History Main / IgnoredEnamoredUnderling

* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMind'': GenderFlipped: Hal Stewart works as a cameraman for news reporter Roxanne. Hal starts out as a personification of this trope for quite a large part of the movie towards his boss and coworker Roxanne, yet it's downplayed because she doesn't totally ignore him and does show some genuine appreciation for the work he does for her and with her on their job. However, once he realizes that Roxanne will never return the same ''romantic''feelings for him (emphasis on romantic because she will only ever see him as a coworker and employee and nothing more), instead of accepting it and continuing to be overly obsequious to her, he actually starts to become obnoxious towards her. It gets even worse when he realizes she's starting to fall in love with Megamind, and he actually has a drastic [[FaceHeelTurn Face–Heel Turn]] and actually becomes the villain and antagonist in the climax of the film, Titan.

* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMind'': GenderFlipped: Hal Stewart works as a cameraman for news reporter Roxanne. Hal starts out as a personification of this trope for quite a large part of the movie towards his boss and coworker Roxanne, yet it's downplayed because she doesn't totally ignore him and does show some genuine appreciation for the work he does for her and with her on their job. However, once he realizes that Roxanne will never return the same feelings for him, instead of accepting it and continuing to be overly obsequious to her, he actually starts to become obnoxious towards her. It gets even worse when he realizes she's starting to fall in love with Megamind, and he actually has a drastic [[FaceHeelTurn Face–Heel Turn]] and actually becomes the villain and antagonist in the climax of the film, Titan.

* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMind'': Hal Stewart in the film WesternAnimation/MegaMind starts out as a personification of this trope for quite a large part of the movie, yet it's downplayed because she doesn't totally ignore him and does show some genuine appreciation for the work he does for her and with her on their job. However, once he realizes that Roxanne will never return the same feelings for him, instead of accepting it and continuing to be overly obsequious to her, he actually starts to become obnoxious towards her. It gets even worse when he realizes she's starting to fall in love with Megamind, and he actually has a drastic [[FaceHeelTurn Face–Heel Turn]] and actually becomes the villain and antagonist in the climax of the film, Titan.

* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMind'': Hal Stewart in the film WesternAnimation/MegaMind starts out as a personification of this trope for quite a large part of the movie. However, once he realizes that Roxanne will never return the same feelings for him, instead of accepting it and continuing to be overly obsequious to her, he actually starts to become obnoxious towards her. It gets even worse when he realizes she's starting to fall in love with Megamind, and he actually has a drastic [[FaceHeelTurn Face–Heel Turn]] and actually becomes the villain and antagonist in the climax of the film, Titan.

* ''WesternAnimation/MegaMind'': Hal in the film Mega Mind starts out as a personification of this trope until he realizes that Roxanne will never return the same feelings for him. It gets even worse when he realizes she's starting to fall in love with Megamind, and he actually has a drastic [[FaceHeelTurn Face–Heel Turn]] and actually becomes the villain and antagonist in the climax of the film.

If her boss is enamored with another woman, she will be positively livid with jealousy and may attempt [[RelationshipSabotage sabotage]] or even [[MurderTheHypotenuse to murder her rival.]] If he finds out he will severely punish or kill her. In fact, as minions go she will frequently be the target of YouHaveFailedMe, YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and general abuse by her boss when he needs to let off steam. This is played as a sort of KickTheDog; while she's no dove, the mistreatment's undertones of domestic abuse will make most audiences uncomfortable.

* ''Anime/ValkyriaChronicles:'' [[LadyOfWar Selvaria]] [[PersonOfMassDestruction Bles]] toward [[BigBad Prince]] [[{{Jerkass}} Maximillion.]] She's feels deeply indebted to him, and eventually fell in love with him, for [[spoiler: saving her from the research facility that was turning her and the other Valkyur into [[TykeBomb living weapons]]]], so she thought. In truth, he uses for the exact same purposes. What makes it even more tragic is that Selvaria is fully aware Maximillion cares nothing for her, and only sees her as a tool. At the same time, [[spoiler: it's also implied that [[ChivalrousPervert Jaeger]] is in love with her, though she's either unaware of it, or chooses to ignore it.]] Despite all this, [[MyMasterRightOrWrong she served Maximillion faithfully.....]] even when he [[LoveMartyr ordered her to die]] [[YouHaveFailedMe for failing him.]]

* In ''Anime/MillenniumActress'', Young Genya is this to his beloved film star Chiyoko when he worked in a minor position on her films. She never found out until years later and and the now-elderly Chiyoko was being interviewed by him and his assistant.
* The youma Thetis is blatantly in love with Jadeite in episode 12 of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', but he coldly brushes her off...until she says she has a plan to gather energy. She stays by his side and uses her power all for his benefit, and of course she ends up getting killed for him. Even after that all he can think about is how much trouble he's in with Queen Beryl for failing again.

* It's implied that the reason Abelia from ''Anime/NowAndThenHereAndThere'' remains so loyal to the [[TheCaligula psychopathic lunatic King Hamdo]] is because she's in love with him.

* Featherstone to Herr Starr in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''. However, though she declares her love for him he doesn't care, and says so outright. Only at the very end does she finally realize what a monster he is.

* ''ComicBook/WhatIf Vol.2'', issue #27[[note]]"What If The Sub-Mariner Had Joined The Fantastic Four?"[[/note]]: [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Sue]] can tell Reed's lab assistant, Lysette, is head over heels in love with him. She also knows Reed well enough to know he's completely oblivious to it. She makes a AnguishedDeclarationOfLove[=/=]HighHeelFaceTurn to an injured Reed at the end of the story (She was a mole for ComicBook/DoctorDoom).[[note]]The epilogue shows Reed and Lysette happily married with a daughter[[/note]]

* Erin in ''Film/WhatWomenWant'' is a PluckyOfficeGirl which is secretly in love with her boss who is oblivious to her affection and ignores her.

* In ''Film/TheMonsterMaker'', Maxine has stayed with and assisted Dr. Markoff for years--even helping him adopt his new identity and flee Europe--because she is hopelessly in love in with him, and hopes that one day he will return her affection. However, he is still in love with his late wife, and then becomes obsessed with Patricia, who is a dead ringer for her. When she finally snaps on learning the full depths of his depravity, Markoff decides that she has to die because SheKnowsTooMuch.

* In ''Film/TheCrimeDoctorsStrangestCase'', Miss Patricia has been Walter Burns' housekeeper for 30, and before that was a dancer in his club. She has been in love for with him for that entire time and he never noticed. And then he gets murdered. Could unrequited love be a motive for murder?

* In one of the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' novels, Garrett has to point out to the queenpin, Belinda Contague, that her driver/bodyguard Joel is very much smitten with her. She never gets a chance to deal with Joel's feelings, one way or the other, because he dies defending her from an ambush by some rival villains she'd crossed.

** In another Agatha Christie novel, Sparkling Cyanide, a secretary who always thought she would eventually marry her boss, George, is a suspect for George's wife's murder, [[spoiler:and eventually her George's murder too]]. Slightly subverting the trope though, many characters believe that George would have eventually fallen in love and married her if he had never met his wife, and in the novel proper he trusts her more than anyone else. [[spoiler: This comes back to bite him, since she would never have been able to kill him and his wife and almost murder his sister-in-law if he didn't trust her to do everything for him.]]

* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', season 5, Hotel, brings us serial killer James Patrick Marsh, who is every stereotype of a new-money early 20th century industrialist crossed with a discount Hannibal Lecter, and Ms. Evers, his cleaning lady and PsychoSupporter. He treats her kindly as a valued minion but can't see she's so obviously in love with him. They're also both ghosts.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Felicity has ShipTease with Oliver that evolves into a full blown crush by Season 2. Oliver at first seems oblivious but by Season 3 is shown to return her affections. However, he refuses to explore a relationship with her mostly due to his CartwrightCurse (the first and only time he takes her out on a date, the restaurant gets blown up by an RPG) and ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies.

* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' subverts it with Olive and Ned, who as a hero is simply too oblivious, nice and timid (it alternates) to tell Olive he doesn't love her. He later mans up and tells her very explicitly, but she continues to carry a torch for him (despite her own wishes) until she meets a traveling potion salesman (no LovePotion was involved).

* In the original pilot of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', Yeoman Colt is implied to have these feelings for Captain Pike, even though their only interaction is [[CrashIntoHello Colt bumping into the captain and getting barked at in response.]] The trope is only revealed when the aliens abduct her for an AdamAndEvePlot, knowing from their mind-reading powers that she is attracted to him. However at the end of the episode, Captain Pike and Yeoman Colt both revert back to their original behaviour, even repeating their CrashIntoHello.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' strongly implies this with [[DarkActionGirl Gorast]] (and probably the only reason it's not more explicit is because [[NoHuggingNoKissing the series doesn't allow "romance"]]). While most of the Makuta serve [[BigBad Teridax]] out of [[GodhoodSeeker promises of godhood, divine envy]], or [[NobleDemon mere obligation]], Gorast is an exception for working entirely out of [[UndyingLoyalty loyalty to Teridax]], acting on sheer faith that his EvilPlan would and ''should'' come to fruition. Teridax, being the ManipulativeBastard that he is, simply sees her as another pawn in a long lineup of players, having exploited her personal loyalty [[HunterOfHerOwnKind to have her kill off Makuta dissenters to the plan]]. [[spoiler:In the end, Teridax repays her by [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness letting her and her fellow Makuta brethren get consumed in an energy storm]] as he ascends to godhood. She spends her final moments [[VillainousBSOD completely shutting down]] from sheer betrayal, disbelief, and horror that everything she'd done was AllForNothing.]]

* In ''VideoGame/AkaneTheKunoichi'', Akane's love for her master Goro is not reciprocated, and even [[RescueRomance rescuing him]] doesn't necessarily do the trick. Only if you've got all the collectables first does Goro return Akane's affection.

* ''VideoGame/CyberShadow'': It is gradually revealed through flashbacks that [[spoiler:[[RecurringBoss Apparitor]]]] is actually [[EvilFormerFriend a former member of your ninja clan]] who betrayed you because of this trope; he was in love with [[TheLeader Master]] and [[UndyingLoyalty devoted his life to serving her]], only for you to come along and be adopted into the clan, [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter quickly upstaging him and gaining Master's favor/affection]]. Filled with jealously and resentful of Master not acknowledging his devotion, he sold the clan out to the BigBad out of spite, subsequently being upgraded into a cybernetic enforcer of the new regime.

* In ''Webcomic/MagickChicks,'' Sandy is hopelessly in love with Faith, who's known for [[ReallyGetsAround having slept with much of the student body]] at Artemis - excluding Sandi, who's been [[HopelessSuitor permanently]] [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou "friend zoned".]]

** Tsukiko serves [[BigBad Xykon]] because she thinks [[ILoveTheDead undead are good love interests]]. He finds it as unsettling as the rest of Team Evil does, since she's lusting over a friggin ''{{lich}}'' -- and besides, he's been completely asexual since he died. When [[spoiler:Redcloak kills her with her own wights, Xykon doesn't hold it against him, and only expresses annoyance on the prospect of losing a useful minion; even then, he doesn't even remember her name.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheRockCocks'', Elizabeth Santos has major crush on Seth Sterling, her oblivous boss. Justified since [[IncompatibleOrientation he's gay]].

->'''Elf:''' Captain, there's a beautiful girl in a bikini standing behind you.\\

* Zhu Li in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is hinted to have a crush on her overly demanding boss Varrick, who's so self-centered he doesn't notice. Eventually, it's his [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal mistreatment of her]] that leads her to betray him and pledge her loyalty to Kuvira instead in season 4. Varrick seems genuinely shocked when she lists off all the ways he's mistreated her over the years. In the end [[spoiler:this was shown to have been a [[FakeDefector ruse]] so she can sabotage Kuvira's plans from within, though it's implied she drew on her real feelings for Varrick to make it more convincing, and they end up getting married after everything's over]].

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Mr. Verres's assistant Lavender is less than subtle in expressing her attraction to her boss. She has used her species' natural shapeshifting powers to take a form, that the author has described as, "heavily inspired by [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Jessica Rabbit]]" in the hopes of getting his attention. She [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-08-27 likes to sit on his desk.]] She has accidentally let slip to him that, "[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-01-12 I would be anything for you,]]" before awkwardly backpedaling. She has even been seen surreptitiously [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=267 putting her tail over his shoulder.]] He remains [[ObliviousToLove oblivious.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': Nastasia has a rather obvious crush on her boss, Count Bleck, though she must know that it could never possibly be anything but unrequited, since [[spoiler:Count Bleck has an extreme case of SingleTargetSexuality, and losing the woman he loved was his entire reason for becoming an OmnicidalManiac in the first place]]. O'Chunks' crush on Nastasia also counts, since as Bleck's [[TheDragon Dragon]] she outranks him.

* ''Series/PrincessSilver'': Hen Xiang is in love with Fu Chou, and his lack of interest in her combined with his love for Rong Le makes her hate Rong Le.

* ''Series/NirvanaInFire'': Gong Yu has a really obvious crush on Mei Changsu. He takes the CruelToBeKind approach and never gives her any hope.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' subverts it with Olive and Ned, who as a hero is simply too oblivious, nice and timid (it alternates) to tell Olive he doesn't love her. He later mans up and tells her very explicitly, but she continues to carry a torch for him (despite her own wishes) until she meets a traveling potion salesman (no LovePotion was involved).
* In ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', Molly Hooper is infatuated with Sherlock, but he ignores and often insults her, only being nice to her when he needs a favor from her (e.g. complimenting her hair when he needs to see a body from the morgue where she works). In the second season, Sherlock undergoes a bit of CharacterDevelopment to show he genuinely cares about her, in his own way. He even apologizes to her when he accidentally made her look like a fool at a gift exchange. In the season's finale, she's one of the very few people who never lose faith in him [[spoiler:and is the one he comes to for help with faking his death]]. During the events of the third season, the relationship between her and Sherlock grows into an awkward (especially when her new BF is revealed to be a ReplacementGoldfish) but genuinely trusting friendship. It helps that Molly is a bit of a conscience to Sherlock, and doesn't mind occasionally chewing him out for his insensitive behaviour towards others or even himself.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', it's [[HomoeroticSubtext heavily implied]] that [[SycophanticServant Andrew]] was this to Warren. It was pretty much made canon with Andrew's LastSecondWordSwap.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Felicity has ShipTease with Oliver that evolves into a full blown crush by Season 2. Oliver at first seems oblivious but by Season 3 is shown to return her affections. However, he refuses to explore a relationship with her mostly due to his CartwrightCurse (the first and only time he takes her out on a date, the restaurant gets blown up by an RPG) and ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies.
* Agravaine to Morgana in ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', even though she's never anything but blatantly scornful and dismissive of him.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000:'' Season 11 introduces mad scientist Kinga Forrester, and her right-hand assistant Max (who prefers to be called TV's Son of TV's Frank). Max is clearly in love with Kinga, but she's [[BadBoss casually abusive towards him]] and unaware that he's even capable of feelings. She even makes plans to marry someone else as a RatingsStunt, never noticing how unhappy this makes Max.
* In the ''Series/{{Decoy}}'' episode "To Trap a Thief," a secretary covers up her boss's insurance fraud for this reason. She never told him about her feelings because he's married with two kids.
* In the original pilot of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', Yeoman Colt is implied to have these feelings for Captain Pike, even though their only interaction is [[CrashIntoHello Colt bumping into the captain and getting barked at in response.]] The trope is only revealed when the aliens abduct her for an AdamAndEvePlot, knowing from their mind-reading powers that she is attracted to him. However at the end of the episode, Captain Pike and Yeoman Colt both revert back to their original behaviour, even repeating their CrashIntoHello.
-->'''Magistrate:''' The other new arrival has considered you unreachable but now is [[LockedInARoom realising this has changed.]]
* ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' has Camille, who seeks Dai Shi's love and appreciation, but of course, "love" and "appreciation" are things {{Evil Overlord}}s aren't too good at. [[spoiler: Evil overlords' human hosts, on the other hand...]]
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', season 5, Hotel, brings us serial killer James Patrick Marsh, who is every stereotype of a new-money early 20th century industrialist crossed with a discount Hannibal Lecter, and Ms. Evers, his cleaning lady and PsychoSupporter. He treats her kindly as a valued minion but can't see she's so obviously in love with him. They're also both ghosts.

* In ''Film/AmericanPsycho'' Patrick Bateman has a relationship a bit like this with his secretary. She isn't aware that he's a serial killer (or just extremely insane businessman) but he makes very rude comments to her and she still seems to carry a torch.

** Thrym, demigod and Lord of the Frost Giants, is a key supporter of Hel in her plot to [[spoiler:force the gods to unmake the world so she can rule over the new one.]] Before he's introduced on-panel, his motives as revealed through his Frost Giant minions are kept deliberately hazy and enigmatic, and the [=PCs=] speculate about what they might be... only for a DescriptionCut to reveal him for the first time, making lovey-dovey advances to a clearly disinterested and irritated Hel, who only keeps him around for the mortal armies he can muster. [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1081.html He's also rather willingly blind to the fact that she has zero interest in him.]]

* This is one of the common interpretations of Pearl and Rose Quartz's relationship in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', with most of their canon portrayal being based around the LadyAndKnight dynamic. The other common interpretation is that Rose was in a relationship with Pearl until Greg came around, with Pearl being an InsecureLoveInterest to her [[UnequalPairing 'liege']]. (The AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of this interpretation is that Rose actually ''played along'' with Pearl's inferiority complex.)
* Scorpia from ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' spends the first three seasons pretty obviously carrying a torch for Catra. She does anything Catra asks, refers to them as "soulmates," is desperate to impress her, and seems to want to be a MoralityChain for her, but Catra barely notices. Or rather, she might, but since she's barely capable of being a good friend to Scorpia anyway, it doesn't really matter. Even if Catra actually treated Scorpia with respect, she is ultimately far more romantically interested in [[WeUsedToBeFriends her ex-best friend Adora]].

* Scorpia from ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' is pretty obviously carrying a torch for Catra, who is younger but technically her superior. Scorpia will do anything Catra asks, refers to them as "soulmates," is desperate to impress her, and seems to want to be a MoralityChain for her, but Catra barely notices -- being far more invested in her wildly unhealthy relationship with [[WeUsedToBeFriends Adora]], [[spoiler: who she's already in love with]].

* Ospina to the Haruspex in ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}''. Her name in Russian means 'pock' [[CreepyChild and she's about as romantically appealing.]] She says that an odong and a woman of the Order are forbidden, so there was never any chance of reciprocation anyway. [[note]]Her referring to Burakh as 'odong' sounds confusing - that name is mostly used for the half-savage bull-herders dressed in black rags. Several optional dialog paths clarify things (somewhat) - apparently the proper word for bull-herders is 'odonkhe', and 'odongs' are instead the closest thing the Order has to nobility, namely several families that are both entitled to and capable of becoming healers/priests and contending for the Elder position. So it's essentially a matter of him being of much higher caste than her.[[/note]] Burakh doesn't seem to be into her as well. All the same, she's completely loyal to the Haruspex and lives to serve the Burakh family.

-->Raiden:She's not talking to you, idiot.

** Yet another variety of this setup with Marcus Cole and Commander Susan Ivanova. Ivanova was a stern, duty-driven officer, and Marcus something of a free-spirited loner. He makes his feelings towards her very clear, and she spends much of their time together parrying his advances. Part of her problem with him was that as a Ranger (sort of a space-faring warrior monk), he didn't really fit anywhere in the command structure she was familiar with. Their relationship ends tragically as well [[spoiler: when Marcus sacrifices his life, [[CastFromHP literally]], to save a mortally wounded Ivanova,]] leaving her to bitterly reflect that AllLoveIsUnrequited.

In ''Videogame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', it's hinted through Codec conversations and her own dialog that Mistral is in love with [[spoiler:Senator Armstrong]], the man who gave her ideals to fight for. However, the game never reveals what exactly [[spoiler:Armstrong]] thinks of her.

''Courtney:'' I have a present for you, snooky-wookums.\\
''Nefarious:'' AAAARGH! I told you to stop calling me that! Just bring me Agent Clank!\\
''Courtney:'' Of course, darling.

* Courtney Gears from ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' is a good example, almost perfectly mirroring the usual relationship between Harley Quinn and The Joker.

** Tsukiko serves [[BigBad Xykon]] because she thinks undead are good love interests. He finds it as unsettling as the rest of Team Evil does, since she's lusting over a friggin ''lich'' -- and besides, he's been completely asexual since he died. When [[spoiler:Redcloak kills her with her own wights, Xykon's only really annoyed that he lost a useful minion and doesn't even remember her name.]]

'''Hel:''' Yes! And I explicitly told you that from the start!\\