Line #52 Main/BewilderingPunishment


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11
12	->''"All right guv! All right! Whatever I did, I'm sorry! And if you tell me what it was I won't do it again!"''
13	-->-- '''One of the player's hoodlums''' (after some "Bloody-knuckled discipline"), ''VideoGame/FallenLondon''
14
15	Alice is about to be punished -- anything from being dumped by her LoveInterest to a FateWorseThanDeath. She'd really like to know one thing: What did she ''do''?
16
17	Unless the character is showing ItsAllAboutMe or MoralMyopia or even worse, ButForMeItWasTuesday, -- which are possible -- this is a sympathetic characterization. An innocent character taken for a crime that no one will identify is common, especially in RevengeByProxy, SinsOfOurFathers, and CriminalDoppelganger, but not the only possibility.
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19	DisproportionateRetribution will often inspire it. Even if the crime was real, and the punishment not disproportionate, punishing an amnesiac character tends to come off as wrong. Those with ignorance of the law, stemming from [[ChildrenAreInnocent child-like innocence]] or [[NaiveNewcomer unfamiliarity with the location]], generally come off almost as well. Especially if YouKnowWhatYouDid follows. KarmicMisfire and GuiltByAssociationGag are related but generally involve the target genuinely not being involved at all. See also AlternatePersonalityPunishment where the punished genuinely has no idea they're being punished for another self's crimes.
20
21	This almost always occurs when a character tries to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by killing someone before he commits his crimes (particularly in regards to HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct). In a (often) less nasty style, this can also happen in cases of being MadAtADream.
22
23	----
24	!!Examples:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Advertising]]
29	* Briefly comes up in a commercial for Lunchables, where we see a youngster getting day after day of bad lunches. At one point he asks "was I bad?"
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* ''Literature/TheBoyWhoSworeRevengeOnTheWorld'' has the story starts with Hardt getting his god-given occupation of Dark Sorcerer, only for the priest in charge to explode with rage at this, followed by ''everyone'' (including his only friends) torturing him to the brink of death over the next few days for fun and sport, with his StrugglingSingleMother being murdered for the "crime" of giving birth to him. It's only after his own life is saved by someone else [[{{Necromancer}} who has the same occupation]] that he finally gets context for why Dark Sorcerers are so hated; cue him swearing revenge on the world.
34	* Casshern of ''Anime/CasshernSins'' has no idea why he's woken up in a world that despises him, full of half-crazed robots who believe they'll be saved from destruction if they [[ImAHumanitarian eat his flesh]] [[ImmortalityImmorality and become immortal]]. It's no secret that this is ultimately because he ''made'' the world that way, but he has no memory of his actions, [[YouKnowWhatYouDid and there are precious few willing to elaborate on what exactly Casshern did and why]] before trying to kill him. Making things worse is the fact that [[SuperpoweredEvilSide he goes into a mindless berserk rage]] if his life is in genuine danger, exacerbating his reputation as a harbinger of death and destruction.
35	* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Othinus briefly traps Touma Kamijou in an alternate universe where he's Public Enemy #1. Everybody in the world hates him and tries to kill him on sight, even his own parents. Until he's pulled out of it, nobody will explain to him why they're trying to kill him.
36	* Shinji Ikari in ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion 3.0'': after he wakes up from being extracted from Unit-01, everyone treats him with intense dislike and barely acknowledges his existence, leading to him wondering just what is going on that's making everyone act that way. It isn't until halfway through the movie that he gets an answer: [[spoiler:his actions at the end of the last movie inadvertently caused Third Impact, and although Kaworu stopped the Impact before its completion, the world still died. The survivors have been living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland for the past 14 years because of what he did, and they've lost all sympathy they once had for him.]]
37	* ''Manga/YamadaKunAndTheSevenWitches'', both the present-time plot and Yamada's flashback with Himekawa, starts with a DownerBeginning due to Yamada being angry and miserable because he has no idea why his best friend Ushio suddenly betrayed him and framed him for a street fight, granting him a week-long suspension and making him the outcast of the school. It's eventually revealed that Ushio's memories were changed so he really thought Yamada instigated the fight.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comedy]]
41	* Ed Byrne joked in ''Pedantic And Whimsical'' that women in general have an annoying habit of instead of telling their boyfriend/husband what they did wrong, they'll just "acted pissed off" and [[YouKnowWhatYouDid let the man guess what he's done]]. So after the man has asked what he's done wrong, the woman will hit him with the line:
42	-->"'If you don't know what you've done, there's no point in me telling you.' [[FlatWhat What?]] You know it doesn't make any sense. Where's the logic in that statement? [...] It's like saying 'If you haven't eaten, there's no point in us making any dinner'."
43	* Adam Ferrara has an equally pointed comeback to the old "If you don't know, I'm not telling you" card:
44	-->"Well then, don't be surprised when the shit happens ''again!!''"
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Books]]
48	* At the end of ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', Batman suggests the experience was another incident with the Scarecrow's fear gas. Finding this logical rather than the possibility that demons from Hell took over the Asylum, Dr. Arkham has Scarecrow tossed into solitary.
49	* Trope image of Superman destroying a Father's Day gift from Jimmy Olsen (cover, ''Jimmy Olsen'' No. 30): he had arranged to adopt the orphaned Olsen, and needed Olsen to call off the adoption, believing (because of a misinterpreted pediction) that it would endanger Olsen's life.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Fan Works]]
53	* In ''Fanfic/ComesAndGoesInWaves'', Vanya learns about her mother's death by ''discovering her corpse''. She viciously calls out Klaus for keeping her in the dark about this, unaware that he legitimately ''didn't know'' that she'd been LockedOutOfTheLoop.
54	* ''Fanfic/CrimsonAndNoire'': Plagg is far too accustomed to his holders being [[HeroWithBadPublicity Heroes with Bad Publicity]] that get mistreated by the public and their own nominal "partners". So he's wary and distrustful of Crimson Beetle, refusing to accept that Adrien is a legitimately kind person and not a BitchInSheepsClothing.
55	* ''Fanfic/{{Dangerverse}}'': {{Invoked\|Trope}} by the Three-Fold Curse Of The Righteous. Part of that curse is that those cursed will "live out their lives in misery without ever knowing why", to the point where the curse prevents any third parties from informing the victims that they are under a curse.
56	* ''Fanfic/EnneaSeries'': In ''For Their Sakes'', Miruko abruptly starts avoiding Hawks, refusing to talk to or even look at him for over a week. He thinks that she's punishing him for something, but can't for the life of him figure out what he must have done wrong. In reality, it has nothing to do with him at all; the Commission forced Miruko to inflitrate the Meta Liberation Army as their mole, and she's trying to avoid getting Hawks drawn into the whole drama.
57	* ''Fanfic/FailureToExplode'': After Katsuki [[PointOfDivergence fails to pass U.A.'s Entrance Exam]], he's utterly ''livid'' to learn that Izuku succeeded where he failed, and promptly confronts him at school. However, since the staff at Aldera have learned that their plan to ride his coattails and leech off his success are a non-starter, they start intervening and preventing him from his usual {{Barbaric Bully}}ing. Katsuki even [[SayingTooMuch blurts out]] to his mother that he's never been punished for this ''before'', not understanding why [[NotHelpingYourCase that only makes her angrier]].
58	* ''Webcomic/FfreiresNaruFoxAU'': Teams 7 and 10 regularly hold [[SlumberParty Slumber Parties]] after training. Hinata is upset to learn that Kiba and Shino have been doing something similar without her; both declare that they only excluded her because Neji wouldn't approve. However, they [[PoorCommunicationKills never actually]] ''[[PoorCommunicationKills asked]]'' whether it was okay, simply assuming they'd never get permission from the Hyuuga. Hinata later tells Neji that she's staying at Kiba-kun's that night while [[DeathGlare poutily glaring]] at her cousin, leaving him wondering why she seems so upset with him.
59	* In ''Fanfic/TheFifthAct'', PeggySue Cloud comes back in time and decides to kill Sephiroth to prevent his fall to insanity, killing spree at Nibelheim, and ultimate {{Omnicidal Mania\|c}}. Sephiroth, for his part, has no idea what he did to provoke Cloud's murderous grudge, and can only speculate that he may have killed a loved one in the line of duty.
60	* ''Fanfic/FortuneLoverTGSBetaSaruRipTPlusEng0Point75SincereDotZip'': The basic premise of the fic is a ''Fortune Lover'' mod (implied to be created by A-Chan) in which the Katarina Claes of ''Fortune Lover'' is replaced with the Katarina Claes of ''Literature/{{My Next Life as a Villainess\|AllRoutesLeadToDoom}}'', while everyone else's dialogs and event flags are left unaltered. The result is Katarina being labeled a villainess despite doing nothing on-screen to deserve it, being denounced for crimes that she never committed, and finally killed or exiled for absolutely no reason. There are even Katarina lines in the mod in which she asks why this is happening.
61	* In ''Fanfic/MultiversalConstants'', when Talia goes and greets the teenage counterpart of her son Damian, she's taken aback by the sheer ''hostility'' he shows her, coupled with a stubborn refusal to trust her. She doesn't get why he acts this way until a telepath lets her see [[OffingTheOffspring exactly how bad her counterpart was]].
62	** The same teenage boy also straight-out assaulted David Cain right after laying eyes on his daughter Cassandra. The girl was very much befuddled to see a total stranger hurting her father out of ''love'' for her.
63	* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Harry has largely kept her head down at school and been polite to everyone, so she doesn't know why someone would make her fall down the stairs and break her wrist, hit her with stinging hexes from behind, and then try to poison her. Even when she finds out, she's still confused.
64	-->'''Harry''': That's what this is about? [[spoiler:The Marauders' joke line at Zonkos?]]
65	* In ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'', where Robb's mind [[TimeTravel returns to his past body from the point of his death in the series]], Theon is genuinely confused by Robb's newfound hostility towards him since they're still friends at this time in the timeline. It takes Ned pointing out how Robb's behaviour is unfair for the youth to act more civilly.
66	* ''Fanfic/ThinkBeforeYouSpeakMHA'': ''Words May Hurt'' has Katsuki acting this way after he's [[LaserGuidedKarma punished for]] disobeying orders during a training exercise and seriously injuring his teammate. He's so used to [[KarmaHoudini getting a free pass for all his misbehavior]] that he's legitimately confused by U.A.'s response, even protesting that he'd only acted that way because he was targeting [[BlamingTheVictim Deku]]. Since [[AdultsAreUseless nobody at Aldera]] cared about him bullying the 'Quirkless loser', he honestly believes that's a valid defense instead of [[NotHelpingYourCase making matters worse for himself]].
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
70	* In ''Film/AChristmasStory'', after Ralphie's [[SoapPunishment punishment]] for swearing, he must tell his mother where he heard the word. Not wanting to tell the truth that it was his dad, he blames his friend. Ralphie's mom informs the kid's mother and we hear that kid being smacked and asking "What did I do?" coming from the other end of the phone.
71	* In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Han and Chewbacca are being tortured by Vader (Han by electricity and Chewie by sound), and think it's [[ForTheEvulz just petty revenge]] since they weren't asked any questions. Vader is counting on Luke psychically sensing their torture and coming to rescue them.
72	* In ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask'', Philippe had no clue why he was taken from the farm he grew up on, forced into the iron mask, and locked away. He recalls how when he was first imprisoned, all he did was shout for someone to say what he did. He eventually realized it must have something to do with his face. It isn't until the Musketeers rescue him that he learns it was because he's the identical twin of the king.
73	* In ''Film/MickeyOne'', the protagonist finds himself massively in debt to the Mafia. He doesn't know how he incurred such a huge debt, or which mobster he pissed off, or even how much he owes. He speculates that his girlfriend at the time was a mobster's woman, or that he took favors from criminals without realizing it.
74	* In ''Film/{{Oldboy\|2003}}'' the protagonist is kidnapped and held in a private prison. When released, he spends the rest of the movie trying to track down who did this to him and why.
75	* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the heroes track down the guy who'll invent the chip which leads to the RobotWar in the future, and Sarah immediately tries to kill him in front of his family, even though he hasn't finished his research (much less known what would come of it). He calls her out on this after the situation's explained, but agrees to help destroy his work.
76	* One of the most important points of ''Film/TheTrial'' is that the viewer is never let in on the charge against the protagonist or why he's executed. It's also ambiguous as to whether the protagonist himself knows.
77	%% * An Eastern European film taking place in an unnamed state had a communist functionary being reassigned. She thinks she's been promoted, but instead ends up in a frozen rat-infested hovel with an old man who says only, "They sent you here, so you could think about why they sent you here."
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Literature]]
81	* Any incarnation of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' features this. Edmond has no idea why he's imprisoned until many years have passed in Chateau D'if. Then he's out for some serious ''revenge''.
82	* In ''Literature/TheDarkHalf,'' the killer [[EnemyWithout George Stark]] has the same fingerprints as novelist Thad Beaumont. Sheriff Pangborn arrives at Thad's house to arrest him, and his first clue that Thad isn't the killer is that Thad is utterly confused by the arrest. Pangborn has been a cop long enough to know that criminals who know they're guilty just don't act like that.
83	* Specifically averted in Jack Vance's ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'' quintet. Although it's been years since the Mount Pleasant raid and some of them (with still worse atrocities committed in the meantime) have put it out of their heads, Kirth Gersen goes out of his way to ensure the Demon Princes ''know'' who's bringing them undone and why.
84	* ''Literature/AFlyWentBy'': When the boy threatens to whip the fox and accuses him of wanting to kill the little cow, he is confused and asks what he did.
85	* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''Literature/TheGoldenOecumene'', Ungannis tries to invoke this trope by splitting herself into many personalities, some of whom would try erasing memories of her crimes, and still be executed for them. This is not greeted with horror by the Transcedence mass mind -- legally, you can not evade punishment unless you rework your personality into a new person, and none of the split personalities had tried to redact the beliefs that had led Ungannis to commit the crime.
86	* In the first ''Literature/{{Harry Potter\|and the Philosophers Stone}}'' book, the Dursleys punish Harry for causing magical things to happen. Since they never told him he was a wizard, Harry just thinks that weird things inexplicably happen around him and doesn't understand why they're considered his fault.
87	* In ''Literature/KingRat'', the main character denies the king his throne back, for reasons that any human would agree with but a rat could likely never understand.
88	* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship'', [[MoralMyopia Laura]] is outraged at accusations of theft -- which she and Sophia have committed, and Sophia was caught doing.
89	-->''At this period of their Quarrel I entered the Library and was, as you may imagine, equally offended as Sophia at the ill-grounded Accusations of the malevolent and contemptible Macdonald.''
90	* In ''Literature/TheMoonstone'', Franklin, who's doing his best to find out what happened to Rachel's stolen Moonstone, has no idea why Rachel is suddenly so angry and cold towards him, and only seems to think less of him the more he tries to help. [[spoiler:Not until she tells him that she "saw him take the Moonstone with her own eyes."]]
91	* One Literature/SherlockHolmes story featured a young man, arrested for the murder of his father, showing no surprise and saying he deserved it. Watson thinks it proves guilt -- an innocent man would have had this trope. Holmes counter-argues that the man had to know the strength of the evidence against him, and since he raised his hand against his father, he may have regarded his arrest as just.
92	* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': Justified in "Stop Lying, Roys Bedoys!", where Roys lies that Wen is in trouble and needs to stand against the wall, leaving her wondering what she did.
93	* In the third ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' book, the school principal, Mr. Kidswatter, decides to declare the word "Door" a bad word, and anyone who uses it to be punished. Todd happens to be late for school that day and misses that announcement. When he tries to explain why he was late, he uses the word "door" and is immediately punished.
94	* Aviendha is subject to this type of punishment by the Wise Ones for much of book twelve of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. She is ordered to do useless labour, which is the ultimate insult in the Aiel culture where even prisoners from enemy clans (''gai'shain'') are put to useful work. It turns out that [[spoiler:she is meant to complain rather than stoically bearing it. This shows the strength of character necessary to become a Wise One]].
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
98	* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'': A variation. In "Abridging the Devil's Divide," Harper helps a madman build a time bridge, which was done under duress, but at the critical moment, Harper tried to activate the thing, largely ForScience and nearly leading to disaster. In the aftermath, Dylan says this is strike two for Harper. When Harper asks what strike one was, Dylan gets mad. Harper quickly withdraws the question and leaves. When Rommie, who was present for the conversation, asks what strike one was, Dylan admits that there never was a strike one.
99	* Averted in ''Series/BabylonFive'', where a {{Mind Wipe}}d serial killer [[spoiler:turned mild-mannered monk]] has his memories forcibly returned to him because the people hunting him down want to make damn sure he knows why they're after him.
100	* The protagonist of the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode “[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]” wakes up in a room with no memory of how she got there, and a masked figure stalking her and attempting to kill her. Worse, everyone else around her appears to be brainwashed into recording her suffering on their phones instead of helping her or even telling her what is going on. [[spoiler:It turns out this is her punishment for being an accessory to the murder of a young girl - she gets her memory wiped, then she is terrorised by actors to the point of breakdown and her crimes exposed to her before her memory gets wiped to repeat it all again the next day, while visitors get to watch and record it.]]
101	* Poor [[spoiler:Gale]] has no idea what hit him in the ''Series/BreakingBad'' third season finale, although [[spoiler:someone as smart as him who's helping to build an industrial-level meth lab should be smart enough to know that there might be unseen dangers in working for rich criminals]].
102	* In ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' episode "Elvin Pays For Dinner", Sondra insists that Elvin go out to dinner with a visiting ex-girlfriend, even as he repeatedly insists that he ''not'' go. So he goes. . . and ends up completely confused at Sondra's furious reaction when he comes home--screaming her head off, locking him out of their bedroom, and refusing to speak to him the next day. Only when his father-in-law Cliff explains to him that Sondra repeatedly telling him "[[NoMeansYes Yes" actually meant "No"]] does he understand.
103	* ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'': In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS3E5AllAboutEavesdropping All About Eavesdropping]]", not knowing that Rob and Laura eavesdropped on them while they were saying some negative things, Jerry and Millie are utterly confused when they come over and behave stiffly and coldly. They become even more confused during charades when Laura makes some hostile gestures and Rob gives some bizarre guesses. Neither of them comes close to guessing what it was.
104	" In the [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode ''The Shakespeare Code'']] episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'', Queen Elizabeth I orders the Doctor to be beheaded, momentarily confusing the Doctor, because from his point of view, he hadn't done whatever it was yet.
105	* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'': Doña Florinda usually slaps Don Ramón for things that weren't his fault. There were occasions he doesn't even know what she's faulting him for.
106	* An episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' has Phoebe giving Ross the cold shoulder because she's mad at him. He doesn't know ''why'' she's mad at him, though, and after some prodding, Phoebe admits that she doesn't know either. She's actually forgotten whatever it was Ross did to upset her, she just remembers being mad about it. [[spoiler:And then it turns out it's because [[MadAtADream she had a dream where Ross called her boring]].]]
107	* ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'': After the Official is badly beaten, Darien is bewildered when Hobbes attacks him, points a gun at him, and starts ranting at him. Hobbes has assumed Darien did it while suffering from Quicksilver madness; in reality, [[spoiler:the gland contained the RNA of the previous subject, [=CIA=] assassin Simon Cole, with the RNA temporarily taking over Darien's mind and making him act as Simon until he's cured]].
108	* In one episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'', the VictimOfTheWeek is revealed to have had an affair before she was beaten into a coma. However, due to the extent of the brain damage, she loses all memory of the affair, so when she wakes up, she is extremely confused and upset about why her husband is acting so cold toward her.
109	* In ''Series/Loki2021'' this is the specialty of the Time Variance Authority. Their goal is to make sure that all reality follows a single "Sacred Timeline", and they quickly imprison, try, and eliminate anyone who causes a reality to diverge from it. The TVA's existence is secret, almost no one even knows there are multiple realities, and no one knows when [[PointOfDivergence actions they're taking would create such a divergence]], so from their perspective TVA agents kidnap them out of nowhere and claim some random action of theirs was a crime they didn't even know it was possible to commit.
110	* Played with for (black) humor in the Pirahna Brothers sketch of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''. There is an interview with one of their subordinates who said that Dinsdale would nail his head to the floor on a regular basis. Part of the joke was that Dinsdale never said why the minion needed to be punished, and the minion never asked, taking it as a given that he must have done ''something'' to deserve such treatment, even though he kept trying to apologize.
111	* In the Christmas episode of ''Series/MrBean'', Mr. Bean is confused by his girlfriend's request for an engagement ring as a Christmas gift and instead thinks she was pointing at a portrait of a couple behind it. When she realizes what has happened, she runs out of the apartment in tearful frustration, slamming the door behind her. A [[InnocentlyInsensitive bewildered Mr. Bean]] can only think to ask, "W... what was wrong with it?"
112	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
113	** Due to IdentityAmnesia preventing her from knowing that she's really Snow White, Mary Margaret has no idea why Regina has such a strong grudge against her that she'd [[FrameUp frame her for murder]].
114	** Snow White herself has no idea as to why Regina hates her and tries to kill her. [[spoiler:When Snow was a child, she was tricked by Cora into telling her about Regina's secret affair with the stable boy, Daniel. Given that Cora murdered Daniel, Regina's hostility is sympathetic. Sort of.]]
115	* ''Series/OneLifeToLive'''s Blair Daimler debuted as a mystery woman who inexplicably had a vendetta against Dorian Lord, who despite her own history of conniving and cruelty, was genuinely confused as to why Blair was out to get her, even desperately asking her at one point "Why do you hate me so much?", to which Blair only cryptically replied "I have my reasons". We finally learned what those reasons were--Blair's mother Addie was Dorian's long-lost sister and Blair believed that Dorian had abused Addie throughout their childhood and then sent her to a mental hospital. She was stunned to learn the truth--''Addie'' was the abuser, had been mentally ill all her life, and genuinely needed to be institutionalized.
116	* One episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'' has Teal'c put on trial after gating to a planet. All they know at first is that it's for a crime he committed when he was First Prime of Apophis. Unfortunately, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Teal'c was part of a number of atrocities while First Prime]], and it takes a while for him to remember the event in question, and longer to recall the specifics.
117	* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", Kevin Riley is abruptly transferred to Engineering and believes he's being punished, but is completely bewildered about what he's being punished for. In reality, it's actually that Riley's life is in danger because he's one of only two surviving witnesses to a mass murder who can identify the perpetrator, but Kirk doesn't want to tell him this because he's afraid that Riley would try to take revenge if he knew that a suspect was on board, so he instead tries to protect him by moving him to a part of the ship where he's less likely to come into contact with the passengers. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]
118	* Played with in the ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E28ANicePlaceToVisit "A Nice Place to Visit"]]. An unrepentant criminal is sent to a 5-star hotel paradise with a casino where he wins every bet and women who lavish him with attention. He's completely confused for weeks, wondering what he did that re-balanced his karma until his jailer reveals that the eternal catering to every whim (to the point where it [[VictoryIsBoring bores him]] and [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction gives him no pleasure]]) is what makes it Hell.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Religion]]
122	* The Literature/BookOfJob (believed to be [[OlderThanDirt the oldest]] book of ''Literature/TheBible'') famously has this as its central premise. Job suffers several rapid-fire calamities, and his [[WithFriendsLikeThese friends]] and his wife insist he must have done something truly awful to deserve it. Job maintains that he's been perfectly upright and calls out God to explain Himself. God's answer is "[[OmniscientMoralityLicense I'm God, you're not, deal with it.]]" He does eventually reward Job's faith by replacing all that he had lost. [[GodIsEvil Including his loved ones that God slew as part of the test.]]
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
126	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' the aeons provide both punishments and rewards, but both are equally bewildering. They exist to maintain balance, with various types concerned with balancing different things such as darkness and light, knowledge and ignorance, creation and oblivion. They apply their efforts based on the balance of the universe using metrics that are completely opaque, and do not bother trying to explain or justify their actions. This is particularly obvious in the case of the akhana aeons which balance life, as from the perspective of everybody else it wanders around murdering or healing people at random, having somehow determined their current state represents an imbalance.
127	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' dwarfs can cause this effect. Dwarfs tend to treat ''everything'' as a deadly serious matter, and also tend to assume that anything people do that displeases them is a deliberate insult. In one notable case, the people of a fortress found themselves besieged by an army because they employed dwarfs to build it and accidentally underpaid them by a few pennies. As far as the dwarfs are concerned this was a deliberate attempt to rob them of their labor (again, by shortchanging them something like 0.001% of the total cost), so the appropriate response is to demand payment with damages decades later and if not satisfied raise an army and burn the place to the ground.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Video Games]]
131	* In the ''Half-Quake'' series of Mods for ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', the strange people(?) behind the scenes of the bizarre, punishing world the player character finds himself in claim that he deserves their torture simply for the "crime" of [[HumansAreBastards being human]]. But as a number of areas seem to be designed to showcase or even glorify sadism, the protagonist- and others- are given weapons so that they can survive longer (and therefore prolong their own suffering), and the grisly deaths of the [[InsistentTerminology victims]] are apparently televised for the entertainment of others, the possibility exists that they're simply [[FreudianExcuse rationalizing their own sick enjoyment]].
132	%% the whispers are in french, uncomment this if the whispers actually translate to the assumed phrases below * ''VideoGame/{{Off}}'': If the whispers in [[spoiler:the purified zones]] are anything to go by, the residents are understandably confused and upset about [[spoiler:having been killed during the purification]].
133	%%-->[[spoiler:What did we do to deserve this? Why did you kill them?]]
134	* ''Videogame/Portal2'': On the Turret production line, Turrets are made to repeat after a template Turret. Defective Turrets that fail to do this are catapulted into an incinerator. Chell sabotages the production line by replacing the template Turret with a defective one, sending perfectly functional Turrets into the incinerator, screaming in protest.
135	-->"''WHYYY?!"\
136	"I DON'T UNDERSTAAAND!"\
137	"I DID EVERYTHING YOU AAASKED!"''
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
141	* Franziska von Karma of ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' fame likes to whip people for reasons which may or may not be valid. At least once, she whipped Phoenix instead of the actual target.
142	[[/folder]]
143
144	[[folder:Web Animation]]
145	%%* Many a ''Platform/GoAnimate'' [[YouAreGrounded "Grounded"]] video will have the target of the groundings punished for no reason or for reasons outside of their control.
146	* In the ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' episode reviewing ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', Yahtzee notes that you, the player, are never told what your character did to end up in jail. He promptly comes up with the most badass crime he can think of, namely, a threesome with the Emperor's wife and hottest daughter on top of the desecrated corpse of a god.
147	** In his review of VideoGame/{{Starfield}}, his character gets a bounty as a punishment for a crime, but he has no recollection of committing a crime and his NPC party member was angry with him without going into any detail on what the crime was. Goes even further when he tries to pay off his bounty to the police, only to be kidnapped by them and asked to go undercover to space pirates because of the crime he committed.
148	--->'''Yahtzee:''' COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME, WHAT I NOBBING WELL DID!
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Web Comics]]
152	* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': The main antagonist of the series is a shadowy inhuman entity known only as "her", who has a murderous grudge against protagonist Undine for reasons she refuses to say. She made her first appearance on the night that Undine's MagicalGirl teammates were killed in action, and shows up periodically to either [[TheMinionMaster direct the monsters of the night]] or simply taunt the broken survivor, always vanishing before anything resembling a straight answer can be obtained. Undine, meanwhile, wants nothing more than to know ''why'' any of this is happening. [[spoiler:"her" seems to hate Undine because Undine survived her attempt to kill off all of Team Alchemical in order to render their leader Tessa vulnerable.]]
153	-->''"'''Come back and fight me!''' ''[through tears]'' ...Or at least... tell me what I did to deserve this..."''
154	* In ''Webcomic/{{Weregeek}}'', this is one of the reasons why Sarah was so upset over [[spoiler:Mark and Jesse breaking up]]. She hadn't realized what had happened (specifically that [[spoiler:Jesse believed Mark was cheating on her with Sarah]]) and had no clue what was going on when she innocently approached [[spoiler:Jesse]], only to be screamed at.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Western Animation]]
158	* The premise behind the ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' episode "Large Target" centers around XR using a makeshift disguise of his teammate Booster to cheat his way to riches at a casino while Team Lightyear is on vacation. As a result, Booster, who was unaware of what XR did, has every assassin in the galaxy hunting him down for a hefty bounty issued by the [[TheMafia Space Mafia's Don]] for breaking the bank, while XR was the culprit.
159	* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': Almost every episode has Eustace complain "What did I do?" when Muriel chews him out on his bad behavior or hits him with a rolling pin, but this is because Eustace is [[JerkAss self-centered to the point it borders on sociopathy]].
160	* This happened to poor Fred twice on ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'':
161	** One time had Fred unintentionally switching places with [[IdenticalStranger a business tycoon]] and while Fred was doing the tycoon's job, the tycoon was going around town being an asshole to everyone. In the end, Fred goes home and gets beaten up by Barney and chewed out by Wilma, Barney, and Betty, much to his confusion.
162	** Another time, aliens had been making clones of Fred, and ''they'' were acting like assholes and ruining his reputation. It had a happier ending though, because when Fred told them how it happened, Wilma, Barney, and Betty simply thought he was under stress from his diet, and said he could go off it. [[DudeWheresMyRespect Fred was upset]], until he realized he [[HellYesMoment was off his diet]].
163	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' has them accidentally discovering a new swear word, which they proceed to use constantly. Ms. Keane hears them say it in class and punishes them, but [[InnocentSwearing the girls don't know it's a bad word]], and when they ask her what they did, she answers, "[[YouKnowWhatYouDid You know perfectly well what you did!]]"
164	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' has Angelica overhear a DepravedKidsShowHost using a curse word to describe the children she works with and, thinking it's the show's new special phrase, [[InnocentSwearing repeats it to her parents]]. She gets in trouble for it repeatedly, including when she tries to get her dad to tell her exactly which word in the sentence is the "bad" one. [[spoiler:By the end of the episode, she's still not sure why the word's bad. Her dad just says that it "makes people feel bad".]]
165	* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Homer [[RunningGag strangling Bart]] when he learns he needs to go attend to other matters. He orders Bart to think about what he's done since he can't carry out the full punishment. Bart has no idea why Homer was strangling him, and it turns out that Homer doesn't know what Bart did wrong either.
166	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
167	** The episode "Proper Condom Use" has some of this, wherein Cartman shows the other boys how to "milk a dog". Stan shows this off to his parents in front of company without knowing what he's doing, which results in this.
168	-->'''Sharon Marsh:''' Stanley, do you know why you're being grounded for 10 months?!\
169	'''Stan Marsh:''' No!
170	** "Sexual Harassment Panda" played Stan's trial for sexually harassing Cartman in this fashion.
171	--->'''Judge:''' What do you have to say in your defense?\
172	'''Stan:''' I'm eight?
173	%%** And this trope is par for the course with Butters and his [[AbusiveParents parents]].
174	* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "The Camping Episode", Squidward gets repeatedly mauled by a sea bear for intentionally trying to provoke it by doing things such as wearing a sombrero in a goofy fashion, [[DisproportionateRetribution then trying to run away, trying to limp away, and trying to crawl away]]. The fifth time, it attacks him for no reason.
175	-->'''Squidward:''' What did I do that time?!\
176	'''[=SpongeBob=]:''' I don't know, maybe [[AnimalsHateHim he just doesn't like you!]]\
177	'''Patrick:''' Try pretending to be someone else.
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	[[folder:Real Life]]
181	* [[AncientRome Tacitus']] ''Annals'' contains an anecdote where after their father's downfall, [[SinsOfOurFathers Sejanus' children were led off to be executed as sympathizers,]] his daughter Junilla having no idea what she'd done wrong and in tears pleading to be beaten like other children who'd been naughty. The children were strangled [[ValuesDissonance (and in Junilla's case sexually assaulted, as there was no precedent for the execution of a virgin)]] and their bodies thrown down the Gemonian Stairs.
182	* Attempts to teach small children and animals how to behave are at risk of falling foul of this trope if the time between the misdeed and the scolding is too long, or if the child is simply too young to understand reasoning. Instead of correcting the misbehavior, this can actually make it worse by creating stress and confusion.
183	** Punishing an older animal for behaviors that were allowed when it was younger because it was "cute" at the time can also cause this, regardless of how fast the punishment is delivered.
184	* Some schools have a practice of outright punishing children for saying a swear word, even if the child was simply repeating a word that they heard and had no idea that it was a swear word.
185	* Autistic people will sometimes wonder why a friend blows up or ghosts them seemingly out of the blue. They may not have seen the hints the friend was dropping and will end up thinking this friend was doing this deliberately.
186	** The reverse is also possible. A lot of autistic people become incapable of speech (sometimes called 'going non-verbal') when severely stressed- even incapable of explaining '''why''' they're stressed. Since socializing is often overwhelming or exhausting even if the other person is being perfectly friendly, this has led to a lot of hurtful misunderstandings.
187	* A study of the process used to turn men into torturers for the Greek military junta showed the recruits were subjected to this. The random punishment not only brutalized them, it made them [[SycophanticServant pay constant attention to their superiors]] in the hope of avoiding future punishment, and not question any order they were given.
188	* Defied by the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states that all Americans have a right "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation" when facing criminal charges.
189	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BewilderingPunishment