It Amused Me: Difference between revisions

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]]?

Please note, this is different from [[For the Evulz]]. While a character who does commits evil acts [[For the Evulz]] does it because they enjoy being evil, if this character does evil things it is only because they shatter the boredom of everyday life -- they're not out to hurt anyone per se, but they don't care (much) if they do. Just how much they care about collateral damage and hurting innocent people (if at all) varies. They usually believe that [[Victory Is Boring]], and if they're a [[Punch Clock Hero]] or a [[Punch Clock Villain]], they're in it primarily for the entertainment value. One of the few ways to really make an [[It Amused Me]] character take things seriously is to [[The Hero Dies|kill off one of their "playthings".]]

As you may have noticed, the line dividing [[For the Evulz]] and [[It Amused Me]] is something of an academic distinction. It is often hard to tell from a single act whether a character enjoys evil actions solely for the amusement value of the acts ([[It Amused Me]]) or whether they also/mostly enjoy the thrill of acting evilly ([[For the Evulz]]). Generally, a character who truly does things [[For the Evulz]] will do things that aren't fun or interesting in the name of evil, which they seek at every opportunity -- a character who does things because It Amused Them wouldn't bother because if it's not fun or interesting, why do it? [[It Amused Me]] -- motivated characters are not necessarily without a sense of morality, as they have been known to minimize the collateral damage of their schemes, for example, or even to ''stop'' what they're doing if they think they're harming the 'wrong' person or people. Someone motivated by [[For the Evulz]] would never do this, unless it hindered their ability to commit further acts of evil -- [[Stupid Evil|and sometimes]] [[Chaotic Stupid|not even then]].

*** Light's real motivation does seem to be that he's doing it for fun. He plays far too many unnecessary -- but entertaining -- mind games with the police for it to be anything else.

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', the character Wang Liu Mei is [[The Mole]] during the entire series, pretending to be a valuable ally to the heroes, but then passing information on to the villains (and vice versa). As she expresses several times, she's simply bored and wants to see the world change -- but doesn't care at all whether it is for good or ill.

* 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.

* Guu of ''[[Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu]]''. She often pretends to deliver [[Aesop|Aesops]] with her actions, but always keeps ignoring them just because she can have more fun that way, and gets Hale another inch closer to a total nervous breakdown.

* {{spoiler|Ronnie Suchiart}} of ''[[Baccano!]]'' cites this as the motivation for most of his actions. Very old and very powerful [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] tend to also get very ''bored''.

* In [[I Put On My Robe and Wizard Hat]], ''why'' exactly does {{spoiler|Urobuchi}} Shirou piss off Lancer -- who's trying to ''kill'' him -- by forcing a download of dog porn directly into his brain?

* There're a couple of myths ''invented'' for this purpose in Australia. Because apparently [[Australian Wildlife|the real wildlife]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|wasn't scary enough already]], they decided to tell tourists that the trees were infested with [[Drop Bear|carnivorous koalas]] and the only way to ward them off was to put Vegemite behind your ears. This is one of the only forms of [[Troll|trolling]] that the internet has actually ''dis''couraged.

{{quote|'''Redcloak:''' But if you've known all this time <ref>how to unseal the Gate</ref>, why do you keep sending goblins to their deaths?

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

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-the-octopus-wrecks-havoc.html Meet Otto the octopus], who will do anything -- for attention or perhaps out of sheer boredom -- from dousing the lights to juggling the hermit crabs in his tank to ''throwing stones against the tank wall''.

** When you spend your entire life in an aquarium, you have to make up your own amusement. Of course, it's also possible that Otto is attempting different ways to escape his confinement -- octopi are remarkably intelligent creatures, after all.