History Main / NoSympathy

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'': Ellie’s breakup with Isaac is seen as this by some. Throughout the series, Isaac has (among other things) witnessed countless people be brutally slaughtered and warped into Necromorphs, helplessly watched his last girlfriend kill herself, been manipulated and betrayed numerous times and subjected to MindRape by the Markers more than once. All of this and more has understandably left Isaac with ''extremely'' severe trauma and PTSD. Instead of, say, getting Isaac the help he clearly needs, Ellie leaves after calling him a coward for not just getting over it and later insults him for not wanting to rejoin the search for the Markers (aka the source of all his trauma).

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'': Ellie’s breakup with Isaac is seen as this by some. Throughout the series, Isaac has (among other things) witnessed countless people be brutally slaughtered and warped into Necromorphs, helplessly watched his last girlfriend kill herself, been manipulated and betrayed numerous times and subjected to MindRape by the Markers more than once. All of this and more has understandably left Isaac with ''extremely'' severe trauma and PTSD. Instead of, say, getting Isaac the help he clearly needs, Ellie leaves after calling him a coward for not just getting over it and later insults him for not rejoining the search for the Markers (aka the source of all his trauma).

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'': Ellie’s breakup with Isaac is seen as this by some. Throughout the series, Isaac has (among other things) witnessed countless people be brutally slaughtered and warped into Necromorphs, helplessly watched his last girlfriend kill herself, been manipulated and betrayed numerous times and subjected to MindRape by the Markers more than once. All of this and more has understandably given Isaac ''extremely'' severe trauma and PTSD. Instead of, say, getting Isaac the help he clearly needs, Ellie leaves after calling him a coward for not just getting over it and later insults him for not rejoining the search for the Markers (aka the source of all his trauma).

* Anime boyfriends seem prone to this, accusing their girlfriends of being "stupid" or "reckless" when it's clear that said girlfriend was trying to help them out. Bikky does this to Carol in ''Manga/{{FAKE}}'', Rei does it to Kira in ''Manga/{{MARS}}'', and the whole club from ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' do it to Haruhi when she tries to rescue someone from bullies. Often, this ties in with the advice to StayInTheKitchen, and can result in ValuesDissonance.

** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E11OneCoarseMealGaryInLove One Coarse Meal]]" has Plankton being driven insane by Mr. Krabs's relentless torment by dressing up as a whale (Plankton's biggest fear). Karen shows absolutely no sympathy whatsoever to Plankton's situation, instead acting like her usual DeadpanSnarker self.

A character who displays this trope can be and often is turned into TheScrappy, as audiences hate them for being nasty and spiteful pricks to people who've usually suffered enough to become TheWoobie - assuming they aren't intended to be a HateSink to begin with. This is the central conceit of the UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - the audience enjoys seeing them suffer because they usually deserve it. See also JerkassBall and IdiotBall (which are main and/or only reasons why the person unsympathethic while usually they do).

A character who displays this trope can be and often is turned into TheScrappy, as audiences hate them for being nasty and spiteful pricks to people who've usually suffered enough to become TheWoobie - assuming they aren't intended to be a HateSink to begin with. This is the central conceit of the UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - the audience enjoys seeing them suffer because they usually deserve it. See also JerkassBall and IdiotBall (which are reasons why the person unsympathethic while usually they do).

A character who displays this trope can be and often is turned into TheScrappy, as audiences hate them for being nasty and spiteful pricks to people who've usually suffered enough to become TheWoobie - assuming they aren't intended to be a HateSink to begin with. This is the central conceit of the UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - the audience enjoys seeing them suffer because they usually deserve it. See also JerkassBall and IdiotBall (which are reasons why the person fells no sympathy while usually they do).

A character who displays this trope can be and often is turned into TheScrappy, as audiences hate them for being nasty and spiteful pricks to people who've usually suffered enough to become TheWoobie - assuming they aren't intended to be a HateSink to begin with. This is the central conceit of the UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - the audience enjoys seeing them suffer because they usually deserve it. See also JerkassBall (which usually is the reason why the person fells no sympathy while usually they do).

A character who displays this trope can be and often is turned into TheScrappy, as audiences hate them for being nasty and spiteful pricks to people who've usually suffered enough to become TheWoobie - assuming they aren't intended to be a HateSink to begin with. This is the central conceit of the UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist - the audience enjoys seeing them suffer because they usually deserve it.
See also JerkassBall (which usually is the reason why the person fells no sympathy while usually he does).

* ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' Lisbeth Salander subscribes to the "PayEvilUntoEvil" school of BlackAndWhiteMorality and is such a {{Determinator}} that other characters ''call'' her the Franchise/{{Terminator}}. As such, she's unsympathetic towards those who don't take matters into their own hands. In the first book, after the discovery that [[spoiler:Harriet Vanger faked her own death to escape a life of sexual abuse from her SerialKiller father and brother, which left the latter free to keep killing women]], Mikael is very sympathetic, while Lisbeth is totally contemptuous, since she would simply have dealt with her abusers herself. (And has.) Though she gets slightly better over the course of the books, Lisbeth generally remains intolerant of any weakness, and it takes ''a lot'' to get her to pity someone.

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': Subverted in ''Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal'' after Roy Harper wakes up and learns he's lost both his right arm ''and'' his daughter Lian thanks to the villain Prometheus. While Roy's friends and family ''try'' to be sympathetic to his situation, they do an incredibly poor job and their efforts only make Roy's situation worse. While Roy's acting like a {{Jerkass}} due to the pain in his infected arm and reeling from the loss of his only child, it's galling that his mother figure ComicBook/BlackCanary barely does a thing to help before he goes off the deep end and essentially [[IHaveNoSon abandons him to rot]]. Later on in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', Canary looks back on what she did with extreme regret and is at one point haunted by an image of Roy calling her out for abandoning him when he needed her help. It's implied her lack of sympathy was due to her own trauma of [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice the events leading to Lian's death]] causing her to want to cut Roy out of her life.

** At the end of the Saiyan Saga, Chi-Chi refuses to speak or even acknowledge Goku's existence despite him having every bone in his body broken. Even before then, she jumped over Goku to get to Gohan and ignored Krillin when he pointed out that Goku was badly hurt. Her justification, it was ''Goku's'' fault that Gohan was in battle and hurt. This is ignoring that Goku was dead for almost a year and it was Piccolo who trained Gohan without his knowledge. When he did get to the battlefield, he told Gohan to stay back and then sent Krillin and him away, wanting to fight Vegeta alone. Gohan returned to fight on his own and Goku only told Gohan to fight since he couldn't move anymore. So, she's blaming Goku for stuff he had no control of. She was called out on this by several characters. Despite this being PlayedForLaughs, it's so [[DudeNotFunny jarring and completely unfunny]].[[note]]The reason Chi-Chi is portrayed this way is because [[Creator/AkiraToriyama the author]] was trying to make a commentary on [[EducationMama "education mamas"]]. Here, Chi-Chi is being portrayed as a gross exaggeration of this type of character.[[/note]]
** Gohan himself gets this from Piccolo after he has a FreakOut in the midst of battle, chickening out of a combo attack on Nappa and cowering behind a rock. Piccolo furiously chews him out over doing so and calls him a coward, especially when Tien dies mere moments later. Krillin immediately tells him off, pointing out that Gohan is only five, has never been in a real battle before, and shouldn't even ''be'' there in the first place.
*** Piccolo gets another moment during the Buu Saga. When Buu continues going on a rampage even without Babidi to control him, Goku is [[SympathyForTheDevil somewhat sympathetic]] and remarks that [[ObliviouslyEvil killing may be the only thing Buu knows how to do]]. Piccolo immediately rebukes it and tells Goku not to make excuses for Buu, stating that even if it ''is'' true, [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse one's background doesn't excuse an act of evil]].

[[folder:Comics]]

* Poor WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck. This trope is a big factor in making him TheChewToy. Girlfriend Daisy is particularly prone to empathy failure. No matter what catastrophe befalls her beau, Daisy won't bother to staunch the bleeding before she sets in with a vicious rant-a-thon.

* Unintentionally subverted in ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal]]'' after Roy Harper wakes up and learns he's lost both his right arm ''and'' his daughter Lian thanks to the villain Prometheus. While Roy's friends and family ''try'' to be sympathetic to his situation, they do an incredibly poor job and their efforts only make Roy's situation worse. While Roy's acting like a {{Jerkass}} due to the pain in his infected arm and reeling from the loss of his only child, it's galling that his mother figure ComicBook/BlackCanary barely does a thing to help before he goes off the deep end and essentially [[IHaveNoSon abandons him to rot]]. Later on in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', Canary looks back on what she did with extreme regret and is at one point haunted by an image of Roy calling her out for abandoning him when he needed her help. It's implied her lack of sympathy was due to her own trauma of [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice the events leading to Lian's death]] causing her to want to cut Roy out of her life.
* [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] is often the recipient of this kind of attitude. Of course, from the perspective of the characters who usually demonstrate this attitude towards him, Peter is flaky, unreliable and possesses almost no sense of responsibility; the audience, of course, are more than aware of the [[SecretIdentity real reasons]] why Peter acts this way, thus making it particularly painful and unfair for him to be condemned for his behavior when he can't actually reveal the real reasons for it in his own defense.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* ''Fanfic/MegamiNoHanabira'': [[spoiler:Yuuna outright states she feels no sympathy for the Flock members still serving Phillips out of [[TheMobBossIsScarier fear of him]]. After everything the terrorists did over the week, as far as she's concerned by that point, they're just villains to be swatted aside who have no acceptable reason for what they're doing.]]
* Over the course of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'', [[JerkSue Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way]] feels little sympathy towards her own boyfriend Draco, often making completely absurd explanations for situations in which he suffers.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* ''Literature/TheBible'': In the ''Literature/BookOfJob'', this is the treatment that the eponymous character receives from his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They claim that him sinning must be the reason why all these [[LaserGuidedKarma bad things have happened]], although in actuality, it was God who had taken away Job's wealth and children and putting boils on him to test his faith after accepting Satan's bet earlier. Despite this, Job protests to his friends that he has been upstanding for all of his life and during his suffering, he remains faithful to God.

[[folder:Comics]]
* Arseface from ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' got his distinctive looks by trying to kill himself by putting a shotgun under his chin; he was trying to emulate [[Music/{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]]'s suicide. His cold-hearted father's first words to him in the hospital? "Shoulda put it in your mouth, you dumb little fuck."

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Hobbes from ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' never has any sympathy to Calvin when he gets in trouble despite being his best friend, but unlike many other examples on his page, it's actually justified. Hobbes is with Calvin whenever he's planning to do something that will (very obviously) blow up in his face, and will advise against it. After Calvin inevitably ignores his advice, Hobbes will switch gears and instigate the situation either by trolling Calvin or making the problem worse (often capped by Calvin trying to pin the blame on Hobbes when he's busted by his parents). When Calvin's suffering from something that ''isn't'' his own fault, Hobbes will be genuinely helpful and sympathetic.
[[/folder]]

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E4DyingForPieImitationKrabs Dying For Pie]]", this is initially quite averted with Squidward, who is quite guilt-ridden to learn that [=SpongeBob=] will supposedly die at sunset because of him and willingly joins [=SpongeBob=] in a variety of ridiculous (and even dangerous) activities to make his last hours as meaningful as possible. [[AllForNothing However, when [=SpongeBob=] does not explode as expected, instead of being happy, Squidward is ''angry because his time was wasted]].''

** Vegeta gets this from Krillin during the Cell Saga after he gets his ass kicked by Perfect Cell, and in this case, it's completely justified, since Vegeta deliberately ''helped'' Cell become perfect for the sake of a good fight, [[WhatAnIdiot arrogantly assuming he could easily beat Cell no matter how strong he got]]. Krillin only decides to help Vegeta out for Trunks' sake, openly saying that he wouldn't care if Vegeta died, and as far as he's concerned, he ''deserves'' to be killed for being such an idiot.

** "[[Recap/TheCasagrandesS1E6StressTestHowToTrainYourCarl Stress Test]]": After four pailed attempts to pass his AchievementTestOfDestiny, Bobby returns to his apartment with tears running down his face. While everyone else tries to comfort Bobby, Carl, who only wants to eat some celebratory cake, tries to slap Bobby silly with a newspaper, which earns him a ShoeSlap courtesy of Abuela Rosa.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Despite the claims of Chloe and Goh being best friends, Chloe points out that Goh has ''never'' been there for her and obsesses more on Mew, Pokémon and Ash. When she bitterly asks where the hell he was when she was bullied and teased at school, he replies that he was chasing his dreams, which she ''lacks''. While some of Goh's problems could be justified in that he has NoSocialSkills, this only proves to Chloe that Goh really doesn't care for her and is the final straw that makes her run away and board onto the Infinity Train.

** On the flip side, Marinette reaches the point where she StoppedCaring about Adrien and the rest of her {{False Friend}}s, cutting them out of her life. While she later admits to Luka that she ''does'' feel some pangs of guilt over how badly they were hurt, the fact remains that [[IWarnedYou she tried to warn them]] to no avail, and with the majority insisting that [[NeverMyFault they didn't do anything wrong]], she ultimately can't ''afford'' to care about them.

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E4DyingForPieImitationKrabs Dying For Pie]]", this is initially quite averted with Squidward, who is quite guilt-ridden to learn that [=SpongeBob=] will supposedly die at sunset because of him and willingly joins [=SpongeBob=] in a variety of ridiculous (and even dangerous) activities to make his last hours as meaningful as possible. However, [[when [=SpongeBob=] does not explode as expected, instead of being happy, Squidward is ''angry AllForNothing because his time was wasted]].''

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E4DyingForPieImitationKrabs Dying For Pie]]", this is initially quite averted with Squidward, who is quite guilt-ridden to learn that [=SpongeBob=] will supposedly die at sunset because of him and willingly joins [=SpongeBob=] in a variety of ridiculous (and even dangerous) activities to make his last hours as meaningful as possible. However, when [=SpongeBob=] does not explode as expected, instead of being happy, Squidward is ''angry [[AllForNothing because his time was wasted]].''

** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E4DyingForPieImitationKrabs Dying For Pie]]", this is initially quite averted with Squidward, who is quite guilt-ridden to learn that [=SpongeBob=] will supposedly die at sunset because of him and willingly joins [=SpongeBob=] in a variety of ridiculous (and even dangerous) activities to make his last hours as meaningful as possible. However, when [=SpongeBob=] does not explode as expected, instead of being happy, Squidward is ''angry because his time was wasted.''

* In ''Series/SquidGame'', when Gi-hun goes to his estranged ex-wife to beg for money to help his dying mother, he gets upset when she refers to her new husband as their daughter's father and she retorts that he doesn't deserve to call him her father, citing him [[MaternityCrisis missing her birth]] as an example. While Gi-hun was [[TheGamblingAddict far from a perfect provider]], it's revealed later on that he and many other employees at the car company they worked at were taking part in a protest over mass layoffs at the time. The whole reason he missed their daughter's birth was ''because'' he was trying to be a good father and provide for them, and on top of that he was traumatized from seeing one of his coworkers beaten to death by riot police in front of him.

** ''[[RunningGag Another example]]'' (This happened to Ash a lot, didn't it?) was in the very second episode when Ash carried an injured Pikachu to Viridian City's Pokémon Center. The Nurse Joy of the center angrily berates Ash for his supposed reckless care of Pikachu, completely unaware that Pikachu had been the one treating Ash poorly and refused to stay inside the Pokéball, or that they were attacked by a flock Spearow which Pikachu fended off.
** And what about the time they found Togepi's egg? No matter if Brock was the more experienced in raising Pokémon; what rights did he have to snatch the egg from Ash's hands the way he did and then run off with it? Worse, Misty ''gleefully'' supported it, and then she has the luck of Togepi seeing her first as soon as it hatches.