Dude, Where's My Respect?: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Volus:''' Shepherd! Shepherd! A moment of your time!

'''Shepard:''' Can it wait? I'm trying to ensure the survival of '''every sentient being.'''

 

So, you're a hero who's a fair way through your quest. You've slain [[Kill It with Fire|fire]]-[[Breath Weapon|breathing]] [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]], or assassinated [[The Mafia|mob bosses]], or torn apart an army base filled with hostile aliens. [[One-Man Army|You've cut a swath through the land]], [[Sociopathic Hero|slaughtering anything or anyone]] who gets in your way and [[We Do the Impossible|spit in the face of impossible odds]]. You're well on your way to finishing the job, when you need a favor. Anybody who knows who you are [[100% Heroism Rating|should be too grateful]] or [[The Dreaded|too scared]] to turn you down, right? Wrong!

"Go beat up this guy that's been hassling me."

 

 

An [[Ideal Hero]] (or [[Superman|blue boyscout]]) will fetch cats from trees all day long, but then again they're probably either a [[Slave to PR]] or just plain have nothing better to do between beating the tar out of villains. Expect villains, rivals, and some civilians to act like [[Ungrateful Bastard]]s in part because of this. The [[Glory Seeker]] ''hates'' this.

Please restrict [[Real Life]] examples to people who have been [[Vindicated by History]] already.

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Asuna is a particularly annoying example, downplaying his accomplishments constantly while giving her classmates credit for lesser achievements. (Even acting at multiple points as if she were a stronger combatant, despite her power coming from him in the first place)

** It seems he's finally gotten the respect he deserves (from the nations of [[Magical Land|Magicus Mundus]], at least) after he {{spoiler|stopped Fate from erasing everyone}}. And although a lot of his students still call him Negi-bozu, it seems to have become a friendly nickname rather than a deliberate show of disrespect.

** Subverted when {{spoiler|they get to Fishman Island and the Fishman Princes are looking for them, but not to arrest them, to deliver a message from their mutual friend Jinbe and invite them back to the Royal Castle.}}

* In the first season of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'', this is somewhat a [[Running Gag]] for the main character Kotetetsu T. Kaburagi, aka Wild Tiger. Despite being a veteran Hero whose [[The Cape (trope)|only wish is to save people]], he tends to get little to no respect from the citizens of Steinberg or his fellow Heroes for being a [[Destructive Savior]] and is very low on the Hero food chain. Whenever he does do something impressive, most people tend to credit his partner, [[Always Someone Better|Barnaby Brooks Jr]]. [[Hanging a Lampshade|Lampshaded]] at one point when Barnaby is receiving all of the praise for killing {{spoiler|Jake Martinez}}, despite the fact that it was Kotetsu who {{spoiler|figured out that Jake had the second ability of mind reading and [[Batman Gambit|tricked both Barnaby and Jake with a flash bomb, which caught Jake off-guard and gave Barnaby the opening to defeat him]] and then it was Kotetsu who caught Jake during his attempted escape which led to Jake's accidental death}}:

{{quote|'''Barnaby''': Don't tell me you actually want some praise, too!}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* One of the (many) complaints against the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' series: superheroes had been saving the World for over a decade. Then when ONE questionable incident happens, the public turns against ALL of them and the government is happy to hunt them down.

* The Amazing [[Spider-Man]], from the very beginning, as he was conceived as the first hero with everyday problems. This is so frequent that some (including other superheroes) joke that it's one of his superpowers. Luckily he does have a number of fans (how often they show up depends on the writer however), and most of the other heroes, at least nowadays, do show him considerable respect.

* The [[The DCU]] reboot of ''[[Aquaman]]'' turns him into this. Every person he meets has apparently watched the ''[[Superfriends]]'' and taken it for a documentary, and his abilities are constantly and openly doubted and he's asked insulting questions about mockable aspects of the character that, in the comics universe, have now never been the case.

 

== Fairy Tales ==

* In ''[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/065.htm Jesper Who Herded the Hares]'' the king invented more tasks for Jesper to avoid fulfilling his promise to marry him to his daughter, stopping only when Jesper has some dirt on him.

* In ''[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/038.htm The Grateful Beasts]'', the king orders Ferko to perform three tasks at the incitement of his brothers; his own daughter the princess argues with him until he imprisons her in a tower. However, the last task is to summon all the wolves in the kingdom, [[Beware the Nice Ones|the wolves then proceed to kill all the court]], and Ferko frees the princess, marries her, and becomes king.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' has a combination of this and [[The Greatest Story Never Told]] as the motivation of the UnSub in {{spoiler|"Painless"}}. Held hostage by a mad gunman, he was the only one who looked him in the eye and survived... but got knocked out by an explosion. When he woke up, he [[Ungrateful Bastard|discovered another one of the others had stolen their story]] and found fame. This, combined with the formation of a clique of media-darling survivors, fuels his transformation [[From Nobody to Nightmare]].

* The original ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series has this to the point of nausea. No matter how many times the Doctor would save planets, galaxies, and even the very fabric of reality, no-one thought of him as anything other than a meddling madman, if they had even heard of him at all. Even UNIT, who have extensive knowledge of the dozens of times the Doctor has pulled their butts form the metaphorical fire, treat him like a walking hazard ([[Walking Disaster Area|which he is]], but still), while his fellow Time Lords consider him to be just as dangerous as renegades like [[Evil Counterpart|the Master]]. Indeed, one of the major ways the new series departs from the original is going in the precise ''opposite'' direction, with the Doctor regarded throughout time and space as a [[Shrouded in Myth]] [[Person of Mass Destruction]] who can make a sapient, carnivorous swarm retreat simply by ''telling it who he is''.

* [[Eureka]]'s Sheriff Carter has to solve dozens of life-threatening, town-threatening, and/or ''world''-threatening scenarios before people start taking him seriously.

 

== Mythology ==

** Admittedly if you do enough notable things NPCs will start to sing your praises, and once you've helped somebody their dialogue will generally be friendly to you, but that won't stop everybody else demanding you fetch them [[Twenty Bear Asses]].

** Not as bad in the new Cataclysm zones from the third expansion. Characters will generally recognise you as a great hero and faction leaders frequently show up and make it clear that they know who you are and what you're capable of. They still want you to collect bear asses, but they have more flattering ways of justifying it. The rewritten early quests also tend to try to make you feel less anonymous.

* Sort of subverted in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', when you initially step in front of Alliance Arms Inn in Port Llast, a group of watchmen will confront you and try to kill you because of {{spoiler|you're the butcher of Ember, but you're framed for this}}. You can intimidate them that {{spoiler|you've slaughtered orcs invading Old Owl Well}}. If you succeed intimidate check, they'll back off, but if you fail, they will attack you anyway, and get slaughtered.

** Regardless, random City Watch ''will'' still be all "I'm busy. Find another people to chat up." Wonderful thing to say to a ''Knight and member of Nine'', you bastard. Well, at least they are nameless.

** [[Lampshaded]] particularly well in Oasis Town, where the heroine directly asks what quest this town is going to give her, and the response is to 1. Collect 5 cough grass to make cold medicine, 2. gather 5 mountain grapes in a forest you have to plant, 3. kill 10 venombugs eating the mayor's garden, 4. Go pick 10 birthday flowers, 5. Light bonfires to attract firepigs, which are a nuisance, so kill 10 of them after you bring them here, and 6. collect 10 Magic Fellworts. This is just the stuff the mayor spat out at you before the princess interrupted him screaming that she's not his maid.

* [[Gaia Online|zOMG!]] actually averts this. Once your level reaches a certain point, the NPCs who give you the repeatable quests say "I should stop wasting your time here, you probably have better things to do. I'll handle the rest myself." Of course, then you can [[Willfully Weak|suppress your level]] and they'll get right back to bossing you around.

* ''[[Freedom Fighters (video game)|Freedom Fighters]]'' has this as a game play mechanic. You are a plumber thrust into fighting off a Soviet invasion of New York, so other rebels initially treat you as just another mook. However, as you destroy enemy targets and retake sections of the city, you gain the ability to lead a squad of rebels. By the end of the game, you are the de facto leader of the rebellion and can command up to twelve other soldiers in the field.

* Inverted in ''[[Brutal Legend]]'', where - as you are a ''roadie'' - you're ''supposed'' to stay the hell out of the spotlight. Not that it stops your buddies from appreciating what you do.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]]'' when Daxter asks Torn why they get all the crummy missions:

* In the ''[[Overlord]]'' games, especially the 2nd one, most people don't show you the respect an [[Evil Overlord]] deserves. In the first game you can try to earn their respect or slaughter them. In the second game you don't even pretend to be nice; you can either brainwash them or again slaughter them.

* In the Eye of the North expansion to ''[[Guild Wars]]'', 'faction' mechanics toyed with in previous installments reach the point where some items are only possible to acquire through earning a reputation-based title with that faction, with characters lacking that title being rudely informed that the items in question aren't available to just anyone. Nevermind that for three of these factions, it is perfectly possible to have single-handedly rescued the organisation from their greatest enemies or to have destroyed the entity that serves as their greatest nemesis without having achieved sufficient reputation to "earn" these services.

{{quote|'''Main Character:''' OK, I've just about had my fill of riddle asking, quest assigning, insult throwing, pun hurling, hostage taking, iron mongering, smart arsed fools, freaks, and felons that continually test my will, mettle, strength, intelligence, and most of all, patience! If you've got a straight answer anywhere in that bent little head of yours, I want to hear it pretty damn quick or I'm going to take a large blunt object roughly the size of Elminster and his hat, and stuff it lengthwise into a crevice of your being so seldom seen that even the denizens of the Nine Hells themselves wouldn't touch it with a twenty-foot rusty halberd! Have I made myself perfectly clear?!}}

* In ''[[Diablo]] II: Lord Of Destruction'', the expansion pack for ''[[Diablo]] II'', this is how you are treated by the Barbarians (and especially by {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn|the corrupt]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Elder Nihlithak]]}}) in the fifth and final Act of the game. You have just defeated {{spoiler|the Lord of Terror himself, Diablo}}, not to mention previously defeating {{spoiler|his brother Mephisto}}, and what do you get? Qual-Kehk says, "You have the look of a warrior. An extra soldier would be useful, ''but don't expect anyone to mourn if you get yourself killed''." Nihlithak is a lot nastier. "After so many have died, who are you to think you can accomplish what our warriors could not?" And, "Ending the siege [will] not earn immediate respect, outsider. Respect only comes with sacrifice -- something I'm sure you know nothing of." The worst from Nihlithak? "What are you still doing here? I thought you were going off to die. Go...Be quick about it."

** Averted as much as it is played straight.

* Reimu Hakurei of ''[[Touhou]]'' has saved Gensoukyou from everything from minor annoyances to potentially apocalyptic destruction, yet the humans ignore her (at best), the youkai mooch off of her (at best) and she has no worshippers whatsoever at the Hakurei shrine. Indeed, most residents of Gensoukyou genuinely ''[[The Greatest Story Never Told|don't know]]'' that Reimu has stopped most of the regular incidents, and those that do are either too stupid to recognise they should give her respect or too powerful too even bother.

* A [[Running Gag]] in ''[[The Spellcasting Series]]'', as hero Ernie Eaglebeak saves the world on a yearly basis and gets nothing but a trophy for his troubles. With his name [[Kick the Dog|misspelled on it.]]

* While the first ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]'' subverted this by causing you to become increasingly respected as you advanced through the plot and ranks, the sequel plays this particularly straight. Both Michael and others belittle you even when you've proven yourself capable of mowing down whole enemy Families.

 

== Webcomics ==

* The page quote from ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' is basically what every video game hero ever ''should'' be saying. It loses its effect however considering that the person Thief is talking to ''didn't even want his help in the first place'' (Thief, in a moment of misplaced [[Genre Savvy]] simply walked up to a random NPC ''assuming'' he had some inane sidequest for him). Not to mention the protagonists of ''8-Bit Theater'' are [[Comedic Sociopath|anything]] [[Villain Protagonist|but]] [[Ax Crazy|heroes]].

* ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'': [http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/ WHAT'VE I GOTTA TO DO TO GET SOME RESPECT AROUND HERE!]

{{quote|'''Administrator:''' Your friend with an arrest record, no job, and a history of breaking down in front of students.

'''Szark:''' That happened '''once'''. }}

[[Category:Fame and Reputation Tropes]]

[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]