Karma Houdini

A, "Heroic Karma Houdini" unlike its villainous counterpart, is instead of a villain who escapes justice and "pulls a Houdini" is instead a hero who is never or rarely adequately awarded for their noble actions by the end of a story, thus escaping Karma on the opposite end. However, despite this, these characters can have the positive outcome from their mistakes or otherwise. They can be:

• Anti-villains who earn an positive result despite their formerly heinous actions, such as being forgiven, given another chance, etc. (Mai and Ty Lee get their happy endings despite their previous actions, with the latter even getting to join the Kyoshi Warriors that she once helped brutalize and imprison.)

• Good Hearted Bastards who always get away with their rude or questionable actions (Peter Griffin from Family Guy, Dee-Dee from Dexter's Laboratory, Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and Garfield are the best examples of this.)

• Characters who get in trouble, but they eventually escape from custody or other heroes give them another chance to redeem themselves or defend them from their punishment (In The Legend of Korra, Varrick was able to break out of prison during the chaos of Unalaq's attack, is currently at large and even living in Zaofu with other reformed criminals with Suyin as his most vocal supporter and Kai was forgiven by Korra and her allies despite his mischievous behavior.)

• Characters who likely redeem themselves get in good terms with the team of good guys despite their negative interaction with each other. (Agent John Bishop is an well-intentioned anti-alien government agent who kidnaps the turtles, prolongs an invasion of Earth via inaction, and is revealed to have tortured turtle ally Leatherhead later becomes an valuable ally, Sesshōmaru gets a very long Character Development arc to end the story as an Anti-Hero and Buford Van Stomm redeemed himself to get in good terms with the protagonists.)

• Heroes who realize the outcome of becoming an designated hero or anti-villain, but eventually meet with good results. (Duncan from Total Drama, John McClane from Die Hard and Red Hulk are the good examples for this.)

Important Note: Do not list here morally ambiguous heroes who do not answer for their morally ambiguous deeds, neither former villains who never were punished for their previous misdeeds. This article is about inadequately rewarded heroes. A hero whose heroism is never properly acknowledged and repaid.