Somebody is devastated as their hero is not who they thought they were. Rather than being the great warrior that they looked up to, they turned out to be selfish and rude. Of course, this causes them to become a Broken Pedestal.
But what's this? The person found somebody who actually displays all of the traits they admired of their former hero. Well, now this person is who they admire instead.
A lot of people have role models, but it becomes hard when they find out their role models are not who they are, so they turn to a new one in their place.
Alternatively, they find out their replacement role model is the real hero of the story that their former hero was a part of, which gets them to desire the truth to be known so that the proper pedestal is put in place.
Compare Replacement Goldfish. Contrast Rebuilt Pedestal, when the character starts looking up to their former hero again. Some versions might play with this and Rebuilt Pedestal by having one pedestal rebuilt just as another is dashed. Compare Opposed Mentors, which is where a character is choosing between two very different pedestals.
Might overlap with Hourglass Plot. May also overlap with A True Hero if the change in heroes is accompanied by an Aesop about what a real hero is like.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In The Case Files of Jeweler Richard, Seigi experiences a Broken Pedestal for his former senior in middle school and the karate club, whom he admired as a big brother and a mentor, when it turns out his mentor hasn't turned out nearly as well as Seigi has and no longer wants to see Seigi again. However, he's already met Richard, who he's begun to latch onto as a mentor, and whom his respect for grows immensely after the resolution of the situation.
Comic Books
- In Kingdom Come, multiple factors led to Steel rejecting Superman in favor of Batman, resulting in a change of armor to reflect his new loyalties.
Films — Animated
- Cars: After Lightning McQueen gets lost in Radiator Springs, his two biggest fans, Mia and Tia, leave him and start supporting Chick Hicks. At the end of the three-way tie-breaker race though, they are among the audience who become disgusted by Chick totalling The King, and they move to Radiator Springs to work for Flo.
- Coco: Miguel, like most others, looked up to Ernesto De La Cruz, and eventually believes him to be his great-grandfather. Upon meeting him, Miguel finds out Ernesto stole all his music from Hector and also killed him, shaking Miguel's hero-worship; then Ernesto attempts to do the same to him. Soon after, he finds out Hector is his great-grandfather and not Ernesto De La Cruz, and the real genius who inspired Miguel’s style of music, bringing him relief and leading him to look up to Hector, hoping to save him from being forgotten and also ensure that the truth comes out so that proper praise is given.
Live-Action TV
- Monk: In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", Julie and her class are starstruck by Wagner, who is a famous astronaut and has pulled off some pretty impressive things. It doesn't help that he's far more socially skilled than Monk. After Monk stares down Wagner's plane to save the evidence proving that Wagner murdered his ex-girlfriend, Julie approaches the detective and tells him they've realized how wrong they were to hero-worship Wagner. She gives Monk an honorary medal of valor.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000: In an extremely negative version of this trope, Lorgar of the Word Bearers legion only ever sought to uplift humanity through belief in the divine. His father the Emperor of Mankind was such a mighty warrior, brilliant scientist, and overall unparalleled example of humanity's full potential that Lorgar sought to shower respect unto him akin to gods of old. Unfortunately, this clashed with the Emperor's desire for a completely secular Imperium and he not only rejected Lorgar's attempts, he also had the Ultramarines burn the Word Bearers' capital city to the ground and forced them to kneel in the ashes and ruins while he chastised him. Tragically for everyone, Lorgar then found new gods to worship: the four Chaos Gods who welcomed his worship. note
Video Games
- Punch-Out!!: In the Wii version, World Circuit runner-up Super Macho Man has lots of female fans and camera flashing on him prior to Little Mac defeating him. However, after Little Mac DOES beat him and becomes world champ, the same cameramen and female fans turn their attention to him instead, leaving Macho Man envious and vengeful. His wiki page
explains that it's possible that his fans were expecting him to mop the floor with Mac, but not so much with Mr. Sandman.
- Undertale: Monster Kid makes it clear that they look up to Undyne heavily and wish to fight alongside her. However, in the neutral and pacifist route, they are torn between siding with Undyne or a human they befriended. If the human saves them from falling, then when talked to later, they will say that they see Undyne as actually being mean and not worth looking up to, along with finding somebody new to admire in Papyrus.
Web Animation
- Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged: Much like in the original game, Cloud looked up to Sephiroth and strive to become SOLDIER and fight alongside him only for this to change when Sephiroth destroys his village. Eventually he finds a new idol in Cid Highwind, though Tifa feels that Cloud is bad at picking his role models.
Western Animation
- Back to the Future: In the episode "Put On Your Thinking Caps, Kids! Its Time for Mr. Wisdom", Verne starts out hero-worshipping Mr. Wisdom, who has a science show that...isn't actually that scientific. He even drags Marty to meet him when the show films an episode in Hill Valley. However, he finds out that Mr. Wisdom is a fraud, who actually stole from Doc. After Doc wins a "science contest" by demonstrating the hidden features of items Wisdom stole, Verne declares his dad is the coolest scientist of all time.
- DuckTales (1987): "Where No Duck Has Gone Before" features a "one pedestal breaks as another is rebuilt" version. The boys fawn over the hero of their favorite TV show, Courage of the Cosmos. Launchpad butts heads with him and the boys (who normally have some respect for Launchpad's heroic side) turn on him, claiming that he's just jealous. Unfortunately, the group gets into an actual space adventure no thanks to Gyro following Scrooge's instructions too closely. When Major Courage shows himself to be a coward and Launchpad saves the day, the boys chew Courage out and return to respecting the pilot.
- DuckTales (2017): Launchpad McQuack is set up as worshipping the in-universe Darkwing Duck tv show throughout Season 1 and 2. In "The Duck Knight Returns", Launchpad is recruited by Jim Starling, the washed-up actor who played Darkwing, to get him into the reboot film. But as Sterling's plans get more and more morally dubious and Launchpad bonds with the actor cast as Darkwing in the reboot, Launchpad realizes that Starling is not living up to the values of the real Darkwing Duck. In the end, he sees the young actor Drake Mallard as more befitting the role, and encourages him to consider taking up the mantle for real. He does!
- Kim Possible: Kim finds out her cousin Joss is a huge fan of hers, idolizing her to the point that when Shego starts causing trouble, Joss attempts to imitate Kim which causes problems. After Kim manages to convince her to be herself rather than imitate her hero, she later finds that Joss is now idolizing Ron for his never give up attitude and being able to work as Kim's sidekick through his fears.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: Once the truth is out that Ezekiel Tugbottom is not a hero at all, the people of Brighton start looking up to Sally Tugbottom as she was the real hero of the legend.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Washouts", Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo have a falling-out when Dash tries to warn her number one fan against joining the titular stunt team, and practically admits that she was motivated as much by wanting Scootaloo to look up to her and her alone as by any safety concerns. And when their conflict comes to a head, Scootaloo reminds Dash that she can't fly, revealing that she had been losing interest in the Wonderbolts because there was no realistic hope of her ever becoming one, and that being expected to follow in Dash's hoofsteps in spite of that was making her feel inadequate. Then Lightning Dust, the Washouts' leader, tries to push Scootaloo into performing a dangerous, untested stunt after Scootaloo starts having second thoughts. When Dash saves her, it reaffirms her hero worship.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "MuscleBob BuffPants," SpongeBob becomes a fitness role model to everybody at Goo Lagoon due to his inflatable muscles. After SpongeBob's muscles pop during the anchor throwing competition, everyone who'd been cheering for him on the bleachers starts cheering for Sandy instead, since she actually is super strong.
