History Main / SecretlySelfish

** During the Stain Arc, Hero-Killer Stain nearly kills Iida's older brother Tensei, crippling him and forcing him to retire as a Pro and leaves the identity of Ingenium to his brother. [[RelativeButton Iida is so enraged]] that he goes after Stain by himself, and during their confrontation, he totally ignores the wounded hero that Stain was about to kill. ''[[VillainHasAPoint Stain]]'', [[WhatTheHellHero of all people, calls him out on this.]]
* In ''Anime/AnoHanaTheFlowerWeSawThatDay'', all of the former members of the Super Peace Busters are forced to acknowledge their selfish ulterior motives in the final episode, when their attempt to fulfill their dead friend Menma's wish by launching a fireworks rocket doesn't allow her to pass on to the afterlife. While Yukiatsu had always been shown to have an unhealthy obsession with Menma, [[spoiler:especially when he crossdressed as her]], Jintan realizes after the rocket launches that he didn't actually want Menma(whom only he could see and hear) to pass on. Anaru, however, wanted that to happen so that she could finally get together with Jintan (whom both she and Menma liked), while Tsuruko wanted Menma to move on and Anaru to hook up with Jintan in order to get together with Yukiatsu. Even Poppo admits that his efforts to help Menma find peace were largely so he could get over the trauma of [[spoiler:having seen her drown in the river, and not being able to save her]]. After a rather emotional conversation, the Super Peace Busters come to terms with their issues, [[spoiler:and are ultimately able to help Menma move on once she realizes her true wish]].

* Wally West in ''Our Own Legaue''. He tells his teachers and peers that he boards at Titans Tower instead of living with his mom because she recently divorced her abusive husband, and needs to focus on picking herself up and getting steady work. There is truth to this, but he's also avoiding her (and most elements from his life pre-Kid Flash) to avoid remembering his father's abuse.

* In the ''Series/{{Roseanne}} episode "Don't Make Me Over," Becky and Darlene treat Roseanne to a day at the spa for Mother's Day. Roseanne thinks that they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, but then Becky and Darlene reveal that they were just trying to butter Roseanne up so she'll let them go to a concert for the weekend. Roseanne is not too happy about this, and neither is Dan, who punishes his daughters by making them spend the weekend with their grandparents.

** It's hinted that many if not all magical girl wishes are made by girls who don't want to admit to themselves what they really want... [[spoiler:making them just the right kind of wishes Kyubey needs to drive them into despair and make them witch out, as they decide that wanting something for themselves makes them terrible people]]. It's easy to see if one examines the wishes made by the other main magical girls: [[spoiler: Kyouko wished for her dad to be successful in his preaching because the family was starving and she thought she'd save herself and them; Mami wished to save her life after a car accident but in her despair, she didn't extend it to her parents and deeply regrets it; Homura wished to save Madoka after she died for her, but she also can be seen as her wanting to be ''the'' one to do something so important for her... Madoka's SelflessWish escapes this solely because she has gathered enough power ''and'' experience to not let Kyubey prey on her insecurities any longer, so she's completely honest in her intentions.]]

** During the Sports Tournament Arc, after Midoriya manages to come in first during the obstacle course, he then finds out that was actually a bad idea, [[RealityEnsues as with all the points he earned made him a huge target for the other contestants.]] When he looks for teammates for the Cavalry Battle, Uraraka immediately says she'll support Midoriya, but Iida doesn't, saying that at the moment, Midoriya is his rival first, friend second, and joins Todoroki's team instead. [[LaserGuidedKarma This actually bites him in the ass]], since during his fight with Todoroki during the Tournament, Todoroki remembers that his ice can jam the engines on Iida's legs and cripples his ability to run, thus easily taking him out of the battle.

[[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Cynical works]] will agree that yes, there is no such thing as a completely altruistic person and all people are selfish in one way or another -- in fact, cynicism by definition is the belief that all humans are motivated purely by self-interest. An idealistic work will admonish such a way of thinking as bad people trying to drag good ones down to their level. Characters who definitely have, and know about, their unscrupulous ulterior motives are ''not'' Secretly Selfish - they're the WolfInSheepsClothing. On the other hand, a more pragmatically good hero is more comfortable with the idea of EnlightenedSelfInterest, and less inclined to have a [[HeroicBSOD moral meltdown]]. The SelflessWish and Secretly Selfish tropes usually serve to deconstruct each other: the existence of one in a fictional universe usually "weakens" the concept of the other. The StrawHypocrite is the cousin trope, where the hypocrite is selfishly not practicing on what they are preaching.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

** Sayaka Miki sacrificed her peaceful life to heal her crush - who was verging on suicidal after damage to his hands looked set to end his career as a violinist. Given that his attitude towards her swung from polite indifference, to ingratitude, to downright violent [[DarkestHour at his lowest points]], Sayaka seems to be (and considers herself) a selfless LoveMartyr. She also takes pride [[GreaterNeedThanMine in her desire to help those in need]]. Before she makes her wish, her CoolBigSis Mami actually [[ArmorPiercingQuestion questions how truly selfless she is]], and Sayaka's reaction is VisibleSilence. ''Then'', she makes the wish and is hit with the AwfulTruth: she ''did'' want something for herself: [[DoggedNiceGirl she wanted Kyosuke's gratitude -- and subsequently his love --]] and [[IJustWantToBeSpecial she wanted to be the heroine of her own story]].
** It's hinted that many if not all magical girl wishes are made by girls who don't want to admit to themselves what they really want... [[spoiler:making them just the right kind of wishes Kyubey needs to drive them into despair and make them witch out, as they decide that wanting something for themselves makes them terrible people]]. It's easy to see if one examines the wishes made by the other main magical girls: [[spoiler: Kyouko wished for her dad to be successful in his preaching because the family was starving and she thought she'd save herself and them; Mami wished to save her life after a car accident but in her despair she didn't extend it to her parents and deeply regrets it; Homura wished to save Madoka after she died for her, but she also can be seen as her wanting to be ''the'' one to do something so important for her... Madoka's SelflessWish escapes this solely because she has gathered enough power ''and'' experience to not let Kyubey prey on her insecurities any longer, so she's completely honest in her intentions.]]
* Yuuri (and, to a lesser extent, Kurumi) of ''Manga/SchoolLive''. She believes that letting Yuki [[spoiler:live out her delusions]] is the only way to keep her calm and happy. Incomer Miki, however, is quick to realise the real reason why the club haven't called out Yuki's behaviour: Yuki's cheerfulness keeps everyone else going. [[spoiler:In fact, when Yuki regains clarity, Yuuri falls into delusion almost immediately afterwards.]] Miki notes that not addressing Yuki's behaviour is actually dangerous for Yuki herself. Admittedly, Yuuri seems to have grudgingly realised her own real motivation as well, but she is incredibly reluctant to change it.
* In ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', it turns out a character was invoking this trope all along, in regards to another. [[spoiler:Rather than wanting to [[LadyAndKnight help and protect Anthy]] in the Duels, what Utena truly wanted was to be Anthy's KnightInShiningArmor so she could bolster her own ego and making Anthy relay on her, without taking [[BrokenBird Anthy's]] actual desires and thoughts into consideration. She only realizes this truth after finding out that Anthy was Akio's DecoyDamsel and, understandably, she's devastated. This grim revelation gives [[PluckyGirl Utena]] the determination to truly free Anthy from both Akio [[ViciousCycle and herself]], rather than just White Knighting for her so she could feel good. It works since Anthy sees her sincerity, realizes Utena is truly fighting for her rather than for her own ego... so in the end she decides "I WillNotBeAVictim" and [[ButNowIMustGo leaves Ohtori with Chuchu]] [[IWillFindYou to find the missing Utena]], finally liberating herself from Akio and her own demons.]]

** The show's protagonist, Ikari Shinji, is only of the few characters to ''not'' be secretly selfish... but only because he's up-front about his own selfishness: he knows and straight up says that he's more interested [[WellDoneSonGuy in pleasing his father]] than he is about saving the world. The rest of the cast tend to look down on him and scold him for having such self-centered motivations, but at the end of the series, when all of their consciousnesses merge, [[NotSoDifferent Shinji is able to see that they're no better than he is.]]

** When Uraraka was stuck under a robot during the Entrance Exam, Iida noticed that she'd gotten trapped but chose to continue fighting robots anyway and leaving her behind, because he needed more points to win a place in UA, whereas Midoriya immediately tried to help her even though he was way behind everybody else and hadn't earned any points for destroying the enemy robots. (He was unaware at the time that he could earn rescue points for saving Uraraka). Later, Iida commends Midoriya for this and berates himself for his selfishness.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* Any mother written by Creator/JodiPicoult, to the point of straight-up {{demonization}} of motherhood as a whole. They will go to their graves maintaining that they are the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]], and the only one in family willing to ''do something'' and ''make sacrifices'' and why does the rest of her (badly neglected) family have to make things so ''difficult?!!'' Anyone else will point out that said mother has a boatload of issues and either a serious case of narcissism, or a messiah/martyr complex.
** Sarah in ''Literature/MySistersKeeper'' sees herself as a martyr who only wants what's best for Kate -- even if that means making everyone else's lives miserable. She keeps the spotlight on her own suffering and sacrifices, and conveniently glosses over the fact that the actual person being dragged through unnecessary medical procedures and who is being pressured to give up an organ is Anna, her younger daughter. Sarah's husband and sister both realize that her whole identity centers around being Kate's Crusading Mother -- and while part of her motivation is indeed a deep love for her child, part of it is that she'll lose that identity if Kate dies.

** Emma in ''Literature/HouseRules'' centres her whole life, and that of her younger son Theo, around the needs and demands of her autistic son, Jacob. She prides herself on "managing" Jacob, to the point that she's sabotaged any coping skills he might have been able to develop, because teaching him to be independent would mean that she would lose TheCaretaker role she's built her life around.
* At some point, the protagonist of ''Literature/TalesOfMU'' laments that she must be evil, because she only helped another to avoid feeling bad for not helping her. Her interlocutor answers that it's how ''everyone'' works, and what proves her a good person is the fact not helping would have caused her to feel bad in the first place. An evil person [[LackOfEmpathy would feel nothing for not helping]].

** Cain is being run through a ghost writer in-universe who calls him an UnreliableNarrator, since she notes that there were plenty of times that Cain could have chosen to save himself, but [[TheSoCalledCoward acted anyway]]. WordOfGod says [[ShrugOfGod even they're not sure which version is correct]].

* In the novel Literature/LittleFiresEverywhere, Elena Richardson rents out houses in the neighbourhood to "suitable" tenants, which on the surface is generous of her, but said tenants are carefully selected by Elena to make her look like a GoodSamaritan who is lending a helping hand to some misfortunates. In reality Elena is not as tolerant and generous as she likes to think she is and when [[spoiler: Mia sides with Mrs. Chow in the custody battle over the baby, Elena takes this as a personal slight and goes out of her way to ruin Mia's reputation.]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Joey and Phoebe's subplot revolves around an argument they have - Joey posits that there is no such thing as a truly selfless good deed, because the good deed doer always wants or expects something in return - even if it's nothing more than feeling good about doing good.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

*** Yukiko is an incredibly dutiful daughter, who's a model student on top of putting in long hours at her family's inn. Her shadow informs her that this is all just an act she puts on, hoping that being so virtuous will attract a "prince" who will reward her by whisking her away to somewhere nicer, where she doesn't have to make as much effort. Her Social Link begins with her deciding to take the initiative to decide her own future, and ends with her deciding to inherit the inn for the sake of her hometown and the inn's employees, who've been like family to her.

*** When the Thieves target Kunikazu Okumura, a fast food CEO accused of unethical business practices, they find out that the man's daughter is cooperating with Morgana (who'd left the group due to an argument with Ryuji), but Haru refuses to join them, saying that it's her responsibility to deal with her father. Some time later, though, the group finds Haru being confronted by a man who happens to be her fiance, and shortly afterward, Haru admits the real reason she's opposing her father- by stealing his heart, she won't have to go through with her ArrangedMarriage to the man, whom her father had arranged for her to marry in order to gain political power.

[[folder: Visual Novels ]]
* Mikan Tsumiki in ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2''. She's known as the Ultimate Nurse due to her incredible wealth of knowledge and skill in health care. However, during one of her free time events, she reveals the reason she became a nurse because she realized that sick and injured people are weaker than her. She helps not so much out of kindness, but because she enjoys the power that comes from their complete dependence upon her. Given her history of being bullied and abused since childhood, this isn't all that surprising. In fact, she got so good at treating wounds because of how often she had to treat her own, since no one else would help her.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** Pearl, the most maternal Gem, wouldn't let so much as a cold wind blow on Steven if she could help it...but a big part of that is the psychological hangover from being his mother, Rose's, self-proclaimed protector. She's been utterly bereft after losing that part of her identity, and really wants it back.
** Garnet falls foul of this in "Future Vision". Letting Steven know how her power works initially seems to be her usual humoring of Steven's curiosity, but at the end of the episode she admits that really, she wanted Steven to understand her better so that she could be closer to him.
* Many episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' have one of the adults or the kids performing something they see as good for the community only for everybody else to try (to [[ComicallyMissingThePoint comically very little avail]]) to tell the character in question that what they are doing is simply shoving their beliefs on everybody's faces and ruining people's lives. Which makes one episode where Eric Cartman (who is one of the biggest examples of TheSociopath) takes in all the cats of South Park out of an actual, unselfish love of them a very surprising inversion, InUniverse and out.

** Brian often conveys himself as a firm liberal against corrupt or fascist dictations. A lot of the time however, he is revealed to be a pretentious AttentionWhore who only has a barebones idea what he's preaching about so he can look smart. One episode had him switch completely to conservatism on the grounds he could get in more people's faces, lending to Lois accusing him of simply being a contrarian who chooses whatever position makes him feel superior to everyone else.
** In "Ocean's Three and a Half", Peter and his friends decide to rob from Carter's mansion when he refuses to help them pay back a loan shark. While discussing their plan, Peter mentions that they're going to rob the vault clean, only for Cleveland to remind him that all they need is $20,000. Peter then reveals that he's actually taking this opportunity to get back at his father-in-law for treating him like crap for so many years.

* The ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode [[Recap/YoungJusticeS3E22AntisocialPathologies "Antisocial Pathologies"]] sees Oracle calls Bruce out on this, saying [[spoiler:the BenevolentConspiracy between themeselves, Dick, Tim, Justice League co-chairs Aquaman II and Wonder Woman and the League's covert team leader Miss Martian is really about furthering Bruce's own personal mission, not the League's, even pointing out that all but one are used to deferring to Bruce[[note]]Kaldur and M'gann due to the covert unit being formed during Bruce's tenure as League leader and of course Dick, Barbara, and Tim being proteges of Bruce's[[/note]]--and the one who isn't, Diana, is in space, where she can't actually do anything but criticize.]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''Franchise/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'':

** It's hinted that many if not all magical girl wishes are made by girls who don't want to admit to themselves what they really want...[[spoiler:making them just the right kind of wishes Kyubey needs to drive them into despair and make them witch out, as they decide that wanting something for themselves makes them terrible people]]. It's easy to see if one examines the wishes made by the other main magical girls: [[spoiler: Kyouko wished for her dad to be succesful in his preaching because the family was starving and she thought she'd save herself and them; Mami wished to save her life after a car accident but in her despair she didn't extend it to her parents and deeply regrets it; Homura wished to save Madoka after she died for her, but she also can be seen as her wanting to be ''the'' one to do something so important for her... Madoka's SelflessWish escapes this solely because she has gathered enough power ''and'' experience to not let Kyubey prey on her insecurities any longer, so she's completely honest in her intentions.]]

** Garnet falls foul of this in ''Future Vision''. Letting Steven know how her power works initially seems to be her usual humoring of Steven's curiosity, but at the end of the episode she admits that really, she wanted Steven to understand her better so that she could be closer to him.

* Schools of thought that see humans (and life forms in general) as fundamentally selfish will maintain that altruistic or "pro-social" behaviour is strictly for the benefit of the performer, not the receiver. In fact, the very definition of cynicism is the belief that people are motivated purely by self-interest.

** Brian often conveys himself as a firm liberal against corrupt or fascist dictations. A lot of the time however, he is revealed to be a pretentious AttentionWhore who only has a barebones idea what he's preaching about so he can look smart. One episode had him switch completely to conservatism on the grounds he could get in more people's faces.

* THe ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode [[Recap/YoungJusticeS3E22AntisocialPathologies "Antisocial Pathologies"]] sees Oracle calls Bruce out on this, saying [[spoiler:the BenevolentConspiracy between themeselves, Dick, Tim, Justice League co-chairs Aquaman II and Wonder Woman and the League's covert team leader Miss Martian is really about furthering Bruce's own personal mission, not the League's, even pointing out that all but one are used to deferring to Bruce[[note]]Kaldur and M'gann due to the covert unit being formed during Bruce's tenure as League leader and of course Dick, Barbara, and Tim being proteges of Bruce's[[/note]]--and the one who isn't, Diana, is in space, where she can't actually do anything but criticize.]]

* Rumor, the titular villain of the episode "Rumors" from ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' is speculated to be this way by Hugo Strange after Rumor launches into a tirade against the RogueGallery, as his motive involved failing to save his boss from the Joker crippling him.

[[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Cynical works]] will agree that yes, there is no such thing as a completely altruistic person and all people are selfish in one way or another -- in fact, the very definition of cynicism is the belief that all humans are motivated purely by self-interest. An idealistic work will admonish such a way of thinking as bad people trying to drag good ones down to their level. Characters who definitely have, and know about, their unscrupulous ulterior motives are ''not'' Secretly Selfish - they're the WolfInSheepsClothing. On the other hand, a more pragmatically good hero is more comfortable with the idea of EnlightenedSelfInterest, and less inclined to have a [[HeroicBSOD moral meltdown]]. The SelflessWish and Secretly Selfish tropes usually serve to deconstruct each other: the existence of one in a fictional universe usually "weakens" the concept of the other. The StrawHypocrite is the cousin trope, where the hypocrite is selfishly not practicing on what they are preaching.

[[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Cynical works]] will agree that yes, there is no such thing as a completely altruistic person and all people are selfish in one way or another -- in fact, the belief that everyone is motivated purely by self-interest is the very definition of cynicism. An idealistic work will admonish such a way of thinking as bad people trying to drag good ones down to their level. Characters who definitely have, and know about, their unscrupulous ulterior motives are ''not'' Secretly Selfish - they're the WolfInSheepsClothing. On the other hand, a more pragmatically good hero is more comfortable with the idea of EnlightenedSelfInterest, and less inclined to have a [[HeroicBSOD moral meltdown]]. The SelflessWish and Secretly Selfish tropes usually serve to deconstruct each other: the existence of one in a fictional universe usually "weakens" the concept of the other. The StrawHypocrite is the cousin trope, where the hypocrite is selfishly not practicing on what they are preaching.

* In the novel [[Literature/LittleFiresEverywhere]], Elena Richardson rents out houses in the neighbourhood to "suitable" tenants, which on the surface is generous of her, but said tenants are carefully selected by Elena to make her look like a GoodSamaritan who is lending a helping hand to some misfortunates. In reality Elena is not as tolerant and generous as she likes to think she is and when [[spoiler: Mia sides with Mrs. Chow in the custody battle over the baby, Elena takes this as a personal slight and goes out of her way to ruin Mia's reputation.]]

* Any mother written by Creator/JodiPicoult, to the point of straight-up {{demonization}} of motherhood as a whole. They will go to their graves maintaining that they are the OnlySaneMan, and the only one in family willing to ''do something'' and ''make sacrifices'' and why does the rest of her (badly neglected) family have to make things so ''difficult?!!'' Anyone else will point out that said mother has a boatload of issues and either a serious case of narcissism, or a messiah/martyr complex.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' This trope pops up a couple of times with Iida Tenya. Though he's not a bad person, while he tries to be an upright person, particularly after he's made into Class Rep, there have been several incidents where Iida puts himself and his own goals above others:
** When Uraraka was stuck under a robot during the Entrance Exam, Iida noticed that she'd gotten her leg trapped but chose to continue fighting robots anyway and leaving her behind, whereas Midoriya immediately tried to help her even though he was way behind everybody else and hadn't earned any points for destroying the enemy robots. Later, Iida commends Midoriya for this and berates himself for his selfishness.
** During the Sports Tournament Arc, after Midoriya manages to come in first during the obstacle course, he then finds out that was actually a bad idea, as with all the points he earned made him a huge target for the other contestants. When he looks for teammates for the Cavalry Battle, Uraraka immediately says she'll support Midoriya, but Iida doesn't, saying that at the moment, Midoriya is his rival first, friend second, and joins Todoroki's team instead.
** During the Stain Arc, Stain nearly kills Iida's older brother Tensei, crippling him and forcing him to retire as a Pro. Iida is so enraged that he goes after Stain by himself, and during their confrontation, he totally ignores the wounded hero that Stain was about to kill. ''[[VillainHasAPoint Stain]]'', [[WhatTheHellHero of all people, calls him out on this.]]

* Mikan Tsumiki in ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2''. She's known as the Ultimate Nurse due to her incredible wealth of knowledge and skill in health care. However, during one of her free time events, she reveals the reason she became a nurse because she realized that sick and injured people are weaker than her. She helps not so much out of kindness, but because she enjoys the power that comes from their complete dependence her. Given her history of being bullied and abused since childhood, this isn't all that surprising. In fact, she got so good at treating wounds because of how often she had to treat her own, since no one else would help her.

* Kei Sakurai from ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae''. She wants to use the [[DealWithTheDevil Golden Alchemy offered by Reinhard]] to resurrect her parental figures, Beatrice, as well as her own brother, Kai. Of course, doing so involves the slaughter of an endless number of innocent and not so innocent people, yet Kei has driven herself to believe that, since she thinks she is doing it for someone else, her cause is just and that she is some sort of tragic anti hero[=/=]villain driven to extremism due to factors outside of her control. Several characters call her out on this, yet the words of Trifa are those that end up cutting the deepest as he get's right to the root of it all, correctly claiming that she is not doing it for them, but rather that she is doing it for herself in order to regain the family she lost, everyone else be damned.

* Mikan Tsumiki in ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2''. She's known as the Ultimate Nurse due to her incredible wealth of knowledge and skill in health care. However, during one of her free time events, she reveals the reason she became a nurse because she realized that sick and injured people are weaker than her. She helps not so much out of kindness, but because she enjoys the power that comes from their complete dependence her. Given her history of being bullied and abused since childhood, this isn't all that surprising. In fact, she got so good at treating wounds because of how often she had to treat her own, since no one else would help her.

* Hayley of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' was portrayed very similarly in early episodes, albeit with more handwaving since, despite her hypocrisies, she still stood for far saner views than her right-wing extremist father Stan.

** In "Ocean's Three and a Half", Peter and his friends decide to rob from Carter's mansion when he refuses to help them pay back a loan shark. While discussing their plan, Peter mentions that they're going to rob the vault clean, only for Cleveland to remind him that all they need is $20,000, and he then reveals that he's actually taking this opportunity to get back at his father-in-law for treating him like crap for so many years.