"For years I've been rushing around, taking whatever I've fancied, not giving a tinker's curse for those I hurt, and here I am! With riches and reputation, feeling no wiser than when I left home. Yet when I turn around and look at the course I've run, there's not a man or woman that I love left standing beside me."
— Edward Kenway, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
For most people, being shunned is practically a death sentence, and like a death sentence, some people bring being shunned onto themselves. Maybe they are such Ungrateful Bastards that people stop helping them. They may be the Black Sheep of their family whose reputation amongst their family is well deserved, and if they are especially horrible they might end up being disowned. They might be so known for being Fair Weather Friends, that no one is willing to put their trust in them. Regardless of the reason, the character's shunning is a product of their own actions.
A recipient of Karmic Shunning might be a popular person who ends up losing their popularity for some reason, such as a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing whose true nature ends up being exposed for all to see. A villain or jerk who has people who care for them might lose their loved ones by mistreating them too much. An unpopular person who mistreats what few friends they have could find themselves completely alone.
What the characters do after this can vary; they might try to rebuild their broken ties either out of guilt for what they did or convenience, which the other parties may or may not accept. They might decide to atone for what they did either in the hopes that their loved ones forgive them, or out of a simple desire to make up for what they did. The least sympathetic examples might insist they did nothing wrong or attempt to enact revenge on their former loved ones for abandoning them.
Compare Silent Treatment and Persona Non Grata. Can overlap with Broken Pedestal, 0% Approval Rating, Not Worth Killing, Dying Alone, Hated by All, and Pariah State. May be preceded by being Shamed by a Mob. Often the punishment of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing or a Villain with Good Publicity. Often a reason why Being Evil Sucks. If it deals with a parent-child relationship, then it may overlap with I Have No Son! or Disowned Parent. Contrast All of the Other Reindeer, Hero with Bad Publicity, and The Scapegoat who are usually hated/shunned unfairly.
Note: Since this trope typically happens at the end of a story, all spoilers will be unmarked.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dandadan: Resident Alpha Bitch Aira Shiratori decides to make Momo Ayase's life a living hell in school (after Momo ended up smacking her with a metal tub in retaliation for making fun of Okarun) by spreading a false rumor of her being a slut. After Momo and Okarun save her from Acrobatic Silky accidentally killing her, Aira has a big chance to make Momo's life even worse when her classmates are convinced that Momo is dangerous, but the moment they begin to think about essentially publicly shaming Momo, Aira becomes increasingly worried about her lies having gone too far and reveals the whole truth about the rumors. After this is said and done, Aira manages to keep Momo safe, at the expense of being shunned by everyone in school and losing her previous friends for her harsh Slut-Shaming.
- My Hero Academia:
- Endeavor by the series end. He already drove his wife insane and into a mental hospital. His reputation as a pro hero is ruined after Dabi’s Calling the Old Man Out video was aired publicly and though the family has dinner together, the other kids really don’t want to be around him either. Natsuo in particular plans to marry his girlfriend and start a family but doesn’t want anymore contact with his father. He and Fuyumi escaped his Training from Hell but know what their siblings endured and suffered themselves from Endeavor pretty much acting like they didn’t exist while focusing on training Shoto. Fuyumi is the only forgiving one of the group. Shoto is rather neutral, accepting but not ready to forgive. Toya, or Dabi as he’s now known, also knew what went on despite almost dying and letting them think he was dead while living with the League of Villains. He barely survived his battle against his father, dying later on, and ends up regretting hurting Shoto but not his hatred for Endeavor.
- Bakugo to a far lesser extent at the series end. His popularity is affected by his continuing to yell at people he’s supposed to be saving and Aizawa calls him on it.
- The Summer You Were There: Zigzagged. In elementary school, Shizuku Hoshikawa took it upon herself to help her classmate Ruri Ichinose, a girl who often missed class and fell behind, but her abrasive personality ended up causing her to make backhanded remarks, such as telling Ruri to not worry about being "slow", and eventually escalated to verbal abuse. After Shizuku pushed Ruri from behind while the latter was carrying curry, Ruri's best friend Seri slapped Shizuku and called her out on her bullying, resulting in the formerly popular Shizuku becoming a pariah. That being said, while some of Shizuku's schoolmates ostracized her, Shizuku herself also avoided others, afraid that she would hurt them. Shizuku's family continued to care for her, but Shizuku was unsure if they would hate her if they found out what she had done (although she mentions her mother apologizing to Ruri's mother on her behalf, so perhaps Mrs. Hoshikawa did know). It later turns out that Kaori Asaka, who went to the same elementary school as Ruri and Shizuku, was aware of what Shizuku had done the entire time and loved her anyway despite not downplaying what Shizuku had done. Shizuku, with Kaori's help, apologizes to Ruri, who initially wants nothing to do with her but later becomes open to starting over as acquaintances.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Prior to the events of the series, Yusei, Jack, and Crow were part of a duel gang called the Enforcers (Team Satisfaction in the original), with their leader being a man named Kalin Kessler (Kyosuke Kiryu). Their original goal was to stop all other duel gangs in Satellite by clearing region by region. However, by the time they achieved the goal, Kalin had turned into a Blood Knight looking for fights against anyone, including visibly younger kids. This led to Jack and Crow leaving the crew, while Yusei stayed hoping to keep Kalin in line. However, even that failed when Kalin went fully Ax-Crazy declaring that they must now drive the worst criminals of them all, aka the Police. At this point, even Yusei leaves him to inform the others what Kalin is up to. They come together one last time only for the three to tell Kalin to drop it. Unfortunately for all involved, the meeting is interrupted by a police raid which culminates with Kalin killing a police officer, sending him to prison, and Kalin dies in custody. Yusei still feels guilty for the event even though the others try to tell him that what happened to Kalin wasn't his fault.
Comic Books
- The Avengers: A version where the shunning is down by one person against a group occurs in the infamous Annual #10, Chris Claremont's response to the loathed Avengers #200 where Carol Danvers was brainwashed, raped, and impregnated by Marcus Kang before simply leaving in his arms as her friends and teammates bid her goodbye. After escaping Marcus's home dimension following his death, Carol gets attacked and left comatose by Rogue (who at the time was part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants). She's saved from drowning by Spider-Woman, who contacts Professor X and the X-Men to restore Carol's mind. Several months later, the Avengers find out Carol's with the X-Men. After initially being cordial to them, Carol snaps at the mention of her "relationship" with Marcus and reams her former teammates for accepting everything a self-admitted rapist told them at face value. She then confesses she had no plans to ever see the Avengers again because of how badly they betrayed her. Though Carol does eventually reconcile with the Avengers, it wouldn't be for several years.
- Secret Invasion (2008): In the aftermath shown in Avengers: The Initiative, former Avenger 3-D Man quits the Initiative and leaves Camp Hammond after shooting Crusader in the head. While he defends his actions stating Crusader was a Skrull, it's been shown that Crusader was also a Defector from Decadence who actively helped the heroes fight against the invasion and he was shot right after the battle ended. The rest of the heroes in the Initiative all make it clear that they're pissed off at 3-D Man for remorselessly killing their friend and he's not welcome among them anymore.
Fan Works
- Bitter Tears: An Anon-A-Miss Fic: After Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo reveal the truth that they were the ones behind Anon-A-Miss, frame Sunset for it, and spread everyone's secrets all over the school, their older sisters are furious with them and the entirety of Canterlot High turns against them, to the point where they get graffiti written on their lockers and assaulted in the hallways. They don't tell their sisters about the harassment because they feel they deserve what they're getting.
- Bridges Burned (Mama Always Told Me That I Should Play Nice. But She Never Met You): This goes both ways: Marinette's Fair-Weather Friends turn against her, with Alya loudly announcing that nobody in their class considers her to be their friend anymore. In response, Marinette reveals that she has a LOT of big-name connections, including people like Lois Lane, Cat Grant and Tony Stark and real-life celebrities like Tony Hawk and J.J. Abrams. Many of these people visit Paris and make a point of ignoring her classmates while making arrangements for her other friends to benefit from their presence, such as Lois offering Aurore an internship at the Daily Planet in front of Alya.
- A Cry in the Park👁 Image
: After Logan Bush pushes Louise into an empty well, him and his mother Cynthia become social pariahs. The irony being that the two brought it on themselves by Cynthia having Logan appear on the news to offer an empty apology, and so she could shift the blame onto park officials for not covering the well or filling it up. After the two start getting harassed around town, Bob points out to an irate Cynthia that she's the one who told everyone what Logan did so she has no right to blame the Belchers. Logan and Cynthia really don't help their case by their refusal to take any responsibility for Louise almost dying and the months she spent needing surgeries and physical therapy for her injuries. By the time Logan's found guilty of assault and put in jail for five years, all of his friends have turned their backs on him (and so have Cynthia's). The last chapter Time Skip reveals the Bushes left town after Logan was released from prison and no one knows where they fled.- A side fic with deleted chapters better focuses on Cynthia's shunning when her friends tear into her for how often she's enabled Logan's behavior (which includes bullying their own children) and their disgust over her refusal to feel any remorse at all for Louise. In the fic proper, only a couple of them started talking to her again.
- CONSEQUENCES (Miraculous Ladybug): Many of the stories have Lila suffering this after her true nature is exposed to everyone, as her "friends" turn their back upon their False Friend, her mother decries and potentially disowns her, and Hawkmoth decides that she's no longer useful to him.
- Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod: This happens to Iori in Chapter 4, after he caused three deaths (personally killing Shouko and convincing Mayu to hang herself, resulting in Nanae's execution after she tried to intervene) in the previous chapter and tricked Ukyo into failing the Daruma Game, forcing him to cut his own arm off to survive the resulting poison. The rest of the students throw him into a sensory room and lock him in there as they discuss further plans on what to do with him.
- Elements of Justice: A Hollow Diamond: Diamond Tiara's actions end with her Hated by All in Ponyville and she's forced to be shipped to a boarding school in Canterlot in the hopes of properly teaching her to be a good filly. The actions also ruined her parents' reputations since no one in their community wants to befriend the parents of a petty thief and ableist, which also means socialites like the Oranges (who happen to be related to Applejack's family) shun them as well.
- For His Own Sake: The Hinata girls gradually end up pushing away their friends, family, and other loved ones as a result of their childish, self-centered, violent, and responsibility-dodging behaviors. With the exception of Naru, they end up undergoing a Heel Realization.
- Kaolla Su ends up getting arrested for injuring several people with her Mecha-Tamas, in addition to owning illegal technology that includes mind-control devices and nuclear weapons. As a result, the kingdom of Molmol, in order to maintain good relations with Japan, decides to disown Su.
- Sarah's bratty behavior results in her getting sent to a strict boarding school by Seta. Sarah disowns Seta as a father, thinking that the Hina girls will rescue her. Once she learns that they can't help her, she begs for Seta to take her back, only for Haruka to remind Sarah that she disowned him.
- Naru loses her boyfriend Keitaro because of her abuse, is isolated by her own friends for her violent behavior, and disowns her own family out of pride. By the end of the story, Naru ends up having nobody in her life, as all of the people she harmed and cut ties with want nothing to do with her no matter how much she tries to cross the bridges she'd burned. It hardly helps that she acts entitled to their forgiveness, throwing a fit when they refuse to take her back.
- Holiday Outrage👁 Image
: Human Twilight learns about how, one year ago, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo framed Sunset for cyberbullying out of jealousy, only confessing when her subsequent shunning got out of hand. Sunset relates that, following the incident, the CMC were shunned even worse than she was; they were slapped with a two-week suspension from school, got disciplined at home, had criminal records made of them, and had their phones bugged by the police until they turn eighteen. Their reputation at school got so bad that they eventually got attacked in the girls' bathroom, prompting Sunset, Celestia, and Luna to hold an assembly urging the student body to forgive them. Celestia told Sunset that she had the right to press charges and even sue them, but she decided against it, saying that they'd suffered enough. - Downplayed in Maybe Then He'll Chill Again👁 Image
. While all the Vees are terrible people, the reason Vox cut his friends out of his afterlife is much more morally gray. Velvette and Valentino understandably believe Vox was showing signs of suicide after the events of Season 2 and on how chillingly calm he's been acting ever since. Because Hell doesn't have a lot of therapists, they decided to drop him off at the Hazbin Hotel. It wasn't until they decided to make a documentary series on Vox's redemption is when Vox's patience wears thin. After a few days, Vox sees a commercial on it and angrily calls them. It ends with Vox dumping Val as his boyfriend and disowned Velvette as his friend, and declares he will make a legitimate effort to redeem himself and go to Heaven just to spite them. Later, Val and Velvette come by to apologize and take Vox home, he tells them he was serious and orders them to leave. - Karmic Backlash: Part of Marinette's own karma backfiring on her is the entirety of Paris turning on her overnight once Adrien's true role in the final fight with Hawk Moth is revealed and how she and her allies did nothing to save Adrien from this fate back in The Karma of Lies. It only gets worse when Lila manages to record footage of Marinette's own creepy behaviour towards Adrien and by the end, even the Miraculous Temple and the rest of the Kwami are giving her the cold shoulder.
- King Nothing👁 Image
: When Justin wins the million-dollar prize at the end of Total Drama Action by manipulating and backstabbing his way through the game, he becomes Hated by All. The other contestants loathe him, he loses all his popularity at school, and his family is disappointed in him. Even after graduating, his reputation is so bad that he can't get any modeling or acting jobs, and no girl wants to date him. He falls into depression and alcoholism, losing his good looks and his money. Finally, he's reduced to working as a janitor at a crappy bar. - Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: This is part of Adrien's Laser-Guided Karma in A Price to Pay; he betrayed Paris and helped Hawkmoth make his Wish because he believed that the very fact reality would be rewritten would ensure that nobody'd ever learn what he'd done, and that he could force Marinette into a relationship now that he knew she was Ladybug. The Wish claims its due by killing Tom Dupain-Cheng off in a car accident...that Gabriel causes. While he bribes his way to victory in court, he's still Convicted by Public Opinion, Emilie divorces him in disgust, and Adrien (whom Emilie also disowns) is condemned for defending his father and insisting he hadn't done anything wrong.
- Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!): Alya leads most of her classmates in calling Marinette out on how much she's supposedly changed, booting her out as their class rep and breaking off their friendship. Their plan to turn their former "everyday Ladybug" into a social pariah then gets flipped against them when Adrien reveals that he's Neutral No Longer, as he and Chloé start using their respective families' wealth and connections to arrange all manner of exciting activities that the rest of the class finds themselves being excluded from... since after all, they only want their friends around.
- One Step Ahead: The entire fanfic is basically Bloo suffering from this; unlike in canon, where Bloo was Easily Forgiven and suffered no long-term consequences for his actions, Bloo ends up being permanently shunned by the other residents of Foster's for the cruel prank he orchestrated in "I Only Have Surprise For You". The same incident also spurred Mac to stop visiting Foster's, cutting Bloo and the rest of the residents out of his life. Bloo makes matters worse for himself by refusing to accept any responsibility, claiming that Mac is just being a baby who should get over what happened.
- Rate this (Trust is Hard to Come By): Alya and the rest of Marinette's Fair-Weather Friends turned their collective back upon her thanks to Lila, while Miss Bustier stood by and let their cruelty go unchallenged thanks to her belief that School Bullying Is Harmless. After an akuma's power reveals that Ladybug doesn't trust any of them anymore, they find themselves being shunned by the rest of the school.
- Synépeies - A Collection Of NTR Consequences: One of the many ways the story deconstructs the netorare genre is by having the cheating woman become a pariah for heartlessly cheating on the protagonist, with her being disowned by her friends, parents, and children. In addition, unlike the original stories where the protagonist remains devoted to her even after cheating on him, here, he manages to develop the courage to cut her out of his life, leaving her to regret having thrown away a good relationship for simple pleasure.
- Their Lament: Lila manipulated her classmates into thinking Marinette was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, to the point that Alya only invited her former bestie to hang out to try and trick her into spending time with Lila, blaming her for all the 'drama' and tension. In the new world created by Adrien's accidental Wish, Lila got exposed as a Con Artist after having Alya promote Fake Charity drives on her liveblog, spurring all of her classmates to turn against her. She finds herself Eating Lunch Alone, Trying Not to Cry.
- Why Am I Crying?: Apple Bloom reads Diamond Tiara's diary and learns what happened to her after the time she blackmailed her friends into writing slanderous "Gabby Gums" articles while editor of the Foal Free Press. Besides being demoted to janitor, Rarity banned her from her store and she lost her job babysitting Mr. & Mrs. Joyous' foal.
- Yeah, I'm Done: Marinette's classmates get her successfully banned from participating in any school activities... while she's still their Class President. Meaning that she's the one organizing all of these things, since Miss Bustier shunts those responsibilities off upon her, yet isn't allowed to enjoy any of her own handiwork. Unsurprisingly, the story proper opens right after she's stepped down and let Alya take over the role, and she refuses to assist any further.
Films — Animated
- Balto: Steele is a literal Glory Hound who goes as far as sabotaging his own sled dog team, now led by Balto, from delivering crucial DAT serum to save the lives of children just to deny Balto from stealing his fame. He then heads back to Nome, Alaska, and falsely portrays himself as the Sole Survivor of his team just to earn sympathy and support from the dogs. This all bites him in the ass when Balto's team successfully arrives with the medicine in time, exposing Steele's story as a lie to the other dogs. Not only does Balto get the fame and recognition that Steele coveted, but Steele is abandoned by his former fans and is shunned as an outcast for his misdeeds, doomed to be forgotten in the history books.
- Coco: Ernesto De La Cruz spent most of his life in the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead as a beloved celebrity and thus was able to live both lives in luxury. This is despite the fact that he did nothing to deserve it, as he killed his best friend Héctor to take credit for his songs. He was even willing to murder Miguel when he found out the truth. Thankfully, Miguel bounces back, and, with the help of his family, he's able to expose the truth about Ernesto, completely ruining his reputation. To top it off, the Land of the Living eventually finds out the truth as well, which means that Ernesto will be shunned by both realms until he is eventually forgotten completely.
- Luca: This is heavily implied to be Ercole's ultimate fate at the end after everyone sees him try to kill the title sea monster and his friend Alberto in public and is tossed into the fountain by his former cronies.
- Ringing Bell: At the end of the film, after successfully killing the evil wolf that killed his mother while still a lamb, due to Chirin, in order to kill said wolf by literally becoming his apprentice, he ultimately becomes a hideous ram upon adulthood. His former flock shuns him the moment he finally kills the wolf.
- The Simpsons Movie: After Homer refuses to help save Springfield from its impending destruction, Marge finally gives up on their marriage, taking the kids to help their friends and abandoning Homer in Alaska. Fortunately, with the help of a busty Inuit, he has an epiphany and makes amends.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: The Kingpin built his supercollider for the purpose of reuniting with his dead wife and son by finding alternate versions that are still alive. During the final battle with the Spider-Persons, he unleashes his fury on Miles Morales in the middle of a subway train. The alternate version of his wife sees her typically peaceful and loving husband raging out in anger and pulls her son back to get away from him.
- Wish Dragon: Long, the titular wish dragon, reveals to Din that he was cursed by the gods to fulfill the wishes of ten different masters before being allowed into the afterlife. Long reveals that hundreds of years before, he was a nobleman whose main goal was the consolidation of wealth and power. He sent his son to war to fight in his name and was killed in battle, and after he married off his daughter to another powerful lord, she never again spoke to him for as long as he lived due to his actions.
Films — Live-Action
- 12 Angry Men: A jury of twelve men debate the guilt of a young man accused of stabbing his father. At the start of deliberations, only one man believes there is a reasonable doubt; as the deliberations go on, he manages to convince all but three members of the jury: a well-educated and rational but misguided man, a jaded father who sees his estranged son in the defendant, and a bigot who can't see past the defendant's race. The latter of these three goes on an impassioned rant begging his fellow jurors to convict either way, since they'll be taking one of "those people" off the streets. As more and more bile spews forth, the other jurors, one by one, turn away from him, even including the two who are on his side.
- Cyberbu//y (2011): After people discover that it was Sam behind the James profile cyberbullying and spreading rumors about her own best friend Taylor — causing severe Slut-Shaming and nearly leading to suicide — the kids at school stopped bullying Taylor and started bullying Sam instead. Taylor was horrified by this, telling Sam that nobody deserves to go through such bad harassment, and this leads to the two making amends.
- The Godfather: In Part II of the trilogy, Michael Corleone starts to alienate his family as he becomes increasingly ruthless and cold-hearted. After years of being unhappy at seeing Michael diving deeper into the criminal world instead of trying to leave it, as he promised hern and exposing their children to it, his wife Kay leaves him and reveal that she aborted their third baby to prevent him from being exposed to Michael's criminal world. He also alienates his adopted brother Tom Hagen with his ruthlessness and growing ingratitude and unappreciation of him. And when he gets the chance to forgive Fredo, he can't let go of his anger towards his brother and has him murdered, which will strain his relation with his son Anthony. At the end of the movie, Michael is sitting alone and miserable on a chair, realizing that instead of protecting his family, he has instead alienated it.
- Lord of War: After the death of his brother led to his secret life as an Arms Dealer being revealed, Yuri Orlov ends up disowned by his parents while his wife, the model he lusted after in his youth, finally leaves him, taking their son with her.
- Sydney White: Sydney runs for student body president against current president and Kappa Phi Nu sorority head Rachel Witchburn, known for her cruelty toward her Kappa sisters. Sydney takes a stand against elitism, wins the debate with Rachel, and is elected president, while Rachel is stripped of her Kappa title by her sisters for lying and cheating during the election, and as payback for her cruelty toward them and the rest of the students at the university.
Literature
- Sherlock Holmes: The Crooked Man: The final moments of Col. Barclay consisted of his wife screaming her contempt for him, as she'd learned that Barclay had pulled a Uriah Gambit on her fiancé years ago to marry her, then seeing said fiancé after years of torture and starvation, triggering a heart attack.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: By mid-season 2, Londo Mollari has engineered events that have led to the destruction of two Narn colonies and started a war between the Narn Regime and Centauri Republic. While his role has brought many admirers and hangers-on from the Centauri, he finds that those he actually considers friends are keeping their distance. It comes to a point when he approaches Mr. Garibaldi to invite him for a drink, only for Garibaldi to act borderline hostile. He does eventually agree to one, but hours later as the bar closes, Londo is alone at a table still waiting. Later, after Londo defuses a potential diplomatic bomb, and saves Garibaldi a lot of headaches, he does come to join him for a drink, but the moment is bittersweet as they each realize this is probably the last time they will be able to consider each other a friend.
Londo: It is good to have friends, is it not Mr. Garibaldi, even if only for a little while?
Garibaldi: Even if only for a little while. - Black Mirror: In "White Christmas", the Home Office makes a deal with sex offender Matt. After getting another man to confess to his own crime, Matt is released but the office places him on the Sex Offenders' Register. This means that he is blocked by everyone in the country, unable to see them, and visible to them just as a silhouette (red instead of grey for typical blocked people, for added Mark of Shame points) for the rest of his life. People are seen reacting with predictable fear and disgust as he walks among them.
- Breaking Bad: Walt spends almost the entire series building up his drug empire as the infamous Heisenberg, all to the unwittingness of his family. When his actions come to light, and his brother-in-law is murdered trying to turn him in, the entire family turns on Walt and effectively disowns him.
- Gunsmoke: The episode "Coventry" features a man who murdered another man who stood up to him; he had also refused to help his victim's wife when she fell from a wagon, which caused her to miscarry her baby. The judge reluctantly acquits him due to a lack of evidence of the murder, and the man gloats about it. The next day, though, everyone in town turns their backs on him, refusing to talk to him; even those most willing to drink don't bother answering him when he offers drinks on the house. Eventually, he leaves Dodge City in a huff and hurts himself, and even two drifters who help him get to his feet don't talk to him. And soon after that, he's killed by a tree branch falling on his head.
- Haven: Nathan becomes the town's pariah in seasons 4 and 5 after he disrupts Audrey's Heroic Sacrifice to end the Troubles because Love Makes You Dumb. The Troubles don't go away, they start getting worse, and the townsfolk, dying daily from their effects, turn on him. In season 4, one man subconsciously hates Nathan so much that his Trouble ends up targeting him personally; in season 5, Nathan is put on trial by the town and very nearly executed via vigilante justice.
- House of Anubis: Toward the end of season 2, Joy found herself in a constant state of controversy and losing her friends. After bullying Nina with an attack article, stealing Mara's blogging alias to do so, taking credit for the stuff Mara did write, and doubling down on it when called out, her friends began to turn on her. She got called out in class, gossiped about while she wasn't in the room, and had dialed up her bad attitude in response. The only person who still wanted to be her friend was Patricia, but Patricia was rejected after she'd defended Nina and Mara to Joy. Luckily for Joy, this wasn't permanent, as Fabian sought out her help saving Nina and getting the Mask of Anubis; she was able to rebuild her relationship with everyone and went back to normal after feeling accepted again.
- Jessica Jones (2015): "AKA Everything" sees Jeri Hogarth being dumped by Kith, sickened by Jeri's manoeuvers to break her open marriage with her husband and having understood how fundamentally manipulative Jeri is.
- Season 2 of Kevin Can F**k Himself sees Kevin's closest friends and family one by one realize how much of a toxic person he is, something that the main character Allison, Kevin's wife, always knew. By the time of the Series Finale, everyone in Kevin's circle has now fully abandoned him, and Kevin has a Villainous Breakdown when Allison returns from her faked death to announce she intends to properly leave him with by going through divorce proceedings.
I know, you don't want to die alone. But you're going to.
- The Outer Limits (1995): In the episode "Bits of Love", Aiden is the Sole Survivor of a nuclear war living in an underground bunker with holographic recreations of his loved ones. He decides to hook up with Emma, the artificial intelligence controlling the bunker's systems, then dumps her afterwards. She tries to get him to take her back, then rebels and shuts him out of the system entirely when he tries to delete her, creating a copy of Aiden and building a new holographic society without him. Aiden is forced to spend the rest of his life in isolation while the holograms ignore him.
- The Shield: In the final season, Vic Mackey is able to get immunity for all his crimes and land a job at ICE for 3 years. But this comes at the cost of his family going into witness protection to avoid him, him selling out his last friend/Strike Team member Ronnie, and angering the ICE contact who brokered the deal so much she'll do anything to void it. Even if he somehow finishes out the 3-year deal with no problems, he has no further prospects in law enforcement (the only career he knows).
- Snowfall: In the final season, Franklin Saint's disastrous campaign to recoup his lost money, which entails countless serious crimes, alienates nearly every single person in his life, including his wife, his mother, and his best friend, and by the end of the series, he's left penniless and reclusive, holed up in his mother's old house, which has been condemned. The series ends with the cops moving in to evict him.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Business As Usual," Quark is down on this luck and goes into business with his cousin Gaila and their partner Hagath selling arms. While his finances improve, Quark is arrested. Quark is freed because Hagath has pull with the Bajoran government (he sold arms to the precursor Bajoran Resistance for a bargain) and Quark doesn't sell arms at the station — he just gives demos in his hole-suites. While clear of the law, the crew of DS9 shun Quark and Federation officers avoid his bar.
- Supernatural: In the Grand Finale, Chuck loses his powers to Jack and becomes fully human as a result. He starts ranting about what an honor it would be to be killed by Dean Winchester and waits for the inevitable Coup de Grâce... only for Dean and Sam to tell him he will simply die of old age and then drive away. Since Chuck was always looking for a satisfying ending to the Winchester story, leaving him with a deeply unsatisfying Anti-Climax is the most fitting form of punishment they can give him.
- Ted Lasso: After years of getting away with being a charming Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, Rupert Mannion suffers a Villainous Breakdown over the course of Season 3. First he gets shunned by his head manager Nate for being a Manipulative Bastard, then by his current wife after discovering his mistress, then by the mistress, who files for workplace harassment. Finally, he pushes his new head manager George to the ground on live TV at the final West Ham vs Richmond match because George wouldn't take out Jamie Tartt, causing his beloved childhood football club to boo and insult him off the field. A newspaper later reveals he has been fired from his position as owner at West Ham.
- The Twilight Zone (1985): "To See the Invisible Man" takes place in a dystopian society that takes shunning-as-punishment to its logical extreme. For antisocial behavior, the protagonist is sentenced to "invisibility" — for a year, everyone around him must completely ignore him under the threat of being subjected to the same punishment.
- The Wire: By the end of the series, Marlo Stanfield is able to retire as a drug kingpin with enough liquid to reinvent himself as a businessman as his lawyer Maurice Levy introduces him to the upper tiers of Baltimore, but Marlo finds himself to be a fish out of water. He goes outside to find some corner boys to fight, who don't even know who he is. With his old associates either dead or in prison and the New Day Co-Op gangsters running the show without him, Marlo is practically a ghost.
Tabletop Games
- Pathfinder: Downplayed with Minderhal, one of the stone giant deities; when the giant race was enslaved by the Thassilonian Empire, Minderhal and his priests encouraged the stone giants to accept their enslavement as a means of spreading his religion to humans. Because of this, the vast majority of stone giants hate Minderhal and refuse to worship him, though there are some evil giant tribes where he is still the primary deity, and he did succeed in gaining a few human followers, but his worship overall has declined from what it once was.
Theatre
- Macbeth: As Macbeth's paranoia grows, so does he become more isolated, as his wife commits suicide out of guilt and his generals realize that he's pulled them into a civil war where he has no idea what he's doing.
Angus: Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love.
Video Games
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: Edward Kenway came to the Caribbean dreaming of acquiring wealth and land for him and his family to settle with, and so shacked up with a number of likeminded peoplenote Including Charles Vane, Ned Teach/Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, Ben Hornigold, and James Kidd who tried to set up a free Republic of Nassau where they could live free and accrue wealth to their hearts' content. However, even though he acquires all of this over the course of the game, Kenway is only after even more, and his neverending quest for the next big score alienates the people around him, his dearest companions included, who are disgusted with his greed. Eventually, he is so thoroughly broken from his experiences and his losses that he finally starts to better himself as a person and acts selflessly instead of out of a desire for personal gain, and only then does he finally start to win back some of the friends he'd lost.
- Fire Emblem Engage: Once upon a time, Lord Sombron had everything that a Fell Dragon could ever want: children and henchmen who would do anything for him and even an entire country at his command, one whose people worshipped him as their god. Despite this, Sombron was never satisfied with what he already had, and always sought more. This made him completely disregard those closest to him, as he is a Bad Boss and an Abusive Father who not only treats them like slaves but is quick to kill them if something goes wrong. As for the Elusians, the country who worshipped him, he killed thousands of their people and turned them all into zombies, including their king. Even after all of this, people like Zephia and Veyle still wanted to form bonds with Sombron. However, near the end of the game, just about everyone realizes what a horrible person Sombron is, and they all turn their back on him. The Elusians stop worshipping him and aid in the battle against him, and all of his children and minions betray him in one way or another. Sombron doesn't mind this, though, since he hates them all back. The real karma comes when it's revealed that he did all of this solely to be with his missing companion, the Emblem of Foundations, because, deep down, he's secretly lonely. Before the final battle, Alear and Veyle call him out on this, saying that there were plenty of opportunities for friendship right in front of his face, yet he just actively chose to disregard all of them. Sombron believes that he is finally united with the Emblem in his dying moments, but by then, it's already too late, and it's quite clear that he will be all by his lonesome in the afterlife, dying with nobody by his side.
- Genshin Impact: In the first two acts of Fontaine's Archon quests, it is discovered that somebody has been kidnapping women. It's revealed to be a man named Vacher who has been using Primordial Water to dissolve them in an effort to bring back his loved one Vigniere. After he is exposed, he finds out from the traveler of a way to see her again and begs the Traveler to let him. When he does though he finds out that she has grown to despise him for his actions and that she has merged with the souls of all the women he killed, and they drown his soul in vengeance.
- Pokémon X and Y: It is revealed that AZ lost his Floette to a war. He made a machine that would resurrect her. Though he had gotten her back, he was enraged at the cruel world that had taken her, so he used this machine to end the war. Floette was horrified by how he had taken so many lives and then abandoned him. Since then, he has become immortal and is forced to go it alone for all eternity. Floette does eventually return to him in the end when the player restores his faith in humanity.
- Shovel Knight: At the end of King Knight's campaign, King Knight betrays all of his good allies to join the Enchantress's side for the title of king, enabling her to begin terrorizing the realm in the process. Even as King Knight starts decorating the castle he usurped and starts inviting people to his feasts, none of his old allies or even his current ones in the Order of No Quarter bother visiting him, having been deeply hurt by his betrayal, on top of having to tend to their own lives under the danger that the Enchantress brought. Even his own mother decides to bid him farewell, disappointed in her own son, which personally hurts King Knight the most.
- Skully: The moment Terry the Earth Elemental betrays his siblings by sealing all three of them in his magic jar leads to the titular player character — supposedly Terry's Only Friend — severing ties with him.
Terry: At least I've got you, Skully. Come on.
(Skully shakes its head)
Terry: I said come on! Let's go!
(Skully quietly slinks into a clay pool and starts turning into a Strong Golem, making a move at Terry in a threatening manner)
Terry: You... you think I'm the bad guy here? I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS! FINE!
Web Animation
- Etra chan saw it!:
- Akane👁 Image
selfishly abandoned her husband Kuroki and child Tsutsuji for another man, leaving a letter to her family telling them that she wants nothing to do with them anymore. A year later, Akane returns, having broken up with her old boyfriend, and asking Karin to help her contact with Kuroki, having been disowned by both her biological parents and in-laws and having to stay at a manga cafe. However, not only does Karin refuse to tell Akane where Kuroki went, she also informs Akane that Kuroki has found a new wife and that he and Tsutsuji want nothing to do with the woman who abandoned them. - Tachibana👁 Image
cheats on his fiancee Yuri with Yuri's sister Akane, who has gotten pregnant with Tachibana's baby. Yuri and Akane's parents decide to switch Yuri with Akane, which causes Yuri and her younger brother Katsura to disown them. During the wedding, Tachibana's mom slaps Tachibana and Akane for what they did, and most of the wedding guests leave when they see that Yuri was replaced, with the few that stayed also leaving when they learn why. Tachibana, Akane, and her parents get disowned by the rest of their relatives and friends and are neighborhood laughingstocks, with Tachibana even having to quit his job due to his coworkers hating him. Even worse, because the company had several connections, Tachibana can't find another job. - Akamatsu👁 Image
divorces his wife Karin and abandons his daughter Tsutsuji because the woman he cheated with, Akane (who is also Karin's sister), is pregnant with a boy. Despite how horrible their actions were, they have the audacity to ask Karin and Tsutsuji to attend their wedding, which they refuse. During the day of the wedding, literally no one who was invited came, as everyone they invited knew about the circumstances of their marriage, and no one wanted to celebrate the birth of their son either. Even Akamatsu's parents hate him, with his father leaving behind all of his assets to Tsutsuji, and his mother disowning him when he tries to confront her about the inheritance.
- Akane👁 Image
- "RWBY": Raven Branwen, Yang's biological mother, alienates her family and former teammates with her aloof, hypocritical, selfish and unpleasant attitude and her cowardly and despicable actions in order to save her own skin from Salem. When Yang finally reunites with Raven years after Raven's departure, Raven's insincere and condescending attitude, and refusal to admit her responsibility and faults in her abandonment of Yang and lack of presence in her daughter's life, trying to shift the blame on Yang instead, causes Yang to reject her mother's hospitality and attempts to convince her to stay with her. At the end of Volume 5 after having sold her brother Qrow, Yang, Ruby and their friends into a trap in order to save her own skin, Raven is disavowed by Qrow as his sister, she ends up losing her right-hand Vernal due to her having made her a decoy for her as the Spring Maiden, and Yang brutally verbally tears her and her Façade of Strength apart, causing her to flee in tears and in shame, alone and miserable.
- SparkTales: The antagonists will always end up taking a serious hit to their reputation and become complete pariahs once they're punished for their misdeeds.
Web Videos
- Apple Texts: Pretty much every episode ends with the antagonist(s) ending up with most, if not all, of their friends, family, connections, coworkers, etc. pretty much wanting nothing with them because of their various horrible actions, which can include adultery, child abuse, spousal abuse, bullying, embezzlement, abandoning their family, sexual harassment, property damage, elitism, and stealing, to name a few.
Western Animation
- Arthur: In "Buster's New Friend", Buster starts spending all of his time with someone named Mike—to the point of ignoring his other responsibilities and friendships. The kids decide to pull this trope on him with the silent treatment, with Francine lampshading that it's a "pretty harsh" punishment. Unfortunately, Buster is so enraptured with Mike that he fails to notice that they're ignoring him. By the end of the episode, though, everything is resolved—it turns out that Mike is part of a Big Brother-Big Sister program that Buster's mother signed him up for, and Buster apologizes to Arthur (and, it's implied, everyone else) for being a bad friend.
- BoJack Horseman: In the last season, all of Bojack's bad behavior from the previous five seasons comes back to haunt him, as he is investigated for Sarah Lynn's death, leading to the revelation that he had the opportunity to call for help when she overdosed but procrastinated while trying to figure out how to spin the incident to the cops. In the aftermath, he is abandoned by all of his friends and shunned by most of Hollywood. He bounces back from this by the end of the series to a degree, as Todd, Princess Carolyn, and Mr. Peanutbutter all allow him back into their lives (albeit with extreme caution and at arm's length, save for Peanutbutter who goes as far as letting Bojack live with him) and while in prison he began to make steps towards getting his acting career running back up restoring part of his tarnished reputation, however Diane still leaves him for good so he won't continue being a bad influence on her well-being and all the other burnt bridges aren't fixed.
- Code Lyoko: Ulrich gets a dose of this in "The Chips Are Down." Dismayed over Yumi telling the Lyoko Warriors that she might have to move back to Japan due to her family having financial troubles, he overhears winning lottery numbers on the radio. So, he uses Return to the Past, writes down the winning numbers on a ticket and hands it off to her family. However, the group discovers what he had done, and are beyond upset that he went behind everyone's back to do it, resulting in his temporary explusion, mainly due to the fact that XANA gets stronger whenever RTTP is used, which, as we all know, was proven no more than two episodes ago, making Ulrich's actions even more inexcusable than they already were. However, the episode does end on a high note with Ulrich coming to Warriors' aid when they're in a tight spot, as well as him apologizing for the incident while admitting that it was more selfish than he first realized
- Danny Phantom: "Phantom Planet" has Vlad reveal himself as Vlad Plasmius to the entire world and force them to surrender control of the planet to him in exchange for saving it from the Disasteroid. When Jack tries to reason with Vlad, the latter reveals that he always resented Jack for causing the accident that gave him ghost acne and gloats that he's going to steal Maddie from him, leading Jack to finally realize that Vlad isn't the friend he thought he was. When Vlad's plan to make the Disasteroid turn intangible fails and he realizes that he'll be a wanted fugitive if he returns to Earth, he shamelessly tries to beg Jack for help, but Jack isn't having any of it and leaves him in outer space.
Vlad: Jack, you have to help me! You wouldn't turn your back on an old friend, would you?
Jack: An old friend? No. You? Yes! - Hey Arnold!: The infamous episode "Arnold Betrays Iggy" ends with Arnold humiliating himself in public all for the sake of gaining Iggy's forgiveness after everyone found out Iggy wears bunny pajamas. Moments before Arnold walked out of the boarding house wearing those same pajamas, Iggy overheard that it was Sid and Stinky who figured out his secret and blabbed to everyone (due to them having correctly guessed and telling everyone even after they promised Arnold they wouldn't). Iggy's horrified he made Arnold jump through hoops to gain his forgiveness when it wasn't actually his fault, and after Arnold's thoroughly humiliated he silently makes it clear he doesn't want anything to do with Iggy anymore. Sure enough, Iggy was Demoted to Extra and it's clear from his rare appearances after this episode that Arnold cut him out of his life for good.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Ponyville Confidential", The Cutie Mark Crusaders form Gabby Gums as part of their school's newspaper and begin publishing a gossip column with salacious stories about the adult ponies in town. Though at first the gossip is well-received, they eventually begin to publicly embarrass various ponies, which leads to all of Ponyville shunning the Cutie Mark Crusaders once they're exposed as Gabby Gums. In a twist, this is partially Karmic Misfire; while the Cutie Mark Crusaders were the ones to obtain and publish all the juicy rumors, it was Diamond Tiara being their boss that led to it in the first place and prevented them from stopping before they went too far because she had blackmailed them.
- Ninjago: King Vangelis, the seemingly benevolent king of Shintaro who is very protective of his daughter Vania, is revealed to be the Skull Sorcerer enslaving the Munce and Geckles. Vania is heartbroken to learn of her father's true nature, especially when he disowns her as his daughter for choosing to do the right thing by helping Sensei Wu and the Ninja, but once Vangelis is defeated by Cole and he tries to justify his actions, Vania isn't having it and orders his arrest.
- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder: In the episode "Father Figures", the eponymous family rightfully shuns Oscar due to his homophobic behavior towards Maya and KG's two dads. To Oscar's credit, he did apologize for his actions at the end.
- Recess: This is used a lot by the cast, as karmic shunning was often seen to be a just — and easily amended — punishment for the kids.
- In "The Box", Ms. Finster invokes this trope by developing the titular punishment for rule-breaking: a square of chalk drawn on the playground. Any child sent to the Box is not allowed to cross its lines or talk to anyone outside of it. While the kids initially laugh off the Box, it only takes ten minutes of being inside it for T.J. to completely break down and become a whimpering wreck. Thankfully, the rest of the gang is able to snap him out of it by the episode's end.
- "Outcast Ashley" sees Ashley A. temporarily kicked out of the Ashleys because she forgets to wear purple on the anniversary of the day they met. As she's now a social pariah, Ashley A. instead befriends Gretchen, and the two develop a surprisingly strong bond.
- South Park: In the revised future of Post-Covid: The Return of Covid, there came a point where everyone got sick enough of Eric Cartman's horrible behavior that they cut him out of their lives for good (basically what happened in "The Death of Eric Cartman", only on a much wider scale and on a more permanent basis). The end result is that Cartman is a drunken hobo who did nothing with his life, while all his former friends are living happily without him.