Slave to PR - TV Tropes

"No, you need me. You wouldn't be much of a hero without a villain. And you do love being the hero, don't you? The cheering children, the swooning women. You love it so much it's made you my most reliable accomplice. [...] You could have crushed me anytime you wanted. And it wasn't the law or the will of the people that stopped you. It was your ego. Being a hero is too important to you."

— Lex Luthor to Superman, Justice League, "A Better World, Part 1"

One smile is a vote gained, maybe; one frown is a vote lost, definitely.

Most villains and heroes catch onto their roles quickly — one wants to Take Over the World, one wants to save it; one wants to Kill All Humans, one wants to protect them. But for all their differences, once they choose a side, they have the same problem: they're a Slave to Public Relations.

To both heroes and villains, reputation is everything. Actions don't determine your rep; rep controls your actions. If their reputation is ever at stake, they must act according to their role to reinforce their image.

Heroes always have to maintain a Good reputation. They have to Save the Villain, can never Shoot the Dog, must modestly declaim their own greatness, and above all, Thou Shalt Not Kill. It's the reason they stick around to help an Untrusting Community rather than leaving when they're obviously not wanted and why it hurts when you can't please everyone. On the flipside, once wronged a hero is perfectly justified in getting some amount of comeuppance since it's only "fair".

Some villains also want a Good reputation. If they're not a Knight Templar who completely believes they are good, they'll be a Villain with Good Publicity and pretend to do good. They'll secretly pour all their investments into a Kill Sat to cause The End of the World as We Know It, but they'll do it all under the radar (or control the radar) or tell people that it'll change the future. This good rep gives them a token Karmic Protection against a hero just barging into their homes to arrest them, as well. Some of them will even expend the effort on Bread and Circuses to actually do good.

Nowadays, though, a great majority of villains are going for a 0% Approval Rating. Evil Is Cool and Good Is Boring, and the Noble Demon and Card-Carrying Villain will do everything in their power to earn their Bad reputation and cover up their Hidden Heart of Gold. Villain Cred is a point of honor for these people. A hero could Blackmail them for life just by taking a snapshot of them being Licked by the Dog. Conversely, the villain will hit a hero where it hurts and complicate their life by orchestrating a frame-up.

This public relations mindset doesn't do much for the old "Be Yourself, do the right thing, and don't care about what others think about you" Aesop. It even gives the Big Bad some extra leverage. A Diabolical Mastermind doesn't have to shoot that meddling hero to get revenge for foiling that armored car robbery, just give some incriminating shots of him trespassing to save someone falling from a burning building to the local paper. And if that Cape is a real pain in your neck, if you frame them for a crime, you can count on them not trying to break out of prison since they're bound to follow all the rules. It's dangerous being a Slave To PR.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone, and it's equally dangerous to straight-up assume that a hero is doing good deeds only to uphold their PR. Many a villain is dismayed to learn that The Hero actually does good things for their own sake, and not for how it looks like to the public. Heroes from all over the moral spectrum often say Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!, and bend or break the rules to save the day no matter what the public might end up thinking about them. If this results in them becoming Hero with Bad Publicity, then so be it. Likewise, many a villain simply does not care about what the public thinks of them, and are mostly concerned with their goals or short-term gratification. If the public thinks they're good, that's great; if the public thinks they're evil, it's whatever.

Figures like these are prone to do a Public Relations Ad whenever they incur the public's ire.

The Underling with an F in PR is the bane of these people no matter where they stand on the karma meter. See Lawful Stupid, Chaotic Stupid for when this is taken to its extreme. Compare Contractual Purity. Contrast What You Are in the Dark.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Griffith from Berserk is a prime example; as he rules over the False Utopia of Falconia, he keeps his impulses in check to prevent his subjects from realizing how screwed up their empire is. He only unleashes his true, monstrously sadistic personality when he is certain he can get away with it. In fact, the reason he crossed the Moral Event Horizon in the first place was that Guts and Casca criticized his narcissistic personality, shed doubt on his impossible delusions of grandeur, and ultimately disillusioned the people he wanted the approval of most. He responded by raping and torturing them both while his demon army killed all the human witnesses. Up until that point, he constantly practiced Moral Sociopathy so everyone would love him and his merry band of murderous mercenaries.
In Candy♡Candy, Candy and Annie are best friends who were raised in the same orphanage. After Annie is adopted, she keeps in contact with Candy through writing letters, but eventually stops because as a Brighton, she has a social image to keep up, and it would look bad on her family if everyone knew she was actually an orphan of common origins. Mr. and Mrs. Brighton wanted her to leave her old life behind completely, and while Annie tried to at first, she realized that deep down she still saw Candy as a friend and couldn't. Luckily, at school, even after Eliza reveals the truth, nobody really cares or treats Annie poorly.
Subverted late in the second season of Code Geass. Lelouch Lamperouge is actively trying to make his publicity worse, not because he wants to be bad, but because he needs to look bad for his plan.
Natsu Tanimoto from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, a male Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who tries very hard to maintain his image as the school's Ace.
One Piece:
- An aspect of the World Government that becomes more prominent as the story goes on; when Crocodile's attempted coup of Alabasta is made public, rather than admit that the situation was resolved by the Straw Hat Pirates, they claim it was the work of Marine Captain Smoker (much to his anger). After the Paramount War, it transpires that multiple dangerous criminals (whose crimes were so terrible they were erased from history) escaped from Impel Down; Fleet Admiral Sengoku wants to immediately warn the public, but the Government heads insist on keeping the matter covered up, much to his fury. The Government is essentially dedicated to appearing all-powerful and flawless, so they spend much of their time covering up anything that would make it look bad and sway public opinion to their enemies.
- The Whole Cake Island arc gives us Charlotte Katakuri, second son of the Charlotte family, one of the Three Sweet Commanders, and the absolute strongest subordinate of Big Mom. To the public, including his family, he is The Paragon, a handsome, stoic, and supremely confident warrior who has never been beaten in a fight. However, this is just a facade that he projects to everyone; Beneath the Mask, Katakuri is just as gluttonous and goofy as his siblings and is deeply insecure about his imperfections — particularly his grotesque, "pelican eel" mouth. The thing is, while he was bullied for it, he didn't really care since he could always beat up his bullies if they gave him flak. However, it was after his little sister, Brulee, was attacked and scarred by said bullies' Revenge by Proxy that he started becoming the way he is, vowing never to slip up and let any of his siblings be hurt again. He is devoted to maintaining the charade as much as possible and only allows himself to forget the pressures of being the "perfect" brother and son during his daily "snack time", which he spends in isolation. He's even willing to kill to keep up the illusion, as seen when he killed a number of chefs who accidentally saw him during his snack time. It's only during his fight with Luffy, an opponent who has seen his physical and personality flaws and cared nothing for them, that Katakuri is finally inspired to break out of this mindset for the sake of fighting a truly Worthy Opponent.
- The Whole Cake Island arc also explores this with the Four Emperors. What hadn't really been touched upon in the story until this arc is that being an Emperor is as much about projecting an image of power and invincibility as it is about actually being invincible. Much like the World Government, the Emperors rely on their reputation to keep their respective empires in the New World, but whereas the World Government presents itself as competent and just, the Emperors present themselves as powerful and feared. They do this by killing or (usually forcibly) recruiting any that challenge them. It's mentioned during the Paramount War that Whitebeard will try to save Ace just as much out of love for his crew as it is out of needing to send the clear message that he and his crew are untouchable by the Marines. It is because of this that the Big Mom Pirates so desperately chase after the Straw Hats in the latter half of the arc instead of just cutting their losses after they managed to escape the castle. It was already bad enough that they publicly screwed up the Charlotte Family's plan to murder the Vinsmokes and then got closer to killing Big Mom than anyone had been in decades, but if they were to escape without facing suitable retribution, it would almost irreversibly damage the name of Big Mom and open up the crew and their territories to attacks from the other Emperors, the Marines (who notoriously refuse to challenge any Emperor seriously unless it's on their terms) or anyone with a bit of power. It's why they muster all the forces they can just to capture Luffy at Cacao Island and then actually barge onto Kaido's territory to pursue the Straw Hats in the next arc — as embarrassing as it is to send so many against one man and his tiny crew, him escaping retribution would be worse. And when they finally do escape almost unscathed after a lot of damage done, the main reason they don't take a giant hit to their reputation is that the whole mess was so outrageous (and the Emperor's reputation so carefully preserved up to that point) it instead massively improved Luffy's own, to the point he's thought to be in the same bracket as the Emperors now (much to Big Mom's displeasure).
Amai Mask from One-Punch Man is this, maintaining a perfect image with the public and brutally criticizing the other heroes who so much as mess up a little. Initially, it seems like this is just because he is a vain, shallow pretty boy; but later it is revealed that he is doing this entirely out of pragmatic reasons; the Hero Association depends on donors and sponsors to keep running. Having heroes raise doubts in the public eye through their behavior could have far-reaching consequences. This is seemingly proved right, as once some of the corruption and misanthropic behavior of some of the heroes is revealed, it severely weakens the Hero Association.
Being about a group of people in a city of corporate superheroism, none of the heroes in Tiger & Bunny can escape the insistence of their sponsors and director on the importance of creating a spectacle and raising ratings. Karina is expected to be the 'sexy' Ms. Fanservice to the detriment of her esteem and crime-fighting ability, Kotetsu is openly mocked for being an idealistic Destructive Saviour, and Ivan's Shrinking Violet personality doesn't go well with the theatrics of HeroTV. Barnaby comes across as very media-friendly, although the reasons why turn out to be suspect.
In Tokyo Shinobi Squad, Jin says that his squad's reputation would be ruined if they were to ever back out of a fight, prompting him to finish it instead of making a Tactical Withdrawal when given the chance.
Urusei Yatsura: Mendo Shuutaro is so dedicated to appearing suave and sophisticated to women that this can override his fear of the dark and enclosed spaces; As long as there are girls around, Mendo will keep his cool. The minute they stop looking, his composure breaks. Ataru tests this by having Lum and Shinobu look away and back during an excursion into a cave. He's rather stunned at how quickly Mendo shifts from Bishonen to crybaby depending on where the girls are looking.
World Trigger: Border as a whole is so concerned about upholding its image as a flawless organization dedicated to keeping Mikado City danger-free that it has its own PR department. The events of the story, which snowball from a few isolated Neighbor attacks in civilian areas to a full-blown Large Scale Invasion ending in casualties and abductions, play a part in why Netsuki — who's in charge of PR — is a Nervous Wreck.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: In two simultaneous Sword over Head scenes in the same building, Hell Kaiser and Edo admit that even though they would like to show their enemies mercy, as self-appointed antiheroes, they can't, and deliver the fatal blows.

Comic Books

Explored by Samaritan in Astro City, where he forces himself to make public appearances and accept awards so that the public, and possibly himself, do not think he's aloof and uncaring, thus complicating his efforts. He's also painfully aware that he could very well use the time and his Super-Speed to save lives.
Black Cat (Harvey Comics) is described as having become a superhero not for any kind of moralistic call to action or desire to pursue justice, but rather out of boredom from the restricted cage of her celebrity lifestyle.
Scrooge McDuck does indeed have a generous side. He once parted with a cache of gold to save his former lover from the poorhouse and gave up on a scheme to bilk the IRS when he realized it would bankrupt Duckburg. However, he can never, ever allow himself to be seen doing these things; if he parts with a prize, he employs Obfuscating Stupidity to make it seem like he lost it because of his own clumsiness or old age. He has an image as a cruel, greedy old miser to maintain.
Immortal X-Men: Storm is only able to momentarily stop Hope getting into a fight with Exodus by pointing out everyone can see them. So, Hope and Exodus take it somewhere private.
In the world of Madame Mirage, the technology that allowed people to become superheroes and supervillains was outlawed, as were the superheroes and supervillains themselves. Dutifully, the heroes all turned themselves in — and, in gratitude, were arrested and thrown in prison. The supervillains, of course, merely opened up legit front organisations and carried on being evil.
Another comic book example: In Miracleman #14, innocent young Johnny Bates, in order to stop the other boys at his group home from raping him, reluctantly says the word that transforms him into the mad Kid Miracleman. Having dispatched all of his assailants, Kid Miracleman is about to spare the life of the one nurse who had been kind to him. He then says, "I'm sorry. They'd say I was going soft, wouldn't they?", and punches off the top half of her head.
Subverted by Gail Simone in Secret Six, where the team decides that being "villains for hire" doesn't mean they can't take more "heroic" jobs if the money's right. This is Lampshaded as being an unusual decision in The DCU.
In the comic book Superstar: As Seen on TV, due to the nature of the title character's powers, the more popular he is, the stronger his powers are. As a result, even though he hates the whole celebrity game, he continues to play it because it's the only way for him to stay an effective superhero.
The Ultimates: The team itself. As a government supersoldier program with a tremendous budget they were constantly threatened by public scrutiny and for a while had to justify their budget in spite of the lack of an immediate threat. This lead to a major plot point that stretched through two volumes when Bruce Banner hulked out and the Ultimates stopped him, SHIELD covered up the connection between Banner and Hulk turning a story about the team cleaning up its own mess into their first public success.

Fan Works

Aberration (Worm): Artificer complains about having to deal with this in 10.4, noting that she's not used to having her vocabulary so closely monitored:
Artificer: It took some adjusting, let me tell you that. The first time I cussed out an intern for interrupting me while I was working, I had to spend a week with PR learning to "retrain my crude vocabulary". Sometimes I slip and use some of the words you taught me to use while angry. No one says anything, but I can tell they're all looking at me funny when they think I can't see.
In All I See, Nate balks at the prospect of using a cane to help himself walk during his recovery, as he's afraid of being seen and judged for requiring it... even though refusing to use it means running the risk of developing a permanent limp. This gets Deconstructed, as his efforts to avoid attracting attention ultimately prove pointless; even without using a cane, others still recognize and gawk at him.
All That's Left: Both the Heroes and the Inhuman Supremacy Party run into this. Going into mutant-heavy districts to search for ISP members would be a PR nightmare; only mutant Heroes and those who have highly positive reputations with mutants are able to deal with the ISP without feeding into their propoganda. On the other hand, however, the ISP can't attack said mutant or mutant-friendly Heroes without alienating a lot of their own supporters.
Alone, Together: Kim's status as a celebrity crime-fighter makes her extremely reluctant to acknowledge her attraction to Shego, as she's afraid of how the public might react if it came out that she's a lesbian. After they make it home from the Other World, she attempts to stay in the closet with Ron's help.
Ars Moriendi Series:
- One of the reasons why Jewel is so cynical about her chances of surviving the Games is that her mentor, who'd won the year before, has an absolutely terrible reputation as The Sociopath. As a result, she's afraid of being typecast into a clear-cut villain herself — and without a sympathetic edit, she won't be allowed to win.
- Outside of the Games, the President finds her opponent Lorca suggesting that she was one of the rebels from the last war, threatening to expose the identity she'd destroyed in order to survive said Rebellion. She can't have him executed, as that would be taken as practically an admission of guilt. However, Claudia and Cora aren't bound by such concerns and take matters into their own hands.
In Aurora Borealis, Rangers don't just have to deal with Kaiju; they also have to deal with public perception and keeping the Paparazzi at bay.
- The pilots of Yankee Star catch flak for being a mixed-race partnership; Tanisha is also criticized for not having an especially svelte figure, while Caleb is attacked for being homosexual... and having freckles.
- Ilisapie Flint, one of Chrome Brutus' pilots, is also given grief for having a naturally heavier physique.
- The pilots of Vulcan Specter, Devi and Susanti Hassan, are both Muslim, as well as the first two-woman team. Both of these traits cause them to attract no end of negative attention from the more narrow-minded officials.
- On the flip side, Fei-Yen Wang of Shaolin Rogue has the opposite problem: she's so attractive that PR has made her their media darling while pushing her partner Huan Che to the side, as they deem him to be too wiry and gangly for their tastes. Rumors that they're dating don't help matters at all.
Bequeathed from Pale Estates: Ned doesn't understand why the nobles would ever willingly mistreat their smallfolk. After all, noble houses come and go, while the smallfolk are always there.
The Best Case Scenario, if you're being "realistic":
- This is presented as one of the fundamental issues with Japan's Hero System: Pro Heroes are expected to build up and maintain their public image, often in ways that directly clash with their ability to do their jobs effectively. Such as prioritizing flashy Quirks and impressive-looking battles over quickly taking down targets.
- U.A. falls victim to this throughout the main story, as their decision to defend Bakugou repeatedly comes back to haunt them as the public becomes increasingly aware of all his issues. The more they learn, the greater the outcry over the academy protecting their investment.
- In "Peace of Mind", Mount Lady warns Yui that she needs to carefully manage her image, as Heroism Won't Pay the Bills and others will happily exploit her if given half the chance:
  Mt. Lady: This might not always be fun, but the fact is, heroes DO need to be popular. Our image is how we pay for all these expenses. So, you either work to make the kind of image that you want to portray... [watching Yaoyozoru and Kendo hawk Uwabami's shampoo] ...Or the media makes that image for you, and you hope that it's something that you can use to support yourself.
- "The Truth Beneath the Rose" delves into how U.A.'s Sports Festival naturally favors anyone with Quirks that serve them well in the ring, while those with Quirks that don't suit the format are overshadowed... and worse, often made out as less competent, placing them at a major disadvantage as they're offered far fewer opportunities to prove themselves.
- "Wishmaster" highlights how this is an issue with the American Hero System as well. Koichi moved to America in order to escape the spectre of his vigilante past, but has to remain as Captain Celebrity's sidekick rather than becoming a full-fledged hero in his own right so that the controversy doesn't get dug back up and used against him. Then there's the whole Rizzbizz incident, where a hero whose was flagging behind put Social Media Before Reason, dragging out his pursuit of a minor crook who was only armed with a toy gun in hopes that the footage of him teasing and tormenting the crook would go viral. Upon learning Star and Stripe was on her way, he panics and accidentally causes Monumental Damage trying to wrap things up quickly, completely scuttling his career thanks to the horrific PR.
Between Charybdis and Scylla:
- This is the main weapon wielded by Izuku. All of his plans work because Pro Heroes and UA need the support of the public. Revealing Todoroki's vow to the public means that UA is forced to take care of the problem if they don't want to be accused of neglecting their students and not caring about civilians casualties. it also damage Todoroki's reputation to the point that even if he decides to use his fire, he will never become the number one hero. Izuku and Iida manage to get away with vigilantism thanks to that: The reason why they fought Stain is because both UA and Manual accepted Iida's wish to intern at Hosu and unless they want to deal with the resulting PR nightmare, they will work with them and let them get away with it.
- It both save and hurt Todoroki. He should have been transfered to the General Education course for his refusal of using his fire. But thanks to the reveal that Endeavor is an Abusive Parents, it is possible for him to stay in the hero course for a limited time. However, the support and management course still refuse to work with him because of the possibility he would let someone die because he refuses to use his fire. Thus, anyone working with him will get their reputation damaged by association. And UA will be forced to boot him out of the hero course if he refuses to change.
- This is also a problem for the League of Villains. They can't find any recruits despite the chaos created by the reveal concerning Endeavor because, by being the only person who managed to escape, Shigaraki has a reputation as a Dirty Coward who would leave his allies behind if it's convenient. And this is nothing compared to the fact his targets were kids, alongside Izuku revealing that their Nomu creations were once people, which would all but ensure the League won't gain most of their canonical members, nor can they gain any members that aren't complete monsters or worked for complete monsters. They even end up hunted down by other villain groups because of that.
Bone of My Sword:
- One of the main reasons Principal Nezu keeps dragging his heels on firing Aizawa despite how it's grown increasingly clear to him that the Sink-or-Swim Mentor is doing MUCH more harm than good to his students is the timing. With rumors of a potential traitor at U.A., anyone ejected from the academy would face intense scrutiny and theorizing that they were working with the League of Villains. Plus, Aizawa was injured during the USJ assault, and as much as he's grown to dislike the man, Nezu doesn't want to risk him being targeted and murdered by the League while he's vulnerable.
- Nezu uses similar reasons to dissuade Aizawa from trying to expel Uraraka for accidentally destroying evidence of the blackmail ring. Not only would this run the same risks of getting them Convicted by Public Opinion or targeted by the League, if the truth ever came out, U.A.'s reputation would take a severe hit over such a blatant Miscarriage of Justice.
Coeur Al'Aran:
- Arcanum:
  - The White Arcana were established with the goal of convincing the general public that Arcanists are not a threat to the status quo. This fuels their crusade against Rogue Arcanists and Wildmages; they're desperate to maintain their image by any means necessary.
  - When Ruby wants to visit her fellow Wildmage Adam inside the Sanctum, she takes advantage of the fact that she's already known as a troublemaker who's sympathetic to the plight of the Sanctum's prisoners.
- The Second Torch:
  - Ozpin is forced to relinquish Roman and his weapon The Long Memory in exchange for Ruby after Neo takes her hostage, even though Neo has been deprived of her own weapons and can't actually do anything to harm Ruby. But because the hostage standoff is happening before a crowd of civilians, unaware that Ruby isn't in real danger, all they'll see if Ozpin refuses is the famous headmaster of a prestigious institution valuing an object over the life of his student, a teenage girl.
  - Ironwood is forced to let Roman get away in the second-to-last chapter under the false story that he and Neo managed to steal Ironwood's ship and crash it into the Emerald Forest. The alternative would be being forced to admit that he and the Atlesian military had recklessly put the people of Vale in danger by letting the ship be boarded, taken over and almost crash into the city; he'd rather suffer the humiliation of having his ship "stolen" than go through that PR nightmare.
Contact at Kobol: The Tau'ri repeatedly run into this issue throughout Contact of Races:
- Freeing Brainwashed children from their abusive grandparents is obviously the right thing to do; however, it doesn't look good, especially when a Sagittaron news crew films them physically dragging the children away.
- While conducting a covert raid on arms dealers, the Tau'ri discover several kidnapped children and have to swiftly disguise the below-board aspects of their original mission in order to save the kids.
- The Race also has to deal with this when the extent of Straha's crimes on Ovea are exposed, causing the Tau'ri public to rise against the Race.
Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak:
- When a schoolbus full of elementary school children gets taken hostage by Ark, the MegaCorps Arasaka and Militech immediately realize they wouldn't be able to get away with just blowing the whole bus up. Hence them calling Hiden in.
- After the Tyger Claws attacking Hiden International Private School are dealt with, Lucy points out that Jotaro is basically honor-bound to retaliate and start a turf war to avenge the group's humiliation. But on the other hand, Hiden would appear weak if they didn't respond in kind, making the turf war practically inevitable.
Danny Phantom: Stranded:
- Discussed. Colette Bevier angrily accuses her biological mother, Suzette, of being one of these. She calls her mother out on how she never truly spends any real time with her and yells at her for prioritizing her charities over raising her own daughter. She seems to believe that Suzette was doing charity work only because she was building an image of a charitable woman for the public and, in her own words, "wanted to be seen as a hero to a bunch of nobodies."
- Colette does not seem to understand that her mother, Suzette, wasn't helping people for attention or creating an image for herself but because she genuinely wanted to improve the lives of less fortunate people. Suzette Dumont is still heartbroken and horrified by her daughters' crimes and does, in fact, regret not spending more time with her and raising her to be a good person and focusing on her charities, but now she knows that it's too late, and knows that her daughter needs to pay for her crimes.
Dead on Arrival (MHA): Throughout the story, the Metahuman Network and their allies work to try and ensure that the public will react well to the eventual revelation that people with superpowers exist. When the Prime Minister finally reveals their existence, she makes a point of pretending that the government knew about Metahumans and was working on the issue all along, as she doesn't want to risk the public losing faith in their government and triggering a full-on collapse.
A Devil Amongst Worms: After the Battle with Leviathan and Makima, recreating the Bureau of Public Safety and doing much to help get Brockton Bay back on its feet, the PRT become much more aggressive in patrolling the Docks and the more rundown areas of the Bay in the hopes of turning the tide of public sentiment back in their favor. Unfortunately for them, many people are able to recognize it for what it is, with many noting it's too little, too late.
Dost Thou Even Steal Hearts?: Initially, the Pro Heroes regard the media with disdain, seeing their relationship with them as nothing more than a chore they have to tend to whenever they're running damage control. Attitudes start shifting after they realize Joker has allies in the media who are releasing critical articles and information to the public, using the bridge that they'd long neglected.
Lampshaded in Evil And Ham: When Taylor informs her colleagues at the pub how often the Protectorate does PR events, Palpatine wonders how they find the time to get actual work done. Taylor states that as a rule, they don't.
In Fate/Reach Out, Shirou realizes that Rise's Shadow has the potential to destroy her career as an Idol Singer if she successfully broadcasts her "Midnight Channel Special", especially since Rise had recently courted controversy by announcing she was taking a hiatus. In order to protect her reputation, he convinces the Investigation Team to complete her dungeon in one go, even going into debt with the Mysterious Fox so that her expensive healing leaves can keep the group going.
Fate/Revelation Online: Diabel is well aware of this. He might be a Reasonable Authority Figure, but his unofficial control of the players is based entirely on him being the most effective, most efficient leader in bringing the game to a close. If the Front Line suffers a major stall, the players might begin to wonder if he should be in charge. He's especially worried because of some of the things he's deduced about Kayaba's priorities; he has to balance clearing the game with getting players more involved with the magic system (which is, for reasons Diabel doesn't understand, Kayaba's highest priority), all while hopefully not playing along too much with whatever horrible thing this madman is planning. Diabel's chapters often involve him pausing for long paragraphs before he speaks, thinking over the best way to word everything he says.
In A Green Dragon's Hoard, Aizawa expelling an entire class forces Principal Nezu to perform damage control by re-enrolling all the victims, reassuring their parents that this expulsion wouldn't appear on their children's records, and removing Aizawa as a homeroom teacher.
Greenfire: Joked about when Spike admits to Rarity he's really a big softie. No knight or treasure hunter would fear a polite, pacifistic dragon, after all.
In How I Lost My Mother, this was Princess Celestia's self-justification for not doing anything to correct her mistake after realizing she might have just set a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy into motion. In her mind, acknowledging how she'd screwed up would do even greater damage, especially since she'd Un-Personed her own daughter. This only serves to highlight her Hypocrisy and self-centeredness — she cares more about her image than her daughter, and banks on matters working out if she just ignores the problem.
I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!: This is the only reason Itachi is punished at all after the time travelers declassify documents about the Uchiha Clan's coup, clearing his name and allowing him to return home to Konoha. Officially, his demotion is because he 'subverted' the chain of command for choosing to take care of the problem himself rather than report it to the Hokage and allowing the case to go through the proper channels. In reality, all of that is bullshit and he's punished so the village leadership won't have to admit they ordered him to kill his entire family, which would look bad to both clients and to the village itself. It's a formality at best either way, as Itachi was eventually named Hokage not long after his return.
In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, John and George rid an inn of thieves by making all the toilets fill up with sewage. Their triumph is rudely destroyed by the Guardians, for whom they were working; the Guardians chastise them for saving the inn in such an embarrassing and non-Guardians fashion. (Spectrem: "Look, guys, it's not that we aren't pleased you helped free the inn. We are! And we really like that you're concerned about the people. But, you know, you always gotta take lotsa little things into account before you do something. And the Guardians' rep is not all that little. You gotta understand that doing something inappropriate in our name can cause big harm to our image, which could endanger a lot of people in the future.") Because of this, they refuse to absorb the damage to the inn and end up taking more than half of John's reward money to cover it.
Look Over Your Shoulder: While the police repeatedly refuse to help any of Mineta's stalking victims, they're forced to grant Momo a restraining order after he's Caught on Tape lunging at her and Copping a Feel while she's arresting a villain. It's made clear that they're only acting due to the public outcry and outrage, especially since they continue refusing to do anything about his other offenses.
This trope is why Garon doesn't just get rid of his concubines in The Lost King despite all their infighting and treachery: some of them are noble and getting rid of them would anger their families, possibly to the point of rebellion. Indeed, after a concubine and her daughter died under suspicious circumstances, the concubine's brother hired an assassin to kill Garon out of revenge, blaming him for not protecting them. He gets Garon's wife Katerina instead. Other concubines are self-made women who are either powerful in their own right or have valuable assets that could be turned against Garon if they got expelled. So, to keep the peace in Nohr, he's got to keep them all, for all he's heartbroken over the deaths of his children and his two wives and is uninterested in womanizing anymore. (Note he does sleep with one more woman — Elise's mother).
Mending the Knots: As in canon, Pyrrha hates having to put on an image of perfection, which is why she likes being able to escape the limelight at Jaune's parlor.
In One Eye, Full of Wisdom, this comes into play when Chouji throws Naruto into the stands during the Chuunin Exam Finals. Both participants are immediately disqualified, as the people in charge don't want civilians to think that shinobi see them as acceptable collateral damage.
Recycle Quest: Exploited by Aisha Laborn, who arranges an interview with the news after a particularly bad meetup with the PRT and pins their actions against the Undersiders as the result of a Master in their ranks. The PRT, already under heavy criticism for going so heavy-handed against a group of teenagers, are forced to play along with the story and back off.
Rivals Series:
- While neither Viktor nor Yuuri personally cares for their reputations, they recognize that having a bad one can damage their careers; hence, while Yuuri's hatred of Viktor is well-known, he's never been publicly rude about him.
- This played a major part in the doping scandal. After the story broke thanks to a leak in the ISU, Viktor's immediate reaction had been to speed over to Yuuri and apologize and beg for forgiveness on bent knee; Yakov stopped him and forced him into a press conference to apologize for the accusations publicly, as the longer he put it off the more damage would be done to both his and Yuuri's reputations, and thus, their careers. The fact that this all happened in Yuuri's home country, causing him to lose the biggest competition of his career, made things infinitely worse. Just about the only thing stopping Viktor's reputation from going down in flames was his obvious distress over the situation, seen in his own performance at the competition, which he bombed even worse than Yuuri did, culminating in him running after Yuuri when it was over, clearly heartbroken and desiring to make amends (all of which was televised for the entire world to see). The entire Russian skating team faced backlash for what happened, forcing them to leg it out of Japan as soon as the competition was over, and they didn't face much sympathy anywhere else in the skating world for the following nine months (barring, of course, Russia). The only thing that caused the heat down permanently was Yuuri and Viktor having The Big Damn Kiss at next season's Grand Prix Final and publicly announcing they were a couple.
Scarlet Lady: The Epilogue reveals that this is one of the biggest factors keeping Emilie Agreste in check. They're a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who believes the world should revolve around them but savvy enough to recognize that if they openly and overtly try to bend others to their will, they'll be seen as "the Bad Guy". This is why they relied upon Gabriel to do their dirty work for them; Gabriel didn't mind being seen as a Control Freak, while Emilie could play the "Perfect Mother" to Adrien.
Stupor Heroics:
- Almost all heroes are this in general. Being heroes isn't something they do in their free time like in comics, but their actual careers and being forced to set an example and act as a role model for everyone despite still having very human wants and needs. This includes making mandatory public appearances for the fans as well as sponsoring certain products belonging to the companies supporting them. It's implied this is partially why Leni and Luan chose to retire and seek out more fulfilling jobs as civilians. One of the few exceptions is Becky, who according to Lori actually loves making appearances at various conventions to the point that while other heroes mainly dread taking their mandatory quota of them, her handlers have to hold her back from making too many appearances.
- Lynn needs to lay low as she ended up destroying a historic bridge while fighting a villain.
- Being one of the world's greatest heroes, Lori can't even enjoy cocoa, despite her metabolism being high enough that it won't make her gain weight, just because it would set a bad example for children. When she complains one of the products she sponsors is just as bad for them, her marketing team acknowledges this but since they're a sponsor it's out of their hands.
A Supe of a Man:
- Clark serves as a complex example; while he's sponsored by Vought and is expected to project a certain public image (including letting his sponsors pick out what cars he drives and whatnot), he treats this primarily as a begrudging obligation to his aunt Mary. Beyond that, he only cares about his reputation insofar that he understands it gives others hope, but is willing to forgo it whenever he's able to get away with it.
- Many mistake Clark's genuinely caring and compassionate nature as nothing more than part of his public persona. When he's outraged by the death of Robin, Stillwell sees it as just an act, as he can't comprehend the concept of him actually caring.
- Stan Edgar wants to make Clark into the face of Vought, seeing Superman as easier to manage than Homelander and most of the other Supes.
Think Before You Speak (MHA):
- Aizawa attempted to Exploit this after Nedzu informed him that he wouldn't be allowed to freely expel students anymore. When Katsuki seriously injures Tenya during their first training exercise, Aiwaza lies to Tensei, falsely claiming that Izuku was responsible for his brother getting hurt. He hoped that Tensei would complain to the media and get Izuku Convicted by Public Opinion, forcing Nedzu to expel Izuku in order to placate the masses. While he successfully sparks off a scandal, Aiwaza finds himself Hoist by His Own Petard as the truth swiftly comes out and the public is disgusted by both his and Tensei's actions.
- Words May Hurt reveals that this has also severely damaged Tenya's regard for his big brother, especially when Tensei puts off privately apologizing to Izuku until after the Iidas hold a press conference where he'll issue a public apology. This makes Tenya question whether Tensei sincerely regrets how he hurt the Midoriyas, or if he only cares about how this has hurt their family's image.
This Bites!: In the wake of the PR fiasco that was Enies Lobby, the Marines have effectively become PR's bitch for the foreseeable future. To the point that Sengoku has permanently reassigned every single Marine that follows "Absolute Justice" (such as Admiral Akainu and Vice-Admiral Onigumo) to the New World so that way they can't make things worse than they already have.
To Trope or Not to Trope: One scenario has Tony and his compatriots abandon the Accords and join the fugitive Avengers in Wakanda, preferring that to working with the government and being forced to prioritize their public image over all else.
In Wail of the Banshee, the main reason that Armsmaster lets Taylor be recognized for defeating Lung rather than Stealing the Credit is that she outright eviscerated the villain — and Armsmaster would be severely scrutinized if people believed he'd done the deed.
We're Not Friends Kacchan: U.A. finds themselves in an awkward position after learning that Katsuki is a bully who once told Izuku to kill himself, especially as he refuses to apologize or admit he'd done anything wrong. As they'd previously defended his character several times in the past, they can't punish or expel him without inviting uncomfortable questions and undermining the public's confidence in the academy. To circumvent this, they decide to let Katsuki complete the school year before quietly leaving under a cover story.
A Young Girl's Game of Thrones has Myrcella, who takes considerable pains to maintain the image of being a fair, compassionate, and kind princess...to the point that she tends to continue the act even in private. The biggest complication she runs into is how many of her peers don't understand the value of maintaining good relationships with other Houses, and she's often scrambling to handle damage control in the wake of Joffrey, Cersei, and Tywin's antics.

Film - Animated

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: The mayor insists on having a private meeting to negotiate with the Mutant Leader because the polls show that the people think he should, even though he is clearly terrified and not much of a negotiator. It gets him killed.

Film - Live-Action

In Apocalypse Now, Colonel Kurtz thoroughly mocks the trope and cites it as a reason why America is losing The Vietnam War. He admires the Vietnamese enemy for being willing to do whatever it took to win, no matter how cruel or unsightly, whereas the Americans were holding back for fear of being perceived as "immoral".
Briefly touched upon in Cinderella (2015): the King and Duke want the people to be happy and are well aware that a small kingdom like theirs is at a disadvantage compared to other nations. They agree to go along with Kit's idea of inviting commoners to the ball as a small PR boost, though they still encourage him to marry a princess.
Clear and Present Danger: President Bennett signs off on a shadowy war against a Colombian drug cartel as a way to boost his popularity after previously promising to crack down on drug-dealing during his presidential campaign.
In Gladiator, this is the main reason why Emperor Commodus doesn't simply have Maximus killed: the Roman public loves Maximus, his gladiatorial prowess, and his willingness to defy the Emperor, and Commodus doesn't want to risk losing the public's support.
Played With in Hancock: The eponymous superhero has a "devil-may-care" attitude when it comes to being a superhero, and often causes as much (if not more) damage than what he fixes while trying to help the citizens of Los Angeles, which has led to his terrible reputation. It takes an ordinary citizen (a PR executive who wants to help after Hancock saved his life) and an intensive "12-step program" (which includes admitting his past mistakes, voluntarily going to jail, and adopting a new catchphrase) for Hancock to realize he can keep his good reputation if he plays by the rules and remains mindful of the environment he lives in.
In The Hunger Games, in order to get sponsorships and important items, tributes have to impress the judges during training and the game itself. Katniss doesn't like it, but being pragmatic she pulls a stunt in training where she shoots the apple out of a roast pig and gets the highest Tribute ranking, which gets her a lot of much-needed assistance during the game itself.
Long Shot: President Chambers only considers giving Charlotte his endorsement for her presidential run after she points out that supporting the first female President would be a positive step for his legacy. Charlotte herself gives a lot of consideration to public image.
In Mercenary Fighters, an African nation wants to modernize by building a dam, but numerous local villages would be flooded out as a result. When the protagonist questions why they don't simply go ahead with their plan, the answer is "We can't! The press!" Instead, the government goes with the much more PR-friendly route of hiring mercenaries to massacre said villages before proceeding. Just to further confound things, they outright mow down a British journalist in the process. So much for "the press" being an issue.
This ends up kick-starting the plot of Mystery Men. With his world lacking a Cardboard Prison and all his villains either locked-up, executed, or reformed, Captain Amazing has fallen out of favor with the public and his sponsors, driving him to release his arch-enemy from prison to have a supervillain fight for the publicity.
Dean Gladstone from Neighbors has an extremely high regard for "good headlines".
In The Princess Bride, the Dread Pirate Roberts is a carefully-maintained persona of wealth and cruelty, secretly played by a succession of men.
In Schindler's List, in order to tone down his sadistic cruelty, Schindler tries to sell Goeth on an Übermensch kind of idea that showing mercy is something the strong can do. As a result, Goeth spares a slave who had made a mistake. Then, he looks in the mirror and realizes he can't live with himself if he's not a murderous psychopath, and he goes back and kills the slave.
Stardust: Captain Shakespeare works hard to maintain his reputation as a terribly fearsome pirate rather than as the Camp Gay he really is. It's more for his crew's benefit than for his enemies', as his crew generally fits the image of a pirate much better than he does. In the end, when his secret finally comes out, his crew tells him they knew it all along.
In ''Thunderbolts* (2025), this is the only thing sparing Contessa Valentina from the Thunderbolts for her actions in the movie as she quickly declares them the Saviors of New York and christens them the New Avengers. Since this goodwill is the only thing stopping the Thunderbolts from turning her into a smear on the wall, Yelena smugly declares in her ear "We own you now" as now she can't get rid of them like she hoped so.
In Vincent Wants to Sea, the main character Vincent's father is this (which makes sense since he's a politician). Dr. Rose actually manages to get him to keep looking for Vincent, who's stolen her car to go to Italy, by threatening to report Vincent for car theft and then call the media — there's an election coming up, and the press would love to hear about the mentally ill criminal son of a candidate.

Literature

Ciaphas Cain: Cain quite literally blundered his way into becoming a HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, a reputation that he could do well enough without when it ends up getting him into trouble (as it almost inevitably always does). However, as running away at the first opportunity would disgrace him in the eyes of his followers and cost him the benefits of said reputation (as well as possibly his life), he is often forced to act against his own self-preservation instincts in order to keep up appearances. The possibility that Cain simply doesn't give himself enough credit is also left open. This trope makes his fear of the Necrons all that much more important - he fears them so much he doesn't even bother trying to justify it, instead outright refusing to directly confront them.
Taken as standard behaviour in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. People's expectations and beliefs frequently affect supernatural entities themselves (at least those not affected by the morphic field attributed to being human-shaped): an inept sculptor's mistake results in the Ephebian Goddess of Wisdom carrying around a penguin instead of an owl; an entire separate timespace exists to allow the Hogfather to deliver all his presents in a single night; and Death's whole Grim Reaper aesthetic is basically because it's expected. It's also definitely a thing with the villains, where one of the worst things you can do is "Whitemailing", defined as "threatening to reveal a mobster's anonymous donations to charity."
Baal, in Dora Wilk Series, is a fallen god who fought his way to the top echelons of Hell mostly by the way of Klingon Promotion and got himself the reputation of a murderous bastard who uses everyone. While he has some of this quality, he's also very much a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but if he ever admitted openly that he likes anybody as a friend, he'd be knifed within days.
Himeko tells Misaki, her new Seraph, early on in Girls Kingdom that the societal arts students (rich girls, essentially) need to be very careful about their image, lest rumors start flying around about them. For example, she explains that if she made Misaki buy her own underwear for her stays over instead of buying sets for her, other students would call her a cheapskate and bad mistress, which would badly damage her reputation. Knowing these unspoken rules actually helps Misaki manipulate a few of the Societal Arts students, like making Asuka agree to a battle of the salons for Sakura^note and getting Saeko to take Matsuri back as her Seraph, though in the latter case she does have the help of Himeko and Sakura.
Girls to the Rescue: In "Save Wellington Woods", a class successfully preserves their local forest with a demonstration. Ultimately, they find out that Mr. Dubois, who wanted to raze the woods, intends to run for office and discontinued his building plans just to avoid the negative publicity ignoring the protest would have caused.
Harry Potter:
- Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry's second Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He set up quite a name for himself with his good looks and books about his fantastically badass exploits fighting magical creatures. Too bad he never did them. He just wiped the memories of the people who actually did them to take credit for them. Eventually he tries to wipe Harry and Ron's memories after they find out, but the spell backfires on him.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Fudge refuses to acknowledge Voldemort's resurrection because he doesn't want to deal with the Wizarding World entering into hysteria. His solution is to make Harry and Dumbledore the scapegoats of a Smear Campaign. He even states that "He has to be seen doing something." This backfires epically when Voldemort shows his face withing the halls of the Ministry itself; PR turns completely against Fudge, and he gets kicked out of office.
In The Henchman's Survival Guide, most heroes and villains are bankrolled by the entertainment conglomerates, so their every action is in service of ensuring that their show continues to be funded. To a lesser degree, every citizen has a score based on their social media presence, which influences whether they can secure loans and employment.
A very powerful recurrent theme in The Hunger Games. Katniss quickly becomes aware, before the Games begin, that if she makes herself into a memorable, likable persona, she'll be more likely to earn sponsors. The love story that she builds between herself and Peeta makes the ratings of the Games soar. This theme only gets stronger as the books go on: the fabricated engagement, marriage, and expected child between her and Peeta is a dominating theme of Catching Fire, and it culminates in Mockingjay when it is strongly implied that the rebels bomb a town square full of children, in a hovercraft labeled as the Capitol, in order to convince everyone in the nation that the Capitol is evil. PR is possibly the most powerful weapon in The Hunger Games.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: It's possible that this is the only thing restraining Randle P. McMurphy. He's perfectly willing to fleece you of your money, but he wants you to like him while he does it. Being put into a Bedlam House was one of the worst things that could have happened to him since the respect the other inmates have for him is directly related to how much he rebels against the Head Nurse, and he'd rather be their hero than escape the brutal punishments that result from defiance.
Good name in man and woman is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash. 'Tis something, nothing, 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he who filches from me my good name steals that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.
The Psychology of Time Travel:
- The Conclave's leader Margaret will do anything to preserve her reputation and legacy. She ostracizes and ruins the scientific career of her co-inventor Barbara because Barbara's public breakdown made time travel look bad. She also installs psychologists in the Conclave, not to treat time travellers who become mentally ill as a result of time travel, but to weed them out before they can create another Barbara incident. The Conclave will hush up potential scandals by sending reporters death threats and subjecting employees who leak information to trial by ordeal.
- One of the differences between Angharad and Margaret's leadership is that Angharad tries to bury the true scandal under a slew of sensational lies. Margaret would never allow herself or her organization to be tarnished like that.
Ramayana: After Rama becomes king, he is so obsessed with his subjects' approval that he has his wife Sita exiled because she was still suspected of adultery. It didn't matter that she had been kidnapped by Ravana (he didn't get to touch her), that she stepped through fire to proof her innocence and that she was pregnant with Rama's children, the scorn of one single man was more important.
Rebuild World: Akira is an Unscrupulous Hero type Anti-Hero and garners a ruthless reputation as The Dreaded in the slums. In fact, when supporting Sheryl as gang leader, right after first meeting with her gang, Akira basically asks her 'how was my performance'? Indeed before that, instead of walking in with her when she proclaims herself gang leader, Akira stalks outside to Make an Example of Them for the gang members who try to kill her in order to let his reputation keep her safe while he's away working. Eventually, Akira has a bit of a crisis when a Knowledge Broker spreads a rumor about him being a Paper Tiger due to his weak reaction to a pickpocket, which besides being stolen from triggering his Trauma Button, motivates him to get revenge no matter what to salvage his reputation.
Brightlord Amaram in The Stormlight Archive is widely considered across Alethkar to be the perfect model of an honorable, disciplined noble general. Except a big part of his reputation is that he has a Shardblade, implying he killed a Shardbearer, when instead it was Kaladin who killed the Shardbearer (and saved Amaram's life in the process). Kaladin being a common soldier, Amaram had him sold into slavery, set up false witnesses, and killed everyone else involved to keep his reputation. Ironically, once Kaladin finally accuses him, Adolin is inclined to believe Kaladin, who notes that Amaram doesn't really live up to his reputation and that his complete lack of blemishes is quite suspicious.
In Worm:
- The Parahuman Response Team (PRT), the agency in charge of the government superhero teams, is extremely concerned about the image that the heroes show to the public. The steps they take for good PR include things such as ordering heroes to attend charity events, giving assistance to media that portrays powers in a positive light, and classifying information about a given hero's power if the full details would be something the general public finds disturbing. They really wanted parahumans to integrate into society out of fear of Fantastic Racism against them — fear which turned out to be well-founded when after the PRT's collapse in the sequel Ward.
- Chapter 23.1 introduces Glenn Chambers, head of Image. As Hoyden puts it, "All Glenn cares about is the image, the PR. Up to you to figure out how to hold yourself like a 'lady' while you're dealing with street thugs with guns." But he's not stupid; he knows that he'll need public support to expose the corruption in the PRT.
- Played With when it comes to the villains. They must maintain a reputation of being formidable, so their underlings respect them and their enemies think twice about attacking them. The Undersiders, for example, do a lot what they do to maintain their rep. But villains can't have too nasty a reputation, lest they cross the fine line between "intimidating" and "dangerous". Groups like the Slaughterhouse Nine, for instance, have gone so far over that line that heroes and villains will team up to deal with them when they come to town, and anyone who manages to kill one of them are simply thanked for their service by the PRT. In short, being a villain is a balancing act between this trope and Godzilla Threshold, with slip-ups having potentially disastrous results.
- Lung, arguably one of the most powerful parahumans portrayed in the serial, is a Slave to PR. A flashback interlude reveals he was present at Kyushu when it was flooded and sunk, having grown large enough to go toe-to-toe with Leviathan. It was only when he recognised that nobody was there to witness the fight that his power began to recede.

Live-Action TV

In Babylon 5 the Minbari are so much this that one can stop a civil war with ritual suicide.
Blue Bloods:
- As NYPD Commissioner, Frank Reagan has to deal with this. Or more specifically, his Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Garrett Moore is. Garrett often has to give Frank advice that is sometimes frustrating, but in the end this is exactly why Frank trusts him so much: He's loyal, but he's not a yes-man, and will often remind Frank of how certain statements or actions will look to the general public outside the bubble of Frank's office.
- One episode in Season 4 involves an actor shadowing Danny in preparation for a role in a movie. When said actor gets himself stabbed in what he initially claims was a mugging, but is later revealed to have been a secret gay liaison, he doesn't want the public finding out so Danny has to drive him to a private clinic rather than call an ambulance for him. Danny later expresses bewilderment as to why he had to resort to such underhanded measures, as society has become far more accepting of gay/bisexual people, but the man is certain that his reputation and fame would be ruined if it ever came out that he's bisexual.
This is a major theme of The Boys (2019). Superheroes in this world are forced to present themselves as the kind of heroes that come from a more typical superhero setting. But what really makes them villains to an even greater degree than what they get up to behind closed doors, is that they are willing to sacrifice innocent lives or even commit murder to maintain their reputations.
This is shown to be a pervasive problem in Chernobyl among Soviet officials. The Party cultivates the culture, and admitting any fault is political suicide (if not actual suicide), so passing the buck is the normal way of doing things. This leads to problems for the main characters, who are trying to stop a major disaster from getting even worse, like:
- Moscow spends months negotiating with West Germany for a robot that can withstand the background radiation to do some necessary cleanup work. But the Soviets tell them the level is 2000 roentgen, which is the "official" number; the real level is six times that amount, a level where no amount of shielding could protect the circuitry of anything more complicated than a light switch. The German robot shuts down within seconds. Scherbina is so mad that he curses out his superiors, even on a phone line he knows the KGB is monitoring.
- As revealed during the trial, the two officials in charge of the power plant only care about promotions, and they falsify test results to avoid looking bad. The same applies to Dyatlov, who browbeats his subordinates into causing the dangerous situation, also hoping for a promotion.
- Legasov accuses the Soviet state of being aware of a flaw in the RBMK reactor design that would result in a Failsafe Failure in the conditions encountered at Chernobyl, but suppressing it because it made them look bad.
Doctor Who: Part of Terrance Dicks's overall portrayal of The Master (at least, the original one in the show, played by Roger Delgado]]) is that there are plenty of times he mostly just wants to spend some time with the Doctor, but feels the need to keep up his reputation as a Card-Carrying Villain, leading to some intentionally somewhat slapdash evil plans that exist purely to keep up appearances.
Los Espookys: While spending the night in a "haunted" mansion for a chance to inherit a fortune, U.S. Ambassador Melanie Gibbons notices a party taking place at the house next door. She worries that if she doesn't appear in any of the partygoers' photos on social media, then people will think that she was intentionally not invited, proving she's not as popular as she claims to be. She decides that appearing at the party is more important than the money she might get from staying in the mansion.
In Firefly, resident criminal kingpin and Bad Boss Adelei Niska is obsessed with maintaining image and reputation, to the point where he tortures and kills anyone who fails to do a job for him, including his own wife's nephew. When Niska has captured Mal and Wash, Zoe was confident she could walk in and out of his lair to negotiate their release with a large pile of cash without being robbed and murdered, based on Niska's need to uphold his twisted code. She was right.
In an episode of Hannah Montana, Hannah appears multiple times on a morning Talk Show (a paper-thin parody of Live With Regis And Kathie Lee), and her every answer to a question leads to her fanbase slavishly imitating her, much to her embarrassment and annoyance. This leads Hannah to finally explain to the kids on the talk show that they don't have to do anything or not do anything Hannah does just because she does or doesn't do it.
JAG: A very common trope for this show. The protagonists work for the Department of the Navy and although they are primarily concerned with the proper functioning of the military justice system, the overall PR and public opinion ramifications are never far away from their minds or actions. The news media, congressional people, or other groups often play up various incidents. PR considerations are often hinted at by superiors (usually the SECNAV) and are often talked about behind closed doors (to avoid the appearance of unlawful command influence). The Pilot Movie features an exchange between the CNO, Admiral Drake, and the JAG, Rear Admiral Brovo, where it's made clear that the mere appearance of things (the ongoing Seahawk murder investigation and an upcoming Navy strike mission) are more important to consider than the actual facts.
This gets invoked several times in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman:
- "Sex, Lies and Videotape" involves the villain trying to bring Superman down by... accusing him of sleeping with a married woman.
- "Whine Whine Whine" involves Superman being sued for slightly injuring a man whose life he saved. With other people thinking this is a swell idea, Superman is stuck with hiring the only honest (if not particularly successful) lawyer in town because his image and personal feelings prohibit him being represented by a slimeball.
Played for several laughs in Married... with Children, most obvious in the "Reverend Al" episode, where Marcy single-handedly crushes Al's "Church of NO MA'AM" by showing the congregation pictures of Al and Peggy at her birthday, eating in a restaurant, watching a performance of Cats (with all the proceeds going to the Chicago ballet), and disappearing into a motel, all the while being lovey-dovey with each other.
Marcy: There you have it. Your leader. On a date! With his wife! Deeply in love!
Disgusted church visitor: Reverend Al! Tell us you were with a hooker! Or at least a guy dressed like one.
Al: I have sinned! (crying) I have consorted with my wife! (people booing and leaving)
In Our Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin shows himself to be desperate to maintain a good public image on a number of occasions. For example, in "Madison Country Club", he's desperate to one-up his rival Jason Brill. In "The Cafeteria Strike", Mr. Conklin's desperate to prevent the school's board food being exposed in the newspaper. Yes, Mr. Conklin is desperate to maintain a good front for the public. However, he never seems to care about the reputation he has amongst Madison's students and faculty.
The Palace explored the relationship between modern royalty, the media, and the public in every episode of its short run.
In Pennyworth, the Queen of England (Jessica Ellerby) is reluctant to look "awfully oppressive" in front of her subjects when discussing what to do with the fascistic Raven Society in Season 1. After their coup is put down, the first thing she does is deliver a public speech.
Power Rangers Ninja Steel features Galvanax the Big Bad. As a previous battleworld champion, he's all about going after the rangers, but his advisers point out that if he gets knocked down even once, he could lose his fanbase and followers. As such, he keeps sending out proxies until the right time.
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung: With historians recording literally everything he does, the king is forced to moderate his behavior to ensure that he is looked upon favorably in the historical record.
In Rush (2014), this is how the eponymous character makes his living as a doctor: his clients are primarily celebrities who for various PR reasons cannot go to the hospital, and Dr. Rush makes house calls and is extremely discreet. A movie producer does not want the tabloids to know that he broke his penis while having sex, so he offers Rush $40,000 to treat him. A star baseball player likes to beat up his girlfriends, so Rush is called in to treat their injuries. When Rush finally has enough at the end of the pilot and beats the Jerkass baseball player with a bat, the victim claims to have fallen down the stairs rather than let the cops and the public know what really happened.
In Scandal, President Fitzgerald Grant is a Republican president with a rather liberal agenda, which makes him disliked by plenty of people in both parties. The only way he can accomplish his goals is to maintain high public approval which means that his various sins and indiscretions have to be swept under the carpet. His public image as a devoted husband and family man requires him to hide the fact that he is in love with Olivia and he started to despise his wife.
Dick Roman in Supernatural, having taken the identity of a CEO, makes it policy to his monster underlings to stay off the news. Unfortunately, this backfires when Dean walks right up to him in public, knowing that Roman will be unable to do anything.
Dean: See? Deciding to jump a famous guy ain't all upside. You can kill me right now, you want to see it online!
In the Voyagers! episode "Voyagers of the Titanic", Pasteur almost decides to give up his research on a rabies vaccine, afraid of the damage to his reputation if he continues. He snaps out of it later after Bogg gives him an Armor-Piercing Question and says that his success has made him cowardly.
On The Wire, this happens to both the cops and the crooks:
- The Baltimore Police Department are slaves to crime statistics, arrest rates, and public opinion of their efficiency — and the political power games involved in maintaining their image make it near-impossible to do any meaningful investigation. They're forced to use ineffective methods, ignore connections between drug dealers and politicians, and charge major criminals with minor crimes. Major Colvin darn near breaks the police department with his strategy to decriminalize drugs in the bad neighborhoods, which is a really bad PR thing to do but results in an incredible reduction in crime, so his superiors have no idea how to deal with it.
- The drug dealers, meanwhile, are equally hamstrung by their need to be feared by their competitors. When the dealers' drug supply takes a hit, Stringer Bell's business school expertise leads him to suggest pulling out of some areas so as not to dilute the product, but his underlings fiercely protest that doing so would be taken as a sign of weakness and embolden their enemies. The only time Marlo Stanfield loses his cool during the series is when he hears that his fearsome reputation is being challenged.
Yes, Minister: Jim Hacker is obsessed with his public reputation, so much so that the first order of business for him every day is checking what the papers say about him, leading Sir Humphrey to quip Hacker probably doesn't think he exists unless the papers say so. It also means Hacker can easily be swayed into decision-making by whether or not it'll lose him votes - politicians live in fear of being told their ideas are controversial (read: lose votes) or worse, courageous (read: will lose elections). It's also implied most, if not all, other politicians in Whitehall are the same.

Tabletop Games

This was one of the biggest flaws of Victor Steiner-Davion in BattleTech. At the age of 22, he became ruler of the Federated Commonwealth in 3052 after his father, Hanse Davion, died of a heart attack. He really wasn't up to the task and was far too prone to basing his decisions on what to do based on whether or not it was something his subjects would perceive as the "good" thing rather than what was a smart long-term decision. The largest one was when his sister, Kathrine, stole half his realm in 3057. Everyone in the Inner Sphere expected him to immediately try to retake it, but wanting to play peacemaker he let her keep it. This led to her mismanaging that side of the realm for several years, then in 3060, after he returned from fighting the Clans to protect the entire Inner Sphere, he discovered that she'd gone and stolen the other half of the FedCom. Every single soldier in the international coalition he'd commanded immediately pledged their support in going to get his realm back, even the soldiers from the Capellan Confederation, the FedCom's most hated foe. Victor again refused, backing down because he was so concerned about potentially being seen as a warmonger (despite the fact that he already knew that Kathrine had also arranged for the assassination of their mother). Unfortunately, leaving Kathrine on the throne turned out to be a disaster as she was an ambitious but incompetent ruler who's hamfisted policies of lashing out at anyone she perceived as not showing sufficient respect to her resulted in tensions boiling over until open insurrection began on multiple planets, which finally motivated Victor to act against her in the FedCom Civil War.
Gaming fans of Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars refer to this as "Lawful Stupid" and "Chaotic Stupid" when one's alignment rules force them to do something obviously detrimental. This often depends on one's interpretation of the various behavior codes. The Sourcebook Book of Exalted Deeds, based around the Good alignments, devotes sections of its first chapter to avoiding the Lawful Stupid trap. The first lesson: when the villagers tell you "A dragon is attacking us!", it does not ding your alignment to ask "How big and does it have friends?" However, the book also establishes that performing an evil act to save a lot of innocent lives is still ultimately a victory for evil and that a hero may end up in a situation where they can't avoid doing an evil act. But since good and evil are actual forces in DnD, this makes sense. And the book stresses that the forces of good are forgiving, though heroes must pay a price to make up for what they did.
Dungeons & Dragons:
- Paladins (the character class) must be Lawful Good and follow their chivalric codex of tirelessly slaying evil, upholding good, protecting the innocents... lest they fall from grace and lose all their abilities. Some dungeon masters take this to vindictive extremes, punishing the character (and by proxy the player) for even the slightest transgression. (The worst variety of DMs deliberately engineer no-win situations where the Paladin is practically forced to break their code.) And sometimes not even an actual transgression. You can fall for evil deeds performed inadvertently (this can technically include furthering a villain's Evil Plan), evil deeds performed while being mind controlled and evil deeds performed by other members of the party, though most non-vindictive DMs will allow for a little leeway in this regard. And paladins do options for atoning for whatever evil deeds caused them to fall, thus regaining their powers.
- Conversely, Blackguards must be evil, being the opposite of Paladins.
- Blackguards and Paladins have it easy compared to the variant Paladin of Slaughter, who must be Chaotic Evil. You must disrespect all authority figures that haven't proven their physical superiority to you, refuse help to those in need, and sow destruction and death at all opportunities. All opportunities. It seems quite likely that if this paladin is ever given the watch for the night, someone will die horribly. The Paladin of Slaughter is also forbidden to associate with anyone who's not of Evil alignment and forbidden to have henchmen, followers, and cohorts of any alignment other than Chaotic Evil. That's right, the Chaotic Evil Paladin variant has the strictest rules about who they can work with. Somebody seems to have forgotten what "chaotic" means.
- And don't even begin to think about what it means to be a Paladin of Freedom: Chaotic Good. You must disrespect authority and sow freedom at all opportunities. Good luck figuring out what that actually means. This is especially difficult to understand given that an earlier book had contained the Holy Liberator, who was very similar in nature to the Paladin of Freedom except that the code of conduct was basically "Help people and fight evil, and beyond that it's silly to try to give a strict code to a chaotic class."
- Fourth Edition changed all this, so now there is a single Paladin class who can be any alignment, but the alignment must be the same as the god the Paladin dedicates himself to. They retain their powers no matter what^note, but if a Paladin strays too far from his god's tenets, his compatriots will hunt him down and drag him back to be judged by that god's followers.
- Fifth Edition throws it all out. Paladins no longer have an alignment restriction of any kind (though they're still written as if Lawful Good) and instead have a Sacred Oath that they take at third level that provides them with part of their powers and spells and also gives a loose code of conduct. A Paladin who repeatedly breaks their oath might become an Oathbreaker, but there's a lot more wiggle room on behavior.
Exalted plays around with this trope a lot, on all sides of the equation. The main protagonists, the Solar Exalted along with the Lunar Exalted, are both hailed as "Anathema" after two thousand years of propaganda, which is one of the main obstacles in their work to save Creation. Of course, once they grow powerful enough they can simply make people love them anyway. That goes for pretty much everything in the setting except mortals, actually.
- The most infamous example would be the First Age Solar Desus, who personally invented a Charm that made everyone see him in the best light. Whatever he did, it was Good, and if it wasn't Good, it was for the Greater Good, and he's an even bigger hero for taking up that burden. It says a lot that general consensus is that he was one of the lesser monsters amongst the First Age Solars. ^note
Beast: The Primordial: Beasts Incarnate are the ultimate expression of a Beast, with the Horror perfectly merged with the human(-esque) side into a powerful yet still perfectly rational entity. Their Legend has become a Myth proper, with all the powers the tale they've weaved grants... but with the caveats that it must be stuck to. If the rules are broken without punishment, if the story goes off the rails, if outsiders barge into the tale and refuse to take their roles, if the Incarnate neglects to maintain the tale and its details, the Myth unravels. And when that happens, the Incarnate not only gets dropped back to regular (if high-leveled) Beast-dom but anyone can slap Anathemas on them until things get back on track, not just Heroes.

Video Games

In Alpha Protocol during the mission in Taiwan the President will only take measures to prevent his assassination or prevent a riot with sufficient evidence if given evidence for one. If evidence for the other can't be provided then he won't put on a bulletproof vest in fear of looking weak or increase his security detail in fear of looking like a tyrant. He also won't outright cancel his rally since he states that it would damage his reputation.
Fallout: New Vegas: Legate Lanius and his superiors have spent decades crafting the image of him as a terrifying, unstoppable monster, granting him incredible power through sheer reputation. This, however, means that he can't ever allow that reputation to be weakened in any way whatsoever; he must always act like a powerful beast and he must always win the battles he personally takes part in, otherwise his mythic image would collapse, and his army with it. You can exploit this in the climax, convincing him to retreat by convincing him that he might lose the battle for Hoover Dam, and that it's too big of a risk for too little reward.
Ulysses: His strength lies in his title — and it is his weakness. He will not fight a losing battle and destroy what he represents. Put the idea of loss in him. Convince him the Bear will not be the twentieth tribe beneath his heel, it will make him pause like nothing on earth.
In Fate of the World the player is this. All the time. Some policies will improve your standing with a region, others will hurt it. Neglect a region too badly and your standing will suffer. Get a 0% Approval Rating, and you will be kicked out of the region for a couple of decades, which by the time they do let you back in will probably have more problems than before you got the boot. Wonderful.
In Final Fantasy XIV, every All Saints Wake, the Continental Circus visits Eorzea to provide spooky entertainment for the commonfolk. In truth, they are a troupe of voidsent in disguise, with their "festivities" being rituals to trigger the Night of Devilry. But every year, the Adventurers' Guild and the mysterious Great Gourd sabotage their efforts and render their rituals the harmless fun initially promised. With their plans foiled, the Circus has to continue providing festivities because they know that dropping the pretense would bring the wrath of the adventurers and the Great Gourd down on them.
Your character might become this in Heroes Rise trilogy if you are focused on getting as much Fame and Legend Points as possible. If your Fame stat is high enough, some of the options that include putting justice above glory will be actually disabled. And if you choose so, you can betray Jenny and ruin her mission just so you can stay in the Project and hopefully win it. But again, your hero might as well be focused entirely on helping people, so this trope is optional.
Iji has a unique take on this with the Komato: the council does what the general population wants, and the general population wants genocide. However, many of the council members are Punch-Clock Villains, including the leader of the fleet in charge of finishing the job, and really don't want to do it. In other words, the leaders want to be good, but they also need to maintain an arguably evil reputation.
Mass Effect: Andromeda: Sloan Kelley, ruthless mob-boss of Kadara Port, relies on a general support to stay in power. One mission has her travelling out into the badlands to kill the last kett in the area, since she got into power on driving them out, and if word got around she'd missed some, her reputation would be shot.
Prison Architect has the most wonderful and beloved Mayor, who is such a slave to PR the moment the media starts harassing him about ANYTHING prison-related, he'll slam you with stupid edits like "Remove all exercise equipment from the yards in 24 hours or be fined massively until you do." Of course, nobody asked you about this, so have fun with prisoners getting so angry they start a riot.
Ratchet & Clank: Captain Qwark was initially a Villain with Good Publicity who only cared about getting fame and recognition. As of the third game, he's more moral but still enjoys his publicity.
In Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong, "Kindly" Cheng, a mob boss in the Yellow Lotus Triad, takes the concept of "face" very seriously, "face" being essentially her reputation among the other bosses in the Yellow Lotus and her community. When two of her best shadowrunners get gunned down in the introductory mission, this loss of skilled personnel means a loss of face and as such, she ends up supporting the Player Character and Duncan as replacements because your goal involves finding out who hired their assassins. Your first mission for her involves bringing a rebellious minion back under her heel because to Kindly, having minions who break away from your operation is a loss of face.
Part of what makes Shujin Academy from Persona 5 a Sucky School despite being an otherwise serviceable school academics-wise is how much the school wants to hold up its reputation regardless of the consequences. Whether it's letting an abusive coach who's also a pervert to female students get away with his crimes due to him being an esteemed volleyball player, endless community activities that the students see right through as the school trying to save face after said coach's crimes are exposed, having their Student Council President look into recent student activities that almost ends with her getting sold to sex slavery, or pressuring a talented but self-conscious gymnast who is still struggling to cope with the death of her sister to win as much as she can and threatening to revoke her honors privileges if she doesn't give Shujin a good name, it's no wonder the Phantom Thieves are seen as more useful than the authorities.
Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project has her reputation as Gensokyo's resident youkai exterminator to think about. The problem is that unknown to its human populace, Gensokyo is actually a Fantastic Nature Reserve and Reimu is its warden, so she doesn't "exterminate" youkai as much as she "roughs up the ones who get too rowdy." Unfortunately, she's also a very popular warden... among Gensokyo's youkai populace, that is. Meaning her shrine often has visitors in the shape of the many youkai she's "exterminated", and the "haunted shrine" run by its "youkai shrine maiden" is no longer popular with the humans. Long story short, Reimu has a hard time balancing her job with keeping up appearances and making sure she doesn't lose whatever little good PR she has left.
ULTRAKILL:
- Gabriel is one of, if not the most respected and feared archangel in service to the Holy Council as an agent of the Father's divine will. A veteran of countless battles, Gabriel has never lost a fight or failed a mission. That is, until he's defeated by V1 while they're rampaging in Hell. This single blemish in his otherwise perfect record is enough for the Council to cast doubts upon his loyalty and brand him a heretic since, by their own logic, he couldn't possibly be defeated by a machine, a "mere object", unless he deliberately threw the fight. Being empowered by the Father's Holy Light, to even imply that he could still be defeated is considered blasphemy. The Council then rips out the Holy Light from Gabriel and grants him 24 hours to correct his "mistake" by killing V1.
- Interestingly, Gabriel is still massively popular among the rest of the angels, who otherwise fear the dogmatic Council. It's implied that the Council is as strict as it is in an effort to hide the fact that not only do they not have any actual power, but also that God Is Dead. Once Gabriel realizes these things after taking some time to think about the meaning of his defeats at the hands of V1, he promptly slaughters the Council and holds the severed head of a councilor for his fellow angels to see in order to show them they have nothing to fear.
Yandere Simulator: Saikou Corp's namesake CEO Saisho Saikou's anti-LGBT, pro-eugenics would very likely anger his company's customer base worldwide, so he keeps those controversial opinions to himself. As he admires Imperial Japan, which was basically a fascist dictatorship, it's implied he privately harbors other forms of intolerance.

Visual Novels

Throughout Ace Attorney, it's made clear that every aspect of the legal system suffers from this, since results are nearly always given priority over justice. Defense attorneys will employ almost any trick to get their clients cleared, prosecutors will use every bit of their clout and influence to get everyone brought before them found guilty, and police officers arrest whatever suspects they can find and leave the actual question of guilt for the court to handle. It reaches its nadir in the "Dark Age of the Law", where Phoenix Wright can be disbarred for presenting forged evidence (which he didn't do on purpose, and no one could prove otherwise) and where a falsely convicted murderer can be allowed to prosecute without strenuous objection.
In Hatoful Boyfriend the reputation of the noble Le Bel family is neither heroic nor villainous, though like a good noble Sakuya would argue that it transcends heroism. It's basically all about ostentatious presentation, general nobility, and high, expensive quality. In Holiday Star, Yuuya and several other characters are able to manipulate him by bringing this up. Hiyoko gets him to try a kind of cafeteria food just by talking about its supposed aristocratic appeal.
In Spirit Hunter: NG, Rosé hesitates to act motherly towards a Creepy Doll because she has a reputation of haughtiness to uphold, even though Akira is her only witness. She eventually relents and soothes the crying doll, pacifying its spirit.
Teru of Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2 practically has a Split Personality due to this trope. He's very curt and snappy to the heroine, but if she reminds him that other people are watching, he immediately switches from Ice to Sugar so fast it'll make your head spin.

Webcomics

Khrima in Adventurers! wants to be seen as an evil supervillain because Evil Is Cool. He is hypocritical about his devotion to evilness, though.
Blades of Furry: The GSBF commission is very blatant about playing favorites and will bend or not apply its own rules to popular skater that are bringing in money. Carla pretty much spells out in chapter 74 that they have known about Radu being a vampire and being in a relationship with Emile for a while, but have not acted because he is their biggest moneymaker. They will also choose how they act regarding the public revelation of both of these based on public reaction rather than doing an actual investigation.
The Nightmare Knight of Cucumber Quest is a Noble Demon who needs to be feared, since he draws his power from fear and needs said power to keep his "children" the Disaster Masters alive.
In Freefall, Florence Ambrose is part of Uplifted Animal organic artificial intelligence species known as Bowman's Wolves. Due to its artificiality and the fact they're supposed to be proof of concept for the uplifting process, the race's numbers are extremely limited — as in, currently, there's a grand total of 14 Bowman's Wolves, 11 females and 3 male (one of which isn't interested in cooperating in any capacity in helping increase their numbers unless provided with enough money he'll never have to work a day in his life, another of whom is in a strictly monogamous relationship with one of the females, and one who's Married to the Job). Florence desperately wants her species to continue, but that's contingent on demonstrating to the executives at Ecosystems Unlimited, the MegaCorp that made them, that they're not only not liabilities, but that they are valuable assets. So her every action is intended to demonstrate that she, and Bowman's Wolves by extension, are friendly, helpful, and stable.
In Friendly Hostility, Colin's job as a model is going to cause trouble for him when he becomes a dictator. Apparently, it's hard to consider someone a fearsome tyrant when there are photos of them smiling and playing volleyball being distributed by the resistance.
Virtually every big villain in The Order of the Stick does this: Xykon seems, for the most part, to care about style almost as much as he does power, but the biggest of all is Tarquin, whose Smug Snake affectation means his schemes really have to be drawn in part by public relations.
Angelo and Brian Souballou, in Our Little Adventure, are absolutely slaves to PR: the task of running their empire and a huge cult practically demands that they spend a lot of their time posing as respectable human beings. Otherwise, they wouldn't have much of an empire.
Out-of-Placers: The baxxid are an entire species that are slaves to PR. The reason for this is that baxxid have the bodies of giant killing machines but want to live in harmony with humans and so the baxxid elders enforce a culture of pacifism and intellectualism so that humans will see them as harmless despite their appearances. When a baxxid accidentally kills a human very gruesomely in broad daylight in front of a lot of witnesses, one baxxid advocates for immediately inflicting a Fate Worse than Death on the killer without a trial, out of concern for how the killing will affect human/baxxid relations.

Web Original

Aunty Donna: The premise of Subway Crisis Meeting re. Jared Fogle concerns Subway executives, in the wake of their spokesperson Jared Fogle getting exposed for pedophilia, proposing new sandwiches with the goal of salvaging their reputation and getting people to forget about the scandal.

Western Animation

Avatar Aang of Avatar: The Last Airbender allows himself to be thrown into prison when an Untrusting Community accuses his past life of murder. Katara tries to reason that he can't sit in jail while he has a world to save, and Sokka points out there's a whole nation of Firebenders who hate him, so what's one little town? But Aang believes he can't do his job as the Avatar with people thinking he's a murderer and has Katara and Sokka spend the episode clearing his name. It looks like he would have been perfectly willing to accept their death sentence if they hadn't come under attack, putting PR even above the very duty that makes him The Chosen One.
- Naturally, Prince Zuko would have the exact opposite experience in his Day In The Limelight. Like the classic Western Anti-Hero, he saves a child and a town from a gang of tyrannical "protectors," with their cheers and support, until he reveals he's a Firebender, not to mention the heir to the Fire Nation throne. The townspeople watch him leave with scowls and pitchforks and not the least bit of gratitude, and he doesn't say a single word in his defense.
- The importance of PR or "honor" to Aang is brought up again in the Season 3 episode "The Awakening" when the world believing that he's dead and has failed in his mission AGAIN causes an onset of angst.
Darkwing Duck, tired of his Anti-Hero persona, became a nice, public hero. Negaduck, sick of Darkwing's newfound fame, realized Darkwing couldn't effectively fight crime like this and went on a rampage. Darkwing finally gives it up and reverts to his unpopular, but badass self.
Justice League:
- The Justice League and Batman clash over this issue in the episode when the American government won't believe someone hijacked their Kill Sat. Green Lantern at first suggests they let them think what they want to think and continue doing their job ("We're not here to be liked."), but Wonder Woman convinces them they need the people to have faith in them and turn themselves in until their names have been legally cleared. They ask Batman, the original Anti-Hero, to join them, but he unhesitatingly rejects such a plan and instead works to find the real culprit. As it turns out, it appears that having both options working in tandem was the best thing to do; the League gained credibility that they were being responsible, while Batman, who had a reputation as a loose-cannon anyway, was able to convince Amanda Waller of the truth.
- A lot of the Cadmus arc was about this. To begin with, one of the reasons Cadmus exists in the first place is because of the negative PR superheroes gained when, firstly, Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid, and secondly when Justice Leaguer Hawkgirl was revealed to be The Mole for an alien invasion. Later on, after discovering Lex Luthor is behind the Government Conspiracy, the Question attempts to kill Luthor, knowing his public image as a "crackpot" will keep the League from being seen as part of the murder.
Kaeloo: Pretty throws a big fancy party and plans to invite everyone in Smileyland, but since everyone else thinks Kaeloo is lame, Pretty decides not to invite her. When Kaeloo shows up anyway, Pretty yells insults at her so the other party guests, mainly Stumpy, Olaf, and Quack Quack, will hear, but privately apologizes to Kaeloo and seems to genuinely regret having to do this to uphold her reputation.
Kim Possible:
- Shego, a Fallen Hero, is very much a Card-Carrying Villain. In one episode, Kim threatened to expose her heroic past in order to coerce her into an Enemy Mine, and Drakken infuriated her by suggesting that she was too "soft" to betray her brothers.
- In another episode, Shego was temporarily turned good. After wistfully looking at pictures of her and Kim from their brief friendship, she heard Drakken coming and destroys the pictures before he can see them.
My Little Pony:
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Princess Celestia absolutely hates having to attend boring social events like the Grand Galloping Gala year after year^note, but she does so since her subjects expect their ruler to attend. In general, nothing brings her more stress than having to constantly maintain the air of a calm, confident ruler before her subjects. The Season 7 episode "A Royal Problem" partly deals with her envy over her younger sister having the "easier" job of monitoring dreams, confused as to why Luna would ever want to have her position. Luna runs into this herself when she briefly takes up Celestia's duties; one dropped smile and a field trip is canceled due to lack of supporting funds, leaving her in distress since she loves children.
- My Little Pony: A New Generation: All members of the pegasus royal family are heavily invested in their public images, but Queen Haven is especially obsessed with it. It backfires once their biggest PR stunt — that only the royals could fly with their wings — turns out to be faked via wires, causing her subjects to turn on her. Humorously, the live newscasts revealing her overthrow and arrest have her posing for the cameras as she is led away by her guards, and then posing for her own mugshot immediately after calling on her daughters to run and save themselves. Ruling or not, she still cares very much about her image.
  (Ex-)Queen Haven: (Being arrested and led away) No comment, and no photos! (Beat) Okay, one photo! (Poses as camera flashes)
The Owl House: Amity Blight takes immense pride in her reputation for being Hexside's star student and does everything to uphold it, such as trying to prove that Willow cheated on her Abomination project (which ironically in the process damaged it more by embarrassing herself yet blamed Luz for it) or cutting ties with her for being a "late-bloomer" and even trying to destroy a picture of them together as kids. It's revealed that this attitude was enforced by her parents, who blackmailed her as a child into severing ties with Willow so she could hang out with more "acceptable company".
Phineas and Ferb: Dr. Doofenshmirtz tries very hard to keep up his evil reputation. One episode has him trying to erase a video where he accidentally saves a falling kitten since everyone thinks he did it purposefully and hails him as a hero.
The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Mojo Jojo threatens to drop The Professor into a Lava Pit unless Blossom vows to serve him (and Kneel Before Zod).
Blossom: How do you know I won't lie?
Mojo Jojo: Because you're Blossom.
Blossom: Shoot.
Ready Jet Go!: In "Racing on Sunshine", it is the fourth annual kid-kart derby race. Mitchell wants to keep up his reputation as the kid-kart derby champion and will do anything to keep that title. However, his pride and confidence get the better of him when he neglects to add batteries to his kid-kart for use when the sun is covered up by the clouds. He loses the derby and blames it on the sun.
The Spectacular Spider-Man's L. Thompson Lincoln, aka Tombstone, aka The Big Man, is the crime lord of New York, but he has charitable public image to maintain. To the point where when he and the other two potential criminal rulers of the city (one being the former Big Man, Silvio Manfredi and the other being Dr. Octopus) had a meeting and a quick agreement to stop fighting just long enough to kill Spidey, he turned against them and saved the wall-crawler because he couldn't be seen consorting with those two. Of course, the moment they were out of sight...
Work It Out Wombats!: Implied with Mr. E, the owner of the Everything Emporium. In "Helper For the Day," Mr. E gets very upset about Duffy returning her purchase, since the Everything Emporium never had an unhappy customer before, and he fears it will ruin his standing within the community.
Mr. E: (gasps) You're unhappy with your purchase? What? How? That never happens. An unhappy customer is a BLOT on my record, a STAIN on my reputation, a SPLOTCH on my standing in the community! (sobs)

Slave to PR
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