History Main / ResignedToTheCall

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14569902/chapters/33667527 The Curse of the Anime Protagonist]]'', Izuku's Quirk forces him to be a hero by always putting him in the right place at the right time to help someone and giving him increasingly severe stomach pain until he resolves whatever situation it's warning him about. The day his grandfather died, Izuku ended up bedridden due to his Quirk trying to warn him. Izuku himself doesn't want to be a Pro Hero, mostly because he thinks you can help people without being one, but realizes he's going to be one anyway due to his Quirk. A large part of why Izuku accepts One for All is because he realized that he'd always be stuck with his original Quirk; at least with One for All as well, he'd be able to save as many people as possible.

* The ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization indicates that [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Mark Russell]] [[KnightInSourArmor isn't exactly thrilled about rejoining Monarch]], and he would much rather have a normal life where he doesn't have to see another Titan again, but he believes working for Monarch is the right thing to do. So instead, Mark projects all his longings for a normal life onto his daughter [[LikeParentUnlikeChild Madison]].

--> '''Wild Bill:''' What do you think you're doing?
--> '''UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid:''' Down the hole's down the hole. Might as well have some fun on the way.

--> '''John''': (When asked why he's risking his life when he has no stake in it) Because there's no one else to do it right now. If there was someone else, believe me, I'd let them do it, but there isn't, so we're doing it.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': (Bel)Garion spends roughly 4 1/2 of the five books asking "Why ''me''?". C'Nedra also spends a fair bit of books 4 and 5 giving recruiting speeches and leading the army because, according to the Prophecy, she ''must do so'' in order for Belgarion to have a chance to win, even though public speaking makes her physically ill, and that her promises of easy heroic victories and plentiful loot are lies.
* Morgon of ''Literature/TheRiddleMasterTrilogy'' is very much not happy about the ambiguous, threatening prophecies that have been ascribed to him and only grudgingly agrees, after almost being murdered a few times, to try and figure some of this stuff out. He'd much rather go home and brew beer.
* In ''Literature/TheKingdomKeepers'', the keepers aren't too enthusiastic about their new mission, especially [[TheLancer Maybeck]] and [[TheBigGuy Charlene]]. However, since they cross over every time they fall asleep, there's little they can do except go with it.
* Aislinn in the ''Literature/WickedLovely'' series. She realizes that she has no choice about being a faery, but she makes clear that she will only do it on her own terms.

* ''Literature/TheElricSaga'': Elric often complains about his fate as the [[VideoGame/EternalChampions Eternal Champion]], but feels helpless to avoid it.

* George Powhatan of ''Literature/ThePostman'' answered the call once before, fighting off vicious survivalists to establish his own small farming community. When Gordon arrives seeking help for the beleagured Willamette communities, George tries [[RefusalOfTheCall Refusing the Call]], but the fact that this is listed on this particular page should tell you how well that works out.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Ned Stark doesn't want to be the King's Hand, even for his best friend King Robert, but sees he has no choice in matter, partly because he [[HonorBeforeReason can't disobey a command from his King]] and partly because he realises his friend is trapped in a DecadentCourt and needs his help.
** Stannis Baratheon doesn't really want to [[spoiler:succeed Robert as king]]. However, it's his duty to do it and thus he will, [[spoiler:even if it means rebelling against Joffrey and fighting the Lannisters, Starks, ''and'' most of his own bannermen, having the smallest army at the start]]. [[spoiler:After losing most of his troops, he contemplates burning a nephew of his to gain magical aid. However his conversations with Davos show how conflicted he is, but that he considers it his duty to take the throne, for the realm, for his daughter, and even the brother he didn't like, knowing Robert's wife murdered him so her family could usurp the throne. Ultimately, Davos reminds him of his higher duty as a King, to protect the realm and have him come and rescue the Night's Watch:]]
---> '''King Stannis''': ''Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne.''
* In ''Literature/TheLostFleet'', Captain John "Black Jack" Geary has been put in command of the crippled [[TheAlliance Alliance]] fleet against his will (being a HumanPopsicle for 100 years gives him seniority over any other captain). He vows to bring the fleet home, but then wants nothing more than to retire and live in peace. By the end of the main series, he realizes that the Alliance desperately needs him, and he can't quit.
* Used twice as bookends in ''Literature/TheFold''. First Mike is invited to a hearing to see if he's interested in the job, then introduced as if he's taken it and acquiesces. Second at the end when the survivors are met by a shadowy government agency with a limited-time offer when Mike knows he won't be able to live with himself if he doesn't take it.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'': Yuri doesn't particularly ''want'' to go on an epic quest or anything, but [[SpiritAdvisor that damn voice in his head]] won't leave him alone, so he's just going along with it until the CharacterDevelopment kicks in.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Hearing a voice inside his head telling him that he needs to leave home and help save the world, plus gaining knowledge he shouldn't possibly have, drives Oscar crazy. Although he desperately [[RefusalOfTheCall wants this voice to go away]], he eventually relents to demands and leaves home. Turns out that said voice is [[spoiler:a thousands of years old BodySurfer cursed by the gods and forced to be a BigGood in order to protect the world from a great evil that most of humanity doesn't even know exists]]. It takes Oscar a bit longer to accept that bit.

** Moses' response to his God is a) Why me? b) what do I say when they ask Who sent me? c) You know they're not going believe me. d) I'm a lousy public speaker. Until God loses his temper and tells him to stop whining and don't keep his brother Aaron waiting.

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* Sosuke Sagara of ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'' is an odd example. He doesn't mind going into battle and fighting dastardly foes in a HumongousMecha, really. After all, it's [[HiredGuns his job]], and 'bout the only thing he's good at, having grown up a {{Child Soldier|s}}. However, he DOES mind being assigned to the ONLY robot in the unit which is powered by {{Hot Blooded}}ness. He frequently declares that a system so uncertain that you can only use it when your 'emotions peak' is way too unreliable to be a decent weapon, but is rather more like magic - and he's a SOLDIER, not a WIZARD! And yet, he's the only one who can use the system at ALL, so even though he'd much rather just use a bog-standard {{Real Robot|Genre}}, every time a Lambda Drive-equipped enemy shows up, he's got no choice but to climb into his {{Super Robot|Genre}} and take them on, grumbling all the way. A side note. The reason he's the only one who can use the Arbelest is because he was the first one to use it, and since then the mech's quirky AI (named "''Al''") refuses to work with anyone else. Al is also wired into the device that allows the mech to twist the laws of physics, itself black box tech that no one in Mithril knows how to replicate.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''[[Webcomic/CiemWebcomicSeries Ciem]]'' offers us Candi Levens. She has resigned herself to the fact all along that she must take up superheroics. But the Call decides to punish her anyway.

* ''Fanfic/ThePeaceNoPromised'': Severus Snape isn't really keen to work with Dumbledore for his second try; he knows full well that Dumbledore is TheChessmaster who cares about every piece and yet will sacrifice whatever it takes to win the game. But he also knows that Dumbledore's help is by far his best chance to end Voldemort and keep Lily safe, and as a long-time double agent, he has plenty of experience of doing whatever must be done.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] (Robin) falls under this trope. He honestly doesn't think [[spoiler: he's cut out to be Batman,]] but he does it nonetheless.

* Literature/SherlockHolmes in ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfTime'' -- it's not that he doesn't want to travel with [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]], but he's concerned about his Fixed Points and, [[PapaWolf most importantly, Watson's safety]]. The Doctor's loneliness and Watson's compassion seal the deal.

* Severus Snape isn't really keen to work with Dumbledore for his second try in ''Fanfic/ThePeaceNotPromised''; he knows full well that Dumbledore is TheChessmaster who cares about every piece and yet will sacrifice whatever it takes to win the game. But he also knows that Dumbledore's help is by far his best chance to end Voldemort and keep Lily safe, and as a long-time double agent, he has plenty of experience of doing whatever must be done.

* By ''Literature/TheLastHero'', Rincewind has become GenreSavvy enough to know when he's likely to be drafted for the Disc's first space flight, and grudgingly volunteers in order to save himself time trying to hide from The Call.
** Most ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' protagonists are Resigned to the Call. A few have tried to Refuse it (only to find, as Rincewind realises above, that YouCantFightFate ... or in Moist's case, the Patrician, [[TheChessmaster which is practically the same thing]]), but the only main characters to Jump at it have been [[BarbarianHero Cohen]], [[KingIncognito Carrot]], [[CuteWitch Tiffany]], and before the series, [[WitchClassic Granny Weatherwax]] (though even she ended up Resigned to being 'the Good One', as her older sister became a LightIsNotGood ObliviouslyEvil fairy godmother).
* ''Literature/TheBible'':
** Jonah is an example of Resigned to the Call coming after his RefusalOfTheCall and got a dose of YouCantFightFate. By the time the big fish spat him out, his attitude had changed from "I am ''NOT'' going to Ninevah!" to "I guess I'm going to Ninevah."
** Moses too. His response to his God is a) Why me? b) what do I say when they ask Who sent me? c) You know they're not going believe me. d) I'm a lousy public speaker. Until God loses his temper and tells him to stop whining and don't keep his brother Aaron waiting!
** In [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Gospel]] according to John, the religious authorities of the day have already tried to have Jesus stoned to death -- ''twice'' -- when Jesus announces his intention to go to the village of Bethany, less than 2 miles from Jerusalem. His disciple Thomas's response: "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Of course, [[spoiler: they don't.]]
* (Bel)Garion, the main Chosen One of Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is Resigned to the Call; he spends roughly 4 1/2 of the five books asking "Why ''me''?". C'Nedra also spends a fair bit of books 4 and 5 Resigned to the Call, giving recruiting speeches and leading the army because, according to the Prophecy, she ''must do so'' in order for Belgarion to have a chance to win, even though public speaking makes her physically ill, and that her promises of easy heroic victories and plentiful loot are lies.

* In [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien's]] ''Literature/FarmerGilesOfHam'', Giles doesn't really want to go dragon-hunting, but he knows he will eventually have to and can't keep making excuses for ever.
* Frodo Baggins goes through this twice in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. When he first takes the Ring from the Shire to Rivendell, he feels completely inadequate to the job, but realizes that if he remains at home, he's a danger to everyone near him. And then, at the end of the Council of Elrond, he sits in silence waiting for anyone else to offer to take the Ring to Mount Doom:
--> A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice.
-->"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."

* The main character of Theatre/{{Brand}} by Creator/HenrikIbsen is a priest (which usually has the "call" as a job description). When he eventually takes the job, it is with great reluctance, and arguably for the wrong reason (not for TheNeedsOfTheMany, but to save his mother). He is quite resigned to the call all the way, but the trope is zig-zagged because he actually thinks he has a calling, he just doesn't want to do it like that, and not at all in that exact place, which he detests.

--> '''King Stannis''': ''Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne.''

'''Rincewind:''' Oh, but they will, sir. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive And then I'll run away, and probably hide in a crate somewhere that'll be loaded onto the flying machine in any case... Or there'll be a whole string of accidents that end up causing the same thing]]. Trust me, sir. I know how my life works.
-->-- Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/TheLastHero''

'''Rincewind:''' Oh, but they will, sir. And then I'll run away, and probably hide in a crate somewhere that'll be loaded onto the flying machine in any case... Or there'll be a whole string of accidents that end up causing the same thing. Trust me, sir. I know how my life works.

* Sammy, protagonist of LetsPlay/{{Chorocojo}}'s LetsPlay of ''VideoGame/PokemonFireRed'', has no interest in becoming a Pokémon trainer and would rather play video games. She only even got a Pokémon because Professor Oak wouldn't let her leave town without one, and only started her journey because she realized she could go to Celadon City and buy more video games. Once she did that, she headed home and only went back to the call for selfish reasons (going to the Power Plant for an electric Pokémon to power her tv through a power outage, taking on Team Rocket at Silph Co. because they interrupted her favorite show, fighting the Elite Four to make more money to buy video games, the list goes on).

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'': Yuri doesn't particularly ''want'' to go on an epic quest or anything, but [[SpiritAdvisor that damn voice in his head]] won't leave him alone, so he's just going along with it until the CharacterDevelopment kicks in.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' gives us Squall Leonhart, a mercenary who gets involved in the adventure because it's his job, and stays involved partly [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl to protect his girlfriend]] and partly because [[YouCantFightFate he's not given a lot of choice about it]]. [[spoiler: He actively tries to rebel against it several times, but he's too professional to refuse an order.]] He's also ''explicitly hired'' by the government of Esthar to go fight the FinalBoss, though he agrees of his own free will ([[spoiler: by that point, he is ''running'' Balamb Garden and could have refused the contract, but he didn't]]).
* Solid Snake in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' had become this. While he's very hesitant in the first Solid game (until he discovers the connection between himself and the terrorist leader, by the fourth he considers it his reluctant duty to [[spoiler: kill Liquid Ocelot]] and put an end to the machinations of 50 years of plotting and shadow games.

* In ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', Optimus shows shades of this after [[spoiler: Zeta Prime is killed, forcing him to take up the mantle of the last Prime]].
* [[{{Miko}} Reimu Hakurei]] of ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' is a bit of a hypocrite as far as this trope is concerned. On the one hand, it's her job as the local shrine maiden and Youkai Exterminator to take care of the incidents that turn up in [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensoukyou]]. On the other hand, she is a lazy bum who'd much rather stay at home and wait for the problems to work themselves out rather than go out and actually do something about them. On the third hand, she will, however reluctantly, go out and take care of an incident if she gets bored with the peaceful tedium of her humble abode. And on the fouth hand she'll start complaining if life gets too peaceful and boring, so yeah. Meet our [[DesignatedHero Heroine]], folks.
* After a few quests in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you start to get dialogue options that suggest (if you choose them) that the Lone Wanderer is becoming resigned to fixing everyone's problems, such or "I can see where this is going..." or "So, you want to do it?"
* In the original ''Videogame/MegaManStarForce'', Geo doesn't want to be a superhero - he just wants to do his home-schooling and mope a lot - but, well, he's a responsible type when it comes to other people being in danger, and so whenever something disastrous happens he sighs, Wave Changes, and gets on with the serious business of shootin' stuff with a Mega Buster.

There are many ways a character can respond to the CallToAdventure. If he's thrilled about it, and excited, he's JumpedAtTheCall. If he ignores it, or tries to continue living as though The Call never came, he's RefusedTheCall.

Sometimes, this is the only appropriate response -- to [[JumpedAtTheCall jump at the call]] would indicate that he wasn't really fit to be TheChosenOne inReluctantWarrior.. Often, resigning to The Call means that the person has recognized and accepted the responsibility of doing so, seeing it as something that has to be done, whether he likes it or not. In other cases, it's a fault. It all depends on where on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism the work is. It's also the most common response to a RefusedTheCall / YouCantFightFate combination or to TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive.

If someone who is Resigned To The Call ever does attempt to move up to Refusing the Call, expect it to be a TenMinuteRetirement before they [[ChangedMyMindKid change their mind]] or their [[ConscienceMakesYouGoBack conscience makes them go back]], usually just in time for a BigDamnHeroes moment.

If someone who is Resigned To The Call is one of a party who otherwise embraces the Call, it's a toss-up whether the next trope to come into play will be TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong, or OnlySaneMan.

* While he did initially try to [[RefusedTheCall Refuse The Call]], Shinji from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' mostly falls into this category. While he hates being a pilot and the constant stress of battle he continues to take his Evangelion into battle, and both of his efforts to stop being a pilot wind up being [[TenMinuteRetirement Ten Minute Retirements]].
* Sosuke Sagara of ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'' is an odd example. He doesn't mind going into battle and fighting dastardly foes in a HumongousMecha, really. After all, it's [[HiredGuns his job]], and 'bout the only thing he's good at, having grown up a ChildSoldier. However, he DOES mind being assigned to the ONLY robot in the unit which is powered by [[HotBlooded Hot Bloodedness]]. He frequently declares that a system so uncertain that you can only use it when your 'emotions peak' is way too unreliable to be a decent weapon, but is rather more like magic - and he's a SOLDIER, not a WIZARD! And yet, he's the only one who can use the system at ALL, so even though he'd much rather just use a bog-standard RealRobot, every time a Lambda Drive-equipped enemy shows up, he's got no choice but to climb into his SuperRobot and take them on, grumbling all the way.
** A side note. The reason he's the only one who can use the Arbelest is because he was the first one to use it, and since then the mech's quirky AI (named "''Al''") refuses to work with anyone else. Al is also wired into the device that allows the mech to twist the laws of physics, itself black box tech that no one in Mithril knows how to replicate.

* Usagi Tsukino goes through this during the first half of the FillerArc storyline in ''Anime/SailorMoon R''. After being resurrected following the fight with Queen Beryl, she's content as a normal school girl until the storyline's {{Big Bad}}s show up, forcing Luna to restore her memories and powers. Despite this, she's completely hesitant on being Sailor Moon, causing her powers to futz up before blinking out completely. It isn't until she encounters Queen Serenity once more that she's Resigned To The Call.

* For Matsuda from ''VideoGame/FrontMission'', his goal was to find and bring back Inuzuka from Huffman for his WarIsHell photography. He didn't wanted to become a wartime correspondant until Reona suffered a Retirony moment and he realize at that point that he had to help continue the press.

* The main character of ''Film/{{Cellular}}'' is this. He actively acknowledges how far in over his head he is, and he ''does'' attempt to get police help in the beginning, but acknowledges that if nobody better fit to handle the situation will step up, then he has no choice but to do so himself.
* ''Film/AccidentalHero'': Dustin Hoffman's character is a misanthropic, cynical petty crook, constantly declaring that everyone is out for themselves and no one else. Then a plane crashes right in front of his car, and a boy begs him to save his father; he looks around for a fireman, or anyone else, but there's no one else to turn to, so he goes into the burning wreck and rescues each person he comes across in turn - grumbling the whole time about his brand-new shoes. At the end of the film, with his son at the zoo, someone falls into the bear enclosure; he yells, "call the zookeeper!" a few times before reluctantly heading off to the rescue, grumbling, "watch my shoes."
* Chandler Jarrell in ''Film/TheGoldenChild'' is a specialist in finding missing children, but also a profound skeptic. When he is told that the titular Golden Child has been kidnapped, he's willing to consider it as just another job, and gets very annoyed when people keep bringing up supernatural stuff like that he's the ChosenOne, or that the child is to be sacrificed to TheLegionsOfHell to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Unfortunately, he keeps getting his face rubbed in these things until he grudgingly starts to believe.

* John [=McLane=], hero of the ''Film/DieHard'' series, absolutely does not want to be the hero. In the first movie, he only fights back when forced and tries to leave things to the police constantly. In the second movie, he only gets involved when he figures things out and tries to help the actual police. But it's best exemplified in the fourth movie:

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', when the Black Order arrives in New York, [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] asks [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]] if he would like to take on the charging Cull Obsidian. Bruce admits he doesn't want to, but resignedly notes he never gets what he wants.

** Most ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' protagonists are Resigned To The Call. A few have tried to Refuse it (only to find, as Rincewind realises above, that YouCantFightFate ... or in Moist's case, the Patrician, [[TheChessmaster which is practically the same thing]]), but the only main characters to Jump at it have been [[BarbarianHero Cohen]], [[KingIncognito Carrot]], [[CuteWitch Tiffany]], and before the series, [[WitchClassic Granny Weatherwax]] (though even she ended up Resigned to being 'the Good One', as her older sister became a LightIsNotGood ObliviouslyEvil fairy godmother).

** Jonah is an example of Resigned To The Call coming after he RefusedTheCall and got a dose of YouCantFightFate. By the time the big fish spat him out, his attitude had changed from "I am ''NOT'' going to Ninevah!" to "I guess I'm going to Ninevah."

* (Bel)Garion, the main Chosen One of David Eddings' ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' is Resigned To The Call; he spends roughly 4 1/2 of the five books asking "Why ''me''?". C'Nedra also spends a fair bit of books 4 and 5 Resigned To The Call, giving recruiting speeches and leading the army because, according to the Prophecy, she ''must do so'' in order for Belgarion to have a chance to win, even though public speaking makes her physically ill, and that her promises of easy heroic victories and plentiful loot are lies.

* In ''Literature/KingdomKeepers'', the keepers aren't too enthusiastic about their new mission, especially [[TheLancer Maybeck]] and [[TheBigGuy Charlene]]. However, since they cross over every time they fall asleep, there's little they can do except go with it.

* George Powhatan of ''Literature/ThePostman'' answered the call once before, fighting off vicious survivalists to establish his own small farming community. When Gordon arrives seeking help for the beleagured Willamette communities, George tries [[RefusedTheCall Refusing the Call]], but the fact that this is listed on this particular page should tell you how well that works out.

** Ned Stark doesn't want to be the King's Hand, even for his best friend King Robert, but sees he has no choice in matter, partly because he [[HonourBeforeReason can't disobey a command from his King]] and partly because he realises his friend is trapped in a DecadentCourt and needs his help.

* The attitude of one [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]] throughout the majority of the series. She tries to [[RefusedTheCall refuse the Call]] at various points, especially at the beginning, and the hope she feels when other Slayers start showing up is just ''heartbreaking'' when it becomes clear that she can't just step down and let the new Slayer take over. She also implies, at various points, that the job itself is pretty cool - her objections to it are based in [[TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife the masquerade]] killing any chance of her ''ever'' having a normal relationship - or in some cases any relationship (count her exes, folks: Angel (vampire); Riley Finn (super soldier); and ''Spike'' (vampire) and a string of normal men) and the fact that "retirement" means ''dying''. Also, the Call keeps dragging her friends and family into the mix, which she really objects to. Plus, by age 18, she's one of the oldest slayers ''ever'' (by the end of the series when she is in her early 20's, she's ''the'' oldest slayer in history) and she's been [[BackFromTheDead revived twice]].
** In "[[Recpa/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E7FoolForLove Fool for Love]]", Spike argues this trope is what truly kills Slayers; they may start out fighting for survival, then fight to protect other people, but eventually they accept their destiny (and the extremely short life-span involved) and become {{death seeker}}s. Once that happens, it's only a matter of time until some vampire or demon gets in a lucky shot. [[spoiler: It's also revealed earlier that the Council of Watchers ''prefers'' to lose Slayers at a relatively young age, as Slayers get more powerful the longer they are active, and the Council of Watchers prefers young and naïve girls they can control, rather than strong and independent Slayers that may strain against their authority, which is exactly what happens when Buffy realizes that she can make them answer to her rather than the other way around.]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean Winchester fights and hunts monsters because he was trained from childhood to do so. He [[BloodKnight enjoys hunting]] in the earlier seasons, but he tires of it pretty quickly and it's made clear that he keeps going out of a sense of responsibility to the job than any real enjoyment. "What Is and What Should Never Be" is one long testament to this, and he's stated outright that if he had the option to do something else, he would.
** At the end of Season 5, [[spoiler:Dean settles down with a girl and a kid and tries to live a normal life. He ends up leaving them for several reasons, but the most driving one being the fact that hunting was in his nature. It was a part of him, and he voluntarily abandoned a normal family life for hunting evil once again.]]

* [[{{Miko}} Reimu Hakurei]] of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is a bit of a hypocrite as far as this trope is concerned. On the one hand, it's her job as the local shrine maiden and Youkai Exterminator to take care of the incidents that turn up in [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensoukyou]]. On the other hand, she is a lazy bum who'd much rather stay at home and wait for the problems to work themselves out rather than go out and actually do something about them. On the third hand, she will, however reluctantly, go out and take care of an incident if she gets bored with the peaceful tedium of her humble abode. And on the fouth hand she'll start complaining if life gets too peaceful and boring, so yeah. Meet our [[DesignatedHero Heroine]], folks.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Hearing a voice inside his head telling him that he needs to leave home and help save the world, plus gaining knowledge he shouldn't possibly have, drives Oscar crazy. Although he desperately [[RefusalOfTheCall wants this voice to go away]], he eventually relents to demands and leaves home. Turns out that said voice is [[spoiler:a thousands of years old BodySurfer cursed by the gods and forced to be a BigGood in order to protect the world from a great evil that most of humanity doesn't even know exists.]] It takes Oscar a bit longer to accept that bit.

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfShanShan'', Shan Shan [[http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=040&chapterid=1 tries to put it off]].

* Most of the original characters in [[http://community.livejournal.com/jla_watchtower/ JLA Watchtower]][=/=]Roleplay/{{DC Nation}} fit this trope quite well. Those who don't JumpedAtTheCall
** Corrine "Merlynne" Bertrand is the product of a prophesy thousands of years old. Her family was [[BigScrewedUpFamily off-the-rails crazy]], with a mother who perpetuated [[CrossesTheLineTwice unbelievable]] levels of abuse to try and "protect" her children, and a father who was into BlackMagic and the occasional summoning of an EldritchAbomination now and then. After an accidental manifestation of her abilities destroys the family home and a few family members, Corrine runs away, embraces Christianity (which fulfilled part of the prophesy on her family), and was found by Dr. Fate, who helped her control her magic. She remarks frequently that it's a wonder she's anything resembling sane. As much as she would like ''NOT'' to be a ChosenOne, she realizes one of her insane family members could always assume that mantle if she doesn't.

** Ned Stark doesn't want to be the King's Hand, even for his best friend King Robert, but sees he has no choice in matter, partly because he [[HonourBeforeReason can't disobey a command from his King]] and partly because he realises his friend is trapped in a DeadlyDecadentCourt and needs his help.

* This is the case for Rudy Dewclaw in ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell''. Due to his [[LIsForDyslexia dystracksia]], he was ultimately turned down for a competitive hunting scholarship at Beige University. However, his talent at gardening--something he learned on a whim as a way to compete with his stepfather--resulted in him being offered a competitive ''gardening'' scholarship instead. While he resisted initially, he ultimately gave in--on the condition that he still major in ''[[https://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0314.html carnivore]]'' studies. [[https://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0315.html This throws everything into chaos.]] And he ''relishes every moment of it''.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Harry become this in the sequel in respect to the fact that his destiny is to be pointed at Thanos as a LivingWeapon by Doctor Strange. While he's got a strong case of ChronicHeroSyndrome, he's also something of a KnightInSourArmor after a brutal TraumaCongaLine, which shifts his attitude from 'heroism for the sake of it' to [[BeingGoodSucks 'heroism because it's right, even if it will probably be horribly unpleasant']]. As he snarks when told about Thanos, "I'll see if I can fit him in."

** Most ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' protagonists are Resigned To The Call. A few have tried to Refuse it (only to find, as Rincewind realises above, that YouCantFightFate ... or in Moist's case, the Patrician, [[TheChessmaster which is practically the same thing]]), but the only main characters to Jump at it have been [[BarbarianHero Cohen]], [[KingIncognito Carrot]] and [[CuteWitch Tiffany.]]