History Main / ApathyKilledTheCat

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events in Season Five]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: A.) ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, B.) request several samples of the salve to be reverse-engineered, or even C.) bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve. Upon returning to her own Timeline, Twilight relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in alternate timelines and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story to share.

*** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into both the ReedRichardsIsUseless and SuicidalPacifism territory.

*** Several Tropers almost see fit to use the above example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

* Happens continuously within ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' whenever it comes to a foreign power or overlord invading Equestria to cause havoc. The biggest example of this happens when Changelings launched [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 an all-out invasion of Canterlot during a wedding celebration]] at the end of Season 2, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1 and later returned to capture the Political Leaders and National Heroes and replace them with their own Changelings]] at the end of Season 6. For well over four seasons, [[ApatheticCitizens the Ponies]] ''and'' [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy the Royal Guard]] did not seem to do anything to create any sort of anti-Changeling protocols in order to try exposing disguised Changelings that might be infiltrating their towns and cities.
** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: A.) ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, B.) request several samples of the salve to be reverse-engineered, or even C.) bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve. Upon returning to her own Timeline, Twilight relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in alternate timelines and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story.

* Discussed by Magneto in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' as justification to have Worthington Labs' mutation cure destroyed on the grounds that while at first it would be played as a voluntary cure; Worthington and the other Humans would soon start rounding up Mutants and forcing Mutants like them to take the cure all the while the neutral Mutants would be talking about trying to get organized, form committees and talk to government representatives about Mutant awareness.

** This level of apathy just described unfortunately also seems to extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: A.) ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, B.) request several samples of the salve to be reverse-engineered, or even C.) bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve. Upon returning to her own Timeline, Twilight relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in alternate timelines and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** This level of apathy unfortunately seems to also extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: A.) ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, B.) request several samples of the salve to be reverse-engineered, or even C.) bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve. Upon returning to her own Timeline, Twilight relayed the story to her friends about her escapades in alternate timelines and they treated it all as though it were nothing more than an interesting story. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle moved into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** This level of apathy unfortunately seems to also extend to the Main Character [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]]: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, several samples of the salve to reverse-engineer, or even bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve after they managed to get back to their own time. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle pushed into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** This level of apathy unfortunately seems to also extend to the Main Character Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, several samples of the salve to reverse-engineer, or even bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve after they managed to get back to their own time. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this example alone as justification to have Twilight Sparkle pushed into the ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

** This level of apathy unfortunately seems to also extend to the Main Character Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, several samples of the salve to reverse-engineer, or even bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve after they managed to get back to their own time. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this as justification to have Twilight pushed into ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

* Happens continuously within ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' whenever it comes to a foreign power or overlord invading Equestria to cause havoc. The biggest example of this happens when Changelings launched [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 an all-out invasion of Canterlot during a wedding celebration]] at the end of Season 2, [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E25ToWhereAndBackAgainPart1 and later returned to capture the Political Leaders and National Heroes and replace them with their own Changelings]] at the end of Season 6. For well over four seasons, [[ApatheticCitizens the Ponies]] ''and'' [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy the Royal Guard]] did not seem to do anything to create any sort of anti-Changeling protocols in order to try exposing disguised Changelings that might be infiltrating their towns and cities.
** This level of apathy unfortunately seems to also extend to the Main Character Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle: [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E25TheCutieRemarkPart1 who through a confluence of events]] wound up in an AlternateTimeline where Equestria fell to a Changeling invasion [[LaResistance and a Resistance Movement was founded within the Everfree Forest that opposed Queen Chrysalis]]. The resistance was [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome led by Zecora]]; who managed to have created [[GlamourFailure a salve specifically-designed to forcibly-remove the disguises from Changelings when applied to the skin]]. Not '''''once''''' during Twilight and Spikes' brief stay within this timeline did they try to: ask that Timelines' Zecora for the recipe to make the salve, several samples of the salve to reverse-engineer, or even bothered to ask their own Zecora if she can even make the salve after they managed to get back to their own time. Several Tropers almost see fit to use this as justification to have Twilight pushed into ReedRichardsIsUseless territory.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' author J.K. Rowling tried to save herself from having to create a [[MagicAIsMagicA coherent magic system]] by having her viewpoint character tune out whenever theory is mentioned. It worked in the sense that she was able to avoid talking much about how magic actually works, but it does give the reader the impression that Harry is an incredibly apathetic child about this magical world that he suddenly finds himself living in. She used a similar trick for the backstory, having Hermione explosit whatever bit of ''Hogwarts: a History'' is currently relevant while Harry steadfastly refused to even look at it.

* Almost a policy in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where you most likely ''don't'' want to know. "Only the awkward question; only the foolish ask twice."

* It's used to an extent in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' to pull out a [[MultipleEndings surprise twist]], should the player [[spoiler: start questioning why the protagonist managed to obtain his persona-summoning abilities WITHOUT having to face his inner demons]].

** 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.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', No character on Mother Base cared what happened to Paz after she fell out of the [[DiabolusExMachina Metal Gear you built]]. Except an army of players, of course...
* Notably averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' ... Tidus' questions about things that everyone knows or takes for granted is what begins to truly convince Lulu that he's not from Spira. It also ends up ''driving the whole plot'' since otherwise no one would end up questioning the system they are in. [[spoiler: This is probably what the Fayth intended when they tossed Tidus out of Zanarkand into Spira; to ask the questions and start demanding better answers than "this is so" so as to kick apathy out of Spira.]]
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose''. After being given [[ChekhovsGun a storybook]] by a [[CreepyChild strange boy]], [[MysteriousWaif Jennifer]] inexplicably [[TrappedInAnotherWorld finds herself aboard a ghostly airship]] filled with [[KidsAreCruel nasty children]]. You'd think that she'd ask ''someone'' where she is and what's going, but between the UnreliableNarrator and the Thirty MindScrew Pileup, the player only gets a secondhand view of Jennifer's character. Hell, since the game is likely [[spoiler: [[YourMindMakesItReal a hallucination]], [[AllJustADream a dream]] [[DeadAllAlong or the afterlife]]]], it's also possible Jennifer knows the answers already.
* "Apathy is death" is a phrase that gets repeated at you if you fail at a VisionQuest in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''. To fail you have to turn your back on the fights and rivalries in your party, [[TeethClenchedTeamwork of which there are many]]. The lesson here is that you're the leader and you have to make everyone work together, despite their differences.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect'', it's actually ''illegal'' to perform aggressive research (in other words, capturing or dissecting) the Keepers, the enigmatic species that runs the Citadel that galactic government is run from. This is mostly because there's not much to gain from trying, as the Keepers will self-destruct if interfered with and they are incredibly difficult to scan. After over a millennia of completely fruitless attempts to research them, the Council gave up. [[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]].

* 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 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.

* In the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', "Things 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.

* ZigZagged in ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'':
** Many fighters are so self-absorbed, or so sure that they already have the answers, that they never ask critical survival questions, even internally, and never note anything potentially threatening until it's on top of them, even if they've already seen how lethal it can be.
** Others, most notably [[{{Jerkass}} Nishi]] and [[DesignatedHero Kurono]], are very curious about the powers and limitations of the weapons and tools they're given and test them systematically. Unfortunately, when it comes to big questions like "Where does all this futuristic tech come from?", "Why are there aliens and monsters around all of a sudden?", and "Why are we being forced to fight them, and by who?", answers are not very forthcoming.
** Much later in the manga, intrepid reporter Seiichi Kikuchi tracks down the story with a dogged curiosity, but is only toyed with by those who might be able to answer his questions.
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Magic! Flying whales! Demons! See also: vampires, robot girls, immortality, {{Beast|Man}}men, 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.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'': Kyon. In less than a week he discovers the existence of aliens, espers, time travelers, and, according to one theory, {{God}} and it ''annoys him'' so much that he avoids any and all exploration of the ramifications unless forced otherwise by TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Even then, he only does the minimum that he has to. The times he does ask questions, he either gets no answer from Mikuru, an answer that doesn't make sense from Koizumi and Yuki, or an answer that makes sense that has 'unreliable!' written all over it from all of the above. [[spoiler:Oh, and the anti SOS Brigade puts all three together.]] His saving grace is that he is extraordinarily smart to the point that, when he passes the first couple of reveals, his reaction goes from mild surprise and 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.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
** Averted by Light. The reason he 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.
** The Shinigami, themselves, are more apathetic as Ryuk notes multiple times that Light has found ways to use the Death Note nobody ever thought of before.
* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is all about people not asking basic questions about what's actually going on. No matter how fanciful or surreal, after the initial shock, people just accept the nonsense as all a part of the "power to revolutionize the world." Granted, the answers really are near impossible to attract without being told directly (the audience has the benefit of flashback) and most of it was just theatrical shenanigans but even the lead asks a variety of questions in the very beginning and then just gives up trying, establishing the status quo of the episodes. To her credit, Utena realizes this near the very end of the series and tearfully regrets it because that kind of indifferent behavior (towards Anthy, especially) was exactly what she had been criticizing about the other duelists.

* In ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'', Tomoki does this a lot, because of [[IJustWantToBeNormal his desire for peace and quiet]]. Some of it borders on TooDumbToLive. When Ikaros tries to explain how her powers work (which is important to him because [[LiteralGenie she grants his wishes]]), Tomoki cuts her off and says her exposition is boring. Later, when Nymph explains that the person who has been sending hostile Angeloids to try to kill them is someone named the Master of Synapse, Sugata says they need to find out who this guy is and what he wants, but Tomoki gets bored and says, "Who cares?"
* 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. It's worked out for him pretty well in most fights, but it directly leads to his defeat against [[TheArchmage Ollerus]], who chooses not to kill him and notes that if he actually bothered to understand how his power works, Gunha would have been the victor. Also, whenever he rushes into a situation, he never stops to ask what is going on and even brushes off people trying to explain the situation to him.
* ''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 it. 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 [[HotBlooded 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.
** To be fair, this is all justified in that [[spoiler:the citizens of the walls are controlled through brainwashing, and anyone who gets smart enough to realise what's going on gets killed by the government]]. And once the cast learn [[spoiler:the AwfulTruth about themselves, the people who live in the walls are ''much'' less apathetic.]]
* Justified in ''Manga/MyLovelyGhostKana'', where Daikichi doesn't ask all that many questions about the afterlife, but it's pretty clear that Kana herself doesn't really have the answers either.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** In "The Battle of the Badge", Jessie and James steal Misty's Togepi and present it to Giovanni. Despite Team Rocket focusing on stealing rare Pokemon, Giovanni was completely uninterested in the never before seen Togepi and rejected it, saying he only cared about Pokemon that could fight, not babies. Good thing he didn't investigate it or else he would have learned about Togepi's special powers.
** In the movie, ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', Ash discovers he has [[KiManipulation 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.
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** Goku learns several techniques like the strength multiplying Kaioken and [[FlashyTeleportation Instant Transmission]]. However, he never teaches anybody else these techniques and none of his friends seem interested in learning them, even though they would be pretty useful.
** Gohan was able to teach his girlfriend Videl how to control her ki and fly, proving it is possible for ordinary humans to do so (then again, people like Krillin and Yamcha were ordinary humans before learning ki control). Yet the heroes never teach anybody else how to do it. Master Roshi can use his ki, but in the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', he outright said he thought flying was overrated and never tries to learn it. Yajirobe is too lazy to try to learn how to do either. Goku and Vegeta never taught their wives Chi-Chi and Bulma how to do either, but given the women's personalities, they would likely refuse to learn. Mr. Satan briefly expressed interest in learning, but never asks the heroes to teach him.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Luffy is completely uninterested in hearing anyone's backstory. Whenever people explain their past, he'll either [[NapInducingSpeak fall asleep]] or [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere leave]].
* ''Anime/FateStayNightUnlimitedBladeWorks'': Unlike in the Fate route, Shirou Emiya never tries to find out about Saber's identity, powers, or motives for seeking the Holy Grail. Eventually, Archer springs this information on him and calls him a fool for not trying to find out.

** During ComicBook/BrightestDay, ComicBook/LexLuthor asked Death why she did not interfere during ComicBook/BlackestNight. She answers that the ZombieApocalypse did not really interest her.

* Creator/RogerEbert got into an amusing rant about the film ''Film/OverHerDeadBody'' and the fact that no one seemed to consider the staggering theological implications a real live ghost (or should that be a real dead ghost) would mean. He had similar issues with ''[[Film/JackFrost1998 Jack Frost]]'', wherein Creator/MichaelKeaton dies and is [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] as [[AnIcePerson a snowman]] to [[MundaneUtility help his son fight bullies.]] People can be reincarnated? As ''inanimate objects''??? Oh, don't bother elaborating on that. Back to the snowball fight.
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'': Indiana has been presented with absolute incontrovertible proof of the truth of the Old Testament and the New Testament (and arguably the Bhagavad Gita). This seems to have had absolutely no effect on his lifestyle, career or (dis)belief in the supernatural.
* Christopher Lloyd's character in ''Film/SuburbanCommando'' seems to have no questions or comments when it is revealed that his tenant is an alien bounty hunter. The most he registers is mild annoyance at the fact that he [[MemeticMutation WAS FROZEN TODAY!]]

* ''Film/TeenWolf'': Nobody seems to be too interested in the existence of werewolves other than how well they can play high school basketball.
* 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." Abe, who's also from the future, concurs: "This time travel shit just fries your brain like an egg."

* In Bernard Werber's ''Thanathonauts'' series, the world promptly forgets about the initially worldshaking discovery that there is indeed an afterlife (and that it is quite [[CelestialBureaucracy bureaucratic]] at that). In another series, little is expounded upon the ramification of a porcine direct relationships to humans.

* In Orson Scott Card's novel ''Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus'' society possesses a time viewer that is cheap enough for graduate students working on research projects to use. However, it is mentioned numerous times that Christianity, Islam, and other religions still exist, even though proving or disproving those religion's veracity would be the first thing most people would use a time viewer for. And there isn't a rule against investigating religion or anything, because one character made a name for himself by investigating the historical events inspiring the legend of Noah.
** All religious revelations are conveniently ambiguous. (Except Columbus's, which is definitely mundane.) That still leaves the question of miracles, though.

* The whole premise for several of the works of Creator/JoseSaramago -- ''Death with Interruptions'' and ''The Stone Raft'' come to mind -- is to avert this trope: an extremely simple but fantastic setup is provided (death stops operating in a country; the Iberian Peninsula splits off at the French-Spanish border and begins to sail aimlessly around the North Atlantic) and the whole rest of the story analyzes the sociological upheaval it causes.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' has Bella's father's motto; "need to know basis". He probably figures out about [[TheMasquerade vampires]], but doesn't want details. Seeing how the Volturi would kill him if he knew it makes a lot of sense. It wouldn't take much to figure out that vampires probably would be lethal to humans in the know.
* 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 whose 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.

* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'': At one point, protagonist and recently-defrosted HumanPopsicle John Geary asks his fellow officers a couple of important questions: ''How'' and ''why'' has a war that both sides knew they could never win dragged on for a century without either side attempting to sue for peace or just flat-out collapse under the terrible cost in lives and resources? Nobody can really give him a satisfactory answer, and worse, it never really occurred them to ask the question themselves because they'd never known a time when there ''wasn't'' a war going on. The answer to both questions ends up being crucial to the resolution of the plot of the whole series: [[spoiler:A hitherto-unknown third party has been playing both sides off against each other, including leaking the [[PortalNetwork hypernet gate]] technology that revived their flagging economies a few decades earlier, so that humanity will be too busy fighting among themselves to be a threat to them.]]

* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'': At one point, protagonist and recently-defrosted HumanPopsicle John Geary asks his fellow officers a couple of important questions: ''How'' and ''why''has a war that both sides knew they could never win dragged on for a century without either side attempting to sue for peace or just flat-out collapse under the terrible cost in lives and resources? Nobody can really give him a satisfactory answer, and worse, it never really occurred them to ask the question themselves because they'd never known a time when there ''wasn't'' a war going on. The answer to both questions ends up being crucial to the resolution of the plot of the whole series: [[spoiler:A hitherto-unknown third party has been playing both sides off against each other, including leaking the [[PortalNetwork hypernet gate]] technology that revived their flagging economies a few decades earlier, so that humanity will be too busy fighting among themselves to be a threat to them.]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': In the movie, ''Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew'', Ash discovers he has [[KiManipulation 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.

* Creator/RogerEbert got into an amusing rant about the film ''Over Her Dead Body'' and the fact that no one seemed to consider the staggering theological implications a real live ghost (or should that be a real dead ghost) would mean. He had similar issues with ''[[Film/JackFrost1998 Jack Frost]]'', wherein Creator/MichaelKeaton dies and is [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] as [[AnIcePerson a snowman]] to [[MundaneUtility help his son fight bullies.]] People can be reincarnated? As ''inanimate objects''??? Oh, don't bother elaborating on that. Back to the snowball fight.

* Invoked in ''Film/SpiderManFromHome''. [[spoiler:Quentin Beck’s deception of claiming to be a warrior from another dimension works because people in the MCU are so used to the surprise arrival of gods and aliens that nobody bothers to investigate him closely and discover he’s just a disgruntled Stark Industries employee with special effects.]]

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': Magic! Flying whales! Demons! See also: vampires, robot girls, immortality, {{Beast|Man}}men, 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.

* ''Manga/DeathNote''

** ''Comicbook/TheSandman'''s Death (who has become DC's official AnthropomorphicPersonification [[GrimReaper of Death]], give or take a few badly attempted retcons) has mentioned in some sources that she has no idea where people go after she takes them.
** Which has been badly contradicted by numerous accounts, including ''Comicbook/TheSandman'' itself, which explicitly states that you go to Hell only if you want to, and that there are numerous other places to go, including Hades for those of the traditional Greek faith, the Dreaming for those whom Dream finds interesting, and reincarnation. The Judeo-Christian God is explicitly the creator of everything, but pagan gods exist and have power under him.

* It's used to an extent in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' to pull out a [[MultipleEndings surprise twist]], should the player [[spoiler: start questioning why the protagonist managed to obtain his persona-summoning abilities WITHOUT having to face his inner demons]].
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2:''

* ''Franchise/SilentHill:''

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* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' author J.K. Rowling tried to save herself from having to create a [[MagicAIsMagicA coherent magic system]] by having her viewpoint character tune out whenever theory is mentioned. It worked in the sense that she was able to avoid talking much about how magic actually works, but it does give the reader the impression that Harry is an incredibly apathetic child about this magical world that he suddenly finds himself living in.

* 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. It's worked out for him pretty well in most fights, but it directly leads to his defeat against [[TheArchmage Ollerus]], who chooses not to kill him and notes that if he actually bothered to understand how his power works, Gunha would have been the victor.

** Goku learns several techniques like the strength multiplying Kaioken and [[{{Teleportation}} Instant Transmission]]. However, he never teaches anybody else these techniques and none of his friends seem interested in learning them, even though they would be pretty useful.

* The whole premise for several of the works of José Saramago -- ''Death with Interruptions'' and ''The Stone Raft'' come to mind -- is to avert this trope: an extremely simple but fantastic setup is provided (death stops operating in a country; the Iberian Peninsula splits off at the French-Spanish border and begins to sail aimlessly around the North Atlantic) and the whole rest of the story analyzes the sociological upheaval it causes.

* In ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'', Tomoki does this a lot, because of [[IJustWantToBeNormal his desire for peace and quiet]]. Some of it borders on TooDumbToLive. When Ikaros tries to explain how her powers work (which is important to him because [[LiteralGenie she grants his wishes]]), Tomoki cuts her off and says her exposition is boring.