Dude, Where's My Reward?: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Life can be unfair. For example, you've just saved the day, but everyone else heaps praise on to someone who was hardly involved in it ([[Framed for Heroism]]). Or, you've just saved the day, but you go on to lose a gymnastics competition you entered on the same day. You're probably thinking... "Dude, where's my reward?"

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Spike and Jet are bounty hunters who can never seem to cash in on the millions of Woolongs they would honestly deserve, for reasons that are as ingenious as they are [[Sadist Show|sadistic]] on the part of the show's producers. As the main characters can never sit back and relax and always need to look for new opportunities to screw up, this trope is in fact the very thing that drives the show all the way to the ending; by the final episode, after having dealt with everything from [[Psycho Prototype]]s to environmentalist groups bent on eradicating the human race, there's no paycheck to be had and the [[Big Eater|Bebop crew]] still find their refridgerator is (mostly) empty.

** Ironically, Spike and Jet have occasionally ended up with the potential to make lots and lots of money that they wouldn't honestly deserve (like the Grey Ash in "Waltz for Venus" or blackmail material on the Gate Corporation), [[Honor Before Reason|but they never take advantage of it and try to do the right thing instead]].

** Nah, they've pretty much actively been keeping out of the spotlight all the way back to the legendary, world-conquering Piccolo-Daimaou, whose defeat Bulma credited to "the forces of good" when she reported it to the news. By the end, they're actively hiding the majority of their powers from the public and helping Mr. Satan keep the glory in order to avoid dealing with the fuss of fame (and keep Vegeta from killing any reporters that try to interview him).

 

 

 

* ''[[The Incredibles]]''. In the opening scene Mr. Incredible saves a) a suicide jumper, b) a young fan, and c) a trainful of people. The jumper sues him because he didn't want to be saved, the train passengers sue him for their injuries, and the fan {{spoiler|grows up to become the villain Syndrome who is trying to destroy all superheroes.}}

* In ''[[Dragonslayer]]'', the hero and his girl return to her village to find the local priest extolling how God has struck down Vermithrax's evil, while the elderly king sticks a sword in the dragon's carcass for a medieval photo op. Neither the villagers nor the royal court acknowledge for a moment that the {{spoiler|hero's wizard mentor}} is the one who really brought down the dragon.

* ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]''. Andrew Steyn, without any conventional weapons, {{spoiler|rescues a bunch of schoolchildren by fighting off a platoon of guerilla soldiers and gets a runaway Land Rover under control}} only to have the appropriately named Jack Hind take the credit in front of the woman he loves.

 

* In [[Douglas Adams]]'s ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', Dirk winds up getting caught in a plot involving time travel, saving the entirety of creation at the very end of said plot. When he returns to his detective agency, he realizes that the meddling he did with time-travel has, [[For Want of a Nail|among other consequences]], caused him to lose a most profitable customer. He sends her one final bill that reads "Saving the world - No charge".

* [[Discworld|Rincewind!]]

* In the [[Liaden Universe]], what do you get for saving the planet? {{spoiler|KICKED OFF the planet.}} A subversion, though, in that {{spoiler|the protagonists were kinda thrilled to no longer have the responsibility. Played straight for some of the people who helped them, though.}}

{{quote|The injustice of it all welled up inside of him so that he wanted to yell with fury. If it hadn't been for him, nobody would even have known Voldemort was back! and his reward was to be stuck in Little Whinging for four solid weeks, completely cut off from the magical world, reduced to squatting among dying begonias so that he could hear about water-skiing budgerigars!}}

** And then later on...

* Twice in the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]''. First, after risking arrest to prove his brother-in-law is innocent, Fisk is thanked by said brother-in-law before being told to get the hell out of town, before he and Michael are booted out of town anyway. The second time they nearly get killed aprehending a group of wreckers, and though they ''do'' get a reward, Michael gives it away to his former crush as a wedding gift/piece offering to the groom without consulting Fisk first. He tries to justify this as the man having helped with the arrests by calling in the police, but Fisk thinks that, as the ones who found the criminals and foiled their plot, they shoul have gotten the money.

 

* Played with in a ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' episode where Harry and Tommy return someone's lost wallet. When they realize that they didn't get a reward, they spend the whole episode bugging the guy and dropping obvious hints. Finally, he gives in... and they immediately tell him to [[Keep the Reward]].

* Pretty much the story of Sam's life as the title character in the show ''[[Reaper]]''.

* [[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]] has this hard, and there isn't really anything he can do about it since magic is a crime punishable by death. He has secretly saved Camelot itself from total destruction multiple times over the course of the show. He saves Arthur's life [[Once an Episode]], often several times an episode, and aside from the exceptions that can be counted on one hand, either someone else gets the credit or Arthur never realizes his life was in danger in the first place. He's even saved Uther a couple of times, even though the guy's the reason why he has to keep his magic a secret.

 

* There's an old ''[[Doonesbury]]'' strip where the Skylab astronauts return from their mission to be congratulated by... the Lieutenant Governor of Iowa. In the words of one: "I'll bet we don't get a parade, either...."

 

 

 

* At the end of ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Orginal Generation'', the Hagane and Hiryu Custom has just saved the Earth from not only civil war but an alien invasion as well. ''Original Generation 2'' began with the ATX team underneath Kenneth Garret, a slave driver who gives them no time off for relaxation. When they escape from him they end up under the control of Lee Linjun, a no nonsense captain who will gladly sacrifice everyone for victory, and who is jealous that he didn't save the world. Both of these characters (as well as several others) consider the L5 campaign to be a complete fluke.

* Link is almost universally gypped. Poor kid deserves a knighthood or something for all the stuff he goes through in the games, but what does he get? In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'', he finds out that {{spoiler|the Windfish's dreamworld was erased and he's ''still'' shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean}}. ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' "rewards" him by sending him back in time to childhood and stripping him of his fairy. Most of the other games end ambiguously at best. [[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Midna]] may have said it best when she suggested that Link is meant to "toil in obscurity forever." Now remember that most of these Links are different people throughout history, and you realize that the name "Link" is a jinx for every poor sap that has it.

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog|The Chaotix Detective Agency]] more than likely go through this. Their first known mission was [[Sonic Heroes|orchestrated by Dr. Eggman]], leading to the three members to attack him when he promises to pay them "after [he] takes over the world!". And when he tries to escape after the [[Big Bad]] is defeated, Vector roars out "THAT SLIMEBALL!" and the trio chase after him again! And it's more than likely every other appearance is the same thing - they save the world, but they don't get a paycheck!

 

* Happens to Winter and Otra more than once in ''[[Girly]]'': They do all the work (well, them and elephants), Captain Fist gets all the glory. They don't seem to mind, however.

* Double subverted in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]].'' After saving the world from the Iridium Bomb, Bob gets a Congressional Medal Of Honor. He accepts it, sets it on his mantle, and largely forgets about it. Having it doesn't change his life one way or the other.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* 'Winning' ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]''. You get to live, that's it, and even ''that'' isn't even guaranteed: the winner of V0 got punted back into V1 and died, and {{spoiler|the winner of V3 didn't even live past his first year.}}

 

** Homer Simpson gets passed over for an "Employee of the Week" award to an "inanimate carbon rod". Later in the episode, he stuffs another inanimate carbon rod in a space shuttle door to prevent a Columbia-like disaster, but it's not him who gets a parade. Then again, he was the one who broke the door (among other disasters) in the first place.

*** In Homer's defense, no one on the ground knew about Homer's inadvertent meddling, and hell, when they landed, the ''real'' astronauts even explicitly stated that Homer was the one that saved them.

* An infuriating example occurs in [[Doug]]. Basically, Doug finds an envelope full of money. Naturally, being the good-hearted kid he is, he turns it into the police, and when the money is unclaimed after a month, it legally becomes his. As he is counting it, however, a [[Coincidental Broadcast]] from the old woman who lost the money in the first place appears on the TV, where she tearfully hopes for its return. He is motivated, out of nothing but the kindness of his heart, to return the money. His reward? A pack of gum. [[Being Good Sucks]], indeed.

** Something good ''did'' come out of it, though: he got the respect of his sister, Judy, which pretty much stuck for the rest of the series.

 

{{reflist}}