No Sympathy in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- A Familiar Void: One chapter shows a conversation between The Radiance and the Nightmare Heart (well, their respective mouthpieces). Nightmare laughs at Radiance's misfortune, and when it leans just how crippled she is, it simply laughs harder.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: 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 snaps back that he was chasing his dreams, claiming she can't understand that because she doesn't have any dreams of her own. Chloe takes this as proof that he really doesn't care about her, spurring her running away and winding up on the Infinity Train.
- Thousand Shinji: Shinji is very emphatic, but he has very little sympathy. He can understand other people's troubles but he does not usually give a damn about them, and he has little sympathy for those that whine about their troubles but do nothing to fix them.
- Weight of the World: Russia has no patience for America's PTSD, depression, trauma, and touch aversion. Nor does he have any interest in understanding the intricacies of mental illness. He tries to force America to get over it by roughly grabbing and attacking him. It doesn't work, and only makes America feel worse. Russia is annoyed by America's "weakness" and taunts him about it, saying he will continue with this "game" until America stops flinching at his touch. He also admits he is doing this out of boredom.
- A justified example occurs in Xendra when Buffy complains about how all her boyfriends have been jerks. Xander has no sympathy for her because she only ever dates "bad boys" and is then surprised when they treat her poorly. He even notes that she dumped Nice Guy Owen for being "too caring, too smart, and too interested in what she did with her life".
- Trade Us for the World: Marcy's parents swing back and forth between sympathizing with their daughter's depression over being made to move away from her Only Friends and complaining about how she's not helping anything with her moping. The critical tipping point comes one week after the move, when she loses an expensive textbook. Her parents ream her out and make clear that as a result of having to replace it, she won't be allowed to buy a ticket back to LA and visit her friends over summer vacation. Shortly thereafter, she finds the music box and opens it, disappearing into Amphibia.
- Socrates of Calvin & Hobbes: The Series is this, threatening Hobbes with a Pie in the Face if he doesn't stop crying (in a real Tear Jerker moment), though he does have his golden-hearted moments.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Denial: Not only does Mahiru constantly criticize Togami's leadership, she shows absolutely no empathy for anything he or Hinata suffer through. Even when Togami is clearly in shock after getting splattered with Akane's remains, Mahiru yells at him for not being able to prevent that tragedy.
- My Immortal: Over the course of the story,
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.
- Anger Management: Lynn Sr., Luna, Lana, and Lincoln's friends are all impressed that Lincoln "stuck it" to Lynn and barely seem to care that she's injured.
- An Alternate Keitaro Urashima:
- When Motoko starts going through a massive Humiliation Conga, Naru proves to be a Fair-Weather Friend, even outright declaring that she deserves to be suffering. Not because of anything Motoko did to warrant her Laser-Guided Karma, mind, but because her loss to Keitaro meant that Naru was forced to apologize for attacking him without reason.
- Granny Hina urges Ryuichi to stalk Keitaro and Miyabi for her. After he gets caught and loses his job, he turns to her for help, only for her to declare that his problems are his own fault.
- For His Own Sake: While Hina is briefly horrified when she learns what kind of abuse Keitaro suffered during his time managing the inn, she brushes that off in favor of trying to force him to return. She also fails to sympathize with Shakiko after Su destroys Shakiko's Inn, injuring her and several innocent guests in the process.
- Dad Villain AU: When Sabine falls seriously ill, Rolland dismisses it as her "faking", despite said illness being serious enough for her to be hospitalized. He only briefly acknowledges its severity when he tells Marinette that her mother's likely never coming back — and even then, he continues to act as though that's more a matter of Sabine choosing not to return home.
- The Karma of Lies:
- Adrien couldn't care less about how Lila is isolating Marinette from the rest of their class, or how she's tricking his friends into donating to her Fake Charity drives and doing other 'favors' for her. When Marinette desperately tries to get him to see how much she's hurting everyone, he dismisses her concerns and tells her to stop making such a big deal out of everything.
- The bulk of Marinette's classmates also don't care about how much they're upsetting Marinette by isolating and ignoring her. When they finally figure out that they've been tricked, the majority expect to be Easily Forgiven, never expressing a lick of remorse for how they treated her.
- On the flip side, Marinette reaches the point where she Stopped Caring about Adrien and the rest of her False Friends, cutting them out of her life. While she admits to Luka that she does feel some pangs of guilt over the whole situation, the fact remains that all her warnings fell on deaf ears. What's more, with the majority refusing to learn anything from the situation, insisting that they didn't do anything wrong and that she owes them her forgiveness, she ultimately can't afford to help them.
- The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral): In Gabriel's Lament, Plagg constantly gives Gabriel grief over his circumstances. Justified in that Gabriel is not only responsible for creating the problems in the first place, he remains self-absorbed enough that he only cares about 'fixing' the parts that directly impact HIM. Which is a large part of the reason why he keeps failing to 'set things right'.
- Lila's Lament: Lila, ever envious of Adrien’s luxurious lifestyle of a child star, has zero empathy towards him being a Lonely Rich Kid with a Missing Mom. To her, Adrien is just being whiny and not appreciating the luxuries of his life in stead of a mother’s love, and even directly mocks him when Plagg tries to reason with her over this.Lila: Oh, boo hoo, Adrien's mommy left him in a big house with lots of money and a bedroom with an arcade and a skate ramp built in! Wah wah, poor baby.
- Downplayed in Missing. Due to an akuma erasing Ladybug's memories of being Marinette, she no longer reacts to others the way that she used to when she remembered her personal connections to them. For instance, she recognizes Alya as the Ladyblogger, who was previously akumatized into Lady WiFi, and a member of that one class that seems to frequently attract akumas... but not as the girl Marinette considers to be one of her best friends. This causes her to act much more distant and curtly professional with her, much to her surprise.
- In Recklessness, Alya dismisses the sight of Sabine and Tom mourning over their daughter's corpse as 'needlessly dramatic', as she intends to rewrite reality by making a Wish and thus considers their current reality to be completely expendable. The fact that Marinette's parents are completely unaware of this simply does not matter to her.
- At one point in Scarlet Lady, the eponymous Nominal Heroine complains about Chat Noir keeping secrets from her, which he later passes onto Master Fu. Both of them completely shrug it off with a dismissive "sucks for her". Completely justified in this case, as Chloé/Scarlet Lady is an incompetent glory-hound who’s more interested in looking good than actually doing her job, and thus cannot be trusted with the secrets of the Miraculous.
- Sins of the Past: When Marinette confides in Adrien all of the hell that Lila has put her through, revealing how she threatened to completely isolate her and take all her friends away, and seems to be succeeding, Adrien responds by scolding her. Doesn't she realize that if she exposes Lila, she'll cause her to get akumatized? Why, she's nothing more than a bully!
- Two Letters:
- One of the signs that Marinette's time as Ladybug has taken a serious toll on her is how she Stopped Caring about the well-being of others. Too many people took her generosity for granted, to the point where she felt as though she had an All Take and No Give relationship with all of Paris... and as a result, she's largely unmoved by how her Sketchy Successor is handling things.
- Adrien is so self-absorbed that he complains about how Gabriel only started spending more time with him because he was Secretly Dying, claiming that invalidates his 'change of heart' because he wasn't doing it for "the right reasons". Yes, finding out that he was going to die and deciding to make some final memories with his son before he passed wasn't good enough for Adrien.
- Alix/Bunnyx is also completely unsympathetic upon learning that Marinette refuses to come out of retirement, outright calling her a "selfish bitch" for not wanting to return to the career that steadily destroyed her.
- Weight Off Your Shoulder:
- Adrien combines this with Moral Myopia after Chloé's Karma Houdini Warranty runs out. He angrily calls out Marinette and the rest of the class, accusing them of lacking empathy for Chloé's situation, all while completely ignoring how much they suffered under years of her bullying and abuse. As far as he's concerned, the only people whose feelings matter are Chloé's and his own.
- Future!Alix senses that Marinette is on the verge of giving up her Guardianship and passing the Earrings on to a successor, and pops in to "encourage" her... by telling her to "suck it up" and that all her suffering will eventually be worth it. She then accidentally reveals that things will be getting much, MUCH worse and that Shadow Moth will get his hands on the Miracle Box and most of the kwamis... and completely ignores Marinette and the Kwamis' horror at this revelation, continuing to talk down to them and insist on preserving her timeline at the expense of all else.
- What Goes Around Comes Around:
- The agent who reveals to Nathalie that they just discovered the body of the original Nathalie buried beneath the Agreste manor smirks cruelly at her horror at the realization that she's a sentimonster.
- Felix makes a point of not only mocking his cousin Adrien's naivete, but taunting him about all his parental issues and the way that he lost all his friends when they learned about his Betrayal by Inaction.
- The Wolves in the Woods:
- Adrien has absolutely no sympathy for Marinette, holding her accountable for how most of the class has been convinced that she's been bullying Lila. As far as he's concerned, she brought that completely upon herself by trying to warn them about the other girl lying. In one Flashback, he witnesses Kim and Alix beating the shit out of her in the park and walks away, unbothered.
- Alya's parents are unmoved by their daughter's Villainous Breakdown, as she sobs about how she just wants her 'bestie' Marinette back. In this case, it's completely Justified; Marlena spells out how Alya thoroughly betrayed her former friend's trust by encouraging the rest of the class to bully and belittle her, especially since Alya knew Lila wasn't telling the truth and was exploiting the situation to 'take Marinette down a few pegs', intentionally aiming to break her 'bestie's' spirit so she'd be completely reliant upon her False Friendship.
- Played With in this
Accusation Fic, where Adrien rejects Marinette's Anguished Declaration of Love because he's unhappy with how she keeps trying to convince the others that Lila is a liar. When Marinette declares that she doesn't care if Lila gets akumatized as a result of said exposure, since that might mean the others finally see her for what she really is, he declares that Marinette's "just another bully". This is shown to be Psychological Projection on his end; Adrien is the one who doesn't care about anyone else's feelings, being fully aware of how Lila is hurting the others and feigning ignorance because he doesn't want to confront her.- As a result, Felix has no sympathy for Adrien in this follow-up, as Adrien is presented with a Morton's Fork that he can't talk his way out of.Adrien: I know I upset you—
Felix: Upset? No, Agreste. 'Upset' is nowhere near an adequate descriptor for what I feel for you right now. What I feel just by looking at you... Disgust, certainly. Anger, definitely. And I wish I could say I was disappointed, but that would require anything you did to actually come as a surprise to me. And you... Well, I had already known you were capable of such cowardice, but at least now everyone else knows it, as well.
Adrien: I had no choice!
Felix: No choice? Don't be absurd. All you had to do at any point to help your friends was tell the truth. Or simply apologize and tell Marinette you wouldn't help. But that would require you to take a side and stay there. And you couldn't even do that much.
- As a result, Felix has no sympathy for Adrien in this follow-up
- Failure to Explode: None of the adults around Katsuki sympathize with how his failure to get into U.A. impacted him. Mostly because he refused to make any backup plans, arrogantly assuming he wouldn't need any because he was so sure he'd get into his dream school. As his parents put it, his plight is entirely self-inflicted; both had warned him to have a "Plan B" or two in place, but he completely blew them off.
- Toward A Bright Future: After an intense discussion involving the psychic teaching assistant Y/N getting a vision about a dramatic final exam involving All Might, she gets another one, this time involving Present Mic. However, this time she just pats his arm comfortingly and reassures him that he's strong and he'll survive, without telling him what he's in for. His panicked demands for a change in student opponents goes ignored, much to the amusement of his colleagues; Eraserhead is particularly unapologetic.Eraserhead: You’re the best suited opponent for them, so you’ll just have to deal with it. Besides, you heard her. You’ll survive, so what’s the problem?
Present Mic: Physically maybe so, but what about my mental health?! Does that not matter to you?!
Eraserhead: Meh.
Present Mic: SHOUTA!
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The entire story of You Obey occurs because Chrysalis doesn't care if she has to use torture to achieve her ends, nor does she care what it does to her own underlings.
- Some NaruHina works have others mock Naruto for not picking up on the signs of Hinata's crush on him, calling him dense no matter how aware they are of his hellish childhood.
- Averted in A Growing Affection where Naruto, Hinata, Lee, Tenten, Neji and Ino are undercover at a beach but are allowed to goof off (to keep their cover as teens on a school-trip):Naruto: (enthusiastically) Come on guys! Let's build sand castles! It'll be fun!
Ino: Ugh. Sand castles, really? What are you, five?
Naruto: (defensively) NO! (quietly) I never got to be five. (awkward silence) - In Tempered In Water, Naruto requests another C-Ranked mission to help pay for expenses, much to the surprise of everyone (the premise is that Haku has survived her wounds and latches onto Naruto. She has moved in and thus putting a strain on his finances.) When Sakura accuses him of being greedy, he yells back that he's not before saying he needs the money (his insecure side showing), making Sakura have a revelation on what being an orphan truly entails, especially in a Ninja Village where becoming genin essentially means adulthood and not having the same availability to welfare as civilians would.
- What You Knead:
- After years away from Konohagakure, Jiraiya comes barging into Kakashi's new bakery to give him hell for daring to retire from active duty. He doesn't know any of Kakashi's reasons for doing so — namely, that serving in ANBU was breaking him down bit by bit while he was being defamed as a 'Friend Killer' — nor does he particularly care. Jiraiya also refuses to acknowledge that he ran away from his own responsibilities, or that he's still running away while Kakashi has quietly been pulling his life back together.
- Kakashi is unimpressed with Tazuna's reasons for lying about the task he was hiring shinobi for, especially since Tazuna had the gall to complain about being saddled with a team of inexperienced genin when that was exactly what he'd paid for.
- When Gato sees that Haku has just lost an arm, he cruelly laughs about it, contrasting how Tazuna had a Jerkass Realization after seeing Naruto have a breakdown over Kakashi's injuries.
- Advice and Trust: Ritsuko has zero sympathy or compassion for the pilots and their plight. In chapter 6 she shows she doesn't care at all for their reactions to a possibly upsetting situation:Ritsuko coolly went back to her typing. "We need Children like this, in order for us all to survive. They'll deal with it or they won't."
Misato half-glared at her. "Your compassion is heartwarming, Doctor! I'm the one who has to tell them about this!" - In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi doesn't care at all about the pain she's put the pilots through.
- Time to Disinfect: After the failed music recital, Mari and Sunny's mother shows no care or concern for Mari's mental state despite witnessing her having a severe panic attack, callously comparing it to a five year old throwing a tantrum.
- In This Bites!, the only response of the Five Elder Stars after listening to the Straw Hats' horrific ordeal against Lily Carnation are how they'd lost a potential anti-pirate weapon, which didn't even take out one of the biggest thorns in their side. Even Sengoku, a man who is Necessarily Evil while trying to downplay or outright reject the "Evil" part, is grateful the thing is gone.
- You See Them has the Phantom Thieves reacting this way to Goro Akechi gaining the I See Dead People ability that he was previously jealous of Ren for having and realizing that he's been Blessed with Suck because he can now perceive how mad all the people he killed are with him, and how they have decided that he has to help them all finish their Unfinished Business so they can pass on peacefully, on pain of being haunted by them until he's done. Of course, it's justified considering that, well, he killed every last one of those people himself, including the mother and father respectively of two of the Thieves.
- In Heated Storm Yields a Wild Horse's Heart, no one has any sympathy for Ryoga when he admits he didn't make it to his duel with Ranma until four days after they were supposed to meet, with Kuno stating being a single hour late is unacceptable. Upon learning he might have knocked Ryoga into a Jusenkyo pool, Ranma initially sympathizes but Nabiki points out that no one made Ryoga chase Ranma all the way to China just to settle a duel over bread of all things.
- This is the Modus Operandi in most of the Gunge Male Celeb stories. Celebrities getting their ''Just Desserts' will often have not even one person feeling sorry for them or their plight. Ever. Even the narration gets off on their misery sometimes:...but boy did he deserve it!
If anyone deserved a wedgie, it was Justin Bieber.
...[he] was due for a much needed comeuppance.
- Epic: The Third Survivor: In chapter 12, it's stated outright in the narration that Claire has no sympathy to spare for the mutated abomination William Birkin has become, since he infected Sherry with the G-virus and was responsible for the Raccoon City outbreak.
- Null: After being brutalized and almost killed by a vengeful Jaune for causing the death of his mother, neither Weiss nor Yang exhibit any sympathy for the awful plight that Jaune and his family are actually in that has pushed him to every extreme he's taken. Yang, in anger over what Jaune did to Ruby, even goes so far as to say that Jaune deserved to lose his mother. In a poetic twist, Weiss and ESPECIALLY Yang are emotionally put in the exact same position as Jaune when the same Atlesians who kidnapped Jaune's family to use them as labrats kidnap Ruby for the same fate, forcing WBY to work with Jaune to save her.
- Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite: Almost no one cares about Courtney falling victim to infidelity anymore. Most of them write it off as Courtney failing to get over something that happened two years ago. Even Gwen, who does feel bad about it, wishes Courtney would let it go already.Gwen: I am literally THIS close to snapping! I mean, it's bad enough that Courtney hates my guts, does she HAVE to keep harmonizing about me! ...And you know what’s sad? It's been like this for two years! TWO YEARS!!! (growls) So uncool it burns!!
- Among the great many morally outrageous acts of the titular character of The Daimyo's Grandchild [a saniwa's tale], her response to a child grieving over the murder of his grandfather is to beat him up for being "useless" and unable to save his grandfather.
- In Decks Fall Everyone Dies, most anyone who is not a main character gets this treatment (at one point, Yami is throwing bottle glass at a down-and-out Rex Raptor for attempted deck theft). Kaiba also falls victim to this trope. Not to mention the fact that everyone's situation (mass economic depression due to the fall of card games) is played for laughs.
Miscellanous
- The story described in this fanficrant, wherein one character is Mistaken for Cheating when they were actually being raped. Learning the truth does not change the other's opinion or perspective of the situation.
