Somebody Else's Problem: Difference between revisions

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Does somebody need a million dollars to pay off a loan shark? Is he bleeding to death on the street? Will a nuclear war start if he doesn't get the launch codes? [[Torture Cellar|Has he found out that young girls are vanishing into a house where the windows are coated with human blood]]? Whatever it is, he begs people for help—but no help is forthcoming. As far as they're concerned, it's '''Somebody Else's Problem'''. They're [[Apathetic Citizens]] and have more important things to worry about, like their [[Seinfeldian Conversation|back pains]].

 

 

It can be one of the reasons why the heroes are [[The Only One]] group dealing with a problem, [[With This Herring|even if they don't have the adequate resources for it]]. It can also explain [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|why they often grow to think that they must personally deal with everything]].

Note that the trope namer, the Somebody Else's Problem field from the third ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy]]'' novel, ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life, the Universe and Everything]]'', does ''not'' fit this trope (although it uses it), but rather is a short range [[Perception Filter]] created by [[Applied Phlebotinum]] and powered by the [[Weirdness Censor]].

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Code Geass]]'': "My mother is dead!" "Old news, what of it?" {{spoiler|This dialogue took place between a boy and his father. Just days after it happened.}}

* Ichigo Kurosaki attempts this in ''[[Bleach]]'', but [[Can't Stay Normal]] and [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]] get the better of him and eventually he's stabbing bad guys with the best of shonen heroes.

** What's odd is he's been able to see ghosts (called Pluses in ''[[Bleach]]'') and cares for them, but when [[Call to Adventure|The Call]] finds him, he takes his new powers, saves his family, and then tries to hand it right back. To be fair, it's probably a heroic case of [[Not What I Signed on For]]. Ichigo's used to helping ghosts with last requests and the occasional bit of [[Bully Hunter|bully hunting]] at the most when he starts out. He didn't plan on fighting massive demonic monsters who eat human souls.

* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'': Kyuubey only cares about things related to his mission, and is perfectly willing to {{spoiler|let the earth get destroyed}}.

 

* This is a regularly occurring concept in the Marvel and DC universes. Even in places where several super-powered heroes or organizations of heroes coexist, most notably the Marvel Universe's New York City metropolitan area, they tend to let everybody deal with their respective Rogue Gallery, regardless of the possible threat to civilians. This is averted on a fairly regular basis, but is still noticeable.

* In ''[[DMZ]]'', Wilson has kept [[The Triads and the Tongs|his army of "grandsons"]] out of several fights and military incidents because it either isn't their fight, isn't their war, isn't something that concerns them, etc. Wilson's only concern is building up his power in China Town/among the Chinese, and working towards being the most powerful force in Manhattan.

 

 

 

 

* ''[[Big Jake]]'': ''"I haven't interfered in anyone else's business since I was eighteen years old... and it damn near got me killed!"'' He changes his mind when he witnesses a [[Kick the Dog]] moment on the part of one of the goons.

 

* Richard Mayhew's refusal to yield to this trope, when he found Door bleeding on the sidewalk, led him into London Below in ''[[Neverwhere]]''. His fiancee declared it Somebody Else's Problem, and so remained in London Above.

** Residents of London Below tend not to be noticed by the Above folks in the first place. Later in the book, his fiance recognzies him for a brief moment, then is unable to even -see- him.

* The [[Oingo Boingo]] song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQy5vKAaTuA "Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me"] embodies this trope.

* Phil Ochs's song "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" deals with the political ramifications of this trope.

 

 

** In regards to characters the developers intended to be recruitable to your party, that's really more a case of [[Take Your Time]] mixed with [[Always Close]]. They ''are'' going to go do that in just a little bit, but you "happen" to show up before then.

* ''[[Final Fantasy]] X'' lampshades this with a merchant charging the party when a giant monster is rampaging outside. Even though he acknowledges that he might die soon, he has confidence in the party.

** Averted in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|Majora's Mask]]'' - everybody knows that something horrible is about to happen. By nightfall of the last day, almost all of them have fled town - of the few who you are able to locate at this point, they acknowledge their flight probably won't make a difference. Only those in serious denial of the imminent catastrophe (and you, the player) remain behind.

* Senel Coolidge from ''[[Tales of Legendia]]'' has this mindset at first. He acts as if the world revolve around Shirley, and if something unrelated to her is presented to him, he ignores them or at least tell him not to bugger him with it, pissing off many people, especially [[Tsundere|Chloe]], though eventually he stopped obsessing about her completely. This one is so bad that in the ''[[Tales of the World]]'', he gets a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] yell that he'd rather let the world be destroyed than just halting his search for Shirley, then he takes the hint (after all, if the world is destroyed, he can't even reunite with Shirley at all).

* This trope is why nobody helps Aeka with the horrible bullying she deals with in ''[[Yume Miru Kusuri]]''. People realize she is suffering, but don't help her for fear that they will become targets. If the player picks her route, Kohei and her get so fed up with this that they {{spoiler|leave school entirely}}.

* [[Badass Bookworm|Soren]] from ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Path of Radiance'' especially. His first response to finding [[Everything's Better with Princesses|Princess Elincia]] is to suggest leaving her behind, and then handing her over to the invading armies because "It's none of our concern." [[Dark and Troubled Past|There's]] [[Parental Abandonment|good reason]] [[Harmful to Minors|for his cynical outlook]] By the next game [[Defrosting Ice Queen|He Gets Better]].

* At the end of the ''[[Back to The Future]]'' Telltale games, {{spoiler|three alternate future Martys appear, begging for Marty and Doc's help in saving the future.}} Marty and Doc decide to just ignore them and go for a drive. In their defense, they had just finished a lengthy adventure across time and space, and it's [[Sequel Hook|strongly implied]] they'll get around to dealing with this eventually. Remember, they have a time machine and can deal with this sort of thing whenever they want.

 

== Visual Novels ==

== Web Original ==

* The attitude of the general population towards demons in ''[[Becoming a Better Writer|Demonic Symphony]]'', and oh boy does it backfire

** And a hat that functions as an SEP field—the effects of which are permanent if you wear it too much.

* [[Fine Structure]] weaponizes this with a weapon that turns a person into Somebody Else's Problem. You can scream and wave and punch people and people will care so little that they won't notice any of it. Or you. Ever again.

 

 

** ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' does this a lot. In the pilot episode, "I, Robot," Quinn is trying to save Sealab from exploding—but everyone else is too busy with a [[Seinfeldian Conversation]] to help. In "Green Fever," zombies attack the station, but Debbie is too busy preparing her birthday party, Stormy and Sparks are busy chatting about steel pipes, etc. Exactly who is uncaring varies; in "No Waterworld," Quinn is too busy with his monster truck to help Debbie find out why all the water around the station has disappeared.

** In ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'', Zorak and Moltar frequently get bored with Space Ghost's show, and decide their jobs on it are Somebody Else's Problem. Sometimes Space Ghost gets bored with his own show, and does the same thing.

** In "That Old Black Magic, every [[Exclusively Evil|anti-fairy]] escapes from prison, and Jorgen prepares to round them up. Then his shift ends, to which he responds "Your problem."

** The world gets taken over and heavily modified in every movie (twice in one of them) and the people act accordingly. Timmy usually makes an extravagant wish and somehow either everyone doesn't notice or is too stupid to understand what is happening.

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'': It's been heavily implied, in the show and by [[Word of God]] (Jesse Moynihan on his Formspring,) that Princess Bubblegum had this attitude about her creation, Lemongrab. He's mentally screwed-up as a result of being the product of a failed experiment. Princess Bubblegum probably couldn't handle the responsibility of raising him and looking after him, being the busy ruler of a princessipality, so she stuck him in Castle Lemongrab to be raised by servants.

 

 

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