Basic Trope: A superhero or similarly heroic character is subject to hatred, distrust, fear and resentment from the public at large despite performing largely altruistic actions.
- Straight: Despite apprehending criminals, rescuing people in need and diffusing potential threats to the safety of the city, Amazing Girl is largely subject to ridicule and distrust from the general public, and numerous public voices call for her arrest or confinement.
- Exaggerated:
- Despite saving the entire planet from complete annihilation several times over, Amazing Girl is routinely hunted by mobs of angry citizens and government death squads intent on nothing less than her complete extermination.
- Abridged description: Hated by All.
- Hero with Bad Publicity
- Downplayed: Amazing Girl is only distrusted by a large section of the public, who don't like her political opinions; everyone else is willing to judge her by her heroic actions.
- Justified:
- Amazing Girl's genuinely altruistic, noble and heroic actions provoke inferiority in the minds of the public, who feel they can't measure up to her example. This inferiority expresses itself as jealousy and resentment.
- Prior to becoming a superhero, Amazing Girl was responsible for a major catastrophe resulting in the loss of many lives and the destruction of a large area, which she is attempting to redeem herself for.
- Amazing Girl's methods of performing her altruistic actions are themselves questionable and/or illegal.
- The public are being manipulated or brainwashed by a Villain with Good Publicity with a grudge against Amazing Girl.
- Amazing Girl is an involuntary member of a group that is known for being Always Chaotic Evil, and previous experiments in trusting one of them turned out badly.
- Amazing Girl is an Attention Whore, and her attitude in front of the camera makes it impossible to like her.
- While Amazing Girl does save the day, her actions draw attention from something far worse and the people know it.
- Amazing Girl has always done the right thing for the citizens, even if what she did was morally questionable.
- Amazing Girl was formerly a villainess who has already turned her life around, but society distrusts her and refuses to let go of what she's done.
- While Amazing Girl's motives are truly altruistic, she is also a very Smug Super that constantly belittles the citizens on how useless and helpless they are. Essentially a super hero's version of a White Man's Burden.
- Amazing Girl is an anti-social loner who doesn't have time for small talk and citizens took offense to her lifestyle.
- Amazing Girl is an Idiot Heroine whose stupidity grates on their nerves every now and then, even in the most serious situations.
- Amazing Girl lives in a World of Jerkass.
- Inverted:
- Internalized Categorism
- The public loves Amazing Girl, and never stop loving her no matter what she does.
- Alternatively, it's Amazing Girl who mocks the citizens, no matter how much assistance and affection they give her during her rough times.
- Destructo Girl is always loved by everyone even though she tried to destroy everything.
- Amazing Girl has Heroic Self-Deprecation and no matter how many times she saved lives and get thanks for it, she feels herself worthless for being The Hero.
- Villain with Good Publicity
- Subverted: It turns out only a small fraction of the people have issues with her. The vast majority are grateful and throw a parade in her honor.
- Doubly Subverted:
- ... only for the people to start jeering her again later on.
- After the parade, the majority go home and back to their lives, whereas the haters only become more intense.
- Parodied: Amazing Girl can do absolutely nothing to please the people, whose criticisms and rejection of her take on increasingly and ludicrously petty dimensions.
- Zig Zagged: The general public doesn't like Amazing Girl, but she continues to be a hero anyway. Dr. Evilton lampshades how she's fighting for a bunch of Ungrateful Bastards who will never like or respect her, only for Amazing Girl to retort that she's not fighting for them:
- She has people she cares about, and Dr. Evilton is putting them in danger.
- Amazing Girl is a Heroic Neutral, and if Dr. Evilton keeps attacking the city Amazing Girl lives in and spreading chaos everywhere, then Amazing Girl is going to keep fighting Evilton because she prefers living in a modern society with easy access to clean water, electricity, and a WiFi connection, thank you very much.
- She doesn't give a shit about what any of those idiots think, she's doing this because she wants to!
- Averted:
- Amazing Girl has her detractors, but she also has plenty of admirers; there's a roughly even mix depending on the circumstances.
- The citizens don't care too much about Amazing Girl.
- Enforced: "It's boring to have a superhero who everyone likes! We need to have loads of people hate our superhero to avoid this!"
- Lampshaded: "No matter what I do, it seems like I can never please these people."
- Invoked: Amazing Girl is shy and would feel undeserving of any admiration the population might shower upon her, so she makes herself appear flawed and unlikeable despite all the good she does, earning herself many enemies.
- Defied: "Seriously, let's give Amazing Girl a chance before we all start whaling on her."
- Exploited:
- Dr. Evilton uses the public's distrust of Amazing Girl as the start of an attack on her self-esteem.
- Alternatively, the public were Entitled Bastards making sure that Amazing Girl gets stressed out on earning their respect.
- Implied: Amazing Girl mentions how she loves everything in her town, except for the media's portrayal of her.
- Discussed: "All right, it's time for me to start fighting crime!" "I hope people don't start hating you for it, like those ungrateful bastards in that comic book I read!"
- Conversed: "I'm constantly amazed that Amazing Girl doesn't just give up on those hopeless ingrates." "Well, if she did, then there would be no story."
- Deconstructed:
- The lack of respect and suspicion she receives disillusions Amazing Girl, who retires in bitterness. Later, when a major catastrophe hits the city, there's no one around to save the day, and Amazing Girl sees no reason to lift a finger to help the ingrates who previously rejected her so snidely.
- See Exploited 2. This time, Amazing Girl gives up trying to tolerate the public's ungratefulness and leaves the town for good.
- Due to all the abuse that Amazing Girl suffers, she develops trust problems and a great suspicion for others, no matter who she is.
- Amazing Girl performs a heroic feat that finally earns her the town's respect, except this enrages her, and she calls out the town for only respecting her once she's useful to them.
- Reconstructed:
- But she does anyway, because she's a hero and that's what heroes do. Albeit in a Knight in Sour Armor way.
- In a lighter note, the city got a massive slap in the face when Amazing Girl's arch nemesis Doctor Evilton thanks the people for chasing Amazing Girl away. None of the townspeople enjoyed the compliment.
- But Amazing Girl gets advice from one of her supporters that if they don't like you, then you're doing something right. Thus, she returns to her heroism motivated more than ever before because of the citizens' hatred of her.
- After her heroic feat, Amazing Girl orders an apology from the town, and forgives them on the grounds that they genuinely treat people like her with respect.
- Played For Laughs: Amazing Girl saves the town from bandits; the townspeople "thanked her" by beating her to a pulp as the bandits watch with disgust, with one of them commenting "And I thought we're the bad guys."
- Played For Drama:
- The constant shunning and hatred from the ungrateful citizens finally make Amazing Girl snap, and her Start of Darkness begins. Since every one of those bastards in the world treats her like a villain, then let her be the villain.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
- Amazing Girl gets so tired of the citizens mistreating her that when the city is threatened by a hurricane, she snaps and tells them point blank that she won't save them. The citizens are shocked at this, and angrily point out that she's supposed to save them, but Amazing Girl brutally points out how the citizens have given her crap for years no matter how many times she saved their ungrateful asses and that allowing them to die is what they all they deserve. The citizens desperately beg her forgiveness, but Amazing Girl ignores them and watches in delight as they are destroyed by the hurricane.
Oh look, it's the Main Page. Let's treat them like crap!
