Character Witness

"At first they didn't believe me. The Fire Nation soldiers assumed I was a spy. But one man vouched for me: the old man you attacked. He urged them to trust me, and we got everyone out in time."

— Sokka, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Like Androcles' Lion, but with people. The hero goes out of their way to help an "inconsequential" Innocent Bystander, often at personal risk either to himself or reputation. Later on, if he's set up by the villain and it looks just like the Untrusting Community of Crazy Survivalists is really going to kill him... out pops the Character Witness ready to repay their kindness with life-saving timing. Usually, they're a Wasteland Elder or a Reasonable Authority Figure whose voice has weight, or just a child he befriends who is adept at Shaming the Mob.

A common variation is that the hero just needs a second to escape The Chase, or a distraction so the Big Bad goes the wrong way.

Subtrope of Karmic Jackpot and A Friend in Need. Compare Chekhov's Gunman. Can lead to a Disproportionate Reward Because You Were Nice to Me. See Old Beggar Test where this trope is invoked by a powerful figure disguised as poor or weak.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• In the Ace Attorney manga, Phoenix hopes that Thomas Spitzer, Bobby Wolfe's Only Friend, will serve as a variant of this by proving that if he had someone to care for his spiders, he would not burn down the Den of Spiders to Mercy Kill them once his brother Robin, who had supported them, was dead. Edgeworth, however, calls Spitzer to the stand, whereupon he says that Edgeworth had convinced them that Bobby would have done it, and agrees with his theory, saying that the spiders were too expensive for him to care for.
• Early in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Allelujah disobeys orders and rescues people at a space station, and during this time aids the governmental forces which are his group's enemies, impressing the antagonist, Sergei Smirnoff. This comes to Allejuah's aid later in the show, as Smirnoff lets an injured Allejuah go and take Marie/Soma Peres, Sergei's adopted daughter/Allejuah's love interest with him since he recognizes Allejuah's voice and knows he's a nice guy.
• Samurai Champloo: In the first episode, we see an arrogant noble standing in the middle of a crowded road, harassing and threatening a commoner who had bumped into him, until Jin effortlessly cuts through his bodyguards for standing in his way. By the end of the episode, he and Mugen have been captured and are about to be executed for the offense. Fuu has some fireworks she plans to use to free them, but she doesn't have anything with which to light them. No points for guessing who reaches up from the crowd with a match.
• The little fox kid in ×××HOLiC who vouches for Watanuki in the Demon Parade. Earlier, Watanuki had given him an arrow tail, which is a powerful ward against evil (and the "demons" in the parade are of the Dark Is Not Evil variety). So when the demons threaten to eat him and his friend, the fox kid steps up and proves his good nature by showing them the arrow piece.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: On the day of an important exam, the Duel Academy's card shop got a shipment of newly released cards but Professor Chronos got there first and bought them all. Then he gave them all to Manjyome and said he would manipulate the match-ups in the field exam so that he and Judai were opponents, hoping Judai would not only fail but be humiliated. Meanwhile, Judai overslept, and while running to class, met an old lady struggling with her stalled truck. Knowing he'd be late anyway, he stopped to help her with it. Later, when he finally got to the card store, he found out she owned the place, and saved one of the new packs of cards for him; Judai was actually able to win the duel against Manjyome with it, gaining a promotion (which he turned down).

Comic Books

• Spider-Man:
  • Spidey is always boggled when he runs into someone who he helped once because J. Jonah Jameson is always working to make him a pariah in New York. But in a city of millions, all the people the wallcrawler has helped are ready to stand up for him if the situation calls for it.
  • Jonah himself did this once, albeit in a way that didn't seem especially nice. After he regained control of the Bugle from Thomas Fireheart (whose coverage of the hero was too positive showing the opposite type of bias) Jonah started the task of getting rid of the gaudy billboards praising Spidey. However, a crisis struck, where Doctor Octopus had set up shop in the maintenance tunnels, eventually using them to kidnap Jonah's wife. She was rescued by Spidey, and afterwards, Robbie told Jonah that they didn't have enough manpower to disassemble Ock's lair and take down the billboards. Jonah told him that they could put the billboards off for a little while.
• Superman:
  • The city of Metropolis loses its collective shit whenever people attack their favorite hero, and will permanently destroy Lex Luthor's Villain with Good Publicity status if he ever gets caught openly hurting Supes without a really good loophole to escape the blame. It's also been implied at various times (particularly in the Elseworlds JLA: The Nail) that Metropolis is responsible for setting the trend for the citizens of the DC universe to not be suspicious, fickle, ungrateful assholes to their heroes due to Superman's altruism towards them.
  • Then there was that time Superman saved a high-steel construction worker from falling. Turns out he was actually an ex-weapons designer who would ultimately become Steel, one of Superman's closest allies.
  • Death & the Family: After dispelling her family's spirits temporarily, Silver Banshee notes that, thanks to Inspector Henderson's efforts, she has now five of her clan's relics, and has bought herself time to find the remaining ones without her family interfering. Before teleporting herself away from Supergirl, Banshee acknowledges she is indebted to Henderson and assures she will repay him someday.
    Silver Banshee: You found my family's heirlooms.
    Inspector Henderson: It wasn't easy. I had to use all of my resources—
    Silver Banshee: Then I thank you. With five heirlooms present, my cry dispelled those spirits. They'll recover, but it will take time. Time I can use to search for the rest of my family's treasures. You've given me a great gift, Mike Henderson. I owe you a debt, it seems. One day, when you need it the most— you'll hear my true song.
  • The Leper from Krypton: When Superman asks the Flammbronians why they saved a total stranger, they remind him that he saved one kinsman of theirs during his Superboy years. They were just repaying their debt.
• X-Men: The heroes have had people give them cross-country rides, duck them away from mutant-hating authorities, etc, all because one X-Man helped someone else at some point, so anybody legitimately wearing the (X) is considered a good guy worth assisting.

Fairy Tales

• In Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's "King Goldenlocks", the prince releases a peaceful giant who had been unjustly imprisoned. In return, the giant helps him find a cure for the king's sickness and gives him a sword, armor, and a horse when the prince needs to fight a battle.

Fan Works

• All The Difference In The Worlds: Jaune helps resolve a Hostage Situation in Boulder City; in the process, he protects an NCR Lieutenant and his unit from the Khans. Later, when Jaune arrives at Hoover Dam, that same lieutenant vouches for him.
• Blackkat's Reverse: Kurama starts earning Han's trust when he saves the jinchuuriki from being captured and doesn't expect anything in return from him. His bijuu, the Five-Tailed Horse-Dolphin, also insists that Kurama's much more important than he lets on and is sincere about wanting to help.
• Constellations:
  • Taylor often helps her older neighbor Mr. Henrick out with his yardwork and other chores. When Taylor's falsely accused of siccing gang members on Emma, he steps up to defend her, revealing that he's actually the former school superintendent. His testimony about how helpful she is — as well as how often he's seen her coming home crying after being bullies — causes the case against her to complete fall apart.
  • Alan Barnes tries to act as one for Shadow Stalker; unfortunately, this comes after the above incident, wherein Alan was involved with falsely accusing Taylor, which rather undermines the effectiveness of his testimony after Danny Hebert/Chessman finds out about said incident.
• If There Are Wolves Among The Stars: The straw that breaks Relk 'Forsevai's belief in the evil of humanity is having the chance to quietly observe them while being held prisoner. He eventually concludes that rather than being paragons of evil, humans are just like any other race 'strutting around the galaxy trying to be impressive'.
• In The Legend of Total Drama Island, team leader Courtney is nominated for elimination and can't defend herself because she's in the infirmary. Ezekiel, whom Courtney has been re-educating to be acceptable to polite society, stands up for her. Ezekiel's sexist attitudes are well known, so his "testimony"; carries a lot of weight.
  Izzy: Guys, you know what Zeke thinks of girls, and we can just imagine what he thinks of girls being in charge. And yet he was the first one to stick up for Courtney. That should tell you something.
• Miracle Queen Aftermath has Chloé facing serious consequences for her actions during the Season 3 finale of Miraculous Ladybug. In an effort to drum up support for her student, Ms. Bustier attempts to turn this into a school project, wanting the rest of her class to write letters about how wonderful she is. Given how Chloé has been an unrepentant Alpha Bitch who bullied and harassed her peers for years, the assignment doesn't work out as planned.
• In Song of a Northern Sorcerer, Darth Nox rescues a six-year-old boy from a bunch of wildling raiders bent on killing and eating the kid. When he reunites the child with his father, Ned Stark is very grateful for Jon to be alive and safe and invites Nox to Winterfell as an honoured guest, giving the stranded Sith Lord a haven to plot and lay the bases for becoming powerful and influent again.
• Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts: In "Perfect Alibi", Bruce Wayne rescues a woman from being creeped on at a party; later on, when he needs an alibi, she immediately volunteers herself. She doesn't even know that what he was really doing was fighting crime as Batman, just that Bruce Wayne is a thoroughly decent human being who once helped her out of an unpleasant situation, and that's enough reason to return the favor.
• Tales of Karmic Lies Aftermath: When Ms. Bustier's husband applies for a divorce and custody hearing, she selects Marinette and three other former students and serves them with legal summons. She picks those four specifically because they're known to be members of Team Miraculous, and she's hoping to look good by association. However, Marinette and the others quickly make clear that they're not willing to lie on her behalf — if they're called to testify, they'll be honest about how harmful her teaching methods were.
• What Goes Around Comes Around (Miraculous Ladybug): Ms. Bustier attempts to Invoke this on behalf of Chloé and Lila after Hawkmoth is arrested and evidence of both girls willingly working with the magical terrorist is revealed. Specifically, she expects Marinette to testify on their behalf and convince the public that the two of them are really not that bad... despite how both went out of their way to target and torment Marinette. Why? Because Marinette was unmasked as Ladybug in the process of defeating Hawkmoth, and Bustier is banking on her willingness to not only "forgive and forget" how they treated her, but lie about their moral character. Marinette shuts this down.

Films — Animated

• In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Kiara tries to vouch for Kovu when he says he had nothing to do with his pride's attack on Simba, knowing he wouldn't do such a thing because she can already tell "He loves me!" Her father refuses to believe her, and when her lover is exiled, she goes to find him and bring him back on her own.
• In Zootopia, Judy saves an innocent bystander in Little Rodentia from being crushed by a runaway donut. It didn't seem important at the time, but when she and Nick cross Mr. Big and are about to be "iced", that same bystander, revealed to be his daughter, steps forward to return the favor — and then some.

Films — Live-Action

• At the end of Baby Driver, multiple character witnesses testify in Baby's trial, ensuring he gets a shot at parole five years into his 25-year sentence.
• In the Adam Sandler film Billy Madison, Billy calls one of his old classmates to apologize for bullying him when they were in school. The classmate reacts calmly, but after he's hung up the phone, he crosses Billy's name off of his "People to Kill" list. At the end of the movie, he shows up when Eric, the villain of the movie, is trying to kill Billy and shoots Eric (not fatally).

  "Man, I'm glad I called that guy."

• The 1999 movie Election: the same janitor whom Mr. McAllister unknowingly offends during the opening credits is also the person who reveals McAllister's tampering with the election at the end of the movie.
• In The Living Daylights, James Bond and Kara fight their way out of a corrupt prison in Afghanistan. While escaping, they free the prisoner in the next cell on a whim. The prisoner turns out to be a leader of the Afghan Resistance and becomes a valuable ally.
• In The Revenant, the hero frees the Ree chief's daughter when she is raped by one of the French. In the final scene, when he encounters her again with the Ree, they spare his life in recognition of his good deed.
• Crops up memorably in Scent of a Woman. Charlie Simms has been dragged around New York City by the retired, blind, and terminally irritable Colonel Slade who he is supposed to be babysitting. His fortitude pays off, however, when Slade unexpectedly intercedes before the school's disciplinary committee which has been convened to force Charlie Simms to testify against his classmates or be expelled. The colonel's speech is the paradigmatic movie speech, beginning a bit roughly, moving into a withering indictment against the establishment, and ending in thunderous applause.
• In Spider-Man, Spider-Man is helpless, holding up Mary Jane and a cable car full of kids, while the Green Goblin comes in for a lethal attack run. Then, he starts getting pelted with objects and distracted. As one New Yorker puts it:
  Bystander: You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!
• Spider-Man: No Way Home: Peter tries to persuade the head of applications at MIT to reconsider his friends' applications (which were rejected because they were friends with him). After he ends up having to save her and everyone on the bridge from Dr. Octopus, she declares that she’ll reconsider the applications of both him and his friends, having realised that he's really a hero.
• In the infamous Steel movie, the titular character starts his crime-fighting career by saving a couple from some muggers. Later on, when Steel is wanted by the police the same couple is called to pick Steel out from a lineup where John Henry Irons is present. The couple recognizes him, but they claim they had never seen him before. Likewise, a police officer Steel saved from an explosion by jumping on him claims John Henry Irons isn't Steel when taking a close look at him.
• In Training Day, the main character Jake rescues a girl from being raped; she drops her wallet as she runs away, and he pockets it. Later, the main character is captured and about to be killed by a group of gangsters, they find the wallet in his pocket, and demand to know where he got it; it turns out the girl he rescued is actually the cousin of the gang leader, and after they call her in and she tells the story as a character witness, the gangsters decide to let Jake go.
• At the beginning of Tumbleweed, Jim Logan saves the life of the wounded Yaqui warrior Tigre. This saves his life twice later in the movie. First, Tigre's mother turns him loose rather than torturing him when she recognises him as the man who saved her son's life. Later, Tigre breaks Jim out of jail when there is a lynch mob coming for him.

Folklore

• In The Tinderbox, a soldier has a magical tinderbox that enables him to summon large-eyed dogs to do his bidding. He uses the dogs to get a look at the princess of the kingdom, with whose beauty he falls deeply in love, but is captured and sentenced to be burned at the stake. While in prison, he catches the attention of a boy and recruits him to retrieve the tinderbox from his room at the inn, which he later uses to escape. The boy does this for him because he remembers the soldier buying food for his family when they were impoverished.

Literature

• Acts of the Apostles includes the story of how Saul, one of the most notorious persecutors of the early Church, was shown the error of his ways by Christ Himself as he traveled to arrest yet more of His followers. Now calling himself Paul, he was eager to join the Apostles and help them spread the Word of Christ, but their reaction was basically, "How stupid do you think we are?" Fortunately, a believer named Barnabas ("Son of Encouragement") convinced them he had indeed been changed by his experience on the road to Damascus, got them to let him join the group, and the rest is history.
  "And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out." Acts 9:26-28
• Subverted in Chrysalis (RinoZ); Enid, de facto mayor of the town of Renewal, which has prospered under the Colony's care and protection, does attempt to argue on the ants' behalf when the Abyssal Legion comes to exterminate them, but Titus isn't interested.
  Enid: They did more than just that, they saved us. They scoured the countryside and dug survivors out of the ruins. They built us homes, irrigated our fields, fed us, defended us and brought us together. It is no exaggeration to say that without the support of these monsters, there likely would be no survivors of Liria or the frontier kingdoms at all. We owe the ants our lives and have lived in harmony with them for months. You seek to destroy them simply because they are monsters and were created by the Dungeon. We have decided that this is wrong.
• The main emphasis of The Count of Monte Cristo is the Count's revenge on the four men who had him imprisoned. One frequently-overlooked plot point has the Count discovering that Monsieur Morrel, his employer when he was arrested, had made a valiant effort to try and get Edmond Dantes (the future Count) released, as he was convinced of Dantes' innocence. Morrel was taking a dreadful political risk in doing so, due to the struggles between royalist and Bonapartist groups that were convulsing France at the time and were in part what led to Dantes' imprisonment. By the time Dantes escapes and becomes the Count, Morrel's shipping company is on the verge of bankruptcy and his family's honor is ruined because of his inability to pay his debts. Using the alias of "Sinbad the Sailor", the Count repays his old employer by buying out and paying off the company's debts, giving them a brand-spanking new merchant ship to replace the one that had recently been destroyed in a storm, and also providing a generous dowry for Morrel's daughter. Monsieur Morrel would die soon after, but his good name and family honor were both fully restored.
• Don Quixote: Hiliarously subverted by Andres and Tosilos, who come back not in defense, but against our protagonist.
  • Andres, a boy that Don Quixote thinks has rescued in chapter IV part I shows up again in Chapter XXXI part I. Don Quixote wants him to defend his Chivalric Romance delusions, but instead Andres denounces him with a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero speech and leaves.
  • Lacquey Tosilos appear in chapter LVI of the second part when Don Quixote is trying to We Help the Helpless and comes back in chapter LXVII to inform Don Quixote that all was a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
• Going Postal. The first letter delivered after years of no service brings unexpected benefits for the hero after a huge catastrophe.
• Dumbledore tries to serve as this for Severus Snape in the Back Story for the Harry Potter series. He made the former Death Eater a member of the Order of the Phoenix over most of his soldiers' objections and insistence that the man could not be trusted. The catch was that Snape swore him to secrecy about the reason for his defection, so Dumbledore could never explain why he trusted him. While some like Lupin were willing to accept this and trust Dumbledore's judgment without question, others like Sirius were not. Harry doesn't find this particular witness credible on this point until a major revelation at the very end of the series.
• The Hollows: Rachel Morgan, shunned, gets assistance in the unlikely person of a TSA operative since Rachel helped out his grandmother once.
• October Daye: There's a cab driver named Danny that doesn't let Toby Daye pay because Toby helped his sister once.
• Prior Philip in The Pillars of the Earth is betrayed by a monk named Remigius, the former deputy prior, as part of a plot by the prior's enemies. Later on, he forgives Remigius and allows him to return to the monastery rather than live in poverty (Remigius' allies having since discarded him). And a good thing, too, as Remigius is the only person in the world with the information that can save Philip from a witch hunt at the climax.
• In The Ramayana, Vibhishana advises King Ravana not to kill a messenger from the enemy army. Some chapters later, Vibhishana has switched sides and the protagonists are debating whether or not he's trustworthy. The messenger vouches for Vibhishana because his previous actions showed him to be a man of honor.
• Thursday Next doesn't have to pay a diner waitress because of her heroic actions in a war in the past.
• In The Traitor Son Cycle, at one point John Crayford is convinced by Amicia to go and rescue a pack of Wild golden bears (in the setting, golden bears are sentient and have their own civilization). In the next book, when he and his group are under the attack of the Wild, the same pack swoops in and saves them in turn.

Live-Action TV

• The A-Team, "Recipe for Heavy Bread". While the titular team were imprisoned in a Vietnam POW camp, the head cook, Lin, slipped food to Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Murdock, keeping them alive. Years later, when he's being targeted for execution by the camp's old leader, he encounters them again. They remember what he did and are happy to take on the job of saving him pro bono.
• Kamen Rider Build: Ryuuga and Sawa are denied a passage on the boat to Seito after the Guardians and Mirage smash come into play. However, it turns out the boat belongs to the husband of the woman that was saved by Build earlier in the episode. She recognizes Sawa and, in gratitude for Build's help, she tells her husband to let them on board.
• Turns up, oddly enough, in The Mighty Boosh, albeit in a uniquely absurd fashion. While looking for Howard, who left his job to become a binman, Vince gives £58.30 (via credit card) as well as his beautiful cape to a hobo who thinks Vince is a lady. Later on, when Vince and Howard are fighting a magic-fueled, crack-addicted fox in the sewers, the hobo shows up out of nowhere, attacking the Crack Fox long enough to allow Vince and Howard to run away.
• In several episodes of The Pretender, starting with the pilot, Jarod takes time out from his mission to help somebody in trouble, and they repay him at the end of the episode by helping him evade the Centre operatives hunting him.
• Seinfeld:
  • The finale offered a parade of previously-wronged guest stars testifying about what horrible people the protagonists were as an excuse to end with a clip show.
  • A similar example happened in the earlier episode "The Cadillac". Jerry's dad Morty is being accused of embezzling funds from the office of the condo president with Morty's new Cadillac being cited as proof (the Cadillac was given to Morty by Jerry as a gift, but the guy accusing Morty doesn't believe Jerry is talented enough to make that much money). Morty's sole favorable testimony is from an old woman who, unbeknown to Morty, Jerry had stolen a marble rye bread from in an earlier episode. Once she remembers that incident, she withdraws her support and Morty is impeached as condo president. That lady would once again show up in the aforementioned finale.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: In the Book of Exalted Deeds, one of the sample characters used to illustrate character archetypes is Tasthania, an elf druid who, as a child, was the sole survivor of an orc attack on her village. When she returned to the village, she found a unicorn wandering through the ruins looking for survivors to help and joined it. The only person they found was a young orc warrior, whom Tasthania wanted to kill. The unicorn, however, stopped her and healed the orc, allowing him to flee. Years later, Tasthania was ambushed by another orc band but survived when the leader, who was that same warrior that the unicorn healed, recognized her and called off the attack.

Video Games

• The biggest quest in Act One of Baldur's Gate III has the player decide whether they will defend the Druid Grove, currently harbouring a group of tiefling refugees, against an attack by goblins. Should the player defend the Grove and save the tieflings, then, in Act Two, when Jaheira threatens the player near Last Light Inn upon learning that they're a True Soul, Mol, a young tiefling girl, vouches for them, convincing Jaheira to let them go.
• During the first few minutes of Chrono Trigger, you can run around a fair talking to various Non Player Characters and crash into a young girl. The girl turns out to be the local Rebellious Princess, and when Chrono is put on trial for kidnapping her, the NPCs show up and either speak up for you or perform a character assassination based on what you did or didn't do (brought a girl her lost kitten back, let Marle browse around the shops, ate an old man's lunch, tried to sell Marle's locket...). The outcome is the same no matter what, though you are given some free healing items based on the number of people who spoke in your defense.
• In Conquests of the Longbow, whether or not Robin Hood ends up with Maid Marian, ends up alone, or gets hanged in the ending depends partly on how many Character Witnesses he manages to impress.
• An indirect example occurs in City of Heroes when a member of a villain group gives you the information you're seeking because you once saved his cousin, though he doesn't tell you who that person was.
• There are two seemingly inconsequential quarians Shepard meets in Mass Effect 2: the first, Veetor'Nara, is a traumatized adolescent who just witnessed the abduction of an entire colony; the second, Kal'Reegar, is a marine who was sent out to protect Tali from being captured by geth. If you send Veetor home to the Migrant Fleet instead of having Cerberus interrogate him, and if you make sure Reegar survives the mission on Haestrom, during the trial you will have the option to "Rally the Crowd" (alongside interacting with the members of the Admiralty Board to finally uncover the real reason why Tali is being on trial in the first place) and they will speak up to vouch for Tali's innocence (Reegar in particular has a few very choice words for the Admiralty Board about their attitudes).
  Reegar: Tali's done more for this fleet than you assholes ever will!
  • Gets lampshaded if you talk to the Admiralty Board afterward, as one of them points out that you didn't actually prove anything. However, in a greater scale as found out in the sequel, this will help provide more options for Shepard and co. when they finally put an end to Quarian-Geth conflict if Tali is still affiliated to the Quarians, most preferably if she wasn't exiled back at the second game.
  • In Mass Effect 3, if you saved the original council, the asari councilor will point out that when they distrusted Shepard, they ended up being wrong. This is helpful to ensure that you can talk down Kaidan or Ashley, whom Udina is trying to convince that you're still a willing member of Cerberus, without killing them.
  • If you send David Archer from 2's DLC to Grissom Academy, he vouches for you to some scared kids during the Cerberus raid there.
• Quest for Glory II ends with the hero (your character) having a formal audience with the Sultan of Shapeir, surrounded by people he's helped throughout the game. Everyone has some very nice things to say about the hero. At the end of it, the Sultan publicly adopts the hero as his own son and therefore the Prince of Shapeir, as an Awesome Momentof Crowning. Now that is gratitude that more heroes should receive.

Webcomics

• In General Protection Fault, Fooker is accused of murder as part of an elaborate plan by Trudy, and since he was on a mission for the U.G.A., all the evidence that would provide an alibi is classified. The group is hoping that his best friend Chuck can help them, but Trudy has Chuck serving her with a chip that she can use to cause him pain, and forces him to testify that he knew Fooker was planning the attack and that he knows where Fooker has a cache of (planted) weapons, which is the final nail in Fooker's coffin.
  • In Fred's case, when he's being sued for libel by Trent, several of his fellow employees speak up for him and suggest that Trent was the one who had been the aggressor and had caused trouble for Fred. Trent's lawyer complains about this wasting their time, and what enables Fred to win is that his claim that Trent had tried to kill someone was, in fact, true.
• In Love and Capes Mark got a ride home from a planet where he'd been stranded by hitchhiking. The aliens who picked him up don't generally pick up hitchhikers, but they were glad to do it for him because he'd saved their planet from being destroyed.
• In Tales of the Questor, Quentyn is found by a poor farmer's family and he treats them with the utmost courtesy and kindness while he bunks with them. Later, when the hero is presented by the region's duke to help with the Unseelie crisis and the public incorrectly scoffs that he is one of the enemy too, that farmer steps up to praise Quentyn's character and that wins over the crowd.

Web Original

• Dream SMP: After Tommy and Ranboo rob and accidentally burn George's house early in Season 2^note which, by DSMP standards, is extremely mild of a crime since practically everyone griefs someone else's base at some point during their time on the server, and the property damage itself is minimal, Dream and George take Tommy to court, demanding he be exiled. At first, Tommy denies everything, but when George points out that Ranboo was there too, Tommy admits it was him, but insists he acted alone to get Ranboo out of trouble. Later, after Tommy's attempt at blackmailing Dream goes south and Tubbo accuses him of being selfish, Ranboo comes to Tommy's defense.
  Ranboo: Tubbo... You said that Tommy was selfish. You said that Tommy doesn't care about anyone else. That's not true. I robbed George's house, too. I did it with Tommy. But in court, he said that it was just him. He could've pinned the blame on me. He could've said that it was me, there was evidence that it was me. But he didn't. He's not selfish. He can't be selfish.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • In the episode "Jet", Sokka helps an old Fire Nation man, who later helps him convince his village to evacuate before it is flooded.
  • Toph tries to serve as this when Prince Zuko completes his long overdue Heel–Face Turn in Season 3 and asks the heroes to let him join them and help them stop his father from conquering the world. Toph is the only one who isn't incredulous about this thanks to being a Living Lie Detector and having no personal history/grudge to deal with due to joining after he stopped being the main threat to the team. However, Toph confirming his intentions only shifts the conversation to questioning if he should be forgiven for his past transgressions. Even once they allow him to stay, the next few episodes are spent with Aang, Sokka, and Katara all needing to go on their own, as the fans refer to them, "life-changing adventures" with Zuko to build trust and actually forgive him.
• In the Duck Dodgers episode "The Green Loontern", Dodgers saves Ganthet from being crushed by falling debris. Later, when the other Lanterns are accusing Dodgers of being one of Sinestro's agents, Ganthet speaks up on the duck's behalf, pointing out that an agent of Sinestro would not have risked their life to save anyone, let alone a Guardian.
• The Lion Guard:
  • None of the Pridelanders initially believe Makuu, who took over leadership of the crocodiles, really has any intention of changing his ways and being "a good leader." Only Simba is willing to trust him, and while he makes sure the Guard and the leaders of the other herds know he expects Makuu to be treated with the same respect they are, he can't order them to like him.
  • When Janja switches sides, he goes to Jasiri — the hero who's helped him the most — first, and she takes him to King Simba and vouches for him. Simba and Kion still doubt they can trust him until he gets a second witness — Makuu, who reminds Simba of how "you gave me a chance when no one else in the Pridelands would."
• There's a Jamaican cab driver who goes by "Mouse" on Spider-Man: The Animated Series who tries to be available for the webslinger because he saved her from a mugging.
• In Justice League, when Green Lantern John Stewart is accused of a destruction of a planet, Kilowag (after being convinced by Hawkgirl) eventually arrives at the intergalactic court to speak up in John's defense for all the times the former had saved his life. The Guardians of the Universe would later arrive to defend the Green Lanterns' (and by extension John) role in protecting the universe.
• In Steven Universe, Steven frees Lapis Lazuli from her imprisonment and heals her gem, allowing her to fly back to Homeworld. This pays off a season later where she warns the Crystal Gems of an impending invasion and sacrifices herself to lock away The Dragon — all for Steven who helped her.
• Subverted in the first episode of Wolverine and the X-Men (2009). Wolverine saves an entire family, and one of them turns him in to the Mutant Patrol first chance he gets.
• Played straight in X-Men: Evolution when army officers are about to arrest Rogue and Kitty. The major tells his troops to stand down as Rogue had saved him from being hit by a car.

Real Life

• In legalese, a Character Witness is someone who attests to someone's moral conduct and good reputation in a court of law, without being able to comment on the specific facts of the individual case or suit. This is a form of "Character evidence", where aspects of a person's behavior and conduct are taken into account during the trial. Bear in mind that in practical situations, character evidence is considered a very weak argument for the defense to use; the prosecution generally doesn't even have the option to bring in character witnesses. Of course, if blatant evidence of wrongdoing exists (such as video or photos of the defendant actually committing the crime), then no amount of character witnesses will help.

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