History Main / CharacterShilling

This trope does have some [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools useful functions]]. Sometimes shilling can be used to build suspense for a character who has yet to appear (or whose abilities have yet to be shown), in order to make a climactic scene where we see the truth behind all those stories all the more powerfully. Generally speaking, this tends to be more effective with villains than with heroes, as having the other characters [[TheDreaded act completely terrified of them]] tends to build up the antagonist as a credible threat, especially if the villain [[NothingIsScarier is rarely or only briefly seen otherwise.]] Other times, it can be used to build up a character who [[TheGhost never appears at all]], either to serve as an inspiration or a foil to the main cast. Sometimes the credentials of TheRival or TheDreaded will be established through shilling, especially when their reputation (and the hero's efforts to compete with it) is more important to the story than their actual abilities. Shilling can also be used to show that the character doing it is a (distressingly) [[LoonyFan obsessive fan]]. And what better way to establish that someone is FamedInStory? Alternately, if the character doesn't live up to the hype, shilling can be used to indicate we're dealing with an UnreliableNarrator or an individual that's EasilyImpressed.

* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', in order to not let early statements about Shinobu being the physically weakest Hashira (which she herself claims at first) diminish her true worth as an elite Demon Slayer, Gotouge starts informing some actual feats of strength on Shinobu's belt later on, such as her being one of the most agile Hashira, and [[WeakButSkilled specifically having the best fencing prowess amongst them]].
* This was one of the reasons why Ryo in ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' was so disliked outside of Japan. When he enters Tamers, the other characters [[RememberTheNewGuy instantly know him]] despite that he had never appeared (in that series) before, and there's a notable part wherein Kazu and Kenta fanboy over him and talk about how legendary and amazing he is.
* Happens InUniverse in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': the heroes of Universe 11 endlessly praise [[TheAce Jiren]] as the greatest, coolest, most powerful hero ever to exist. The {{Irony}} is that their shilling is half correct; Jiren really ''is'' that outrageously strong (in fact, he's one of the most powerful beings in the entire ''Dragon Ball'' universe), but he's ''not'' the AllLovingHero they think he is. He's really an AntiHero who does heroic things, but is also [[GoodIsNotNice extremely cold and rude towards others when off the clock]], and sees his fellow Pride Troopers as little more than tools to help him achieve his goals. Of course, it also happened in the regular sense, as about 20 episodes of the "Universe Survival Saga" have characters repeatedly mention how awesome and powerful Jiren is when he spends much of those 20 episodes doing quite literally nothing or ''one'' thing when he feels like it, so until he does something, the shilling is all we have to go on and we need to take their words for it.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' shills former villain-turned-AntiHero {{Deuteragonist}}, Char Aznable like no tomorrow about what a great, noble guy he is when his past actions in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' shows that he's really not, as do his future ones in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack''. As well as how he's such an awesome pilot when he's spent most of the series getting hit by TheWorfEffect. Even his speech at Dakar, which is supposed to be so good that it captures the attention of every Federation politician there and convinces a Titan pilot to [[HeelFaceTurn switch sides]], boils down to pointing out that even Dakar[[note]] the capital of the Federation[[/note]] is undergoing desertification and that humanity needs to stop it.\\

To be fair to Char, his stint as Quattro had him masquerading as someone with actual social skills (which he sorely lacks due to devoting 13 or so years to nothing but revenge), and the other characters around him tend to ignore this because, well, he's ''Char''. He's also saddled with the Hyaku-Shiki, a failed prototype Gundam with a transformable frame which, historically in UC means it's saddled with structural issues despite the final product being unable to transform at all. (If anything, it's ONLY because of his piloting skill that he isn't killed in the many skirmishes he goes into in said machine.) Besides that, he's a surprisingly good mentor to Kamille, and he and old rival Amuro actually get along quite well. It's only when said prodigy gets mind-raped does Char snap after realizing just how cruel the world can be and how much people like the leaders of the Federation have royally screwed things up in order to keep their own power.

** Sasuke is hyped up as one of the most promising Leaf Ninja in the Chunin Exam despite having a very slipshod record, even by Rock Lee, who trounced him fairly easily while using his [[PowerLimiter training weights]]. This is especially the case before the fight with Gaara--nothing in Sasuke's arsenal that he's demonstrated beforehand should be able to even scratch Gaara, and Gaara had nearly crippled a fully-powered Lee in a prior fight, so by all rights the audience should be expecting a CurbStompBattle, and yet the students practically riot when the fight gets postponed. Granted, in the fight proper, Sasuke manages to injure Gaara with a technique learned right beforehand, but nobody in the audience knew about it.
** Ever since the truth of his actions was made known, ''many'' characters have been heaping praise on Itachi. Whether or not he deserves it is heavily debatable (he did ''horrible'' things [[spoiler:in the name of defending his home and maintaining peace]]). It usually isn't too bad, but it gets weird when even the freaking First Hokage says that he is a better shinobi than he is, and the Third Hokage says that he had Kage-level wisdom [[ImprobableAge at the age of seven]]. Even Sasuke and Naruto, whose lives have been made significantly worse by his actions, shill the guy like nobody's business. Ironically, one of the few people who don't shill him is [[spoiler:Itachi himself, thanks to being revived as an Edo Tensei Zombie and seeing the consequences of his actions firsthand]].

** [[spoiler:After Kaguya kills Obito, Naruto screams at her that he was "the coolest." Keep in mind that Obito was partially responsible for a vast majority of the mess that happened in the manga -- especially Naruto's parents' and Neji's deaths -- and only pull a HeelFaceTurn a few moments earlier. Granted, in that time he ''did'' save Naruto's life, helped give him a NextTierPowerUp, and [[HeroicSacrifice died sacrificing himself to save Naruto and Kakashi]], but calling him "the coolest" might have been stretching the truth a little bit.]]

* While ''Manga/OnePiece'' has many legendary figures, the story really lays on thick how awesome Kozuki Oden was. He had many admirers, including the Pirate King and his eventual vassals, despite several outrageous deeds under his belt since childhood. He was hailed as Wano's hero post-mortem despite abandoning it to continue his adventures even when he could tell from a glance that it had changed for the worse, and then letting the issue continue for five years under the promise that the culprit Orochi (who had a track record of swindling) would leave the country. Kaido, the main antagonist of the Wano arc who ultimately killed Oden, holds him in high regard and laments that no samurai will ever match his strength. Most egregiously, [[spoiler:Kaido's biological daughter idolized Oden to the point of taking his name and assuming a male identity, to which Luffy initially objected on the basis that Oden "was loved by everyone" rather than Oden being biologically male or dead.]]

** This could also apply to Yugi himself. He's ostensibly a master gamer but frequently [[TheWorfEffect loses games in the early manga]] so that Yami Yugi/Atem can come out and take care of them, plays a few duels by himself in the whole series, and without the benefit of all the practice Jonouchi has had in tournaments, somehow manages to defeat Yami Yugi/Atem by the end of the series. He's also played up as being courageous in the English dub and while his heroism is more prevalent than his duelling, he's still less active as a character than Jonouchi and takes fewer responsibilities on his shoulders than Atem. He's presented as part of an equal team with Atem, moreso in the anime, but frequently vanishes offscreen for whole duels at a time. This is zigzagged in Darkside of Dimensions when he's dueling solo and taking responsibility for rescuing others, but still needs Atem's help to defeat a supernatural threat.

%%* In ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', Carl garners a huge amount of respect. He keeps getting endorsed by every adult character that he's responsible and more capable than they are to the point that even Negan, who's pretty much a modern-day warlord without any scruples about killing people without a good reason, lets him live because he's impressed with him. AFTER Carl has killed four of his men.

* ''Comicbook/TrialOfTheAmazons'' has Hyppolyta shilling Yara Flor's mother Aella during the opening and Diana shilling Yara Flor herself after the climax. Regardless of just how strongly they believe their own words, it's clear it's being done to make Yara feel welcome, given she's hated by the queen goddess of Diana's pantheon and both tribes have tried to have Yara assasinated in the past.

* ''Fanfic/TheArianaBlackSeries:''

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'', the heroes constantly talk up how awesome and heroic Franchise/{{Batman}} is, surrounding him with cheering and admiration even when he's offscreen. But when we actually see Batman for real, he's revealed to be a broken man with a life of loneliness and isolation. He explicitly ''needs'' the adulation, and when it stops after the Joker surrenders to Barbara Gordon, Batman's emotional collapse is heart-wrenching to watch. It's also shown that for all his adulation, the Justice League don't particularly [[TheFriendNobodyLikes like him all that much either.]]
* In the {{Novelization}} of ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Miriam talks up Devon saying "he's really cute." In the film proper, Abby talks about how his hair is really soft. When he's actually seen, Mei is initially dismissive of him saying that "he looks like a hobo" to which Abby responds "a hot hobo."

** ComicBook/{{Thanos}} had been hyped up long before his appearance in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. Thanos is the universe's GreaterScopeVillain, the ultimate evil dreaded across the universe, so when he's mentioned, it's basically to illustrate how the threat that the heroes just struggled to stop is nothing compared to Thanos. For seven years, all we saw of him was [[OrcusOnHisThrone a purple guy sitting on his throne talking smack]]. But when he finally showed up for real, he absolutely lived up to the hype -- in the first ten minutes of ''Infinity War'', he [[spoiler:beats Hulk so easily, the green guy ''refuses'' to come out for the rest of the movie, and of course in the end ''[[TheBadGuyWins he wins]]'']].

'''Jessica Lopez:''' ..and he told her she was pretty.\\

-->'''Minstrel''': Brave Sir Robin ran away, [-''('''''Sir Robin:''' ''No!)''-]\\

* One criticism of ''Film/PearlHarbor'' is the way that many characters gush over Rafe's skill as a pilot. From what we see, [[InformedAbility Rafe isn't much better than]] his best friend who sings his praises the whole movie. He's made out to be a noble hero by everyone, including [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Jimmy Doolittle]] and an RAF pilot who tells him that if there are others like him where Rafe comes from then, by God, [[AmericaWonWorldWarII America will kick the world's ass.]] It makes you wonder why Randall Wallace didn't stretch the movie by another hour so Rafe could join up with the Flying Tigers and the likes of Claire Chennault and Ed Rector could gush over him some more.

** Once it became clear that Ginny was the other half of the series's OfficialCouple, the narrative seemingly couldn't stop telling us how clever, skilled, kind, and funny she was. The issue with this is that Ginny remains relatively OutOfFocus throughout the series, meaning that most of these things are rarely ever conveyed to the audience or actually come to any real circumstance (for example, her skill as a Quidditch player only started showing up after the sport became TheArtifact), and some seem to be cases of outright InformedAbility--to the point that some fans theorize it to be a case of [[UnreliableNarrator Harry's affections giving him an unusually rose-tinted view of her]]. The films fix this somewhat by actually showing her in action -- such as being the only character to join Harry in a fight when the Death Eaters sneak attack the Burrow.

* ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy''
** Kelsier is the leader of LaResistance, a skilled Mistborn, and great at sowing discord among the nobles and hope among the Skaa, but people do tend to turn a blind eye towards his less-than-stellar traits at times. In particular after [[spoiler: [[ThanatosGambit his death]]]] it gets even worse, as he crosses into being legendary figure who's the centeral figure of [[LegendaryInTheSequel a major religion in the sequels]]. Elend lampshades it when he complains in his internal monologue that even Kelsier's ''handwriting'' is legendary.

** Felicity is similarly shilled, especially after Laurel was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap. Not only was she [[ItsAllAboutMe not selfless like everyone said]], she became such a CreatorsPet that even the villains were praising her. In particular, everybody feels the need to show how she's "perfect" for Oliver, and even Laurel [[spoiler:devotes her death scene to [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy proclaiming Felicity Oliver's true love]]]]. The shilling migrated over to ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', with everyone ''there'' gushing about her no matter how tangentially they know her, and even Thawne gratuitously calling her "a great woman".
** Tina Boland aka "Dinah Drake" is written to be Laurel Lance's successor as Black Canary, and thus has been shilled upon her introduction. The production team even go out of their way to build her up on social media to make the audiences fall in love with her. However, the coincidences of her skillset and name reek of the writers trying to present the character as "better" than either Laurel or her AlternateSelf from Earth-2 (the fan-favorite to succeed the former) and thus perfect for the role has instead made the character both a ReplacementScrappy ''and'' a CreatorsPet.

* ZigZaggingTrope in ''Series/Daredevil2015'' with [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]]. Before his first appearance, characters like James Wesley would hype him up as a fearsome crime lord, without even mentioning him by name. The first time we actually see Fisk, he's a shy dork fumbling over asking Vanessa out on a date. Then we see that he really ''does'' live up to the hype, starting when he kills Anatoly with [[ToyotaTripwire a car door]].

** The Doctor refers to K-9 as his "best friend", but he never really deserves this, especially considering that the Doctor has known Leela longer and seems to like her more. Fans saw this as a cheap way to introduce a mascot to the show. (They were particularly burned because the first time the Doctor ''ever'' had a "best friend", it was a really big deal, and it was in reference to Sarah Jane, who definitely ''did'' deserve the title).

** One complaint about the new series is that the Doctor ''themself'' is often subjected to character shilling. [=YouTube=] critic WebVideo/{{Hbomberguy}} observed in one of his videos that the Eleventh Doctor's first appearance involves him scaring off the MonsterOfTheWeek by simply telling it how cool he is, and other characters speak of him reverently as if he is a god, whereas in the older series, and even in the earlier revival series, the Doctor was just someone who went on adventures and was only one piece of the puzzle to each episode's plot, rather than the axis around which the entire Universe spins. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools However Series Six does go on to deconstruct this,]] by showing how the Doctor's legend has grown out of control with his enemies going to extreme lengths to destroy him, including kidnaping the child of his companions to raise as a weapon against him. This prompts him to fake his death and destroy the records on him so he can fade back into the shadows.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' did this to Rachel. The series seemed to go out of its way to make her a desirable character, and her friends spoke of her accordingly. They make a big deal about how she "made it on her own" (''i.e.'' left her life as a spoiled rich kid to live with her friends who bail her out when she screws up), how she's a "career woman" (with maybe the easiest job in the cast when she can hold one down), how great [[spoiler:a mother]] she is (she's not -- the show jokes about it), and how awesome a girlfriend she is (when she's probably the most difficult to please out of anyone in the cast, and not noticeably more attractive than Monica or Phoebe). This is due in no small part to the fact that Rachel is series co-creator and head writer Marta Kaufman's AuthorAvatar.
** Ross and Rachel as a couple got this on the show as well. All through the series, the four other main characters would ''constantly'' go on and on and on about Ross and Rachel were such a cute couple, how great they were together, how they were "destined" to be together, and how they were each other's "lobster." A casual viewing of the show reveals quite the opposite. In reality, Ross and Rachel fought all the time (usually dragging the other four characters in the middle, making it even more awkward), they had jealousy issues even when they were not together (which is bad enough for a couple held up to such high standards), but what made it even worse was that they were ''always'' blaming everything on the other person, and neither one refused to take any responsibility for their part in the multiple break ups. This is in part due to the fact that both were spoiled rotten as children and weren't used to being blamed for things. The fighting's also lampshaded by Monica at least once.
--> '''Monica:''' ''(pretending to be Rachel)'' "I love Ross! I hate Ross! I love Ross! I hate Ross!"

** Ramsay gets this from others, especially in season 6 where his enemies talk about how smart he is despite his StupidEvil tendencies and hasn't shown any long-term strategic mind.

* ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'': it'd probably be easier to list times Rick Dagless ''isn't'' shilled, at one point a priest implies that he's a better person than ''God''. Considering Dagless is played by the titular Garth Marenghi, who also wrote and directed the series, it's a blatant MartyStu. Of course, this show ''is'' a parody of the eighties horror genre, so it's natural that this trope is getting parodied as well. And just to take it one step further, Dagless shills ''Marenghi''. In one episode he finds one of Marenghi's books, and shamelessly praises the author's skill and powerful writing for the rest of the scene.
* ''Series/GeneralHospital'': everyone is singing the praises of Brenda Barrett. Both men and women rave about how beautiful and ''perfect'' she is, and almost every heroine on the show is compared to her and told how they will never measure up to her. She's been more or less officially designated the OneTrueLove of ''two'' different men. But she's far from a perfect person, and her returns usually result in the ruination of a few relationships.

** In the first half of Season 2, this went on a lot with [[AuthorAvatar Kurt Hummel]], in spite him of sometimes treating his friends [[JerkAss rather cruelly]]. This culminated in "Furt", a whole episode of Kurt-shilling, upstaging even his dad and Finn's mom getting married (Finn's best man speech and even the parents' wedding vows were all about Kurt). Thankfully they let off on it after that, [[TrappedByMountainLions but did so by sending Kurt to Dalton]].

** Moriarity also gets this--he's described as being Sherlock's ArchEnemy, a ManipulativeBastard par none. As it turns out, his whole plan was [[spoiler:part of a larger BatmanGambit by the Holmes brothers and he ends up succumbing to a VillainousBSOD and committing suicide]].
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', ComicBook/LanaLang spent the first several years of the show's run being the girl everyone was in love with; she was Clark's long-term hopeless crush, the object of every villain's twisted affection (so that Clark could rescue her every week or so), and everyone else's bestest friend. All of the praise heaped upon the character couldn't hide the fact that she really wasn't all that amazing and would often indulge in petty behavior. As the show wore on, her awesomeness caught up with all the shilling when she got a dose of superpowers -- but this made her ''more'' irritating, and she finally left the show in season eight.

** By the latter half of season 2, Scott's line telling Young, "You are a good commander!" was added to every episode intro, apparently in an attempt to convince the audience of just that. He wasn't.

* By the time of ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Extend'', [[EnsembleDarkhorse Makoto Nanaya]] has been enjoying quite a bit shilling for someone who's just minding her own business rather than taking part in the plot actively. Hazama considers her a SpannerInTheWorks, Relius Clover becomes obsessed with her apparent "strong soul", and resident snobby bitch Rachel has only had nice things to say to her. [[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma The sequel]] ends up dropping this completely, instead treating her as a normal character instead of some godly being. Relius doesn't even acknowledge her when they meet up again.

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': [[TheGhost Despite not even appearing in the game yet,]] Alice is being built up as one of, if not the, [[TheArchmage strongest mages in the world]]. Mona claims she's a master of many fields, Albedo describes her as nearly omnipotent in ability, and Diluc even claims she can rival ''[[PhysicalGod Barbatos]]'' in terms of power. This is given some justification given the reveal that she set up the entire Golden Apple Archipelago just so her daughter could have a fun summer, but needless to say, she has a ''lot'' of hype surrounding her.

* ''VideoGame/NBA2K 2016'': Vic Van Lier is the main character's best friend and later revealed to be his foster brother. Throughout the game, he is shown to be [[ToxicFriendInfluence a toxic influence]] on the main character, who adamantly defends Vic when he's called out. When Vic is eventually killed in a car chase he was involved in, the game treats it like it's a tragedy, with him being talked about like he was this great guy, despite literally everything beforehand showing him to be anything but. If that wasn't enough, the game ends with Vic's ghost addressing the audience with a '''''[[AuthorFilibuster nine-minute long monologue]]''''' about his life, making him out to be this sympathetic character with these deep issues, that ultimately falls flat with everything beforehand.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMasters'', the crossover event that features Ash Ketchum accidentally arriving at Pasio (because [[ExcusePlot he was too busy training to notice]] being whisked by [[spoiler:Hoopa]] into the region) features no shortage of admiration for him. To explain, Lear - Pasio's ruler with a SmallNameBigEgo who deems trainers he wishes to fight worthy of his time after he does his research on them - rather immediately praises Ash when he shows him his ''Journeys'' team without any showcase of skill but just one look at them all; Tina praises his rather reckless tendency of [[spoiler:getting in the way of a Pokemon attack]] and becomes afflicted with [[OutOfCharacterMoment feeling inadequate as a trainer]] next to him when she's generally very perceptive of Pokémon herself; and then there is the other playable characters praising his out-of-the-box strategies as if they never thought those themselves before.
** The tip of the iceberg is [[spoiler:Red outright ''sensing'' Ash's battle at Pasio's stadium without seeing him with his own eyes, though they never meet each other.]]

* ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook'': The vegan characters [[MyFriendsAndZoidbergand Sterk]] (except Bunny) are shilled as AllLovingHero compassionate animal lovers. However, to any reader who doesn't share Yerdian's comics, they come across as the opposite.

* The ''Franchise/Ben10'' franchise does this with Ma Vreedle and is completely PlayedForLaughs. While she is a competent villain in her own right, she's far from the biggest threat in Ben's RoguesGallery in any show, but everyone lives in mortal fear of her and gives her a wide berth. Her presence even makes ''[[TheDreaded Vilgax]]'', often known as the most dangerous being in the galaxy, run for his dear life. She does back it up with dastardly plans and berserker charges (on one occasion, the entire Plumber organization found themselves on the wrong end of a rampaging Ma Vreedle and immediately regretted it) but she's mostly LaughablyEvil due to being a hammy FatBastard with a funny southern accent.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': All the characters, with the exception of Timmy, constantly talk about how perfect Chloe is, from Crocker holding up a banner reading 'I LOVE CHLOE', to Timmy's dad wearing a shirt with the same phrase, to even Jorgen being excited about having Timmy share his fairies with her.

-->'''[=SpongeBob=]''': Those narwhals are simply ''nar-velous!''

* In Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', Shiro repeatedly talks about how much he wants Keith to take over the Black Lion and lead Voltron if anything were to happen to him. While Keith isn't a bad pilot, he's very HotBlooded and hadn't shown many good leadership qualities up to that point. Then in Season 3, despite the Black Lion accepting him, Keith still gets the team in trouble several times, quickly making him a BaseBreakingCharacter. It's ultimately {{deconstructed|trope}} a bit in season four when the other paladins start getting frustrated with him.

* In ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'', Hazel's description of Augustus Waters, from the very first time she meets him, is pretty glowing, focusing on his good looks, charisma, and the connection they have in conversation, compared to her descriptions of other people (which tend to be affectionate, but don't gloss over flaws). This ends up fading away as she gets to know him, even though she falls in love with him (and he with her) she gets to see his flaws in greater detail.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'':
** While Eleven is selfless and caring, she has her flaws and can make bad choices, but is often talked up by the cast as though she's uniquely admirable and can do no wrong, with Max deciding she "sounds awesome" before she's even met her.
** In Season 4, Will gives Mike a big speech about how he's TheHeart of the party. A statement that might actually describe him in Season 1, but he [[TookALevelInJerkass took a huge level in Jerkass]] between then and Season 2, where he's hostile to Max for simply being another girl who might replace Eleven, shuts Will out repeatedly and mocks him for not having an interest in girls, regularly ditches his friends to make out with El when they become a couple, and then shuts ''her'' out when Hopper threatens him. And he makes it obvious he's only hanging out with his friends because El dumped him. It's arguably Will himself who is TheHeart (but of course his self-esteem might not see it that way).

* ''ComicBook/CaptainMarvelMarvelComics'': Carol Danvers, after becoming Captain Marvel (and getting a new ComicBook/{{Superman}}[=-=]esque costume), was suddenly treated as the Franchise/MarvelUniverse's greatest female superhero. One of the first arcs of her comic involved in-universe fans, [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Kamala Khan]] specifically [[LegacyCharacter took on the mantle]] because she idolized Carol, and she was added to a large number of teams, often acting as a leader. This happened despite Carol not really being an A-lister until her rebranding; prior to then, her most prominent contribution to Marvel lore was an on-again-off-again [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] membership and being the reason why [[ComicBook/XMen Rogue]] is a FlyingBrick. It wasn't hard to figure that a potential Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse project was a motivating factor since Disney, which owns Marvel, lacked or had to share the film rights to Marvel's ''actual'' most powerful female superheroes (like [[ComicBook/XMen Jean Grey, Storm]], or the [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Invisible Woman]], who were wholly held by Fox, and ComicBook/SheHulk who along with the Hulk was jointly held with Universal[[note]]Incidentally explaining why the Hulk himself has only gotten a solo film once because the profits would have to be shared.[[/note]]). Eventually, Disney bought Fox itself and seems to have acquired all the Hulk-related stuff back in full.

* ''VideoGame/NBA2K 2016'': Vic Van Lier is the main character's best friend and later revealed to be his foster brother. Throughout the game, he is shown to be [[ToxicFriendInfluence a toxic influence]] on the main character who adamantly defends his friend. When Vic is eventually killed in a car chase he was involved in, the game treats it like it's a tragedy, with him being talked about like he was this great guy, despite literally everything beforehand showing him to be anything but. If that wasn't enough, the game ends with Vic's ghost addressing the audience with a '''''[[AuthorFilibuster nine-minute long monologue]]''''' about his life, making him out to be this sympathetic character with these deep issues, that ultimately falls flat with everything beforehand.

** Captain Okona from [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/The_Next_Generation/The_Outrageous_Okona.aspx "The Outrageous Okona,"]] did nothing actually outrageous except taking advantage of his incredibly hyped reputation as a [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys wild maverick man of action]] to get laid (not exactly difficult in ''Trek'''s FreeLoveFuture). Popular with the ladies, but not with the fans, who largely consider him a joke.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin}}'': Tim's love interest Bernard Down got plenty of this after he first got with Tim in ''Batman Urban Legends'' issue 6. Damian apparently likes him despite him disliking Tim and never caring about his personal life as well, stories tell us how he makes Tim happy, secure, or have Tim super into him without showing it or actually explaining why. It got so bad to the point that upon meeting him, Stephanie, Tim's long-running love interest for over 20 years, declared it was the "best day ever." This is after Tim dumped her for no reason, ghosted her, reconnected by accident, and introduced her to Bernard without even asking... Understandably, some readers were quick to compare this to the below-mentioned [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Carlie Cooper]].

* In ''Series/{{Cursed}}'', Nimue is quickly held up by the Fey as being a great leader and fearsome warrior who is responsible for bringing them all together, but until the seventh episode all she's really done is have the Sword of Power in her possession and kill a few Paladins; she doesn't step up as a leader until the final minutes of this episode, though she begins living up to her reputation afterwards. In comparison, Gawain is actively doing more to rally the Fey and resist the Paladins for much longer (leading night raids, getting food, leading refugees to Nemos etc) but doesn't get nearly as much hype.

** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in the case of Sherlock himself. There are a lot of characters who explicitly ''don't'' like him, and with good reason -- he's an anti-social, abrasive InsufferableGenius with a an unspecified mental disorder (but who occasionally proves himself invaluable to the police). But the people who ''do'' like him (particularly John) see him as even more than a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and one of the greatest people they've ever known, even though he struggles ''mightily'' to give a shit about anyone else.

* Cleverly used in ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'', as all the fellow soldiers of main character Raymond Shaw describe him as the "kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life", despite him being shown as a withdrawn and generally unpleasant person to be around. It turns out that [[spoiler:him and his entire unit have been {{brainwashed}} to portray him as a war hero in order to get him elected to high office]].
* A lot of this in Creator/CassandraClare's [[Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles works]]. Perhaps most egregiously, ''[[Literature/TheDarkArtifices Queen of Air and Darkness]]'' devotes over a hundred pages to a detour in which Julian and Emma visit a parallel dimension where [[AuthorAvatar Clary]] never triumphed at the end of ''[[Literature/TheMortalInstruments City of Lost Souls]]'', seemingly just for the purpose of having the characters expound on how important her contributions were and what a hero she was in the previous series.

* Pops up from time to time in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', especially in regards to Kelsier and Vin. While it's true that Kelsier is the leader of LaResistance, a skilled Mistborn, and great at sowing discord among the nobles and hope among the Skaa, people do tend to turn a blind eye towards his less-than-stellar traits at times. It's even lampshaded when Elend complains in his internal monologue that even Kelsier's ''handwriting'' is legendary. Likewise with Vin, while she is a naturally very strong Mistborn and [[spoiler:was the one who killed the Lord Ruler]], she herself admits she managed that by sheer luck and other characters tend to harp on about how talented/beautiful/capable she is a lot, without much basis for comparison since she's the ''only'' major Mistborn character after [[spoiler:Kelsier's death]], to the point that Lord Elend reacts in absolute terror when he discovers a teenaged girl is coming to kill him.

* ''Film/TheRoom'':

* Kai Leng in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' is talked up by everyone as being a ruthless bastard who isn't to be trifled with. However, every time he's fought he mainly just hides and utilizes [[CutscenePowerToTheMax Cutscene Powers]] in order to cheat his way into winning by making your character suddenly turn incompetent.

* [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo Lilith]] receives a heavy dose of this throughout ''VideoGame/Borderlands3''. The game even opens with Marcus hailing her as TheParagon that's "saved Pandora over and over", even though half the events of ''[[VideoGame/Borderlands2 2]]'' were directly ''her'' fault. ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' showed that [[BigBad Handsome Jack]] went off the deep end after [[CreateYourOwnVillain she disfigured him]], and she pulled a LeeroyJenkins in ''2'' that [[spoiler:rendered Angel's HeroicSacrifice [[SenselessSacrifice pointless]] and got Roland killed]], and ''Pre-Sequel'' all but spelled out that [[spoiler:her obsession with revenge against anyone she feels was even remotely connected to Jack and thus Roland's death was [[SanitySlippage leading her down a dark path]]]], but all of this goes ignored in-universe and all the characters treat her as the BigGood despite her incompetence.

** Ross and Rachel as a couple got this on the show as well. All through the series, the four other main characters would ''constantly'' go on and on and on about Ross and Rachel were such a cute couple, how great they were together, how they were "destined" to be together, and how they were each other's "lobster." A casual viewing of the show reveals quite the opposite. In reality, Ross and Rachel fought all the time (usually dragging the other four characters in the middle, making it even more awkward), they had jealousy issues even when they were not together (which is bad enough for a couple held up to such high standards), but what made it even worse was that they were ''always'' blaming everything on the other person, and neither one refused to take any responsibility for their part in the multiple break ups. This is in part due to the fact that both were spoiled rotten as children and weren't used to being blamed for things.

** In these movies, Tony Stark also gets this. While beyond them, Tony definitely ''earns'' much of the praise towards him, he's also more readily called out on his failings, so any praise he does get is balanced and he's more clearly a ByronicHero. In ''Homecoming'', Tony is held up as Peter's inspiration for becoming a hero (a complete invention of the movies), even replacing Uncle Ben as his primary father figure, and Peter's extremely desperate to impress him, to the point that disappointing Tony leads to a HeroicBSOD. In the sequel, [[spoiler:Tony's death]] leads to him being further lionised, with people questioning [[spoiler:how the world will move on without him and if Peter is ready and capable of living up to his legacy]]. The problem with this, though, is that Tony is a hands-off mentor who does very little to actually support Peter, while also being significantly more of a jerkass than usual (in fact, it's entirely his fault that the BigBad of either film is a threat) without any attempt to call him out like in the other films. Tony's paid a reverence in these films he's otherwise never given and given a pass on behaviour that would have got called out immediately elsewhere.

* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'':
** Kokushibo praises Sanemi along with Gyomei as the strongest Hashira of their generation. In Gyomei's case, this statement is supported by several other characters in the series, and official data and actual feats shown in the story prove that Gyomei indeed is the strongest. Conversely, despite the fact that Sanemi is shown to be extremely pain-tolerant and very determined, not much in the series and official data is shown to support him as the second strongest Hashira of his generation.
** In order to not let early statements about Shinobu being the physically weakest Hashira (which she herself claims at first) diminish her true worth as an elite Demon Slayer, Gotouge starts informing some actual feats of strength on Shinobu's belt later on, such as her being one of the most agile Hashira, and [[WeakButSkilled specifically having the best fencing prowess amongst them]].

* Cleverly used in ''Film/TheManchurianCandidate'', as all the fellow soldiers of main character Raymond Shaw describe him as the "kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life", despite him being shown as a withdrawn and generally unpleasant person to be around. Turns out [[spoiler:him and his entire unit have been brainwashed to portray him as a war hero in order to get him elected to high office]].

* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having ComicBook/{{Batman}}, ComicBook/{{Superman}}, and ComicBook/WonderWoman tell the founding JSA that they're a massive inspiration to everyone and modern superheroes wouldn't exist without them. This can be a bit of a hard sell, as while the JSA are by no means losers, they also distinctly aren't the foundation upon which Franchise/TheDCU's A-listers built their careers. The truth is that we'd ''seen'' the origins of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and none of their origins showed them taking any real inspiration from the JSA, and rarely if ever even acknowledged their existence. Really, the only significant non-JSA heroes to take any inspiration from them are ComicBook/TheFlash and ComicBook/BlackCanary.[[note]]It's even sillier from an out-of-universe context; the entire reason the JSA are {{Old Superhero}}es and, say, Superman isn't, despite him debuting first, is that their books were cancelled and his wasn't. This [[RefugeeFromTime left their careers firmly locked in the 1940s]] while Superman got the benefit of ComicBookTime, which creates the odd effect that being ''less'' popular than other characters allowed them to be declared "their inspirations".[[/note]] This makes sense from a meta perspective because the JSA are the superhero genre's ''[[TropeMakers first]]'' SuperTeam and are some of the oldest characters in the genre and [[TropeCodifier codified many of its tropes]], but ''in-universe'' couldn't really apply. Over a decade later, when the DCU had [[ContinuityReboot received a few facelifts]], this idea was more directly addressed: Clark Kent only debuted as ComicBook/{{Superboy}} because his father used the story of the JSA to assuage his fear that people wouldn't accept him.