Basic Trope: The hero does something good, only to be "rewarded" with suffering.
- Straight:
- Marcy rescues a Damsel in Distress from a monster. Unfortunately, this grabs the attention of the monster's master, who decides to punish her for her defiance...
- Bob saves a town from being sucked into a black hole, and everyone chews him out for not letting the police do their job.
- The Farmer and the Viper
- Redemption Equals Affliction
- Exaggerated:
- Marcy rescues a Damsel in Distress and escorts her home... only to learn that the village was trying to sacrifice her to protect themselves, and they aren't too pleased with her interference. She's attacked and arrested, and they plan to sacrifice her instead. Before they get the chance, however, the monster attacks first — along with his master, looking for the one who defied him.
- Alice gives a homeless man a sandwich to eat. The homeless man eagerly accepts the sandwich, but has a severe allergic reaction to it and dies. The homeless man's brother, having recently heard of his poverty, comes to pick him up, only to find him dead at Alice’s feet. Alice is arrested and sent to jail for life due to "killing" the homeless man.
- Bob is despised for being the Chosen One to save humanity. Everyone is less concerned that humanity is in danger than they are about Bob being the only one who can save them.
- Downplayed:
- Marcy rescues a maiden from being sacrificed by an evil cult. Said "victim" bursts into tears and kicks her in the shin because Marcy crashed her "wedding".
- While Officer Marcy did catch the terrorist, it turned out that she used excessive force by tasering the terrorist even after he stopped resisting. While she wasn't arrested outright - the general public hailed her as a hero and, and the police department gave in to the pressure against arrest - she did get suspended and demoted.
- Bob's punishment is not for the good deed he did, but because the crimes he committed in his past still cannot go unnoticed.
- Justified:
- Marcy had good intentions, but wasn't aware of the full situation before acting, and has to deal with the consequences.
- "Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!!"
- This is because good intentions, and even good results can be marred by bad procedures. In regards to Downplayed #2: Police Brutality is a real problem, and if Marcy's been rewarded, then this opens up to further problems down the line, such as corrupt officers emboldened to torture other terrorism suspects interrogations, or opportunistic racists targeting other people sharing the same racial identity with the suspect. It also doesn't help when the suspect dies before the prosecution can investigate what motivated/radicalised said terrorist, denying them further insight in preventing another potential terrorist attack.
- If people start acknowledging one's good deeds, it may escalate into people being good for a reward, therefore it is better to punish the genuine do-gooder in order to prevent such a mindset from growing.
- The people who yelled at Bob have family on the police staff, they wanted to watch their relatives get the glory and feel Bob is "Killstealing".
- This setting is ruled by the dark god Horrificus, who specifically manipulates fate to punish anyone who tries to do the right thing.
- Marcy lives in a Crapsack World, everyone suffers and this is expected, yet that is precisely why she is attempting to bring good and selfless deeds into this miserable world.
- Everybody hates Bob so much to the point where they’ll punish him even when he does the right thing.
- Inverted:
- Laser-Guided Karma
- Karmic Jackpot
- Marcy kills off many innocent people just For the Evulz, yet the mayor rewards her for her monstrous deed.
- Marcy rescues a Damsel in Distress from a monster, then berates her allowing herself to get captured.
- Bob saves a town from being sucked into a black hole, then berates the people who caused it for their carelessness.
- Subverted:
- Marcy is in turn rescued from the monster's master by the damsel she saved earlier.
- Turns out all the persecution was just a test to see if Marcy would stray from her path, where they finally give her the reward she deserves.
- Double Subverted: Although Marcy is rescued from the monster's master by the damsel, it turns out the damsel was just saving Marcy so she - actually a vampire - could drink Marcy's blood.
- Parodied:
- Marcy finds a little girl wandering around lost, tries to help her find her parents, and is promptly accused of trying to kidnap her and run out of town.
- Acting with moral fiber is actually outlawed, and Marcy is pursued by the police for putting out a housefire, saving a person from a would-be murderer, and Helping Granny Cross the Street.
- Zig Zagged: Marcy is captured by the monster's master, and rescued by the damsel. It turns out the damsel is a vampire who plans to drink Marcy's blood - but this is only because she's grateful, and wants to give Marcy vampiric powers to assist in her fight against evil. After Marcy convinces her that this isn't what she wants, she joins up with Marcy, and the two defeat the evil master together. However, this draws the attention of The Man Behind the Man...
- Averted: Marcy rescues a Damsel in Distress from a monster. She is given a reward by the damsel's thankful father, and sets off to perform more heroism.
- Enforced:
- The writers are building up the the audience's sympathy for Marcy by having her get punished for doing the right thing.
- "We want the show to be realistic and everyone knows that being an idealist is a road that leads to nowhere, for people are Ungrateful Bastards in Real Life, no exceptions.
- Lampshaded: "Karma is a total bitch, Marcy. You'll see what I mean soon enough."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz, the Complete Monster Big Bad, decides to send his Badass Army of Elite Demonic Spiders against Marcy whenever she does anything heroic to scare her out of heroism.
- Exploited: Marcy, knowing that saving the Damsel in Distress from the monster will attract the attention of the monster's master, saves her anyway, so Marcy can set up a trap for when he comes to take revenge on her and end with him once and for all.
- Defied:
- "Well that's not being realistic. That's being fashionably cynical."
- Marcy in turn is rescued... by the people the monsters were oppressing, having been inspired by her act of goodwill.
- Discussed: "Marcy, doing something right attracts jealousy. Be careful when and how you do it. Sometimes not doing anything is the best thing to do."
- Intended Audience Reaction: Oh, poor Marcy suffered for her simple act of kindness, the villagers must be horrible! Go, Marcy, go!
- Conversed: "Why must people always go after the one who did the right thing?"
- Deconstructed:
- After suffering severe consequences for all her good deeds, Marcy finally gives up on the whole heroism thing, as it's just too hard and thankless.
- Alternatively, Marcy finally turns on society for spurning her good deeds, letting the ingrates know just how screwed they are.
- The sense of morality and empathy itself was installed into the human psyche, so that their souls would be easier to be collected and tortured by the Eldritch Abomination who had been farming them.
- There is such a thing as being too excessive with the ungratefulness.
- Reconstructed:
- Marcy deals with the unfair consequences, reasoning that doing good is its own reward, and eventually earns her happy ending, but she still becomes The Cynic and a Knight in Sour Armor about the thanklessness.
- Marcy realizes that, if heroes get punished, villains get rewarded, and thus pulls a Face–Heel Turn. This results in the ungrateful society getting thoroughly screwed over the same way they screwed Marcy, leaving her laughing in their faces for their shenanigans. Often this leads to the ungrateful society banding up and punishing Marcy for her Out of Character moment...
- Played For Laughs:
- Marcy saves a kitten from a tree, only to realize that the tree is the cat's home, and gets rewarded by getting scratched in the face.
- Kafka Komedy
- Played For Drama:
- Marcy has been hiding people of an ethnicity that Emperor Evulz has declared Always Chaotic Evil and In Desperate Need Of Total Extermination, and some of Evulz' Mooks have discovered that she's saving lives.
- Marcy's sick of being punished for doing the right thing, so she starts doing the wrong thing.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished... No act of charity goes unresented.
