History Main / ApathyKilledTheCat

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', it's actually ''illegal'' to research the Keepers, the enigmatic species that runs the Citadel that galactic government is run from. [[spoiler: It's revealed in the game that they were actually engineered to run the Citadel by the Reapers and the whole structure is SchmuckBait: a perfect space station to set up a galactic government from, so that the Reapers can decapitate said government in their opening attack and seize all its records on military structure and populations. Fortunately, the last surviving Protheans figured out what was happening and [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture figured out a way to interfere]], giving the current species a fighting chance]].

* A trope is you! Do you know how your computer works? You might know it involves ones and zeros, maybe some HTML and Java, but that's it.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': Magic! Flying whales! Demons! See also: vampires, robot girls, immortality, PettingZooPeople, telepathy, time dilation, the entire magical world itself and more. However, don't ask what the hell is going on. You might get turned into an ermine or something. Chisame is the only character to show the slightest interest... by running ''away'' from the answer. The other major exception is Haruna; when she finds out about magic, she threatens to torture her three best friends for not telling her sooner.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'', the {{Catfolk}}-populated kingdom of Thundera is largely confident in its MedievalStasis, KungFuWizard {{Magic Knight}}s and its magic-sword-wielding king. [[LostTechnology Technology]], however, is nothing but a [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions fairy tale]] for cubs, and anything for sale in the BlackMarket is obviously [[WorthlessYellowRocks a fake]] crafted to take in the gullible. Naturally, the trope becomes ''exceptionally'' literal once a newly HigherTechSpecies pulls a SuperWeaponSurprise on the Cats.

* A lot of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'''s plot involves this and PoorCommunicationKills, where the Crystal Gems have important information but don't talk about it for various reasons. Not helping matters is Steven's own tendency to not ask questions when they would otherwise be very helpful.

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', "Change", while the other Titans question how Terra is back to normal after being turned into a statue, Beast Boy is more interested in the fact that she ''is'' back rather than ''how'' she came back.

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', while the other Titans question how Terra is back to normal after being turned into a statue, Beast Boy is more interested in the fact that she's back than how she came back.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' the plot revolves around the remnants of an alien group of rebels against a galactic empire, and the effects on Earth and the HalfHumanHybrid son of their departed Leader. The Crystal Gem rebels themselves don't know a lot of what their own former leader did or what the Gem Homeworld Empire is like. And what they do know, they don't talk about; either intentionally or not realizing it might be helpful to discuss.

** Averted! The majority who use computers are curious enough to gather a lay understanding, but believe it or not, just like automotive mechanics and the physics of the combustion engine, ''knowing the details are not crucial to your survival!'' Not knowing won't kill any cats..

* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': Several Kaiju get sent to the world of ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' and get turned into native species. They can still use their original powers, and learn that with practice, they can use the powers of their new body in conjunction with their original powers. However, Godzilla Junior, who was turned into a Unicorn, flat out says he is uninterested in learning how to perform telekinesis or magic and prefers to stick with his original powers. Chibi Moon lectures him that he should be trying to maximize his potential because there might be new enemies that he can't beat as he is now.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', [[HotBlooded Gunha]] [[IdiotHero Sogiita]] is completely uninterested in [[HowDoIShotWeb learning how his powers work]] and how to properly fight, as he thinks [[LeeroyJenkins barreling his way through]] is the way a man should fight.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the movie, ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', Ash discovers he has [[SoulPower Aura]], and this power is crucial to saving the day. However, in later episodes, though characters occasionally reference this movie and Aura, Ash seems completely uninterested in developing his Aura abilities and hardly ever tries to use them, even though they would be pretty useful.

** This was lampshaded in the 1975 story "Pyramids of Mars". When they're in 1911, Sarah Jane asks the Doctor why they need to save the future when they've already been in 1980 and it didn't need saving. The Doctor answers the question by taking the TARDIS to 1980 and showing her that the Earth has been destroyed. Only if they set things right back in 1911 can the "real" 1980 be restored.

** The fact that the Titans' existence ''does not make any sense'' is well-established in-series; creatures of [[SquareCubeLaw their size and proportions should not be able to move]] (and [[JustifiedTrope as such they are far lighter than a similarly-sized human would be]]), they can heal from anything except a cut to the nape of the neck (with nobody knowing where they get the mass from), they have no reproductive organs or digestive system (they apparently gain their energy from the sun), they completely ignore other animals even when there are no humans around to eat, and when humans are available they eat until their stomach is full, at which point they simply regurgitate their prey and go on to eat more. We see that these facts are taught in schools as basic education, but nobody except [[MadScientist Hange]] seems interested in rectifying this lack of knowledge, even in the hopes of finding better ways to fight them. Even [[HotBloodedHero Eren]], despite burning with curiosity about the outside world, seems surprised by the idea of actually trying to learn more about the Titans, though his all-consuming hatred for them is shown to make him irrational.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the movie, ''Anime/LucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', Ash discovers he has [[SoulPower Aura]], and this power is crucial to saving the day. However, in later episodes, though characters occasionally reference this movie and Aura, Ash seems completely uninterested in developing his Aura abilities and hardly ever tries to use them, even though they would be pretty useful.

%%* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', (in which humanity lives behind giant walls to keep out the man-eating titans) is an OntologicalMystery, and has this trope as the default state of the majority of the humans, with the heroes being different for averting it. Granted, there is a [[spoiler: massive GovernmentConspiracy with the dominant religion to limit interest and knowledge about such things]], but even so, the sheep-like indifference of most people ([[TheHero Eren]] repeatedly uses the word "livestock" to describe them) is rather striking, and unsurprisingly there is a lot of . Some of the main examples;
%%** Eren and Armin's open curiosity about the outside world is regarded as anything from eccentric to heretical, and Hange (though admittedly giving people [[CloudCuckooLander plenty of other reasons]] to consider her a MadScientist,) is marked as unusual simply because she wants to study the titans rather than automatically kill them on sight.
%%** In contrast to this, even after episode 1 conclusively proves that the walls do ''not'' keep people safe and existing methods of titan-fighting are ''not'' sustainable in the long-term, hardly anyone wants to find out more about the titans or make long-term plans. The Survey Corps are marked as being extraordinary (to the audience) and freakish (to most other people) simply because they acknowledge these facts and are willing to go outside the walls and think outside the box to help them come up with better ideas.
%%** The fact that the titans existence ''does not make any sense'' is well-established in-series; creatures of [[SquareCubeLaw their size and proportions should not be able to move]] (and [[JustifiedTrope as such they are far lighter than a similarly-sized human would be]]), they can heal from anything except a cut to the nape of the neck (with nobody knowing where they get the mass from), they have no reproductive organs or digestive system (they apparently gain their energy from the sun), they completely ignore other animals even when there are no humans around to eat, and when humans are available they eat until their stomach is full, at which point they simply regurgitate their prey and go on to eat more. We see that these facts are taught in schools as basic education, but nobody except [[MadScientist Hange]] seems interested in rectifying this lack of knowledge, even in the hopes of finding better ways to fight them. Even [[HotBloodedHero Eren]], despite burning with curiosity about the outside world, seems surprised by the idea of actually trying to learn more about the titans, though his all-consuming hatred for them is shown to make him irrational.

* Just about everyone in ''Series/ThePrisoner'' apart from the main character. "Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for ourselves". Brrr. They do have some incentive to avoid questions, what with the giant suffocating bubble lying in the wings.

-->-- '''Your entire party''', ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II]]''

Of course, in some cases, the characters are afraid of messing with something they don't understand. Most of the time though, they don't even ask the simplest questions that anyone would be dying to know; or, you know, might lead to them ''not'' screwing up things further. [[IdiotPlot The plot]] [[IdiotBall cannot have that, however.]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* At the end of the third Volume of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', Ruby finds out that [[spoiler: she possesses an exceptionally powerful supernatural ability tied to her silver eyes. When using it, she's capable of freezing humongous Grimm in their tracks and her power is also revealed to be the AchillesHeel to a Maiden, one of which happens to be a main antagonist. Despite having such a useful power, Ruby has made absolutely no attempt to find out ''anything'' regarding her powers as of late Volume 5]].
[[/folder]]

* At the end of the third Volume of ''WebAnimation/RWBY'', Ruby finds out that [[spoiler: she possesses an exceptionally powerful supernatural ability tied to her silver eyes. When using it, she's capable of freezing humongous Grimm in their tracks and her power is also revealed to be the AchillesHeel to a Maiden, one of which happens to be a main antagonist. Despite having such a useful power, Ruby has made absolutely no attempt to find out ''anything'' regarding her powers as of late Volume 5]].

* ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'': Rakka is born (from an egg) into a strange isolated [[strike:prison]] town ruled by creepy, aloof clerics, sprouts wings, is given a halo that mysteriously hovers on her head, has to obey arbitrary rules (e.g. she can only buy used items) and ''doesn't question any of it''.
** She does have LaserGuidedAmnesia about her previous existence, so it's quite possible that she has no way of knowing if any of this is weird or not. This isn't so strange considering that the entire setting of Haibane Renmei is a rip-off / homage to the dream world in ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'', by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, which the protagonist doesn't question much either. (The bird skeleton in the well is another homage / rip-off of a scene from another of his books, ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'', by the way.)
** In addition to ''all'' of the Haibane having amnesia about their previous existences, the series spends the first five episodes largely just to introduce the setting and characters. And then it turns out that the older Haibane have their own predicament to worry about (and they certainly aren't apathetic about it) and have varying degrees of acceptance of their environment.
** She's got no one to ask. The only people who might know something are the Toga and the Communicator, but neither of them really responds to questioning.
** Probably the best justification is that all of the Haibane ended up there because [[spoiler: they were all too naive, rudderless, timid, resigned or depressed before their deaths to enter the true afterlife]]. Fatalism might very well be their [[strike:[[PlanetOfHats Hat]]]]halo.

** Many fighters are so self-absorbed (or so sure that they already have the answers) that they never ask critical survival questions, even internally, never note anything potentially threatening until it's on top of them, even if they've already seen how lethal it can be.

* Magic! Flying whales! Demons! See also: vampires, robot girls, immortality, PettingZooPeople, telepathy, time dilation, the entire magical world itself and more. However, don't ask what the hell is going on. You might get turned into an ermine or something. Chisame is the only character to show the slightest interest... by running ''away'' from the answer. Welcome to ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' everyone!
** And of course, everybody ends up finding out about it anyway.
** The other major exception is Haruna; when she finds out about magic, she threatens to torture her three best friends for not telling her sooner.
*** She sort of did.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon. Just....holy crap, Kyon. In less than a week he discovers the existence of aliens, espers, time travellers, and (according to one theory) {{God}} and it ''annoys him'' and he avoids any and all exploration of the ramifications unless forced otherwise by TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. And even then, he only does the minimum that he has to.
** Kyon is almost unbelievably lazy. Also an UnreliableNarrator. It's still ridiculous though.
** To be fair, he does ask questions. It's just that he either gets no answer (Mikuru), an answer that doesn't make sense (Koizumi and Yuki), or an answer that makes sense that has 'unreliable!' written all over it (Koizumi and Mikuru, Yuki claims it). [[spoiler:Oh, and the anti SOS Brigade puts all three together.]]
*** Also, he is extraordinarily smart, to the point that when he passes the first couple of reveals, his reaction goes from mild surprise/annoyance to "checked, checked, checked". In fact, his ability to cope with the increasingly weird situations is (in Itsuke's opinion) what makes him special.
* Completely averted in Manga/DeathNote. The reason Light is able to get away with so much crap (and drive the whole plot) is because he '''does''' ask all the questions. He figures out things that even the {{Shinigami}} didn't know, despite having centuries to learn. And, unfortunately, uses this knowledge to kill tens to hundreds of thousands of people.
** He even asked the afterlife question we all thought he was ignoring all along, they just don't show us until he's dying. Unfortunately, he's a lot less pleased with the thought of TheNothingAfterDeath while bleeding out than he was while plotting world domination in his bedroom.
*** And the fact that he elected to ''ignore'' Ryuk's promise to kill him eventually is more denial than apathy.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', Gordon Freeman seems perfectly happy to join up with the first faction he meets without asking simple questions like "Who are you fighting?", "Why?" or "Do you have any kind of plan?". Or [[HeroicMime saying anything at all, actually.]] There is a bit of a HandWave in that said faction does consist largely of his former coworkers and friends.

* In ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', when James sees his first monster, he promptly whacks it with a board and wonders briefly what it is. After that, he never questions anything else about the decidedly messed up town he's in. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because he's ''completely nuts''.
* Henry of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' suffers from the same lack of reflection on the circumstances he's facing. Could be justified in that he's been through extended isolation, sleep deprivation and malnourishment to the point that he could be prone to and apathetic to hallucination, but this is simply a projection of conditions only alluded to in the beginning, and never touched on through the story. Heck, the first person he runs into, a woman named Velasquez, assumes it's all a weird dream and comes on to Henry. Most of the other people who end up in the [[DarkWorld Other Side]] have similar confused and muted reactions, if at all, as the crack head doesn't seem to even see the monsters.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3''. Like those before her, Heather assumes the monsters to be either demons or illusions, only to be rebuffed with the famous line: ''"Monsters? They look like monsters to you?"'' [[spoiler: Of course, Vincent is a ManipulativeBastard of a psychiatrist/cult leader, so he may just be trying to mess with her.]]

* A rule in most comic book universes where the FantasyKitchenSink is prevalent and anyone can be PalsWithJesus. This is particularly bad in DC where much of VertigoComics deals with the supernatural. You'd think that there'd be at least ''some'' intersection between characters who know about the afterlife and characters willing to say "I have positive proof that Christianity is false, because the afterlife you get is based on what you believe".

* In the movie ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' it didn't seem to faze anyone that a loom has been ordering the deaths of otherwise unknown people by producing names via medieval binary. One would think that upon learning of this a normal person would want to see if a name was always the result or if it was just a random side effect of a constantly operating loom. Not to mention check to see if the people named always did something wrong or if the all knowing loom had just gotten lucky once.

* Invoked in ''Film/{{Looper}}''. Joe asks his future self about time travel and memories, but Old Joe shuts him down, pointing out how confusing time travel can be. "I don't want to talk about time travel shit. Because if we talk about it, then we're gonna be here all day, drawing diagrams with straws."

* Henry of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' suffers from the same lack of reflection on the circumstances he's facing. Could be justified in that he's been through extended isolation, sleep deprivation and malnourishment to the point that he could be prone to and apathetic to hallucination, but this is simply a projection of conditions only alluded to in the beginning, and never touched on through the story. Heck, the first person he runs into, a woman named Vasquez(?), assumes it's all a weird dream and comes on to Henry. Most of the other people who end up in the [[DarkWorld Other Side]] have similar confused and muted reactions, if at all, as the crack head doesn't seem to even see the monsters.

* Averted and played straight several times in an early Star Trek: Voyager novel. When Neelix leads Voyager to a planet full of wrecked ships (needed for critical spare parts), Torres and Kim promptly began an exhaustive examination of the one powered vessel. Neelix, not caring and deciding that he is useless, decides to take a nap. This sends the ship (a passenger time machine) back in time. Later, we meet an operative who's job is to scare away any "Planet-Hoppers" (The term this people use to refer to the "crazy" races that use dangerous space travel instead of safe time travel) from the abandoned eras of the planet. His main weapon is strange events that the intruders don't care to investigate properly.
* In ''Literature/TheOtherworld'' humans occasionally witness surreal incidents and do nothing. In one such instance the witnesses were, in all fairness, stoned, but in ''Bitten'' Elena's fiance watches her turn into a wolf and when she questions him on it later he claims he'd passed out long before she arived and transformed.

** It's canon in D.C. comics that the after life is pretty much whatever the heck you think it is. That is, until hell comes to Earth and starts eating people, which happens about twice a year.