History Main / CharacterShilling

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'':

* ComicBook/{{Bullseye|MarvelComics}}, a reasonably popular but firmly street-level baddie, was subject to an awkward period when Creator/MarvelComics tried to promote him as [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent their answer]] to ComicBook/TheJoker. In nearly every appearance, characters would shill Bullseye as an unstoppable murderous psychopath -- despite the fact that he's not particularly intelligent, nor is he much more dangerous than any guy with a gun. During his time as a member of the ComicBook/DarkAvengers, he's treated as TheDreaded (despite his teammates including [[AtomicSuperpower a walking nuclear reactor]], a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] alien parasite, and a deranged PhysicalGod). Marvel eventually gave up and turned off the PlotArmor, leaving Bullseye blind, disabled, and PutOnABus for the next few years.

* ComicBook/CarolDanvers, after becoming Captain Marvel (and getting a new Superman-esque costume), was suddenly treated as the Marvel Universe'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 Avengers membership and being the reason ComicBook/{{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.
* ComicBook/DoctorDoom is often shilled as a genius and the savior of mankind, but rarely by the right people -- at one point, a Wakandan deity once proclaimed that the only peaceful future is one with Doom as the dictator, but there's some serious BlueAndOrangeMorality at work. In any event, the character who shills Doom the most is usually Doom himself.
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'':
** Writer Creator/GeoffJohns did this to Barry Allen in several directions when he came BackFromTheDead. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, shilled his replacement Barry by saying that "Barry made him the Flash", despite fighting crime decades before Barry started. The explanation was [[VoodooShark pretty weird and just raised more questions]] -- he meant that seeing Barry as the Flash convinced him to come out of retirement, but this contradicts the events of the story where that happened, where Jay ''already'' wanted to come out of retirement. Barry's successor ComicBook/WallyWest also shilled him as an inspiration to him when he was a kid ''as'' Barry Allen, which contradicts scenes where young Wally considered the Flash ''much'' cooler than Barry Allen and couldn't understand why Iris was dating Barry and not the Flash. Johns defended the shilling by saying it was necessary to avoid Barry being seen as a ReplacementScrappy for Wally, even though he was the Flash before Wally, and even readers who didn't remember that would probably know that since a big part of Wally's character revolves around that.

* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':
** Kyle Rayner was shilled almost by necessity; comic fans were never going to receive him very well, partly because he [[ReplacementScrappy was replacing Hal Jordan]] as Green Lantern, and partly because they had seen how [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman Superman's death]] and ComicBook/{{Azrael}} [[ComicBook/{{Knightfall}} becoming Batman]] turned out to be temporary -- DC needed to make sure that Kyle stuck around. They did this by having a range of superheroes from ComicBook/MartianManhunter to Franchise/{{Superman}} to Franchise/{{Batman}} say, without solicitation, what a terrific guy he is. This only led to eye-rolling among even the fans who liked him. In the end, Creator/GrantMorrison refused to give Kyle the same treatment in ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'', where he was a rookie whom not everyone trusted (particularly Franchise/TheFlash and Batman, the latter of whom took ''twelve issues'' to even speak to Kyle) -- and exactly ''why'' he was a good Green Lantern was actually brought up (that he knows fear, as opposed to the fearless-to-suicidal-degrees Hal Jordan). This was sufficient CharacterDevelopment that he was considered RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap.

* ComicBook/TheInhumans, both the main characters and the Inhuman species in general, underwent this from around the end of ''ComicBook/{{Infinity}}'', to the end of ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'', getting pushed by Marvel as an effective replacement to the X-Men, who were shunted into a more diminished role. It started when ComicBook/BlackBolt unleashed the Terrigen Mists on the world at the end of ''Infinity'' and it was presented as a ''good'' thing, despite the fact that it would turn all sorts of people into Inhumans who might not want to be Inhumans, and that it was ''known'' to be lethal to mutants. Moreover, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} destroying one of the two Terrigen clouds (which weren't required for Inhumans to live, just to change - and there were other methods) which earned him a vaporising by Black Bolt on ComicBook/{{Medusa|MarvelComics}}'s orders. [[spoiler:While it turned out that Scott was already dead and it was an illusion by ComicBook/EmmaFrost to make Scott a martyr, the Inhumans sure as hell didn't know that]] in ''ComicBook/DeathOfX'' was meant to leave the Inhumans as the sympathetic party (this failed miserably, leading to resurrection of the 'Cyclops was Right' catchphrase), along with the whole 'M-Pox' phenomenon where the X-Men ''literally had to relocate to Hell to survive''...and when the trigger of ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'' was revealed--the Terrigen was spreading, essentially making Earth uninhabitable for mutants--there were ''still'' attempts to present both sides as morally evenly balanced. To say that the fanbase was unhappy would be a ''colossal'' {{Understatement}}.
* Riri Williams receives mounds of this in her first proper issue taking over from Tony Stark as ComicBook/{{Ironheart}}. Barely a scene will pass without a big-name character praising her intelligence, S.H.I.E.L.D. holds a special meeting to talk about how wonderful she is, and Tony Stark himself even gets in on the act, despite heaping praise on others being very out-of-character for him.
* ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' shills Franchise/{{Batman}} by having all the de-powered superheroes gush about how awesome he is for having always been a BadassNormal (when he's far from the only one in the League). Batman, for his part, is an arrogant jerk who seems only to help the de-powered heroes ''because'' they're telling him how awesome he is.
* ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' has a couple of interesting variants:
** When Faith was added during the "Age of Obsidian" arc, she was a complete unknown who was immediately and inexplicably shilled by other characters as being an awesome and powerful person. But this rapid acceptance was {{justified|trope}} with the revelation that she has [[MindManipulation the subconscious ability to inspire trust in others]].

* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman 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 the DCU'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 Franchise/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 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 ''first'' superhero team and are some of the oldest characters in the genre and codified many of its tropes, but ''in-universe'' couldn't really apply. Over a decade later, when the DCU had received a few facelifts, this idea was more directly addressed -- Clark Kent only debuted as Superboy because his father used the story of the JSA to assuage his fear that people wouldn't accept him.
* [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Speaking of Robins]], 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 [[Franchise/SpiderMan Carlie Cooper]].

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Peter's one-time love interest Carlie Cooper was heavily shilled, mostly to get readers to accept her over Peter's more memorable love interests Gwen Stacy and ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson. One big problem was that this was after ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', in which Peter's ''marriage'' to Mary Jane gets magically erased so that Peter could be single again (and that Carlie's [[{{Tuckerization}} named after]] the writer's daughter). An implausible number of people would go on about not just how perfect she is for Peter, but how perfect she is in general. Mary Jane shilled her. [[ClingyJealousGirl Black Cat]] shilled her. ''Gwen'', despite [[TheLostLenore being dead]], shilled her in {{flashback}}, having been {{retcon}}ned into Carlie's best friend. That ''really'' didn't endear her to the readers.
* Franchise/{{Superman}} is another of the few characters whose shilling is deserved. He's ''the'' BigGood of the DCU, a NiceGuy, and [[FlyingBrick incredibly powerful]], so it's no wonder he's so successful and charismatic. He's also a HumbleHero who frequently seems uncomfortable with being on the receiving end of said shilling and goes to great lengths to ensure that the general populace, who would otherwise be [[BewareTheSuperman inclined to mistrust someone so powerful]], can trust him.

* 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 foolish 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.

* 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 foolish 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; and then there is the other playable characters praising his out-of-the-box strategies as if they never thought those themselves before.

* 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 foolish 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 in truth she's far more on the ball; and then there is the other playable characters praising his out-of-the-box strategies as if they never thought those themselves before.

* All of the main cast in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gets this treatment. We're ''told'' how wonderful Edward and the Cullens are, but their actions and behavior throughout the series suggest anything but. Bella herself is constantly described as amazing and special, without really doing anything to deserve it.

** He again became a recipient of this in the ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY XY]]'' series. Lots of characters (from minor ones to the Gym Leaders, and even two Champions) have the utmost respect for him, and he gets HeroWorship from his band of friends. [[note]]To the point that for Ash's fifth Gym Battle, it was Clemont the ''Gym Leader'' who takes a leave of absence from the group so he could train and meet Ash's [[WorthyOpponent expectations]].[[/note]] He is AlwaysSomeoneBetter to all his region rivals, and even the one [[spoiler:who Ash eventually loses to in the League Finals]] unquestionably follows Ash's lead throughout the entire Kalos Crisis afterwards, and in the end contemplates that, between the two of them, Ash is the better Trainer. This all in spite of still being BookDumb (though now downplayed). Partly justified in that the ''XY'' series was probably Ash's most successful bout as a Trainer (and some still held this sentiment even after ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon Sun & Moon]]'' and ''[[Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries Journeys]]'', despite those series culminating in [[spoiler:Ash becoming the Alola League's first ever Champion and then ''[[WorldsBestWarrior Monarch of the World Coronation Series]]'']]), and considering how much of a ButtMonkey he was in the ''Best Wishes'' era, many fans consider this one a case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]].

* 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 [[CutscenePowersToTheMax Cutscene Powers]] in order to cheat his way into winning by making your character suddenly turn incompetent.

** [[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 an AmbiguousDisorder (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.

** Is pretty blatant about how much it praises Ariana for how "powerful" her Empath abilities are, even if they are BlessedWithSuck at best, causing Ariana to have fits around emotion-changing spells, have other people's emotions override her own, and Voldemort can apparently use her blood to make himself immortal so he's always trying to capture her. Not to mention that her powers frequently fail to alert her when someone with hostile intentions is sneaking up on her.
** Ariana is also frequently referred to as "sweet" and "cares so much about others over herself" -- she isn't and doesn't. She's more akin to a SpoiledBrat who has her older friends constantly visiting to entertain her even after they've graduated Hogwarts and have full-time jobs, gets adopted by Sirius who lets her do anything she wants and never disciplines her, manages to wriggle out of serious punishment for abusing her "Empath" powers at school by whining and crying about people bullying her (which she instigates), frequently attacks her rival Maria with no repercussions, gets given expensive presents for no reason, gets away with rifling through Snape's memories without asking permission and tells Neville she's ''jealous'' that he still has parents when her mother died when she was a baby -- you know, Neville's parents who were [[spoiler:tortured so badly, they went insane and can't recognise Neville as their own son, so he was raised by his extremely strict grandmother?]] Yes, those parents.

** Chloe in Act 1 (and a little bit of Act 2). The narrative seems to have a dissonance over how nice she's supposed to be; characters will constantly mention how Chloe's a kind soul, someone with a heart "as big as the sea," and generally a unique person who didn't deserve everything that happened to her. While there are many moments where she is kind to Denizens, she's no more nicer than an average human being, and when it comes to the ''Pokémon World'', she proves herself just as bitter and spiteful, if not more so, than the people who did hurt her.

** It gets exaggerated in the sequels, especially with the introduction of Shadow Akechi in the ''Doki Doki'' series. No matter what atrocities or abuse Shadow heaps on others, everyone says he's the best thing ever. The worst occurs when, in one of the final chapters, Shadow is mercilessly beating twelve-year-old Regina nearly to death, and Cure Heart smiles and watches while saying Shadow is amazing because he can channel rage and hatred into such awesome power.

This is what is known as Character Shilling. Whether it be an attempt to make us like the character, a way of quickly establishing that someone new is a badass a level above anything we've seen before or whatever the case may be, other people will be extremely impressed with this person and let us the viewers know about it. Whether they actually match up to the hype is optional. Sometimes they really are amazing, and sometimes we have ourselves a case of InformedAbility. Or worse, CreatorsPet.

* Nasa Yuzaki, the protagonist of ''Manga/FlyMeToTheMoon'' often gets this from his family and friends. When Tsukasa visits Nasa's parents, Nasa's father thanks her for saving his son's life, saying that he can hardly imagine how eccentric people like him and his wife raised a "perfect" son like Nasa (disregarding how bragging about your children is a no-no in Japan. At the end of the trip, [[spoiler:Nasa and Tsukasa's apartment building burns down, and Nasa's first reaction is to ask whether anyone got hurt]], prompting Tsukasa to go into an InnerMonologue about how she loves that Nasa is selfless, that he prepares for situations like this and he accepts others' kindness gratefully without feeling guilty about it.

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', Heine Westenfluss is set up as an ace pilot like Athrun, as well as charming and a really nice guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a chance to live up to his extreme reputation since [[spoiler:he dies too soon]]. The fact that he spends most of his screentime lecturing Athrun about how he should just ignore his doubts and do his job doesn't help. However, it can argued he's more of a {{foil}} to Athrun given his short role.

* 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 ulimately 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.

** That said, much of the second lineup of ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' consisted of heroes and villains alike heaping praise on his inspiring leadership and all-around awesomeness to a point that could feel excessive, since that "leadership" usually consisted of yelling at Hawkeye and Quicksilver to fall in line and grant him endless respect solely based on his past accomplishments. While Hawkeye and Quicksilver were usually being arrogant jerks also, they were ''meant'' to come across as arrogant jerks while Cap's attitude was presented as fully justified.
* ComicBook/CarolDanvers, after becoming Captain Marvel (and getting a new Superman-esque costume), was suddenly treated as the Marvel Universe'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 Avengers membership and being the reason ComicBook/{{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 had acquired all the Hulk-related stuff back in full.

** During the Johns era, Hal and Kyle themselves were very prone towards shilling one another. According to Johns, he felt that it was important to establish a brotherly relationship between the two in order to move the franchise past the Hal vs. Kyle debates.

* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman 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 the DCU'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 Franchise/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 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 ''first'' superhero team and are some of the oldest characters in the genre and codified many of its tropes, but ''in-universe'' couldn't really apply. Over a decade later, when the DCU had received a few face lifts, this idea was more directly addressed -- Clark Kent only debuted as Superboy because his father used the story of the JSA to assuage his fear that people wouldn't accept him.

* Franchise/{{Superman}} is another of the few characters whose shilling is deserved. He's ''the'' BigGood of the DCU, a NiceGuy, and [[FlyingBrick incredibly powerful]], so it's no wonder he's so successful and charismatic. He's also a HumbleHero who frequently seems uncomfortable with being on the receiving end of said shilling, and goes to great lengths to ensure that the general populace, who would otherwise be [[BewareTheSuperman inclined to mistrust someone so powerful]], can trust him.

%%* 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 of killing people without a good reason, lets him live because he's impressed with him. AFTER Carl has killed four of his men.

** Is pretty blatant about how much it praises Ariana for how "powerful" her Empath abilities are, even if they are BlessedWithSuck at best, causing Ariana to have fits around emotion-changing spells, have other people's emotions override her own, and Voldemort can apparently use her blood to make himself immortal so he's always trying to capture her. Not to mention that her powers frequently fail to alert her to when someone with hostile intentions is sneaking up on her.

** This trope also applies to Parker: despite being only five, keeping vital information hidden, and generally knowing Chloe better than the other people only by comparison, the characters and story seem to treat this as a reason enough to act like he's better than the rest, despite not only being unhelpful all around, but [[spoiler:this ego-boosting being the main reason why he doesn't stop his Unown rampage and acts like everybody deserves everything he does to them.]]

** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' and [[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome its sequel]] do this with both of Spidey's love interests, Liz and Michelle/MJ, respectively. Peter repeatedly talks about how perfect and amazing Liz is, and gushes about her intelligence, but then we never actually ''see'' her demonstrate this intelligence, and their interactions have her mostly be vaguely friendly but unamused by his ditching. Liz is more or less a symbol of how Peter wants to grow up too fast and as such as a crush on the most popular senior girl in school. MJ, likewise, is gushed by Peter for being really smart and funny, but her intelligence is never demonstrated outside of her answering a single science question and figuring out Peter's identity, which itself is less down to her own intellect and more Peter being very bad at hiding it (in fact, that she's the only person to figure this out is more due to the rest of the cast just not being very smart). As for her being funny, this is very much subjective. To some extent, this is partially explainable as Peter is just a kid with a schoolboy crush on the two, so his reasons for liking them are likely actually quite shallow. ''[[Film/SpiderManNoWayHome No Way Home]]'' eventually shows more of MJ's kindness, compassion, and loyalty that better justifies Peter's feelings for her (and coincidentally, Liz is shown in a FreezeFrameBonus to be bad-mouthing Peter to a tabloid).
** 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.

* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' goes to great lengths to show how much of a hero Mystique is, particularly how she saved the President and showed the public that mutants aren't evil in [[Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast the previous film]]. Schools teach about her, and many other mutants consider her an inspiration -- Storm idolizes her, and Quicksilver claims she changed his life (although apparently with a ten-year delay, during which he mooched off his mother like he did before). The main problem with this is that all she really did was be in the right place at the right time -- she only saved the President because she was trying to kill one of his advisors, most of the events of the previous film were her fault to some degree, and she's generally not a pleasant or trustworthy person. She herself seems uncomfortable with this, and chooses to stay in disguise for most of the run time to avoid being recognised.

* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'': The story gradually reveals more details about Itami by having other characters talk about his achievements, like going through a [[spoiler:Ranger training]]. Each time, Shino is shocked to hear this about someone [[BrilliantButLazy as lazy and inconspicious like him]]. In the first season of the anime, various characters spend about half of last episode (which is even titled "What would Itami do?") on praising the protagonist by repeatedly saying things like "Yeah, Itami definitely could do this" implying he's the only one who can help the newly introduced dark elf girl and save her people.

** Lily Potter gets this by virtually every character who ever knew her, and the only people who don't sing her praises are driven by jealousy (Petunia) or evil (the Malfoys, Voldemort), with everyone talking about how kind, clever, beautiful, talented and overall amazing she was. While James has his virtues and flaws examined in close detail over the course of the series, particularly pertaining to Snape, Lily has no flaws and is shown to be right in every single situation she's involved in during flashbacks or secondhand accounts, such as calling James out for being a showboating bully or Snape's obsession with the Dark Arts and LackOfEmpathy towards any Muggleborn who isn't her. She is consistently described as extremely talented, intelligent, attractive, and just overall this amazing, saint-like person. [[WordOfGod Even J.K Rowling describes her as "a bit of a catch."]]

* Exaggerated with Zoey Redbird in ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight''. Nyx chose her because she is supposedly wise beyond her years, is a fount of empathy and compassion, and is well versed in both the old ways and the modern world. She has an instant fan club of people that serve mainly to ooh and ahh over how wonderful she is, men fall at her feet in droves because of how beautiful and awesome she supposedly is, and she gets new tattoos and praise for her bravery from Nyx anytime she takes care of whatever problem is plaguing her that particular book. Actually reading the book shows us that she's a stupid, shallow, judgmental hypocrite that doesn't do much of anything except bemoan her boyfriend problems until the authors decide that something needs to happen so the book can end.

** [[BigBad Nicolae Carpathia]] is constantly described in narration as a "genius" with "complete charm". In particular, he's described as a great orator, when his most famous speech in the series (which is hailed as brilliant and gets a standing ovation) consists basically of naming every country in the United Nations in alphabetical order. He is TheAntichrist and might have [[CharmPerson super persuasion skills]], but this never stated explicitly.
* 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.

** 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 reeks 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.

* ''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 Author Avatar.

** Ramsay gets this by 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/GilmoreGirls'': If the entire town of Stars Hollow is to be believed (especially her mother Lorelai and grandparents Richard and Emily), Rory Gilmore walks on water, is a genius, and is the embodiment of all things good and pure. Practically every episode features characters going on and on about what a great young lady Rory is, how she's destined for success, how she has no trouble attracting men, how any drama she has with them is in no way, shape or form her fault, and how people who don't like her are just jealous.

** In the first half of Season 2, that 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]].

** Don was introduced in Season 5 as "the guy Robin would inevitably marry," but his subsequent appearances paint him as annoying and flawed. As soon as he started showing romantic interest in Robin, Marshall does not stop gushing about him. We don't even see their interactions, but Marshall calls him "smart, handsome and funny". This is jarring because two episodes ago we were supposed to hate the guy.
** Once Robin met Don, Barney was [[{{Flanderization}} 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 (which was often). It was as if the writers were desperately telling their viewers, "See? See how much better Barney is as an exaggerated caricature of himself than [[FanPreferredCouple when he was paired with Robin]]?" Then it's {{deconstructed|trope}} when Robin reveals that she was actually quite upset when Barney started chasing girls and the other started cheering him on. The others realize what a dick he was, and he eventually settles down and commits to Robin.

* ''Series/RobinHood'': Kate is shilled to an ungodly extreme. Across only eleven episodes, the character is described by allies and enemies alike as amazing, perfect, feisty, pretty, a treasure, a good fighter, brave, compassionate, and beautiful. Hilarity stems from the fact that she often displays the ''exact opposite'' qualities to the ones affixed to her. For example, the episode in which she's lauded as "compassionate" involves her repeatedly insisting that the outlaws leave her romantic rival to be raped and murdered by a psychopath, and the "good fighter" compliment makes no sense whatsoever considered she's the team [[TheLoad Load]] who spends most of her time [[DamselInDistress getting kidnapped]].

** Molly Clock also gets this a lot, with people (again, Elliot in particular) shilling how nice, smart, and overall great she is, even managing to pull off a WoundedGazelleGambit on both Dr. Kelso ''and'' Dr. Cox when they find her [[ThePollyanna constantly upbeat demeanour]] (justifiably) annoying. The only character who actively avoids/dislikes her is Turk, and that's because he thinks of her as a "devil woman" who can read his thoughts because she's ''that good'' as a psychiatrist and he claims any man would kill to have sex with her, Elliot acts like a schoolgirl with a crush towards her after some initial hostility, Carla gets jealous because everyone starts taking their problems to Molly over her despite barely knowing her, she's a {{Love Interest|s}} of J.D's for a short time and even manages to heal ''the Todd'' ([[StatusQuoIsGod though it doesn't stick]]). J.D and Turk even claim [[InformedAttractiveness she's the second hottest woman in the hospital]]. This is even though she pulls some really manipulative stunts over her stay on the show, frequently makes stupid mistakes like trusting a drug addict (which is something Dr. Cox busted Elliot's balls over previously) and dating terrible men and she herself even admits that Elliot puts her on a pedestal way too much.

** Scott himself is constantly touted on being a great leader who's also awesome because he ReallyGetsAround; the creators even called him the "Jack [=O'Neill=] of ten years ago." Fans countered that the comparison doesn't work because they actually ''like'' Jack. (On top of that, O'Neill made a couple guest appearances in SGU, making the difference between the two ''obvious.'')
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had a tendency to shower unwarranted and effusive praise on guest star characters whom Creator/GeneRoddenberry had a special interest in plugging. It's most egregious in "Assignment Earth", when Kirk and company take several minutes out of the plot to expound on the physical perfection of Gary Seven (Robert Lansing's a handsome man, but ''come on'') to hide the fact that the episode was a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for a half-hour adventure series padded out to fill a full hour time slot.

* ''VideoGame/DustyRagingFist'' introduces a new character, Leo the Lion who's a "legendary demolitions expert." The moment he appears onscreen, all the characters exclaims, "It's ''the'' Leo!" with Snow asking [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee if Leo would autograph his rifle]]. But as the game goes on Leo is just another AssistCharacter with little-to-no development.

** Lu Bu is shilled as the mightiest warrior of the land... but he generally backs this up by acutally being the strongest character in the game. Even on lower difficulty levels, he's often able to kill a player in one hit. However, despite his physical prowess many characters note he's such a belligerent BloodKnight he's rather easy to manipulate.

* ''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 its a tragedy, with him being talked about like he was this great guy, despite literally everything beforehand showing him to 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.

** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' has this problem when it comes to Estelle, whom everyone around her (barring maybe [[DeadpanSnarker Rita]] and Repede) constantly refer to how selfless and stubborn about saving people she is, even when her [[ChronicHeroSyndrome insistence on stopping and healing every person she sees]] and her [[WideEyedIdealist utter naivety]] often ends up dragging the group into bad situations and you'd think ''one'' person would scold her about this, but they don't and continue indulging her. Even the mildest of calling outs tend to get Estelle defended by Yuri or Karol.

* Itsuki Aoi, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'' is constantly showered with praise by pretty much everyone throughout the game for not only being a great leader and a NiceGuy but also a talented idol whom his former rival and veteran idol, Yashiro Tsurugi, considers his equal and nobles such as Chrom and Virion considers him worthy to be one as well. The problem is Itsuki has a two-dimensional personality (even by OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent standards), lacks any CharacterDevelopment and importance to the plot [[spoiler:(until the final act)]] and has just started being an idol for less than a year. In fact, he actually has no desire to being an idol in the first place and is only supporting his friend Tsubasa as one. Despite the theme of the game, Itsuki at the most acts as an extra or understudy for another actor in one of his friends' show or as a backup singer/dancer in their songs. He will not have his first major acting role [[spoiler:until the finale for the Opera of Light but even that is in an EldritchLocation where there is no actual audience. In the post-credits scene, he is even given the position of president of Fortuna Entertainment with everyone claiming he is the most suitable choice despite him still being a high school student and has little knowledge in how the idol business works]].

* [[spoiler:Especially following her death]], Mirei Park of ''VideoGame/Yakuza5'' is constantly raved over (especially by Akiyama) as being such a wonderful, determined businesswoman with a strong character and just an all around great person, when what was seen of the real Mirei was a manipulative, domineering bitch who couldn't get along with anyone and once literally threatened to defund an orphanage to put pressure on her student. She also seemed perfectly fine with exploiting a needy young girl to fulfil her own dream, which she ruined through her own actions.

* Played for dark humor during the fifth and sixth chapter of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', where the narration and characters keep going on about Erika Furudo. The problem is that there's so much gushing because it's [[spoiler:Lambdadelta's script]] and she's also callous and an incredible bitch. She does end up satisfying her reputation. But she's still a bitch. It's also acknowledged that she was pissing off the Ushiromiya family and thus they decided to play a prank on her, so apparently being a genius isn't good for being actually likable.

* 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. She is rumored to have even made [[BigBad Vilgax]] cry! 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.

** The canon characters heap endless praise on both of his {{Original Character}}s. It's most blatant in chapter two of ''Smile Precure meet the Dream Traveler'', where Blaze [[BigDamnHeroes comes in, saves the Pretty Cure]], and defeats three blue-nosed Akanbes [[CanonDefilement without using Rainbow Healing]] (which is required in canon). The Cures and the narrative insist he's the greatest thing ever to grace ''Pretty Cure'' fandom with words like "So cool!" and remarking how he's fighting all by himself when most readers regard him as a boring and obnoxious GodModeSue.

* ''Literature/{{Gate}}'': The story gradually reveals more details about Itami by having other characters talk about his achievements, like going through a [[spoiler:Ranger training]]. Each time, Shino is shocked to hear this about someone [[BrilliantButLazy as lazy and inconspicious like him]]. In the first season of the anime, various characters spend about half of last episode (which is even titled "What would Itami do?") on praising the protagonist by repeatedly saying things like "Yeah, Itami definitely could do this" implying he's the only one who can help the newly introduced dark elf girl and save her people.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/MysteryMen'' when it comes to The Sphinx. Other characters speak of him in hushed and reverent tones when describing him to a skeptical Mr. Furious, lauding him as wise and awe-inspiring and mysterious... and oh, by the way, he can cut guns in half with his mind. When he arrives on the scene, it turns out that he ''is'' all these things, but Mr. Furious remains staunchly unimpressed.

* [[UniqueEnemy Khan Noonien Singh]] in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' is said to be physically and mentally augmented though it hardly shows. His physical superiority is demonstrated only a couple of times, his superior intelligence is thwarted by his plan and the execution. The Enterprise crew overpower him by hiding in a nebula and shooting torpedoes all over the place. This is because Khan demonstrated most of his physical and mental superiority in the episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' where he was a VillainOfTheWeek, in which he and his compatriots repeatedly demonstrated how physically and intellectually dangerous they were to "average" humans.
* When Khan makes trouble in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', the Spock from the original universe turns up to shill him there, too.

* ''Literature/LeftBehind'':
** This is more or less the only way that the [[AuthorAvatar two main characters Buck and Rayford]] ever interact with non-main characters. Scores of unnamed friends and co-workers gush about how awesome they are, and they ''themselves'' think about how special they are and what a privilege it is to be around them. The authors failed to ShowDontTell -- they wanted these characters to be awesome, but they only ''told'' us how awesome they were without showing it in action. Buck in particular pairs it with a bad case of an InformedAttribute -- he's supposed to be a legendarily incorruptible reporter, but over the course of the series we've seen him bury multiple major stories in exchange for protection from -- and a ''job'' with -- the group he would have exposed. This is pretty much a necessity since, in practical terms, they not only never actually achieve anything but it would actually be ''impossible'' by the rules of the story for them to do so.
** [[BigBad Nicolae Carpathia]] is constantly described in narration as a "genius" with "complete charm". In particular, he's described as a great orator, when his most famous speech in the series (which is hailed as brilliant and gets a standing ovation) consists basically of naming every country in the United Nations in alphabetical order. He is TheAntichrist and might have [[CharmPerson super persuasion skills]], but this never stated explicitly.

* S.D. Perry's ''Literature/ResidentEvil'' series go to extraordinary lengths to sell readers on how smart, brave, tough, smart, gifted, smart, and really, ''really'' [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment smart]] Rebecca Chambers is, despite her scientific knowledge never rising above that expected from anyone who paid attention in junior-high chemistry. Every sympathetic character, even the protagonists from the actual games, gets at least one inner monologue describing how fiercely independent, resourceful, and intelligent she is, and she becomes the star of ''two'' original novels where she basically saves the world singlehandedly while riding atop a massive, cresting wave of adulation from the other characters. It's notable that these books were written before the 2002 ''[=remake=]'' [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap changed Rebecca's characterization]] into that of an intelligent and well-grounded but very stressed-out young woman in way over her head, so Perry's only source of inspiration for her hypercompetent super-genius version was the obliviously cheerful dingbat from the 1996 original.
* All of the main cast in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gets this treatment. We're ''told'' how wonderful Edward and the Cullens are, but their actions and behavior throughout the series suggest anything but. Bella herself is constantly described as amazing and special, without really doing anything to deserve it.
* Eragon of the ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' gets plenty of this. Several of his accomplishments are frequently praised by the other characters, even though most aren't extraordinary compared to what others have done. This is most evident regarding Eragon's [[InformedAbility skill with words]], despite the fact he supposedly has terrible grammar and no practice at writing or giving speeches. He's also praised as a great and wonderful hero despite doing several selfish or un-heroic acts, including [[DesignatedHero choosing to hang out with his friends and ignoring a man who asked Eragon to heal his dying wife]].
* Miss Pross' brother, Solomon, in ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'': Through most of the novel, all we "know" about him is that his sister sings his praises at the slightest provocation (or often none at all), and in particular that she considers him the only man on earth worthy of marrying Lucie. When we do finally meet him, he's utterly devoid of redeeming qualities.
* Count how many times someone in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' talks about how "there aren't many people like Richard" or "Richard is a very rare person" or "Richard was the most (fill in the blank: compassionate, humble, brilliant, gentle, kind, brave) man (he/she) had ever met." You'll be over a hundred by the time you finish the first book. It's debatable whether Richard actually displays any of those qualities.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', Katniss' [[UnreliableNarrator narration]] does this to her father and sister, and Peeta to a lesser extent. Her father died years ago and she only remembers him as a saint, forgetting or ignoring his bad qualities. She adores her baby sister, is very protective of her, and can't imagine anyone not loving her. As for Peeta, her opinion of him shows subtle clues that [[spoiler:she's falling in love with him]], but unlike the other two, other characters shill him as well, with Katniss even outright claiming he saved her in the Games, even though Peeta was largely TheLoad and Katniss spent much of the second half of the book trying to heal his injuries. Katniss and Haymitch also tend to treat Peeta like he's some kind of saint, with Haymitch telling Katniss that Peeta is a much better person than she is and Katniss agrees with him to the point of being willing to die protecting him in the Quarter Quell despite the fact she has a mother and younger sister who would be devastated by her death. This is even though Peeta outright states he threw Katniss the bread the day they met because he was in love with her, not because saving a girl from starving to death was the right thing to do and willingly chose to kill a defenseless girl in the Hunger Games purely to get the Careers to trust him.
* Exaggerated with Zoey Redbird in ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight''. Nyx chose her because she is supposedly wise beyond her years, is a fount of empathy and compassion, and is well versed in both the old ways and the modern world. She has an instant fan club of people that serve mainly to ooh and ahh over how wonderful she is, men fall at her feet in droves because of how beautiful and awesome she supposedly is, and she gets new tattoos and praise for her bravery from Nyx anytime she takes care of whatever problem is plaguing her that particular book. Actually reading the book shows us that she's a stupid, shallow, judgmental hypocrite that doesn't do much of anything except bemoan her boyfriend problems until the authors decide that something needs to happen so the book can end.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', mostly in material written by Vicky Holmes, Ashfur and Hollyleaf tend to be characterized as good and noble cats in tragic circumstances they couldn't help, playing down their crimes and motivations for committing them.
** Ashfur is described as a "good mentor" to Lionblaze in the Ultimate Guide, which is debatable since they didn't get along at all - they even fought each other once - and he also possibly taught Lionblaze some moves incorrectly (at least Lionblaze thought so and accused him of it). More than once Ashfur's attempted murders of the father and three kits of the she-cat who rejected him is handwaved as "his only fault was to love too much" (including in a scene where he made it to the cats' equivalent of heaven).
** Hollyleaf's behavior was whitewashed at least once (in the Ultimate Guide): her murder of Ashfur was described as an accident where she didn't mean to fatally wound him, he fell into the stream himself, her self-imposed exile from the Clan was due to guilt, and her motivations were basically fear and being overwhelmed by the secret. In the book where it actually happened, her brother saw in her memories that she intentionally tried to kill Ashfur, she even stated that she threw his body in the stream to hide it, she ran from the Clan because they wouldn't view the murder as her doing "the right thing", and her motivations were more along the lines of KnightTemplar[=/=]BlackAndWhiteInsanity.
* 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.
-->"So, this is what our world would be like without Clary," said Emma, remembering all the times [[TakeThatAudience she'd heard people]]- mostly men -say that Clary wasn't a hero, that she hadn't done much that deserved to be praised, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality that she was selfish]], even worthless, just a girl who'd been in the right places at the right times.
-->'''Emma''': "That world was the way it was because you weren't in it. You were the crisis point, and you made all the difference. [...] Without you, so many people would be dead, and so much goodness would be gone from the world forever."

** Lily Potter gets this by virtually every character who ever knew her, and the only people who don't sing her praises are driven by jealousy (Petunia) or evil (the Malfoys, Voldemort), with everyone talking about how kind, clever, beautiful, talented and overall amazing she was. While James has his virtues and flaws examined in close detail over the course of the series, particularly pertaining to Snape, Lily has no flaws and is shown to be right in every single situation she's involved in during flashbacks or secondhand accounts, such as calling James out for being a showboating bully or Snape's obsession with the Dark Arts and LackOfEmpathy towards any Muggleborn who isn't her. She is consistently described as extremely talented, intelligent, attractive, and just overall this amazing, saint-like person. [[WordOfGod Even J.K Rowling describes her as "a bit of a catch".]]
** 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.
** Cedric Diggory receives some shilling in the Fourth book, though nothing he does seems particularly amazing and the stuff he does do only seems impressive because he is older than Harry and thus has more experience. Notably, Harry ends up bailing him out of the first and third trials, and he is then unceremoniously [[spoiler:killed off by ''Wormtail'']]. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This was somewhat necessary to give his character more impact]]. He's a very minor character in the third book as the captain of Hufflepuff's Quidditch team, then suddenly [[AscendedExtra becomes much more important]] and needs some rapid character development in the next book. Making it clear just how great and wonderful he is needed to happen for his role as [[spoiler:the SacrificialLion]].
* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'' has Denna, who receives a ''lot'' of Character Shilling because Kvothe is in love with her, and the narrative is told from his perspective. It's even lampshaded and justified by Bast who points out he is not an unbiased source when it comes to her and she's actually merely pretty and not breathtaking the way Kvothe describes her, but the narration still goes out of its way to praise Denna on how beautiful, talented and witty she is, despite her personality mostly being a flirt towards rich men because she depends on their handouts and during her adventure with Kvothe she's TheLoad as Kvothe has to drop what he's doing to take care of her after she accidentally poisons herself with denner resin - [[TooDumbToLive which happened because she just stuck a random substance she found in an abandoned house in her mouth]], yet she continuously gets the WomenAreWiser trope associated with her.

* In the ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' series, Molly from ''The Farseer Trilogy'' gets shilled a lot - Burrich and Nighteyes both approvingly comment she's an excellent mate for Fitz and Lady Patience comes out with some fairly blatant shilling when she claims Molly is "smart and diligent, full of wit and spirit" when actually all Molly does when she's on page is constantly scold and nag Fitz for daring to have a life outside of her and seemingly [[SelectiveObliviousness deliberately fails to grasp he isn't lying when he says he's in a very dangerous position in court and has to keep their relationship a secret, even when two armed men on horseback try to assault her because of her association with Fitz.]]
* ''Literature/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'': This trope is the reason why Chiho Sasaki is such a divisive character among fans. The story often goes on about how sweet and kind she is, even to the point of blatantly lying about her personality or bending the story around her. For example, she gets jealous of Acies at one point and the story says this is highly unusual for her and only because of how clingy the other girl is being, but anyone who has paid attention up to this point knows that Chiho is extremely jealous of anyone she perceives as a rival, most notably Emi.

** One of the initial reasons comic fans reacted poorly to the show was because of the writers' insistence on constantly comparing Grant Ward, a CanonForeigner, to Comicbook/BlackWidow, an actual [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avenger]] from the comics and [[Film/TheAvengers2012 movie]]. It got to the height of absurdity when it was stated that Ward was more adept at trickery and undercover work than Widow, who in the past has ''managed to outsmart the God of lies and trickery himself''. [[spoiler:Though it becomes somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in hindsight since this provided the first clue to the series' outcome: Ward was in fact TheMole and EvilAllAlong without anyone within S.H.I.E.L.D. being aware of this fact, meaning he really ''was'' that good as a double agent, if not within his original role.]]
** Skye took a lot of flak, largely because nearly everyone else on the team was head-over-heels in love with her by the second episode, despite knowing she was an anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. hacker who hadn't yet done much to prove her new loyalties. Coulson already saw her as a substitute daughter, Ward and Fitz both had crushes on her, and Simmons had formed a sisterly friendship with her. Only May ever expressed any real doubts about letting her work with them. Even when she betrayed the team for her ex-boyfriend and fellow hacktivist early on, [[EasilyForgiven everyone got over it within a couple of episodes]]. Luckily, the writers managed to reel it back in enough to even give it a bit of a FandomNod later in the series, when Skye's legal name at the orphanage where she was raised was "Mary Sue Poots".
** Ironically, the other three [[CanonForeigner Canon Foreigners]] in the main cast, all of whom ''were'' deliberately set up to possess LivingLegend status within S.H.I.E.L.D. -- [[MemeticBadass May]] and [[TheDividual Fitz-]][[TheSmartGuy Simmons]] -- weren't the subjects of much shilling at all, and as such were generally much better received by fans than Ward or Skye, especially to begin with. May in particular is treated well, because she herself doesn't like to talk about why she's TheDreaded and we only know how good she is because her enemies are ''terrified'' of her.

** 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.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': If the entire town of Stars Hollow is to be believed (especially her mother Lorelai and grandparents Richard and Emily), Rory Gilmore walks on water, is a genius, and is the embodiment of all things good and pure. Practically every episode features characters going on and on about what a great young lady Rory is, how she’s destined for success, how she has no trouble attracting men, how any drama she has with them is in no way, shape or form her fault, and how people who don’t like her are just jealous.

* ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'': Done heavily towards Jayden when Lauren enters the field. Jayden decides to leave the team [[spoiler:now that his sister, the rightful heir, has returned and he thinks she'll take his place as the Red Samurai Ranger]], only for the team to mostly ignore Lauren's attempts at making friends with them and instead complaining that [[ReplacementScrappy she's not Jayden]]. This shilling continues past the time when Jayden returns, even focusing more on ''him'' than on Lauren [[spoiler:when she failed at the sealing technique, the one thing she has spent her whole life training to do up until that point]].
** Really, the whole series. Jayden's so great, Jayden's so important, Jayden is the best warrior ever, we love him so much, he's so bright and shiny and perfect... and just as surely as the heroes are the Jayden Cheerleading Squad, he's the only enemy the villains feel is important. Jayden's the only one who can seal them away again so he ''must'' be brought down, Jayden's the WorthyOpponent who is the only one the BloodKnight swordsman sees as worth fighting... SERIOUSLY, WE GET IT. You'd think it'd all lessen with the Lauren storyline [[spoiler:where we find that no, he CAN'T actually seal away the villains; he's been set up as a decoy for the one who can while she perfects the sealing technique]], but instead, it simply becomes 2-3 episodes of everyone whinging over how much they miss him and how nothing is the same without him and ONLY JAYDEN is the one TRUE Red Ranger and it's so horribly wrong that he isn't here and... you get the picture. While he's actually ''less'' annoying than most examples on this list (where all too often, the shilling is repeating the {{Informed Attribute}}s of characters who actually display none of the positive qualities everyone gushes over) it creates a bit of a problem where your enjoyment level of this season will largely depend on whether or not you can worship Jayden as much as [[CreatorsPet the writers]] are telling you to.

** Season 3 character [[{{Jerkass}} Grace]] [[StrawFeminist Miller]], who was supposed to be the female version of Doctor Cox and supposedly a very competent surgeon and [[InformedAttractiveness treated like she was some kind of mega-hot goddess]]...she was also really petty, like making Turk do work way beneath his skill level because ''she wasn't invited to his wedding'' (and the whole reason Carla didn't want her there was because she's "too pretty"), rude, conceited, constantly treated Turk like dirt and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking wasn't funny.]] Yet Turk inexplicably really wanted to impress her, Carla never defends Turk over Dr. Miller's treatment of him [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend as she would have anyone else]], Dr. Cox spends quite a bit of the season panting over her even though she's basically [[OldFlame Jordan]] but without any redeeming qualities or history with him, Elliot gushes over how "cool" she is because she bullies her male surgeons team by giving them constant undeserved {{The Reason You Suck Speech}}es. Thankfully the writers realised [[TheScrappy the audience hated her]] and she didn't come back after that season.
** Molly Clock also gets this a lot, with people (again, Elliot in particular) shilling how nice, smart, and overall great she is, even managing to pull off a WoundedGazelleGambit on both Dr. Kelso ''and'' Dr. Cox when they find her [[ThePollyanna constantly upbeat demeanour]] (justifiably) annoying. The only character who actively avoids/dislikes her is Turk, and that's because he thinks of her as a "devil woman" who can read his thoughts because she's ''that good'' as a psychiatrist and he claims any man would kill to have sex with her, Elliot acts like a schoolgirl with a crush towards her after some initial hostility, Carla gets jealous because everyone starts taking their problems to Molly over her despite barely knowing her, she's a {{Love Interest|s}} of J.D's for a short time and even manages to heal ''the Todd'' ([[StatusQuoIsGod though it doesn't stick]]). J.D and Turk even claim [[InformedAttractiveness she's the second hottest woman in the hospital.]] This is even though she pulls some really manipulative stunts over her stay on the show, frequently makes stupid mistakes like trusting a drug addict (which is something Dr. Cox busted Elliot's balls over previously) and dating terrible men and she herself even admits that Elliot puts her on a pedestal way too much.

** In season 3, Charles Magnussen is described by Mycroft as the most dangerous man in Europe. He lasts a single episode against Sherlock, [[spoiler:who ends up [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim shooting him]] just to get rid of him]]. It doesn't help that the fans were immediately comparing him to Moriarty (whose message "Did you miss me?" could well be poking fun at those fans).

* Wrestling/TripleH, [[RedBaron "The Cerebral Assassin"]], is considered to have decent to great {{wrestling psychology}} by even his harshest critics (and they're pretty harsh). However, announcers would constantly talk about what a great technical wrestler he was, even though he was clearly a brawler with few on the mat moves. This was especially noticeable when he first readded the modified Indian deathlock that he'd used as a finisher during his Terra Ryzing days in Wrestling/{{WCW}} to his moveset as a resthold - the rest gave the commentators time to gush over his supposed technical mastery.
%%HYPE

* Adam "Pacman" Jones, a football player who joined [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], was someone who nobody (be they football fans, wrestling fans, or the NFL itself) was particularly interested in seeing -- except [[CreatorsPet TNA's creative]], who had Wrestling/EricYoung (whom everyone still liked at this point) blab constantly about how Pacman is his hero.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' does this so often, you hardly notice anymore; every faction update portrays its faction as mighty and unstoppable, if only because it's [[CrackIsCheaper the best way to sell models]]. But even by these standards, the Space Marines -- and particularly the Ultramarines -- get a ridiculous amount of shilling. The 5th Edition codex converted the Ultramarines from their old JackOfAllTrades characteristic to the epitome of Imperial virtue, and the pinnacle to which all other Space Marine chapters aspire to emulate. The codex being mostly written by [[RunningTheAsylum a confessed Ultramarine fanboy]] ''might'' have had something to do with it.

* [[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.

* ''VideoGame/DustyRagingFist'' introduces a new character, Leo the Lion who's a "legendary demolitions expert". The moment he appears onscreen, all the characters exclaims, "It's ''the'' Leo!" with Snow asking [[TheKnightsWhoSaySquee if Leo would autograph his rifle]]. But as the game goes on Leo is just another AssistCharacter with little-to-no development.

** When Jack Garland of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyStrangerOfParadise'' is introduced in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasyOperaOmnia'', the hero party is quickly in awe of him. Jack's presence does singlehandedly tip the balance of the world from "dangerous Light" to "dangerous Darkness", but most of his dialogue is insulting the heroes for being weak and dismissing what they have to say. The heroes' response is to become determined to impress Jack and win his approval, even though he only just showed up and he hasn't given them much reason to respect him other than having a strong aura.

* ''WebComic/RedString'''s Yosue Makoto is two people: the one that everyone praises and the one that we are actually shown. The Makoto people speak highly about is a persistent, self-sacrificing "flirty goofball". The Makoto that we see, however, is shown time and time again to be opportunistic, jealous, and rather unhealthily obsessed when it comes to his "devotion" to the object of his affection, Miharu.

* Every character with dialogue in the first two chapters of ''Literature/TheQuintessentialMarySue'' describes Mary-Sue in utterly positive terms, calling her [[IncorruptiblePurePureness pure of heart]], [[TheAce more powerful and skilled than anyone else]], and [[AllLovingHero totally magnanimous to everyone]]. Mary-Sue ''really'' isn't a nice person at all, being a very SpoiledBrat who uses her bad childhood as an excuse for her {{jerkass}}ery. Considering her vindictive streak and that the other characters say these things to her face, it would just be flattery, except that they clearly, sincerely believe every word of it. [[ParodySue This is a parody of how every character in bad writing either loves the Sue for being perfect or hates the Sue for being better than them.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': The beginning of "Arnold Betrays Iggy" does this to Iggy, who prior to this was just a Recurring Extra; Sid and Stinky boast about how cool Iggy is, just to get the plot in motion.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Parodied with Heidi Turner, whom Cartman repeatedly says is smart and funny, with other characters (including Heidi herself) pointing out that she doesn't really do anything funny. It reads like a play on how shilling so often uses the criteria "smart" and "funny" that it's become almost meaningless to say that now.
* Used InUniverse on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show]]", Itchy and Scratchy shill the new character Poochie as early as his very first appearance, and his voice actor Homer suggests even further measures to boost his popularity -- such as having other characters, when Poochie is not on screen, ask, "where's Poochie?"
-->'''Scratchy:''' Wow. Poochie is one outrageous dude.\\
'''Itchy:''' He's [[TotallyRadical totally in my face]].
* A 1985 WesternAnimation/BettyBoop cartoon titled "The Romance of Betty Boop" takes this to the extreme, with people gushing about how wonderful Betty is as she walks down the street. And it's every bit as cringe-inducing as it sounds.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'':
** The show [[PlayedForLaughs plays this trope for laughs]] by presenting Franchise/{{Batman}} as a ParodySue; characters think he's the greatest human who ever lived, and not even [[ADayInTheLimelight the day's guest star]] can match up to him, even if they're a superhero themselves. It's at its worst in episodes like "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", where every superhero sings about how jealous of Batman they are, or "The Masks of Matches Malone!" where ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, ComicBook/BlackCanary, and ComicBook/{{Huntress}} all sing Batman's praises while putting down several other heroes (in a rather suggestive manner). The episode with ComicBook/CaptainAtom presented the Captain as a SmugSuper who looks down on people without superpowers. He's basically a [[TheWarOnStraw strawman]] there to make fun of Batman, while the rest of the JLI are shocked and insist that no, Batman is totally the ''best hero ever'' and certainly better than all of them.
** Franchise/WonderWoman is the most consistently shilled hero, even more so than Batman. ComicBook/SteveTrevor gushes about she will always save him (and Batman too). She even has her own {{leitmotif}} that shouts "WONDER WOMAN!" every time the shot cuts to her.
* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' does this in an odd way in the later seasons, propping up both Bloom [[OncePerEpisode and whoever she's supporting that particular episode]]. The basic gist of it is: character is incapable of doing something, Bloom comes along and tells them how amazing they are, character is suddenly happier and manages to succeed because of how ''amaaazing'' her pep talk was.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' has an InUniverse example. In "Wacky Delly", all of Mr. Cheese's dialogue is just Filburt praising his own character.
-->'''Mr. Cheese:''' I am the cheese! I am the best character on this show! I am better than both the salami and the bologna combined!

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'':

** In order not to 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]].

** Despite his immense {{jerkass}}ery, Paul is praised for being a great Trainer by a number of characters in the ''Diamond & Pearl'' series, including Cynthia, Barry, and at times, even Ash himself. Even Pyramid King Brandon, who plays a vital role in [[BreakTheHaughty humbling him]] and [[WhatTheHellHero calling out his attitude]], notes that Paul has done an excellent job raising his Pokemon. Partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that for all his cruelty, he's one of the most skilled Trainers Ash has ever faced, and as the series goes on, his training style is portrayed far more humanely (if still [[ToughLove harsh]]) than it was in the earlier episodes.
** Ash received this in the Kanto saga. Despite his status as an IdiotHero with a case of SmallNameBigEgo, many episodes ended with him getting disproportionally praised for some minor accomplishment. An egregious example was in "The Ultimate Test" when the head instructor praised Ash for fending off [[TerribleTrio the ineffectual Team Rocket trio]] and declared with confidence that he would pass the League entrance exam if he were to re-take it, ignoring the fact that Ash had just failed it with ''[[EpicFail one of the lowest grades]]''.
** He again becomes a recipient of this in the ''XY'' series. Lots of characters (from minor ones to the Gym Leaders, and even two Champions) have the utmost respect for him, and he gets HeroWorship from his band of friends. [[note]]To the point that for Ash's fifth Gym Battle, it was Clemont the ''Gym Leader'' who takes a leave of absence from the group so he could train and meet Ash's [[WorthyOpponent expectations]].[[/note]] He is AlwaysSomeoneBetter to all his region rivals, and even the one [[spoiler:who Ash eventually loses to in the League Finals]] unquestionably follows Ash's lead throughout the entire Kalos Crisis afterwards, and in the end contemplates that, between the two of them, Ash is the better trainer. This all in spite of still being BookDumb (though now downplayed). Partly in that, the ''XY'' series was probably Ash's most successful bout as a Trainer (and some still held this sentiment even after ''Sun/Moon'' and ''Journeys'', despite those series culminating in [[spoiler:Ash becoming the Alola League's first ever Champion and then ''[[WorldsBestWarrior Monarch of the World Coronation Series]]'']]), and considering how much of a ButtMonkey he was in the ''Best Wishes'' era, many fans consider this one a case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]].

* ''Franchise/TheFlash'':
** Writer Creator/GeoffJohns did this to Barry Allen in several directions when he came BackFromTheDead. Jay Garrick, the original Flash, shilled his replacement Barry by saying that "Barry made him the Flash", despite fighting crime decades before Barry started. The explanation was [[VoodooShark pretty weird and just raised more questions]] -- he meant that seeing Barry as the Flash convinced him to come out of retirement, but this contradicts the events of the story where that happened, where Jay ''already'' wanted to come out of retirement. Barry's successor ComicBook/WallyWest also shilled him as an inspiration to him when he was a kid ''as'' Barry Allen, which contradicts scenes where young Wally considered the Flash ''much'' cooler than Barry Allen and couldn't understand why Iris was dating Barry and not the Flash. Johns defended the shilling by saying it was necessary to avoid Barry being seen as a ReplacementScrappy for Wally, even though he was the Flash before Wally, and even readers who didn't remember that would probably know that since a big part of Wally's character revolves around that.
** And then Johns had Barry talk up how great a CSI Patty Spivot is (presumably under the logic that if Barry says she's great, she must be ''really'' great...which falls a little flat given this occurs at the same time Barry, a trained CSI, makes a basic rookie mistake at a crime scene). What little work we see her doing is nothing spectacular.
** ''Flash'' issue #750 has a lot of people talking about how great the Flash is. In fairness, though, it's a MilestoneCelebration, so some shilling is to be expected.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Peter's one-time love interest Carlie Cooper was heavily shilled, mostly to get readers to accept her over Peter's more memorable love interests Gwen Stacy and ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson. One big problem was that this was after ''ComicBook/OneMoreDay'', in which Peter's ''marriage'' to Mary Jane gets magically erased so that Peter could be single again (and that Carlie's [[{{Tuckerization}} named after]] the writer's daughter). An implausible number of people would go on about not just how perfect she is for Peter, but how perfect she is in general. Mary Jane shilled her. [[ClingyJealousGirl Black Cat]] shilled her. ''Gwen'', despite [[TheLostLenore being dead]], shilled her in {{flashback}}, having been {{retcon}}ned into Carlie's best friend. That ''really'' didn't endear her to the readers.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is one of the few characters who can ([[DependingOnTheWriter usually]]) get away with this without audiences rolling their eyes. His entire character ''relies'' on being a pure-hearted inspiration to others; that's why he was chosen to be the first SuperSoldier. He also got famous during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII by fighting the Nazis and apparently dying in a HeroicSacrifice, which bolstered his reputation among other heroes. It's only natural that they'd be a little awestruck when the man himself turns up.
** That said, much of the second line-up of ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' consisted of heroes and villains alike heaping praise on his inspiring leadership and all-around awesomeness to a point that could feel excessive, since that "leadership" usually consisted of yelling at Hawkeye and Quicksilver to fall in line and grant him endless respect solely based on his past accomplishments. While Hawkeye and Quicksilver were usually being arrogant jerks also, they were ''meant'' to come across as arrogant jerks while Cap's attitude was presented as fully justified.
* ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' shills Franchise/{{Batman}} by having all the de-powered superheroes gush about how awesome he is for having always been a BadassNormal (when he's far from the only one in the League). Batman, for his part, is an arrogant jerk who seems only to help the de-powered heroes ''because'' they're telling him how awesome he is.

* ComicBook/{{Bullseye|MarvelComics}}, a reasonably popular but firmly street-level baddie, was subject to an awkward period when Creator/MarvelComics tried to promote him as [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent their answer]] to ComicBook/TheJoker. In nearly every appearance, characters would shill Bullseye as an unstoppable murderous psychopath -- despite the fact that he's not particularly intelligent, nor is he much more dangerous than any guy with a gun. During his time as a member of the ComicBook/DarkAvengers, he's treated as TheDreaded (despite his teammates including a [[AtomicSuperpower walking nuclear reactor]], a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] alien parasite, and a deranged PhysicalGod). Marvel eventually gave up and turned off the PlotArmor, leaving Bullseye blind, disabled, and PutOnABus for the next few years.
* ComicBook/DoctorDoom is often shilled as a genius and the savior of mankind, but rarely by the right people -- at one point, a Wakandan deity once proclaimed that the only peaceful future is one with Doom as the dictator, but there's some serious BlueAndOrangeMorality at work. In any event, the character who shills Doom the most is usually Doom himself.
* Riri Williams receives mounds of this in her first proper issue taking over from Tony Stark as ComicBook/{{Ironheart}}. Barely a scene will pass without a big-name character praising her intelligence, S.H.I.E.L.D. holds a special meeting to talk about how wonderful she is, and Tony Stark himself even gets in on the act, despite heaping praise on others being very out-of-character for him.
* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} is a fairly frequent recipient, as a longtime member of two prominent and powerful hero teams while also being in [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway an unfortunate place power-wise]] in the context of a superhero universe -- he's a FlyingBrick with the strength of a BadassNormal, resulting in him lacking the brute force of most of the former and the technology and intellect of most of the latter, along with lacking specialized skills that could [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman contrive situations where he can be the only one to save the day]]. Consequently, he's usually shilled when people wonder why the heck he's on the team to begin with -- they call him an excellent leader (who never displays this and is usually a JerkAss) with centuries of battle experience (which he mostly uses to [[AttackAttackAttack fly straight in and bludgeon people with his mace]]). The peak is probably ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'', where Prometheus, having taken down half the team and armed with a gun, faces Hawkman and monologues about how Hawkman is the most dangerous opponent he's faced because he's [[ConfusionFu unpredictable]] and [[UnstoppableRage pissed off]] -- and he's also not ImmuneToBullets (and not [[WalkingShirtlessScene wearing a shirt]]), but for some reason, Prometheus doesn't connect those dots.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' is another of the few characters whose shilling is deserved. He's ''the'' BigGood of the DCU, a NiceGuy, and [[FlyingBrick incredibly powerful]], so it's no wonder he's so successful and charismatic. He's also a HumbleHero who frequently seems uncomfortable with being on the receiving end of said shilling, and goes to great lengths to ensure that the general populace, who would otherwise be [[BewareTheSuperman inclined to mistrust someone so powerful]], can trust him.
* ComicBook/CarolDanvers, after becoming Captain Marvel (and getting a new Superman-esque costume), was suddenly treated as the Marvel Universe'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 Avengers membership and being the reason ComicBook/{{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 had acquired all the Hulk-related stuff back in full.
* Jennika from ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIDW'' gets this treatment after becoming the fifth Ninja Turtle. Pre-mutation, she wasn't much of a character outside of being Splinter's student and Casey's new love interest. She also didn't interact much with anyone aside from Splinter and Casey in any significant way. Post mutation, the Turtles act as if she's a close family member and characters who barely know her, if at all, start harping on about how great and strong she is.
* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman 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 the DCU'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 Franchise/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 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 ''first'' superhero team and are some of the oldest characters in the genre and codified many of its tropes, but ''in-universe'' couldn't really apply. Over a decade later, when the DCU had received a few face lifts, this idea was more directly addressed -- Clark Kent only debuted as Superboy because his father used the story of the JSA to assuage his fear that people wouldn't accept him.
* [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Speaking of Robins]] Tim's new love interest Bernard Down has been getting plenty of this since 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...

* The first few books of ''Fanfic/TheLastSon'' are infamous for this treatment of Superman and [[SickeninglySweethearts his love interest]] [[spoiler:Alison Blaire, ''a.k.a.'' Alia Ka-Lir]]. Superman, being the single most powerful entity on the planet, deserves people shilling his power -- but not his oratory, which is hailed as brilliant despite consisting mostly of [[HolierThanThou preachy moral lectures]]. His love interest, meanwhile, is given bucketloads of {{Informed Attribute}}s, and everyone (except the villains and the resident {{Alpha Bitch}}es) loves her despite not really having a reason to. This treatment is considered a black mark on an otherwise well-conceived story.
* In Xantrax-42's ''FanFic/PrecureMeetTheDreamTraveler'' series:
** The canon characters heap endless praise on both of his {{Original Character}}s. It's most blatant in chapter two of ''Smile Precure meet the Dream Traveler'', where Blaze [[BigDamnHeroes comes in, saves the Pretty Cure]], and defeats three blue-nosed Akanbes [[CanonDefilement without using Rainbow Healing]] (which is required in canon). The Cures and the narrative insist he's the greatest thing ever to grace ''Pretty Cure'' fandom with words like "So cool!" and remarking how he's fighting all by himself when most readers regard him as a boring and obnoxious GodModeSue.
** It gets exaggerated in the sequels, especially with the introduction of Shadow Akechi in the ''Doki Doki'' series. No matter what atrocities or abuse Shadow heaps on others, everyone says he's the best thing ever. The worst occurs when, in one of the final chapters, Shadow is mercilessly beating twelve-year-old Regina nearly to death, and Cure Heart smiles and watches while saying Shadow is amazing because he can channel rage and hatred into such awesome power.
* All of Starfleet in ''Fanfic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' is this. The story repeatedly tells us how much faster, stronger, smarter, and overall superior the Space Ponies are compared to [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic their Equestrian counterparts]], which isn't really supported by their actions.

** Ariana is also frequently referred to as "sweet" and "cares so much about others over herself" - she isn't and doesn't. She's more akin to a SpoiledBrat who has her older friends constantly visiting to entertain her even after they've graduated Hogwarts and have full-time jobs, gets adopted by Sirius who lets her do anything she wants and never disciplines her, manages to wriggle out of serious punishment for abusing her "Empath" powers at school by whining and crying about people bullying her (which she instigates), frequently attacks her rival Maria with no repercussions, gets given expensive presents for no reason, gets away with rifling through Snape's memories without asking permission and tells Neville she's ''jealous'' that he still has parents when her mother died when she was a baby - you know, Neville's parents who were [[spoiler:tortured so badly, they went insane and can't recognise Neville as their own son, so he was raised by his extremely strict grandmother?]] Yes, those parents.
* ''Fanfic/{{Precipice}}'' has an InUniverse example with Ahsoka. In Anakin's retellings of his Clone Wars adventures to his daughter, Leia, he likes to embellish and exaggerate Ahsoka's actions to make her seem more awesome or having done more than she actually did. This is mainly because he likes to tell Leia these stories whenever he's really happy and wants to stay that way.

* ''Fanfic/FantasiaTimes'': Andi, the main OC, gets a lot of this. Her friends, family, and harem praise her as much as possible when she's onscreen, and when she's offscreen expect them to say things like "I wish Andi was here" or "what would Andi do in this situation?", if they're not talking about her wise advice/kindness towards others/amazing battle prowess/super special powers/awesomeness in general.

* 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}} has 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]]'']].
** It seems oddly coincidental that the character pulling BigDamnHeroes for the final battle in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' - Captain Marvel, one of the more polarizing characters in the MCU - has Rocket Raccoon taking the time to cheer for her appearance. No other returning character got singled out for fanfare.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/MysteryMen'' when it comes to The Sphinx. Other characters speak of him in hushed and reverent tones when describing him to a skeptical Mr Furious, lauding him as wise and awe-inspiring and mysterious... and oh, by the way, he can cut guns in half with his mind. When he arrives on the scene, it turns out that he ''is'' all these things, but Mr Furious remains staunchly unimpressed.
* ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' and [[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome its sequel]] does this with both his love interests, Liz and Michelle/MJ, respectively. Peter repeatedly talks about how perfect and amazing Liz is, and gushes about her intelligence, but then we never actually ''see'' her demonstrate this intelligence, and their interactions have her mostly be vaguely friendly but unamused by his ditching. Liz is more or less a symbol of how Peter wants to grow up too fast and as such as a crush on the most popular senior girl in school. MJ, likewise, is gushed by Peter for being really smart and funny, but her intelligence is never demonstrated outside of her answering a single science question and figuring out Peter's identity, which itself is less down to her own intellect and more Peter being very bad at hiding it (in fact, that she's the only person to figure this out is more due to the rest of the cast just not being very smart). As for her being funny, this is very much subjective. To some extent, this is partially explainable as Peter is just a kid with a schoolboy crush on the two, so his reasons for liking them are likely actually quite shallow. ''No Way Home'' eventually shows more of MJ’s kindness, compassion, and loyalty that better justifies Peter’s feelings for her (and coincidentally, Liz is shown in a FreezeFrameBonus to be bad-mouthing Peter to a tabloid).
** 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 ''Spider-Man'', 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, Tony's death leads to him being further lionised, with people questioning 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.

When the opposite happens - characters filibuster at length about how awful, hateful, loathsome, and generally unpleasant another is for no apparent reason the audience can understand, or at worst, when the audience ''agrees'' with the criticized character - that's the InformedFlaw/[[InformedWrongness Wrongness]] or DesignatedEvil/[[DesignatedVillain Villain]].

* ''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.
* Early ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' shills Haqua as being amazing, but it's actually part of an obvious set-up to show that despite how talented she is the only one she's fooling is Elsie. She's been unable to get any results after graduating and is pretty depressed. Eventually, she does end up deserving her reputation.[[note]]When you take into account that she's a low-level supervisor who has just graduated high school and is thus about the equivalent of 18.[[/note]]
* 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 ulimately 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.]]
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Despite his immense [[JerkAss jerkassery]], Paul is praised for being a great Trainer by a number of characters in the ''Diamond & Pearl'' series, including Cynthia, Barry, and at times, even Ash himself. Even Pyramid King Brandon, who plays a vital role in [[BreakTheHaughty humbling him]] and [[WhatTheHellHero calling out his attitude]], notes that Paul has done an excellent job raising his Pokemon. Partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that for all his cruelty, he's one of the most skilled Trainers Ash has ever faced, and as the series goes on, his training style is portrayed far more humanely (if still [[ToughLove harsh]]) than it was in the earlier episodes.
** Ash received this in the Kanto saga. Despite his status as an IdiotHero with a SmallNameBigEgo, many episodes ended with him getting disproportionally praised for some minor accomplishment. An egregious example was in ''The Ultimate Test'' when the head instructor praised Ash for fending off [[TerribleTrio the ineffectual Team Rocket trio]] and declared with confidence that he would pass the League entrance exam if he were to re-take it, ignoring the fact that Ash had just failed it with ''[[EpicFail one of the lowest grades]]''.
** He again becomes a recipient of this in the ''XY'' series. Lots of characters (from minor ones to the gym leaders, and two champions) have the utmost respect for him, and he gets HeroWorship from his band of friends.[[note]]To the point that for Ash's fifth gym battle, it was Clemont the ''Gym Leader'' who takes a leave of absence from the group so he could train and meet Ash's [[WorthyOpponent expectations]].[[/note]] He is AlwaysSomeoneBetter to all his region rivals, and even the one [[spoiler:who Ash eventually loses to in the League Finals]] unquestionably follows Ash's lead throughout the entire Kalos Crisis afterwards, and in the end contemplates that, between the two of them, Ash is the better trainer. This all in spite of still being BookDumb (though now downplayed). Partly in that, the XY series was probably Ash's most successful bout as a trainer, and considering how much of a ButtMonkey he was in the ''Best Wishes'' era many fans consider this one a case of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]].
* Inami from ''Manga/{{Wagnaria}}'' 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]]. Presumably, they're trying to make Takahashi, the guy Inami likes, think better of her, but they still overdo it a little. Even the RomanticFalseLead spends more time praising Inami than looking for his LongLostSibling.
* Thoma, the main character of ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'', was fairly bland in the first few chapters, up [[RememberTheNewGuy until it was revealed that he was the not-yet-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 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.
** He's also billed as a character who uses a unique fighting style and he has a lot of potential. Yet of all the times we see him fight, he was just swinging his [[{{BFS}} Divider]]. There's apparently also something special inside him that the AntiMagic-using villains take their time in trying to recruit him.
* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' actually managed to subvert this one. When the team first set out to find and meet Fubuki, several characters start discussing rumors about what an amazingly strong and talented person he is, some of which are so over the top (such as "Fubuki the bear-killer") that they're likely parodying this trope. Everyone is quite surprised when they actually meet him and he's nothing like what they expected.
-->'''Fubuki:''' Oh, are you disappointed after seeing the real thing?

* ''Manga/SevenSeeds'' has several characters comment about Hana. While she is certainly ready to take action in the wilderness or explore more easily than most of the other characters, this is justified by her having been raised in a way to survive in the wilderness. But then there are characters who admire her for her strength, her desire to work hard when she isn't feeling well herself, despite this actually being more of a flaw but not [[InformedFlaw treated as one]]. This got particularly bad when Ango and Ryo, both of who clashed horribly with her, praise her stubborn behavior, despite this being the reason ''why'' the three of them clashed so much.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' Heine Westenfluss is set up as an ace pilot like Athrun, as well as charming and a really nice guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't get a chance to live up to his extreme reputation since [[spoiler:he dies too soon.]] The fact that he spends most of his screentime lecturing Athrun about how he should just ignore his doubts and do his job doesn't help.
** He's more of a {{foil}} to Athrun given his short role.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** 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.]]
** During the Ten-tails arc, many characters went out of their way to express how awesome Sakura became, and how she finally caught up to Sasuke and Naruto. While she got to make a memorable showcase of her powers, it doesn't last long before Naruto and Sasuke both receive a new power up that puts them ahead of her again.
** [[spoiler:Also 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 put a HeelFaceTurn a few minutes ago. Granted, in that time he did save Naruto's life, helped give him a NextTierPowerUp, and died [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing himself to save Naruto and Kakashi]], but calling him "the coolest" might have been stretching the truth a little bit.]]
* In ''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; 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 not to 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 she being one of the most agile Hashira, and 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.
* Pretty much any new character with a new and marketable Deck in ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' gets talked up as being a master strategist and a wielder of unstoppable cards, even if their actual strategy is bog-standard and their cards are nothing new. V/Quinton in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' is a good example; he's built up as the guy who taught main character Kaito everything he knows, a guy who gets a MinorInjuryOverreaction to damage because he's normally untouchable, and the narrative treats him as the strongest of the Arclight brothers. Over the course of all three of his duels, his strategy consisted of summoning [[BigDumbObject Dyson Sphere]] and then sitting on it until the opponent found a way to defeat him. It's mildly impressive that he can bring it out so quickly, and it's a reasonably strong card, but it's nowhere near what his brothers were capable of. The Neo-Spacians in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' also get chatted up for their unique "Contact Fusion" ability by everyone, but Contact Fusion wasn't a new concept (indeed, several characters had used the VWXYZ line, which is functionally the same thing), and the Neo-Spacian application of it was, if anything, one of the worst executions of it.
** 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.
* Invoked in ''[[Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life]]''. Kanna often gets favors out of Lucoa by promising to say nice things about her to Shouta.
* 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.
* The narrator of ''Manga/KillingBites'' would like you to know that because the honey badger is the most badass animal in the world, Hitomi is also the most badass Brute in the world. Sure, the honey badger is an incredibly fearsome animal, but the way the narrator shills it, you would think it could take on God himself and then some.
* Downplayed in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'', the class of ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa 2|GoodbyeDespair}}'' ''constantly'' go on and on about how great Chiaki is; for example, when Chiaki brings in videogames for the class to play, everybody gushes about how cute and sweet she is, [[ButtMonkey but nobody even thanks Kazuichi for setting up the giant TV so they could actually play the console]], and Junko instantly deduces she's what will [[spoiler:drive the entire class into Despair, so she sticks her in the very first Killing Game while using Mitarai's hypnosis technology on them]]. Thing is, Chiaki ''does'' back up these claims by proving to be a genuine NiceGirl; most of the class's bonding is simply during off-screen timeskips, so the constant praise seems disproportionate to what she does on-screen.
* Everyone in ''Manga/NewGame'' always praises Nene's incredible potential as a programmer, but all she's been seen doing is bug testing and making a StylisticSuck self-programmed PC game that didn't even work half the time. To the viewer, it just looks like she got hired thanks to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections knowing people]] rather than any sort of aptitude or ability to learn on her behalf. Less so in the manga, where it's clear she's been corresponding with her eventual supervisor to ask questions and receive some direction in her attempts to learn programming, said woman doesn't so much praise her potential as profess the belief the company has plenty of basic grunt work she could make herself useful doing while she continues to develop a proper skill set (and precedented by the main character, who was hired as a 3D artist having never used modeling software before), and the game was pretty bug-free by the time she shows it to any others.

* Parodied in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' with Kobachi Osaragi, who is the most popular girl in school, gets a steady stream of boyfriends without trying, and is constantly being shilled by random characters...all while being a [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy Ridiculously Average Girl]] who is plain-looking, unremarkable in talent, and is just really boring and forgettable in general. And yet everybody loves and obsesses over her, talking like she's the Second Coming. [[LampshadeHanging The main cast is just as baffled as the audience probably is]]. Eventually this makes more sense, as from before the start of the manga Osaragi has been working hard to present herself as a plain and unremarkable background character; the part of her past that gave her the reputation she still can't shake is both so well and publicly known and just a little embarrassing for people to admit is still on their minds that nobody ever directly raises the topic. This remains exaggerated from realistic levels for comedic effect, thus the parody.
* One of the later episodes of ''Anime/KemonoFriends''' second season has Kaban, the main character of the first season, declare that her relationship with Serval "didn't compare" with Serval's relationship with Kyururu, the main character of the second season. Few people to have watched both seasons would agree, as Kyururu had considerably more frequently jerkish moments, including being adamant about not being an animal, and in general they never hit the same emotional highs. Most viewers saw it as [[RealitySubtext a potshot at the director of the first season]], who had been fired by the studio and left on bad terms, as well as an attempt to prop up the local ReplacementScrappy as superior.
* Nasa Yuzaki, the protagonist of ''Manga/FlyMeToTheMoon'' often gets this from his family and friends. When Tsukasa visits Nasa's parents, Nasa's father thanks her for saving his son's life, saying that he can hardly imagine how eccentric people like him and his wife raised a "perfect" son like Nasa (disregarding how bragging about your children is a no-no in Japan. At the end of the trip, [[spoiler:Nasa and Tsukasa's apartment building burns down, and Nasa's first reaction is to ask whether anyone got hurt]], prompting Tsukasa to go into an InnerMonologue about how she loves that Nasa is selfless, that he prepares for situations like this and he accepts others' kindness gratefully without feeling guilty about it.

* ''ComicBook/TheInhumans'', both the main characters and the Inhuman species in general, underwent this from around the end of ''{{ComicBook/Infinity}}'', to the end of ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'', getting pushed by Marvel as an effective replacement to the X-Men, who were shunted into a more diminished role. It started when ComicBook/BlackBolt unleashed the Terrigen Mists on the world at the end of ''Infinity'' and it was presented as a ''good'' thing, despite the fact that it would turn all sorts of people into Inhumans who might not want to be Inhumans, and that it was ''known'' to be lethal to mutants. Moreover, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} destroying one of the two Terrigen clouds (which weren't required for Inhumans to live, just to change - and there were other methods) which earned him a vaporising by Black Bolt on ComicBook/{{Medusa|MarvelComics}}'s orders. [[spoiler:While it turned out that Scott was already dead and it was an illusion by ComicBook/EmmaFrost to make Scott a martyr, the Inhumans sure as hell didn't know that]] in ''ComicBook/DeathOfX'' was meant to leave the Inhumans as the sympathetic party (this failed miserably, leading to resurrection of the 'Cyclops was Right' catchphrase), along with the whole 'M-Pox' phenomenon where the X-Men ''literally had to relocate to Hell to survive''...and when the trigger of ''ComicBook/InhumansVsXMen'' was revealed--the Terrigen was spreading, essentially making Earth uninhabitable for mutants--there were ''still'' attempts to present both sides as morally evenly balanced. To say that the fanbase was unhappy would be a ''colossal'' {{Understatement}}.

* [[UniqueEnemy Khan Noonien Singh]] in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' is said to be physically and mentally augmented though it hardly shows. His physical superiority is demonstrated only a couple of times, his superior intelligence is thwarted by his plan and the execution. The Enterprise crew overpower him by hiding in a nebula and shooting torpedoes all over the place. Though Spock once thought of him as [[UniqueEnemy the greatest threat and most dangerous enemy the Enterprise has ever faced]]. Okay, [[HeroicSacrifice Spock died restoring main power on the Enterprise to ascertain the crew's escape]] but anyone can render the warp drive inoperable and many foes have done so before.

* 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 ulimately 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.]]

* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman 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 the DCU'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 Franchise/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 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 ''first'' superhero team and are some of the oldest characters in the genre and codified many of its tropes, but ''in-universe'' could really apply. Over a decade later, when the DCU had received a few face lifts, this idea was more directly addressed -- Clark Kent only debuted as Superboy because his father used the story of the JSA to assuage his fear that people wouldn't accept him.

* The first issue of one volume of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' kicks off by having Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman 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 the DCU's A-listers built their careers. The truth is that we've ''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 Franchise/TheFlash and ComicBook/BlackCanary. That's before getting into the fact that the Society were well below the League in notoriety, feats, and influence for most of the Post-Crisis era.[[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 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," despite those more popular characters being ''their'' inspirations.[[/note]]
* [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Damian Wayne]] has been praised in-universe and [[MisaimedFandom out of it]] ever since his creation over ten years, despite being a rather unpleasant character that receives little to no character development. (Whenever he ''does'' [[TookALevelInKindness grow as a character]], it's usually thrown out by the writer of his next appearance.)

* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'': This trope is the reason why Chiho Sasaki is such a divisive character among fans. The story often goes on about how sweet and kind she is, even to the point of blatantly lying about her personality or bending the story around her. For example, she gets jealous of Acies at one point and the story says this is highly unusual for her and only because of how clingy the other girl is being, but anyone who has paid attention up to this point knows that Chiho is extremely jealous of anyone she perceives as a rival, most notably Emi.

** It seems oddly coincidental that the character pulling BigDamnHeroes for the final battle in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' - Captain Marvel, one of the more [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment polarizing characters in the MCU]] - has Rocket Raccoon taking the time to cheer for her appearance. No other returning character got singled out for fanfare.