History Main / ApathyKilledTheCat

** There are multiple explanations for this, and they vary depending on the specific show you are watching. Kirk's Enterprise was an exploratory vessel, most of the places they were going were not explored or had very little known about them. The red shirts sacrificed are the people the (future) history books will cite when they say "Planet 56793-d: Breathable atmosphere, rocky terrain, salt vampires". Picard's Enterprise had this as less of an excuse, though they did encounter new territories and cultures. The ones they were even mildly familiar with were probably cataloged in the ship's computer and served as intercom messages before departing. Even so, laws change, and the files may be dated. And regardless of which ship you are on, the fact remains that if you go to a foreign country/planet, and break a law, "I didn't know" doesn't tend to work. Still doesn't explain why they don't ask for a copy of all local laws and have a computer program flag any capital punishment or where the punishment is two or more orders of magnitude harsher than Federation average.

** In the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode "When the Bough Breaks", Wesley Crusher learns the Aldeans have no interest in learning how their own technology works or how to repair it. In this case, apathy was really killing them as their technology was the reason why they were sterile and slowly dying.

** There's also cases where something unexpected happens with their own technology as the impetus for the episode, and no one worries about the implications. Such as the episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' where it's discovered that a partially reflected transporter beam caused there to have been two William Rikers for several years. When they do find the other Riker, they do ask a couple perfunctory questions, like which one is the real Will Riker. The answer to that is a half-assed "They're both real." No one seems at all concerned with the metaphysical ramifications of their discovery, or even question whether the accident could be duplicated to effectively create clones of every living being in the Galaxy. They just spend the episode helping "Tom" Riker adjust to being back among civilization.

** In a broader sense, the Crystal Gems, despite having made their lives' purpose for thousands of years to defend Earth, its living creatures, and humanity, have shown basically ''zero'' curiosity about any of them. To the point that what a baby is was unknown to them when Steven was born. While some of it made sense (There had been no union between a human and a gem before Steven so they couldn't be sure what capabilities Baby Steven had and how much of Rose resided in him), a lot of stuff seen in flashback indicates they basically lived as hermits with no understanding of the society or species they charged themselves with protecting. It's only when they became responsible for raising Steven that this changed as their role as his caretaker now forced them to acquire this understanding.

** One DC comic character was questioned as to how he could be an atheist in a world where divinity is manifestedly real. His reply indicated that in a world with Superman, wizards, and multidimensional alien invasions, the mere presence of something supernatural did not prove it came from an all-powerful divinity.

** There are multiple explanations for this, and they vary depending on the specific show you are watching. Kirk's Enterprise was an exploratory vessel, most of the places they were going were not explored or had very little know about them. The red shirts sacrificed are the people the (future) history books will cite when they say "Planet 56793-d: Breathable atmosphere, rocky terrain, salt vampires". Picard's Enterprise had this as less of an excuse, though they did encounter new territories and cultures. The ones they were even mildly familiar with were probably cataloged in the ship's computer and served as intercom messages before departing. Even so, laws change, and the files may be dated. And regardless of which ship you are on, the fact remains that if you go to a foreign country/planet, and break a law, "I didn't know" doesn't tend to work. Still doesn't explain why they don't ask for a copy of all local laws and have a computer program flag any capital punishment or where the punishment is two or more orders of magnitude harsher than Federation average.

* In ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', Pete hasn't read the Warehouse's manual, and even the characters who have are still finding out new things about the Warehouse - they were surprised to find an entire Bed and Breakfast inside, for example. Justified in that the Warehouse is impossibly large (stretching on farther than the eye can see) and Artie doesn't like to share information.

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. This resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Upon returning to their own Time, the pair share the story of their escapades into alternate timelines where it is treated like nothing more than a simple adventure. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to:

-->-- '''Your entire party''', ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords Knights of the Old Republic II]]''

* A major plot point in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' is that everyone in Aionios suffers from this regarding pretty much everything not related to the ForeverWar. After the protagonists become Ouroboros, they start to notice that many details of the world around them are clearly very odd, especially the unknown reasons for the war, and yet they'd never thought to question any of it before now. This even extends to basic biology; the human races are all PodPeople with no concept of natural birth, but it's only the party members who wonder how exactly animals and monsters can reproduce. [[spoiler:Moebius turns out to be invoking this effect via the Flame Clocks, which are designed to dampen people's natural curiosity in order to make them focus on killing each other and keeping the world stagnant.]]

** In a broader sense, the Crystal gems, despite having made their lives' purpose for thousands of years to defend Earth, its living creatures, and humanity, have shown basically ''zero'' curiosity about any of them. To the point that what a baby is was unknown to them when Steven was born. While some of it made sense (There had been no union between a human and a gem before Steven so they couldn't be sure what capabilities Baby Steven had and how much of Rose resided in him), a lot of stuff seen in flashback indicates they basically lived as hermits with no understanding of the society or species they charged themselves with protecting. It's only when they became responsible for raising Steven that this changed as their role as his caretaker now forced them to acquire this understanding.

** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example ''alone'' as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** ''ComicBook/TheSandman'''s Death (who has become DC's official AnthropomorphicPersonification [[GrimReaper of Death]], give or take a few badly attempted retcons) has mentioned in some sources that she has no idea where people go after she takes them.
** Which has been badly contradicted by numerous accounts, including ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' itself, which explicitly states that you go to Hell only if you want to, and that there are numerous other places to go, including Hades for those of the traditional Greek faith, the Dreaming for those whom Dream finds interesting, and reincarnation. The Judeo-Christian God is explicitly the creator of everything, but pagan gods exist and have power under him.

* A rule in most comic book universes where the FantasyKitchenSink is prevalent and anyone can be PalsWithJesus. This is particularly bad in DC where much of Creator/VertigoComics deals with the supernatural. You'd think that there'd be at least ''some'' intersection between characters who know about the afterlife and characters willing to say "I have positive proof that Christianity is false, because the afterlife you get is based on what you believe".

* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'': Indiana has been presented with absolute incontrovertible proof of the truth of the Old Testament and the New Testament (and arguably the Bhagavad Gita). This seems to have had absolutely no effect on his lifestyle, career or (dis)belief in the supernatural.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is famous for not asking the alien cultures they visit about local laws and rules. Especially when they send crew members on shore leave; you would think it might be smart to ask about local laws and taboos just to make sure no one accidentally violates them. The notorious [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] would give them an incentive to avoid asking those questions. The less they know about the culture, the less intentional their interference in it becomes, and the better excuse they can make to a court-martial.
** In one episode, the planet they visit has is described as being like Garden of Eden and they arrive to see it as nice, relaxed and so are naturally put off guard about the possibility that there may be randomly applied death penalty for even a tiny infractions (though they do find out about it through casual conversation, albeit a little too late). In retrospect, it does make the initial comparison double-sided.

** There are multiple explanations for this, and they vary depending on the specific show you are watching. Kirk's Enterprise was an exploratory vessel, most of the places they were going were not explored or had very little know about them. The red shirts sacrificed are the people the (future) history books will cite when they say "Planet 56793-d: Breathable atmosphere, rocky terrain, salt vampires". Picard's Enterprise had this as less of an excuse, though they did encounter new territories and cultures. The ones they were even mildly familiar with were probably cataloged in the ship's computer, and served as intercom messages before departing. Even so, laws change, and the files may be dated. And regardless of which ship you are on, the fact remains that if you go to a foreign country/planet, and break a law, "I didn't know" doesn't tend to work. Still doesn't explain why they don't ask for a copy of all local laws and have a computer program flag any capital punishment or where the punishment is two or more orders of magnitude harsher than Federation average.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', it's actually ''illegal'' to perform aggressive research (in other words, capturing or dissecting) the Keepers, the enigmatic species that runs the Citadel that galactic government is run from. This is mostly because there's not much to gain from trying, as the Keepers will self-destruct if interfered with and they are incredibly difficult to scan. After over a millennia of completely fruitless attempts to research them, the Council gave up. [[spoiler: It's revealed in the game that they were actually engineered to run the Citadel by the Reapers and the whole structure is SchmuckBait: a perfect space station to set up a galactic government from, so that the Reapers can decapitate said government in their opening attack and seize all its records on military structure and populations. Fortunately, the last surviving Protheans figured out what was happening and [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture figured out a way to interfere]], giving the current species a fighting chance]].

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''. After being given [[ChekhovsGun a storybook]] by a [[CreepyChild strange boy]], [[MysteriousWaif Jennifer]] inexplicably [[TrappedInAnotherWorld finds herself aboard a ghostly airship]] filled with [[KidsAreCruel nasty children]]. You'd think that she'd ask ''someone'' where she is and what's going, but between the UnreliableNarrator and the Thirty MindScrew Pileup, the player only gets a secondhand view of Jennifer's character. Hell, since the game is likely [[spoiler:[[YourMindMakesItReal a hallucination]], [[AllJustADream a dream]] [[DeadAllAlong or the afterlife]]]], it's also possible Jennifer knows the answers already.

** Henry of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' suffers from the same lack of reflection on the circumstances he's facing. Could be justified in that he's been through extended isolation, sleep deprivation and malnourishment to the point that he could be prone to and apathetic to hallucination, but this is simply a projection of conditions only alluded to in the beginning, and never touched on through the story. Heck, the first person he runs into, a woman named Velasquez, assumes it's all a weird dream and comes on to Henry. Most of the other people who end up in the [[DarkWorld Other Side]] have similar confused and muted reactions, if at all, as the crack head doesn't seem to even see the monsters.

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. This resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Upon returning to their own Time, the pair share the story of their escapades into alternate timelines where it is treated like nothing more than a simple adventure. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to:

-->'''Steven:''' Why do I never ask follow-up questions?!
** In a broader sense the Crystal gems, despite having made their lives' purpose for thousands of years to defend Earth, its living creatures and humanity, have shown basically ''0'' curiosity about any of them. To the point that what a baby is was unknown to them when Steven was born. While some of it made sense (There had been no union between a human and a gem before Steven so they couldn't be sure what capabilities Baby Steven had and how much of Rose resided in him), a lot of stuff seen in flashback indicates they basically lived as hermits with no understanding of the society or species they charged themselves with protecting. It's only when they became responsible for raising Steven that this changed as their role as his caretaker now forced them to acquire this understanding.

* Some self-professed members of political parties, religions, scientific communities, etc. barely know anything about their or the opposing party's beliefs, and are basically the reason the StrawmanPolitical exists.
* We live in a society filled with amazing technology of great power and sophistication. Use of these machines grants capabilities unimagined by our ancestors. Yet many people have no interest in learning how these things work, despite the fact that the answers are often listed in easy to understand guides available to anybody who wants them.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', (in which humanity lives behind giant walls to keep out the man-eating Titans) is an OntologicalMystery, and has this trope as the default state of the majority of the humans, with the heroes being different for averting it. Granted, there is a [[spoiler: massive GovernmentConspiracy with the dominant religion to limit interest and knowledge about such things]], but even so, the sheep-like indifference of most people ([[TheHero Eren]] repeatedly uses the word "livestock" to describe them) is rather striking, and unsurprisingly there is a lot of it. Some of the main examples:
** Eren and Armin's open curiosity about the outside world is regarded as anything from eccentric to heretical, and Hange (though admittedly giving people [[CloudCuckooLander plenty of other reasons]] to consider her a MadScientist,) is marked as unusual simply because she wants to study the Titans rather than automatically kill them on sight.
** In contrast to this, even after episode 1 conclusively proves that the walls do ''not'' keep people safe and existing methods of Titan-fighting are ''not'' sustainable in the long-term, hardly anyone wants to find out more about the Titans or make long-term plans. The Survey Corps are marked as being extraordinary (to the audience) and freakish (to most other people) simply because they acknowledge these facts and are willing to go outside the walls and think outside the box to help them come up with better ideas.
** The fact that the Titans' existence ''does not make any sense'' is well-established in-series; creatures of [[SquareCubeLaw their size and proportions should not be able to move]] (and [[JustifiedTrope as such they are far lighter than a similarly-sized human would be]]), they can heal from anything except a cut to the nape of the neck (with nobody knowing where they get the mass from), they have no reproductive organs or digestive system (they apparently gain their energy from the sun), they completely ignore other animals even when there are no humans around to eat, and when humans are available they eat until their stomach is full, at which point they simply regurgitate their prey and go on to eat more. We see that these facts are taught in schools as basic education, but nobody except [[MadScientist Hange]] seems interested in rectifying this lack of knowledge, even in the hopes of finding better ways to fight them. Even [[HotBlooded Eren]], despite burning with curiosity about the outside world, seems surprised by the idea of actually trying to learn more about the Titans, though his all-consuming hatred for them is shown to make him irrational.
** To be fair, this is all justified in that [[spoiler:the citizens of the walls are controlled through brainwashing, and anyone who gets smart enough to realise what's going on gets killed by the government]]. And once the cast learn [[spoiler:the AwfulTruth about themselves, the people who live in the walls are ''much'' less apathetic.]]
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Ichigo never seems to question aspects of his origin, powers, and the other worlds and races, which causes a few people, mostly the villains, to mock him for his constantly being LockedOutOfTheLoop.
** After their first clash with Yhwach and his elite fail, Ichigo's group prepares to confront them again. Chad tries to gather information on the enemy powers so they can prepare in advance for a better outcome than their previous clash. However, Riruka interrupts him, telling everyone to shut up because wallowing in the past is boring. The conversation comes to a complete halt with no-one, including the reader, any the wiser about the still-mysterious powers of the [[PraetorianGuard Quincy Elite]].
* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', [[HotBlooded Gunha]] [[IdiotHero Sogiita]] is completely uninterested in [[HowDoIShotWeb learning how his powers work]] and how to properly fight, as he thinks [[LeeroyJenkins barreling his way through]] is the way a man should fight. It's worked out for him pretty well in most fights, but it directly leads to his defeat against [[TheArchmage Ollerus]], who chooses not to kill him and notes that if he actually bothered to understand how his power works, Gunha would have been the victor. Also, whenever he rushes into a situation, he never stops to ask what is going on and even brushes off people trying to explain the situation to him.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** Averted by Light. The reason he is able to get away with so much crap and drive the whole plot is because he '''does''' ask all the questions. He figures out things that even the {{Shinigami}} didn't know, despite having centuries to learn. And, unfortunately, uses this knowledge to kill tens to hundreds of thousands of people. He even asked the afterlife question we all thought he was ignoring all along, they just don't show us until he's dying. Unfortunately, he's a lot less pleased with the thought of TheNothingAfterDeath while bleeding out than he was while plotting world domination in his bedroom.
** The Shinigami, themselves, are more apathetic as Ryuk notes multiple times that Light has found ways to use the Death Note nobody ever thought of before.
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** Goku learns several techniques like the strength multiplying Kaioken and [[FlashyTeleportation Instant Transmission]]. However, he never teaches anybody else these techniques and none of his friends seem interested in learning them, even though they would be pretty useful.
** Gohan was able to teach his girlfriend Videl how to control her ki and fly, proving it is possible for ordinary humans to do so (then again, people like Krillin and Yamcha were ordinary humans before learning ki control). Yet the heroes never teach anybody else how to do it. Master Roshi can use his ki, but in the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', he outright said he thought flying was overrated and never tries to learn it. Yajirobe is too lazy to try to learn how to do either. Goku and Vegeta never taught their wives Chi-Chi and Bulma how to do either, but given the women's personalities, they would likely refuse to learn. Mr. Satan briefly expressed interest in learning, but never asks the heroes to teach him.
* ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'': Unlike in the Fate route, Shirou Emiya never tries to find out about Saber's identity, powers, or motives for seeking the Holy Grail. Eventually, Archer springs this information on him and calls him a fool for not trying to find out.
* ZigZagged in ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'':
** Many fighters are so self-absorbed, or so sure that they already have the answers, that they never ask critical survival questions, even internally, and never note anything potentially threatening until it's on top of them, even if they've already seen how lethal it can be.
** Others, most notably [[{{Jerkass}} Nishi]] and [[DesignatedHero Kurono]], are very curious about the powers and limitations of the weapons and tools they're given and test them systematically. Unfortunately, when it comes to big questions like "Where does all this futuristic tech come from?", "Why are there aliens and monsters around all of a sudden?", and "Why are we being forced to fight them, and by who?", answers are not very forthcoming.
** Much later in the manga, intrepid reporter Seiichi Kikuchi tracks down the story with a dogged curiosity, but is only toyed with by those who might be able to answer his questions.
* ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'':
** Rakka is born (from an egg) into a strange isolated town ruled by creepy, aloof clerics, sprouts wings, is given a halo that mysteriously hovers on her head, has to obey arbitrary rules, such as she can only buy used items, and ''doesn't question any of it''. She does have LaserGuidedAmnesia about her previous existence, so it's quite possible that she has no way of knowing if any of this is weird or not. This isn't so strange considering that the entire setting of Haibane Renmei is a rip-off / homage to the dream world in ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'', by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, which the protagonist doesn't question much either. She also has no one to ask. The only people who might know something are the Toga and the Communicator, but neither of them really responds to questioning.
** In addition to ''all'' of the Haibane having amnesia about their previous existences, the series spends the first five episodes largely just to introduce the setting and characters. And then it turns out that the older Haibane have their own predicament to worry about and have varying degrees of acceptance of their environment.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon. In less than a week he discovers the existence of aliens, espers, time travelers, and, according to one theory, {{God}} and it ''annoys him'' so much that he avoids any and all exploration of the ramifications unless forced otherwise by TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Even then, he only does the minimum that he has to. The times he does ask questions, he either gets no answer from Mikuru, an answer that doesn't make sense from Koizumi and Yuki, or an answer that makes sense that has 'unreliable!' written all over it from all of the above. [[spoiler:Oh, and the anti SOS Brigade puts all three together.]] His saving grace is that he is extraordinarily smart to the point that, when he passes the first couple of reveals, his reaction goes from mild surprise and annoyance to "checked, checked, checked". In fact, his ability to cope with the increasingly weird situations is, in Itsuke's opinion, what makes him special.
* In ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'', Tomoki does this a lot, because of [[IJustWantToBeNormal his desire for peace and quiet]]. Some of it borders on TooDumbToLive. When Ikaros tries to explain how her powers work (which is important to him because [[LiteralGenie she grants his wishes]]), Tomoki cuts her off and says her exposition is boring. Later, when Nymph explains that the person who has been sending hostile Angeloids to try to kill them is someone named the Master of Synapse, Sugata says they need to find out who this guy is and what he wants, but Tomoki gets bored and says, "Who cares?"
* Justified in ''Manga/MyLovelyGhostKana'', where Daikichi doesn't ask all that many questions about the afterlife, but it's pretty clear that Kana herself doesn't really have the answers either.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Magic! Flying whales! Demons! See also: vampires, robot girls, immortality, {{Beast|Man}}men, telepathy, time dilation, the entire magical world itself and more. However, don't ask what the hell is going on. You might get turned into an ermine or something. Chisame is the only character to show the slightest interest... by running ''away'' from the answer. The other major exception is Haruna; when she finds out about magic, she threatens to torture her three best friends for not telling her sooner.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Luffy is completely uninterested in hearing anyone's backstory. Whenever people explain their past, he'll either [[NapInducingSpeak fall asleep]] or [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere leave]].
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In "The Battle of the Badge", Jessie and James steal Misty's Togepi and present it to Giovanni. Despite Team Rocket focusing on stealing rare Pokemon, Giovanni was completely uninterested in the never before seen Togepi and rejected it, saying he only cared about Pokemon that could fight, not babies. Good thing he didn't investigate it or else he would have learned about Togepi's special powers.
** In the movie, ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', Ash discovers he has [[KiManipulation Aura]], and this power is crucial to saving the day. However, in later episodes, though characters occasionally reference this movie and Aura, Ash seems completely uninterested in developing his Aura abilities and hardly ever tries to use them, even though they would be pretty useful.
* ''Anime/{{Potemayo}}'': Nobody seems to be too interested in the bigger questions about Potemayo and Guchuko- what they are, where they come from, and why they're appearing in people's refrigerators.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is all about people not asking basic questions about what's actually going on. No matter how fanciful or surreal, after the initial shock, people just accept the nonsense as all a part of the "power to revolutionize the world." Granted, the answers really are near impossible to attract without being told directly (the audience has the benefit of flashback) and most of it was just theatrical shenanigans but even the lead asks a variety of questions in the very beginning and then just gives up trying, establishing the status quo of the episodes. To her credit, Utena realizes this near the very end of the series and tearfully regrets it because that kind of indifferent behavior (towards Anthy, especially) was exactly what she had been criticizing about the other duelists.
* In ''Manga/ToLoveRu'', approximately no one (other than Rito, on occasion) seems to care that aliens exist and show up on Earth on a regular basis, or that Lala's father apparently rules the entire galaxy, including Earth, and that he's threatened to destroy it.
* In the Japanese version of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Seto Kaiba acknowledges that magic exists and that Duel Monsters originated in ancient times, but he's just completely uninterested in it, finding running his company and winning at Duel Monsters to be a higher priority. The Creator/FourKidsEntertainment dub changed this to make Kaiba a FlatEarthAtheist.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'':
** Several Kaiju get sent to the world of ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' and get turned into native species. They can still use their original powers, and learn that with practice, they can use the powers of their new body in conjunction with their original powers. However, Godzilla Junior, who was turned into a Unicorn, flat out says he is uninterested in learning how to perform telekinesis or magic and prefers to stick with his original powers. Chibi Moon lectures him that he should be trying to maximize his potential because there might be new enemies that he can't beat as he is now.
** In addition, Godzilla Junior is uninterested in learning what happened to his birth parents, as he was an abandoned egg. He says Azusa Gojo and Godzilla Senior are the only parents who matter.
* ''Fanfic/TheLamentSeriesChaoticNeutral'':
** Once [[TheBadGuyWins Gabriel won]] in ''Gabriel's Lament'', he didn't bother learning who Ladybug had been. After [[RealityWarpingIsNotAToy reality was altered by his]] [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Wish]], he also didn't bother looking for any of the Miraculous again, even when Emilie [[InSpiteOfANail still picked up the Peafowl Pin]]. This allows somebody else to find the Butterfly Brooch and become this world's version of Hawk Moth... and unlike in his world, there's no Ladybug active, and Gabriel has no way of finding her.
** In ''Chloe's Lament'', Chloe [[WrongGenreSavvy assumes that]] [[RoleSwapAU swapping lives with Marinette]] ensures that ''she'' will become the new reality's Ladybug heroine. When it's not immediately dropped into her lap, she merely looks at the most likely places for it to be delivered, only realizing that it's not coming when she sees footage of Red Queen and Cheshire in action.
*** Chloe's [[ItsAllAboutMe complete lack of regard for others]] also stymies what little effort she ''does'' make. For instance, while aware of the Guardian's existence, she doesn't recall anything about him beyond [[IconicOutfit the shirt he was wearing]]; in a side snippet, Wayzz destroys that shirt so that there's no chance of her seeing Master Fu in it and recognizing him based off of that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' author J.K. Rowling tried to save herself from having to create a [[MagicAIsMagicA coherent magic system]] by having her viewpoint character tune out whenever theory is mentioned. It worked in the sense that she was able to avoid talking much about how magic actually works, but it does give the reader the impression that Harry is an incredibly apathetic child about this magical world that he suddenly finds himself living in. She used a similar trick for the backstory, having Hermione exposit whatever bit of ''Hogwarts: a History'' is currently relevant while Harry steadfastly refused to even look at it.
* The whole premise for several of the works of Creator/JoseSaramago -- ''Death with Interruptions'' and ''The Stone Raft'' come to mind -- is to avert this trope: an extremely simple but fantastic setup is provided (death stops operating in a country; the Iberian Peninsula splits off at the French-Spanish border and begins to sail aimlessly around the North Atlantic) and the whole rest of the story analyzes the sociological upheaval it causes.
* To [[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2003/10/lb_the_babel_fi.html quote]] from Fred Clark's series on ''Literature/LeftBehind'':
-->Here you have God appearing center stage. A direct, incontrovertible divine miracle witnessed by millions. Absolute, doubt-destroying, skeptic-shattering ''proof'' of the existence of God. There's freaking ''divine flame'' in the sky. Yet it produces nary a ripple of wonder, awe or spiritual searching. Alone among the millions who witnessed this event, Buck Williams is slightly prompted to be more "spiritually attuned." The people in this novel are not ''human''.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'': At one point, protagonist and recently-defrosted HumanPopsicle John Geary asks his fellow officers a couple of important questions: ''How'' and ''why'' has a war that both sides knew they could never win dragged on for a century without either side attempting to sue for peace or just flat-out collapse under the terrible cost in lives and resources? Nobody can really give him a satisfactory answer, and worse, it never really occurred them to ask the question themselves because they'd never known a time when there ''wasn't'' a war going on. The answer to both questions ends up being crucial to the resolution of the plot of the whole series: [[spoiler:A hitherto-unknown third party has been playing both sides off against each other, including leaking the [[PortalNetwork hypernet gate]] technology that revived their flagging economies a few decades earlier, so that humanity will be too busy fighting among themselves to be a threat to them.]]
* In ''Literature/TheOtherworld'' humans occasionally witness surreal incidents and do nothing. In one such instance the witnesses were, in all fairness, stoned, but in ''Bitten'' Elena's fiancé watches her turn into a wolf and when she questions him on it later he claims he'd passed out long before she arrived and transformed.
* Wolfram Von Eschenbach's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parzival Parzival]] fails to achieve the Holy Grail even though it's ''meant for him'' because he follows advice to not be too curious and doesn't ask about the FisherKing's injury. The poem is based on Chretien de Troyes' unfinished poem, in which [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceval,_the_Story_of_the_Grail Perceval's]] failure to ask about an entire procession of miraculous oddities because he's trying to be proper also results in the continued languishing of the FisherKing and his kingdom.
* In Orson Scott Card's novel ''Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus'' society possesses a time viewer that is cheap enough for graduate students working on research projects to use. However, it is mentioned numerous times that Christianity, Islam, and other religions still exist, even though proving or disproving those religion's veracity would be the first thing most people would use a time viewer for. And there isn't a rule against investigating religion or anything, because one character made a name for himself by investigating the historical events inspiring the legend of Noah.
** All religious revelations are conveniently ambiguous. (Except Columbus's, which is definitely mundane.) That still leaves the question of miracles, though.
* In Bernard Werber's ''Thanathonauts'' series, the world promptly forgets about the initially worldshaking discovery that there is indeed an afterlife (and that it is quite [[CelestialBureaucracy bureaucratic]] at that). In another series, little is expounded upon the ramification of a porcine direct relationships to humans.
* Arguably the main reason Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheThingOnTheDoorstep'' ends in tragedy -- the villain's plot to take over the body of [[spoiler:Edward Derby]] plays out over months if not years with obvious warning signs of what's going on, yet despite the narrator and the victim being ostensibly best friends neither actually ''does'' anything until it's finally way too late.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' has Bella's father's motto; "need to know basis". He probably figures out about [[TheMasquerade vampires]], but doesn't want details. Seeing how the Volturi would kill him if he knew it makes a lot of sense. It wouldn't take much to figure out that vampires probably would be lethal to humans in the know.
* Averted and played straight several times in an early Star Trek: Voyager novel. When Neelix leads Voyager to a planet full of wrecked ships (needed for critical spare parts), Torres and Kim promptly began an exhaustive examination of the one powered vessel. Neelix, not caring and deciding that he is useless, decides to take a nap. This sends the ship (a passenger time machine) back in time. Later, we meet an operative whose job is to scare away any "Planet-Hoppers" (the term this people use to refer to the "crazy" races that use dangerous space travel instead of safe time travel) from the abandoned eras of the planet. His main weapon is strange events that the intruders don't care to investigate properly.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', (in which humanity lives behind giant walls to keep out the man-eating Titans) is an OntologicalMystery, and has this trope as the default state of the majority of the humans, with the heroes being different for averting it. Granted, there is a [[spoiler: massive GovernmentConspiracy with the dominant religion to limit interest and knowledge about such things]], but even so, the sheep-like indifference of most people ([[TheHero Eren]] repeatedly uses the word "livestock" to describe them) is rather striking, and unsurprisingly there is a lot of it. Some of the main examples;

* Justified in ''Manga/MyLovelyGhostKana'', where Daikichi doesn't ask all that many questions about the afterlife, but it's pretty clear that Kana herself doesn't really have the answers either.

* Christopher Lloyd's character in ''Film/SuburbanCommando'' seems to have no questions or comments when it is revealed that his tenant is an alien bounty hunter. The most he registers is mild annoyance at the fact that he [[MemeticMutation WAS FROZEN TODAY!]]
* ''Film/TeenWolf'': Nobody seems to be too interested in the existence of werewolves other than how well they can play high school basketball.

* Happens continuously within ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' whenever it comes to a foreign power or overlord invading Equestria to cause havoc. The biggest example of this happens when Changelings launched [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 an all-out invasion of Canterlot during a wedding celebration]] at the end of Season 2, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1 and later returned to capture the Political Leaders and National Heroes and replace them with their own Changelings]] at the end of Season 6. For well over '''four''' seasons, [[ApatheticCitizens the Ponies]], [[OrcusOnHisThrone the Princesses]], ''and'' [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy the Royal Guards]] knew what sort of threat the Changelings posed to Equestria, but they did not seem to do anything at all to create any sort of anti-Changeling protocols in order to try exposing disguised Changelings that might be infiltrating their towns and cities. [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch Thorax]], a Changeling that had participated in the original invasion of Canterlot [[HeelFaceTurn and had later defected to the Crystal Empire]]; the Ponies did not even bother to ask him where exactly the Changelings Hive was located at or even what kind of defenses the Changelings had employed to protect their territory.
** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. This resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Upon returning to their own Time, the pair share the story of their escapades into alternate timelines where it is treated like nothing more than a simple adventure. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to:
*** '''A.)''' Ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve.\\
'''B.)''' Request several samples of the salve that they could take back to be reverse-engineered.\\
'''C.)''' Bother to ask their own Zecora if she could make this Changeling-Revealing Salve.

** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example ''alone'' as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** In a broader sense the Crystal gems, despite having made their lives' purpose for thousands of years to defend Earth, its living creatures and humanity, have shown basically ''0'' curiosity about any of them. To the point that what a baby is was unknown to them when Steven was born. While some of it made sense (There had been no union between a human and a gem before Steven), a lot of stuff seen in flashback indicates they basically lived as hermits with no understanding of the society they charged themselves with protecting. It's only when they became responsible for raising Steven that this changed as their role as his caretaker now forced them to acquire this understanding.

** In a broader sense the Crystal gems, despite having made their lives' purpose for thousands of years to defend Earth, its living creatures and humanity, have shown basically ''0'' curiosity about any of them. To the point that what a baby is was unknown to them when Steven was born. While some of it made sense (There had been no union between a human and a gem before Steven), a lot of stuff seen in flashback indicates they basically lived as hermits with no understanding of the society they charged themselves with protecting. It's only when they became responsible for raising Steven that this changed.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The Crystal Gems deliberately hide a lot about gems and their history from Steven, but even then Steven tends to not ask questions when they would otherwise be very helpful.

* ''Webcomic/FateTypeRedline'': Kaname Asama and her Archer find the magic hourglass that transported Kanata Akagi to their time period. She shows it to her superior, Major Magatsu, and says she can tell it is special and would like to study it and find out how it works. Magatsu says he doesn't care and berates her for wasting his time.

->'''A.)''' Ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve.\\

*** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example ''alone'' as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

-->'''A.)''' Ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve.\\

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. This resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to:

Twilight and Spike relayed the story about their escapades in the alternate timelines to their friends, and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story to share.

'''B.)''' Request several samples of the salve that they could take back to be reverse-engineered.
And upon returning to her own Timeline:
-->'''C.)''' Bother to ask their own Zecora if she could make this Changeling-Revealing Salve.

'''A.)''' Ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve.

'''C.)''' Bother to ask their own Zecora if she could make this Changeling-Revealing Salve.

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. This resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: '''A.)''' ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, '''B.)''' request several samples of the salve that they could take back to be reverse-engineered, and upon returning to her own Timeline: '''C.)''' bother to ask their own Zecora if she could make this Changeling-Revealing Salve. Twilight and Spike relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in the alternate timelines, and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story to share.

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: '''A.)''' ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, '''B.)''' request several samples of the salve that they could take back to be reverse-engineered, and upon returning to her own Timeline; '''C.)''' bother to ask their own Zecora if she could make this salve. Twilight and Spike relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in the alternate timelines and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story to share.
*** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into both the DoomedMoralVictor and ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.