History Main / BecauseYouWereNicetoMe

** Ask Tyrion to name his favorite family member, and he will without a moment’s hesitation say “Jaime”, his older brother. Several characters throughout the show comment that Jaime always looked out for Tyrion, sticking up for him and protecting him from other people, even fellow Lannisters. Cersei: You’ve ALWAYS pitied him. Our POOR little brother.”

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': Zeb showing compassion to [[spoiler:his {{archenemy}} Agent Kallus when they were stranded on an icy, inhospitable moon together winds up triggering a HeelFaceTurn for Kallus. Since no one would at first believe he's changed, he'd use this trope as an excuse.]]

Will be immune to TwistingTheWords. Often is also TheWoobie. Related to ItMeantSomethingToMe. See also DisproportionateReward. Compare CharacterWitness and its animal version, AndroclesLion. Contrast with its polar opposite, MistreatmentInducedBetrayal, and with UngratefulBastard and TheFarmerAndTheViper. May lead to DefusingTheTykeBomb. Possible overlap with ReformationAcknowledgment.

Will be immune to TwistingTheWords. Often is also TheWoobie. Related to ItMeantSomethingToMe. See also DisproportionateReward. Compare CharacterWitness and its animal version, AndroclesLion. Contrast with its polar opposite, MistreatmentInducedBetrayal, and with UngratefulBastard and TheFarmerAndTheViper. May lead to DefusingTheTykeBomb.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickandMorty''
In "Lawnmower Dog", Snuffles is turned into a super-intelligent dog with one of Rick's helmets. Having been mistreated by Summer and Jerry, he decides to create his own dog army and punish humans (with castration and conquest). Morty, who was the only one nice to him, is spared and allowed to live a life of luxury.

* [[LoveableSexManiac Miu Iruma]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' is shown to be a [[TheFriendNobodyLikes general nuisance to her classmates]] because she curses up a storm and makes a lot of sex jokes, but underneath her loudmouthed and crass persona is a desperately lonely girl who clearly wants people to like her, but her lack of social skills and [[InnocentlyInsensitive inability to realise that her crass jokes get on her classmates' nerves]] prevent this. In fact, it appears that she will fall in love with anyone who shows her even a bit of affection. One of her Free Time Events shows Miu falling in love with Shuichi ''because he stopped her from disembowelling herself with a wrench'' and went to check on her afterwards, and her Love Suite Event is a ChildhoodFriendRomance in which she falls in love with Shuichi because he has been taking care of her ever since they were kids. She also quickly becomes fond of K1-B0 because he is one of the only students who has been consistently nice to her (to say nothing of her... [[{{Robosexual}} fascination with machines]]), and the two end up developing a very close friendship.

** In "Quagmire and Meg" Meg is saddened that nobody came to her 18th birthday. Nobody except Quagmire that is, who is clearly there just to make a pass at her now that she's a legal adult. While she never goes to the lengths that she went to with Brian and Joe, she's so desperate for love that she actually starts dating Quagmire, a notorious sexual predator, and is willing to have sex with him at his cabin before Peter and Lois put a stop to it,

* ''[[WesternAnimation/CampLazlo]] One episode has the Acorn Flats Scout Mistress named Jane Doe show kindness to the Camp Kidney campers named Chip and Skip. So much so that she takes them in as if they're orphans. It soon gets out of hand however, when they take advantage of her kindness, followed by a few of their fellow campers joining in on the fun. To the point where they break one of her valuable gifts, [[RageBreakingPoint causing her to lose it and kick them out. They do apologize and make up for it at the end of the episode.

** In "Barely Legal", Brian goes with Meg to a school dance out of pity, defends her when bullies taunt her and makes out with her while drunk. Despite Brian telling Meg numerous times that the kiss meant nothing, she continues to obsess over him to the point where she kidnaps him, tapes him to a chair and nearly rapes him before being stopped.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Deconstructed with Meg. Since everyone treats her like complete garbage all of the time she will fall in love with any guy that shows her any amount of kindness, sometimes to an obsessive degree.

** Grey exhibits a weird variation. She holds high respect for Lord El-Melloi II because he was one of the few people who ''didn't'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext like her face,]] since that means he doesn't care about her lineage like so many others did. This applies to the protagonist as well, as she is happy they look at her like any other person and not as a Saberface.

* ''WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt'': In some stories where the antagonist character of the story isn't really as bad as they initially seem, an act of kindness on the protagonist's part is enough to make them have a Heel Realization and change their ways. Other times this trope is the reason why characters like Hiiragi and Yuzuriha end up stalking the protagonist.

* In ''VisualNovel/VA11HALLA'', Sei works as a Valkyrie (first responder and paramedic, essentially) for the White Knights, Glitch City's corrupt authorities. About halfway through the story, [[spoiler:a massive data breach exposes the true depths of their corruption, not only forcing them to disband but also inciting the city to lynch them en masse - but no one goes after Sei. She guesses that this is because everyone who recognized her did so through her having saved their life (or someone close to them) at some point, and pretended not to notice her to save hers in return]].

* [[Wrestling/VonErichFamily Fritz Von Erich]] gave Wrestling/BrusierBrody a job in WCCW after being blacklisted from every US promotion after falling out with Vince [=McMahon=] Sr. Because of this, he became close to the Von Erich family, even looking out for David during a tour in Japan.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': This treatment by the Reds and Blues blows [[spoiler:Washington]] out of the water, and [[PowerOfFriendship helps bring out]] [[HeelFaceTurn his good side]] [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor again]]. Fitting, because the total lack of this trope got him to [[FaceHeelTurn go evil in the first place]].

* During the ''Gauntlet'' storyline in ''Franchise/SpiderMan'', the ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} helped Spider-Man after the wall-crawler tried to help the villain when he was attacked by the latest Captain Universe.

* In ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'', former supervillain ComicBook/{{Rogue}} was made to feel distinctly unwelcome when she first joined the X-Men. In UXM #172 she accompanies her new teammates to Tokyo to attend Wolverine's wedding. On seeing her, Wolverine comments that if it were up to him, he'd cut out her heart, but his fiancee, the aristocratic Mariko Yashida, says that Rogue [[SacredHospitality as a guest is entitled to all due courtesy and respect]] and welcomes her. Effectively Mariko was merely acting in accordance with the ethic and social rules of her class, but it still was the first time Rogue was unreservedly welcomed by anyone since she left the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and so in the following issue Rogue shows no hesitation to lay down her life to prevent her death ("Lady Mariko was kind t'me -- she accepted me, right off -- ah won't let her come to any harm!"). The fire from Viper's blaster actually hurts her badly, but Rogue accepts her likely death philosophically. However, Logan now feels indebted to her for saving the woman he loves and makes Rogue absorb his healing factor.
* In ''[[ComicBook/NewMutants New X-Men: Academy X]]'', X-23 goes to considerable lengths to protect Dust from the Purifiers when they attack the academy, because Dust was one of the only people at the academy who was nice to her when she arrived. And on the other end, Dust was nice to Laura because she was a refreshing change from her old roommate Surge, who didn't agree with her beliefs.

* Subverted twice in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", First, Patrick made friends with Squidward after performing CPR to get the fork out of his throat just until he fell asleep while Squidward was playing his clarinet in which he tries dragging him out of his house, throwing out his back on the process. This causes [=SpongeBob=] to ram his head on Squidward's back, putting him back to normal. The two are friends until [=SpongeBob=] breaks his double bass which prompts Squidward to literally kick him out of his house. Of course, this didn't stop [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick from fighting over Squidward.

* In ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', when Doc Magnus single-handedly takes down the MadScientist thinktank he lets T.O. Morrow escape. When Morrow asks why, Magnus says that it's because Morrow was one of the only people who actually took his theories seriously when he was first starting out.

* [[spoiler:Karathan]] in ''Film/Aquaman2018'' is implied to have been friends with [[spoiler:King Atlan]] because the former won the latter's friendship by talking with them rather than fight. [[spoiler:Thousands of years later, Arthur does the same.]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[DoctorJerk Taiga Hanaya's]] answer to why he tolerated [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave Nico Saiba]] despite her presence seriously [[RefugeInAudacity grating]] on his nerves? She called [[BackalleyDoctor him]] her doctor and that [[JerkassWoobie made him happy]]. He is so devoted to protecting her he would rather die than fail, has very little consideration for his own life anyway and Nico really cares about him even though it's a chore sometimes (probably more often than that).

* During an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Malcolm and brothers are babysat by a hot blonde baby sitter. It turns out she has a crush on Francis due to him once sort-of complimenting her when she was younger (and fat). Francis, being away at military school, has no idea she's changed so much, and narrowly misses a chance to date a girl who would have been genuinely devoted to him. You want to punch him the whole time.
-->'''Francis''': Leave her alone guys, she's not that fat.\\

* ''Series/RaisingHope'': In one [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas Special]], Jimmy gets to see what his [[ItsAWonderfulPlot life would be like if he never had his baby Hope]]. After seeing how awful things are, Jimmy set things right by recreating the night where he conceived Hope. He ask his love interest Sabrina for help, who has now become a prostitute and extremely jaded in this timeline, and tells her he knows she's still a good person underneath her bitter exterior. She claims that was the nicest thing anyone has every told her and agrees to help him.

* Wrestling/{{TARU}} became the lifelong manager of Crazy MAX, a bunch of punks he barely knew, because they spared him from a beatdown they gave to TARU's partner and opponents during a match.

* In the M.M.O., ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' we have a rarer villainous example of this as signature MadScientist Doctor Aeon is working for BigBad, Lord Recluse, and turns down numerous attempts from several rival villains to bribe/poach him because back when he was a no-name mad theorist with next to no money or prestige to his name and [[TheyCalledMeMad everyone else called him “mad”]], Lord Recluse believed in him and his experiments, gave him a paycheck, a company and his own city to rule. Dr. Aeon refuses to ever betray his beloved evil overlord.

** This is also most likely the ''only'' reason that, when you're in Raven Rock and have the option to free a Deathclaw from its cage, that it doesn't attack you on sight. Granted, the base was going to go up in flames soon and it either wanted out or wanted its revenge, but it could have attacked you at that moment but didn't.

** While he acknowledges that Jason can be a {{Jerkass}} sometimes, a major reason why Heracles puts up with him and genuinely likes him is because he's one of the few people during his life to treat him as an actual person.
** This is what [[spoiler:ultimately convinces Ereshkigal to sway to the heroes' side in Babylonia. The protagonist's kind hearted personality despite everything Ishtar, and by extension herself, had done to the people of Uruk and them made her switch to fighting for their cause. This is noticeable in your first interactions with her, where after freeing her from being tied up, she's willing to help let you escape minions from the Underworld, specifically because you were nice to her. With her backstory and how lonely she was, she was not expecting a human of all people to be as nice to her as you were.]]

** Caster Altria's UndyingLoyalty to the protagonist lies in this trope, since they're the first person to treat her as a normal person instead of TheChosenOne.

** At the end of the game [[spoiler:when gathering allies for the final battle neither the Bridge Alliance nor Thélème are convinced of De Sardet's story of the threat to the island's god. The Nauts and the Coin Guard are a bit more open-minded but don't think they're really affected by it]]. However all four will come to help if De Sardet has reached "Friendly" status with them, as he/she helped them out enough times before.

** Yusufa stands up for Primrose and distracts Helgenish for her, because Prim was the only dancer there who was kind to her. This ends up being what gets her killed.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', this is mutually done for both Joker and Ryuji. Ryuji had become a pariah at Shujin Academy due to Kamoshida's treatment towards him and his old track team hating him but he becomes fast friends with Joker after their trip to the Metaverse and Joker is the first person in a long time to treat Ryuji kindly. For Joker, Ryuji was the first one to befriend him despite the wrongful accusations and rumors that Joker has a criminal record. This is actually how Joker interacts with all the Confidantes- they're almost all social outcasts for one reason or another, whether it's Ann, who's looks make most people in the school think she's a slut, Tae Takemi, who's a disgraced doctor with a checkered past, Shinya Oda, who's a video game ace who has no friends due to his mom's obsessive behavior, or Munehisa Iwai, who's a former member of the yakuza. Joker listens to all of them and treats them with respect, and in return they all develop serious loyalty to him.

** If you save a pre-spaceflight civilization from an asteroid there is a chance that they will return the favor much later in the game. Destroying an asteroid approaching one of your own colonies in their own less advanced space ship.

* ''VideoGame/TrailsOfColdSteel:'' In the third game, this is revealed to be why Sharon Krueger is so loyal to the Reinford family: [[spoiler:she was originally a child assassin working for a secret society. That society lost a secret war with the Ouroboros society, and the child started working for Ouroboros. She killed Irina Reinford's husband, but was badly wounded. Irina took pity on her, and took her in and gave her a name instead of a code name. Sharon responded strongly to this act of kindness and mercy, and while she remains a member of Ouroboros, her first loyalty is to the Reinfords]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', pretty much the only brave thing ever done by [[TheLoad Ben]] is if he volunteers to come with Lee in Season 5 to [[spoiler:rescue Clementine]]. He outright says the only reason he does is because Clementine was the only one in the group who was nice to him and who was his only true friend, and that she'd have done the same for him.

** Maya Fey first meets Phoenix when he defends her in court despite Maya A) being framed for the murder of Phoenix's beloved mentor, and, B) being caught at the scene of the crime, in circumstances [[OrgyOfEvidence so suspicious]] that no attorney would willingly take her case. [[spoiler:Although Redd's blackmailing also influenced that]]. This act of kindness understandably seeds a pretty strong friendship, which Maya is later willing to get tasered and briefly jailed over.

* [[LoveableSexManiac Miu Iruma]] from ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' is shown to be a [[TheFriendNobodyLikes general nuisance to her classmates]] because she curses up a storm and makes a lot of sex jokes, but underneath her loudmouthed and crass persona is desperately lonely girl who clearly wants people to like her, but her lack of social skills and [[InnocentlyInsensitive inability to realise that her crass jokes get on her classmates' nerves]] prevent this. In fact, it appears that she will fall in love with anyone who shows her even a bit of affection. One of her Free Time Events shows Miu falling in love with Shuichi ''because he stopped her from disembowelling herself with a wrench'' and went to check on her afterwards, and her Love Suite Event is a ChildhoodFriendRomance in which she falls in love with Shuichi because he has been taking care of her ever since they were kids. She also quickly becomes fond of K1-B0 because he is one of the only students who has been consistently nice to her (to say nothing of her... [[{{Robosexual}} fascination with machines]]), and the two end up developing a very close friendship.

* [[FaceOfAThug Kouhei Kitani]] from ''VisualNovel/SweetPool'' is this towards Okinaga's family. It began with Kunihito saving Kitani's life [[spoiler:when he found Kitani trying to kill himself. Kunihito picked up him up and began strangling him to force his survival instinct to kick in, then invited him into the yakuza to at least throw his life away productively.]]
* ''VisualNovel/TogainuNoChi'' has [[spoiler:[[EmotionlessGuy Nano]]]] attached to Akira is because he's the only one who showed any kindness towards him in the past where he was used for experiments.

* ''WebComic/BloodIsMine'': [[spoiler:[[ActionGirl Michelle]]]] was meant to betray the protagonist from the very beginning, but when the time came, she just couldn't make herself do it because of how genuinely nice she was treated. [[InteractiveComic Even the author was suprised at such turn of events]].

* ''Webcomic/TheLastHumanInACrowdedGalaxy'': Nearly every robot she meets loves [[CheerfulChild Sarya]], since she treats them no different from any other person. One that looks like a red [[WesternAnimation/WallE EVE]] starts following her around.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGhostAndMollyMcGee'' showed Molly is the only human who treated the grumpy ghost Scratch with respect and kindness. In episode 1, she showed him the dollhouse to get along with him on her grandmother's advice. For that reason, he starts to like her in return even though she comes off as annoyingly cheerful to his easily irratated sensibilities.

** Adora begins to rethink [[EvilEmpire the Horde's]] teachings when she's captured by two members of the Rebellion, and they not only choose to take her back to Bright Moon nonviolently, but make conversation with her and, in Bow's case, are downright friendly. She's genuinely taken aback when she sees that the "savage" rebels she's been raised to hate and fear are are actually good people.

** One episode features a platonic, familial example. Bart wins a $500 cash settlement from Krusty after a jagged metal O [[FreePrizeAtTheBottom in his box of Krusty-O's]] gave him appendicitis. He plans to spend it on a comic book, but instead buys an album made by Lisa's jazz mentor "Bleeding Gums" Murphy, who died earlier that episode. When Lisa asks why, Bart explains that it's because she was the only person who believed him when he said he was sick, rather than assuming he was making it up for attention.

* This is unfortunately a common form of manipulation that cults, hate groups and sometimes even militant organizations use as a recruitment tactic. The prey on lonely wayward youths by showing them that “they care” and then warp them until their beliefs are their own.

* Iago in ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' regrets helping Jafar after Aladdin sticks up for him and Aladdin and his friends treating Iago better than Jafar ever did. This causes his HeelFaceTurn and he ultimately helps them defeat Jafar.

** Villainous example: the ''only'' reason Emerald sides with the villains is because [[DarkActionGirl Cinder]] took her in off the streets to be her "apprentice", which earned her Emerald's UndyingLoyalty. The tragic part is this is almost certainly one-sided; Cinder only wanted her for her [[MasterOfIllusion Semblance]]. [[spoiler: Once she finally accepts that Cinder holds no real affection for her, and learns [[KillEmAll the full extent of Salem's plans]], she's persuaded to make a HeelFaceTurn]].