History Main / CharacterShilling

** At the same time that was going on, Barney was [[{{Fladerization}} flanderized]] into a supreme womanizer who scored with every girl he hit on...and the rest of the cast inexplicably became his enthusiastic cheerleaders, even though in earlier seasons they'd only kind of put up with it and even expressed occasional disgust at some of Barney's [[ComedicSociopathy slimier methods.]] They rooted for Barney every time he hit on a girl, actively helped him out at one point, and celebrated every time he scored (they did a lot of celebrating). It was as if the writers were desperately telling their viewers, "See? See? See how much better Barney is as an exagerated caricature of himself than [[FanPreferredCouple when he was paired with Robin?"]]

Remember, it's only really shilling when we don't know why such praise and admiration is being given. If they've already shown they can back it up (or they've [[FakeUltimateHero fooled the other characters with a false image]]), it probably doesn't count.

Compare InformedAttribute, InformedAbility and CreatorsPet, the last of which is what happens when this goes wrong and the fans just end up ''hating'' the shilled character. May lead to StopWorshippingMe if its to the person's face and they're more modest.

Remember, it's only really shilling when we don't know why such praise and admiration is being given. If they've already shown they can back it up, it probably doesn't count.

* Inami from ''{{Working}}'' gets this from most of the cast whenever the spotlight is on her ([[RomanticPlotTumor and that's often]]), with the most coming from Poplar, who won't shut up on how cute Inami is. [[{{Moe}} Though for most people, she's much cuter]]. Somewhat {{justified}} in that they're trying to sell her up to Takanashi, the guy Inami likes, but they still overdo it a little. However, they introduced a RomanticFalseLead for Inami that spends more time praising her than ''searching for his LongLostSibling'', even though that's the reason he was introduced and the guy barely knows Inami! And this has no excuse.
** Also "Kotori", the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of Takanashi]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of Takanashi's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, and while most of Takanashi's sisters aren't that great either, youngest sister Nazuna is a YamatoNadeshiko, making this more jarring. It's PlayedForLaughs, but still. Unsurprisingly, the idea for "Kotori" came from Inami, and, well, see the above paragraph.

* Subverted in the ElHazard OAV. The princess is highly praised by nearly every character who talks about her. [[spoiler: When we finally meet her, though, one wonders why she was really missed at all.]]

* On "{{Degrassi}}", this happens quite a bit with Mia during Season 8, much to Holly J's (and many fans') annoyance.

* "{{Degrassi}}" Drew Torres and Owen Milligan. In their earlist appearences both are presented as egotistical, homophobic, bullies and then without any reasoning or justification behind it are instantly shown as desirable, romantic leads. Neither Drew or Owen have tried to apologize or make up for any of their crimes. In fact, newer episodes try to pretend that Drew and Owen are both good guys.

* "{{Degrassi}}" Drew Torres and Owen Milligan. In their earlist appearences both are presented as egotistical,homophobic,bullies and then without any reasoning or justification behind it are instantly shown as desirable,romantic leads.Neither Drew or Owen have tried to apologize or make up for any of their crimes.In fact, newer episodes try to pretend that Drew and Owen are both good guys.

* "{{Degrassi}}" Drew Torres and Owen Milligan. In their earlist appearences both are presented as egotistical,homophobic,bullies and then without any reasoning or justification behind it are instantly shown as desirable,romantic leads

* Owen on ''TotalDramaIsland''. Most of his accomplishments are either a) based on dumb luck or b) somehow related to [[BigEater eating]], yet in some episodes the other characters will praise him excessively. In the first episode of ''Total Drama Action'', for example, he manages to avoid being caught by the monster ''simply because he's too fat to pick up'', then eats a bunch of ''fake food'' because he wouldn't just stop and listen to Chris ''tell him'' it was fake. But by coincidence he happened to burp out the key they were supposed to find, and immediately the scene cuts to several other characters praising his success.

** It's been widely joked that Kyle got shilled ''specifically'' because DC were pissed off that fans (rightfully) saw how TheDeathOfSuperman and [[{{Knightfall}} Azrael becoming Batman]] were temporary plotlines. DC were deadset that Kyle would stick, hence the shilling. However, Grant Morrison refused to give Kyle the same treatment in [[{{Justice League of America}} JLA]]. Yes, most of the team respected him, but he had to work to really be seen as something more than a rookie. And TheFlash was open about his initial dislike of Kyle and it took a good amount of character development for them to become friends. As a result, Kyle Rayner grew his own crop of decidedly enthusiastic and loyal fans...

Sometimes, we hear about a character who [[InformedAttribute doesn't really match]] [[InformedAbility the way they're described]] where it be a deed or a trait. Sometimes, though, this information all comes from a second character who is simply ''amazed'' at this character. They sing their praises, gushing their little hearts out. Okay, that's all well and good, Mister Fervent Admirer, but why are you praising them so openly?

* Constantly done with [[JerkSue Paul]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', who acts like a jerk to everyone and abuses his Pokemon in order to make them stronger, outright abandoning the ones who he finds to be a waste of time, and yet he's constantly called a "great trainer", who just clashes with Ash because of "different methods", rather than because, well, he's a jerk. When Ash [[HoistByHisOwnPetard beats him with one of his abandoned Pokemon]] he's actually seen apologizing and promising to be good from now on... or at least that's where the story ''looked'' like it was heading. What happened instead was Paul pulled a few slight signs of kindness completely out of nowhere with no development at all and then shrugs off his loss to Ash the way he does in his only other two losses of the series. They still acted like he somehow redeemed himself, [[AesopAmnesia despite not really changing that much.]]

** Also "Kotori"", the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of Takanashi]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of Takanashi's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, and while most of Takanashi's sisters aren't that great either, youngest sister Nazuna is a YamatoNadeshiko, making this more jarring. It's PlayedForLaughs, but still. Unsurprisingly, the idea for "Kotori" came from Inami, and, well, see the above paragraph.

* Inami from ''{{Working}}'' gets this from most of the cast whenever the spotlight is on her ([[RomanticPlotTumor and that's often]]), with the most coming from Poplar, who won't shut up on how cute Inami is. [[{{Moe}} Though for most people, she's much cuter]]. Somewhat justified in that they're trying to sell her up to Takanashi, but they still overdo it a little. However, they introduced a RomanticFalseLead for Inami that spends more time praising her than ''searching for his LongLostSibling'', even though that being the reason he was introduced and barely knowing Inami! And this has no excuse.
** Also "Kotori"", the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of the main guy]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of said main's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, while one of the main's sisters, Nazuna, is a YamatoNadeshiko, making this more jarring. It's PlayedForLaughs, but still. Unsurprisingly, the idea for "Kotori" came from Inami.

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* Parodied and PlayedForLaughs in the [[Discworld/TheColorOfMagic first]] [[Discworld/TheLightFantastic two]] {{Discworld}} novels. Rincewind is the most incompetent and cowardly wizard on the Disc, even to the point that he can't spell the word right. His companion Two-Flower, however, thinks he's the mightiest magician who ever lived. This really gets on Rincewind's nerves, especially when he's going on about what a mighty warrior he is, and all the wizzard wants to do is run far, far away.



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* ''HowIMetYourMother'' has begun to do this in season 5 with Don. He was introduced as "the guy Robin would inevitably marry," but his subsequent appearances paint him as annoying and flawed. However, once he started showing romantic interest in Robin, he met the group and suddenly Marshall does not stop gushing about him. We don't see their interactions, but Marshall opens by saying that he is "smart, handsome and funny." This is jarring because two episodes ago we were supposed to hate the guy.
* In one particularly glaring example from a first-season episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien known as "The Traveler" stopped-in seemingly for the exclusive purpose of telling the crew how wonderful [[TropeNamer the original Wesley]] was. While Wesley hadn't ''quite'' become TheWesley by that point, further treatment along these lines basically ended up as one of the most definitive examples of CreatorsPet.

** Second only to ''the'' Wesley is Will Riker. Picard (who seems to be the official [[WriterOnBoard "You Will Like This Guy" mouth piece]] for the show) was constantly touting Riker's leadership abilities and the fact that he'd passed on several Captain's posts of his own to stay with the Enterprise. Other characters would hype Riker's skills at "Activity X" as the plot demanded. But even when he got a DayInTheLimelight episode to show those skills, the fans' reaction was a hearty "So what's so special about that?" At least he [[GrowingTheBeard grew a beard...]]

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* Inami from ''{{Working}}'' gets this from most of the cast whenever the spotlight is on her ([[RomanticPlotTumor and that's often]]), with the most coming from Poplar, who won't shut up on how cute Inami is. [[{{Moe}} Though for most people, she's much cuter]]. As if that wasn't enough, they introduced a RomanticFalseLead for Inami that spends more time praising her than ''searching for his LongLostSibling'', eben thugh that being the reason he was introduced and barely knowing Inami!
** Also "Kotori"", the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of the main guy]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of said main's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, while one of the main's sisters, Nazuna, is a YamatoNadeshiko, making this more jarring. Unsurprisingly, the idea for "Kotori" came from Inami.

** Also Kotori, the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of the main guy]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of said main's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, while one of the main's sisters, Nazuna, is a YamatoNadeshiko. Poor Poplar seens to spend about as much time being the mouthpiece for praise than being herself.

* Inami from ''{{Working}}'' gets this from most of the cast whenever the spotlight is on her ([[RomanticPlotTumor and that's often]]), with the most coming from Poplar, who won't shut up on how cute Inami is. [[{{Moe}} Despite her being cuter]]. As if that wasn't enough, they introduced a RomanticFalseLead for Inami that spends more time praising her than ''searching for her LongLostSibling'', despite that being the reason he was introduced and barely knowing Inami!
** Also Kotori, the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of the main guy]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of said main's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Also, "Kotori" is a jerk, while one of the main's sisters, Nazuna, is a YamatoNadeshiko.

** Also Kotori, the [[WholesomeCrossdresser crossdressed form of the main guy]]. Poplar keeps on saying she's the perfect woman because she's tall, but all of said main's sisters are tall, yet they never get any praise from her. Alsom "Kotori" is a jerk, while one of the main's sisters, Nazuna, is a YamatoNadeshiko.

Remember, it's only really shilling when we don't know why such praise and admiration is being given. If they've already they can back it up, it probably doesn't count.

* This has debately happened with Touma, the main character of NanohaForce. His characterization was fairly bland in the first few chapters, up until it was revealed that he was the adopted little brother of Subaru, a far more popular character. While it's shown how they met, it doesn't quite show how they became so close, and the two don't even interact for a long while. It's basically just to say 'hey, ''Subaru'' likes him!' to the reader. It gets more obvious later on, when it's shown that other characters like Nanoha know and like him too, which happened ''entirely'' off-screen.