It Amused Me: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|'''''Raven:''' Great bird spirit! Why? Why did you lead us into this death trap?''

 

This is the motivation of an amoral character seeking... well, amusement. It's not that they enjoy being good or evil—they may not know or care about the difference—but they do whatever they feel like without regard for others. They don't need a motivation or justification for doing anything beyond the amusement of the act itself. As a result they almost inevitably do things that are dickish, maybe even cruel, but generally not ''outright'' evil. This same character will lead you into a trap, fight you to the death... and then stop on the brink of killing you to laugh and say "Are you all right?" They won't kill the hero, because they find their attempts to save the day amusing, or are intrigued by the sheer selflessness of their thinking. They may help the hero, they may help the villain, they may do both at once or screw over both at once. They are rarely if ever a driving force behind a story, but they nonetheless play a significant role. And why do they do all this? Why do they [[Heel Face Revolving Door|switch sides so often]]? Why are they [[The Dragon|working below]] the [[Big Bad]] when they're [[Dragon with an Agenda|just as powerful and intelligent as he is]], [[Hypercompetent Sidekick|if not more?]] Why did they [[Faux Yay|make out with the hero of the same gender]]?

Often such a character will be the [[Wild Card]], an [[Enigmatic Minion]], or [[Chaotic Neutral]]. A common saying of the [[Trickster Archetype]] character, the [[Eccentric Millionaire]], the [[Great Gazoo]], and the [[Screwy Squirrel]]. But be wary of the character [[Flanderization|devolving into]] [[Chaotic Stupid]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* '''''Xellos''''', from ''[[Slayers]]''. After about fifteen episodes' worth of hunting for the Claire Bible, it turns out that he knew where it was all along. He just didn't tell Lina and the others because he found it more entertaining to watch their antics as they went on multiple wild goose chases for the better part of a season. He also is prone to "forgetting" to state key pieces of information to watch the results.

* The only reason Tsuyuri from ''[[Doujin Work]]'' stays involved with the rest of the cast is because their antics amuse her to no end—and she is not above stirring things up even more.

* Urumi Kanzaki in ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]''. While her actual reasons for hating adults is more complicated, she states her class terrorism to be a means of "killing time". Being a child prodigy leaves her often bored with the usual lectures, leading her to spend her class time giving teachers very hard questions, sabotaging their equipment, and other pranks. She eventually stopped coming to school altogether, until brought in by Miyabi to "kill time" with Onizuka.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Tsukuyomi pretty much has this as her modus operandi. Unfortunately, the things that seem to amuse her are [[Sex Is Violence|excessive]] [[Orgasmic Combat|violence]], [[Psycho Lesbian|and Setsuna]].

{{quote|'''Orochimaru:''' I guess that I do kind of have a goal. Let me see if I can explain it. I find it very interesting to watch things in motion; I get no pleasure when the world is still. Like a windmill that isn't turning: I suppose some might find it beautiful, even if it's immobile, but to me such a thing is truly boring. So now I want to put things in motion myself. The first step is crushing the Leaf Village.}}

** Also from the series, the [[Big Bad]] affected a goofball 'Tobi' persona for no tangible reason, especially since most of Akatsuki already knew it was fake, which can only lead to the conclusion that he did it for shits and giggles. {{spoiler|And this might be why he pretended to be Madara, too.}}

 

== Comic Books ==

* Are you freaking ''kidding'' me! This trope is, like, [[Deadpool|my]] prime motivation! That and money, so I can pay my phone bills. For example; I once fought Bullseye in a meatsuit for this very reason... That's to say, I wasn't fighting Bullseye wearing a meatsuit, but rather I was wearing a meatsuit while fighting Bullseye... Yeah, and it was also the reason behind me [[Disguised in Drag|wearing a lolita dress]] [[Faux Yay|and wailing]] [[Ho Yay|"save me Spider-Man!"]] Heheh, that was hella funny... Oh, oh! And that time I wore [[X-Men|Jean Grey's uniform]] and... you know what, if we listed all the times I've done this, we'll be here all day... so yeah, [[Motor Mouth|anyway, as I was saying]], I wore Jean Grey's uniform and [[Blah Blah Blah]] exciting-story-of-my-life [[Shameless Self Promoter|buy all of my comics for more information about that]].

{{quote|'''Me:''' I don't even like chimichangas. [[Inherently Funny Words|I just like saying it.]] }}

 

== Fan Works ==

{{quote|George: I think she carved her name in me back with her fingernails.

Grunnel: Sar uses a knife on me. }}

* In the chapter "Surprise Box" of the ''[[RWBY]]''/''[[The Gamer]]'' crossover ''[[The Games We Play (RWBY fanfic)|The Games We Play]]'' by Ryuugi, Jaune Arc (in his guise as the godlike tiger Faunus and martial artist Jian Bing) abruptly appears in a transport carrying General Ironwood, Professor Polendina and [[Robot Girl|Penny]]. When he explains that he's there to talk to them, not attack them, Ironwood demands to know why he's bothering.

{{quote|"What about the entertainment value?" I asked him, giving him an enigmatic smile. "Perhaps it simply amuses me to do so?"}}

** They got the Ilwrath to attack someone else ([[Cloudcuckoolander|the Pkunk]]), but there is evidence that they may have TRIED to induce civil war with the messages that they sent to the Ilwrath. They ended up getting a plyable new upper caste (which is even better), however. Plus, the wording of the 'godly' command which induced their attack on the Pkunk suggests that the Umgah may have been intended to send the Ilwrath against the Pkunks' relatives, the Yehat, who would have made mincemeat of them. There is a definite strategic sense in crippling a decidedly unstable [[Religion of Evil|theocratic]] neighbour.

** When you rescue their entire race from [[Mind Control]], they gladly proclaim Player Character a "Great Hero", give a load of valuable data... {{spoiler|and if you stay around to chat with them, they'll quickly get bored,}} and to liven things up declare Player Character a "Great Enemy". Nothing stops you from just running away with your "reward", of course, but it says a lot about them that they will hand over some of their own ships and crews, just to make sure you put up a good challenge when they immediately betray you.

* It's arguable if Smilin' Jack had any ulterior motives in [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|VTM: Bloodlines]] or if he did it all simply for a good belly laugh.

** He had the same reasons as the rest of the anarchs for the results. The ''methods'' made it an [[Overly Prepared Gag]].

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Mother 3]]'' falls into this trope. {{spoiler|Porky ruins the lives of many people and corrupts the rest of the island's population, along with making mechas out of the animals and pulling the seven needles to summon a dragon that could destroy everything, just because he was bored and needed a giggle.}}

* The Storm Titan, the one that invented the most chaotic magic in the Spiral, from [[Wizard 101]] destroys the world of Celestia after he allied with them to stop Morganthe. Why, because like his brand of magic, he can destroy you just as easily a help you. It's likely that in the war of the ancients he's the one that threw the first punch

 

== Webcomics ==

 

== Web Original ==

* Sean from ''Ronin Dojo Community College DX'' explains that he does things "for the lulz". Of course, what he does is smash popular games in front of a webcam [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|so people on the internet can say "lol"]], but that's [[Serious Business]].

* The trolls who prank call Ghost during every ''single'' episode of [[True Capitalist]] Radio just to hear him rage and rage... and rage.

 

== Western Animation ==

* "The Twins" from ''[[Superjail]]''.

{{quote|'''Bob''': Why Megabyte? Why do this?

'''Megabyte''': (laughs) It Amused Me. }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stock Phrases]]

[[Category:Motivation Index]]

[[Category:The Jerk Index]]