I Was Just Passing Through: Difference between revisions

 

* "I wasn't doing it for [[Morality Pet|you]]."

* "He owed me money."

* "I lent him my X."

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Ishida tries to save Rukia from captors Byakuya and Renji. He fails, but he used the excuse that he was "just on the way back from his favorite arts and crafts shop".

** It's strongly implied that he grabbed the bag just so he'd have an excuse to go out and confront the shinigami. In fact, he [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]] this by saying he randomly decided to visit the local 24-hour crafts store. (After which Rukia thinks to herself, ''"I didn't know he was mentally challenged..."'')

** Actually, the main four do this so often to the point of parody. Whenever they save someone, they have to point out that they're "doing it my way" or that "we're on our own side." For more specific examples, Gojyo, after {{spoiler|rescuing Sanzo from falling off a cliff in the Chin Yi So arc}}, claimed that he did it because he had a "habit of picking things up when they fell." And Sanzo, {{spoiler|after taking a near-fatal hit to protect Goku in the Rikudo arc}}, rationalized that he did it to protect his past self. (Examples from Sanzo can fill the whole page, actually.)

* In ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', when Caren refuses to join up with the [[Power Trio]] and berates them at every opportunity, she still randomly pops in and saves them before telling them how much they suck. In one episode, [[Spanner in the Works|she unknowingly ruins their plan]] to get the Dark Lovers to "kidnap" Rina, and then states that she was just swimming around... even though she has a deep personal grudge against Rina and wishes she ''had'' been caught earlier, which the others note.

** And given that he's permanently [[Walking the Earth]] due to his [[No Sense of Direction|poor directional sense]], Ryoga is almost always literally just passing through.

* This happens in ''[[Haruhi-chan]]'' a couple of times. Sonou Mori, the maid from the island in [[Suzumiya Haruhi|"Remote Island Syndrome"]], once crashes through a window, stands up and smiles at Kyon and Itsuki. She says, "I'm just a maid passing by!" Kyon's response: "You LIE!"

** In another episode, Arakawa-san drives into the woods after a phone call from Itsuki and says, "I'm just a taxi driver passing by!" Sonou Mori then falls from the sky and says, "I'm just a skydiver passing by!"

* ''[[Noir]]''. Kirika is wounded during a hit in a Middle Eastern country, and wakes up to find Mirielle standing over her with a silenced pistol, ready to kill her as it's the only way she'll be able to escape across the border. We see Mirielle working herself up to shoot...then she fires into the pillow instead, claiming that she needs Kirika alive to help her find the answers behind the Soldats. [[Heterosexual Life Partners|Yeah]], [[Les Yay|right]].

{{quote|''He just wanted to let that girl ?be temporarily at ease?, that was all. If he told her the location, she would no longer contact him and his gang. There wouldn't be any more reason for her to bear such pointless grudge against him...Everything was in control. There was nothing worth worrying about.''}}

* ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]]'' plays this straight. {{spoiler|When Unit 03 is shipped in from the US, Unit 02 is locked away into cryostasis and Asuka is suspended. Later on, Unit 03's activation experiment is coincidentally scheduled onto the same day as the meal party Rei is holding in an effort to make Shinji and Gendou reconcile their differences. Seeing that Rei is motivated by her crush on Shinji, Asuka [[Pet the Dog|volunteers to be the test pilot instead of Rei]], saying that she simply wanted to pilot again. It comes back to bite her in the ass in a major way, though - Unit 03 is infected by Bardiel, the meal party is called off and Shinji is forced to watch from the first row as his Dummy System-controlled Eva brutally tears Unit 03 to pieces, almost killing Asuka in the process while Hideaki Anno plays unfitting music. Judging from the trailer of the third film, she got off with an [[Eyepatch of Power]].}}

* After the [[Time Skip]] in [[Claymore]], the [[Fan Nickname|Seven Ghosts]] will inevitably declare this whenever they assist other Claymores, claiming that they were not trying to help their former comrades, and the monsters were just in their way.

* In ''[[Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns]]'':, Mewtwo prevents a bus accident near his mountain home, sulkily explaining to the other clones that he didn't want attention drawn to the area and that he doesn't care one bit about the humans' lives.

 

* [[Arch Enemy|Venom]] (Eddie Brock) has ''saved'' [[Spider-Man]] numerous times during teamups, always with a variation on this excuse or ''[[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|He's Mine!]]''

 

* In the ''[[Death Note]]'' fic ''[[A Cure for Love]]'' when Light considers resuming his search for L [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|he insists it's not because he misses him]] but just because he wants his crappy CD player back. [[It's the Principle of the Thing]].

 

* In ''[[A New Hope]]'', Han says he couldn't let Luke have all the glory in the Death Star battle.

 

* The anti-altruistic strikers in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' have turned this into an art form. They traditionally charge each other a penny for what normal people would give as gifts, just to stay true to their ideals.

* John Marcone, an [[Affably Evil]] mafia lord and sometimes [[Friendly Enemy]] to [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]], managed to be just passing through while Harry was getting the crap kicked out of him by Necromancers, and offered him a lift. Marcone's bodyguard, who [[More Than Meets the Eye|knows these kind of things]], remarks that Dresden was fated to die in the alley. Marcone's response? [[Screw Destiny|It's fun to spit in destiny's face sometimes.]]

* In the [[Adaptation Displacement|original book]] of [[I, Claudius]], Herod Agrippa (yes, that Herod) is described as this in almost exact terms by Claudius, summed up as [[Noble Demon|"a scoundrel with a golden heart"]]

 

* "[[Kamen Rider Decade|I'm just a Kamen Rider passing through.]] [[Catch Phrase|Remember that!]]"

** Which ties into [[Punny Name]]: Decade's surname, "Kadoya", is written with kanji that can be read as "passing through".

* ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' are just in the fight for the treasure and avenging personal slights. [[Sarcasm Mode|Really]].

 

* [[Live a Live]] Matsu says this at his first appearance in the Mecha Chapter when questioned by a group of people assaulting Akira.

* In the computer game ''[[Advance Wars]] 2'', Hawke {{spoiler|kills his boss Sturm to prevent Sturm blowing up his missile on the launchpad and killing everyone}}. Hawke claims that he only did it [[The Starscream|to gain control of Sturm's army]].

* The ending of ''[[Mega Man Star Force]] 2'' has Solo saving Geo from the [[Big Bad|Big Bad's]] exploding base while Geo was out cold after defeating the [[Load-Bearing Boss]]. His excuse? "Your body was blocking my way, so I moved it."

* This also happens in the original [[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]. With {{spoiler|Gengar saving the main character from the Spirit World, and of course insisting that he had no intention of saving them, and just happened to stumble across them.}}

* Also happens in ''[[Pokémon Colosseum|Pokemon XD]]''. Zook threatens to [[Kick the Dog|pound Jovi into hamburger]] when she accidentally bumps into him. "Red", one of Mr. Verich's two bodyguards, steps up with his Alakazam and beats Zook's Zangoose into next week, telling Michael and Jovi that he was simply taking out the trash. {{spoiler|Later, at the Cipher Key Lair, Zook goes on a rant about how [[Evil All Along|Ardos (a.k.a. "Red")]] tore his Zangoose a new one and chewed his ear off about using Shadow Pokemon in public.}}

* In ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', even though they're supposed to be working together anyway, Shadow shrugs off his saving Rouge's life as "saving the Chaos Emeralds." Later, Knuckles does the exact same thing, saying he's saving the pieces of the Master Emerald.

 

* In the ''[[Adventure Time]]'' episode It Came From The Nightosphere, Marceline insists she's only helping Finn hunt her dad down to get her bass guitar back.

** Marceline was not lying. After she got her guitar back she ''did'' start to leave, Finn only stopped her by {{spoiler|playing her private recording from earlier in front of her father.}}

* After Bruce saved Terry and a runaway kid in an episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', he invokes this trope as an excuse for him [[Stealth Hi Bye|appearing out of nowhere]] in an [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]] to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|clobber the villain senseless]] with his [[Cane Fu|walking stick]].

{{quote|'''Shriek:''' *to Batman* At least I get the pleasure of killing you myself.

 

{{reflist}}