History Main / NoSympathy

* a) Ask "what the heck happened to you?" as you reach for the fire extinguisher?

* The use of this trope is often detrimental to the characters of NCIS (making them occasionally come off as unlikeable sociopaths) because of the way the show shifts between comedy and drama, the tone determining whether their will be sympathy or not and the audience [[YourMilegeMayVary disagreeing with the writers' sense of humour]].

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', in the beginning of season 3, Buffy returns home from LA after runaway without bothering to inform anyone that she had, infact, managed to survive the latest Apocalypse. The response of her friends? They berate her for disappearing, and are having trouble reconnecting with her. [[spoiler:She had to fight her AxCrazy lover to the death, after spending months trying to find a way to defeat her mass-murdering boyfriend and then after essentially getting thrown out of her house. And Xander explains to her that this was a traumatic experience for all of them, not just her.]]

* The biggest part of Mary Jane's [[TheScrappy scrappydom]] in the ''Film/{{Spider-Man}}'' movies is her performance in the second film. Even not knowing that Peter is a superhero, you'd think most people would understand that a full-time college student struggling to keep his studio apartment might not have as much free time as a retiree (Aunt May), a jobless loser (MJ's dad) or a wealthy heir (Harry) would to go and see her play, and yet she treats him very cruelly based on this fact alone and refuses to hear his legitimate reason for missing it (the usher refused to admit him, to say nothing of the fact that his motorscooter was ''destroyed in an accident.'')

Supertrope of BadlyBatteredBabysitter. Contrast UngratefulBastard. If a character is deliberately stated to be ''incapable'' of sympathising with the feelings or viewpoints of others, that's LackOfEmpathy. If you're looking for a ''character'' who garners no sympathy, see CompleteMonster. For when nobody seems to find women enacting random violence towards men at all unusual see UnprovokedPervertPayback.

Supertrope of BadlyBatteredBabysitter. Contrast UngratefulBastard. If a character is deliberately stated to be ''incapable'' of sympathising with the feelings or viewpoints of others, that's LackOfEmpathy. If you're looking for a ''character'' who garners no sympathy, see CompleteMonster.

** At least Buttons was spared the pain in the episode where [[TinyToonAdventures Elmira]] made a guest appearance. Mindy wanders off with Elmira following, and Button's about to after her when Yakko stops him and says "Don't worry, we got it covered".

* In ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', in the beginning of season 3, Buffy returns home from LA after a series of events that can be safely called mindcrushing. The response of her friends? They berate her for disappearing, and tell her that she should be ashamed of herself for not being around to comfort them after the season 2 finale. [[spoiler:She had to fight her lover to the death, after essentially getting thrown out of her house. And Xander explains to her that this was a traumatic experience for him.]]

* {{House}} seems to go out of his way to invoke this in other people, just so he can protect his ego. For example, take the Tritter thing; Being tripped was humiliating, sure, but the other characters might have had more sympathy for him if he had actually told them about that, instead of keeping it to himself.

** Not that House himself isn't guilty of showing other people No Sympathy. [[NewOldFlame Stacy]]'s husband and the patient from the episode ''Who's Your Daddy?'' would have something to say about it.
*** It's been said that the reason House told Stacy to leave him when she wanted to stay, was because he felt sorry for her husband, who was a better partner for her than House himself could ever be, and who loved her a lot more, and in "Who's your Daddy", he's sympathetic enough not to reveal the girl's lie about her paternity.
*** Basically, he's a colossal dick who occasionally gets a PetTheDog moment.

* There is a rather overlooked example of this trope in ''{{Preacher}}''. [[spoiler: A subplot in the comic is that Jesus secretly survived being crucified and married and had children. After his death, an organization called the Grail took care of his descendants, allowing them to only breed with each other to preserve the purity of the bloodline, with the goal of one day establishing its last heir as the new king of the world. 2000 years later, they have predictably devolved into deformed, mentally retarded monsters, but the Grail still intends to present the last descendant, a young teenage-boy called simply The Messiah, as the saviour of the world. This leads to one of the Grail's agents, herr Starr, conspiring to kill him and place the comic's hero Jesse Custer as the new Messiah, and he manages to finally kill the boy by dropping his guardian, the Grail's leader, on him. Now, the Grail's plan to install him as the world's leader is indeed madness, but what tends to be overlooked is that the Messiah was a basically a child of about 13 years at the time of his death, that he has no choice in being controlled by the Grail and is pretty much a prisoner, and that despite his retardation seems to be a fundamantally good-natured and cheerful kid. Despite this, none of the comic's characters nor the comic itself ever shows him an ounce of sympathy or understanding, and his condition and death is played solely for laughs.]]
** It's by Garth Ennis. Why on Earth are you surprised?

* PlayedForDrama in MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha. Fate Testarossa, only 10 years old, is told to collect magical artifacts of untold power by her mother, Precia. She throws herself at the task with reckless abandon, exhausting and injuring herself to dangerous levels. Her mother responds by whipping her until she collapses, furious at how slowly Fate's progress has been. It gets worse. [[spoiler: When it's found out that Fate is just a clone, Precia says something to the effect of "That's right. You're nothing but a fake. I never loved you ''once''. I ''despise you''." Fate STILL forgives her, and says that even if she's hated, she'll still protect her mother. Her mother smiles, and replies "How stupid."]]

Compare BadlyBatteredBabysitter. Contrast UngratefulBastard. If a character is deliberately stated to be ''incapable'' of sympathising with the feelings or viewpoints of others, that's LackOfEmpathy. If you're looking for a ''character'' who garners no sympathy, see CompleteMonster.

* There is a rather overlooked example of this trope in ''{{Preacher}}''. A subplot in the comic is that Jesus secretly survived being crucified and married and had children. After his death, an organization called the Grail took care of his descendants, allowing them to only breed with each other to preserve the purity of the bloodline, with the goal of one day establishing its last heir as the new king of the world. 2000 years later, they have predictably devolved into deformed, mentally retarded monsters, but the Grail still intends to present the last descendant, a young teenage-boy called simply The Messiah, as the saviour of the world. This leads to one of the Grail's agents, herr Starr, conspiring to kill him and place the comic's hero Jesse Custer as the new Messiah, and he manages to finally kill the boy by dropping his guardian, the Grail's leader, on him. Now, the Grail's plan to install him as the world's leader is indeed madness, but what tends to be overlooked is that the Messiah was a basically a child of about 13 years at the time of his death, that he has no choice in being controlled by the Grail and is pretty much a prisoner, and that despite his retardation seems to be a fundamantally good-natured and cheerful kid. Despite this, none of the comic's characters nor the comic itself ever shows him an ounce of sympathy or understanding, and his condition and death is played solely for laughs.

*** No one seemed to care, either, that when J.D. got the DUI, it was for "driving" a freaking scooter. He was treated by his co-workers the same way he would have been treated if he'd driven an SUV after drinking half of a bottle of vodka.

->a) Ask "what the heck happened to you?" as you reach for the fire extinguisher?
->b) Tearfully hug them in an attempt to soothe their distress (trying to avoid being set alight yourself)?
->c) Throw a hissy fit at their failure to secure the correct colour of gift, rant and rave at their clumsiness in breaking it, then toss them out of the house [[strike:when]] before they set off the sprinklers?

* The biggest part of Mary Jane's [[TheScrappy scrappydom]] in the ''Film/{{Spider-Man}}'' movies is her performance in the second film. Even not knowing that Peter is a superhero, you'd think most people would understand that a full-time college student struggling to keep his studio apartment might not have as much free time as a retiree (Aunt May), a jobless loser (MJ's dad) or a wealthy heir (Harry) would to go and see her play, and yet she treats him very cruelly based on this fact alone and refuses to hear his legitimate reason for missing it (the usher refused to admit him). To say nothing of the fact that his motorscooter was ''destroyed in an accident.''

* The biggest part of Mary Jane's [[TheScrappy scrappydom]] in the ''Film/{{Spider-Man}}'' movies, especially part 2. Even not knowing that Peter is a superhero, you'd think most people would understand that a full-time college student struggling to keep his studio apartment might not have as much free time as a retiree (Aunt May), a jobless loser (MJ's dad) or a wealthy heir (Harry) would to go and see her play, and yet she treats him very cruelly based on this fact alone and refuses to hear his legitimate reason for missing it (the usher refused to admit him).
** To say nothing of the fact that his motorscooter was ''destroyed in an accident.'' Of course, he didn't even bother telling Mary Jane that.

* Surprising aversion: In the second season of ''{{WITCH}}'', Taranee (the straight-A honor student) begins to fall apart from stress. Instead of unfairly throwing the book at Taranee, the principal decides to cut her favorite student some slack and ignore the girl's tantrums. Taranee actually has to ''beg'' for a detention.

* Not quite sure if this counts, but the little girl in {{Babe}} was quite the unsympathetic (or at least [[YouHaveFailedMe unappreciative]]) little [[UnderStatement brat]]. Remember the model house Farmer Hogget clearly spent several hours and much energy making earlier in the film? Yeah, it was meant to be a Christmas gift for her. When she unwrapped it on Christmas morning, she began crying and ''screaming'' that it was "the wrong one," and that ''she wanted the one she saw on television.''
** What make this scene worse is the reaction Hogget and his wife have to this. Just makes you wanna strangle the little twerp.

* ''RurouniKenshin'': Kenshin gets wounded in battle, and Kaoru yells at him for getting blood on her favorite scarf, which he happened to be wearing (never mind that the reason he was fighting in the first place was to ''keep his opponent from killing her'', and [[{{Wallbanger}} she forced him to take it even though he didn't want to]]).

** To say nothing of the fact that his motorscooter was ''destroyed in an accident.'' Of course, he didn't even bother telling Mary Jane that, making it a bit of a WallBanger.

* Not quite sure if this counts, but the little girl in {{Babe}} was quite the unsympathetic (or at least [[YouHaveFailedMe unappreciative]]) little [[UnderStatement brat]]. Remember the model house Farmer Hogget clearly spent several hours and much energy making earlier in the film? Yeah, it was meant to be a Christmas gift for her. When she unwrapped it on Christmas morning, she began crying and ''screaming'' that it was "the wrong one," and that ''she wanted the one she saw on television.'' * [[WallBanger twitch]]*

Here's a quick quiz: It's your birthday, and you have told your boyfriend/girlfriend/other Loved One exactly what you would like as a present to mark the occasion. You walk into the living room and find your gift...which has been [[BrokenTreasure broken/ripped into a million little pieces]], although someone has clearly been making a valiant effort to repair it. Moreover, it's the wrong colour. As you're staring at it, your Loved One stumbles in from the kitchen. They have their arm in a sling, their jeans have been ripped by something that clearly has sharp teeth, and they don't seem to have noticed that their hair is on fire. Seeing you, they offer a lopsided smile, and a tired if hopeful "Happy birthday."

* Ash occasionally gets this in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', especially when Misty was traveling with him. Most egregious example: "Ignorance Is Blissey", in which he is the victim of a very clumsy Blissey multiple times, to the point where he needs to be treated by Nurse Joy, and when he comments that he never did get supper, both Misty and Brock jump down his throat.