Heroes with bad publicity in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Played straight then subverted in Amazing Fantasy. Peter had it rough starting out as J.J.J. ran his classic smear campaign against Spidey. But after decades of saving the day over and over, people wised up and began supporting Spider-Man wholeheartedly while the Daily Bugle was forced to tone down its blatant bias against him.
- Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak: Despite making a glowing first impression as a Kamen Rider, the media quickly pry into David's private life and discover his XBD tapes. It isn't long before Night City knows him as both a teenage superhero wunderkind and a horny gonk who lucked his way into an executive position at one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: The titular Dungeon Keeper. It's hard being taken seriously as a defender of the innocent when all other Dungeon Keepers are Evil Overlords by nature.
- The Fallout: Equestria universe has this in the form of Rainbow Dash, to the Grand Pegasus Enclave. After the balefire apocalypse that destroyed the world ended, the pegasi decided to stay up in the clouds instead of going back down to try and help Equestria recover. Rainbow Dash (who during the war and after it was a national hero due to being on the front lines and leading an elite pegasus unit) was sickened by their decision and eventually went back down to the surface to try and help. As this could be a devastating PR blow for the Enclave if one of their own leaders said that they all sucked for their actions, they instead declared that she was a traitor (and she's still thought as one even after two hundred years) and attempted to have her hunted down (by Gilda, no less!) so that her head could be brought back. We never find out whether she lived or died, though after she left, every pegasus that leaves the Enclave is branded with her cutie mark and given the label "Dashite", though many take it as a badge of pride because they're not as selfish and arrogant as the Enclave.
- Kage: Jade becomes this when she arrives on Meridian, due to a combination of the Guardians and rebels' prejudices and misconceptions, actions by the Queen, and Nerissa's lies.
- Mass Effect: Human Revolution: Adam. Even accounting for Udina's distorted views, much of (or at least the most noticeable factions of) humanity consider Adam to be "a walking war crime", despite his actions on Elysium. Also, Tali.
- In Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations
, Mitsuzane Kureshima considers himself to be this, but more of a broken scrappy example. - The Doom Slayer gets this treatment at the end of the Steel Sabers Arc in My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator. Despite leading a one man operation that led to zero civilian and hero deaths, both sides of the spectrum want him off the streets. The League of Villains want him dead for ripping off Shigaraki's arm, sabotaging their plans and outright causing a total disruption in All for One's plans. While the Heroes want him off the streets for the slaughter of the Sabers, putting forty eight heroes in the hospital and unintentionally breaking Ragdoll's sanity. The Slayer, however, doesn't give two shits about what the public thinks. For him, the main things he needs to deal with are eliminating the League of Villains, upgrade his gear, and then figure out where to go from there.
- The Night Unfurls:
- Subverted for The Dreaded Anti-Hero Kyril. He believes himself to be an object of ill repute, often internally noting the way people stare at him and how his actions irk most of the nobility. In reality, he is lionised by the common folk and his soldiers. Moreover, his reputation among the knights and the nobility turns out to be more divisive than outright hated. Roland's narration sheds light on this.Kyril Sutherland was a divisive figure amongst the nobility, compared to the common folk who lionized the man. Some nobles thought him an upstart, a foreigner with the ear of the Goddess Reincarnated herself? That was unthinkable in and of itself. Especially since he was also a staunch ally of the former Dark Queen, Olga Discordia who was once the Goddess's greatest enemy and someone not to be trusted.
His brutal countenance and refusal to uphold the ideals of Chivalry was also a contentious issue for many knights. Few dared to openly challenge him, for it was said that Kyril Sutherland could sense malice of any sort. The fact that he had also bested Claudia Levantine, who was Ken's strongest knights was also something that mitigated the nobility's ire towards the man. He got results, that was all that mattered to most of them. - Kyril briefly discusses this trope during his conversation with Shalala regarding his reputation.Shalala: Many look up to you as a savior, Sir Kyril.
Kyril: And others look down upon me as a mad dog held to Celestine's side by a leash. I'd prefer it that way actually, it's easier to move.
- Subverted for The Dreaded Anti-Hero Kyril. He believes himself to be an object of ill repute, often internally noting the way people stare at him and how his actions irk most of the nobility. In reality, he is lionised by the common folk and his soldiers. Moreover, his reputation among the knights and the nobility turns out to be more divisive than outright hated. Roland's narration sheds light on this.
- In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, the Citadel Council is aware this can happen and hopes to avert it by exploiting the inverse of The Greatest Story Never Told. Otherwise, widespread knowledge of Samantha Shepard's previous actions could result in a full-on application of this trope, undermining their war effort by knocking their preferred agent down a peg. They, being politicians, don't want to catch blame.
- The Pros and Cons to living a triple life: On top of the canon examples from Persona 5, Kamoshida attempts to turn Sora and Riku into this by having Mishima spread rumours about their living situation with Kairi, who is also subjected to rumours of sleeping around behind Sora's back. It works at first, but between Makoto investigating them by spending the night at their apartment and Sora getting more positive attention with his attempt to save Shiho and his success with the Culinary Arts Club, the rumours die down quickly and are all but forgotten about after Kamoshida's change of heart.
- Downplayed in Scion of Sorcery. Stephen Strange and the Mystics of Kamar-Taj are considered "Dark Wizards" and criminals under the Ministry of Magic's definition of such, and thus are feared by Magical Britain. Everywhere else though, Stephen Strange is considered a hero by No-Maj Society and is an ally to Magical Congress.
- A Shadow of the Titans: Due to her short temper during her interactions with the Titans and the random Jerkass civilians of Jump City, Jade ends up being labeled a public threat. And matters aren't helped any by her having to pretend to be a villain so that the HIVE doesn't kill her.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: Played straight with Peter's home dimension, as Jameson made sure that he was rarely seen by the public as anything but a threat/menace. Averted, however, in Gotham; Spider-Man introduces himself to the public by stopping a runaway monorail and preventing a disaster. From that moment on, the press is singing his praises.
- In Spider-X, Peter falls victim to this on a few occasions due to the Daily Bugle, and naturally the X-Men get dragged into it when they go public.
- A Supe of a Man: Zig-Zagged, while Superman is a beloved hero to the public, due to the corruption and cynicism in the world of The Boys (2019), Clark is seen by Vought (including his own aunt) and those who are aware of the true nature of Supes in general as a corrupt monster who hides behind a clean facade.
- In Thieves Can Be Heroes!, Izuku is subject to the fate of the Persona 5 protagonist, being vilified for a crime he didn't commit. Notably, he has it worse than Joker does, as Izuku's reputation only worsens after Kamoshida's confession because the student body accuses him of having a brainwashing Quirk. This is on top of the usual ridicule he gets for being Quirkless.
- A wand for Steven: Given the Ministry's policies on nonhumans and Minister Fudge's bitterness towards Dumbledore, the Daily Prophet is used to slander Steven, questioning if he should even be allowed in Hogwarts in the first place for his half-human physiology.
- In The Weaving Force, Taylor, as usual. The events of becoming Khepri and what she’d had to do to survive up till that point have left her mind constantly full of fear and hatred and sorrow because of everything she’s gone through. As such, many other Jedi in the temple are constantly thinking that her falling to the dark side is inevitable because of feeling her dark emotions in the force.
- In Weight of the World, Yang is manipulated into attacking Alfred (who she hallucinated as Neo) on live TV, beating him before shooting him in the stomach and painting herself as a murderous, violent monster. In The Depths of Deception, this causes a barkeep and other travelers to fear and mistrust Yang. Last they knew she was sitting in jail awaiting trial, so they believe she is running to Mistral's criminal underground to escape justice. Yang uses her "criminal past" to get into Kuchinashi to look for Neo without raising suspicion.
- Many people on Remnant hate, fear, or shun Pyrrha because they think she wanted to win the Tournament so badly she purposely killed Penny. Some civilians also blame her for kickstarting the fall of Beacon. It's so bad the passengers on the airship get the crew to kick Pyrrha off, much to RNJR and the nations' disgust. Pyrrha wears a hoodie in an attempt to stop people from recognizing her due to this.
- The Cutting Edge;
- The Hood appears content to be this; even Batman was initially unaware of what happened to the money the Hood took from Thomas Elliot, but once Black Canary explains that it was donated to the victims of the Nodell Tower Fire the Dark Knight acknowledges that people wouldn't want to admit they received compensation under such circumstances.
- After the mob war, Moira encourages Tempest's media contacts to make all the vigilantes this, feeling that the group should work to render the vigilantes ineffective and encourage their own views of social reform.
- Played with in What It Takes; as far as the police and politicians are concerned, Black Canary is Public Enemy Number 1, but as far as the average citizen is concerned (especially those from the Glades), she is the only one keeping them safe from Damien Darhk's expanding control of the city.
- Resurrected Memories: Ember has this problem following her Heel–Face Turn since Team Phantom still considers her to be an enemy, though this is Played With since Ember’s human identity Amberline is very popular around Casper High. This very nearly costs her everything once Danny learns the truth about "Amberline".
- Light Yagami/Kougoukan in Sex Note. While many women's groups on the Internet like Kougoukan, the police and a lot of guys do not. Chief Souichiro Yagami assumes that Kougoukan must be a terrorist of the highest order who is out to embarrass the police because their can't be such corruption in his department! Also, like in canon, some people hail Light's alter ego as a savior but since he's not ruling by fear there are even more public dissenters calling Kougoukan's works the work of the devil.
- In Digimon Adventure 02: The Story We Never Told, while the citizens treats the "monsters" as heroes, the experts and higher ups continue to remain suspicious of these "monsters" and urge to to stay cautious around them. Lampshaded by Salamon upon hearing the news:
- In Backwards With Purpose, Harry, especially by third year. By fifth year, Harry is an outright criminal in the world's eyes, but after Voldemort's return is revealed, he manages to earn his reputation back.
- Reformed, Returned and Really Trying features an old friend of Dumbledore that reacts to news of his death by coming to Britain with a group of volunteers to take down Voldemort. However, they have a horrible reputation that is entirely earned, due them being Gellert Grindelwald trying to atone for his past misdeeds by annihilating Voldemort, the last survivors of his old followers, and a growing number of volunteers that believe Britain will be the first step on taking over the world to spread equality between all magicals (many of the volunteers are indeed Muggleborns). This leads to France and Poland sending their own forces to help the Ministry (that they have no idea has fallen to Voldemort) defeat their ancient enemy before he can amass sufficient power. Grindelwald's troubles in avoiding war crimes don't help his case.
- In Valkyrie on Fire, Glimmer falls victim to this once she returns to District 1, as the Academy and other Victors go to great lengths to claim that she isn't a 'real' Victor due to the unconventional nature of her victory, with the result that Glimmer can't even follow the example of other Victors and teach at the Academy.
- In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, as of episode 11, ProtoMan is this, with 68% of New York distrusting him.
- Bakery "Enemies": Adrien Agreste is one of the heroes who took down the dreaded Hawkmoth... but people only know him as the son of Hawkmoth.
- Break it down, Butterfly: Since he has the same powers and butterfly motif as the very supervillain that has been terrorizing Paris all of this time, Vrai Papillon naturally has a hard time getting on everybody's good side, people from the press to Ladybug and Chat Noir are naturally suspicious of him and assume he is just Hawk Moth venturing onto the frontline.
- Cheshire:
- Played With for Marinette as Cheshire. While the citizens of Paris view her as nothing less than heroic, the other Miraculous Holders (including the Big Bad) are convinced that she's a Villain with Good Publicity who is working towards some secret agenda, since every previous Black Cat holder abused their power for evil to the point that its kwami Plagg is just assumed to be The Corruptor (if not actively choosing terrible users For the Evulz).
- Misterbug (Adrien) and Pegasus (Max) are this to the people of Paris, due to attacking the much-beloved Cheshire right after she helped them to defeat an akuma. Even the akumas call the other holders villains, and are disgusted by their behavior when they aren't deciding to take advantage of it. Later "allies" do not help: King Monkey (Kim) is hit hard with this after he attacks Cheshire just she was about to fix the city with Catastrophe, while Queen Bee (Chloe) is a Attention Whore that cares more for what the press says about her than the akuma victims, who she openly mocks on social media.
- Crimson and Noire: Lady Noire aka Marinette is viewed with distrust by most of Paris after she inadvertently destroyed an entire stadium while trying to slow down Stoneheart, with most people seeing her as a Destructive Savior or a menace herself. She does have a few supporters like Crimson Beetle, Ivan, and Juleka, but the bad publicity does take a toll on her self-confidence. Her reputation improves as she continues to stop the Akumas and shows better control and use of her Cataclysm.
- Hop to It has Rabbit, an American Miraculous holder who used to be about as accepted in Los Angeles as Ladybug and Chat Noir are in Paris. However, around the time she moves to Paris, she accidentally acquires her partner's power, Dogstruction, which activates when she tries to use her own power of Lucky Strike. As such, her run through a Paris neighbourhood while trying to avoid an akuma results in her causing over a million dollars in property damage and several injuries. Chat Noir accepts her explanation quickly enough, as does Ladybug when Chat tells her, but Rabbit is first mistaken for an akuma by the media and then for a supervillain in her own right, earning the nickname "Jack Hammer". She does earn a few more defenders when she helps out civilians during the Road Rage attack, including Nino, but the media continue to question whether she's a hero or a menace. Alya even makes a Ladyblog video painting "Jack Hammer" as an agent of Hawk Moth, which persuades most of her class, some of whom have family members that were affected by the first "rampage". Alya eventually turns around on her after she helps save her from Cottontail and makes her a second video with the other heroes, but Rabbit still hasn't quite escaped her "Jack Hammer" reputation.
- Ruined With You has a variation where Chat Noir's publicity is still fine (partly because he hasn't done anything since he retired after Hawk Moth was captured) but Adrien's modelling career has suffered thanks to his association with his father, now a convicted supervillain, forcing him to leave Paris for two years just to find designers willing to work with him.
- Prompt: Self Destruction: While never outright shown in the one-shot, it's revealed that Adrien is now an outcast in his class due to knowing that Lila was lying but never exposing her from the start, unaware that as Chat Noir he and Marinette worked together to get Lila exposed in the first place. While both Marinette and Plagg are worried about it, Chat sees this as a "worthy" punishment for his civilian self due to failing Marinette with his high road advice, especially as his own mind deteriorates to view his civilian self in a worse light than what actually happened.
- Scarlet Lady: When he and Scarlet Lady start out as heroes, Scarlet Lady (here Chloe with the Ladybug Miraculous (which she stole from Marinette's purse)) does the bare minimum in fights but soaks up the attention from adoring Parisians while downplaying Chat Noir's efforts. As the series goes on, though, people begin to notice Scarlet Lady's laziness/selfishness and give him more appreciation.
- Subverted with Marinette/Marigold. Even without a Miraculous, Marinette was getting involved in akuma fights (mainly to try and keep Alya out of danger) and doing more work than Scarlet Lady. When it becomes clear that Marinette is still worthy to be a Miraculous holder (and that Chat Noir needs a better partner than Scarlet Lady), Master Fu has Wayzz put the Bee Miraculous in Marinette's room. Marinette jumps at the chance and becomes Marigold. Because she does so much more to protect people and help in fights, people give her as much love and praise as they do Scarlet Lady (to Chloe's frustration).
- Inverted with Scarlet Lady herself in the last episode of the series. After her mother calls Chloe unexceptional, Chloe tries to prove otherwise by revealing (in front of a crowd) that she's Scarlet Lady, expecting to be swamped with fans... only to realize then that everyone hates both her secret identity and her hero one. The public, thanks to Alya's work on the Ladyblog, now sees Chloe/Scarlet Lady for the self-centered Attention Whore she truly is. She becomes a Bad Hero with Bad Publicity, and, rather than trying to own up to her mistakes or be a better hero (or give her Miraculous to someone more worthy of it), she gets akumatized. When Chat Noir and Ladygold (Marinette wielding both the Bee and Ladybug Miraculouses), defeat her, she demands her Miraculous back... only to be told no, officially ending her "hero" career. note
- Spots Off turns Marinette into one of these when Alya accidentally leaks Ladybug's identity. Once people learn that Ladybug is nothing more than a teenage middle-schooler, people start to slap her with the "Just a Kid" label, asking whether she is actually fit to protect Paris. It gets to the point where Mayor Bourgeois' more-powerful associates try to blackmail him into labeling Ladybug a vigilante, exposing her to legal consequences. Alya, for her part, takes it very poorly. Part of the fic deals with Marinette and company trying to get past this image.
- Tidal waves: Some of Adrien's more thoughtless actions as Chat Noir wind up damaging his reputation.
- Others at the statue unveiling witness him lying to Theo about his supposed relationship with Ladybug, as well as how this nearly gets the sculptor akumatized. Only Ladybug's presence and quick intervention prevent disaster, and the crowd glares at Chat Noir for his carelessness, with video evidence of the incident spreading online.
- Chat Noir is also caught on camera using his Cataclysm to destroy several billboards featuring ads for Gabriel Agreste, along with openly contemplating whether or not to destroy a Christmas tree before moving on to another billboard. This gets him into trouble when Gabriel finds out and deems him a menace, forcing him to try and explain his actions to the public.
- When Rena Rouge makes her debut, Chat complains that they don't need the extra help. Rena Rouge then reveals to him that many Parisians are convinced he doesn't take his job seriously, given how he constantly jokes around, treats fighting akumas as a game, and keeps getting taken out due to his recklessness. The above incidents also haven't helped make him appear trustworthy.
- In Truth and Consequences, Ladybug invokes this on Chat by convincing Paris that he's the one who turned traitor before he can expose her for allying with Hawkmoth, forcing him on the defensive.
- Even before Alya's article, Chat Noir's behavior didn't earn him as much support as you would think as one of the first duo of superheroes in Paris. Looking at his banter, constant comic references, repeated defeats by akuma, and obvious crush on Ladybug, most bystanders- including Hawkmoth and Ladybug herself- saw him as a goof that saw the whole thing as a game and was only a threat as long as Ladybug was giving him directions. In reality, Adrien does love being a superhero, and often jokes as a coping mechanism.
- In brilliant lights will cease to burn, "Deku" is incredibly unpopular among pro heroes and the police for showing them up constantly, leading him to be branded a villain who is apparently working with the same yakuza members he helped subdue. But this trope is zig-zagged because Deku is enormously popular among Japan's youth, with some comparing him to All Might and calling him the "pride of our nation". Izuku himself doesn't really care for his reputation and rarely checks what people are saying about him, but he's glad that his message is reaching so many people.
- Mean Rabbit has Midoriya Izuku, who's Made Out to Be a Jerkass for the high crime of fighting to become a Pro Hero despite society deeming him worthless for his Quirklessness. Whenever he refuses to bow his head and take the abuse heaped upon him by bullies like Bakugou, Aizawa, or anyone else, it's spun around and turned upon him. This really starts ballooning out of control during the Sports Festival, as his rebuke of Monoma is played for the public without sound so that they don't hear Monoma accusing him of being happy about the League attacking the USJ just to get attention; they just see Monoma tearing up after being called out. And when he's pitted against Ochako for his first tournament match, Present Mic encourages the crowd to root against him.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In Dark Spectrum Public Enemy Rainbow Dash is one due to ponies thinking she ran Mare-Do-Well out of town. She is still one in the end, but at least she has the support of her friends.
- In Loved and Lost, an extended retelling of "A Canterlot Wedding", Prince Jewelius usurps Equestria's throne right after he and Twilight have stopped the Changeling invasion by blaming Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, the Mane Five, and Spike for not listening to Twilight's suspicions regarding the false Cadance. He sentences the Mane Five and Shining Armor to slavery and banishes the princesses and Spike from Equestria, turning the public and Twilight against them. When the fugitives return to Canterlot one week later to redeem themselves and make it up to Twilight, they discover that Jewelius provided Queen Chrysalis the means to infiltrate Canterlot before double-crossing her to become the sole ruler of Equestria, and purposely turned everypony else against the heroes to steal the throne unobstructed. Twilight and Canterlot's citizens don't believe them when they try to expose this (partly due to their own failure to uphold their trustworthiness by dint of their short-sighted actions that led to the invasion happening), but some serious shortsightedness from the Big Bad's part enables the fugitives to clear their names. Not to mention that the town of Ponyville does not consider them traitors because Jewelius has made the life there difficult ever since his rise to power.
- Subverted with Princess Cadance. Jewelius unjustly holds her responsible for allowing Queen Chrysalis to steal her identity and has her banished along with the others. However, it's revealed upon her return to Canterlot that while the other banished heroes have lost the trust and respect of Twilight and everypony in Canterlot, Cadance has not. It is for this reason that Jewelius tries to have her murdered in a way that would both make the other fugitives even more scorned on and help himself divert suspicion.
- When Twilight finally realizes how evil Jewelius truly is, she escapes from Canterlot to reconcile with her friends and brother. Jewelius tries to invoke this trope again by labeling her as another traitor, but Canterlot's citizens don't believe for one minute that she'd go against Jewelius without good reason. In fact, they not only become more sympathetic to the disgraced heroes, but also more open to the thought of giving them a second chance and letting them return to society so that they can help thwart the renewed Changeling threat which Jewelius has done nothing about.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In the season 1 finale, Trixie (whose reputation in Canterlot was already in the toilet) gets even more bad publicity courtesy of several scheming nobles using the tabloids to slander her.
- Rise of Empress Midnight: Alternate Borris: Having apparently failing easy attacks against the Mork army, and is also an ex-Mork.
- Twilight Sparkle since her alternate is Empress Midnight.
- The Story of Twilight Glow: Twilight has effectively become Nightmare Moon's top advisor, where her goal has been to temper Nightmare Moon's megalomania and ruthlessness. Unfortunately, other ponies believe she willingly betrayed Equestria to gain power.
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison: Sakura starts having trouble with this after the Chuunin Exams; since she comes from a civilian background, many shinobi look down upon her and see her as less capable than those from clans. Her subsequently managing to hold her own against clan-born genin like Ino and Neji gets her into trouble for challenging the status quo. On top of this, she also finds herself regarded suspiciously by other civilians, who view her as a ninja first and foremost.
- A Crew for a King: The Straw Hats are this during the fight at Rainbase, as the locals view them as rebels attacking a national hero, something Crocodile is happy to gloat about.
- In Pokemon: Shadow of Time, Sharpedo as a whole suffer from this, as the species are very friendly but have an unfortunately fearsome reputation.
- In When the World Ends, Misty faces this when her defiance of Giovanni to rescue Ash led to the destruction of Cerulean City, and the supposed deaths of her sisters and unborn nephew.
- In Power Rangers Mythos, the evil alchemist Avanth is working on making the Rangers this in the eyes of the general public.
- Can One Change Fix All of RWBY?: After the Fall of Beacon, Team RWBY and most of their immediate allies are wanted fugitives in every kingdom, even though they're trying to save Remnant from being completely destroyed.
- In Five Minutes to Midnight, Tai Xiao Long saves Cinder from her abusive adoptive family. But because he assaulted them in public without any evidence of their actions, he's branded as a criminal by Atlas.
- A Rabbit Among Wolves:
- Jaune accidentally murders Adam at the beginning of the story. That and subsequent mishaps make everyone think he is an evil and ruthless terrorist. Jaune is forced to reform the White Fang to prove to everyone he isn't evil.
- Team RWBY make themselves into this after their attempted attack on the White Fang goes disastrously wrong. So much so, that Ozpin launches his own PR campaign to bring up Team RWBY's reputation.
- In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fic "Minister of Lies", after the crew of the station learn that Bajoran First Minister Shakaar Edon was a collaborator who raped and murdered Bajoran women during the occupation, Sisko notes that while he's obviously concerned about the implications of this on a personal level, he's also concerned about how exposure of this secret would reflect on the wider galaxy. He explicitly states that in a worst-case scenario, if Shakaar remains in power it may be presented as the Federation condoning Shakaar's war crimes, at a point when the Federation is already facing challenges such as the ever-present threat of the Dominion and the recent collapse of the Khitomer Accords, to the extent that the Federation may abandon plans to bring Bajor into the Federation to protect their own reputation.
- In The Desert Storm series, Ben (the time-displaced future Obi-Wan Kenobi) gets a bad reputation amongst the Jedi due to rumors that he's abusive towards his Padawan (who very few know is his own younger self). Even the few that don't believe the rumors still find him terrifying. Things don't improve when he becomes indirectly responsible for two Jedi falling to the Dark Side. While this gets better over time, partly thanks to Obi-Wan's insistence that he's not abusive/demonstration that he's turning into a very impressive young Jedi, people still find him terrifying — though Windu does note that after some very public shenanigans with Jango Fett, his image in the Temple has transformed from "terrifying" to "badass".
- In Heart of the Inferno, it's implied Kathryn has this reputation, as King Brand believes from his grandfather's stories that Kathryn actually aided Smaug's attack on Vathvael instead of trying to stop it.
- Freakin Gensokyo features Reimu. She already is one in Touhou canon, but FREAKIN GENSOKYO takes it up to eleven: Various people in the Human Village want to kill her, destroy her shrine, take her prisoner or dissect her and use her blood to power up the human race.
- The Autobots in TFA Kaleidoscope, though in the end this trope gets zig-zagged for them. People tend to be just as quick to throw them under the bus as they are to praise them for any heroic action they may commit. The police, however, have enough tolerance of them to work alongside them when they need help. They even point out that the news and media only focus on the bad aspects of their actions to paint them in a negative light for the sake of sensationalism and that the public is actually more divided on them than outright against them.
- Alexstrasza in A Nerubian's Journey quickly earns a much more negative reputation than canon among the Alliance due to her heavy-handed methods. While she and her dragonflight did end the war against the Horde in minutes, it's noted that they also ignored the war for years, only to arrive when the Alliance was already on the verge of victory. Then in the aftermath, she dictates terms to the Alliance about what to do with the Horde and has to be "unsubtly prompted" into helping with the solution she insisted onnote . Not helping matters is Alexstrasza admitting to not interfering with other ongoing genocides, which causes some of the leaders to feel like she's needlessly interfering now. Krasus later lampshades that part of his own diminished reputation is due to being tied to Alexstrasza's own poor one.
- In Mauling Snarks, the Slaughterhouse Nine are a group where the parahumans with the most violent power urges get therapy for it and try to minimize collateral damage. Even when they do kill someone, they try to aim at the worst of criminals that law can't touch. However, very few people are aware of this, and to most everyone, they are a terrifying group of insane serial killers.
- Risk It All:
- Ren's debut as a vigilante involves him mugging the guy who mugged him, breaking the man's arm in the process. The video taken by onlookers quickly gets 10,000 views. He groans at all the comments telling him what a loser he is.
- After a Triad shoots a mob crook he'd been fighting dead, Ren's super identity quickly garners infamy as a killer. The effects of Soul-Crushing Strike only worsen his reputation as "the Breaker" who leaves his opponents with crippling injuries, much to Ren's dismay. He wonders how Batman deals with bad press like this. At the least, his new viral presence on the internet gives him a lot of prestige points to work with.
