History Main / AHeroToHisHometown

* Gavrilo Princip is a hero in Serbia, with a statue in East Sarajevo. He is regarded there as a tyrant-killing liberator who paid the ultimate price for freedom. The rest of the world remembers him as the murderous terrorist who started the First World War.

* ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}, not that he's done much good for his people, but they accept his rule anyway. It's everyone else refusing to follow him willingly that makes him search for an anti life equation.
-->'''Darkseid:''' I am many things, Kal-El, but here, I am god.
* There was one ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' story where ComicBook/LexLuthor took over a planet and became a hero to the population living there. He was still considered a super villain to the rest of the universe.
* The Warbound of Sakaar were no longer this on a technicality. The United States destroyed their hometown, but they were heroes there before then and [[Comicbook/WorldWarHulk their invasion]] makes sense.

* ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} is considered either a joke or a threat by the public at large, but the people of Amnesty Bay love and respect him.

* Even at ''ComicBook/BlackAdam'''s most villainous, the people of Kahndaq looks to him as their protector, since any action he takes, even siding with villains, is to protect them.

* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'': If the title of the film and its presence on this page weren't enough to tell you, Team America is an example. Some of the antagonists are trying to undermine their popularity at home too.

-->Take Sir Francis Drake; The Spanish all despise him,
-->but to the British he's a hero and they idolize him.
-->It's how you look at buccaneers that makes them bad or good,
-->and I see us as members of a noble brotherhood.

* Tom Wachowski from ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020''. Whenever something goes wrong in Green Hills, the first person called is usually Tom. Tom, however, doesn't feel the same way, feeling that he's nothing more than a glorified babysitter. [[spoiler:When Robotnik has Sonic and Tom dead to rights in the finale, the townspeople of Green Hills unite to protect their sheriff, which finally gets Tom to see the positive impact he has on their community and stay with his hometown]].

* In ''Literature/TheThreeWorldsCycle'', Rulke is a genocidal nutcase hated by everyone on Santhenar, including his old allies the Zain (who he betrayed). The race known as [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy the Whelm]], who flocked to him as their leader, still cherish the memory of him as their strongest leader, even after the mantle of their ruler is taken by someone else.

* Aral Vorkosigan in ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' is considered a war criminal by many offworlders because he was held responsible for an atrocity on Komarr, which was in truth the act of a subordinate; Aral was never able to completely clear his name, partly because he ''felt'' responsible for allowing it to happen behind his back but mainly because the subordinate in question didn't live to be court-martialled when his commander found out what had been done in his name. On Barrayar, while it took him a number of years to overcome the black mark on his record, he is respected enough to hold the office of regent to the child Emperor without significant opposition for decades.

* Invoked on ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' when Kim is defending Huell, a not-too-bright pickpocket who accidentally assaulted a police officer and faces a long prison term. She has Jimmy travel all the way to Huell's hometown of Coushatta, Louisiana and mail out dozens of letters supposedly written by members of a local church congregation. The letters paint Huell as a man who is beloved in his hometown because of the many good deeds he has done, including rescuing a number of elderly people from a fire. Then he sets up dozens of cell phones and pretends to be said churchgoers when the A.D.A. calls the phone numbers provided in the letters. The prosecutor decides that the public backlash from prosecuting someone with such a good reputation is not worth it and agrees to a plea deal where Huell is sentenced to time served.

* Ravana is well-liked in his native Sri Lanka. In stark contrast to his portrayal as a demonic emperor in ''{{Literature/Ramayana}}'', he's regarded as a scholarly king who functioned as a ScienceHero with fantastic inventions and development for his people.

* The so called Demon Lord of the ''VideoGame/TalesOf'' series is considered to be a wise and just ruler by his subjects and is willing to do anything to ensure their survival, including destroying your player character's world.
* Nascour is set up to take all the heat for the criminal organization Cipher in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum''. Since you fight him in an arena filled with members of Cipher, though, everyone cheers for him.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', it's stated the only way citizens of the Kriken empire can earn respect is by discovering revolutionary technology or by helping to conquer a planet, and most choose the latter. It's also stated the Krikens are one of the most hated factions because of this, so the successful Krikens aren't getting much respect from anyone but other Krikens.
* One fan theory is that ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' enemy Bowser only leads invasions into the Mushroom Kingdom and tries to force a marriage with Peach because his land is barren and he wants better property for his people. What supports this is that in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' and the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' games, it is shown that his subjects continue to follow him out of genuine respect despite his failures, and he does come across as a reasonable (if incompetent) authority figure when dealing with them.
* Hawke in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''. After becoming Champion of Kirkwall, he/she is respected and even idolized by the general public, while various powerful factions and foreign powers see him/her as a destabilizing influence after the whole [[spoiler:mage rebellion thing]] at the end.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem''

* Amos in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' protects the town of Scrimsley from monsters, and the townspeople adore him for all he does for them. [[spoiler:Even after he develops an InvoluntaryShapeshifting problem, the townspeople are still extremely protective of him, as he doesn't cause too much damage in his nightly rampages.]]
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, the [[ImpossibleThief legendary thief]] Rajhin is still beloved by the [[CatFolk Khajiit]] people, even hundreds of years after his death. He is considered a folk hero and, possibly, even a demigod. Given that the Khajiit are a very [[CombatPragmatist pragmatic]] race with no word for "rules" [[LanguageEqualsThought in their language]], it should not come as a surprise that a legendary thief is beloved by them.

* Jin Sakai is this by the end of ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima''. Though his actions as [[TerrorHero The Ghost]] crippled the Mongol invasion and saved Tsushima, the shogun dissolves the Sakai clan and brands Jin a traitor.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', [[Characters/Ben10Vilgax Vilgax]] is well known as a ruthless alien warlord. In his own planet (where the people renamed the world after him), he is considered their leader and world champion. He is a genuinely good leader and when his world was attacked under Ghostfreak, he was willing to beg his archfoe Ben for help.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' the group visit a town called Chin Village that hates the Avatar, and his previous incarnations, and arrest Aang for killing their founder Chin the Great. In reality Chin was a tyrant who conquered half of the Earth Kingdom, and Avatar Kyoshi simply avoided fighting him while he fell to his death in the resulting earthquake he was too stubborn to run away (Aang thinks [[TechnicalPacifist that makes a difference]], but Kyoshi herself disagrees).
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', [[Characters/StevenUniverseJasper Jasper]] spends most of her on-screen ternure depicted as the most outright villainous of the [[AlienInvasion homeworld gems]], someone who's actually vicious for its own sake and [[MeanBoss a jerk even to her allies]], up until her [[AvengingTheVillain motivations]] and [[TragicVillain backstory]] are revealed. Right afterwards, we meet a group of adorable mooks from homeworld who admire her & fangirl about her, indicating that she is considered a famous, inspirational hero back in TheEmpire, underlining the general WarIsHell motif of season 3 by showcasing how [[FantasticCasteSystem for all their bigoted beliefs]], the homeworld gems are still ''people''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', Vilgax is well known as a ruthless alien warlord. In his own planet (where the people renamed the world after him), he is considered their leader and world champion. He is a genuinely good leader and when his world was attacked under Ghostfreak, he was willing to beg his archfoe Ben for help.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', [[TheBrute Jasper]] spends most of her on-screen ternure depicted as the most outright villainous of the [[AlienInvasion homeworld gems]], someone who's actually vicious for its own sake and [[MeanBoss a jerk even to her allies]], up until her [[AvengingTheVillain motivations]] and [[TragicVillain backstory]] are revealed. Right afterwards, we meet a group of adorable mooks from homeworld who admire her & fangirl about her, indicating that she is considered a famous, inspirational hero back in TheEmpire, underlining the general WarIsHell motif of season 3 by showcasing how [[FantasticCasteSystem for all their bigoted beliefs]], the homeworld gems are still ''people''.

* UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin owes his popularity in Russia to similar reasons. He's seen as the man who saved them from the bad times of TheNineties and restored Russia to a respected great nation. Interestingly enough, for a while his reputation in the West was also positive, with President Bush being friendly with him, but that changed as US-Russia relations worsened largely as a result of NATO enlargement.

** Micaiah in Part III of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn''. She's despised by the Laguz Alliance [[spoiler:for trying to trap their army between hers and Begnion's without warning, and later crippling the Apostle's Army by ambushing them in a canyon and almost ''burning them alive'']], yet the people of Daien, due to her role as the spearhead of Daien's liberation, revere her to the point of fanaticism.
** Veronica in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' is the princess of Emblanian Empire who led the invasion to the home kingdom of the protagonists, using subjugated spirits of ''Fire Emblem'' series characters as foot soldiers. Yet her subjects cheer on her conquest, the people she conquered are treated justly like any of her citizens, and said spirits she subjugated grow fond of her. It's to the point that [[spoiler:when her cousin Letizia attempts to have her executed on trumped up charges to take Embla's throne, the Emblanian people raise up in rebellion because they won't suffer slanders on their princess]].