had enough of the Wonderbolts giving her the cold shoulder and badmouthing her behind her back, Rainbow Dash confronts Spitfire about it. When the latter says that Dash is a show off who hasn't earned anything she has, Dash snaps and gives her a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, pointing out how hard she worked to earn everything she has, not to mention has saved the world several times, whereas the Wonderbolts are either no-shows or ineffective in a crisis, and Spitfire herself is as guilty of being self-absorbed as she accused Rainbow Dash of being. Spitfire admits Rainbow Dash is right, and they make amends, with Spitfire helping Dash mend fences with the other Wonderbolts.
- Fanfic.Flash Fog: Sweetie Belle gives her two fellow Crusaders this in regards to giving Derpy an ipecac-laced muffin so that they could escape the party to check on their human trap.
- Fanfic.Hells Boiling Point: On hearing what Luz did and how it was not a kidnapping that made her stay in the Burning Isles, Camila rakes her over the coals.
- Fanfic.The Hound And The Blacksmith: Didn't Think This Through: Lancer didn't think too hard about leaving Archer alone in the Matou mansion in the same room as a dangerous vampire in chapter 18. He gets called out on this.
- Film.Aquaslash: Josh gets called out by his best friend for sleeping with Tommy's girlfriend. Josh is pretty unapologetic, though. Its easy to see why since Tommy is a kind of a total dick.
- Film.Look Whos Talking:
- James calling out Mollie's decision to get pregnant with a married man's child and calling it irresponsible. He's the first to point out how hypocritical she comes off sometimes.
- Mollie gives him one for taking Mikey while she slept, making her think he kidnapped him.
- Film.Mowgli: After Bagheera spoils Mowgli's chance to pass the Running of the Pack, Baloo calls him out, for the bear is sure the man-cub could have passed the Running. Bagheera defends himself by saying that Mowgli can be safe from Shere Khan nowhere else but the Man-Village. The bear and the panther come to blows, with Baloo accusing the panther of thinking he's the only one who cares about Mowgli, while Bagheera accuses the bear of seeing only his performance as a teacher and not the big picture. They stop only after Bhoot comes to tell them that Mowgli has been captured by the Bandar-log.
- Funny.Dead Rising 4: When you go to Toms' Farm if you drive through the gate instead of jumping round the side, the gate guard basically shouts several What the Hell, Hero? things at you if you do it constantly. driving through the gate has no impact on the Farms security as it is protected by and invisble wall.
- Funny.Kung Fu Panda Legends Of Awesomeness: Ping trying to convince the Five to go help Po rescue Shifu. Especially when he forgets what to say while calling them out for refusing to do so and getting back into track when Mantis finishes his sentence for him.
- GuardiansOfTheGalaxy.Go TG Tropes S To Z: Drax's extremely reckless behavior in his quest for vengeance against Ronan results in a lot of people ending up hurt or dead, and Drax himself getting beaten severely and nearly killed. Rocket calls him out on this, pointing out that Drax is not the only person whose family has been killed by Ronan, and that getting even more people killed while trying to get revenge is not an appropriate method of redress. It works: Drax is deeply shamed, which prompts him to behave much more rationally, and more cooperatively, from then on.
- Heartwarming.The Lunacy Of Duke Venomania: Karchess once Yufina goes missing becomes much more dedicated to finding the missing women, even giving Elluka a What the Hell, Hero? when she tries to have them wait to confront Venomania while she’s in danger.
- LetsPlay.Al Chest Breach: The mod that allowed him to kill the child then yelled at him, calling him a "horrible, horrible, human being."
- Literature.Nyaruko Crawling With Love:
- After Mahiro's Wham Line in episode 7, Nyarko suffers from a long lasting Color Failure. Which prompts his mom to ask him if she really is that awful, since she has been saving his life and saved hers as well. She essentially forces him to take her on a date to make up for hurting her feelings.
- Nyarko's Anguished Declaration of Love in Nyarko-San W could be seen as this, since she outright tells Mahiro that his refusal to just spit it out is tearing her apart.
- Mahiro has finally had enough of Nyarko's bitching in episode 11 of the first series when their fighting goes too far and appears to injure Ghutatan and snaps at the girls with a short, but scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, demanding that they apologize— not to him, but to the girl.
- Literature.Arsene Lupin: Lupin gets a stinging one from the woman who raised him at the end of "813," when she calls him out on his plans to offer his daughter (though she doesn't know it) a fairy tale wedding to a German duke... with the added side benefit of turning the duke into a puppet as part of a master plan to break up the Second Reich. To his credit, Lupin realizes that he's been a prick and lets the girl go to live her own life.
- Literature.Musashi: Several priests call out Musashi for killing Genjirō.
- MagnificentBastard.Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "Storm Over Ryloth": Captain Mar Tuuk commands the Techno Union blockade that has crippled the Twi'lek homeworld, and is distinguished from the vast majority of Separatist commanders by his keen intelligence and respect for proper conduct in war. Defeating Ahsoka Tano's squadron by having extra forces jump out of hyperspace right on top of her, Tuuk next goes up against Anakin Skywalker, whom he greatly respects. Tuuk is defeated only because Anakin distract Tuuk with a false surrender before ramming his ship into Tuuk's, and the Captain takes a moment to castigate the Jedi for his flagrant violation of battlefield ethics before coolly making his escape.
- Main.The Power Of Hate:
- Berserk: ... His hatred for Griffith and what he did to him the number one reason being that Griffith brutally raped his lover, Casca, and forced Guts to watch after he thwarted every attempt Guts made to save her in time - and all out of pure spite is what drove Guts to go on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and his Enemy Within, a Hellhound beast, constantly fueled Guts' hatred. However, this was later deconstructed by Godo when Casca turned up missing and Guts started to blame everyone but himself, and was told that hate was where a man went when he was really sad and afraid. After some self-reflection, Guts finally put his hatred aside, as it was displaced by the love he had for Casca.
- Major Payne attempts to foster this amongst the kids he's teaching as a Drill Sergeant Nasty, telling Miss Walburne that hate keeps you strong. This gets him a What the Hell, Hero?.
- Manga.Shaman King: Everything Yoh does always gives these types of reactions but what could probably be the worst is that he takes coffee with the big bad, Hao! Most of his friends react horribly to this.
- MassEffectAndromeda.Tropes H To Z:
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: One sidequest on Voeld tasks Ryder with searching for an angaran demolition specialist whose friend refuses to believe she's dead. When you eventually find her, she's torturing a wounded kett soldier to learn the location of her missing family, and obviously has been for quite some time already. You can make her stop, or turn around and let her continue without a care in the world. Ryder's squad will call them out if you do the latter.
- A Roekaar on Havarl gives Ryder a brief one when they try asking him for help, because in order to reach him they have had to kill several of his friends (albeit in self-defence).
- Ryder can spark this reaction in squadmates and others depending on decisions they make.
- Sid is greatly disturbed by the amount of killing her sister Vetra and Ryder do, partly in her name, during Vetra's loyalty mission, asking if it's necessary. She stops complaining once she realizes she's killing bad guys too through her own actions.
- Music.Presto Album: "The Pass" has the song's character contemplating suicide, and near the end, Geddy Lee exclaims "Christ, what have you done?", as if the protagonist actually did it. I guess?
- PlayingWith.Plastic Bitch: Natalia snaps at at Alice pointing out that she had legitimate medical problems with sleep apneia from her old nose ridge - it isn't just a 'fat guy'. But even if it was for personal appearance it is none of her fucking business.
- Recap.Age Of Empires II Devapala: Amoghavarsha will often taunt and berate Devapala during his campaign in Pandya. Veeradeva does a more subdued and indirect version if you don't follow his advices.
- Recap.Camp Camp S 3 E 1 The Fun Raiser: The Quartermaster loses his mind when he finds out that David and Gwen were the ones who stole his hook.QM: You stole an amputee's prosthetic hand for a goddamn PROFIT?!
- Recap.Designated Survivor S 2 E 22 Run: The Chief Justice takes Kirkman to task over Emily trying to influence his decision. Low context, but counts from what I can tell.
- Recap.ERS 1 E 11 The Gift:
- Dr. Hicks rails at Benton for presuming that Powell's signature on the back of his license meant he'd received consent for organ removal, and organized teams and new donors before he got consent from Powell's wife — who subsequently denied consent until she receives a second opinion.
- Carol calls out Doug for racing to her and dropping an Anguished Declaration of Love at her engagement party, in the midst of a number of close friends and family, no less.
- Recap.Fairy Tail Daphne Arc: Fairy Tail to Gray over his "plan" to remind Natsu about his promise. Even Natsu gets on his case about it once the ordeals over.
- Recap.The Frollo Show E 17: Frollo gets hit with this twice. Weird because it's Frollo, but he is portrayed as heroic in this.
- The first time is when he punches Madotsuki in the face to get Wilford to appear, which everyone, even Hitler and Hades, non-verbally calls him out for.
- The second time is when everyone abandons him for mercy killing Lemongrab and stating that "he served his purpose", rubbing salt in the wound by making a gravestone reading "Here lies a true hero".
- Recap.The Gifted S 2 E 10 Enemy Of My Enemy: Clarice calls Lorna and Marcos out for their senseless bickering, as they should be focusing on rescuing John.
- Recap.Legend Quest S 1 E 1 The Prophecy: Teodora is introduced as a snarky ghost with a deathly sense of humor whose selfish and selfless sides are shown simultaneously when she interrupts Leo's class to tell him off for shirking his heroic duties and ignoring his friends.
- Recap.Loli Rock S 1 E 2 Flower Power: Talia gives one to Iris for using magic to make her flower better than the other ones for the show.
- Recap.The Loud House S 4 E 5 Store Wars Lucha Fever: Rosa towards Ronnie Anne when the latter reveals she isn’t really sick.
- Recap.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 8 E 13 The Mean 6: Pinkie's reaction to Mean Twilight (thinking she's the real Twilight) when she shows no remorse for Fluttershy when she finds her alone in the forest. This is also Rarity's reaction toward Mean Applejack for insulting Starlight, though believing she's the real Applejack who's currently with Rainbow. thought they were talking to the heroes, so.
- Recap.Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 05 E 02 The Ship: Sisko, as tempers flare amongst the crew."I know it's hot. We're filthy, tired, and we've got ten isotons of explosives going off outside. But we will never get out of this if we don't pull it together and start to act like professionals!"
- Recap.Supergirl 2015 S 5 E 11 Back From The Future Part 1: Both Kara and William call Andrea out for capitalizing on a terrorist threat. She doesn't really care. is an antagonist
- Recap.Yu Gi Oh Arc V Ep 145 Endless Rebellion: Jack has a point about Yuya being "cocky" and a "coward": he's holding back again over fearing what will happen if he goes all-out by summoning the Four Dimension Dragons.
- Roleplay.The Cauldron: So determined for information, Ragna at one point basically tortures poor Tsubaki to tears. Nu gave him the appropriate reaction.
- Roleplay.Neo Pokeforum: Sven calls out the Crow on stealing Helix Fossil from the museum. When she retorts that she merely took it for safekeeping, because otherwise it would fall in the hands of the Cipher, he reminds her that she shows no intention of ever returning it, but instead plans on bringing it back to life.
- Series.Austin And Ally: In the episode "Real Life & Reel Life", Austin was mad at Ally for keeping a big secret from him, that she wanted to end their partnership, but as pointed out by Dez, Austin kept an even bigger secret from her, he met with another songwriter behind Ally's back. Ally immediately calls him out on it
- Series.The Terror: Adaptational Jerkass: Fitzjames, to an extent. He is much more of an open Glory Hound here than he is in the book, boastful of his abilities and disdainful of Crozier (particularly his alcoholism and joylessness), but he is also far more prone to delivering (narratively justified) What the Hell, Hero? speeches at Crozier.
- SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome.Literature: In the third book of The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock, Count Smiorgan Baldhead, who had traveled with Elric in the last book, gets unceremoniously abandoned by Elric and left to his death during the battle with Melnibone. However, Elric does get called out on it. It also turns out that this is actually an inversion, since Smiorgan's death occurred in the very first Elric story ever published. However, that story was relatively far into Elric's continuity, so he got brought back later for another story set earlier. Later collections published the stories in their order in continuity, rather than the order they were originally published.
- TearJerker.Monster Anime: The very first episode has Tenma on the receiving end of What the Hell, Hero? as a distraught widow blames him for the Director reassigning him from a Turkish construction worker to a famous Opera singer, rage and grief filling her voice as she dresses him down for it. Those around him are completely indifferent as he suffers a crisis of conscience over it, and his worldview gets a harsh realignment during dinner with his fiancée.Tenma: But what does she want from me, anyway? I was Just Following Orders from the Director when I performed surgery on that opera singer. I'm not responsible. (To Eva) Well am I?
Eva: Well of course not! After all, peoples' lives aren't created equal. - ThisIsUnforgivable.Anime And Manga: An actual (anti) heroic example comes from Guts in Volume 17, where he says something to the same effect. After getting a What the Hell, Hero? lecture handed to him, Guts rethinks how he dealt with avenging the Hawks after Griffith betrayed and sacrificed them during the Eclipse and that since he technically played a role in the group's downfall, he didn't have a right to avenge them... however, for what Griffith did to Casca during the Eclipse in which he viciously raped her in front of Guts and drove her insane as a result, Guts said that he would never forgive Griffith.
- VideoGame.Alpha Protocol: Kill people or do overt actions, and you will get yelled at by various people for it, most commonly Mina if you're killing civilians or American agents, Albatross if you're being way too loud and obvious, or Madison if you're being a jerk to her. On the other hand, SIE or Steven will gleefully praise you for going on murder sprees.
- VideoGame.Deus Ex Human Revolution:
- If you waste too much time in Sarif Industries before the first mission, then the hostages will be dead by the time you get there. Expect the police force to give you an earful.
- The SWAT officers will give you hell no matter what you do in the factory after the mission is over. Use lethal force on Sanders? You killed someone who could have been questioned, you bastard! note Use lethal force on the armed, hostile criminals with hostages (and who killed at least one hostage before you arrive)? You're a goddamn murderer, to quote one of the SWAT officers. Take Sanders down alive? Good job, Jensen, now he's going to be able to keep spreading his hate speech! You can't win with these guys; the best you can hope for is to save all the hostages and take down everyone alive, which will minimize the bitching-out the SWAT team gives you. It gets worse if you clear out all the attackers but don't disarm the bomb, as SWAT will blame you for the deaths of the hostages when they completely screw up the one part of the job you left to them.
- If you don't kill any terrorists, defuse the bomb, take Sander in alive, and save Josie, there are maybe three guys who are grateful to you, even admitting that they're not sure what would have happened had they just stormed the place. Notably, the ones who commend Adam are the ones who seem to actually care about people's safety over whether or not they got to be in charge. The other eight? "You saved everyone? This is bullshit, what idiot decided to send you in?"
- VideoGame.The Last Spell: The heroes will call out each other (and the player by proxy) if another hero accidentally damages them with an attack.
- VideoGame.Two Dark: If the player decides to execute Sandra and Martin in the final level, Smith is arrested and framed for everything by the police, while receiving a What the Hell, Hero? by Jessie.
- VideoGame.Magicka: Vlad rants at your characters for fighting the bosses in the later game instead of talking to them like he's been telling you to do, which would allow you to get their help instead of having to beat them into submission first. It's not like the game lets you do otherwise.
- VisualNovel.Sunkissed: Alexis gives Aria this for not telling her that their mother was also coming around for the summer as well.
Not a hero
- Arthur.Tropes S To Z: They're children, not heroes. But Arthur is the protag...
- In S1's "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper", the Tough Customers harshly call out Arthur for lying to them about being great at "gleeping" (i.e. stealing), with Rattles making a point to sit on Arthur's back and bounce a small ball on the poor boy's head.
- In "D.W. Flips", the gymnastic teacher calls out Emily on overshadowing D.W.'s efforts to do a cartwheel by showing off and doing multiple cartwheels. D.W. understandably yells out "It's not fair", given she practiced her cartwheel all week.
- Take That, Critics!: * In RoboCop (2014) Novak's last line, "stop whining", can be interpreted as either a What the Hell, Hero? against In-Universe bioconservatives trying to uphold the Dreyfuss Act or a You Bastard! against out-of-universe Luddites. In-universe bioconservatives don't sound like heroes.
- Characters.A Vow Without Honor: While meeting with her father, and Nymeria in one of the secret tunnels in the Red Keep, Oberyn chastises her for informing Littlefinger about Sansa being in Dorne, risking war being brought to Dorne when the Lannisters were allied with the Tyrells. Because this is a GOT fic, I question labeling anyone heroic, especially a bit character.
- Characters.Ace Attorney Victims: Angrily chastises Miller for selling Officers. He reluctantly decides to keep quiet, but Miller doesn't trust him, and so kills him. The character being called out is a murderer.
- Characters.The Dark Tower Other Characters: After hearing Roland and Eddie's long tale in Song of Susannah, he has to deliver a couple of these to his best friend, Tower, who is still stubbornly railing against selling the lot, despite knowing the cosmic significance of the rose. Luckily, it finally works. a bookstore owner, not a hero
- Characters.Infernal Tales A Helltaker Story Allies: Calls out Blizna for killing guards in a fit of rage due to Lucifer not honoring their deal. Blizna is an antagonist
- Characters.Ru Pauls Drag Race UK Vs The World Series 1: Good Is Not Soft: She's a cutie, but was never one to mince words in her original series, and as soon as she has the chance, she marches up to Mo Heart and lets her know that she was disappointed by her haughty, diva-ish behaviour when they first met backstage at a gig in Belfast, where Mo had presumptuously handed Blu her garment, as if she were staff, then barked at her for allowing the hemline to touch the floor before commanding her to tie her shoelaces. A little out of the blue? Perhaps, but if Blu's plan was to deflate Mo's ego, it works, and the previously haughty queen is quite taken aback by Blu's strident words and apologises. drag queen, not hero.
- Characters.Spider Man Supporting Characters: Finally does this to J. Jonah Jameson during the "Goblin Nation" arc of Superior Spider Man when Jameson prioritizes using the Spider-Slayers on Spidey over using them to get rid of the Goblins. She quits on the spot in protest. idt he's a hero? sources online seem to describe him as villainous to anti-heroicGlory: Jonah! Are you serious? The city's under attack. Peter could be dead... and all you care about is some old vendetta?!Jonah: Glory—Glory: No. Don't even. I'm done, Jonah. With this administration... and with you! Your wife's dying wish was for you to let go of your hate. If you won't do it for her... you never will.
- Characters.Versailles: Against Louis via Philippe when news reaches Versailles that French forces have sacked a city in the Palatinate, her home and initially a French ally. It's Louis XIV, I don't think he's meant to be heroic even if he is the protag.
- ComicBook.Injustice 2: Self-Serving Memory: It seems the US government have this attitude towards Batman's confrontation with the now-deceased president in the previous prequel comic. One uses it to imply that Batman wanted the president dead, and when Batman tries to explain he confronted him to call him out for trying to pull an I Have Your Wife on Superman using his adoptive parents, which is valid, another senator can only retort that said president is not around to defend himself. president doesn't sound like a hero tbh.
- CreatorCouple.Music: Marvin Gaye's first, and famously troubled, marriage was to Anna Gordy, the elder sister of Motown Records' founder Berry Gordy. While it was a reasonable assumption that Gaye did it in order to get signed as a recording artist, especially considering Anna was 17 years older than him when they married, Anna did help him gain a contract with Motown and helped him work in the studio when he was "too lazy". So, what did Marvin do next? Openly had an affair with a woman 17 years younger than him which resulted in two children, dragged out the divorce proceedings for two years and proceeded to whine and bitch about how his wife was evil and shit on Here, My Dear (note: this doesn't necessarily mean that Here, My Dear is a bad album). What the fuck, hero? musician, not hero.
- Fanfic.Fuzzboy Total Pokemon Series: While not a hero by any definition, everyone was horrified upon learning that Dante beat Greta into a bad enough state that she would actually be medevaced if the hosts were allowed to have them.
- Film.Blast From The Past: Troy gives one to Eve for trying to send Adam to a crazy house. romcom love interest, not hero
- Film.Still Crazy: musicians/press, not heroes.
- Luke calls out the press for their relentless hounding of the Fruits after Brian returns.
- Les, after Ray rants about how Les worshipped Keith and the only way he could ever compete was to be dead too, Les responds, "It'd be a start."
- Tony chews Les and Beano out after they give interviews that imply the band dipped in quality after Keith's death, causing Ray to storm out in fury.
Tony: Chrissake. This was about us. This was our second shot, and it was working. Anybody who was at Antwerp saw it. We were fucking brilliant; we were better than we ever were. We were a great band. You stupid bastards, why couldn't you bury the past before it buried us?! - Film.The Guy From Harlem: Not long after in the film, his boss gives him a What the Hell, Hero? — and his response? "She was looking kinda horny." The character is described as a "White Mook", which...
- Film.Wyatt Earp: Wyatt gets this both from Mattie as their marriage deteriorates, and from Virgil's wife Allie who rips into Wyatt for leading the Earp family into a bad situation in Tombstone.
- HeelRealization.Live Action Films: Julianne in My Best Friend's Wedding realizes after her attempts to sabotage her best friend Michael's engagement to another woman named Kimberly cause Kimberly to run off crying and many other people to chew her out for her selfish actions that she's not the quirky female romance lead who proves that the male lead should be with her instead of her romantic rival, but the villain who tries to get in between the happy couple. She apologizes to Kimberly and admits, "I'm the bad guy," then lets her tie the knot with Michael. pretty much a villain protagonist.
- Literature.Book Of Romans: Paul chews out his readers for actually using this trope to others for doing the same thing they did in Romans 2: I... don't think this counts."And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?"
- Literature.The Dire Saga: Dire breaks down into shouting at the Tomorrow Force at the end of the first book for watching her fighting gangs to save the homeless people and doing nothing except trying to arrest her for the collateral damage.
- Manga.Zukos Story: When Guru Pahtik encounters Zuko, Zuko immediately assumes he's the Avatar and attacks him, even physically tackling him at a point. Once Iroh intervenes, Zuko snaps at Iroh, who had come to the guru's aid, only for Iroh to snap back that he was obviously not the Avatar, not even an Airbender, and there is no excusing harming an elder who's done no harm in return. Zuko may be the protag, but this is before his character development.
- Recap.How I Met Your Mother S 3 E 13 Ten Sessions: Everyone including Wendy the waitress gets mad at Barney for trying his magic tricks at the bar, especially since the trick involved fire and there was alcohol at the table. just a dude, not a hero.
- Recap.I Carly S 01 Ep 05 I Wanna Stay With Spencer: The first thing Granddad does to Spencer the moment Carly leaves is chew out his grandson for endangering Carly on her web show with his hammer fan. just a dude, not a heroGranddad: Are you out of your mind?!?
Spencer: I should have gotten the Strawberry 'Splat? - Series.Siberia: Esther gets this when her trick is exposed at the start of episode six. Reading the page, I really don't think she's a heroic character.
No in-universe call-out
- Evil Gloating: Or perhaps this is the place where they finally have a chance to get all the reasons they despise the hero personally off their chest. Any mistakes the hero makes are also fair game for villainous gloating.
- Animation.Beauty And Warrior: Batara just lets Mega take the magic sword even though it could mean The End of the World as We Know It.
- Anime.Metropolis 2001: The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The first thing Atlas and his worker rebellion does to fight against city corruption is shoot Pero who previously pleads to handle matters peacefully and questions the human tendency to settle disputes with mass violence before leading the revolution which leaves Metropolis and the worker class in tatters and ashes. Before his death, Atlas laments the entire revolution was a trap set by Duke Red to get rid of human opposition.
- Blog.Crucible: So far CRUX's audio recorded
threat against Dean takes the cake for being the most downright disturbing. - Characters.Shoebox Zoo: When she terrifies Becky by using her magic to revive a dead crow, sealing Bruno into a rock, framing Kyle for stealing the Arrow of Truth, torturing Wolfgang's spirit, trying to resurrect her mum, disintegrating Nathaniel. Yeah, Marnie does quite a lot of bad things in the second season, but has a Heel–Face Turn and becomes The Atoner.
- DarthWiki.Super High School Level Dangan Ronpa Roleplay:
- Tear Jerker: There's something upsetting about how quickly Louis' mood drops when Cassandra breaks his trust in the fifth trial.
- Louis gives this to much of the remaining cast in Chapter 6, who, after Cassandra revealed his false statement during the trial, collectively grabbed the Idiot Ball and decided to vote for him, despite the fact that they'd damn near figured the entire trial out at that point. When he turns out just fine, he's clearly pissed off, but it's unseen as of yet if this will affect his judgement throughout the final chapter. maybe not a hero?
- Film.Middle Man: Most people have the common sense not to shove a pillow into someone's face to stop their noise, but Lenny does not, judging from him killing Grail that way in the ending.
- Recap.Chronicles Of The Siren War Chapter 48: Downplayed Trope. Brooklyn wasn't accusing Thorson but just surprised that he has racial animosity towards Miles due to his race. straight-up says there's no accusation leveled
- Series.Pandora: Tom grows a grudge toward Jax when she uses him and his father in a dangerous situation solely to get information about the death of her parents.
- WesternAnimation.Winx Club: In the sixth episode of the first season, the girls go to Cloud Tower to retrieve Stella's ring. Rather than get the heck out of there, Bloom decides it's a good idea to go snooping around the library to find out about her past, despite Tecna warning her multiple times it's dangerous. Turns out she should've listened, as not only does the group get caught, they nearly get killed. Granted, that was Stella's doing (she mistakenly set the room on fire), but still.
Other misuse
- Abusive Parents.Batman: Batman himself sometimes dips into this, depending on the writer. All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder is the worst offender (the goddamm Batman forces 12-years-old Dick Grayson, age twelve, to live in the cave and eat rats), but it's sometimes seen in the regular universe as well. Bruce can go from the world's best father to the cruelest monster imaginable within 3 issues. seems like audience reaction
- Characters.Roulette Rampage Reloaded: IC and meta example, upon Kaitaro's verbal assault of several other characters. meta commentary from anonymous tumblr ask not allowedAnonymous: what the fuck
- Fanon.Naruto: Fanon also likes the idea that shopkeepers conspired to overcharge Naruto or deny him service or flat out sell him low-quality/spoiled goods. In (anime) canon, Naruto does get kicked out of a store once, but it's for reading pin-up magazines without any intention of paying for them and not for being who he is. And Naruto forgives all of them anyway despite not knowing why he was abused in the first place. Unless, it's Team 7. And despite this the Sandaime does nothing but cry and contemplate on his failure. text seems irrelevant?
- Manga.Ice Revolution: Masaki pulls a What the Hell, Hero? on herself after she tells Saaya in a fit of jealous rage"I wish your leg never healed.". She clearly regrets the words the instant they leave her mouth and she later apologizes profusely after crying her heart out to her mentor over it. Can someone do this to themselves?
- Myth.Celtic Mythology: Rape as Drama: Cú Chulainn rapes Aoife (tends to be Bowdlerized, to avoid What the Hell, Hero?), and she also pays back in spades (see above "Law of Fertility" entry). WTHH would probably be audience reaction?
- NightmareFuel.Deltarune VHS: —> You didn't accept the deal. You didn't accept the deal. You didn't accept the deal." I'm pretty sure the call-out needs to be about a legit grievance, which isn't the case here from what I can tell.
- Recap.Little House On The Prairie S 8 E 3 Dark Sage: Dr. Baker, who is clearly uncomfortable with Dr. LeDoux because he's black and winds up giving him menial tasks. used as audience reaction, seemingly
- Recap.Outlander S 2 E 13 Dragonfly In Amber: Brianna gives one to Claire after she discovers that Claire had lied about Brianna's parentage. From what I can tell, while Claire is the hero and did lie, Brianna blows the situation out of proportion and won't listen to the actual explanation, so I'm not sure Claire is actually meant to be seen as the one in the wrong.
- UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.Video Games:
- VideoGame.Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: One reason that the whole game was criticised back in 2003 was that viewers thought none of the protagonists were very sympathetic....On top of that, the kids basically wish for their classmates to freeze to death in the snow, and beat their corpses up for the hell of it. audience reaction
- Life Is Strange: Chloe Price, to a faction of the notoriously Broken Base. The entire game revolves around Max's reconnection with her, in the form of Chloe dying and Max using her rewind powers to save her life. While she is supposed to be seen as flawed, her tragic backstory and Broken Bird tendencies aren't necessarily enough to redeem her selfish, arrogant attitude, or her tendency to do stupid things that get her killed. One infamous example was when David caught her with her weed, and if Max didn't hide, she'd immediately throw Max under the bus, but if the player denied it, the game will basically guilt trip you for letting Chloe get in trouble. game shames player?
- VideoGame.Puggsy: Shellfish, monkeys, starfish, witches, grizzly/mining bears, fish, raccoons... all members of the animal kingdom hate you and want to kill you. Except frogs and cabaret dancers. And that doesn't even consider the non-living things. I... what?
ZCE
- ComicBook.Axis: Genesis gets a good one of these on Cyclops and Havok in Issue #1.
- DarthWiki.Bloodline: Aeldra Delvorne is more altruistic. She has elements of Superman and Captain America in that regard. She will kill as necessary but she has a moral code. She doesn't kill innocents, the unarmed, etc. Frequently tosses What the Hell, Hero? to her older sister.
- Film.Brassed Off: When Phil is hospitalised in the same place Danny is in, the latter is understandably upset with what his son did.
- Heartwarming.Soul Chess: Gin’s speech to Rangiku after she delivers her What the Hell, Hero? moment to him.
- Heartwarming.What We Do In The Shadows 2019: Guillermo's What the Hell, Hero? moment in Episode 4 — and (almost) everything that follows.
- Literature.Wishful Thinking: Miles - see Two-Timer Date above. can't cite a diff entry
- Manga.The Wallflower: Takenaga (and Auntie, and everyone who was there and didn't try to stop them), in the Rape by Proxy example.
- Pantheon.Magic Mixed: Off-hand mention in Dumbledore's bio.
- Theatre.Mean Girls: Janis's reprise of "Someone Gets Hurt."
- VideoGame.Xenogears: Fei does this not once, but twiceto Elly when it comes to just what she's doing while she stays in Gebler.
- VisualNovel.Zero Escape: You have the opportunity to make choices that the other characters don't like. You usually have to do these things at some point in order to get the final ending.
- WebOriginal.Vresun Ciraian Ruins: Lynn's reaction to Shane having faked his death is effectively this. Shane tries to play this off as a heroic act however.
Unclear/Unsortable
- ARG.Hunt The Truth: Petra gets very upset with Ben after he recorded a conversation of them without her permission and uploaded it to his public audio journal. A conversation where she averted ONI surveillance and they discussed things considered treasonous. She compares it to pointing a gun at someone's face... and points her own gun at his face to make her point. is an investigative journalist uncovering the truth a hero?
- BlackComedy.Web Original: unsure how to deal with these.
- In one blog, Deadcoders Reviews used What the Hell, Hero? to call out two characters for murdering their child, but in the next blog, a joke was made about killing a child, meaning that this was both Dead Baby Comedy and Brick Joke.
- In the wake of the Haitian earthquake, an image of one of the delapidated areas was passed around with the caption - "Hold F11 - if you laugh, you're a horrible person."note
- Blog.Things Mr Welch Is No Longer Allowed To Do In An RPG: If the Solar cringes, it's time to reassess my alignment. ?????
- Characters.Grid Warrior: This thing contains a lot of energy. But it can't use that energy to attack. Good thing you can absorb the energy from these things, you sick bastard. game calls out player for killing foe
- Characters.Marvel Comics Marvels: '90s Anti-Hero: Zigzagged. Despite originating in the 90s, he wasn’t much of one with his only crime being that he abused his power and got revenge on a bully that the Silver Surfer disapproved of. Dialed to 11 during his insanity. do you think this needs more context?
- Characters.The Magic Roundabout: In the CGI Series, Florence would have to put her foot down with Dougal at times if he did something wrong which involve his nefarious schemes or selfish acts that caused trouble or discomfort for others. can a Brit weigh in on Dougal's hero/villain status?
- Characters.Wolverines: She gets a mild one from Storm in issue 6 asking her why she's with the likes of Sabretooth and Mystique. is that question enough to count?
- Fanfic.Rise Of The Unicorn: Banagher gives one to Chifuyu Orimura of all people when he thinks she is taking Cecilia's injuries too lightly. Orimura had to threaten him as a last resort to put him under control. Are they a hero? Page doesn't make it clear.
- Literature.Sphere: Ted is astonished when everyone decides the mission is over because the ship isn't truly extra-terrestrial, "just" an American / Japanese spaceship from the future. Ted, who always believed that alien life existed but was skeptical of time travel, felt that the ship was now an even greater discovery. Okay, and? Are they called out? Did they do anything wrong?
- NightmareFuel.Kamen Rider Ex Aid: When you take him seeing Emu as a "friend" into account, it gets rather Squicky. You now have a Psychopathic Manchild trying to make you happy by forcing you to become unhappy so that you'll fight him, all the while wondering why you're unhappy with him. It paints Parado as an incredibly eldritch Stalker without a Crush. the guy doing the calling-out doesn't seem to have a sound mind?
- PlayingWith.Put On A Bus: Diane's house is frequently destroyed as a Running Gag. After Diane moves away, Charles demolishes the house as a prank, and then remembers that Diane moved away. Alice and Bob react badly, e.g. "You fool! Now no one can move into Diane's house!" "We were hoping to befriend our new neighbor." No morality can be determined in this hypothetical.
- Recap.Birds Of A Feather S 3 E 12 Business: Tracey calls out Sharon for becoming selfish and demanding after taking over the café. Sharon and Tracy are both protagonists, but I'm not sure if they're necessarily meant to be heroic.
- Recap.Glee S 5 E 16 Tested: Sam goes ballistic on Artie after he finds out the latter hasn't been using condoms, calling him out on how thoroughly stupid this is. So do Kurt and Blaine, but they're a bit gentler about it, since they figure getting chlamydia and having to tell his partners he has chlamydia is punishment enough. Another example where I don't know if Artie is meant to be "heroic" or just one of the main characters.
- Recap.Jessica Jones 2015 S 2 E 4 AKA God Help The Hobo: Due to Jessica's actions in the previous episode, Trish's reputation is damaged and she is continually harassed by Paparazzi. She makes her promise never to do something like that again. unsure if that equals call-out?
- Recap.Mash S 8 E 19 Morale Victory: Charles, Margaret and Potter all chew B.J. and Hawkeye out for giving Klinger a three-day pass so he has no incentive to come back (to give Charles the music he asked for and Margaret the cosmetics she wanted for her nurses). are field surgeons heroes? probably, right?
- Recap.Tangled The Series S 1 E 08 Great Expotations: Rapunzel calls out Cassandra when she chose to be the fill-in royal guard for the visiting scientist rather than keep her promise of being Varian's assistant after he sacrificed his time to help her finish her handmaiden duties. reapunzel's handmaiden. hero? idk
- Recap.Warframe: After the Mandachord is assembled, Suda sends the Tenno off to gather pieces of a song called "Octavia's Anthem", using an Orokin instrument called a "Hydraulus" to gather the song's fragments. As she does this, her behavior becomes more erratic and forgetful, prompting Simaris to declare that her strand of Data-Alzheimer's is dangerous not only to herself, but the entire Cephalon Weave, and demands that the Tenno and Cephalon Ordis abort their mission and disconnect Suda from the Weave; prompting Ordis to tear Simaris a new one. Can't tell how heroic Simaris is.
- Series.Waiting For God: The arc in which Diana manages to finally drive Harvey Baines mad. Harvey's faking it, of course, but the backlash against Diana is considerable. Can't tell if this is called out or not.
- TearJerker.Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: The August 22, 2021 episode is bittersweet. It's the last episode before John gets to return to the regular studio with a live audience for the first time since the pandemic started, but it examines America's 20-year war in Afghanistan, and apart from Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who was among the very few that foresaw the turmoil that ensued, he doesn't spare anybody from blame, including President Biden, as John's appalled by Biden's indifference to the plight of Afghan refugees, referring to the botched withdrawal as "a stain on [his] legacy". should a head of state be considered a hero?
- WebAnimation.Super Hero Bowl: After Quicksilver inadvertently eliminates her, Mystique calls him out on his stupidity before dropping down dead, much to the embarrassment of Scarlet Witch. Quicksilver is indeed a hero, but this is a show about a free-for-all with various heroes, and I'm not sure stupidity alone counts here.
- Webcomic.A Miracle Of Science: Caprice immediately calls Benjamin out on his plan to escape Haas' attack on their ship by blasting up five civilian ships and killing a few hundred people. This may or may not have been foreshadowing. From the page alone it's hard to tell how heroic Ben is meant to be.
- Website.Fifteen Dot AI: After Soldier teleports himself back to base during the store riot to escape arrest and accidentally brings the other rioters with him, Spy snaps and brutally lays into him after Soldier demands respect as a patriotic American. He regrets it a few seconds later after his teammates call him out. This is the only mention of "Soldier" on the page, so I don't know his morality.
- WebVideo.Winter Of 83: Deputy Blair point-blank accuses Mayor Daniels of sending the police department out to die by having them go to Scott's Manor. Mayor Daniels doesn't seem heroic, but it's not entirely clear.
