Fair-Weather Foe

Almost everyone in life has at least one person or group of people whom they don't like. This attitude can be based on prejudice, personal history, petty grudges, rivalries, a sense of superiority, and many more reasons. For some people, their hate and dislike for someone prevents them from showing any sort of politeness towards their enemies even if it would benefit them to do so.

The Fair-Weather Foe is not one of these people.

Just as a Fair-Weather Friend will abandon their "friends" when the going gets tough, a Fair-Weather Foe will gladly act nice to people whom they hated and mistreated if they think it will benefit them. A bully who regularly torments the nerds will have no issue acting nice if it will get the nerds to do their homework more than bullying. If they're a bigot, they have no problem being tolerant toward groups they hate if it serves their interests, like increasing their public reputation. A parent who disowns their children might have no issue begging their children for help while acting like they didn't disown them.

While this trope is typically platonic in nature, "romantic" variations aren't uncommon: A shallow person who only cares about looks will have no problem getting with a formerly ugly duckling, even if they used to make fun of them in the past. An Alpha Bitch who looks down on unpopular people might decide to date and/or marry one of the "losers" she used to pick on if the loser ends up rich and successful.

If called out on their previous misdeeds, expect them to make claims about having changed or put their past behavior behind them. Romantic/sexual variants of this character will claim that they were either Playing Hard to Get or that they were only acting mean because they were shy.

Sister Trope to Fair-Weather Friend.

Compare Ain't Too Proud to Beg, Beg the Dog, Entitled Bastard, Dirty Coward, Fair-Weather Ex, I Fight for the Strongest Side!, Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, Pragmatic Villainy, and Falsely Reformed Villain. Compare/Contrast False Friend and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, where a character initially pretends to be nice to someone before revealing their true feelings later on, and Crossing the Burnt Bridge, which involves someone trying to repair ties with someone that they cut out of their life. Contrast Befriending the Enemy and Friendly Enemy, for genuine attempts to be nice to an enemy. Also contrast Rivals Team Up, Enemy Mine, Realpolitik, and Teeth-Clenched Teamwork when the cooperation is more out of necessity than personal gain.

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Examples:

Fan Works

• In Amazing Fantasy, Katsuki's Professional Butt-Kissers start trying to attach themselves to Izuku after he gains his spider abilities, hoping to leech off his fame as the Prowler Kid. Aware of their intentions, Izuku refuses to spend time with any of his former bullies.
• Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down): After Izuku jumps in to save Katsuki from the Sludge Villain, Hawks publicly defends him, calling out the other heroes who were on scene for not only forcing a middle school student to take action while they stood around doing nothing but then attempting to punish him for his heroism afterwards. As a result, many of Izuku's former tormentors at Aldera attempt to cozy up to him, both students and staff alike, in hopes of riding his coattails...or at least preventing him from revealing all the horrible things he endured at their school.
• For His Own Sake: Naru combines this with Crossing the Burnt Bridge. After years of abusing Keitaro, treating him as her own personal punching bag until he Grew a Spine and broke things off with her, she proceeded to blame him for her Karma Houdini Warranty running out, even working with Mutsumi's delusional efforts to help them get back together just to get another chance at beating the shit out of him again. Yet after everything she did, as well as Keitaro repeatedly stressing that he wanted nothing more to do with her, she approaches him with a bright smile and generously offers to get back together. Naturally, this is entirely self-serving; having ruined her relationships with her mother and Granny Hina, she turns to Keitaro hoping she can charm him back into their toxic All Take and No Give dynamic. Somehow, she's legitimately shocked when this doesn't work.
• The Karma of Lies:
  • This is notably averted by Chloé — in fact, Marinette specifically highlights this as one of the reasons why she's ultimately willing to give her long-time bully another chance. Chloé's Character Development begins before she learns that Marinette was Ladybug all along; while the revelation naturally startles her, she doesn't start sucking up to Marinette and trying to curry favor with her. By contrast, Alya, Adrien, and most of Marinette's former classmates expect to continue taking advantage of their one-sided "friendships" while never actually apologizing for what they did, only for Marinette to declare that they stopped being friends a long time ago.
  • Lila also averts this; as with Chloé, this is used to strike a sharp contrast with Marinette's Fair-Weather Friends. Upon seeing Ladybug unmasked, Lila immediately realizes that all her lies could easily catch up with her even without Marinette directly retaliating, and sees no point in attempting to sway her to her side. Meanwhile, Adrien briefly acknowledges that Marinette might be mad about pithy details like his Betrayal by Inaction or Chat Noir not even bothering to show up to the final battle with Hawkmoth, but assumes he'll be able to smooth things over easily, while Alya never acknowledges how she mistreated her "bestie" at all.
• A Lady's Scout (and the Salt within her Soul): Most of Marinette's classmates turned their backs on her thanks to Lila. But when they start to suspect she might be working as a "hero scout" for Ladybug, several make a point of buddying back up to her in hopes that she'll put in a good word for them.
• The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Dash, Paulina, and Bonnie all combine this trope with Hates My Secret Identity and Loves My Alter Ego; throughout the original story and its spin-offs, they all looked down on Danny Fenton while admiring Danny Phantom. Once Danny's secret identity is revealed, Dash starts sucking up to him while Paulina and Bonnie try to steal him from his girlfriend. Danny sees right through their superficial behavior and wants nothing to do with them.
• Marinette's Week Off: Upon seeing that Marinette's star has started rising in the sequel, Lila immediately starts scheming to hitch her wagon onto the girl she targeted, tormented and socially isolated:
  Lila: (thinking) It's not too late, it can't be too late. I'll apologize when I see Marinette. The girl is such a sap, she'll fall for it. SHE HAS TO.
  • Alya herself also attempts to mend fences with her former "bestie", making no real efforts to hide that her about-face is entirely connected to Marinette's newfound fame.
• Quirk: Sequencer: Once Izuku discovers that he's got a powerful Quirk, many of his former bullies turn around and start sucking up to him, wanting to leech off his newfound popularity. Izuku exploits this in order to access their DNA so he can make his Quirk even stronger.
• Raise Yourselves Up (We're Done): After learning how much money Marinette and her friends have raised for their World Travellers' Club, Lila attempts to cozy up to them and join their club in hopes of tagging along on their whirlwind World Tour. Naturally, she's turned away.
• Resurrected Memories: After Danny's Secret Identity was exposed to the world while he dealt with the Disasteroid, the A-Listers have become extremely vocal fans, repeatedly hounding him to join their ranks. Danny wants nothing to do with them, as it's clear they only want to leech off his newfound status.
• Rise of the Phoenix: After Izuku learns the hard way that his Quirk is a Death-Activated Superpower, many of his former bullies and abusers at Aldera attempt to curry favor by sucking up to him. Izuku ignores all their efforts right up until somebody gets overly suggestive with their offers, at which point he snaps and threatens to use his Quirk if they don't all back off and leave him alone.
• What Goes Around Comes Around:
  • Averted by Chloé; upon learning that her favorite victim is Ladybug, she arrogantly assumes that she can just force Marinette to surrender the Miracle Box and all of the Miraculouses to her, and is utterly flabbergasted when this doesn't go her way...and, in fact, leads to her getting arrested.
  • Ms. Bustier plays this straight on Chloé and Lila's behalf, as she attempts to get Marinette to act as a Character Witness and use her influence as Ladybug to get them out of legal trouble, despite how both girls bullied her for so long. Marinette is having none of it.

Films — Live-Action

• Respire: Sarah, when she shows up at Charlie's house crying because her alcoholic mother hit her. Charlie forgives and supports her immediately.

Literature

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg usually hates Fregley due to the latter being a Cloudcuckoolander, but in "The Ugly Truth", when he and Rowley temporarily stop being friends, Greg becomes so lonely that he's willing to try to befriend Fregley.
• Milly, Molly: In the cartoon series, Humphrey generally doesn't associate with Milly and Molly due to thinking Girls Have Cooties. In "The Bad Egg", however, he's desperate to save some baby birds, so he's willing to enlist their help.

Web Animation

• ATTACK on MIKA:
  • Back in high school Kaneko would often bully Ichi for being poor. By the time of their class reunion, Ichi has become a successful businessman while Kaneko is nearly bankrupt. Kaneko tries to get with Ichi, claiming that her bullying in high school was just her being a Loving Bully. Ichi doesn't buy it and rejects her, as not only is he engaged to Mika, he also sees that she's nothing but a parasite looking for her next host to leech off of.
  • Back in high school, Koki was often bullied for being bald, his main bully being the Academic Alpha Bitch, Callaco. Years later during the Class Reunion, when he has grown hair and become a successful doctor, most of his classmates offer insincere apologies while Callaco tries to get with him. Koki calls out his former classmates for their willingness to act nice to someone they teased just because he's successful, before leaving to be with his wife.
• Etra chan saw it!: Back in middle school, Yuzuriha made fun of Tokusa for being short and having a babyface. Years later, during their Class Reunion, when Yuzuriha learns that Tokusa is handsome and rich, she tries to seduce him, assuming that he still has a crush on her. However, not only is Tokusa no longer interested in her, he is also engaged to Tsutsuji, who was always nice to him.
• Refreshing Stories: Menkui looks down on Hiroshi's girlfriend for dating his ex-girlfriend Reiko, an ugly, fat girl. At a class reunion, once Menkui sees that Reiko has lost weight and and become pretty, he starts hitting on her. Reiko rejects him, as not only is she with Hiroshi, who liked her before she was pretty, she also hates Menkuin being a shallow womanizer.

Web Videos

• Apple Texts: Pretty much every episode ends with the antagonist begging the protagonist, whom they mistreated, for help. Some common variants of this formula include:
  • Unfavorite children whose parents and/or Golden Child sibling beg for them to come back when they need them.
  • Mean co-workers who beg for help from the ex-coworkers whom they treated poorly.
  • Elitists who beg the people they looked down on to assist them.
  • Spoiled Brats who mistreat their parents promising to be good when they need something.
  • Deadbeat parents coming back to their children years later and begging for money and/or a place to stay.
• Pop Cross Studios: In The Beast Chroniclers and the Blade of the Northern Tide (part of the Tayruns Adventures And Beast Chronicling series), Tayrun finally decides to track down Ulitus, his evil predecessor as an Overseer, who the heroes Brought Down to Normal and abandoned on an island some time ago. Despite having killed Tayrun's family in the past, and being responsible for bad things happening to him, in an attempt to corrupt Tayrun into deciding to Kill All Humans (something that Ulitus does not express regret for), Ulitus feels confident in asking Tayrun for help in obtaining the titular Macguffin for the crew of Friendly Pirates Ulitus now serves, in exchange for giving Tayrun his bestiary containing information that will help Tayrun do a better job of managing his world. The reason for his confidence is because he knows Tayrun's compassion and curiosity outweigh his vengefulness, so while the heroes have every reason to want to kill him, they'll ultimately decide that they won't. Of course, while Ulitus is willing to be polite, if condescending, to Tayrun, he makes the dangerous mistake of treating Kayla, Tayrun's Action Girlfriend, with the same haughtiness and condescension he did when they were enemies, to the point of eventually threatening to kill her for accidentally endangering the crew, at which point Tayrun reminds him that, temporary ally or not, Ulitus is not allowed to try threatening an Overseer's girlfriend.

Western Animation

• Arthur:
  • Pal and Nemo usually hate each other, but in "Pets and Pests", they agree to work together to catch the mouse that's in the Read house. They even hug each other, though they immediately regret it afterwards.
  • Francine and Catherine are sisters, but they don't usually get along. Despite this, in "Prunella Gets it Twice", Francine begs Catherine for money (or at least, that's what's shown in Prunella's Opinion-Changing Dream).
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • In the episode "A Boy And His Ed", the Eds (including Double D) try to become "friends" with Kevin in order to get their hands on free jawbreakers. Naturally, they fail.
  • Eddy in "Pick An Ed" is both this and a Fair-Weather Friend; he creates a Paper-Thin Disguise named "Carl" to spy on The Kids, but once he gets a taste of popularity, he has no problem dumping Ed and Double D to hang out with them despite the fact that, with the exception of Nazz, Eddy usually can't stand them.
• Family Guy: In later seasons, Brian Griffin and Glenn Quagmire are Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, though one thing that Quagmire recurrently loathes about Brian is his tendency to be this, and suddenly try to be pally with Quagmire whenever he wants something or when he wants his ego stroked. When Brian calls out Quagmire's harsh attitude towards him (and that it was initially one way until he pushed Brian too far), Quagmire lampshades such in "Adam West High", and that Brian never sincerely wanted to make peace with him and just wants something from him. Of course, since so much of their rivalry is Hypocritical Humor, Quagmire is not above skulking for favours off Brian too, as shown in "Must Love Dogs".
• Horrid Henry: Henry usually dislikes Moody Margaret and Sour Susan, but in "Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy", he asks them for advice on changing his baby cousin Vera, believing that girls know more about chores than boys.
• Kim Possible: Bonnie Rockweiler in the episode "Ron Millionaire" is a shameless example of this trope; when Ron, who Bonnie thinks is a loser, becomes a millionaire, Bonnie outright admits that she's only interested in him now that he's rich, and once Ron loses his money, she wants nothing to do with him anymore.
• The Loud House: Mr. Grouse and Lola generally find each other annoying, but in "Diamonds are for Never", they team up in an attempt to find a diamond because both want the money it's worth.
• The Simpsons: Homer Simpson hates Ned Flanders, but in "Little Big Mom", when his daughter Lisa tricks him into thinking he has leprosy and he falls for it, he goes to Ned for help. Ned, however, is too scared to help.
• South Park: Eric Cartman displays this behavior a lot:
  • Cartman and Kyle have a mutual loathing of each other largely due to Cartman's anti-Semitism, but a number of episodes show that Cartman has no problem being nice to Kyle if it can benefit him in some way.
  • Cartman treats his mother Liane like dirt; he disrespects her, has framed her for selling drugs, once accused her of molesting him, amongst other things. However, whenever Liane puts her foot down, Cartman has no problem acting meek as a manipulation tactic.
  • The episode "Ginger Kids" begins with Cartman giving a hate lecture on gingers, which ends with him calling for gingers to be exterminated. When Stan and Kyle make Cartman believe he's ginger, he pulls a 180° and begins preaching ginger-supremacy, showing that Cartman is only okay with genocide so long as he's not on the chopping block.

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