History Main / Dismotivation

See also AlmightyJanitor. Compare AmbitionIsEvil. When this applies to society as a whole it's a WorldOfMediocrity

See also AlmightyJanitor. Compare AmbitionIsEvil. When this is a whole society this is a WorldOfMediocrity

See also AlmightyJanitor. Compare AmbitionIsEvil.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'''s Demyx would like nothing better than to just sit around the Castle that Never Was and write songs. He actually bribes you to do his missions in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days.]]''
** Though he's not completely demotivated. Axel explains that Demyx's specialty is scouting and observation, which he does enjoy. It's the missions where he has to do more than sneak and watch that he dislikes.
* Many games force this on the player, if they're trying to achieve some sort of perfect or near perfect game. Many games feature ''EmptyLevels'', where the player is punished with lower overall stats or some other disincentive for levelling up normally, and thus are better served by running away from every single random encounter and fight bosses with the main character dead for the whole battle.

* [[{{NEET}} The Sextuplets]] from ''Anime/OsomatsuSan''.
* Kuroro Lucifer of ''Manga/HunterXHunter''.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Ikkaku Madarame from refuses to let anyone know he can use [[SuperMode bankai]], because he wants to continue serving under Kenpachi Zaraki.

* In ''LightNovel/MyTeenRomanticComedySNAFU'', the trope fits Hachiman to a T. Among the usual reasons for example he doesn't want to be hurt again, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his dismotivation, makes his point of view clear:
** ''"We only change to avoid the current situation. The true meaning of not running away is planting your feet firmly in the ground and doing the best you can with your present. Who's running away now? Why can't you just accept who you are and were?"''

* Victor Tugelbend, protagonist of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', bases his life (up until [[CallToAdventure the plot kicks in]]) on wanting to remain a student at Unseen University: he studies very hard so as to be able to maintain a perfect 84% average, because that's the only number that allows him to both keep his scholarship and not graduate. Similarly, he's athletic because it's easier to get things done with a fit physique and tries to be well-groomed and well-dressed because it's easier to get dates that way. An example of the "takes more work" version.
** Also from the Discworld, Rincewind, who wants to avoid any excitement or heroism for the rest of his life, even though it gets him congratulations and the admiration of pretty girls. However, he has historically been Fate's ButtMonkey, so...
*** Fate just hates him because he's the best tool of The Lady (-Luck) in their eternal rivalry.
** William de Worde, from ''The Truth'', got a reputation for keenness at sport while at school because he was always dashing about the field and shouting. His sports masters evidently overlooked the fact that he was invariably doing so, while remaining ''a long way from the ball'' or any possibility of getting caught up in a scrum over it.

* Andy of ''MissionHill'' actively mocks his little brother Kevin for choosing to focus on school over drinking and partying. Kevin, on his part, is upset that Andy chooses his lazy, layabout lifestyle over trying to get his (very good) cartoons published. One episode took Andy's dismotivation to extremes - he had just lost his job, and spent his days waking up in the afternoon, drinking, and basically wallowing in his own filth.

-->--'''Peter [=LaFleur=]''', ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory''

* Kuroro Lucifer of HunterXHunter.

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' example: This turns out to be Mal's motivation in ''Better Days'', realizing that he is genuinely happier in his small ship running dangerous jobs all around the galaxy, then actually getting a big score and being able to retire.

* The Chaos god Nurgle in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' and ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'' is the embodiment of decay and stagnation (among others, such as disease and possible love), and is opposed to Tzeentch, patron of the ambitious, the backstabbers and sorcerers (and is the embodiment of change and ''hope''). His units tend towards the StoneWall approach, their deadened bodies feeling no pain, regenerating with cancerous growths, and the knowledge that everything decays eventually.

* A common thing in sexuality and fetishes - the thought of abandoning control of one's desires is FetishFuel for many, often to their own frustration afterwards.

* Experiment 625 (or Reuben as he is now called) in ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has all the powers of Stitch but was regarded as a failure by Jumba because he would rather eat and make sandwiches than use his powers, which often makes him a pushover because he's too lazy to put up a fight with Stitch in the few times he's forces to assist Gantu in capturing an activated experiment. It's not until the last movie that ended the series, ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', where he finally gets off his butt and helps Lilo save Stitch and defeat an clone army of Stitch's evil twin, Leroy.

* Lightsong, one of the Returned deities of {{Warbreaker}}, not only doesn't believe his own religion, he actively tries to be as lazy, unhelpful, and irritating as possible to stop anyone else from buying into it. Due to the devotion and insistence of his high priest [[spoiler:his brother, whose daughter Lightsong died saving the first time around]] and the fact that he's really a decent guy, it doesn't take.

* Jaye Tyler in ''{{Wonderfalls}}'' exemplifies this trope but ends up helping others, often under protest.

* George in the first season of ''DeadLikeMe'', who goes back to work at the same temp agency she worked at prior to her untimely death.
* Morgan Grimes on ''Series/{{Chuck}}''.

* In ''MaiOtome'', Nao gets good grades, but has a BrilliantButLazy attitude, which includes not wanting to be part of the [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil Trias]], which is composed of the top three Pearls. Unfortunately for her, when Akane leaves school due to getting a position as the King of Florence's Otome, [[spoiler:and eloping with Kazuya at the last minute]], Nao takes Akane's position on the Trias [[spoiler:and later becomes the Fourth Column]].

* On ''{{Roseanne}}'', Darlene resisted going to a prestigious art school due to fear of failure.

* Unlike the rest of the Baka Rangers in ''MahouSenseiNegima'', Yue is actually one of the most intelligent people in the class. However, after the death of her grandfather or something like that, she stopped studying or trying at all in order to become the resident LittleMissSnarker. [[spoiler:When her memory gets wiped, she starts working hard again and then takes about six levels in badass by taking down a griffin dragon.]]

-->You can't have a nightmare if you never dream

* In ''AllFleshMustBeEaten'', a ZombieApocalypse Tabletop game, one of the sample characters offered is a "professional student", who has been in college 12 years, living rather comfortably off of his scholarship, and has come "dangerously close to graduating" on several occasions. Though it's mostly used as a HandWave for why he has so many seemingly-unconnected skills.

* ''{{Hyouka}}'': [[{{Protagonist}} Houtarou]] has two rules he lives his life by: "One: Never do anything you don't have to. Two: If you have to do something, do it quickly." [[spoiler:Satoshi]] is also an example. [[spoiler:He's content with being a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone because he realizes that there's AlwaysSomeoneBetter namely Houtarou.]]

* Kyon in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', which makes up a great part of his personality. He's also cynic and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]]. Probably the main reason why he's so [[ObfuscatingStupidity obfuscating stupid]] is that he doesn't care about anything. Most likely also the reason why he sucks at school, despite being ''very'' knowledgeable and aware of other people's intentions. He shows how an AlmightyJanitor looks like as a kid.
** He gets CharacterDevelopment regarding this after the events of Disappearance (the 4th novel later made into TheMovie). Feeling personally responsible for these events since he didn't step up and usually was lazy and saying how he wanted everything to just be normal, he decides to take action sooner to ease the burden on his friends, especially Nagato. Kyon becomes very good at getting things done...but still [[ObfuscatingStupidity plays dumb]] like nobody's business and hates being jerked around into doing more than he has to. He even supports Haruhi's leadership to trick her into doing some of the annoying bits for him. He may lead from the shadows when there's trouble, but he honestly seems to have no motivation other maintaining his spot as the lowest-ranked member of the brigade.

* Grif of ''RedVsBlue''. He acts lazy and incompetent that Sarge has slowly been giving him less and less to do, until he has practically no responsibilities at Red Base... just the way he likes it. At one point he takes Simmons' place as Sarge's second in command, but once he realizes that he'd actually have to do work, he gives it to Donut. It should also be noted that Grif is the only member of the Red Team that Church is wary of, realizing that his dismotivation hides the highest intelligence of the team.