This trope is just confusing. The title is an obvious oxymoron, considering that hero is defined as "person who does good" and evil is... well, its antonym. The trope spends the first paragraph explaining that it's a bad title before getting to the point.
The core of the trope is this:
There are others that people almost instantly identify with heroism: police officers, soldiers, park rangers, doctors, presidents and the like, viewing them as the kind of humans that they would want their kids to grow up to be, so they can live successful and promising lives and still be seen as heroes (no powers recommended).
In other words, it's trying to be a Super-Trope where people in occupations that are conventionally seen as good are in fact really villains.
Next it starts to describe the trope as Trope A meets Trope B (specifically, Designated Hero meets Villain with Good Publicity), which is usually a red flag for duplication problems. Designated Hero is when a character who is treated by the narrative as unambiguously good is regarded unfavorably by the audience because their in-story actions don't bear this out. Clearly this has no real relation to the definition the trope is using of an unambiguous in-story villain hiding their true nature with a heroic job. Villain with Good Publicity looks more like the trope this is trying to be, which is "villain who uses a beloved position to further their evil actions".
Also, some of those examples seem more about villains who simply work within the legal system as opposed to villains who work in stereotypically "heroic" jobs. The evil executive and sinister government are almost Cliches in fiction. Armies Are Evil and President Evil are also common tropes, so I question the trope's notion that soldiers and presidents are automatically assumed to be good as well.
This doesn't appear to have gone through YKTTW. It has gained only 16 wicks after its creation in 2012, but has a surprising number of inbounds with 292. Despite that, I don't think there's anything worth salvaging here. It's as if someone tried to duplicate Villain with Good Publicity but with a much murkier definition.
edited 18th May '16 6:40:46 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
This trope is just confusing. The title is an obvious oxymoron, considering that hero is defined as "person who does good" and evil is... well, its antonym. The trope spends the first paragraph explaining that it's a bad title before getting to the point.
The core of the trope is this:
But... as we have seen before, that is not always the case.
In other words, it's trying to be a Super-Trope where people in occupations that are conventionally seen as good are in fact really villains.
Next it starts to describe the trope as Trope A meets Trope B (specifically, Designated Hero meets Villain with Good Publicity), which is usually a red flag for duplication problems. Designated Hero is when a character who is treated by the narrative as unambiguously good is regarded unfavorably by the audience because their in-story actions don't bear this out. Clearly this has no real relation to the definition the trope is using of an unambiguous in-story villain hiding their true nature with a heroic job. Villain with Good Publicity looks more like the trope this is trying to be, which is "villain who uses a beloved position to further their evil actions".
The examples on the page aren't any clearer. It varies from Nominal Hero (the superheroes in The Boys) to Corrupt Corporate Executive (the bad guys in Avatar) to The Government (the British cabinet in A Clockwork Orange) to The Empire / Knight Templar (the empire of Man in Warhammer 40,000).
Also, some of those examples seem more about villains who simply work within the legal system as opposed to villains who work in stereotypically "heroic" jobs. The evil executive and sinister government are almost Cliches in fiction. Armies Are Evil and President Evil are also common tropes, so I question the trope's notion that soldiers and presidents are automatically assumed to be good as well.
This doesn't appear to have gone through YKTTW. It has gained only 16 wicks after its creation in 2012, but has a surprising number of inbounds with 292. Despite that, I don't think there's anything worth salvaging here. It's as if someone tried to duplicate Villain with Good Publicity but with a much murkier definition.
edited 18th May '16 6:40:46 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"