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Have You Come to Gloat?

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Miles Edgeworth is having a rough Christmas.

"Thor. After all this time, and now you come to visit me. Why? Have you come to gloat? To mock?"

When someone is captured, and then one of the captors goes to visit the captive. The captive expects the captor to make with some Evil Gloating. A common thread is the one down on their luck making sarcastic remarks about their fall from grace that put them in such a situation ("Oh, it's you. So you've come to see the 'Great ___' and scoff at his hour of despair!") as an attempt to deflect the incoming chiding. But usually, if it's shown, then he hasn't come to gloat, and it's just Exposition. Sometimes he gloats anyway, though.

Not limited to captures, either - it can be spoken any time when there are two longtime rivals and one of them suffers a misfortune. Often used when a Sore Loser, a mistrusting or prideful character gets A Taste of Defeat and genuinely underestimates how much of a Nice Guy their rival is.

Sometimes the rival makes an unethical offer. For example, he may offer to buy the other partner's half of their business (the price is good, but it'll still mean they're out of business), or offer to pay the other partner's debts in exchange for getting the Love Interest, etc.

See also Don't You Dare Pity Me! if the loser doesn't want others to be nice to them.


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Cross Ange: Following Jill's fall from grace and subsequently being forced to step down as commander, when Ange finally returns to Arzenal in Episode 22 to inquire about Jill's past with Embryo, Jill asks if Ange has come to taunt her. Ange admits Jill did a lot of stuff she deserves to be taunt about, but she doesn't as there are more pressing questions to do.

    Comic Books 
  • Happens in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic. The turtles are being held prisoner by a crazed whaler who is essentially a Japanese Captain Ahab. When his first mate visits them in the brig, they start cursing at him and one of them shouts, "Come to gloat?" Subverted in that the whaler has actually come down to free them.
  • Played for tragedy in Empowered, when Empowered walks in on Sistah Spooky moments after the death of the latter's ex-lover Mindf**k. Unusually; within seconds Emp is bound, blindfolded, and surrounded by far too many levitating sharp objects as a grief-maddened mage demands to be gloated at.

    Fan Works 
  • A Different Lesson: At the very start of the story, when Shifu comes to visit Tai Lung's cell at the Jade Palace after the Wuxi Finger Hold, the snow leopard accuses his father of this.
  • A Captive Light: Kari to Ken. To her confusion, he hasn't.
  • Full Circle: Olympia asks this of Oona after she loses the battle in their invoked Ship-to-Ship Combat. Oona isn't — she's there to apologize.
  • Shadowchasers (Cyber Commander): Hebi-Na says this to Ember when she (Ember) approaches Hebi-Na after she loses to Wilhelm while in her weakened state. Ember doesn't.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Several times.
  • In The Pillars of the Earth, Remigius asks this to Philip when he finds him begging. Instead of that, Philip invites him back to Kingsbridge.
  • At the end of Spock's World, the Big Bad asks if Spock has the desire to make fun, because of the obvious slipping in said character's capabilities. Spock answers, "If that was my thought, there is nothing in it to do me ill credit." But he doesn't.
  • Yellowfang from Warrior Cats asks Molepelt this after she kills Brokenstar, since she had been feeling very guilty about it. To her surprise, he says he would never gloat. ShadowClan was his Clan too.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Blackadder II (episode "Head"), the gang finds out that Lord Farrow (whom Edmund is trying to impersonate) was missing an arm. Edmund sends Percy to speak with Lady Farrow and find out which arm her husband lacked, which results in Percy demanding proof that she's not just a "gloater" pretending to be a relative so she can mock the condemned man.
    Blackadder: "Gloaters"...you really are a prat, aren't you Percy?
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Most Toys," Kivas Fajo, the thief who obtained Data as one of his own possessions is eventually arrested and everything he stole returned. As he is imprisoned on the Enterprise:
    Kivas: (cynically) That must give you great pleasure.
    Data: No, sir. It does not. I do not feel pleasure. I am only an android.
  • The Punisher (2017). Dr. Krista Dumont attacks Agent Madani only to get pushed out a window, permanently crippling her. When Madani visits her in hospital Dumont asks this trope which she denies, though Madani isn't above gloating that Dumont's boyfriend Billy Russo will soon be dead after the three bullets she put in him.
  • In the Better Call Saul episode "Nailed" Mesa Verde drop HHM and decide to hire Kim Wexler's services instead. Jimmy McGill offers to help her retrieve their files from HHM, and from Jimmy's nemesis Howard Hamlin and his hated brother Chuck:
    Jimmy McGill: "You want some help?"
    Kim Wexler: "That depends. Are you gonna carry boxes, or are you gonna gloat?"
    Jimmy McGill: "Uh, some from column A, some from column B."
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Sabrina turns Libby into a geek to teach her how hard it is being at the bottom of the social ladder. Libby ends up having an asthma attack, messing up her cheerleading routine, and then being kicked out of the group by her friends. She runs to the bathroom, Sabrina runs in after her. This exchange occurs.
    Sabrina: Libby, I just came to talk.
    Libby: Don't you mean gloat.
    Sabrina: I can talk and gloat at the same time.

    Video Games 
  • Loghain from Dragon Age: Origins invokes this trope the first time the Warden speaks to him at camp. He'll ask whether the Warden is planning on insulting him or keeping him as a trophy. You have an array of dialogue options.
  • In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void this is said by Narud to the infested Stukov. Stukov's reply is he's there to say "goodnight you son of a bitch!"
  • This Dummied Out line from Portal 2 that was supposed to play after finding PotatOS again. It was changed later to sound less aggressive.
    GLaDOS: Oh. It's you. Go away. Come to gloat? Go on. Get a goooood lonnnnng look. Go on. Get a big fat eyeful. With your big fat eyes. That's right. A potato just called your eyes fat. Now your fat eyes have seen everything.
  • Played straight in Deus Ex, when Anna Navarre comes to visit JC in the prison compound underneath Unatco HQ. The usage of the line itself is inverted however, as she forestalls any such question by JC, saying outright "I came to watch you die". JC is defiant instead of angered.
  • The King from Deltarune invokes this trope if you visit him in jail at the start of Chapter 2. He then reveals that despite attempting to throw his son, it was just a bluff and he really does care for him.

    Visual Novels 
  • Subverted in Daughter for Dessert when Saul visits the protagonist in jail. Saul hasn't come to rub anything in, but to pay his bail and offer free legal representation.
  • Edgeworth says it to Phoenix in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney after being arrested. Of course, Phoenix isn't there to gloat, but rather to defend Edgeworth.
  • Slay the Princess: If you get to Chapter III - The Thorn, the character will greet the player by asking if you're here to laugh at her.

    Web Comics 

    Western Animation 
  • Invader Zim: In "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", future Zim asks this of future Dib.
  • The penultimate scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender. When Aang defeats Ozai by permanently disabling his ability to firebend and locks him up in a lonely prison cell, Zuko becomes the new Fire Lord and visits Ozai's cell in hopes of interrogating him to find out the whereabouts of Ursa, which ends in this dialogue.
    Ozai: I should count myself lucky that the new Firelord has graced me with his presence in my lonely prison cell.
    Zuko: You should count yourself lucky the Avatar spared your life.
  • In the Justice League episode "Hereafter", Lex Luthor showed up at the memorial service for the supposedly dead Superman. Lois Lane angrily confronted him and accused him of coming to gloat; he replied that he misses Superman too.

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