Basic Trope: The hero gets called out for acting like a bad guy.
- Straight: Hiro attempts to Shoot A Dog and his teammates, Lance and Yuki object.
- Exaggerated:
- Hiro outright disembowels a litter of puppies, that even the Emperor Evulz calls him out.
- Hiro does a bad thing every single episode and either Lance, Kyoya, Mark, or Yuki calls him out.
- Downplayed:
- Hiro steals a cookie from the cookie jar and gets scolded over it.
- His teammates don't straight-up yell at Hiro for his actions or even act cold with him, but they were a little disappointed in him nonetheless.
- Justified:
- If Hiro hadn't been called out, he would have kept sliding down the slippery slope.
- Up until now, Hiro has been a paragon of justice and humanity, so this act is surprising to his teammates, who can't help but wonder.
- Hiro is a merciless Anti-Hero and/or a Sociopathic Hero, who has no qualms about torturing villains and exacting revenge on their relatives, and both his teammates and the villains are disgusted by his heinous acts.
- Hiro's teammates have every right to point out that what he did was not something a hero should do.
- Inverted:
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame. Hiro does something awful, but rather than be called out for it, someone (Emperor Evulz or The Rival) says "Way to go!" which causes Hiro to regret his actions.
- Emoeror Evulz Pets The Dog, which comes so out of left field that no one can help but point it out. In other words, What the Hell, Villain?
- The Token Evil Teammate scolds the hero for doing good deeds.
- Emperor Evulz scolds the Token Good Teammate or Anti-Villain for doing something good.
- Hiro calls Emperor Evulz out for kicking a puppy.
- Subverted:
- Hiro has a perfectly good justification for what he did, and the one calling him out retracts his complaint.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving.
- The one doing the calling out is revealed to be The Mole, causing the hero to dismiss the callout as psychological warfare.
- Superdickery
- Double Subverted:
- Hiro has a justification for what he did... but after hearing it, the one calling him out still says he shouldn't have done it.
- Villain Has a Point, forcing Hiro to still take the callout seriously regardless of its source.
- Parodied: Hiro Pokes The Poodle, and everyone forms an angry mob over it.
- Zig Zagged:
- Lance, the objector, tends to overreact to the smallest thing; however, when Hiro commits a truly horrible act, he's the only one to call him out. Hiro justifies his actions with I Did What I Had to Do, which Lance agrees with... until pointing out there was another way. Said option was workable, but involved massive risk and could have resulted in Heroic Sacrifice; it's left unanswered whether Hiro's solution was more pragmatic or not.
- Lance calls out Hiro's arbitrarily, so it's impossible to tell whether it's out of moral objection or something else.
- Averted: Hiro does his immoral act and no one complains.
- Lampshaded: "Aw, man! This is gonna be one of those talks where you guys yell at me for needless property damage again, isn't it?"
- Invoked:
- Hiro specifically selects a Lancer who will call him out so as to prevent himself from falling freely to evil.
- Hiro pretends to do something evil to test if Lance has the willpower to call his superiors out on criminal misconduct.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz plans for The Mole to call out Hiro over something at just the right moment to cast doubts and weaken his Heroic Spirit so that the he can take advantage.
- Defied:
- Designated Hero Hiro surrounds himself with yes-men who will not complain about his actions.
- Hiro, before undertaking any Dirty Business, talks with his team about it before going through with it.
- Shut Up, Kirk!
- "How dare you stand there and think that you're in any position to judge me! After all, haven't you done as many questionable things as I have?"
- Before his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Hiro deafens and blinds himself. Partially because he kicks ass better that way, partially because the enemy has weapons that require him to do this to survive them, but also to show everybody in a fashion both literal and symbolic that there is nothing they can tell him that will ever make him change his mind.
- Discussed: "Ugh, Hiro might be "good and all", but you know he's going to slip up and we are not going to let him get away with it then."
- Conversed: "Finally! Someone called out the hero for being a douche."
- Played For Laughs: Hiro was caught jaywalking in the street, and everyone, and even the Big Bad chastised him for it.
- Played For Drama:
- Hiro got into a Heroic BSoD, and got lead to a big Guilt Complex since he did something he was up against. Eventually leading him to a Despair Event Horizon.
- Because Hiro keeps getting called out for what he does, he becomes convinced that he is a Hero with an F in Good. This leads him to give up being a hero and either retire or do a Face–Heel Turn.
What's the big idea, leaving a link back to What the Hell, Hero??
