History Main / ItNeverGetsAnyEasier

* In the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode ''Lie to Me'', after Buffy has just staked a former friend who had become a vampire:

* ''{{MadWorld}}''. In the ending theme [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9vB94bpw_A "Soul"]], the song takes place from Jack's point of view and deals with his conflicted self. The song suggests that he hates killing [[HeWhoFightsMonsters but he has to keep doing it for a greater cause.]]

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', when the doctor (voiced by George Clooney) who has failed to resuscitate Kenny because he replaced his heart with a baked potato cries, verbatim, "It never gets any easier!" He immediately begins whistling cheerfully as he walks away.

* In ''[[Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage X]]'', this was a discussion that Subaru had with her [[EmergencyServices Special Rescue Team]] Commander after she had watched a person she was trying to save commit suicide ([[spoiler: or more specifically, [[PeoplePuppet was mind-controlled to suicide]]]]) right in front of her. They talk about how hard it is to see someone die and how they could still see the people they failed to save in their dreams. Then Subaru's superior breaks the tension by saying how idiots such as them shouldn't be having introspective conversations like these and the two share a slight chuckle. ItGetsEasier and It Never Gets Any Easier are both present in TheVerse: everybody normally uses magical guns set to non-lethal - even if the blast had to go through half a warship to hit it's target, it will still be a NonLethalKO, thus ensuring that fighting someone ''is'' psychologically easy right from the start, but reaction to seeing anyone actually die for any reason is no different from non-combatant's reaction.

* Carol says this word-for-word on {{ER}} when sealing a rape evidence kit. A fellow nurse responds, "I'd get worried if it ''did''"

* [[TheMedic Kaladin]] in ''Literature/TheWayOfKings''. A combination of this and SamaritanSyndrome nearly drive him over the DespairEventHorizon.

* In ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'', thanks to Sensitivity, it's nearly, if not outright impossible for a Princess to shield themselves from suffering they witness.

* Happens in ''[[Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall Squire]]'' by TamoraPierce, after Kel is {{Squick}}ed out by the executions she had to witness. Probably a way of further establishing the main characters as heroic, because Pierce has a tendency of giving her villains a complete and utter disregard for human life.

* This trope is regularly invoked in the pulp novel series Literature/RogueAngel. Annika Creed, the LaraCroft-like heroine, regularly kills enemies, sometimes in cold blood, yet the books often include moments where she ruminates about having to kill and she often expresses regret, even with the occasional BigBad she has had to end.

* When an officer dies under Wedge's command in the ExpandedUniverse novel ''[[XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', he finds it hard to write the letter informing next of kin. (That the next of kin is in this case his supreme commander probably makes it a bit more difficult.) However, while it takes him all night to word it properly, and he doesn't have much time for sleep, he's ''able'' to sleep for the hour or so, and is faintly proud that it ''isn't'' any easier than it was the first time he had to do it. It's also come up that since he half expects new pilots to die soon, he doesn't let himself get to know most of them, even keeping to a LastNameBasis.

* In ''{{The Saga of Darren Shan}}'' the fact that it ''does'' get easier is included as a plot point. The first time Darren kills a vampaneze in combat, he is horrified to see him slowly die in front of him, and cries over his body. After several years of bloody war against the vampaneze, he finds that he barely feels anything when he needs to fight and kill. [[spoiler: Evanna later cites this as a reason Darren will eventually become "The Lord of the Shadows" and destroy the world.]]

* In PrincessTheHopeful , thanks to Sensitivity, it's nearly, if not outright impossible for a Princess to shield themselves from suffering they witness.

* ''GundamSEED'':

* An example from the re-imagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' series: in episode 2.09 "Final Cut", Dualla is asked whether it ever gets any easier. She replies that, in fact, "It gets harder." "It" in this case being protecting what's left of humanity from genocidal robots.

In reality, although people might have some problems the first few times, they quickly grow used to what is, after all, part of their profession. For any given person or family, the sudden death of a loved one can be a traumatic and tragic event, but for the people who see it on a regular basis it doesn't have the same impact. Get a bunch of paramedics, firefighters or other first responders together in a room relaxing and inevitably you'll eventually get morbid jokes, [[BlackHumor pitch-black humor]], and stories of "good runs" where "good" would be defined by the average civilian as "scene from a horror movie".

In reality, although people might have some problems the first few times, they quickly grow used to what is, after all, part of their profession. For any given person or family, the sudden death of a loved one can be a traumatic and tragic event, but for the people who see it on a regular basis it doesn't have the same impact. Get a bunch of paramedics, firefighters or other first responders together in a room relaxing and inevitably you'll eventually get morbid jokes, [[BlackHumor pitch-black humor]], and stories of "good runs" where "good" would be defined by the average civilian as "scene from a horror movie". But studio execs assume that all ViewersAreMorons and if we'd see our heroes show even the slightest callousness, we would immediately reject them as inhuman monsters.

The trope is named for the phrase that will be uttered to the NaiveNewcomer who is experiencing this kind of sorrow for the first time. It ''can'' be TruthInTelevision, as even the most jaded of these people probably have a story of a time when they'd been at the job for a while and something about a scene they were called to hit them incredibly hard. Nine times out of ten, it involves children or infants.

* In ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaSoundStageX'', this was a discussion that Subaru had with her [[EmergencyServices Special Rescue Team]] Commander after she had watched a person she was trying to save commit suicide ([[spoiler: or more specifically, [[PeoplePuppet was mind-controlled to suicide]]]]) right in front of her. They talk about how hard it is to see someone die and how they could still see the people they failed to save in their dreams. Then Subaru's superior breaks the tension by saying how idiots such as them shouldn't be having introspective conversations like these and the two share a slight chuckle. ItGetsEasier and It Never Gets Any Easier are both present in TheVerse: everybody normally uses magical guns set to non-lethal - even if the blast had to go through half a warship to hit it's target, it will still be a NonLethalKO, thus ensuring that fighting someone ''is'' psychologically easy right from the start, but reaction to seeing anyone actually die for any reason is no different from non-combatant's reaction.

* A short-lived medical drama ''{{Mercy}}''. It's a nurse's first day on the job, and her first assignment is to unplug a guy on life support. Striking is the cavalierness of which her supervising nurses treat the assignment.

** Mentioned often as half the stories have AnAesop that sometimes patients just die, and if you go into depression every time, you'll never get anything done. ** The only character who actually ''acts'' on this Aesop, though, is Dr. Kelso, but that's just because he has to keep himself together in order to effectively run the hospital. However, has stated that he doesn't ''want'' to be one of the doctors that just doesn't care anymore. One of the reasons he respects Dr. Cox so much is because when he loses a patient, it still hits him hard (granted Dr. Cox was responsible for the deaths of three patients all in one day. That kind of thing can [[HeroicBSOD take a toll on your psyche]].)

* Parodied on ''ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'', where (in a ridiculously simplified parody of medical programmes) a doctor pulls off a plaster and says 'That Never Gets Any Easier'.

* Agent May of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD"' tells this to Skye when the latter is preparing for a mission in which she may have to kill someone:

-->''"They say the more teddybears you tickle the easier it gets. No, sir."''