Lack of Empathy: Difference between revisions

On the flip side, just because a character has empathy does not mean that they possess one ounce of compassion or sympathy, though the lack of either usually coincides with at least a diminished sense of empathy. This is where [[The Sociopath]] should not be confused with someone with Aspergers or another form of autism; the former usually has perfect cognitive empathy, but utterly lacks emotional or compassionate empathy; the latter on the other hand has defective cognitive empathy, but normal or even hyper-effective emotional or compassionate empathy. [[The Sociopath]] is generally superficially charming and polite, a social chameleon, but this pretense of empathy is simply that, a pretense, a mere ruse to attain a tangible end.

 

 

Not to be confused with [[No Sympathy]], which refers to characters who supposedly ''do'' have an ability to empathise, but completely fail to demonstrate it. Overlaps with [[The Sociopath]]. [[Kids Are Cruel]] and [[Teens Are Monsters]] often have this trope.

 

[[No Real Life Examples Please]]. General real-world notes are on the [[Useful Notes/Lack of Empathy|Useful Notes]] page. We don't want real-world individuals as examples under the [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment]].

 

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== Anime & Manga ==

** [[Mad Bomber|Solf J. Kimblee]] too, who seems to have been written as after a serious look at real-life sociopathy. He seems to be aware of his differing mentality from others and therefore goes to great lengths to [[Affably Evil|disguise it]], but at the end of the day he's still an ammoral guy who honestly doesn't believe that there's any moral difference between [[Sociopathic Soldier|slaughtering people as a soldier]] and saving them as a doctor; to him both are just doing their job (which, if they do well, he applauds equally). Essentially, Kimblee defines his entire code of morality (or lack thereof) based on how much a person follows through on their beliefs or occupation, regardless if it's saving or killing others; his psychopathy is too extreme for society's rules to matter to him. While he ''can'' demonstrate a certain amount of respect for another person, it's always in a very detatched way, and he's completely incapable of feeling genuine empathy. There's a reason both Pride and Envy like him.

** The anime version of Kimblee is, if anything, [[Misanthrope Supreme|even worse]]. He considers all living things, himself included, as little more than walking bomb components and practically lives for the sake of spreading misery and pain, joining whoever lets him blow up people consequence-free.

** Pride ''literally'' is this. He is so devoid of empathy that he views the other homunculi as lowly as the other homunculi view humans. And while Father shows a measure of affection for his "children", he has even ''less'' empathy for humankind then they do. As a comparison, Envy has, on multiple occasions, laughed openly at the "foolishness" of humanity. When Ling Yao accuses Father of doing the same, his response is roughly:

{{quote| ''Do you look at insects and worms on the ground and think them foolish? No. Your position is so far above theirs that you cannot feel one way or the other about them, right? That is how I see humankind.''}}

* ''[[Dragonball]]'' is filled with these kind of villains. Examples include [[Psycho for Hire|Tao Pai Pai]], [[Evil Counterpart|Piccolo Daimao]], [[Ax Crazy|Broly]], [[Blood Knight|Cell]], [[Space Pirate|Turles]], [[Squishy Wizard|Babidi]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|Majin Buu]] and ''especially'' [[Evil Overlord|Frieza]].

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni]]'': Satoko's [[Evil Uncle]] Teppei and her aunt Tamae, Rina, and ESPECIALLY {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Miyo Takano]]}}.

** Justified somewhat as he's been exposed to death quite a bit and [[Heroic BSOD|BSODing]] on the battlefield can get you killed.

** Also Gauron and Gates.

* Sunako of ''[[Shiki]]'' first appears as this. Being quite indifferent to deaths of many humans at the hands of the Shiki, though showing sympathy to a priest who has embraced a form of Nihilism. But later she [[Double Standard|acts very emotional when the humans pull the same stuff on the Shiki]].

* Most of the villains in ''[[One Piece]]''.

** Yoshii is not of the Class. He is a Theonormal, a surface dweller, while the Class are mediators between the citizens of Lux and the surface. His motivation comes from the fact that where he comes from nobody fears death or cares for life. The way the people of Lux care about things makes him crave to see more of their deep will to live, and to do so, tries to throw the entire city into chaos of war of everybody versus everybody.

* ''[[Manga/Under Grand Hotel|Under Grand Hotel]]'': This is Swordfish in a nutshell. Although he's in love with Sen he's a [[Depraved Bisexual|murderous bisexual]] who threatens anyone who expresses an interest in Sen with death, has sex with Sen to the point where it ''nearly kills Sen'', tries to strangle him, kills the guys who raped Sen saying that he did it for Sen's sake even after Sen told him not to kill them, moves out of Sen's room and lets a rapist move in when angry with Sen, and slices the throat of another one of Sen's rapists right in front of him while saying "I love you, Sen." This being after he tried to get Sen to kill the guy himself but Sen refused.

* Ryoki Tachibana from the manga ''[[Hot Gimmick]]''. Although he's utterly obsessed with Hatsumi, the series' doormat female lead, he's usually far too up himself to ever do anything as pointless as care about her or anybody else, including his family. His response to most of her (considerable) problems is "forget it, just focus on me" and he gets pissed off at her for worrying about her family. In another scene, shortly after she had her heart broken and was ''almost raped'' he berates her for crying about it, comes on to her too strong and forcibly kisses her despite her protests. Later, however, he begins to develop genuine feelings for her, but still retains his possessive and inconsiderate nature. In the novel, {{spoiler|his actions result in her dumping him for the more compassionate and caring Shinogu}}. It's later shown that Ryoki's family is disjointed and loveless, which is why he finds Hatsumi's devotion to her family incomprehensible, and cannot sympathize with her for it.

* Makoto Itou in the ''[[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]'' anime.

* {{spoiler|Kyubey}} in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' doesn't understand why teenage girls get so worked up over things like {{spoiler|finding out that he effectively tuned them into [[Our Liches Are Different|liches]] without their knowledge}}, and sees nothing wrong with using {{spoiler|the [[Hope Spot|hope]] and [[Despair Event Horizon|despair]] of those girls as a source of energy.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|"You people are all the same. Every time I tell someone, it's the same response. I don't get it. [[Blue and Orange Morality|Why do humans care so much where their souls are]]?"}}}}

** Near the end of the series, he does show some genuine empathy. {{spoiler|Or at least tries to, in his own [[Jerkass]] way.}}

* [[Code Geass|Prince Schneizel]]. At first he seems to be a kind and understanding gentleman who sympathizes with the plight of his subordinates. Then he's revealed to be a cold [[Manipulative Bastard]] who uses [[Dissonant Serenity]] to hide his detatchment from humanity. Whether he truly did care for anyone is up for debate.

* ''[[Black Cat (Manga)|Black Cat]]'': Series [[Big Bad]] Creed Diskenth combines this trope with [[No Social Skills]] for truly bad results. Interestingly, his [[Lack of Empathy]] is actually a crippling flaw for his career as a villain--he has no idea why his underlings constantly run away after he [[Bad Boss|Bad Bosses]] a few of them, and his total inability to understand [[The Hero]]'s emotions results in his own defeat.

* {{spoiler|Black Mage Zeref}} of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' actually ''needs'' [[Lack of Empathy]] to control his vast magical powers. If he develops compassion for other people, he suffers deadly [[Power Incontinence]] that ''drains the life out of everything around him''. For centuries he placed himself in self-imposed exile {{spoiler|on Tenrou Island}} to avoid hurting other people. Unfortunately, by the end of chapter 249, the machinations of Grimoire Heart cause him to forget compassion again {{spoiler|and Master Hades becomes his latest victim. The formerly kindly Zeref then derides his victim as "trash" that should just fall into the abyss.}}

** Their [[Tyke Bomb|Tykebombs]], the pre-Extended and Extended are almost as bad, albeit for more sympathetic reasons. The [[Psycho Serum]] they're forced to take has left them all in varying states of [[Sanity Slippage]], with no ability to empathise. [[BFG|Orga]] doesn't care who he shoots at, [[Sore Loser|Clotho]] sees it all as [[Not a Game|some kind of game]], [[Sociopathic Soldier|Auel]] and ''especially'' [[Axe Crazy|Shani]] take a sadistic delight in slaughtering their enemies, [[Only Sane Man|Sting]]'s just utterly cold-blooded, and [[Cloudcuckoolander|Stella]]? The most [[Tragic Monster|sympathetic]] of the group? She doesn't even see people as ''people''. They're all "Scary Things', and need to die because of it.

* Most of the villains in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]''. Bask Om, Jamitov Hymem, and ''especially'' [[Psycho for Hire|Yazan Gable]] wouldn't know empathy if it snuck up and bit them in the ass. Congratulations on making [[Jerk Jock|Jerid Messa]] and [[Dark Messiah|Paptimus Scirocco]] look like the reasonable ones, [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]!

* From the original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'': Char Aznable has [[Ace Pilot|many]], [[The Chessmaster|many]], [[Badass|talents]]. The ability to see other people as anything other than tools is not among them, although there are one or two people (Lalah Sune, his sister Artesia) whom he seems to care about. [[A Nazi By Any Other Name|Gihren]] [[Social Darwinist|Zabi]] plays this trope very straight, [[Self Made Orphan|killing his father]] [[Evil Prince|so that he can usurp his position]], turning his little brother's funeral into a ''political rally'', and never showing an ounce of regard for anyone [[The Sociopath|who isn't himself]].

* Gozaburo Kaiba, The Spirit of the Millenium Ring, and Dark Marik--who's little more than the human equivalent of a rabid dog--epitomise [[Lack of Empathy]] in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' verse.

* Desil Galette of ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' doesn't give a damn about anyone who isn't himself. He views the entire war as one big game, and the soldiers he kills as toys to be thrown away. This attitude is chilling enough in a child, but it persists well into his adulthood, and he eventually begins plotting against his own brother when the latter dares to upstage him.

* Griffith from ''[[Berserk]]'' upon becoming {{spoiler|[[Demon Lords and Archdevils|a Godhand.]]}} His very first action as {{spoiler|Femto}} pretty much says it all, as he {{spoiler|viciously raped his former commanding officer Casca in front of her love and his former comrade Guts [[For the Evulz|just to spite and hurt him]] ''[[Kubrick Stare|while smirking at him the entire time.]]''}} The evidence just gets more damning after he is {{spoiler|reincarnated into the physical world as a human}}, where he went to the Sword of Hills, a memorial to the Band of the Hawk {{spoiler|[[Deal With the Devil|whom he sold out during the Eclipse in order to become a Godhand]]}} just so he could find out if he could still feel anything about all that he did to his former friends and comrades. Turns out he doesn't. And says it with such a straight and rational face that it's scary.

* A vast majority of Supervillains from [[DC Universe|DC]] and [[Marvel]] comics.

** Norman Osborn, a.k.a. The Green Goblin, is probably a notable case. This trait is highlighted in "The Green Goblin's Last Stand", [[Spider-Man]]'s (original) showdown with his arch-nemesis, where Spider-Man destroys Osborn's prized glider. Gobby fights with renewed anger, vowing to make Spider-Man pay for this travesty, while pointedly brushing off the fact that he just ''murdered'' someone an hour ago.

** Scott Adams has joked that he himself might be a sociopath.

* During the ''New Krypton'' storyline, there is a scene where two Kryptonians take a walk down the street, discussing [[Superman]] and [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|his bizarre desire to protect these]] [[Puny Humans]]. A car crashes. The bystanders, recognizing them as Kryptonians, beg them to help. The duo don't even react to them and continue their talk, eventually flying away.

* Max Barry's ''Machine Man'' has Dr. Charles Neumann. He has virtually no empathy whatsoever at the start. This goes further as he {{spoiler|starts replacing his body parts with Better Parts}}.

* Unlike their sympathetic counterparts in the ''[[Blade Runner]]'' movie, the replicants of ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep]]'' are essentially sociopaths, right down to the lack of impulse control, inability to plan ahead, and yes, the jarring [[Lack of Empathy]]. The scene were Priss cuts a spider apart for no other reason than to see how it will reacts is chilling, as is the clear delight that Roy takes in the deaths of his own allies. He seems to get a sadistic kick out of delivering bad news.

* Galbatorix in [[The Inheritance Cycle]] definitely lacked empathy. Ironically, the first time he ever experiences empathy in any way, it gets him killed.

* The narrator of spoof self-help book ''Oh, the Humanity'' definitely qualifies. The general impression is that he understands empathy in an abstract sense but has no ability to actually experience or apply it. Mind you, during his [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]] he considered "empathy" to involve a bully trampling his science fair project and saying "That must suck for you, dorkhole", so at least it's kind of understandable that he has trouble with it.

** And of course, one must mention Schillinger and the Aryans.

* Also shown in an episode of ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', which seemed to express the Scientologist view points of the lead actor.

* Reese from ''[[Malcolm in The Middle]]'' needs to have empathy explained to him by his father after this exchange:

{{quote| '''Hal:''' ''How do you think that made [a rival cook-off contestant] feel when you sabotaged her recipe?''<br />

* [[Dexter]] ''likes'' to think he's one of these, and keeps claiming as much in his narration. His actions, on the other hand, prove otherwise.

* Some of the killers in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', although a number of episodes have subverted it by having a killer who profiles as psychopathic, yet shows some evidence of caring about at least one other person. They even had one killer who once showed all this signs of fitting this trope, yet actually had a [[Heel Realization]] and tried to make up for what he'd done, which the show points out as being virtually unheard of.

** Wholly contrasted when {{spoiler|Moriarty finally shows up, and jests at Sherlock about their [[Criminal Mind Games|"game"]]:}}

{{quote| '''Sherlock''': People have died.<br />

* [[Big Bad|Lionel]], [[Arch Enemy|Lex]], and [[Axe Crazy|Zod]] all demonstrate degrees of this on ''[[Smallville]]'', with [[Alternate Universe|Earth-2]] [[Evil Twin|Lionel and Clark Luthor]] doing them all one better, but the show's crowning example of [[Lack of Empathy]] would have to be [[Robotic Psychopath|Brainiac]]. Totally void of emotions, he manipulates every member of the Season 5 cast without batting an eye, and later attempts to destroy the world in Seasons 7 & 8 out of a more or less intellectual dislike for people. Post-reprogramming he {{spoiler|gains emotions as Brainiac 5 and is quite [[The Atoner|horrified]] at his previous incarnation's actions}}.

* Frank and Dennis from ''[[Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''.

* The second season finale of ''[[House (TV)|House]]'' is {{spoiler|House's own conscience confronting him on his [[Lack of Empathy]] to his patients, climaxing in a heartfelt "I'm sorry," to the man he has wronged.}}

 

* Organization XIII of [[Kingdom Hearts]]. Perfectly willing to do horrible, horrible things to anyone and everyone (even each other) without so much as a hit of guilt if it means getting their hearts back. As Nobodies, they aren't supposed to be able to feel anything, which explains some of that. Even the most "emotional", Roxas and Axel, had no conception of the desires of one another, as Roxas ran out without thinking a bit of Axel, and Axel has no conception of why Roxas ran out, and just thinks of his own personal benefit from being with Roxas.

** In Roxas's case, it helps that he no longer trusts Axel or considers him a friend after realizing just how much Axel hid from him concerning Xion.

** "I wasn't being ''paid'' to feel."

* Genevieve Aristide from ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon]]''. Doesn't care that her actions would send the world even further into hell from what Harlan Wade did, she's got a job to protect. And it leads to her out-[[Complete Monster]]-ing the two actual people who could be considered monsters, which is incredibly difficult considering the people-melting, cannibalism, possessing, {{spoiler|[[Rape As Drama|raping]]}} and other stuff they do.

* ''[[Blaz Blue]] [[All There in the Manual|Setting Material Collection]]'' reveals that the Nox Nyctores weapons remove "unnecessary" emotions from their users in combat to make them more efficient. Yukianesa removes Jin's compassion, which explains a lot.

** And [[Blaz Blue]]'s [[Big Bad]], Hazama/Terumi, is pretty much a living manifestation of this trope. Not only does he [[Faux Affably Evil|gleefully revel in his complete lack empathy]], not only does [[Complete Monster|he get his KICKS out of crossing the]] [[Moral Event Horizon]]; being hated by others NOURISHES him.

* [[Heavy Rain|Lt. Carter Blake]] really almost has no empathy for anyone and everyone. The only ones who he has empathy for is Captain Perry, Ash, Grace Mars, and {{spoiler|Scott Shelby}}.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': Hojo, Hojo, Hojo, HOJO!!!!

** [[God Is Evil|God Almighty]] himself has a [[Oh Crap|severe case]] [[Paranoia Fuel|of this]] in [[Shin Megami Tensei]] games.

* Dimentio, the true [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Super Paper Mario]]''. He clearly sees his boss's feelings for his lost love as a weakness to be exploited, and does the same with Nastasia's feelings for Bleck.

** However, [[Mass Effect 3]] also shows that at least some of the Ardat-Yakshi who accept their forced seclusion can be perfectly moral individuals with strong emotional bonds, with some of them eventually being judged fit to re-enter society, and diary recordings suggest that a lot of them aren't any worse than normal teenagers would be if they were locked up in a monastery. However, it should be noted that the ones in the monastery are denied the addictive deadly sex that increases their power, so it's possible that all Ardat-Yakshi have the potential to become as evil as Morinth if they give in to it. How this differs from any normal person's capability to morally degenerate due to an addiction is never explained, and after the monastery mission it seems likely that Ardat-Yakshi in general are the victims of propaganda that is strengthened by the crimes of those who do become [[Serial Killer|Serial Killers]].

 

 

** But at least White Knight has some justification, unlike Van Kleiss. He's the only true human left on the planet, everyone else could mutate into a rampaging EVO at any moment, some of which cannot be cured and must be killed. In his position, he's got some justification for being unfeeling to most other people, he's litterally the only person on Earth who can be trusted to never mutate into an EVO.

* Eustace from ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''. Throughout the series the only moment he ever showed true empathy was when he hallucinated Courage as a version of his younger self, and gave him his hat out of pity. It makes the audience wonder what worth his kind wife Muriel sees in him.

* Almost every Disney villain is like this, though the Queen from [[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Disney)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]] and Frollo from [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]] are probably the best examples.

* Even though he's justified by being [[Surrounded By Idiots]], Squidward from ''[[Spongebob SquarePants]]'' himself is often shown to be indifferent in later episodes such as refusing to help a man who was handcuffed by Mr. Krabs for not paying. But Mr. Krabs tops the cake more than the Aloof [[Ted Baxter]], as his greed takes over his empathy and even common sense.

* [[The Joker]] was pretty much insane and [[Kick the Dog|kicked the dog]] on several occasions, but what really cemented him with this trope was during the infamous flashback in ''[[Batman Beyond Return of the Joker]]'', where Joker mocks Batman after learning his [[Secret Identity]] from torturing Robin enough to drive him insane ''while showing Batman that he filmed it all''. When Batman manages to crash through a window and beats him to a pulp, Joker nonchalantly tells him, "If you don't like the movie... I've got slides!" When Batman threatens to "break [Joker] in two", Joker is unafraid, saying that if Batman really wanted to "have that kind of fun", he would have done it years ago.

* Captain Tunar in ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' is [[Animal Nemesis|obsessed]] with killing The Ramlak, a monster who destroyed his home, and has no regard for the lives of his crew, who he sees as a bunch of worthless weaklings. He strikes up a rapport with protagonist Lion-O, who also desires [[Revenge Before Reason|vengeance]] on a villain who destroyed his kingdom. But after seeing where Tunar's [[He Who Fights Monsters|actions lead]], Lion-O turns from his course.

** He's not even ''capable'' of empathy: He's the embodiment of [[Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad|Disharmony]], and one of the [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|Elements of Harmony]] is Kindness; therefore, Discord is quite literally the ''embodiment of cruelty'', the opposite of Kindness.

* Roger from ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]''. The one time he ''tried'' to show empathy for others it nearly killed him -- empathy is ''toxic'' to his race.

[[Category:Emotion Tropes]]

[[Category:Lack Of Empathy]]