Basic Trope: Someone who fights the fight, not because they believe in the cause, but for personal reasons.
- Straight: Bob leads the people of Tropistan into battle to defeat Emperor Evulz and his army. Alice joins—however, she does not care about being a hero, or even defeating Emperor Evulz; she wants to kill General Drake, who murdered her Massive Numbered Siblings many years ago.
- Exaggerated: Alice's in it simply because Bob bribed her with a chocolate cupcake.
- Downplayed: Heroism is a small part of Alice's motivation, but she's mostly in it for personal reasons.
- Justified:
- Alice was bribed with money, food, or something else that she cares about.
- Alice wasn't even aware of the war at first, being from a distant country. She ended up with the rebels because of circumstances out of her control and doesn't have enough context to form a proper political stance.
- Alice works for a foreign intelligence agency that has aligned itself with the rebels. Naturally, her primary concern is her country's interests in the region.
- Inverted:
- Emperor Evulz is evil for non-personal reasons.
- Alice is the The Only Believer in the group.
- Subverted:
- Alice lied about her intentions.
- Alice eventually starts to care about the cause as much as the other members.
- Double Subverted: Alice lied about lying about her intentions.
- Parodied: Bob leads an army into battle against Emperor Evulz. Alice joins simply because the Emperor once insulted her hat.
- Unparodied: Alice's culture takes hats and headwear very seriously and the Emperor already had a Long List of transgressions against her country. The insult was The Last Straw that pushed her to seek retribution for her people.
- Zig Zagged: Alice worked for a different resistance cell with a different ideology. She was sent to aid Bob's cell after the two groups joined forces, but still thinks they're crazy.
- Averted: Alice's reasons for heroism are purely heroic.
- Enforced: "We want to complicate our plot a bit, right? Let's make it so Alice and the villain have a history together."
- Lampshaded: "Alice doesn't care about saving us. She just wants to avenge her deceased siblings."
- Invoked: Alice is Only in It for the Money, and so the Five-Man Band hires her.
- Exploited: Because Alice is Only in It for the Money, Emperor Evulz offers more money for Alice to Face–Heel Turn.
- Defied: Because Alice is Only in It for the Money, the Five-Man Band sits her down and explains to her just why their mission is so important, and why she should care. They also explain that because she's fighting on their team, the Big Bad will be looking for her too.
- Discussed: "Alice doesn't care about helping out a nation in need. She's just in it for her own reasons."
- Conversed: "Alice is only ‘in it for the money’, but I bet she'll really care by the end of the movie—they usually do."
- Implied: Alice never mentions her motivation directly, but she does frequently reminisce about her deceased siblings.
- Deconstructed:
- Because of the selfish motivations behind her actions, Alice goes down in history as a self-centered Anti-Hero.
- Because Alice is only fighting for her own selfish reasons instead of the cause, her motivation is far weaker, she puts less effort into fighting, and she ultimately gets killed.
- Alice used to fight because she believed in the cause, but as she realizes that the cause isn't worth fighting for, let alone dying for, she's become a lot more cynical and less swayed by the morality argument.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice doesn't care what people think about her as long as she avenges her siblings.
- Her motives may not be as selfless as her comrades', but they're still entirely understandable, and her actual contributions to the war effort are more than enough for people to look past her motives anyway.
- Alice realizes that while the cause isn't worth fighting for due to being tainted and corrupted, her companions are and thus she will fight to keep them alive. And should they die, she'll just abandon the war entirely without looking back.
- Alice is not the only person in the revolution fighting only for Revenge, a foreign government's machinations and/or cold, hard coin (and the freedom to spend it). She is just the one who is more vocal about it.
- Played For Laughs: Alice is a Tsundere who regularly makes impassioned speeches about the revolutionary cause before immediately denying she cares about it.
- Played For Drama: Alice is a psychotic Blood Knight who joined the resistance because she loves fighting. Her teammates don't trust her and feel she'll turn on them if they win and the fighting stops.
You'll have to ask the main page about it because I'm Not in This for Your Revolution.
